Monthly Archives: August 2008
Hummer H3
Emilia and I acquired a new item in the backyard this Summer.
The Ruby-Throated Hummingbird is 7-9 cm long with an 8-11 cm wingspan, and weighs 2-6 g. Adults are metallic green above and greyish white below, with near-black wings. Their bill is long, straight and very slender.
The adult male has an iridescent ruby red throat patch which may appear black in some lighting, and a dark forked tail. The female has a dark rounded tail with white tips and generally no throat patch, though she may sometimes have a light or whitish throat patch.
The male is smaller than the female, and has a slightly shorter beak. A molt of feathers occurs once per annum, and begins during the autumn migration.
Packard
Packard was an American luxury automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899 and the last in 1958.
Emilia and I went to the Clintonville Cruise the ‘Ville Car Show last weekend and spotted this on a 1931 Packard. Big cars, big engines, great collector items now.
Dragonfly
Dragonflies typically eat mosquitoes, and other small insects like flies, bees, and butterflies. Dragonflies are usually found around lakes, ponds, streams and wetlands because their larvae, known as “nymphs”, are aquatic. Adult dragonflies do not bite or sting humans, though nymphs are capable of delivering a painful (though otherwise harmless) bite.
Sunflower
The sunflower is an annual plant native to the Americas, with a large flowering head. The stem of the flower can grow as high as 10 feet tall, with the flower head reaching up to 12 inches in diameter with the “large” seeds. What is usually called the flower is actually a head. The florets inside the circular head are called disc florets, which mature into what are traditionally called “sunflower seeds,” but are actually the fruit of the plant. The inedible husk is the wall of the fruit and the true seed lies within the kernel.
Cicada
A cicada is an insect with large eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the globe. They are known as “dry flies” because of the dry shell they leave behind. Cicadas do not bite or sting, are benign to humans and plants, and therefore are not considered pests. Many people around the world regularly eat cicadas: the female is prized as it is meatier. The name is a direct derivation of the Latin cicada, meaning “buzzer”.