This postcard took 6 days and traveled 4,154 miles from Paris, France.

The sender thought it was a hummingbird, but it’s not. I have no idea what kind of species it is. If you happen to know, leave a comment! Thanks!

The black of the postcard was too reflective, so you can see the fan in my living room and my phone as I took the picture. I really need to use a scanner for these postcards, but I’m lazy and that takes more effort. Hehe.

It’s almost hummingbird season again. I recently accidently destroyed every single one of my feeders(7 of them) because I’m an idiot. I put them in the bottom of my dishwasher and melted them into unrecognizable shapes. I’m fully aware that putting plastic in a hot dishwasher is a no-no, so I can’t tell you why I did it anyway. I’m an idiot like I said. I tried putting them in the top, but they were too tall and wouldn’t fit. Next time I won’t leave them out in the elements for an entire season, like an idiot, and that way they won’t need a dishwasher to clean them. You should have seen them. Somehow I didn’t puke rinsing them before placing them in the dishwasher.

This postcard came from Tomball, Texas, just north of Houston. It took just 4 days and traveled 898 miles.

Here in Matthews, we only get ruby-throated hummingbirds, so far as I am aware. I’m always so insanely jealous of the videos that have 20, 30 or 40 hummingbirds at one time at a feeder. I don’t get it. In my whole life, I’ve never seen more than 10 at one time. Here, even though I have 8 feeders outside, no more than 5 have ever been here at once. Grr. It’s just not fair. I should just be happy that I have hummingbirds at all because there are places that don’t have them at all.

Normal flight for a hummingbird is 25-30 mph, but they can dive at speeds up to 60 mph! That’s just crazy! I love watching them do that. I’m always terrified they are going to smack into the ground. But somehow they manage to brake before flying up and doing it all over again.  Impressive little birds they are.

A cute yellow canary at PetsMart.

Thanks to my Dad, I can now upload my videos to YouTube and show them to you here.  The following video is of me feeding the pigeons located at the People’s Square.  You pay the attendant 2 yuan and he/she gives you a small plastic bag with some seed. When watching the video, you can hear the attendant yelling at a little boy who comes up to me and grabs one of the birds by its’ tail.  She is saying something like, “Just look! Just look!”   Of course, the boy doesn’t listen and grabs anyway.  I felt really bad for the bird.

Phil and I went to Qufu this weekend, and I have some picture and videos that I will be posting soon. I just have to allot some time to do it.  Well, anyway, enjoy the video!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpkuVLktKSI[/youtube]

FI-474178

I can only imagine what type of people are going to end up at my blog with a title like Blue Tit.  I guess it doesn’t matter how they get here, as long as they get here, and most importantly, stay.  Although, if they are looking for anything other than a Blue Tit bird, they will sadly be disappointed when they do arrive.  🙂

The sender of this card said, “It is a very common bird in Finland and stays here the whole winter while most birds are spending winter time somewhere in warm southern countries.”

I at first thought she was talking about a type of bird we have here in South Carolina called a Tit Mouse, but when I looked it up in Wikipedia, I found they are different types of birds, although, they do come from the same Tit bird family – the Paridae.

In Finnish, a Blue Tit is called a Sinitiainen, and they only have a lifespan of about 1.5 years.  Blue Tits are considered valuable destroyers of pests, like aphids, but can also be annoying pests as well.  They sometimes pull off the buds of various trees in search of insects to eat.  Another thing I found interesting, is that a pair of Blue Tits will use the same nesting box year after year.  When that pair dies, another pair will take its place.  Wikipedia didn’t say, but I guess that means they mate for life.

This spring I want to go bird watching. I hope that I can take pictures like the one above of the various South Carolina birds.  I’ve tried getting pictures of the ones in my yard, but they hide too far up in trees and won’t sit still for nothing.

I was looking through some of my old videos and thought I would post them here for your viewing pleasure.

The first one is off a piggy scratching his bum.  I found him at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens located in Charleston, South Carolina. I’ve always wanted a pig, and came real close to buying one in China, but Phil wouldn’t let me.  Meanie!!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeE84PufTQk[/youtube]

I love feeding ducks.  I used to go to a pond near my house all of the time, but they have now made it illegal or something like that to feed the ducks.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8q40t2456s[/youtube]

I used to volunteer at Carolina Wildlife Care, a non-profit, wildlife rehabilitation clinic located here in Columbia.  It was a great experience and I was able to see a lot of wild animals up close.  One of the cutest animals I saw there was a Blue Grey Gnatcatcher.  I wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home.  Sorry about the video quality. My old Kodak didn’t like close up shots.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd0fuPwt_0k[/youtube]

I know that it is strange for me to say this, but my favorite part of Riverbanks Zoo is feeding the Lorikeets.  For a dollar I can walk in and feed the cute little birdies some nectar.  The nectar doesn’t last too long, but the birds usually come very close too you and will occasionally even sit on your arm.  This is one aspect that I really liked about the Hangzhou Safari Park in China.  I got to feed all sorts of animals there including Rhinos, Tigers, Monkeys and Lemurs.  The little Monkeys were just adorable.  I remember one trying to steal my water bottle out of my back pocket.  Aside from some of the animals being mistreated there, it is probably one of my favorite zoos.

Me feeding the Lorikeets at Riverbanks Zoo

Usually, the Lorikeets are much more active and will jump on me to get to the nectar when I go to the zoo, but it was late in the day on a Saturday, and they had been fed already by a score of visitors. Most of them were hiding in the foliage trying to avoid the crowd. I’m sure most of their bellies were about to bust.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOjkJhJHysw[/youtube]

I have spent hours watching our fleet of hummingbirds feed and fight and all I have to show for it is two stupid videos.  I had to post them though, because they are just that adorable.  I wish I had a video of them dive bombing each other over and over. That is a pretty funny sight.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqySZH–xKE[/youtube]

My favorite part is when he sticks out his tongue.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF7aPzXd9a0[/youtube]

If they would just sit still long enough and let me get closer, I could probably get a half decent video, but no – they hate me.

I wish the robin had let me a bit closer and that his face wasn’t as dark.

I don’t know what is was with all of the creatures I was trying to photograph, but none of them wanted to stay in one place for more than half a second and they all happened to be just a wee too far away.

Me trying to be artistic.