I LOVE THEM ALL.

We get some other kind of guests that visit our backyard. They show up in winter and leave by spring. The trees are studded by these visitors. These are Anhingas - a blackish bird of southern swamps,shaped like a cormorant,but with very long,slender S-shaped neck:a long,spear like bill and a long fan-shaped tail.
Their habitat is fresh water ponds and swamps with thick vegetation,especially where there are large trees.
Breeds near Atlantic and Gulf coasts from North Carolina to Texas. Winters along Gulf coast north to South Carolina.
Also known as the "snakebird" the Anhinga often swims with its body submerged and only its head and long slender neck visible above the water. Its long,dagger shaped, serrated bill is ideally suited for catching fish,which it stabs and then flips into the air and gulps down head first.
Cormorants and Anhingas lack oil glands with which to preen and so must perch with their wings half open to dry them in the sun.

I think it is fun to document these frequent visitors to our backyards. So much can be gleaned by their behavior and makes one wonder what would the world without these marvelous creatures that co exist with us.

The other day I was saying to hubby that I may be able to give up desserts but not fruits. I love fruits and dreaming of growing a fruit orchard on our expansive yard. I grew up literally on a fruit orchard ! My dad built our house on a fruit orchard that belonged to Maharaja of Mysore.
It is still called Palace Orchards.

So it is fitting that I make a Villa Orchards here in Texas ! We have planted figs,persimmons,guavas,orange,kumquat ! The figs have a lot of small fruits on them. Hopefully they will ripen and we will get to eat them soon.

Here is a little tidbit about nutritional value of fruits.

Fruit Composition per 100g Vitamin Composition
Food Calories Protein Fat Carbohydrates Fiber B1 B2 C
Banana 100 1.2 0.3 26.1 0.6 0.03 0.04 14
Guava 69 1.0 0.4 17.6 5.6 0.05 0.04 132
Mango 62 0.6 0.3 15.9 0.5 0.06 0.05 36
Orange 40 0.8 0.2 9.9 0.4 0.07 0.04 43
Pineapple 47 0.7 0.3 11.6 0.5 0.06 0.03 22
Papaya 45 0.5 0.1 11.8 0.5 0.03 0.05 73

As can be seen Guavas have the highest level of Vitamain C

Our sonny boy calls us monkeys the way we go through fruits in a day !

Let us hope the fruit trees do well and we get to eat home grown fruits !