Christmas

Christmas, a time to pause and celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Christ’s Birth Announced to Mary

Luke 1:26-38

²⁶ Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸ And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”^c]">[c]
²⁹ But when she saw him,^d]">[d] she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. ³⁰ Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. ³² He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. ³³ And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
³⁴ Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
³⁵ And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. ³⁶ Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. ³⁷ For with God nothing will be impossible.”
³⁸ Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Luke 2:1-20

Christ Born of Mary

¹ And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. ³ So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
⁴ Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife,^a]">[a] who was with child. ⁶ So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. ⁷ And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Glory in the Highest

⁸ Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold,^b]">[b] an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
¹⁴ “ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”^c]">[c]

¹⁵ So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger. ¹⁷ Now when they had seen Him, they made widely^d]">[d] known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. ¹⁸ And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds. ¹⁹ But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.

Cape May 2009

We were later than usual making our semi-anual trip to Cape May this fall and I'm REAL late getting the photos of the gorgeous LH posted. Cape May is very much a seasonal town with not much going on between Labor Day and Memorial Day. As info and specs on the lighthouse are posted elsewhere on the blog (click on lighthouses) I'll just go with this years pics.

Sam

Pam has reminded me on a number of occasions now that I haven't posted any photos of our "new" yellow Lab 'Sam'. As we will soon have had him a year I figured I better get busy.

We had to put our beloved black Lab 'Dewey' to sleep last October. Pam contacted the professional dog trainer from whom we got Dewey to see if he had or knew of any available pups. He didn't but mentioned he had an 18 month old yellow Lab that had been boarded and then abandoned at his kennel. He thought he'd make an excellent dog for us so we went out to see him and, you guessed it, it was love at first sight. We picked him up the following week.

He's all Lab - energetic, a lover, tail always going, eager to please and is real quick to catch on to new commands. He is also somewhat of a juvenile delinquent at times but aren't they all!

Southern bound!

Except for a few stragglers, our smallest of birds are headed for Mexico and Central America bringing the 09 season to an end. Ahead of them is the huge Gulf of Mexico over which they will fly non stop taking 24 hours to complete which is an incredible feat for a 3 1/2" bird! Even more incredible is that next April they will make the return flight and come back to the same back yard feeders they just left.

These are a few shots taken the day before ours left. An image posting glitch has prevented getting these posted in a more timely manner.

About to head south

The 09 hummingbird season is rapidly winding down as the tiny guys fatten up for the looooooooooooong flight to Central/South America which is 2-3000 miles! Incredible for a bird 3 1/2 inches long! You often hear the well meaning but wrong advice, especially around hardware stores that sell hummingbird supplies, that feeders should be taken down in mid Sept. as if this will force the birds to migrate or cause them to linger and be caught and killed by a fall freeze. Actually, feeders should be left up to mid Oct. to provide birds migrating from the north a place to feed as they pass by headed south.


Bird migration is under hormone control and has nothing to do with available food supplies. A small light sensitive area of the brain, called the Pineal body for its resemblance to a pine cone, serves as a migration "clock" . Sensitive to light, the pineal body triggers the urge to migrate as daylight hours shorten as fall approaches. For those with feeders up, now is a good time to up the sugar concentration a bit ( 3:1 instead of 4:1) to help them put on wt.


I decided to experiment with my light setup for fun. Of course they kept coming in to feed (with a puzzled look on their little faces) so I continued to shoot. I'm seeing mostly females at present. Dunno where the males are hiding. Here are a few of the better ones. If some look a little strange it's because the lights were outa position.

Hummingbird "teens"

A few more photos of juvenile (delinquent?) hummingbirds. This is a young bird hatched this summer. As mentioned in the following post, young males have a "speckled" throat that is gradually replaced by the flaming red color that gives the bird their name. The throat feathers are minute to say the least and can appear black, brown, yellow or red depending on the angle of the light. This male has two or three red feathers showing. He will have the full characteristic flaming red throat when he returns next spring.

Hummingbird "teens"

As summer winds down, we see a preponderance of young birds of all species. Many full grown young birds continue to follow the parents around squawking with mouths agape begging for a handout. Hummmm, we seem to have a whole segment of society just like that having been raised on government entitlement programs.

Not so with hummers. They are strictly on their own once taking flight and are even driven away from feeders by their parents! We now have a horde of young hummers out back. I've seen as many as six at once trying to feed from one port as I have the others plugged so I can semi "control" where they are when I shoot. If you let them control things, you'll never get anything. The juvenile birds are somewhat flat color wise as they have little iridescence.
The speckled throat mark this tiny guy as a juvenile male. He'll have the trademark flaming red gorget when he returns next spring. My guess is he's only 4-6 weeks old. As you can see, he' s pretty much devoid of the striking colors this species is famous for.
A prior pic of a juvenile male showing the speckled throat with two or three bright red feathers showing.
Forgot to turn on my main front flash unit (I'm and idiot) which gave a very underexposed but unusual shot