The yard was all a flutter when this Harris Hawk landed in a tree yesterday. The quail and morning doves took off flying. One flew right into the window. At least it wasn’t the hawk. Last time that happened, it broke the window! I wrote about that HERE. FYI, there are better hawk photos in that post.
This is the downside to my Bird Buddy and putting seed on the ground for the quail.
This is also of the reasons why Olive the cat is never allowed outside. And I only let Waffles out on a short leash with me attached to the other end.
I’ve been hearing beautiful song birds and I thought it was the Cardinal. But I got a new visitor to the Bird Buddy:
It’s a Song Sparrow. Here’s what the App has to say about this bird:
Another thing I enjoy about the Bird Buddy App is you can listen to the birds’ songs and calls. I’m now able to identify birds by sound!
I’m looking forward to baby birds, especially quail. I’ve discovered one Mourning Dove nest in our backyard and I think I might have spotted a quail nest, too!
Bird Buddy updated their app with a new feature. On live streaming on my phone, I can now snap photos. That’s how I got the photo above. Before, the app took photos on its own and for some reason, the Cardinal wasn’t getting many photos. I mostly got Mourning Doves and a Curved Bill Thrasher. My Cardinal couple probably flit away too quickly to get their pics taken. Now, when I spot them at the feeder, I can take their pictures. FYI, that’s a sunflower seed stuck to the bird’s beak or he’s in the process of chomping it down.
Enough with birds. This post was meant to be about changing my schedule back to being an early bird. It hit 90 degrees last week, which meant after I woke up between 6 and 7 a.m., wrote my morning pages, Bible readings, shower, etc. it was too warm outside. Although I still walked, I needed to make a change. The answer was to flip the script, get out of bed earlier and straight to walking. The rest of my morning routine could wait until after our walk.
The temperatures dropped to a low of 50, high of 70 degrees, but I decided to stick with the new schedule. I found it hard enough to get out of bed an hour earlier for a few days until I got used to it. Now that I’m used to it, I’ll stick with it throughout the summer.
My husband decided to make our morning walk more challenging by rucking. What is rucking you ask?
Rucking is the action of walking with weight on your back. Walking with a weighted rucksack (aka backpack) is a low impact exercise based on military training workouts.
Hiking is rucking in the mountains and urban hiking is simply called rucking. You’ve probably even spent time rucking – traveling, bringing books to school, or on your commute to work. Carrying weight is a necessary part of life, and as it turns out, humans are naturally good at it, too.
ACTIVE RESISTANCE TRAINING™
Rucking builds muscle and strength while improving cardio and endurance. Bringing both types of exercises together provides a fuller range of benefits to improve your health. You can burn up to 3x more calories than walking.
I don’t know why, but he’s embarrassed about his new rucking hobby. I think it’s too cute. Rucking is a popular thing now, not quite like pickleball, but more and more people are doing it. But hubby is motivated to get out the door early to avoid any neighbors seeing him with a rucksack on his back. Today, we saw ran into someone when we were less than a block from home.
“Five minutes earlier and we would have made it,” he said.
How does your schedule change with the seasons?
Have you heard of rucking before and do you think you’ll try it?
This cardinal paid a visit to my Birdbuddy yesterday. He was fascinated by the camera.
I have struggled this week. Maybe it’s because it was a three-day weekend, we had guests and I got really, really tired. I think our eight-mile hike had something to do with that. Plus, my guests are always on the go and don’t stop to relax. Personally, I need some downtime and quiet.
I had hardly anything scheduled this week. Only a meeting about my HOA newsletter and a zoom call. You’d think I could relax and enjoy my days and evenings. Instead, I felt anxiety. I tend to be a worry wort.
Next week, I have a ton of things to do, appointments, lunches, and I’m throwing a belated birthday party for my husband. I spent this week worrying about all I have to do next week.
Walks and birdwatching help me to relax. But I was thinking if I was being present in the moment, I wouldn’t be anxious about next week.
How do you focus on being in the moment?
Watch as the cardinal pecks at the camera. After the cardinal leaves you can turn off the video 😊
Good news! The solar panel roof of my AI bird feeder with a camera arrived. I ordered it in January after a covey of quail leaped onto the bird feeder and it fell off the fence into the wash behind our house.
The tiny metal piece that plugged into the camera from the cord to the solar panel broke. It seemed like it would be an easy fix, but the Bird Buddy folks said my only option was to order a new solar panel roof and they’d give me a discount. I waited until June for it to arrive! In the meantime, I charged the camera every few days in the house.
I’ve been disappointed with my birds because two species are bullies and take over. White winged doves and mourning doves. They literally sit at the feeder and eat until it’s empty. So all my photos and videos for the past few weeks have been of big gray birds. I would get the occasional house sparrow which was a welcome treat.
Sunday morning I was shocked and thrilled to see a Cardinal! YAY! Here’s a video:
Video of a Northern Cardinal. It think he’s quite young.
I’m also enjoying a few families of quail, even though our nest of eggs never hatched.
Here’s a video of quail mom, dad and babies visiting our yard:
Quail family in our backyard.
Here’s a House Sparrow getting a turn at our Bird Buddy
What do you have planned this week to enjoy the world around you?
Here’s a quail selfie from my Bird Buddy AI bird feeder.
Twice this week I spotted baby quail. Once was on our morning walk and a mom and dad were followed by the teeniest quail babies I’ve ever seen. They must have hatched that day.
Yesterday afternoon, a family of quail marched into our backyard from the wash. They were a little older and didn’t stay long enough for me to get a video or picture.
I immediately ran to the front of our house to see if our quail eggs had hatched.
Our nest of eggs in a planter of Elephant Feed.
No, the eggs are still there and it’s been a month since I’ve seen a momma or papa quail in the nest.
Unfortunately, the quail chose a planter next to our garage. At first, I’d see quail fly away when I’d pull into the garage or back the car out. Raising the garage door was enough noise to make the parents take flight.
I’m afraid the quail were scared away and they abandoned their nest. Or something could have happened to them. It’s a wild world out there. I’ve read what to do with eggs to get them to hatch. The most sensible advice is to wait and see. I also realize that I’m not opening the garage door very often. Maybe the quail parents are there, but not when I’m there.
Does anyone have advice while I wait for our eggs to hatch? Do you think the nest has been abandoned?
I have seen several articles the past few days about how listening to bird songs or watching birds is good for mental health. There’s been a number of studies from the US to Finland that back this up.
Maybe that’s why I’ve been in a good mood lately? It certainly doesn’t hurt to enjoy my Bird Buddy feeder with a camera or sit in the backyard and listen to birds.
My phone alerted me to a story about studies connecting better mental health to birds in the Washington Post. It’s behind a paywall so I didn’t read it. But I did read one by Desert News called “Being around birds can boost mental health, studies say” by Britney Heimuli.
The Washington Post said, “In one study, researchers asked about 1,300 participants to collect information about their environment and well-being three times a day using a smartphone app called Urban Mind.”
The Post said the data collected, which included other variants like sleep and air quality, showed seeing or hearing birds had a positive association with improved mental well-being in participants.
“Everyday encounters with birdlife were associated with time-lasting improvements in mental well-being. These improvements were evident not only in healthy people but also in those with a diagnosis of depression,” according to that report.
Another study the Post reported showed that, out of 295 online participants who were asked to self-assess their emotional state, those who were randomly assigned to listen to different kinds of bird songs reported reduced depressive symptoms and a decrease in feelings like anxiety and paranoia.
Not the most attractive bird but a frequent visitor — a curve-bill thrasher. I wonder how he got his name? /s
It does make sense that connecting with birds helps our mental health. I think being outside in nature does that with or without birds.
In an article from Time Magazine called “Birdwatching Has Big Mental-Health Benefits” by Angela Haupt said:
Researchers have long sought to understand the perks of observing birds. A study published in October in Scientific Reports found that seeing or hearing birds improved people’s mental wellbeing for up to eight hours. Nearly 1,300 people used a smartphone app to log their mood several times a day, noting whether they could see or hear birds. People with depression, as well as those without a mental-health condition, experienced significant improvements in wellbeing when they had these encounters. The benefits weren’t explained by other environmental factors, like seeing trees, plants, or water, all of which the study controlled for.
The early birds I’m talking about aren’t these gorgeous creatures in my backyard. I’m talking about me and my hubby.
We’ve become the couple we used to laugh at. You know, the ones who have dinner at 4:30 or 5 p.m. to save money. Now, when we go out, we go early to take advantage of early bird prices that end at 6 p.m. Only these days, it’s no longer called “early bird specials” but “happy hour.”
A neighborhood couple invited us to dinner for restaurant week that features three-course meals at reduced prices. We declined because their reservation was too late for us! It was at the wee hour at night of 6:30 p.m. To be fair, my husband works in the financial world and he’s on east coast time. His work day begins three hours earlier than most people out west.
This is the state bird of Arizona, the cactus wren.
It’s gotten hotter the past couple weeks. I began setting my alarm so that I’m up before sunrise. We’ve changed our walking schedule to avoid the heat. We are heading out the door before 6 a.m. — which also makes us early birds.
One of our neighbors told us her method for walking. (Who knew you needed a method?) She turns right out of her driveway and continues to walk on the right side of the road. By doing that, she said she hits every road and cul-de-sac in the neighborhood — and ends back at her front door. My husband and I have been random walkers, going whichever way our whims take us. But this week, we tried it and not only does it add a little distance to our walk, we’re seeing streets we were previously missing.
I wrote about successful people who are early birds HERE.
What are your thoughts about early bird specials and getting up early?
