Pine Siskins arrived in great numbers in our central Wisconsin yard along with a huge snow we had a few weeks ago, and have mostly stayed around, even when most of the snow melted. Yesterday we received nearly 3 inches and the Siskins were again famished. Some even hopped on my hand to eat seeds today, as a couple of them had done after the last snow. There is something amazing in having a wild bird sit on your hand. Previously I have had Black-capped Chickadees (many years ago in WI) on my hand, and when we lived in AK, Common Redpolls and Steller’s Jays did so. I guess it takes a combination of birds hungry enough to forget to be afraid, and warm enough weather so I can stand to stand motionless outside for long enough for them to find me and my offering.
My box of softbound/paperback books has arrived! I have shipped out a couple and sold a couple in-person, and am open, of course, to taking more orders. I am currently charging $15 each for signed copies, which includes postage. My hardbound books are still being printed, but I assume they will arrive soon, and I am charging $23 each. I realized yesterday when I did a mailing that postage is more than I realized for books, so I expect I will raise the price at some point. Email orders to dalybar@aol.com or call me at 682-365-6531.
I know that woodpeckers eat lots of things, but their visits to our feeders are almost always at the fake or real suet blocks. Somehow I often forget that they like nuts even though I do regularly see Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers at my peanut feeders. Yesterday’s visiting Pileated Woodpecker was one of the first times that I had seen one of these lovely monsters on the peanuts. Before this male came to the feeder, he and another Pileated Woodpecker did a round-and-round-the-trunk dance on our spruce tree.
My New Book is Published — BIRDING TIMES, A LIFE IN RHYMES
Please consider ordering a copy from me (signed, soft or hard cover; email me at dalybar@aol.com to inquire about ordering from me) or order from Amazon.com (also can order eBook there). Also, please let EVERYONE you know know about this book. Thanks!
Today is Polar Bear Day. None in Wisconsin, of course, but I did get to see them in far northern Alaska a couple of times, including during my ABA big year (2008) and when we lived in AK (2014-21). This painting, done a few years ago, is from one of my photos. Happy Polar Bear Day!
My excuse – I was busy, but it’s never to late to celebrate Love Your Pet Day. This holiday was officially February 20 as I was reminded by a friend’s Facebook post, but really, it should be every day. I recently put this painting of our dog Caster on Facebook. Definitely loved.
The plan was to post blog-type posts on a couple of pages of this site, but that apparently doesn’t work. So, below you will notice a whole bunch of “holiday” posts that got moved to this page. Below those posts (before 2025) are prior bird-related posts. I plan to continue to post bird-related posts on this page, probably intermingled with holiday posts every now and then. Birds are the main point of this site, and I will try to be more focused on those.
February 14: Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone! Don’t eat too much chocolate. Astute readers of this site have undoubtedly noticed that I have slacked off on my holiday posts. Even I found that many of the holidays were too weird or goofy to post on, but I do plan to do periodic holiday posts as the mood strikes. Really, it is always good to have a reason to celebrate stuff. Note: when I first saw this container of truffles when I was shopping, I was sure it was going to be chocolate-covered Pringles. Not.
February 8: Ice Cream for Breakfast Day!! Now that’s a holiday I can celebrate! We dutifully put ice cream and fruit in our bowls (and in my case, a bit of cereal to make it seem more like breakfast) and then dutifully forced ourselves to have dessert for breakfast. We might have to celebrate this again.
February 7: It’s Send a Card to a Friend Day. I’m sending a most sincere get-well-card along with my husband when he goes to visit a dear friend who is in the hospital.
February 6: It’s Pay a Compliment Day, and I just paid one. You’ll never know to whom or for what.
February 5: Not everyone has their own personal weatherman, but for National Weatherman’s Day I am happy to show a photo of mine.
February 4: I guess that people sometimes get desperate if they are for some reason are into naming miscellaneous holidays. I don’t know. But today being National Create a Vacuum Day is just weird. In my ongoing effort to illustrate a holiday each day (which seems more and more weird in itself), I took this picture. Probably not what the holiday-namers were thinking, if they were thinking anything.
February 3: Today is Feed the Birds Day (as should be every day, of course).
February 2: Yesterday when I was trying to figure out what holiday that I could feature as yesterday’s holiday, my husband suggested that I could call it Ground Hog Eve Day. I loved it but couldn’t find my pictures of the ground hog/woodchuck that we hosted last summer so abandoned that idea. After more searching through my photo archives, I just now found then the pictures, in time to feature for them for today’s real holiday, Ground Hog Day. By the way, I understand that the official ground hog saw his shadow today, so there will be six more weeks of winter weather (but real winter weather has been pretty mild, so not a problem, if it’s true).
February 1: There are many holidays celebrated on February 1, only one of which spoke to me, National Dark Chocolate Day. Rather like yesterday’s hot chocolate. I suppose one could have many more chocolate holidays, official or otherwise, chocolate-chip cookie, chocolate frosting…
January 31: Among the holidays that are listed for January 31st is National Hot Chocolate Day. I assume that would include hot mocha, which I have just made. Yum.
January 30: Sometimes tracking daily holidays, including arbitrary, made-up holidays, can be mindless fun. Today, for example, is Draw a Dinosaur Day. I’ve never tried it, but why not? Here is an out-of-my memory version of what a dinosaur might have been (or maybe I should do a self-portrait?).
January 29: January 29th is National Puzzle Day. I am illustrating this literally. There are way too many unillustratable puzzles to even begin to think about it. FYI, the puzzle pieces shown here are for a puzzle illustrating the movie and book Where the Crawdads Sing (both wonderful).
January 28: This is Fun at Work Day. For us retired people, I guess that retirement is our “work.” And nearly every day is fun when you are able to choose (at least sometimes) what your retirement work is.
January 27: As with many dates, there are many “holidays” on this one, one of which is Punch the Clock Day. Since both my husband and I are both retired and no longer punching clocks, I decided to stage an illustration of the holiday.
January 26:
This is one holiday that it is easy to illustrate: Spouse’s Day. Please meet Dave.
January 25: January 25 is Opposite Day. Or not. These holiday designations are so exciting. Or not. I may do a long discussion here on holidays. Or not.
January 24: There are 3 different holidays (at least) on January 24: Global Belly Laugh Day (I’m not feeling it); Beer Can Appreciation Day (I don’t appreciate beer itself, much less the cans, but they can make a pretty pattern); and Compliment Day. I like that one. I would like to compliment all the wise, kind people who are trying to figure out a way forward.
January 23: Today is National Handwriting Day. I have no idea where this name comes from. Oh well, to randomly go along with this randomly named day, I hereby attach a random sample of some of the ways I put my name on paper.
January 22: This is an odd holiday: National Blonde Brownie Day. I do plan to bake some of these soon, and hopefully won’t eat all of them.
January 21: This is National Squirrel Appreciation Day. While they are always so cute, sometimes it is difficult to appreciate them as they snarf up birdseed.
January 20: January 20th this year is the date of celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. There are very few holidays that rival this date in importance to our nation!
January 19: Today is National Popcorn Day, and I plan to make some before the day is done. But more importantly, January 19 is the anniversary of our first date zillions of years ago. Happy Anniversary Dave!
January 18: Perhaps you can figure out why I am cheerful, delighted, ecstatic, elated, enraptured, exultant, glad, gleeful, happy, jolly, joyful. It’s Thesaurus Day.
January 17: This is “Ditch New Years Resolutions Day.” Most prior years I have made unattainable resolutions and have ditched them long before January 17. But this year, I’m hanging in there and have written 1 (or sometimes 2 or 3) poems a day, plus I’ve kept up on this page each day (which wasn’t actually a resolution). And I’ve seen birds and posted them on eBird each day. And I’m having fun doing all that. When the fun ends (if the fun ends), it really won’t matter, as nothing terrible will happen if I quit doing these things. That ‘s the kind of resolutions to make.
January 16: “National Nothing Day” – boy, is that easy to illustrate!
January 15: This day is “National Hat Day.” See our dog’s hat below for the 1/14 post.
January 14: This seems to be called “Dress Up Your Pet Day.” Clearly the holiday-namers were running out of ideas. But, going along with this theme, I found a Christmas hat for our long-suffering Alaskan husky-mix.
January 13: They say it’s “International Skeptics Day” on January 13th. I don’t believe it.
January 12: Among other holidays on this date, January 12th is “Hot Tea Day.” I had to choose that one to feature here because we drink quite a bit of hot tea at our house. Even when we lived in the south (NC, TX), we pretty much stuck to hot tea, while all around us others sipped their sweetened iced tea. All good.
January 11: Today is “Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day.” So, if you go to https://morsecodetranslator.com/ you too can do that. My name, Lynn, in Morse Code is apparently: .-.. -.– -. -.
January 10: January 10th is “Bittersweet Chocolate Day.” This photo is the closest I can come right now to a picture of that, without going to the grocery store. It is also “Houseplant Appreciation Day,” but I have absolutely none of those right now. A fake Christmas tree probably doesn’t count.
January 9: My sources tell me that January 9 is “Play God Day.” There are people, a few of whom I’ve known, who seem to do this every day.
January 8: One of the holidays that can be celebrated on January 8 is “National Take the Stairs Day.” No idea whose idea that was. Most of us either have no stairs where we live or have them and have to use them. Living in a multi-level house, I always take the stairs of course from the downstairs work/art/music/office/bathroom/etc. areas to the upstairs kitchen/living room/bedroom/bathroom rooms. Over and over. Every day. And yesterday in a visit to friends I even climbed more stairs without a large landing area on the way up and down. So far, so good. But I have noticed a change… Please see my recent rhyme on this topic on my “Rhymes” page on this site if you are interested.
January 7: The only holiday that I found for January 7, is “Old Rock Day.” What? It turns out that this is a real holiday. The USGS actually wishes readers of their website a happy Old Rock Day and has an article from the Astrogeology Science Center about the oldest rocks of earth. But, because the earth is such a young planet, the actual oldest rocks on earth are those brought back from the moon. I never knew when I started this page that I would learn scientific things, even things that weren’t related to birds.
January 6: January 6th is always the day after the 12th day of Christmas, which, on Christian calendars is “Epiphany,” celebrating the visit of the magi/wisemen/king from the East in the Christmas story. Just writing these words brings the song “We Three Kings” to my mind.
January 5: Today is the 12th day of Christmas, and is also called by somebody (not me) “National Bird Day.” As far as I’m concerned all days are, or should be, that!
January 4: Today is National Trivia Day apparently. I’ve begun to think that this whole “National Day” stuff is trivial, but it’s sort of fun to see if a date’s name is relevant. Clearly, this one is.
January 3: Today is Festival of Sleep Day. I am delighted to report that I did, finally, get almost enough sleep last night, interrupted only briefly by a short series of Great Horned Owl hoots at 1:13 am.
January 2: This is National Introvert Day. I’m assuming the extroverts named it because the introverts would probably have had difficulty meeting and voting on a name.
January 1, 2025: It is New Year’s Day, and as promised I went birding and wrote a poem. One day has been completed of my resolutions. It apparently is also National Hangover Day, which, although I had a margarita last night, I did not/do not have a hangover (I don’t remember ever having a hangover). I’m glad these “official” days are not mandatory or even always relevant.
December 31: Of course, today is New Year’s Eve, but the internet informs me that it is also “Make Up Your Mind Day.” Maybe that’s because many, if not most, of us spend at least some time on 12/31 trying to figure out if we will make any resolutions for the new year, and if so, what we will resolve. I am resolving to bird a lot in the new year (duh) and to write a poem each day, starting tomorrow. For the last couple of days, every time a poem has begun in my brain, I have firmly tamped it down. I need to save my ideas for the coming days (on the possibly questionable assumption that I only have a limited number of ideas available to me). HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!
December 30: Today is national bicarbonate of soda day. Is this so we can prepare for the overindulgence of New Year’s Eve? No idea.
December 29: According to the internet, today is “tick tock day.” Clearly, the clock is ticking its way to a new year. It’s almost here!
I am at the end of the second day of a 3-day trip to Sax-Zim Bog, a mega birding hot spot a bit less than an hour out of Duluth. I went there last year in early February and had planned to join this year’s Wausau Bird Club trip there which begins tomorrow, but their schedule wasn’t quite right for me.
Although I enjoy wandering the roads here to see what birds are around, my real goal is owls, and in particular, this year I mainly wanted to see a Boreal Owl. A few days ago, they had apparently been numerous east of the Bog, but reports had dwindled. My only previous Boreal Owl sightings were in Alaska when we lived there. My second most wanted bird for this trip was Great Gray Owl, which I saw last year here, but just cannot get enough of.
While there were a few Great Gray Owl reports in the Bog yesterday, I did not see one, and there were no Boreal Owl reports there yesterday. It all changed today. In addition to a very cooperative sleeping and then hunting Great Gray Owl that someone else found and reported and which I visited three times from late morning to late afternoon, there also was a Boreal Owl sleeping and then waking less than a mile from the Great Gray. On my way back to my motel, I found another Great Gray Owl on my own. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!
The first six photos are of the huge (over 26 inches long) Great Gray Owl that I just could not resist.
The three photos below are of the very tiny (under 10 inches long) Boreal Owl.
Sometimes my birding and my rhyming get mixed up with each other. Yesterday I went to a neighborhood in Wausau where a winter-open creek (Bos Creek) appears from somewhere. All I know is that each winter since we moved back here in 2021, Mallards have congregated there along with a few American Black Ducks. Yesterday’s goal was to add a Black Duck to my year list, which I did, even though I had to stand outside for a minute or so in the 1-degree weather to do it, peering down at the creek, and trying to pore through the nearly 100, or maybe more, Mallards to find one. It turns out that there were at least two of them, so similar and so different from, a female Mallard.
I added American Black Duck to my year list and went on to other birding and then to chores. But in the middle of the night (early this morning), I awoke, thinking of the Black Ducks and then thinking of the old children’s song, “Little White Duck” (there are a bunch of You Tube versions of it online if you are not familiar with it). I couldn’t get the new words that came to me out of my mind. So I got up, and wrote it down. Here is my oh-so-creative “new” song:
There’s some little Black Ducks, sitting in the water, some little Black Ducks, doing what they outer.
They swim with the Mallards at little Bos Creek. Each so black with a bright yellow beak.
There’s some little Black Ducks, sitting in the water. Quack. Quack. Quack.
