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Post by desertwoman on Jul 18, 2020 12:09:16 GMT -5
I think it's a pretty great photo considering.... davidjp,
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Post by James on Jul 19, 2020 11:32:06 GMT -5
Thanks davidjp
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Post by Wheelgarden on Jul 19, 2020 15:56:55 GMT -5
Cowbirds...today, and every couple of years, a flock of cowbirds sweep into my yard to pick around on the ground for a while. Usually three or four chocolate-headed males, accompanied by 20 or so females. Then they all leave together. I never see them any other time. I hope they ain't messing with my other birds' nests.
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Post by tom 🕊 on Jul 20, 2020 18:37:36 GMT -5
Went to collect beans for tomorrow's vegetable soup and to pick turning tomatoes. Mama quail was doing her injured quail trick. Fourteen quail chicks had jumped into an unplanted tire. I lifted them out and returned to picking beans. When I came back, all the chicks had run off except for one that had wedged itself between two tires. I got it out of the crack, and it ran off. The tire has been there thirty years, and this has never happened before. I suspect mama jumped in to dust herself and the chicks followed suit and couldn't get out because the rim curves inward at the top.
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Post by Wheelgarden on Jul 23, 2020 21:07:30 GMT -5
What an airborne spectacle out there this afternoon, and not just birds. Bird-feeder and birdbath politics all around. What with the Bluebirds, Phoebes, Cardinals, Thrashers, Finches, Hummingbirds and others carrying on with each other and swooping everywhere, I had to duck a couple of times. Small dragonflies and damselflies darting around up close, larger ones out further in the field. Owls hooting and the bats are back in numbers as the sun goes down.
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Post by James on Jul 24, 2020 9:59:03 GMT -5
Wheelgarden, you are having too much fun!
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weedkicker
Blooming
The Utah high desert, zone 1-6 (it's a %$# crap shoot)
Posts: 179
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Post by weedkicker on Jul 26, 2020 18:20:56 GMT -5
Yesterday evening when I returned home from work, I discovered two very friendly Black-billed magpies hanging around my fountain. I walked over to check them out and one of them hopped right up to me. I went into the house, grabbed a slice of ham, and came back out and fed both of them small chunks until the slice was gone. I noticed that both of them were banded. I'm guessing they are someone's pets that either escaped or were let lose on purpose. Don't know how long they'll hang around, but I've enjoyed their visit.
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Post by James on Jul 29, 2020 10:41:30 GMT -5
"but I've enjoyed their visit." That is great! Here the magpies have built nests in some of my trees out back. Couldn't get an image to load on a bet. Right click on the icon and choose "Open in new tab"
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Jul 31, 2020 14:15:05 GMT -5
davidjp, that's the kind of photo that would be so appropriate on commemorative plates of wildlife. It's stunning. To my surprise, a cardinal was singing for quite a while this morning, and it was a strong, upbeat song. Only occasionally have I heard one singing over the last few weeks or months. I'm beginning to wonder if they were somewhere in the trees, cooling off, and just resting but came out today b/c the weather is at last moderating. I had forgotten how lovely their songs are.
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Post by davidjp on Jul 31, 2020 16:40:40 GMT -5
SpringRain🕊️ ,I'm lucky that I can just see that view from my desk so have been following them for a while. A little after, maybe a day or two, that was taken I was gazing out and a coopers hawk came barreling down and collided with the mother quail and I though that was it but luckily she at the last minute saw it and managed to disappear into the long grass and the hawk came away empty handed. The chicks were already in the long grass so they were fine. she didn't seem too affected by that over the next few days but i got a new appreciation of why she is always hanging out at the edge of the long grass. It was my idea to not cut a section to have a bit of a meadow area and it just shows you how important shelter and cover is for birds. Plus less mowing and more flowers, a win all round
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Post by Wheelgarden on Jul 31, 2020 20:40:30 GMT -5
Just last night, I dreamed that the quail returned to my area. Hope that dream comes true. Been watching the hummingbirds a lot...We've had their favorite cyrpress vine out here all along, but now we have that and feeders around, several different species of hummers everywhere. Those little birds are quite competitive and territorial, and with "personality" too. Almost tame at times when they get used to your presence.
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weedkicker
Blooming
The Utah high desert, zone 1-6 (it's a %$# crap shoot)
Posts: 179
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Post by weedkicker on Aug 5, 2020 23:10:40 GMT -5
I love birds, and I landscaped my property to attract them (maybe too well), but I’m beginning to harbor some resentment. For the past two years, Curly top has destroyed my tomatoes, but so far this year I’ve only lost one plant. Unfortunately, the birds are playing hell with the fruit. So far I’d say I’m losing 80% of my crop to them. A pair of Orchard Oriels, two pair of Northern Mockingbirds, and more robins that I can count, are feasting on everything they can reach as soon as the fruit starts turning orange. Seems like every time I walk past the tomato patch I see one or more of them fly out, then find another freshly eaten tomato. I may have to take drastic action if it doesn’t stop soon. And speaking of birds, the cancel culture loons have decided to point their beaks at the rest of our feathered friends. A Tuesday op-ed in The Washington Post by two ornithologists argued that bird names derived from problematic historical figures should be changed. Gabriel Foley and Jordan Rutter, two ornithologists who started the website “Bird Names for Birds,” maintain that the many bird names that include eponymous references to such people “cast long, dark shadows over our beloved birds and represent colonialism, racism and inequality.”“It is long overdue that we acknowledge the problem of such names, and it is long overdue that we should change them,” they added. Foley and Rutter first criticized John James Audubon, after whom several birds were named and whose monumental 19th-century book “The Birds of America” is widely considered one of the most important ornithological works ever written. “Surely, most of us might think, this is an entirely fitting honor for someone who did so much for our understanding of the environment,” they wrote, but reminded readers that even “Audubon’s story has a dark side.”Pinpointing how he once scoured the battlefield after the 1836 Battle of San Jacinto cutting the heads off of Mexicans to send to a phrenologist, they wrote, “For Audubon, this might have been just another way of practicing science — but his actions hardly align with modern values, and his scientific contributions do not excuse him from judgment.”(I wonder how much of what many of us do will align with "modern values" 184 years from now?) The two then go on to list other birds who were named for people they don’t like, such as Bachman’s sparrow, who was named for a pro-slavery reverend; McCown’s longspur, who shares a name with a Confederate general; Hammond’s flycatcher, who was named for a doctor that performed anatomical studies on Native Americans killed in battle; Bendire’s thrasher, named for a U.S. major who fought Native Americans; and Townsend’s warbler, a bird whose namesake dug up Native Americans to study their skulls. Foley and Rutter conclude by likening such bird names to Confederate statues, writing: "The controversy over such names, which is now exciting passions within the bird community, mirrors similar conflicts over monuments to Confederates and colonialists now raging in the United States and elsewhere. Eponymous names serve as verbal statues: They are a memorial both to the colonial system that wove the fabric of systemic racism through every aspect of our lives — including the birds we see every day — and to the individuals who intentionally and directly perpetuated that system."They urge their readers to reject “the colonial monument that eponyms represent” in favor of “inclusion and diversity in our community.”“We cannot subjectively decide — especially if the adjudicators are White — that some names can be retained because they are associated with less abhorrent pasts than others. We must remove all eponymous names. The stench of colonialism has saturated each of its participants, and the honor inherent within their names must be revoked,” they wrote, adding, “A bird’s beauty should not be marred by the baggage of an eponym.”I remember a time when it wasn’t difficult to distinguish satire from reality. Sadly, those days are gone.
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Post by gardendmpls on Aug 5, 2020 23:24:31 GMT -5
weedkicker, Do the birds have access to water. Many thirsty animals turn to fruit to get the liquid they need. Setting up a bird bath may help. Birds don't bother my fruit, but squirrels do in some years. Had one that used to eat half of a tomato every day and leave the other half on the bench for me. Luckily I had enough to share.
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Post by tom 🕊 on Aug 6, 2020 6:39:37 GMT -5
Unfortunately, the birds are playing hell with the fruit. So far I’d say I’m losing 80% of my crop to them. This can be totally prevented by harvesting tomatoes at breaker stage and letting them ripen indoors. I have birds and have not had a single tomato pecked this year.
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Post by James on Aug 6, 2020 8:47:16 GMT -5
This cranky ol man is gonna say: Shoot, shovel, shut up!
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