It was on this day, May 21, back in 2007 that I registered this domain name.

Coffee Muses came about as a Category tag on an earlier blog. After starting at blogger.com then moving to WordPress.com I had started my “grownup” blogging life by registering NorthCarolinaMountainDreams.com in May 2006.

By 2007 I was finding many of my posts didn’t fit that domain name. Most of the posts that were off topic were filed under the category of coffee muses… Muses over my morning coffee before work. Basically, they were my morning pages. After checking and finding the name was open I decided to register it and move those off topic posts to the new site.

So here we are 6 years on…The world of blogs has changed immensely. According to the WordPress dashboard on this site I have posted 1,257 (this will be 1,258) muses on this site. That averages out to about four posts per week. Not a great record, but, not a bad one either.

From the looks of things, when I started this blog as a stand alone site, WordPress had just released version 2.2. Reading the new features listed on the version history at Wikipedia, I see that version 2.3 added tagging and category taxonomies. I remember those new features and the changes they wrought… so that must fit. Here is a link to the release announcement.

I’m thrilled to announce that Version 2.3 “Dexter” of WordPress is now ready for the world. This release includes native tagging support, plugin update notification, URL handling improvements, and much more. This release is named for the great tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon.

The entire team is really proud of this release, and I’m happy that this is our second on-time release under our new development schedule. The grand experiment of a more agile WordPress with significant features in the hands of users more often is working. I could write a blog post about each new feature, but I’ll try to be brief:

via WordPress › WordPress 2.3.

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Now you know…

Go read the blog post

The post Models Are Made… appeared first on Coffee Muses.

Sadly, my bird feeders are now being ignored most of the time. The goldfinches finally moved on north. With their absence, most of the resident species are now eating out in the yard. I still see them… many times a day… just not on the feeders. Oh, occasionally, a chickadee will decide to grab some sunflower seed, a tufted titmouse will stop a moment a pay for a few seeds with a song. But the crowds of a couple of weeks ago are long gone… Till next spring.

So… One of the things I have been enjoying when I am at the computer (and not blogging) is enjoying the recent stardom of this guy…

Then there is this one…

So now I think I’ll take my coffee and go back out on the back porch… See ya…

The post What’s Up appeared first on Coffee Muses.

Here we have what appear to be Orchard Orioles. I at first thought they were Baltimores but it appears there colors more closely max the Orchard. Between the flashes of orange and the flashes of red (see below) that I was seeing from the back porch this morning I had to try and identify the new visitors.

As I was standing out in the brambles with my eyes on the tree tops I was standing on some pretty good eating myself. Our Texas dewberries are sweet and best eaten in the field… Or any other way you can.

It was these berries that were bringing out all of the birds this week. To tell the truth I can hardly blame them. I keep my eye out for the wild mulberry trees in my walks around the woods here and visit them regularly as they start to ripen. The funny thing is, these have been in plain sight for years and I never before spotted them. Go figure.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks…When two of these visited my feeder I was blown away. Now I see where they came from. I spotted at least three out in the mulberries. There well could be more.

It was the sight of these birds that caused me to drag out the camera and stand in the cool wind waiting to get a shot. All of my life I have heard of Scarlet Tanagers but before today I had not seen one.

The Cedar Waxwings were here last winter. Though not in the numbers I am seeing streaming into and out of the mulberry trees in the woods next door. I would estimate the flock hanging around the past few days to number close to 60 birds. It is quite impressive to watch their comings and goings. Sadly they are unwilling to hang around when I try to ease up closer to snap their photo.

This little fellow appears to be a Summer Tanager. There were a handful of them mixed in among the other birds on the trees.

Now the Indigo Buntings are becoming something of a common sight since they first showed up here a little over a week ago. They along with the Blue Grosbeaks are quite common today along the bayou behind our place. I probably saw over a hundred of the two species in the grass along the bank back there before lunch.

Related articles

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The post More Spring Colors appeared first on Coffee Muses.

As I sat down in the rocker on the back porch with my first cup of coffee the morning sun was hitting the bit of woods to the west of me. I noticed a lot of bird activity in the trees that line the field (yard?) behind my neighbors house. So, putting my coffee cup on the table, I went in and grabbed the Celestron binoculars  off the bookcase. Putting the glasses to my eye I could see a steady stream of Cedar Waxwings going back and forth. There were probably close to a hundred birds in sight at any given time.

Looking closer I noticed that all of the trees right there were mulberries… And, even from where I sat, I could see the trees were covered with more and bigger fruit than I have ever seen. The sunlight made the entire scene stand out starkly in the glasses. As I continued to watch I began to pick out the Grosbeaks and Buntings that have been visiting my feeder.

It looks like the reason for the unusual visitors is now explained. A very fruitful spring for a bunch of wild mulberry trees that have been there for as long as I’ve lived here… Yet, remained unnoticed across the expanse of grass that belongs to my neighbor. And to think, I thought I had tracked down all of the mulberry trees in the area because I am just as fond of the fruit as the birds are.

Sadly for me, the distance to the trees is to great for my set of lenses to reach out for any photos. I might try to get closer tomorrow…

The post A Bird Muse With My Morning Coffee appeared first on Coffee Muses.

It was accompanied by a dark blue bird that I took to be the male Indigo Buntings we had been seeing for a few days… When I pointed them out to Sherry, she pointed out that the new “Indigos” were bigger than the Goldfinches on the feeder. So back to the book it was… And back to the pictures I posted last week. Not only were the new birds not Indigos they were not even Buntings but were Grosbeaks. Both the female and the male had some bright cinnamon bars on their wings leading me to id them as Blue Grosbeaks. But it was late in the day and the light was low so no photos. They returned both Saturday and Sunday at about the same time of day, so, still no photos.

After researching the species, I discovered they are resident here year round. So, the real surprise should be that I had never seen these birds before. It’s the same story with both the Indigo Bunting and the Painted Bunting. Both are year round residents in this area.

The Blue Grosbeak is a large bunting of the southern forest edge, often seen singing from roadside wires and tree tops. Although widespread throughout its breeding range, it is generally scarce and virtually all aspects of its biology are poorly known, perhaps owing in part to its low numbers. via Blue Grosbeak — Birds of North America Online.

Today, as I was reading a blog comment from my last post I had another surprise visitor…

Now this guy is a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. It took me almost a quarter hour to chase down an ID. This species is not resident here ever according to all of the references. So I guess we are catching a couple of males on their way back north.

The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is relatively common throughout much of eastern and central North America and lives in primary and secondary deciduous and mixed forest and thickets, as well as alongside humans in parks and gardens. It overwinters in Central and South America. As a result of its use of edge and secondary habitats, it is relatively tolerant of human disturbance to habitats. Historically, the species has been considered both a pest, due to its fondness for tree buds, flowers, cultivated peas and fruits, and a beneficial species, as it eats potato beetle larvae, scale insects, and other insects injurious to crops. via Rose-breasted Grosbeak — Birds of North America Online.

Just to prove to myself that the blue birds that have been visiting were two individual species (actually, two completely different genuses) they all settled in the grass under the feeder this morning…

We have the Blue Grosbeaks (male and female) and two male Indigo Buntings. At the same time the Rose-breasted was on the feeder above with a number of American Goldfinches.

So my amazing journey of discovery while sitting at my desk continues. I can hardly imagine what new bird species will show up outside my office window next… I never intended this blog to be all about birds, but if that is the direction it is heading… So be it.

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Painted Bunting

It seems the new species of birds visiting the feeder just keep on coming. It makes every day a bit more interesting.

Now it’s time to ride the Deere for a few hours. So I had better get busy…

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• Another Stranger Welcomed (coffeemuses.com)

The post And The Colors Keep Multiplying appeared first on Coffee Muses.

The all-blue male Indigo Bunting sings with cheerful gusto and looks like a scrap of sky with wings. Sometimes nicknamed “blue canaries,” these brilliantly colored yet common and widespread birds whistle their bouncy songs through the late spring and summer all over eastern North America. Look for Indigo Buntings in weedy fields and shrubby areas near trees, singing from dawn to dusk atop the tallest perch in sight or foraging for seeds and insects in low vegetation. ~ Indigo Bunting, Identification, All About Birds – Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

It’s strange how after twenty years on this place and putting out feeders on a number of occasions in the past, it was only when I placed the feeders out this year that I began to see all of these birds that I had never before seen.

Since the goldfinches are winter guests (or so I am told), I keep anticipating their leaving. They did vanish for a two week period. But since then they arrive in small flocks to try and empty my feeders on a regular basis.

American Goldfinch

This handsome little finch, the state bird of New Jersey, Iowa, and Washington, is welcome and common at feeders, where it takes primarily sunflower and nyjer. Goldfinches often flock with Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls. Spring males are brilliant yellow and shiny black with a bit of white. Females and all winter birds are more dull but identifiable by their conical bill; pointed, notched tail; wingbars; and lack of streaking. During molts they look bizarrely patchy. ~ American Goldfinch, Identification, All About Birds – Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

On Sunday our bluebird nestlings fledged. It must have been early in the day because I was out most of the day with the grandkids and I never saw them go to the nest. That was strange because they had both been making regular trips to feed their babies. I caught sight of just one of the newly fledged youngsters in the pines out back. The parents continued to make feeding trips in two directions, so I am assuming the fledglings split up on both sides of the house on their first flights. I checked the nest box that evening and the nest was clear.

Most of the country drives during an eastern North American summer will turn up a few Eastern Bluebirds sitting on telephone wires or perched atop a nest box, calling out in a short, wavering voice or abruptly dropping to the ground after an insect. Marvelous birds to capture in your binoculars, male Eastern Bluebirds are a brilliant royal blue on the back and head, and warm red-brown on the breast. Blue tinges in the wings and tail give the grayer females an elegant look. ~ Eastern Bluebird, Identification, All About Birds – Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

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The last of the bare trees have broken bud. As usual, the last trees to show leaves this spring are the native pecans. And even though they are mostly bare, each and every one I can see from my house is showing it’s spring colors.

While most of the middle of the country  and the eastern seaboard have suffered through wave after wave of cooler than normal weather, we have actually had a warmer than usual winter here on the gulf coast of Texas. Most of the spring blooming shrubs are past their prime, some completely done with their blooms. Now, the bed out my office window is showing what the garden centers call “warm season” flowers. Even my lone daylily is showing a flower spike starting to swell. I had a hard time this winter pruning our roses… They didn’t want to stop blooming. Our one antique rose was covered with flower buds when I finally broke down and did the job.

As I mused over my coffee this morning, the bluebirds that took up residence in the house on the wall behind the vegetable garden were making trip after trip across the yard to feed their young. It has only been in the past three years that bluebirds have taken up residence in my yard. Funny thing though, while I have learned to recognize their quiet little song, since they began raising young in the nestbox I have hardly heard a sound out of them.  The hummingbird feeder above my head was attracting it’s own fans. The feeders out the office window in front are still covered everyday with goldfinches… Though they are now wearing their summer colors.

Sitting and listening to the morning birdsong brought to mind the lack of some of our normal winter visitors… I don’t recall seeing one single robin this past winter. The flocks of blue jays that normally stalk my yard in winter were missing. As a matter of fact there were no flocks of any kind except goldfinches and yellow rumped warblers through the whole of the winter season. Not a normal winter for the birds here.

Now, as I sit at my desk typing these words, the front windows are open letting the cool fresh air into the house. If my wife were here she would be wrapped in multiple layers to stay warm even though the thermometer on the wall says it’s just 68°.

How’s the weather where you are?

The post Spring Is Back appeared first on Coffee Muses.

The farmer who became an overnight millionaire with $8 corn will go broke with $5 corn. I’m thinking they might go broke on $10 corn even faster because it will just encourage bad farming. There is no way we can keep up this money folly.

via Big Farms Going Belly Up Again? | The Contrary Farmer.

I have been reading Gene Logsdon for decades now. I am sure he would probably take exception with the above headline… Somewhere on the bookshelves around here are a couple of his books on gardening and homesteading. I first discovered his writings through either Organic Gardening Magazine of The Mother Earth News. Today his blogposts are always interesting, and I read everyone that he writes. The quote above is my take away from his latest.

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