Birds and the weather.
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tcreeley
Elite Member
Just amazing how colorful these guys can be!
Another nice day today. 71F at 2:40.
I got into the garden with my tractor today. I run the 4 discs on my hiller at the same slant and use that to turn over the soil. The dirt isn't ready to plant. Needs a little more drying to set the row. I found 3 volunteer onions from last year that I had missed- healthy and looking strong. I dug them out and they will go back in somewhere.
Quiet day.
Anyone noticing fewer frogs? We have drainage ditches all over and running water. I don't think I am hearing the frogs like I used to last year.
The cats have killed 3 of these Northern red bellied snakes (bring them in the house).
(pic off net) View attachment 374682
Pine Strip
Gold Member
My garden snakes have all dissapeared years ago.
Silent Spring
Silent Spring
teejk
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Nothing to do with Silent Spring. I think your cause is the increasing number of raptors (hawks, owls, falcons, eagles etc.). Not unusual around here to see a bird carrying a snake in flight...and not unusual either to see a snake on the road that apparently got dropped by the bird for whatever reason.
teejk
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If I could ever figure out to run my new phone camera, I could beat that! Indigo buntings showed up today and in one pix I could have showed you a rose breasted grosbeak, an oriole, an indigo bunting, a mourning dove, a yellow finch, a house finch, a purple finch, a chipmunk, a pine squirrel, a big gray squirrel and 10 milion cowbirds.
teejk
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Bird seed vs. ammo...the cowbird population continues to decline here (even Audobon says to shoot, then shoot again...then repeat). But now we're back to that .22LR thread...none to be found around here so I use the Browning BLR with discretion.
Pine Strip
Gold Member
I've never seen a cowbird , I'm on the very edge of their range.
INTERESTING FACTS Brown-headed cowbirds are brood parasites. They deposit their eggs in nests belonging to birds of other species. Some of the birds they parasitize remove the eggs from their nests or cover them with new nest material so that they are not incubated.
Historically, cowbirds followed herds of migrating bison to take advantage of the food they kicked up in their wake. They are still associated to an extent with large mammals such as cows.
The cowbird eggs typically hatch earlier than their host’s eggs which gives them a competitive advantage over the other hatchlings.
A group of cowbirds are collectively known as a "corral" and a "herd" of cowbirds.
teejk
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The cowbirds will empty a birdfeeder in a few hours, most of it kicked to the ground. The wife is visiting her mother so right know the kitchen table has a BRL .22, a BB gun and a smoothbore .22 that shoots bird shot (only good for 10 yards or so but if I can sneak the patio door open and get them aligned on the ground, I can get 2-3 per shot). They are lately hanging in the trees with nice birds so my open chocke 20 ga. is no good (I don't want collateral damage). You being in Minnesota and not having any is surprising (you aren't that far from here). Count your blessings.
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tcreeley
Elite Member
Birds are coming back daily. With the 70F day we had the tree swallows and the next day I heard a snipe fly by. They look like woodcocks but make their sound with their wings as they fly.
I was in the back field Sunday helping my wife plant some mulberries she had wanted. We heard what sounded like 3 barred owls hooting around 4 pm from the nearbye spruce woods. You can tell them from the great horns when they call because their end notes are more of a tremulous. Otherwise it is close to the same hoot pattern.
On the way to work Monday, I heard a black throated green warbler, and in town today near the Burger King (where else) there was a mockingbird, and another near the mall. Those in-town plantings and bushes do support birds! A friend says her hummingbirds are back.
My wife had a beaver chatter and slap his tail at her as she rode her bike past the local beaver pond along the state road.
Peepers are going strong in the evenings once again.
It is a good time of year- the bugs are still on the low end!
I was up at 4:15 this morning- semi dark and a robin was singing outside.
I was in the back field Sunday helping my wife plant some mulberries she had wanted. We heard what sounded like 3 barred owls hooting around 4 pm from the nearbye spruce woods. You can tell them from the great horns when they call because their end notes are more of a tremulous. Otherwise it is close to the same hoot pattern.
On the way to work Monday, I heard a black throated green warbler, and in town today near the Burger King (where else) there was a mockingbird, and another near the mall. Those in-town plantings and bushes do support birds! A friend says her hummingbirds are back.
My wife had a beaver chatter and slap his tail at her as she rode her bike past the local beaver pond along the state road.
Peepers are going strong in the evenings once again.
It is a good time of year- the bugs are still on the low end!
I was up at 4:15 this morning- semi dark and a robin was singing outside.
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We were having lunch in Ellsworth today and I commented about the blossoming PGMs and how much greener it is than just 100 miles north... later as I watched the hummingbirds working the blooms it reminded me of the opening post in this thread. :thumbsup:
