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Post by tom 🕊 on Aug 8, 2020 6:52:57 GMT -5
We actually did a taste test one year. Labeled tomatoes and blind tasted them. There were 5 of us. The vine ripe won everytime! A fair comparison of the two methods for ripening tomatoes requires having tomatoes from each at their prime at the same time. This is not easy. A vine ripened tomato, depending on field heat and its rate of metabolism, has about an hour at prime quality. A market gardener at a tomato forum said that he had to pick his tomatoes before they were fully ripe or they would be over ripe by the time the customer got them home. It's that close. Countertop ripened tomatoes, having a slower metabolism, may hold longer at prime, maybe six hours.
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Post by emmsmommy on Aug 8, 2020 7:42:13 GMT -5
I am far from a tomato snob... heck I don't even like them that well... but to me there is nothing like a warm vine ripened tomato fresh from the vine.
As for birds, last evening we heard a woodpecker in one of our chestnut trees and searched to find it. Hubby commented that it was small and I said it was a downy woodpecker as it didn't have a red head like the others we've seen in the backyard. He thought I was trying to pull one over on him until I searched online and found an image of a downy woodpecker. Now my curiosity has gotten the best of me and I'm hoping to determine if our other woodpecker is a pileated one.
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Post by James on Aug 9, 2020 9:45:46 GMT -5
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Post by Mumsey on Aug 16, 2020 3:45:23 GMT -5
The crows were raising 10 kinds of heck yesterday morning. Had the windows open and it sounded like they were right at the window. I looked out into the backyard and figured out why the ruckus. There was a hawk in our back yard, sitting on the edge of bird bath! I so wanted to get a pic, but as soon as I opened the door he took off.
This commotion was off and on all morning. I think it was a Redtail hawk.
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Post by davidjp on Aug 16, 2020 9:55:42 GMT -5
"The Sibley Guide to Birds". That would be my favourite too, lovely illustrations and just very well laid out. Its gone much quieter now that breeding season is coming to an end. Spent a while in the evening watching a little family group of flycatchers flitting back and forth. Not quite sure which species, so many of them look similar , probably alder flycatchers if I had to guess.
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Post by James on Aug 16, 2020 11:38:03 GMT -5
I went out and sat on the patio, in the sun, for a bit. Not a bird to be seen. Usually there are some Eu Doves around. Today nothing.
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Post by Mumsey on Aug 17, 2020 4:45:07 GMT -5
I just read that there is a rare bird nesting in parts of Iowa, the Merlin. Falcon like 9-13" long. Wonder if this is what that bird was. It sure was a stranger to the crows. I looked at pics and it did look similar. The pics also look similar to plain old hawks.
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Post by James on Aug 17, 2020 9:14:17 GMT -5
Keep your binoculars handy. Perhaps you will get a chance for a good look at the bird?
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Post by James on Aug 19, 2020 13:11:57 GMT -5
Birds for today: Crow, Robin, Eu Dove, Starling, House Finch, Hummingbird.
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Post by gardendmpls on Aug 19, 2020 23:29:38 GMT -5
Sister got me a great pair of binoculars for a retirement gift. Just straightened out the stakes that hold up the shepherd's crook style bird feeder holder. Now just need to set it up. Can't be close to the chickens (disease prevention) or to any bed where seed will fall and sprout. Haven't had it up for a few years. Will have to think on it a bit. Love to ID all the different birds that come through here- juncos, sap suckers, cardinals, mockingbirds, hawks, robins, song sparrows, thrashers, house finches, purple finches, magnolia warblers, red winged blackbirds, cat birds, blue jays, owls and more.
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Post by Mumsey on Aug 20, 2020 4:25:14 GMT -5
The new bird in our neighborhood is a Redtail Hawk. I heard his call and every other bird was eerily quiet. His was the only noise going on. I have noticed fewer songbirds since this hawk has been hanging around. The bluejays and crows cuss him daily. Hopefully that hawk moves on, can't imagine why he's hanging around in town when the fields are only a block away.
Saw a bald eagle flying over our neighborhood yesterday. Beautiful the way they glide with the air currents.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Aug 20, 2020 12:28:24 GMT -5
I've just heard something I absolutely can't identify. The bird (which I initially thought it was), or wildfowl, is in the one of the neighbor's trees, squawking loudly. Initially it clucked like a chicken, but more raspy, and usually in a series of 3 "clucks." Then it segued into what sounded like an alert, or a frightening call, more like a hawk, or a wild bird featured in some of the nature documentaries. It does have that more intense, more wild sound of hawk than of a bird.
I couldn't see anything in the trees, but the multiple trees create quite a canopy which in some places is visually impenetrable.
I've never heard anything like this in the neighborhood. There are hawks which fly over the nearby freeway, circling the same area repeatedly. I assumed they might be watching for rodents; one of the realtors I've spoken with periodically told me that the rodent population moved when there was a flood about 6 years ago and one of the local freeways flooded (b/c the state had neglected to fix something in one of their monitoring stations along the freeway).
A cardinal is singing elsewhere in the yard, while this unknown creature is squawking. It's an odd duo.
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Post by tom 🕊 on Aug 20, 2020 13:45:47 GMT -5
The bird (which I initially thought it was), or wildfowl, is in the one of the neighbor's trees, squawking loudly. Initially it clucked like a chicken, but more raspy, and usually in a series of 3 "clucks. An escaped parrot?
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Post by Wheelgarden on Aug 20, 2020 14:48:09 GMT -5
SpringRain🕊️ Maybe a pileated woodpecker? They cluck and squawk like that, and like to stay in thick woods.
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Post by davidjp on Aug 20, 2020 14:50:50 GMT -5
I've just heard something I absolutely can't identify. The bird (which I initially thought it was), or wildfowl, is in the one of the neighbor's trees, squawking loudly. Initially it clucked like a chicken, but more raspy, and usually in a series of 3 "clucks." Then it segued into what sounded like an alert, or a frightening call, more like a hawk, or a wild bird featured in some of the nature documentaries. It does have that more intense, more wild sound of hawk than of a bird. Occasionally I've been confused by a squirrel in a tree, usually they will screech out a series of alarm calls often three or four that can sound quite a bit like a bird but there's no change in the tone or anything. I'm sure its not the one in your case but a few times I've thought it might be a bird but found out to be a squirrel
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