Birds

[Spideyman]

I put a bluebird house up. Drilled a hole in an old stump for the birdhouse railing. Something has been eating away at the stump so I’ll have to move the birdhouse soon. Saw the other week what was causing it. A Pileated Woodpecker trying to get at wood grubs. The wife took pictures but hasn’t sent me them from her camera, yet. One big bird!

My land is wooded and there are several Pileated Woodpeckers around. They sure can make a racket! Beautiful birds to watch.

 

[DiO'Bolic]

Have any of those flamingos left over? Try putting large animal floats in the pool. A plastic owl that is motion sensitive might help too. Good luck!!

The problem with those things is it will scare the other birds away. I dealt with this kind of thing a number of years ago. Tried a realistic looking snake, an owl that swayed in the wind, a fake cat, bird tape... Nothing worked! Had to take drastic measures to get rid of them.

 

[Lepplady]

Spring is finally here!

The wife and I took a trip to Kmart. She picked up yet another bird feeder. That makes 7 feeders now. I wanted to see if we could entice some birds we don’t normally observe, so I developed a mix I thought might work for the new feeder. Sunday it rained in the afternoon so we couldn't do any yard work. We spent awhile watching the birds. We were inundated with Goldfinches that have been notably absent the last couple of years. And two really cool other birds showed up on Sunday. We talked about how we've only seen a Baltimore (Northern) Oriole once in 16 years here. And later one showed up. Another bird we’ve never seen also made an appearance at the feeder, an Indigo Bunting.

Some pics taken over the weekend…

Goldfinch

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Bluebirds and Woodpeckers

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Baltimore Oriole in the rain

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Indigo Bunting

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The fearless red squirrel raiding a feeder

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Those are beautiful pictures!

My yard looks like that, except it's cats.

 

[Neesy]

Big problem in DiOdom. Looked out back this morning. A pair of Mallard ducks seem to have moved into the backyard. Duck crap all over the railing of the new pool. I went out to scare them away, but they ignored me until I was about 10 feet away. And I know they will just keep coming back. Have to figure out a way to get rid of them now. Foie Gras is not out of the question.

This is what they looked like...

Hard to trust those ducks, eh?

 

[DiO'Bolic]

Hard to trust those ducks, eh?

They put me in a fowl mood.

 

[Neesy]

They put me in a fowl mood.

I thought you might enjoy this clip: This is what happens if you put out too many bird feeders:

 

[DiO'Bolic]

I thought you might enjoy this clip: This is what happens if you put out too many bird feeders:

LOL. I wear a cowboy hat when I mow on my tractor in the back. Male bluebirds are very protective around a nest and I get dive-bombed by them... clipping my hair and tearing a few strands out in the process.

 

[skimom2]

Our Cooper's Hawks are back this year, so there is a marked lack of small birds at my feeders (funny thing, they caught on that THEY were the meal pretty quickly).

One of the new neighbors has a cat that's been sneaking over our fence. It got one of my son's parakeets the other day (Silent Bob is now missing Jay). To make him feel better (and to help Silent Bob out--he gets weird when he's alone too long), we got another parakeet the next day. He's purple, so his name is Prince (naturally). He's the one looking right at the camera. This pic lightens the birds' colors a bit--he really is purple rather than dark blue.

 

[GNTLGNT]

Our Cooper's Hawks are back this year, so there is a marked lack of small birds at my feeders (funny thing, they caught on that THEY were the meal pretty quickly).

One of the new neighbors has a cat that's been sneaking over our fence. It got one of my son's parakeets the other day (Silent Bob is now missing Jay). To make him feel better (and to help Silent Bob out--he gets weird when he's alone too long), we got another parakeet the next day. He's purple, so his name is Prince (naturally). He's the one looking right at the camera. This pic lightens the birds' colors a bit--he really is purple rather than dark blue.
View attachment 26092

...handsome bundle of feathers...

 

[grin willard]

Same sort of thing with the birds in this town! I pick 'em up, they put me down, Still, you can't complain (much!) -- if I had a fancy car, Mercedes or a Jaguar, I'd thrill 'em!





,,

 

[Ceefor]

Our Cooper's Hawks are back this year, so there is a marked lack of small birds at my feeders (funny thing, they caught on that THEY were the meal pretty quickly).

One of the new neighbors has a cat that's been sneaking over our fence. It got one of my son's parakeets the other day (Silent Bob is now missing Jay). To make him feel better (and to help Silent Bob out--he gets weird when he's alone too long), we got another parakeet the next day. He's purple, so his name is Prince (naturally). He's the one looking right at the camera. This pic lightens the birds' colors a bit--he really is purple rather than dark blue.
View attachment 26092

They're beautiful.

 

[Spideyman]

Our Cooper's Hawks are back this year, so there is a marked lack of small birds at my feeders (funny thing, they caught on that THEY were the meal pretty quickly).

One of the new neighbors has a cat that's been sneaking over our fence. It got one of my son's parakeets the other day (Silent Bob is now missing Jay). To make him feel better (and to help Silent Bob out--he gets weird when he's alone too long), we got another parakeet the next day. He's purple, so his name is Prince (naturally). He's the one looking right at the camera. This pic lightens the birds' colors a bit--he really is purple rather than dark blue.
View attachment 26092

Happy critters!!

 

[Dana Jean]

Booyah!

Finally got to see the baby quail in my yard. Momma was out foraging around and i walked out the backdoor, it looked like the ground was moving like a swarm of ants! These babies, and I swear there was a bazillion, were no bigger than quarters. So tiny! I was reading up on quail. I guess they can have about 15 eggs per birthing and of those 15, if 2 survive, that is good. What? No way! I want all these little tiny fuzzy things to grow up and bring their kids back!

Once I sat out here on my patio a while, they must have felt I wasn't a threat and mom and dad brought the babies back out. So peaceful just to watch them. Although mom and dad have both lost weight and I don't think they are getting along. Mom was trying to go off and do her own thing and dad was all over her azz insisting she follow him.

Mom won.

 

[Spideyman]

Booyah!

Finally got to see the baby quail in my yard. Momma was out foraging around and i walked out the backdoor, it looked like the ground was moving like a swarm of ants! These babies, and I swear there was a bazillion, were no bigger than quarters. So tiny! I was reading up on quail. I guess they can have about 15 eggs per birthing and of those 15, if 2 survive, that is good. What? No way! I want all these little tiny fuzzy things to grow up and bring their kids back!

Once I sat out here on my patio a while, they must have felt I wasn't a threat and mom and dad brought the babies back out. So peaceful just to watch them. Although mom and dad have both lost weight and I don't think they are getting along. Mom was trying to go off and do her own thing and dad was all over her azz insisting she follow him.

Mom won.

 

[HollyGolightly]

Booyah!

Finally got to see the baby quail in my yard. Momma was out foraging around and i walked out the backdoor, it looked like the ground was moving like a swarm of ants! These babies, and I swear there was a bazillion, were no bigger than quarters. So tiny! I was reading up on quail. I guess they can have about 15 eggs per birthing and of those 15, if 2 survive, that is good. What? No way! I want all these little tiny fuzzy things to grow up and bring their kids back!

Once I sat out here on my patio a while, they must have felt I wasn't a threat and mom and dad brought the babies back out. So peaceful just to watch them. Although mom and dad have both lost weight and I don't think they are getting along. Mom was trying to go off and do her own thing and dad was all over her azz insisting she follow him.

Mom won.

That's so exciting!! Lil baby quail. I've never seen them before!

 

[Dana Jean]

That's so exciting!! Lil baby quail. I've never seen them before!

Itty bitty things. scampering just as fast as those little spaghetti legs will move!

 

[HollyGolightly]

oh sweet babies!

 

[Kurben]

There are, or were at least, real nasty birds too..... This is a Diatryma. 5 meters high. Luckily for all of us it died out around 50 milion years ago. Tried to take the Dinos place as toppredator but hadn't counted on early rodents and primates that ate their eggs. Terryfying thing, hard to imagine that birds like ostriches and emus are distant relatives.

 

[GNTLGNT]

 

[Dana Jean]

Our Cooper's Hawks are back this year, so there is a marked lack of small birds at my feeders (funny thing, they caught on that THEY were the meal pretty quickly).

One of the new neighbors has a cat that's been sneaking over our fence. It got one of my son's parakeets the other day (Silent Bob is now missing Jay). To make him feel better (and to help Silent Bob out--he gets weird when he's alone too long), we got another parakeet the next day. He's purple, so his name is Prince (naturally). He's the one looking right at the camera. This pic lightens the birds' colors a bit--he really is purple rather than dark blue.
View attachment 26092

How are Silent Bob and Prince getting along?

We have a little hawk that trolls the skies. My yard is a killing field! I watched it gliding peacefully on the wind and those legs went straight down and it started coming down fast. Whatever it was going for, though, escaped because the hawk came back up with empty talons.