FLOWERS - SPRING STARFLOWER

Wishing you all 

A Very Happy First Day of the Month. 

These were growing like a carpet in a lot of yards 200 miles south of here. A very pretty flower, identified as Spring Starflower, also known as Starlikes and Mexican star (Ipheion uniforum).

It is a low-growing, hardy perennial bulb native to South America, specifically Argentina and Uruguay.  

Often one of the first signs of spring, it produces dainty, star-shaped flowers that emit a sweet, honey-like fragrance. 

A very pretty flower! I usually see violets growing in the grass instead of these, a very welcome sight too.

Thanks for stopping by and as always, 

I hope your day is a great one.

RANDOM PHOTO - A HORSESHOE CRAB

I find these fascinating creatures and very prehistoric looking. As I am sharing from my archives and looking at a lot of old blog posts to reshare, I found this. We were in Virginia Beach walking along the sand. It is a shell of an old Horseshoe crab. I wondered if its demise was caused by a hungry gull. Their footprints were everywhere, as you might expect from a walk on the beach.

Horseshoe crabs are marine anthropods of the family Limulidae and order Xiphosura or Xiphosurida that live primarily in and around shallow waters on soft sandy or muddy bottoms.  

A horsehoe crab is best described as a 'living fossil', an ancient, armored arthropod that has remained virtually unchanged for over 450 million years, predating even the dinosaurs. Despite their name they are not true crabs, but more closely related to spiders and scorpions. 

There is an amazing amount of information about them online, but I will finish here.

If you want to find out more, you can go to this link. The following photo I found on pixabay.com

Thanks for looking and I hope you are having a great week so far.

PELICAN TAKE-OFF

From my archives, an old post from March 2013. 

We were at the Dockside Restaurant on the Lynnhaven Inlet in Virginia Beach (Virginia) and at the back where there were tables overlooking the water, there was a marina that attracted many water birds. Besides the usual Gulls, which I always love, there were also Pelicans and Red-breasted Mergansers. (These Mergansers were a first for me.  I have seen Hooded Mergansers before.) We had a great view of all the birds, and we were delighted with the show that they put on, especially the Pelican’s take off.

It would have been nice to get some sunshine for these photos, but it was a very grey day. Still, I was happy with what I could get.

Here he goes!

Lift-Off...

and away he goes!

Thanks for dropping in today and 

I hope the rest of your week is a great one.

 

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE -THE SANDERLINGS FROM A VISIT TO THE BEACH IN 2011

Sanderlings are one of my favorite shore birds. We were in Virginia Beach, quite a long time ago now. One of the most entertaining times was to see the Sanderlings walking along the edge of the surf. We see them in small flocks running at full speed, escaping the incoming waves as they scurry along, trying to grab any morsel within their reach. It is a glorious synchronization of movement and is also a comical yet heartwarming sight. Their little legs a blur of motion. Olympic sprinters of the bird-world.

Before the waves return, their beaks continuously disappear into the sand, always seeming to be in a feeding frenzy, eager for a tasty morsel before the water once again overtakes them. Sanderlings feed on mollusks and crustaceans, like the mole crab (Emerita analoga). I remember my Mother-in-law showing me a mole crab on one of my first visits down to the beach. They burrow deep into the sand where she retrieved one, and as she gently placed it into the palm of my hand, I felt its tiny legs tickle as it tried to escape. We placed it carefully on the sand where it disappeared immediately. This little creatures started my fascination with its kind. Years later I dug them up myself and introduced them to young visitors. It was fun watching their eyes light up. The little girls were occasionally revolted but hopefully the seeds were being planted. If you want to see what a Mole Crab looks like you can click here.

Sanderlings breed in the high Arctic and winter along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts from Canada to Argentina. They are described as a starling-sized shorebird - 8" (20 cm) - with a conspicuous white wing stripe. Some adults have a rufous head and breast with a white belly. In winter the rufous areas are replaced by pale gray underpart, and the birds look almost white. Their bill and legs are black.

Nesting: 4 olive eggs, spotted with brown, placed in a hollow on the ground lined with grasses and lichens. Some female Sanderlings will lay a clutch of eggs but instead of sitting on them, she will give this job to her mate. She will then go off and lay a second batch of eggs that she incubates herself. And if nesting conditions are just right, she may even hook up with another neighboring male and lay a third clutch of eggs, which the new male will take care of.

Their voice sounds like a sharp kip and they have a conversational chatter while feeding. If you would like to hear what one sounds like, you can visit this page here and scroll down to below the black outline of the bird on the left.

One of the most widespread of all shorebirds, the Sanderling turns up on almost every beach in the world. As a wave comes roaring in, the birds run up on the beach just ahead of the breaker, then spring after retreating water to feed on those tiny crustaceans and mollusks mentioned, that are left exposed.

The babies can feed themselves from the first day, but the parents - or parent - still needs to remain with them to keep them warm. During the day the young ones feed on the north country's abundant supply of insects, while at night they snuggle up to the adult.

Around three weeks of nonstop baby-sitting, the adult birds leave. The young ones are now on their own. After several days of milling around with the other juveniles, their instinct to migrate takes over. They leave their nesting grounds and head off to a place they have never been before, which in many cases is Cape Cod.

Out of the breeding season Sanderlings are gregarious birds. They feed together in small flocks and roost together in larger ones. Most Sanderlings get along quite well but there are a few birds that can become quite testy with each other. Both males and females will defend their food and are constantly chasing others away from their feeding areas, even when the food supply is enough for everyone.

I have read that the Sanderling population is in trouble and as our beaches become more and more popular with people, off-road-vehicles, dogs and birders, the birds are finding fewer places where they can eat and rest.

I hope these little birds are with us for a very long time. All these photos were taken with a zoom lens. They often didn't seem to mind us humans as they came running towards us alongside the water, far too busy feeding. Their flight instincts kick in immediately if bothered, don't they? At this time of the year there weren't that many people at the beach (I took these photos in October 2011). It is always a lovely time of the year to visit.

It would have been nice to get this little one entirely in frame, but I was happy with it on the whole.

I hope you all have a lovely day, and

thank you very much for visiting.

JOYFUL

 One of the most beautiful things in the world is to see a happy child, my humble opinion.

"While we try to teach our children about life,

Our children teach us what life is all about."

~Angela Schwindt ~

I saw this beautiful child in Virginia Beach many years ago, running to catch up with her parents who were waiting for her.  She was full of joy as she ran across the sand.  Normally I don’t share a child’s features on here, but this was taken over 14 years ago, so she would be a young adult and not recognizable now.  I was actually taking a photo of the ocean waves with my zoom lens when she ran across my view finder.  One of those lovely moments captured in time.  

SATURDAY MORNING NOT AT THE BIRD FEEDER - SANDERLINGS ON THE BEACH

 This is an old one, but I hope you'll find it worth repeating.

DOGS ON THE BEACH

It has been a long time since I was in Virginia Beach, not in the last two or three years at least.  These photos were actually taken on a previous trip to that, in October 2009, from our hotel balcony.  

It was a joy to observe these lovely dogs having fun on the beach, chasing a tennis ball.  

And oh the joy of catching a wet, soggy tennis ball with the surf rolling in.

You can just feel their happiness.

Thanks for looking and have a great weekend!

ONE OF MY FAVORITES....

ANOTHER RESTAURANT IN VIRGINIA BEACH, AND A POEM

A Boat On the Sea 

by Seth Milliman

What am I?

Just a boat on the sea

Sailing softly with the winds gentle breeze,

I have seen rough and calm,

Soft and chaotic,

With no rest in between.

What lighthouse guides me to its safe shores?

Am I destined to ride the waves with no light?

No, maybe not but I cannot tell the future.

You who travel paths less taken,

Those who seek refuge from the rain.

Take haste and seek quickly,

The storm comes without warning sometimes.

And if you can't see will you hear?

I am not wise but foolish,

Destitute and foolhardy.

But I will seek the lighthouse

In order to get in at least before the storm.

When we have gone to Virginia Beach we more often than not find ourselves at Dockside, a restaurant we have been coming to for many years when visiting family and friends.  We like having lunch at a table - whenever possible - right by the water.  This day we watched a fishing boat tie up and bring their catch to the fish market.  You walk through the market to get to the restaurant.  

There is a seating area outside for when the weather is warmer, and then you can say hello to the seagulls.  I have seen a whole variety of ducks in the water, migrating back and forth.  You can also see pelicans and cormorants.  The seagulls had the place all to themselves when we were there.