Hi Everybody!!
Yes, today I am coming out of the closet with bulbs and seeds because it is March 1, time to plant. I am a confirmed 'closet gardener' in the winter. During the Fall and Winter, I stash seeds and bulbs in the closet (cold and dark) for planting on the first day of March. Today, they all came out. I finished my February Garden Chores yesterday (2-28). Every year since I was a kid, Mom and I planted on March 1. This year I am making a Rainbow Garden for the Butterflies. Your photostudy 1 is of the beginning. Hopefully, there will be a finished project soon! It would be nice if You joined me and planted a Butterfly Garden of Flowers for yourself!
Bonus Photostudy 2 is of the Woodpecker nest I found a few days ago. Woodpecker Info is also shared below from Wikipedia. Enjoy!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March
March
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
March 
i/mɑrtʃ/ is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is one of seven months that are 31 days long. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning ofspring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20th or 21st marks theastronomical beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, where September is the seasonal equivalent of the Northern Hemisphere's March.
i/mɑrtʃ/ is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is one of seven months that are 31 days long. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning ofspring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20th or 21st marks theastronomical beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, where September is the seasonal equivalent of the Northern Hemisphere's March.
March starts on the same day of the week as November every year, and February in common yearsonly. March ends on the same day of the week as June every year. In leap years, March starts on the same day as September and December of the previous year. In common years, March starts on the same day as June of the previous year. In leap years, March ends on the same day of the week as April and December of the previous year. In common years, March ends on the same day of the week as September of the previous year. In years immediately before leap years, March starts on the same day of the week as May of the following year. In years immediately before common years, March starts on the same day of the week as August of the previous year. In years immediately before leap years, March ends on the same day of the week as May of the following year. In years immediately before common years, March ends on the same day of the week as August and November of the following year.
| March | >> | |||||
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 | |||||
| 2014 | ||||||
Origin[edit]
The name of March comes from Latin Martius, the first month of the earliest Roman calendar. It was named for Mars, the Roman god of war who was also regarded as a guardian of agriculture and an ancestor of the Roman people through his sons Romulus and Remus. His month Martius was the beginning of the season for both farming and warfare,[1] and the festivals held in his honor during the month were mirrored by others in October, when the season for these activities came to a close.[2] Martius remained the first month of the Roman calendar year perhaps as late as 153 BC,[3] and several religious observances in the first half of the month were originally new year's celebrations.[4] Even inlate antiquity, Roman mosaics picturing the months sometimes still placed March first.[5]
March 1 began the numbered year in Russia until the end of the 15th century. Great Britain and its colonies continued to use March 25 until 1752, when they finally adopted the Gregorian calendar. Many other cultures and religions still celebrate the beginning of the New Year in March.
Other names[edit]
In Finnish, the month is called maaliskuu, which is believed to originate from maallinen kuu, during March, earth finally becomes visible under the snow (other etymological theories have however been put forward). In Ukrainian, the month is called березень, meaning birch tree, and březen in Czech. Historical names for March include the SaxonLentmonat, named after the March equinox and gradual lengthening of days, and the eventual namesake of Lent. Saxons also called March Rhed-monat or Hreth-monath(deriving from their goddess Rhedam/Hreth), and Angles called it Hyld-monath. In Slovene, the traditional name is sušec, meaning the month when the earth becomes dry enough so that it is possible to cultivate it. The name was first written in 1466 in the Škofja Loka manuscript. Other names were used too, for example brezen and breznik, "the month of birches".[6] The Turkish word Mart is given after the name of Mars the god.
March symbols[edit]
- March's birthstones are aquamarine and bloodstone. These stones symbolize courage.
- Its birth flower is the daffodil.[8]
- The zodiac signs for the month of March are Pisces (until March 20) and Aries (March 21 onwards).
*SURPRISE*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodpecker
Woodpecker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The woodpeckers, piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers are a family, Picidae, of near-passerine birds. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. Most species live inforests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known to live in treeless areas, such as rocky hillsides and deserts.
The Picidae are just one of the eight living families in the order Piciformes. Members of the order Piciformes, such as the jacamars, puffbirds, barbets, toucans, and honeyguides, have traditionally been thought to be very closely related to the woodpeckers, piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. More recently, DNA sequence analyses have confirmed this view.[1]
There are about 200 species and about 30 genera in this family. Many species are threatened or endangered due to loss of habitat or habitat fragmentation. Two species of woodpeckers, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the Imperial Woodpecker, have been considered extinct for about 30 years (there has been some controversy recently whether these species still exist).[2]
| Woodpeckers, piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Hispaniolan Woodpecker | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Subclass: | Neornithes |
| Infraclass: | Neognathae |
| Superorder: | Neoaves |
| Order: | Piciformes |
| Suborder: | Pici |
| Family: | Picidae Vigors, 1825 |
Behavior[edit]
 |
|
| Problems playing this file? See media help. | |
The woodpeckers range from highly antisocial solitary species that are aggressive to other members of their species, to species that live in groups. Group-living species tend to be communal group breeders. In addition to these species, a number of species may join mixed-species feeding flockswith other insectivorous birds, although they tend to stay at the edges of these groups. Joining these flocks allows woodpeckers to decrease anti-predator vigilance and increase their feeding rate.[9] Woodpeckers are diurnal, roosting at night inside holes. In most species the roost will become the nest during the breeding season.
Diet and feeding[edit]
The diet of woodpeckers consists mainly of insects and their grubs taken from living and dead trees, and other arthropods, along with fruit, nuts and sap from live trees. Ecologically, they help to keep trees healthy by keeping them from suffering mass infestations. The family is noted for its ability to acquire wood-boring grubs using their bills for hammering, but overall the family is characterized by its dietary flexibility, with many species being both highly omnivorous and opportunistic. The insect prey most commonly taken are those found inside tree trunks, whether they are alive or rotten, and in crevices in the bark. These include beetles and their grubs, ants, termites, spiders, and caterpillars. These may be obtained either by gleaning or, more famously, by excavating wood. Having hammered a hole into the wood, the prey is excavated by a long barbed tongue. The ability to excavate allows woodpeckers to obtain tree sap, an important source of food for some species. Most famously, the sapsuckers (genus Sphyrapicus) feed in this fashion, but the technique is not restricted to these and others, such as the Acorn Woodpecker andWhite-headed Woodpecker, also feed in this way. It was once thought that the technique was restricted to the New World, but Old World species, such as the Arabian Woodpecker and Great Spotted Woodpecker, also feed in this way.[3]
Breeding[edit]
All members of the family Picidae nest in cavities. Almost every species nests in tree cavities, although, in deserts, some species nest inside holes in cactus and a few species nest in holes dug into the earth. Woodpeckers and piculets will excavate their own nests, but wrynecks will not. The excavated nest is usually only lined from the wood chips produced as the hole was made. Many species of woodpeckers excavate one hole per breeding season, sometimes after multiple attempts. It takes around a month to finish the job. Abandoned holes are used by other birds and mammals that are secondary cavity nesters.[10] Because nesting holes are in great demand by other cavity nesters, woodpeckers face competition for the nesting sites they excavate from the moment the hole becomes usable. This may come from other species of woodpecker, or other cavity nesting birds like swallows and starlings. Woodpeckers may aggressively harass potential competitors, and also use other strategies to reduce the chance of being usurped from their nesting site; for example the Red-crowned Woodpecker digs its nest in the underside of a small branch, which reduces the chance that a larger species will take it over and expand it.[11]
Members of Picidae are typically monogamous, with a few species breeding cooperatively and some polygamy reported in a few species.[12] Polyandry, where a female raises two broods with two separate males, has also been reported in the West Indian Woodpecker.[13] A pair will work together to help build the nest, incubate the eggs and raise their altricial young. However, in most species the male does most of the nest excavation and takes the night shift while incubating the eggs. A nest will usually consist of 2–5 round white eggs. Since these birds are cavity nesters, their eggs do not need to be camouflaged and the white color helps the parents to see them in dim light. The eggs are incubated for about 11–14 days before the chicks are born. It takes about 18–30 days before the young are ready to leave the nest.
General characteristics[edit]
The smallest woodpecker is the Bar-breasted Piculet, at 7 g and 8 cm (3¼ inches). The largest woodpecker was the Imperial Woodpecker, at an average of 58 cm (23 inches) and probably over 600 g (1.3 lb). The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is (or was) slightly smaller at 50 cm (20 inches) and a weight of 500 g (1.1 lb). If both the Ivory-billed and Imperial Woodpeckers are indeed extinct, the largest extant woodpecker is the Great Slaty Woodpecker of Southeast Asia, at about 50 cm (20 inches) and 450 g (1 lb). A number of species exhibit sexual dimorphism in size, bill length and weight. In the piculets it is often the females that are larger, while amongst the woodpeckers that show sexual dimorphism it is usually the males that are larger.
Most species possess predominantly white, black, brown, green, and red plumage, although many piculets show a certain amount of grey and olive green. In woodpeckers, many species exhibit patches of red and yellow on their heads and bellies, and these bright areas are important in signaling. The dark areas of plumage are often iridescent. Although the sexes of Picidae species tend to look alike, many woodpecker species have more prominent red or yellow head markings in males than in females.
Members of the family Picidae have strong bills for drilling and drumming on trees and long sticky tongues for extracting food.[3]Woodpecker bills are typically longer, sharper and stronger than the bills of piculets and wrynecks; however their morphology is very similar. The bill's chisel-like tip is kept sharp by the pecking action in birds that regularly use it on wood. Species of woodpecker and flicker that use their bills in soil or for probing as opposed to regular hammering tend to have longer and more decurved bills. Due to their smaller bill size, many piculets and wrynecks will forage in decaying wood more often than woodpeckers. The long sticky tongues, which possess bristles, aid these birds in grabbing and extracting insects deep within a hole of a tree. It had been reported that the tongue was used to spear grubs, but more detailed studies published in 2004 have shown that the tongue instead wraps around the prey before being pulled out.[4]
Many of the foraging, breeding and signaling behaviors of woodpeckers involve drumming and hammering using the bill.[5] To preventbrain damage from the rapid and repeated impacts, woodpeckers have evolved a number of adaptations to protect the brain. These include small brain size, the orientation of the brain within the skull (which maximises the area of contact between the brain and the skull) and the short duration of contact. The millisecond before contact with wood a thickened nictitating membrane closes, protecting the eye from flying debris.[6] The nostrils are also protected; they are often slit-like and have special feathers to cover them.
Woodpeckers, piculets and wrynecks all possess zygodactyl feet. Zygodactyl feet consist of four toes, the first (hallux) and the fourth facing backward and the second and third facing forward. This foot arrangement is good for grasping the limbs and trunks of trees. Members of this family can walk vertically up a tree trunk, which is beneficial for activities such as foraging for food or nest excavation. In addition to the strong claws and feet, woodpeckers have short strong legs. This is typical of birds that regularly forage on trunks. The tails of all woodpeckers except the piculets and wrynecks are stiffened, and when the bird perches on vertical surfaces, the tail and feet work together to support it.[3]
Distribution, habitat and movements[edit]
See also: List of Piciformes by population
The woodpeckers have a mostly cosmopolitan distribution, although they are absent fromAustralasia, Madagascar, and Antarctica. They are also absent from the world's oceanic islands, although many insular species are found on continental islands. The true woodpeckers, subfamilyPicinae, are distributed across the entire range of the woodpeckers. The Picumninae piculets have a pantropical distribution, with species in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Neotropics, with South America holding the majority of piculet species. The second piculet subfamily, Nesoctitinae, has a single species, the Antillean Piculet, which is restricted to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Thewrynecks (Jynginae) have an exclusively Old World distribution, with the two species occurring inEurope, Asia, and Africa.
Overall, the woodpeckers are arboreal birds of wooded habitats. They reach their greatest diversityin tropical rainforests, but occur in almost all suitable habitats including woodlands, savannahs,scrublands, bamboo forests. Even grasslands and deserts have been colonised by various species. These habitats are more easily occupied where a small number of trees exist, or, in the case of desert species like the Gila Woodpecker, tall cacti are available for nesting in.[7] A number of species are adapted to spending a portion of their time feeding on the ground, and a very small minority of species have abandoned trees entirely and nest in holes in the ground. The Ground Woodpecker is one such species, inhabiting the rocky and grassy hills of South Africa
Picidae species can either be sedentary or migratory. Many species are known to stay in the same area year-round, while others travel great distances from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds. For example, theEurasian Wryneck breeds in Europe and west Asia and migrates to the Sahel in Africa in the winter.[8]
Results from the monitoring programs of the Swiss Ornithological Institute show that the breeding populations of several forest species for which deadwood is an important habitat element (Black Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Middle Spotted Woodpecker, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, European Green Woodpecker, Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker as well as European Crested Tit, Willow Tit and Eurasian Treecreeper) have increased in the period 1990 to 2008, although not to the same extent in all species. At the same time, the White-backed Woodpecker extended its range in eastern Switzerland. The Swiss National Forest Inventory shows an increase in the amount of deadwood in forests for the same period. For all the mentioned species, with the exception of green and middle spotted woodpecker, the growing availability of deadwood is likely to be the most important factor explaining this population increase.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-bellied_WoodpeckerRed-bellied Woodpecker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) is a medium-sized woodpecker of the Picidae family. It breeds in southern Canada and the northeastern United States, ranging as far south as Florida and as far west as Texas. Its common name is somewhat misleading, as the most prominent red part of its plumage is on the head; the Red-headed Woodpecker, however, is another species that is a rather close relative but looks quite different.
It was first described in Linnaeus' Systema Naturae, as Picus carolinus.[2] The type localityis given simply as "America septentrionalis" (North America).
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Adult male | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Subclass: | Neornithes |
| Infraclass: | Neognathae |
| Superorder: | Neoaves |
| Order: | Piciformes |
| Suborder: | Pici |
| Family: | Picidae |
| Subfamily: | Picinae |
| Tribe: | Dendropicini |
| Genus: | Melanerpes |
| Species: | M. carolinus |
Description[edit]
Adults are mainly light gray on the face and underparts; they have black and white barred patterns on their back, wings and tail. Adult males have a red cap going from the bill to the nape; females have a red patch on the nape and another above the bill. The reddish tinge on the belly that gives the bird its name is difficult to see in field identification. They are 22.85 to 26.7 cm (9.00 to 10.51 in) long, and have a wingspan of 38 to 46 cm (15 to 18 in).[3]
Vocalizations[edit]
Red-bellied woodpeckers are noisy birds, and have many varied calls. Calls have been described as sounding like churr-churr-churr orthrraa-thrraa-thrraa with an alternating br-r-r-r-tsound. Males tend to call and drum more frequently than females, but both sexes call. Often, these woodpeckers "drum" to attract mates. They tap on aluminum roofs, metal guttering, hollow trees and even transformer boxes, in urban environments, to communicate with potential partners. Babies have a high-pitched begging call of pree-pree-pree. They will continue to give a begging call whenever they see their parents for a while after fledging.
These birds mainly search out arthropods on tree trunks. They may also catch insects in flight. They are omnivores, eating insects, fruits, nuts and seeds. Their breeding habitat is usually deciduous forests. They nest in the decayed cavities of dead trees, old stumps, or in live trees that have softer wood such as elms, maples, or willows; both sexes assist in digging nesting cavities. Areas around nest sites are marked with drilling holes to warn others away.
Though the species is not globally threatened, it depends on large trees for nesting. In areas that are extensively deforested, the birds will sometimes utilize gardens, but for the most part simply will not be present in any numbers.[4]
Foraging[edit]
As with all animals, foraging becomes an important role in an animal’s ability to survive and reproduce. The Red-bellied Woodpecker expresses foraging behavior by catching or storing food.[5] The woodpecker uses its bill for foraging as a chisel drilling into bark or probing cracks on trunk of trees.[5] In this manner, the Red-bellied Woodpecker is able to pull out beetles and other insects from the tree with the help of its long tongue.[5] This behavior is also seen for storing food from other animals by hiding food behind bark or deep in cracks of a tree.[5] According to studies from Williams 1975, Breitwisch 1977, and Batzil 1979, the Red-bellied Woodpecker spent 20% to 69% foraging on dead or decaying trees. In addition, Williams 1975, Breitwisch 1977, and Batzil 1979 observed Red-bellied Woodpecker 80% gleaning and probing and 10% excavating on trees in South Florida pine habitat.[6] The Red-bellied Woodpecker relies on snags or dying trees for foraging and nesting.[7]
File:Red-bellied Woodpecker Female.jpg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
...this is brendasue signing off from Rainbow Creek. See You next time!
O+O
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hi Everybody! Please say hello and follow so I know you are here! Due to the inconsideration of people trying to put commercials on my blog comment area, I have restricted use of anonymous posts. Sorry that some hurt all.
My public email is katescabin@gmail.com No spammers or trolls