Valentine’s Day, Not For Birds! Fish frisky these days. Cargo Trailer Problems. Digital TV Boxes.

There is hanky-panky going on in the back fields:
Female hooded warbler on nest
© USFWS
"Unlike humans, who seize the opportunity at Valentine’s Day to proclaim their love for their mate and reinforce the bonds of love over a lifetime, most birds are of a different feather.

The use of DNA by scientists has provided new food for thought to people who had assumed that most birds were faithful to their mates, if not for a lifetime, at least for a single breeding season.

Alas, it’s just not true. There is more hanky-panky going on in the back fields and woodlands of the country among birds than anyone could imagine. DNA studies of songbirds have shown that among any four baby birds in a single nest, it is typical that only an average of two are the creation of the parent birds that are raising them. The other two nestling have either a different father or mother, or both. In other words, it is a common practice among songbirds to copulate with birds other than their mates, thus producing broods of nestlings with mixed parentage.  More at: http://wild.enature.com/blog/valentines-day-not-for-birds/

___________________

Valentine's Month from The Wild Side:

"Some folks love it, others dread it. But no matter what your feelings about Valentine's Day, there's no avoiding it. Even on a backcountry hike you'll likely be confronted by a courtship ritual of some sort. For the animals engaged in such displays, though, the whole month of February, not just Valentine's Day, is meant for romance.

Despite the chill that remains in much of North America, Raccoons, Minks, river otters, Gray and Red Foxes, Coyotes, and skunks all take time off from their mid-winter hunting to prowl for partners. Groundhogs start to look around longingly soon after they emerge from their long winter's sleep, and many of their rodent kin, from California Kangaroo Rats to Black-tailed Prairie Dogs, also consider February just the right time for rubbing noses.
Birds, too, at least a few of them, hit their romantic stride during the second month of the year. Great Horned Owls start hooting it up in December but mostly wait till now to take care of their romantic business. Male Red-winged Blackbirds return to much of the continent in February and start right in displaying and singing for prospective females, while American Woodcocks stage their delightfully bizarre courtship performances in the February twilight. And in the swamps of southern Florida, ungainly looking Wood Storks make hay in the February sunshine.

Also out under bright sunny southern skies are myriad butterflies looking for love. There are large Pipevine Swallowtails and diminutive Western Pygmy-Blues in Texas, gorgeous Zebra Heliconians and Gulf Fritillaries in Florida, Spring Azures and Long-tailed Skippers in the other Gulf States, and dainty Desert Marbles and Desert Orangetips in the Southwest. Wherever and whenever you see butterflies flying, even in February, you can rest assured that half of them are males on the lookout for lepidopteran love.

As for amphibians, their amorous inspiration comes in the form of a nice February rain. And when the rain falls, the amphibians emerge from their hibernation and march straight to breeding pools. Pond frogs, treefrogs, toads, and salamanders of all kinds take to the mating trail in February in the southern parts of the United States. The male frogs are at their vociferous best in their choruses to attract mates, while male salamanders vie for partners, too, though without the audible fanfare.

Even fish feel frisky these days, especially the Rainbow Trout in the Smokies and the Largemouth Bass in Texas. The same is true for animals in saltier waters: Humpback Whales, Northern Right Whales, Gray Seals, and Northern Elephant Seals have love on their marine-mammal minds, while far to the north in the pitch-black darkness of the Arctic winter Walruses have a gleam in their eyes."  From: http://enature.com/articles/detail.asp?storyID=229
____________________

He who does anything because it is the custom, makes no choice. ~ John Stuart Mill

____________________

Valentines Day from the History Channel:

Forget about Valentines Day, one should show their love every day:

________________

Romans.14.5 =  ⁵One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
________________

Today:

Ray was so feverish and weak this morning that Shay took him to Urgent Care.  He seems to have the same thing that Jay had.

The weather is ideal, and we are all really enjoying it.  Great "T-shirt and windows-open" day.  The foster cats are on the screened-in porch, and Paco sunbathed in the backyard while we were working.  I could keep an eye him from the side lot, where we were working on the trailer.

Jay and I spent the whole morning attempting to fix a boo-boo that he had made when cutting out for the side window a couple of weeks ago.  On the sides of the trailer, the siding has these big ridges. They are really in the way for installing a window.

I had a different idea about getting around that, but Jay said he knew how to do it.  He said he was going to cut off the back piece of metal, and fold the top piece flat over it.  As the jigsaw was really vibrating the siding, I was inside holding a board against it, so I couldn't see what he was doing.  Needless to say, I was mortified when I went outside to look at it.
















This was Jay's idea for a repair, cutting covers out of the window cut-outs:





























While all this was going on, the cable guy was here installing the 7 little boxes for the digital cable, as I don't have any HDTVs, except in the motor home.  So I was running backwards and forward between the two of them.  He replaced several of my cables going from the wall outlets to the TVs.  Then he had to install an amplifier in my attic, as I was trying to 'push' too many TVs for digital cable.  It had worked fine on analog for all these years.  All the TVs are brighter.  So I am glad that I had the company man come here to do it. 

As I am still not happy with the 'fix', the window didn't get permanently installed today.