by Donna L. Watkins
"The name of the LORD is a fortified tower;
the righteous run to it and are safe."
~ Proverbs 18:10
the righteous run to it and are safe."
~ Proverbs 18:10
It also tells us what to do when we want to "run" from something in our lives. Fear, failure, finance problems, needed healing... God is there for us always, ready to wrap His arms around us. The righteous person puts his security in the name of the Lord.
I have this visual image of approaching Jesus for a hug and when He wraps His arms around me and brings me close I dissolve right into His body. My title for the image is "Abiding in Christ." It's knowing who we are in Christ that gives us all the promises of God. There is such great comfort there.
"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God" (2 Cor. 1:20).
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| View Enlarged Image Male Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker View More Photos of Northern Flickers |
A little over a week of seeing her, we finally noticed two males had come into the territory. I thought it odd that she was alone. They usually hang out in groups. I'm glad she's got a couple of suitors for Springtime mating. I'm still believing for an early Spring of beautiful weather days.
As you can see those bright yellow feathers, you would know why the bird is designated with the name yellow-shafted. The reason for the variation of names is because there is also a red-shafted species that shows rosy red colors on the feathers.
What designates male and female is whether or not they have that splash of a 'moustache' on their face. As you can see in this one, it's a splash of black. In the Red-shafted species it gets a splash of red. The yellow-shafted is in the East and out to Texas and the Great Plains. The red-shafted resides in the West.
Unlike most woodpecker species, Northern Flickers spend a lot of time on the ground and when in trees they often perch horizontal branches instead of leaning their tails against a tree trunk as most woodpeckers do. Their flight pattern is an up-and-down path using heavy flaps interspersed with glides. This is the pattern for most woodpeckers.
Our feeders were very busy with the frigid cold we had the week after Valentine's Day. We had 8 inches of snow overnight which had a frenzy of birds out back racing around to suet feeders and seed feeders and cracked corn placed on our concrete benches swept clear of snow. Then a few days later we had 6 inches and again a few days later 5 inches. First snows of the year and much deeper than we usually get which is 1-2 inches.
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| View Enlarged Image European Starling in Winter Pardon Me, I Have a Mouth Full of Suet |
Starlings were never designed to be in the USA. God put different species in different parts of the world for good reasons. They are called 'native species' where they are supposed to live and 'invasive species' where they are not supposed to live.
The starlings came from Eurasia, introduced in 1890 as part of a plan to introduce to the U.S. all birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare. They now compete with native species for food supplies and also destroy agricultural crops. (Fofonoff et al. 2003). They were released in Central Park, New York and were dispersed across the continent by the late 1940s.
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| View Enlarged Image Two European Starlings Snuggled in Winter Snowstorm |
Critters - We have two holly trees at the corners of the bay window of our breakfast area (planted because we thought they were bushes). They require a lot of pruning but provide so much shelter for the birds since they're very near the bird feeders, so I get a lot of literal up-close-and-personal views.
It's also an area where I can open the window and toss food below since it's a covered brushy area so the birds aren't wide open to the hawks. Fortunately I don't get to see hawks feeding ... other than one time a Red-shouldered Hawk took a huge Green Frog from our pond's edge. Took a bunch of pictures and a video of the horrible event and wondered why the whole time I was shooting.
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| View Enlarged Image Red-shouldered Hawk with Green Frog for Lunch View More Hawk Photos |
We had a visit from Mama LoveDeer and she's still looking so good even with the limp. It's quite amazing how she's been determined to survive. I've noticed a change in attitude from some of the other deer, whereas they used to just chase her away, they cautiously approach now, look a bit and then back off. Go Mama!
Gardening - There are invasive plants also. They take away food sources for the bird and animal native species by overtaking the native plants that feed them. Get some native plant gardening ideas from this article Native Plant Gardening.
It's about time for pre-emergents to be put down on lawns and areas where you don't want weeds. You spread this stuff before the seeds can open and begin their process of creating more weeds. There's an article in last month's posts that will give you information on this topic: Using Cornmeal to Kill Weeds and Ants.
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| View Enlarged Image Strawberry Poison Dart Frog at La Selva Biological Station aka Blue Jeans Frog View More Photos of Costa Rica |
Actually we had a week's tour in 1999 that we booked and we saw enough of the country at the three locations we visited to be quite taken with it then. Having 56 days there was quite a different feel since I really got to get into the cultural differences and see so much more.
I got to meet Susanna and Mark while I was in Costa Rica. They made annual trips to continue planting trees on their property and focus on their dream. It was during one of their trips that coincided with my trip that we met face-to-face. What a sweet time. We seemed to be old friends. We have seen them twice since then here in the U.S.
If you look around there aren't many people who are willing to go for their dreams. And there was a lot to "Go For" on this dream. The paperwork and legal stuff that had to be done seemed never-ending. They're going to build a home so that paperwork and time line has been a real challenge also. Leaving friends and family were hard choices, but they persevered.
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| View Enlarged Image Howler Monkey in Rainforest View More Photos of Costa Rica |
Susanna and Mark think it's really living! Most dreams do take a lot of time, meditation, visualization and definitely a bit of determination, but isn't it wonderful to see folks who are still willing to take the challenge and make it happen. Congratulations, Susanna and Mark!
It's March and Spring is literally just around the corner. One more week and we'll be on Daylight Savings Time. Daffodils will be coming up soon to be followed by Hyacinths. We've already had our Hellebores blooming to announce the arrival of good weather approaching. Oh to see leaves and flowers again. How wonderful is God's creation!
 View Enlarged Image Donna at Boxerwood Nature Center View Photos of Boxerwood |
Until next time .....
May God Increase Your Blessings Daily,
Donna
P.S. Anything in here that might help somebody you know?
Here's a link to the online version of this newsletter. Click on it and on the left sidebar there will be an option to share in various ways. The top one is to email it to somebody.
If you simply want to copy and paste the link into an email, here it is: http://www.thenatureinus.com/2015/03/the-nature-in-us-newsletter-3115.html
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written by Donna
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