A joke

Hi!
Here is a joke I made up,

There are two people in a diner.
One says, ''Let us....'' Then forgets what he was going to say.
The other one says, ''The lettuce sounds good, but I think I'll have a radish!''

Isn't that funny?

Until next time,
Chiara

Allergy Season Is Here!

Well it's not something to cheer about.

Hi!
My allergies start acting up this time of year. They get really bad. My eyes are really itchy, and my nose gets stuffy.

Allergies are just an oversensitive reaction by immune system.

You can relieve your allergies by using eyedrops or allergy pills; or altogether by eating local honey.

The local honey will, overtime, get your body used to the pollen in your area. No pollen reaction, no allergies.

Until next time,
Chiara

Robins

Hi!
I have seen a lot of robins lately. So, I decided to write about them.

Food:
Beetle grubs, caterpillars, cultivated and wild berries and fruit, soft-body invertebrates, and robins adore fermented Pyracantha berries. They search for earthworms, not by hearing, but by sight.

Habitat:
Robins live in most of North America. They live in almost all of U.S.A. (They don't live in Hawaii) year round, almost all of Canada (they don't live in the northeastern part of Canada) in summer (including Alaska). They live in a very small part of Mexico for winter.

Predators:
Hawks, large snakes, and cats prey on robins. Flocks of robins tend to stay silent and watch out for predators for the other robins. Some birds, such as common grackles, American crows, blue jays, common ravens prey on young, juvenile, or eggs, along with snakes, and squirrels.

Description:
Robins are gray, with an orange, or red chest. They have yellow beaks, with a black tip. Robins have white circles around their eyes. Males and females look alike, except for the darker-gray head of the male robin, and the darker chest.

Young:
After mating, the female robin builds, and takes care of the eggs and young alone. Their nests are either in the fork of two branches, or in dense brush, 5 to 15 feet off the ground. The nest is made of twigs, paper, grass, feathers on the outside, and is made of mud, grass, feathers, hair, and other soft material in the inside. The female lays 3 to 5 light blue eggs, that hatch after 14 days. Newly-hatched chicks are born with closed eyes, and are featherless. Chicks have a yellow- speckled chest, and look the same when they are juvenile, except for the fact that they are bigger, and look for like their parents.The chicks leave the nest after 2 weeks.

Did you know?
3 states chose the robin to be their state bird:
Wisconsin, Connecticut, and Michigan.

Different kinds of robin:
Scrub-robin, American robin, European robin, White- breasted robin, Tomtit, Red-capped robin, Tit (bird), and Geneva robins.

*Footnotes*
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_robin/id

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Robin#Distribution_and_habitat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_birds

Until next time,
Chiara

Cardinals

Hi!
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a bright red male cardinal at our bird feeder. I decided to learn more about them:

Cardinals:

Food:
Adults eat weed seeds, spiders, farm crops, and wild fruits and berries. They also eat insects such as caterpillars, beetles, and grasshoppers. In the winter, they eat mostly seeds, buds and berries. At bird feeders, cardinals like to eat mealworms, nuts, fruit, peanut butter, cracked corn, black oil sunflower seeds, sap, millet, and other grains.

Habitat:
Cardinals live throughout the United States, and even in some parts of Canada. They like warm climates, such as southeast U.S.A.

Mating and nesting:
A male cardinal will give a female cardinal a seed, or anything else he can find. The male flies over to the female. The two touch beaks as the female accepts the seed. At a bird feeder, this process is called mate feeding.

Cardinals stay with each other until one of the two dies. Then the other mate sets off to find another mate. This habit is described as ''mating for life''.

After the couple mates, the two begin to make a nest. The male perches on a branch, and searches for any signs of other males and predators, while the female collects paper, leaves, and dry leaves, twigs, vines, grass, hair, bark strips, and rootlets, for the nest.

Cardinals nest in bushes and branches 1 to 15 feet off the ground. They like to nest in pine trees to protect the eggs and young from predators, and weather.

The females nest from March to August, and lay 2 to 5 eggs at a time. The eggs can be buff or gray colored, or even greenish, with gray or brown speckles. Eggs hatch after 12 to 13 days. Young leave the nest at 9 to 11 days old.

Description:
Males are a bright red, with a red crest on its head. Females are tan with some gray, and they too have a pointed crest.

Height: 8 to 9 inches.

Weight: 1.5 to 1.8 ounces

Facts:
Cardinals are the state bird of seven states:
Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Virginia.

Their tweets sound like ''chew, chew'', ''wheet, wheet'', and ''cheedle, cheedle''. Their most famous song is ''cheer, cheer''.

Another name for cardinals is ''redbirds''.

Cardinals can live to be 15 years old.

*Footnotes*:

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/cardinal/

http://www.wild-bird-watching.com/Cardinal.html

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/wacardinal.asp

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_cardinals_nest

Hope you liked the information, and the sites.

Until next time,
Chiara