Cedar Waxwings, ready to watch 'Titanic' in 3-D
Later in the summer, the cranberry bush outside our office window will look like the photo in my header. It will be full of luscious (to the birds) red berries. But no one seems to eat them in the summertime.
They stay on the bush and a few of them get eaten by squirrels now and then, throughout the winter.
When springtime rolls around, there's always a day when the Cedar Waxwings stop in on their migration and swoop down to eat every remaining berry from the two bushes we have - the one you see in the header and another one beside the pond garden. It's like a quick B&B.
This photo was taken probably a month ago, before my camera died. It was the first that I'd sneaked the camera out and quietly walked upstairs to get to a bedroom window where they wouldn't observe me. Even so, I took the photo through the crack in the blinds. I didn't want to scare them off.
Aren't they beautiful birds! Don't you love those 3-D glasses!
***
How can birds sing and breathe at the same time?
From eNature.com:
"In most mammals -- humans, too -- the process of breathing is fairly
straightforward: air enters the lungs through the nose and/or the mouth,
and the same air, minus much of its oxygen, is expelled a moment later
via the same route. Thus it's only when we inhale that we have
oxygen-rich air in our lungs. A bird, however, can have such air in its
lungs at all times, which makes for much more efficient breathing.
Skeptical? Well, there's a simple explanation. In addition to its two small lungs, the bird possesses a system of tiny air sacs throughout its body; even some of its bones are hollow and can be filled with air. So when air enters the bird through the nostrils in its beak, the air fills both the lungs of the bird and these sacs. Then, as the air in the lungs is expelled, the oxygen-rich air stored in the sacs replenishes it. In other words, the sacs act as a temporary air reservoir."
Skeptical? Well, there's a simple explanation. In addition to its two small lungs, the bird possesses a system of tiny air sacs throughout its body; even some of its bones are hollow and can be filled with air. So when air enters the bird through the nostrils in its beak, the air fills both the lungs of the bird and these sacs. Then, as the air in the lungs is expelled, the oxygen-rich air stored in the sacs replenishes it. In other words, the sacs act as a temporary air reservoir."
Who thought up that amazing design and turned it into a living, breathing creature?
What an awesome Creator!
