Plants I'm Growing: First Blooms--Pink Flowering Japanese Plum Prunus Blireiana (February 2, 2012)

Our double pink flowering plum tree (Prunus blireiana) started blooming today, February 2. Only one or two flowers have opened, but it will soon be in full bloom if the warmish weather holds.  The plum bloomed on February 17 in 2009, but I can't find a record for 2010. The tree bloomed on February 4 in 2011. Thus, it's calculated a year of 363 days.

Birds I'm Watching: Kinglet Feet (February 1, 2012)

Recently I've been photographing a lot of birds for use on my birding website. I was recently looking at photographs of Ruby-crowned Kinglets and I've begun to notice that there is a very big variation in the color of the feet of these birds. Some have feet about the same color as their legs, some have feet that are strikingly yellow. No one I've asked seems to think the color indicates anything especially useful about the birds. They ascribe it to individual variation. I continue to wonder about kinglet feet.... Compare the feet of the bird above and the bird below. Hmmmm......

For information about bird watching in Sonoma County, see my Website Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots.