A Male House Finch - Critter 76

 We talked about a House Finch at previous post. The bird is one of common birds in North America. 

Fig 01- A male house finch 

You may read the previousposted: 

- We Have Observed a House Finch at Neighborhood - Critter 66 | Tanza Erlambang Update

We believe, the bird is a male House Finch with typical characteristics that has reddish coloration on his:

- head

- breast

- and rump

Fig 02 - Coloration of breast

The house finches often seen in backyard, especially at our bird feeders. They love seed and fruits.

Fig 03 - The bird turns his head

Do you familiar with this bird?

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Vegetable Plants at the Neighborhood Market

Some of our neighbors open a kind of markets during Spring or Summer seasons, the two-weekly market. 

Fig 01 - Seedling vegetable plants.

I think having neighbors sell their own goods can be more than interesting, even a great way to build a sense of community and support local businesses. 

Typical goods that neighbors selling are:

- produce 

- baked goods.

- crafts 

- arts

- Homegrown seedlings/ vegetable plants

Fig 02 - Two neighbors sell their plants

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Fig 03 - Some plants.

We observed some plants on the sells: cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, eggplants, squash, zucchini, ground cherries, passion fruit, and sweet melons.

Fig 04 - Homemade Jelly, made of several fruits. 

In addition to plants, they sell jelly too. We can find jelly of pepper, strawberry, pineapple and jalapeño.

Fig 05 - Plants for sale. 

The price of the seedling plants was about US$3.5 each, they are including eggplants, peppers, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes and melons.

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Caroline Wren Babies in the Mailbox - Critter 75

Surprisingly, we saw the bird made a nest in our mailbox. We have been watching the progress from eggs to these sweet babies for the last few weeks.

Fig - The babies' bird in the mailbox

The bird's mom won’t stay still for a good picture. We personally think it's a very heartwarming image.

After searching through Google, it is highly probably that the bird's species are Carolina wrens. It is because the birds are notorious for making nests in inconvenient places such as above doors or mailboxes.

Caroline wren nests are built from a combination of:

- leaves

- moss

- twigs

- and other debris.

The inside of the nest is then lined with soft materials, some of them are feathers and fur.

Have you enjoyed with this kind of experience?

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The Sign of We Pay Cash - Sign 75

 We saw quite a lot of signs around our neighborhood recently.  One of them is "We Pay Cash"

Fig - Sign of we pay cash.

It reasonable to buy second hand running car for resale, but what are purposes to buy wrecked and flooded cars?  

We find "surprising" answer that wrecked and flooded cars could be exported to under developing countries. 

Sure, these cars will be repaired before putting back on the road. These countries have "less stringent regulations."

Other reasons are (after searching through internet):

- vehicles often yield valuable parts that can be resold or used for repairing other vehicles.

- Although a vehicle may be beyond repair, it retains value as scrap metal. The buyer can extract and sell materials such as steel, copper, and aluminum.

- Certain buyers possess the skills and resources to reconstruct a wrecked vehicle, offering an opportunity to acquire a car at a significantly reduced cost.

What do you think?

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Flying and Hitting the House - Critter 74

It was reported in the weather channel that the birds all quit singing, and it got very quiet outdoors before one of the destructive tornados touched down close by our areas.

Fig 01 - A hummingbird after fall down.

Before rain and very strong wind, we just sitting outside in the morning, we hear a thump on our roof!

Then we saw something hit the grass. Here is what we found, a little hummingbird. We believed it must have been one of its first solo flights.

Being at the right place at the right time, we picked and handled the hummingbird. It didn’t make any noise.

We put it in this container, and then put under a plant. Luckily, after about 45 minutes later it flew off! Hopefully, it will survive in the nature.

Fig 02 - A hummingbird, put on the grass.

When can you expect the humming season in your areas?

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warriors carrying offerings to the gods - Sign 74

We found a sculpture, made of metal from an antique store recently. Since its cheap, we just bought it. 

Fig - Chacmool, a sculpture from Mexico

There are important figures and the sign in the sculpture:

1) The reclined figure with head facing 90 degrees from his front, called as Chacmool.

- The Chacmool is the figure to hold a bowl in his stomach. The bowl is used for offering to a god or gods

- It is likely the Chacmool serves to rain gods (the central Mexico rain god, Tlaloc or Mayan rain god, Chac). 

2) The circular figure looks like a copy of the Mayan calendar.

- The calendar is an ancient system to track time.

3) Chichen Itza

- A Mayan temple ruin on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Near the city of Progresso.

- We may find several Chacmool sculptures around the Chichen Itza temple.

Finally, have you ever seen a sculpture of Chacmool?

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Whistling Ducks Gracing our Areas - Critter 73

We posted the whistling duck on the roof. You may read the previous post:

- The Black-bellied Whistling Duck on the Roof - Critter 64 | Tanza Erlambang Update

Fig 01 - A whistling duck on the tree.

It seems that breeding seasons of ducks are begin in our areas this time, around in the middle of Spring. 

We have a pair of whistling ducks that just found our yard's tress. We saw them in the early morning.

We have never ever seen a duck sitting and playing on the trees as well as on the roof. We were excited and happy.

They are beautiful, just hope they will not be too messy, and hope they don’t decide to go for other places for a while.

Fig 02 - A pair of whistling ducks

A joy to look forward to every day, so every morning during breakfast and every evening for supper. Get ready for two dozen ducklings soon.

Fig 03 - They look happy around branches of trees. 

Have you seen Whistling ducks gracing your areas?

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