2009
10.28
A new gang of birds were circling the feeder. Small, plump brown-gray and striped feather with buff, black, and brown. I’m familiar with these type of birds. They are abundant in my hometown – the house sparrows.
Male house sparrow. Grayish underparts, black throat and with no streaking. The larger the black patch on the throat the more dominant the male is. In mating season, it changes it plumage. The back and wings turns reddish with black streaks in order to attract a mate. 
Female house sparrow. The underbelly and chest are normally grayish/brownish and with no streaking. Brown face with eye-stripe. Yellowish and thick bill.
The house finches and house sparrows doesn’t get along well at times. But there are days when they just tolerate and eat together. They are just fun to watch. They love that I put water beside the feeder also. It’s so accessible when they want to drink. We’ve already bought a hummingbird feeder also. Now they are not just bystander as they are able to join the feeding frenzy in our veranda. I’ll put pictures of the hummingbird next time. Happy bird watching!
Tags: female house house sparrow, house sparrow, house sparrow description, male house sparrow Category Flap the Wings |
2009
10.27
I bought a head of broccoli at the supermarket five days ago and along with it was a green worm, a protein-rich bonus! Luckily for the worm and me, it was discovered before being boiled alive. I thought of throwing it in the trash ( honesty, I was bit squeamish) but then I imagined its soft body in that dark bin, just waiting to be crushed along with the other rubbish materials inside. It did survive the boiling water just to be crushed in the trash? That’s sad. I know it’s crazy, but I feel responsible for its life now.
So like what I always do when an insect get lost and somehow found a way inside our house. I gently catch them and free it outside (except spiders! I’ll call someone else to do that one haha) This worm looks weak to be let go. So I took small parts of broccoli, small container and put “Wormy” ( I even named it! nuts I know) Hoping it survives.
Today morning, I notice that Wormy is not moving. I moved the container and it just rolled on the other side. It’s turning brown. I poked it gently and it showed small movement. Looks like the fellow is in its pupal stage! I sure want to know how it will look like after the transformation. And if everything turns out right. I’ll make sure that Wormy test its wings and fly for freedom.
Tags: broccoli worm, green worm found in broccoli Category Insecta |
2009
10.21
Update on the great tomato experiment. It failed. The last of its leaves withered away to nothingness. It did not survive the Arizona heat. Goodbye tomatoes and thank you for the flowers 
Category Tomato |
2009
10.05
Ever since the seeds were discovered by the house finches, the feeder is always in business. They particularly love the black oil sunflower and millet seeds then happily shove off the other seed mixes. I’ve read that they love the thistle seeds also but we would need to buy a particular feeder if we decided to add that in future.
Nowadays, we found not two but eight (probably more) alternately feeding. They fly, bounce and sit still when they crush the shell seeds. They love chasing each other and make different noises. A male house finch has a visible trace of red on the forehead, throat and breast. It has streaks on the flanks and grayish bill. The female house finch is plain in color, grayish brown and streaked overall.
I noticed that the female is more dominant than the male. Sometimes when the female is on the feeder it chases and intimidate the male to back off, as if telling the male that she wants the feeder all by herself. It’s weird because the feeder can accommodate minimum of two to three birds. I call her the bossy one haha. So the sadly disappointed male chooses to take the fallen seeds on the ground than have another encounter with the female. They look so funny.
I think the news had spread out and the finches cannot keep the feeder for themselves anymore, for we have other visitors – the house sparrows! I would love this feathered friend to visit us all the time too. The arrival of the sparrows caused more yelling and chasing. The finch gang chases the sparrows and at times the male sparrow pecks back but most of the time they just let the finches win. Also, several curios hummingbirds gracefully passed by to check what’s going on and leave disappointed not seeing any nectar syrup bottles hanging. Seeing them roaming our veranda gave us the idea of adding up a feeder for these fast flying friends. This will be noted on our next feeder to-get list.
Morning and right before sunset feeding, they will all chirp in chorus a cheery warble and mixed with all these indescribable sounds that are just so fun to listen and watch. I wonder if bigger birds will notice all this commotion and starts joining the feeding frenzy. Well, hopefully we’ll get visited by bigger types that have appetite for the seeds we offer and not appetite for finches and sparrows!
Tags: difference of male and female finches, image of male and female finches, Male and female finches, observation on male and female finch Category Flap the Wings |
2009
09.19
When I was still living at mom and dad’s place, the room I shared with my sister has a window view to our neighbor’s garden. Planted there were different trees and plants that draw different type of birds and especially attracting sparrows. At dusk you can’t help not to notice the fluttering and chirping as if they are singing good morning to everyone who could hear. As we are busy preparing to do our daily chores so are they, busy looking for food and feeding their youngs. Late afternoon right after school, I would sit in my favorite chair right beside that window to study, day dream, and wonder on the things I have and haven’t done. The sun is setting and the birds sing in chorus as they settle on their nest. It was such a lovely noise. A noise that I miss when I move out for work, move in the city then got married and moved onto places. I would always tell my husband how I miss seeing sparrows just right outside the window.
When we moved in the suburb, we noticed few birds resting on a tree near our window. My husband suggested we buy a bird feeder and hang it in the veranda to see if it will attract the birds and if it does then certainly they would visit every once in a while or probably even stay. And so we bought the hopper bird feeder and a general seed bird food. We put the feeder where it was visible on our windows and close to the tree.
One month passed by and the birds haven’t even noticed the seeds. Perhaps they were suspicious or probably didn’t even care that free food was just lying there. We’ve decided to leave the feeder where it was and hoping one day, one little bird will appreciate it.
It was late afternoon while making coffee that I noticed movement and chirping outside the window. And indeed one little fellow suddenly hops and starts eating the seeds. Finally, a bird discovers the feeder. It looks like a sparrow but it had a reddish color on its head breast and neck. I did searched the net and found that it’s a male house finch.
It only needs one bird to find out the feeder because the very next day it brought along some friends. Perhaps it tweet the news of his latest discovery.
I sat there, observing their fanciful nature. It reminds me of my old room, my hometown, and old memories. I sure hope these fantastic birds stick around. Just seeing them flutter is a sheer joy.
Tags: bird feeder, bird watching, birds outside the window, female house finch, general seed bird food, house finch pair, male house finch, sparrow story Category Flap the Wings |
2009
09.18
This is our first jalapeño harvest and it was quite enjoyable to pick a vegetable fruit from your own garden pot. It was interesting to see it grow just beside your window sill. We had fun picking the fruit no matter how little the harvest is. We were thinking of ripening it before harvesting but we just can’t wait. It already has a brown light surface when we took it. So we thought that’s enough for picking. And off it went to the kitchen, straight to the dish onto our stomach lol.
In this picture another pod is coming out.
Waiting for the next harvest ^_^
Category Jalapeño |
2009
08.27
A windows update popup on the screen for available update, so I clicked ok then restart. Within few minutes after the system startup, the computer magically shuts down then displays a blue screen error for seconds before dissapearing. And everytime I log in, it shuts down and shows the error again. It was a never ending loop.
Noooo!!! I panicked, the laptop was just weeks old since we bought it. Did it just crash? I only clicked for windows update or didn’t I? Was it a conflict with the Norton anti-virus update? Because I saw norton just finished an idle update before the windows update. I didn’t update any other software/hardware too. Was the laptop I got simply faulty?
It came to the point where I got so impatient searching the net for answers. Typing keywords after keywords of BCCODE 1000007e, Vista blue screen error, Stop 0×00000050, Windows minidump, disabled Consumer IR Devices, HP dv4 blue screen error, norton and windows update conflict, random crash, corrupt hard drive to System Restore but nada, coudn’t really determine how to mend it. I was frustrated and was already planning to go to Staples (where we bought it) for a fix.
I was already in the process of having a headache from reading different post/forums and my eyes already dry and slightly red. Then, the phone rang, it was a good excuse to take my glued eyes off the monitor. Bu was on the other line, he suggested to look for KB973879 error. It seems that the recent windows update is causing Windows Vista 64-bit edition the blue screen error, especially affecting the HP Pavilion dv series laptops and few cases for other manufacturers.
In safe mode go to:
Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Installed Updates
Select KB973879 updates -> Uninstall
Restart
Suggested site: TECHERATOR for detailed repair. Just uninstall KB973879 and viola! It did solve the issue. I am just glad that my lappy is running and normal again 
All these process made me … HUNGRY! Now let me attack some food! ^_^
Tags: BCCODE 1000007e, corrupt hard drive, disabled Consumer IR Devices, HP dv4 blue screen error, norton and windows update conflict, random crash, Stop 0x00000050, Vista blue screen error, Windows minidump Category Computer |
2009
06.28
Just after the first bloom of the jalapeños, my tomato starts showing flower growth too! Oh, I just feel that my plants love me back. I also noticed that few stems were branching out, expanding even more. I’m so excited to finally see some tiny tomatoes coming out of these precious flowers!
Category Tomato |
