February Photo of the Month - post pix here

[Sage]

Just getting it started, Dave! Limit four pix taken in month of February!

[havalotta]

Are you going to be our new judge for the month or did you speak to Dave and receive the get go?
No computer hook up for him yet?

[Sage]

I checked his last post which indicated he'd be online before Feb, but since we haven't seen him yet, I thought it would be okay to at least provide a thread for February. Everyone here is so overworked I didn't want to ask when I could easily do it.

[Rebek56]

I can't believe I'm the first entry, but here it is--squirrel at feeder, February 2010.

[Sage]

Very cute shot!

[benj1]

Looks well-fed! The squirrels here are getting hungrier as we approach the "full crust moon", because it's hard for them to dig through the icy crust on the snow to find their buried treasures.

[Sage]

I read yesterday that many animals and birds are dying in this harsh winter.

[Sage]

I wondered what that thing was on the bill of this White Pelican. My research found this answer in BNA

A highly fibrous, epidermal plate arises vertically and dorsomedially about one third distance from tip of upper mandible, plate (somewhat erroneously termed a “horn”) highly variable in size with base being 40–80 mm and height ranging from barely detectible to more than 60 mm, with that of males in pairs seemingly larger (FLK). Function of plate not clearly defined, but it is probably involved in courtship or agonistic behavior during pairing and territory establishment; plate shed during Presupplemental molt.

[Rebek56]

I'd never seen the growth before. (Of course, it's been a while since I've been around pelicans.) Thanks, Sage.

[Rebek56]

Benji, our squirrels this year are ignoring the feeder because there are so many acorns. I can't believe they're finding them with all the snow we've had, but they're not even going for the sunflower seed all that much. VERY odd.