martinzoo

My sunflowers are a big hit in the yard. All the critters seem to be enjoying them. As they die off and the heads get dried out, I notice bits and pieces of my flowers laying on the ground and the railing of my deck. This adorable goldfinch has been enjoying plucking the seeds right out of the center of the flower. Beautiful, isn’t it?

I think next year I’d like to try to build a  sunflower house that I had read about a long time ago in Family Fun magazine. I had no idea how easy it is to grow sunflowers. And I think it would be a cool project to try.

Aww! Look what I found in my bushes the other day! Aren’t they cute? They are little mockingbird babies. And boy! Do they have a protective mama! She was watching me like a hawk when I was trying to get this picture.

From this…………..

To this…………. It took fifteen days. Aren’t they little cuties now?

The goldfinch love my feeder! So they have a party here every day! I love goldfinch. They are SO pretty and happy looking. Don’t you think?

Using our focus of ‘Trees,’ our challenge today was to go out and make some kind of list. Well the obvious list to create is one that includes all of our trees. So that’s what we did. We went around the yard and made a list of all the trees we could identify. There were a couple that we are not sure about. Actually I’m not even sure if they are trees.

We put our list in the back of our nature journal so that we could add to it as we identify even more trees.

This is what we have so far:

1. slash pine
2. sweet gum
3. red maple (my favorite)
4. pear
5. weeping willow
6. white pine
7. crab apple
8. american holly
9. tulip poplar
10. weeping cherry
11. red oak
12. white oak (GB’s favorite)
13. dogwood

And yes, I wore my funny little mask again!

And just to bring you up to date on the new lives at the martinzoo:

The top photo is from today…. And the bottom photo was only 3 days ago! Voracious eaters, aren’t they?

And these are our new, darling baby bluebirds. Aquagirl wants me to quit calling them cute. She says they are not.

But I think they ARE! I mean, really…. look at that little upturned face….. just begging for your love….. See his tiny little beak? I think he’s smiling at you, Aquagirl.

This was Tuesday, and now they’ve all hatched.

GB and I had a great day.

We spent most of it online today, learning about Earth Day.

We learned how to be Planet Protectors here.

We learned how to make a smaller ecological footprint here with Bobbie.

Some things that we’ve decided that we can do to reduce our impact on this precious Earth are:

• Buy organic or local whenever we can.
• Our family will try to reduce our meat consumption, since the beef industry does SO much to ruin our Earth. GB is already a vegetarian, since he was seven, so this will not be a sacrifice for him.
• We will replace more of our bulbs with the compact fluorescent bulbs. So far, we have three. But I plan to get more each week when I shop. We found out that if two million bulbs were purchased and used this year we would prevent enough CO2 emissions to equal taking over 11 million cars off the road for a year! Plus, bonus, we would save a lot of money!
• Whenever possible (or whenever I remember) I will use my own mesh shopping bags (made with recycled materials) when I go shopping. My grocery store gives you 5 cents for every bag you use EVERY time you use them. And I won’t be embarrassed to bring them into stores that don’t use the same logo. A bag is a bag, right?
• We will not buy bottled water for my home usage anymore. We will use refillable containers and keep them handy in our fridge. Those plastic bottles are filling up our landfills.
• We have three overflowing recycle bins everytime the waste management trucks pick up. But we will try to recycle EVEN MORE. ……..I’m sorry honey, I know the bins are already heavy.
• GB is going to try really hard to take shorter showers.
• He is also going to make sure that he turns computers, tvs, video games, and lights off when ever they aren’t in use.

We checked our family’s ecological footprint here, and found out that we aren’t doing too bad. The only area where we go over the national average for usage is with our house. Our house is too big…….. but we like it…… so we’re gonna keep it. It makes us happy. We’ll reduce in other ways.

To top our Earth day off with a cherry, check out the new life at the Martin household.

We got these little caterpillars to grow into monarch butterflies. They are growing fast!

And the pièce de résistance……… I found this when I checked my bluebird house today!

Happy birthday/earthday baby! Can you see the teeny, tiny beak? Omg! That’s so cute!

They sure do grow up fast…. don’t they?

I have been in ‘Missing-Aquagirl-Crisis-Mode‘ for several weeks now. So yesterday we went up to Harrisonburg to pick her up from her college and have a nice day together. Good Lord, I missed that girl! I believe the school year is MUCH too long. And I want to start a protest. You hear me, Aquagirl!

Since GB was coming too, we decided to finally head to the Virginia Safari Park, where animals abound within arms reach. Basically you sit in your car and drive along the gravel rode on a long, bumpy path and feed whichever animals meander over for some munchies.

This is a Gemsbok Oryx with my dh.

**snort - snort!** This is a Vietnamese Pot-bellied pig

Isn’t this a gorgeous Eland?

This is a Rhea, these strange looking birds are the 4th biggest flightless birds. Cool fact: A single male rhea can incubate up to 50 eggs!

Speckled llama - Don’t make these guys mad or they spit this foul-smelling liquid at you! Aquagirl can attest to their very bad breath!

This dromedary camel was really enjoying GB’s attention. He even went so far as to give his hair a lick!

Swamp water buffalo

“Yes?? I already fed you!”

The ostrich was freaking Aquagirl out. She thought they totally looked prehistoric. I sure wouldn’t want to get one mad. Btw, these are the largest flightless birds. Ostrich are also the only birds with two toes.

Another Eland - These guys get so excited sometimes that they jump over each other to get away!

Have you ever heard of the phrase: “giving me the hairy eyeball”? Yeah, that’s what I was feeling!

Zebra, up close and very personal! Interesting tidbit - Zebras take turns sleeping so that some member of their herd is always awake. Isn’t that amazing?

GB went to any length to reach the animals. Big rule #1: Stay in the car. He barely obeyed this rule.

Axis Deer - This was one of Aquagirl’s favorites. She thought he was one of the most beautiful deer she’d ever seen.

This is a view of the Natural Bridge scenery from inside the park. Isn’t it pretty?

Stunning white llama

Lady Amherst’s Pheasant

This amazing little guy is a Leptailurus Serval.

I love monkeys! I love the way they move. So cute! Can you see the tiny baby attached to the monkey on the right? His arms were wrapped tight around his mama.

Another cute attraction at the park!

This majestic dude is called a King Vulture. Wow!

These cute little tiger cubs are seven months old. They were really fun to watch!

Now I’ll have to get my Jabem fix in…………. Jabem, when are you coming home!? {–whine, whine!–}

Is it almost Summer?