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Thursday, December 4, 2014

Jumble of Juncos and Triangular Oxalis December 6, 2014

Featured birds coming for seeds this week are Dark-Eyed Juncos.  The Oregon type comes in a range of colors, the male having a near black hood and the female lighter grey, and is around 5.25" / 13.3cm long.  They nest on the ground and once I uncovered a nest with eggs.   I came back once and the nest seemed to be empty, just a round circle of down remaining.   Then I realized I could see the outline of tiny baby bird beaks flush with the down, they compressed themselves so flat they looked like a uniform flat surface.  I didn't look at them again, not wanting to disturb them.  This website has a photo like the nest I saw, and interesting information.  "Inquiring minds..."




"So long and thanks for the seeds"

The male has a black head- "Nom!"



Linking today with-

Wild Bird Wednesday hosted by Stewart M.

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura


Featured houseplant in my continuing bloom series is a good foliage plant with 3 triangular leaves with near-black edges and dark magenta centers, Oxalis triangularis, which can also bloom in a lot of the spring, summer and fall.   When needing water they close and look like butterflies.  S-facing window-






 It will stay evergreen in the winter if watered, but if I want to divide the plant or give some to someone else I stop watering then and let the tops die down, then I can just knock the plant out of the pot and divide the little bulbs, then replant into several new pots.   Like most houseplants I grow, it is hard to kill and is not bothered by neglect.  If you think it's dead just water and it will probably come back from the dormant bulbs.

I hope you find time to relax and order some vegetable and flower seeds during the holiday season.  I added some new beans and lots of annuals to my grow list for next year.    Hannah


                                                                        or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.   I enjoy visiting your blog and commenting but can't do so if google+ is the only option, so will comment here.

81 comments:

  1. Beautiful birds, and such a lovely Oxalis!
    Hope you are having a wonderful day!
    Lea

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    1. Thanks, Lea, the Juncos are quite active and not as afraid as most of the birds, but as time goes on they all seem to be getting used to seeing me inside.

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  2. Great photos of the birds and the Oxalis. I like how you took a photo of it before it opened and what a pretty color it is. those little birds are the cutest!

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    1. Thanks, Denise, the Juncos are fun to watch, and I like it when a houseplant can live with the kind of neglect I can give them. The flowers are cute but little.

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  3. I've seen the plant before but didn't know the name of Oxalis. Your bird is really lovely, kind of purple looking in the photos.

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  4. Thanks, Linda, they are birds I used to see up in the mountains in S. California.

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  5. you get the beautiful multi-colored juncos. we only see the slate-colored. :)

    roadrunners catch grasshoppers and other bugs and i've seen them take smaller snakes, too. :)

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  6. I don't remember seeing Juncos in Texas. Now the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, those I remember. I googled roadrunner diet and it said they are omnivores so might eat a small amounts of seeds and grains, especially cactus pears and seeds. So perhaps they would eat some grain on your porch? It sounds like they eat just about any bug or animal they can catch, they must be quite the predator.

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  7. Good Morning, hannah! Your Juncos are beautiful, I like their colors.. And your plant and flowers are gorgeous.. Lovely images.. Have a happy weekend!

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    1. Thanks, Eileen, they are cute little birds, though I get very nostalgic seeing your fluffy Cardinal, I miss them from my childhood.

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  8. Juncos are such sweet birds and your pictures of them are lovely! Also love Oxalis triangularis which acts as an herbacious perennial here. The colors are so bright and cheerful, I may just go out and dig one to come inside!

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    1. Thanks, Peter, I don't think the Oxalis would survive here with my quirky low snaps I get. I do enjoy them in the house though!

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  9. What a beautiful plant - I love both the leaves as well as the flowers:)

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    1. Thanks, Jesh, the leaves are very pretty, they are as pretty as a lot of flowers. I like them when they fold up too.

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  10. Hannah, I am just stopping back to say thank you so much for linking up, Have a happy weekend!

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    1. You're welcome, Eileen, I'm glad you resolved your computer problems and can host again.

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  11. Beautiful settings, especially the Male Junco, absolutely stunning.

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    1. Thanks, Bob, it's fun putting out the seeds and watching the feeding frenzy. I'm reasonably happy with my new Canon sx50, though it is not as fancy and capable as the big lenses.

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  12. Cute birds! I love the dark leaves of the oxalis. Have a wonderful weekend!

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    1. Thanks, Gunilla, I appreciate plants that can make it indoors in my care, the Oxalis has been very reliable, only once I was losing one of my pots to a mold, then I threw them out on my deck, and to my surprise some little bulbs recovered and started growing again.

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  13. A lovely series of great shots of this little bird. Of course we don't have these birds in the UK so it was good to see them close up. Have a lovely weekend.

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  14. Thanks, Margaret, the little birds in my yard are not exotic but are unique, so are special in their own way. I admire your courage going on an African safari, great photos!

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  15. Hannah I loved seeing your juncos as they are different than ours. Ours are grey headed and the bodies are gray on the female and the males are white breasted. I just spotted ours recently. And a lovely flower to keep you company. Indeed I have been ordering seed and will continue to do all winter. What else is a gardener to do!

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    1. Thanks, Donna, my old bird book would call yours the Slate-colored Junco, they could even turn up here. I just ordered more seed yesterday, and meant to start some perennials in November again this year but didn't so need to do that right away as I found some would bloom the first year that way.

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  16. Love those juncos. We seldom get them here, but I always look for them in winter, hoping...

    I have that oxalis in my garden. It's a real winner.

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    1. I hope you get to see a lot of my favorite Cardinals. It would be great to grow the Oxalis in the garden but I don't think it would make it, I do get annual weedy Oxalis, some are burgundy with yellow flowers and I think they are cute.

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  17. Great shots of the Oregon Junco. They appear here north of Toronto occasionally but I have seen only one.

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    1. Thanks, they seem to be up and down the west coast, whereas the Slate-Colored Junco is very widespread in most of North America.

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  18. The juncos are such pretty birds!! I did not know how hardy oxalis is! I have seen the plants at the College, but never tried growing them. I love the delicate blossoms!!

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    1. I guess some people succeed with it outdoors, but it can apparently become really invasive in a warm climate like Australia. It's great as an indoor plant, though. I tried Iron Cross Oxalis outdoors and didn't see it return, a green Oxalis grows for me with pink flowers, and the bulb Oxalis adenophyllia with the cute pleated leaves comes back well.

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  19. Beautiful pictures of the Juncos and the Oxalis! I visited that link, it also have some great pictures, baby juncos are so cute! Very interesting of how they camouflage.

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    1. Thanks, Leticia, I was amazed to see them, it was neat to find a photo as well.

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    1. Thanks, Adam, I enjoyed your Fieldfare birds that look a lot like the Robins that come to my yard in the way they stand upright.

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  21. Nice bird photos! Oxalis triangularis has such a pretty foilage color. I keep mine dry and dark during winter.

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    1. Thanks Villrose. They don't actually need a dormant period but I should do that for one pot so I can divide the bulbs. I'm growing them in some pottery tea pots my daughter made so they are deep and rounded and hard to get to the bulbs.

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  22. I just love those little Juncos. We see the slate-colored ones here during the winter.
    The oxalis plant is beautiful.

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  23. Thanks, Pat, there seems to be quite a flock that comes here, and lots of chickadees too.

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  24. Hi Hannah, I neglected to thank you for sharing these beautiful flowers with Today's Flowers. Do appreciate this so much. Thank you and enjoy the rest of your weekend. :-)

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    1. Thanks, Denise, I am relying on my houseplant series for a while since winter is nearly upon us, thanks for hosting.

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  25. Thanks for these very nice bird photos and beautiful flowers! - Like Elvis too :)

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    1. Thanks, Birgitta, I love your silvery, reflective winter landscape in your header. I'm glad you like Elvis.;-)

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  26. So long and thanks for the pictures.

    They are the seeds to us.

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    1. I was hoping someone would get the reference to the whales leaving earth in "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," "So long and thanks for the fish". Ha Ha.

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  27. You have some brilliant shots of the Dark-eyed Junco and thanks for explaining how yours are a variation of the Oregon types. They have some attractive and unusual pink and grey shades in their plumage.

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    1. Thanks, Phil, I enjoy comments from birders, I'm a long way from university courses so not that up on the latest nomenclature. Actually in Ornithology we didn't do much nomenclature. In Texas we had a wealth of bird species but no Juncos. But I wish I could photograph a Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher.

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  28. gorgeous shots of both Junco and the beautiful Oxalis :)

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    1. Thanks, I have a little blind set up now and rehabilitated an old tripod so it is getting easier.

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  29. Hello Hannah,
    I love these beautiful birds.
    This species is not in the Netherlands.
    The plants are also very beautiful.
    Best regards, Irma

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    1. Thanks, Irma, I liked your European Jays, with the peachy colors, and the photo of you with the Lemur, that must have been special.

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  30. Very interesting about the junco nest! Loved the photos too, and those of that pretty oxalis!

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    1. Thanks, Marie, I was rather surprised I could find a website with a photo approximating the wonderful Junco nest I saw.

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  31. Cool birds! I see them in West Virginia, but they don't use the suet feeder and I didn't know much about them. Until now!
    ~

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    1. We used to have a suet feeder instead, and had mainly the Chickadees, though the Steller's Jays would hit it and try to grab a bite, and once I saw a woodpecker. The squirrel would also attempt to jump on it. So now we have piles of sunflower seeds and wheat, and the Jays really love the wheat, and like being able to scoop up seeds, and after a while a growing number of squirrels show up. But it's nice to see the Juncos, Chickadees, Nuthatches, and some sparrow types. I don't know if the wood pecker would ever come for the seeds that way though, I'm still pondering that.

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    2. We get lots of woodpeckers with the suet feeder. (Also, the nuthatches, chickadees, and tufted titmice.)

      Here's the biggest woodpecker who ever figured out how to use it.
      ~

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  32. A great little bird and beautiful photos.

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    1. Thanks, Christian, I liked your beautifully colored dragonfly, so fancy!

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  33. The juncos are such sweet looking birds and the flowers are lovely.

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    1. Thanks, Carver, they are fun to watch. I liked your American Robin taking a bath.

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  34. The birds are lovely. I have never seen juncos, and I'm glad to see your beautiful photos.

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    1. Thanks, Romi, we must have mostly different birds, except maybe the shore birds. I wish my Camellias would grow like yours.

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  35. Dear Hannah,
    thank you for your nice remark on that star! I really like this Oxalis specimen. In spring the woods around our cottag are full of the white variety, but this one is very special...
    Yours, Sarah

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  36. Thanks Sarah, elegant decorations. There is a native Oregon Oxalis here, plus the little weed ones that are either green or burgundy with yellow flowers.

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  37. Thank you for sharing your birds and blooms! Splendid images of the Junco, a species we don't encounter here in central Florida.

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    1. Thanks, Wally, I enjoy seeing them here. Florida has a lot of birds to offer that don't make it up here to the Far Frozen North. Actually it's not that bad where I live because of the maritime influence.

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  38. The juncos are pretty birds and you got some wonderful close ups of them. I like the colorful leaves on the house plant-very unusual.

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    1. Thanks, Abrianna, there are some additional birds I want to photograph that don't show up often and don't pose very long. The Triangularis is rather unique among houseplants.

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  39. Wonderful pictures, I love how you've managed to capture the beauty of these birds and flowers!

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    1. Thanks Leovi, I appreciate your artistic expertise.

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  40. Lovely bird, but what a beautiful flower. So pretty!

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    1. Thanks, Freda, since it is really a small flower the actual impact is much less. They make nice macros though!

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  41. What a beautiful series Hannah… pretty bird and such a lovely flower too. Thanks as always for sharing the love up-close with I Heart Macro:-)

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    1. Thanks, Laura, macros are such fun to take. Thanks for hosting!

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  42. I do like Juncos, although I do recall being baffled by them the first time I saw them!

    Cheers - Stewart M - Melbourne

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    1. The first time I saw them was in the "mountains" in California, I thought they were cute little birds, now I live with the birds I saw in the mountains, like camping all the time.

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  43. So many different looks for the same species. I thought I found something new in Utah, but it was just wearing a different costume. I love the plant, too. I need something hard to kill.

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    1. Thanks, Jen, I like your shore birds, I don't get to see them here. I'm glad to have a plant that is hard to kill, I need that

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  44. Those are very sweet looking birds. It's interesting that they nest on the ground. I wonder how they protect their eggs and their babies from predators.

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    1. The camouflage must help a lot. I guess some baby birds develop really quickly. I've only seen a nest the one time. I enjoyed seeing your birds and sunrises.

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  45. Hello Hannah,
    Many thanks for your sweet comment on my blog :)
    I think you really have stunning birds in your back yard!
    If I could I would be on a plane to see them for myself! LOL!
    A lovely post, I like the male, he is very handsome!
    Enjoy the Advent season, hugs from France :)

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    1. Thanks, Noushka, I've been here for 21 years with these birds, so other people's birds seem a lot more dashing to me.... but they are cute. I enjoy your birds and dragonflies. Joyeuse Fete de Hanoucca and Joyeux Noel!

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