The Birds, murder and mayhem

How sweet birds are....I've given many thoughts of having a few in my home but the cats put a screeching halt to that whim. Phooey....well maybe someday. Until then I'll enjoy my outside birds who frequent the feeders.

Lately though...I have become concerned about the lower amount of visits to the station. I've had annoying blue jay who keep me busy with peanuts and crackers. If they don't find that for dinner, they tend to eat ALL of the seed........

no BJays though.

My male evening grosbeak was regularly a sight to seed at the feeder,always after we've eaten our own dinner.

But he too is gone.......

Lately I have had a pair of yellow finches, a male with his mate but they soon stopped coming.....

 

I could always rely on Mr Robin bob, bob, bobbing in my backyard, using it's keen hearing for those purchased earthworms we planted. He or she has been a staple every morning for the last 2 years. Might not be the same one but still....

 Okay....hubs was getting ready for work on Monday and heard commotion, bird screeches and blamo! My Robin was gone.....food for this....

 A hawk, believing it to be a red-tailed hawk. We watched it make a quick ending of suffering for my Robin.

It was mantling as birds of prey do when it comes to feeding but I also felt it was done for my Robin not to escape while injured. Poof....my poor robin was gone.

Although I'm impressed with the beauty of this bird, I'm less happy with the quality of freedom for all the little birds. I've removed the attraction of the feeders, although I fear it might be too late.

 He, or she...had her back to us (and back to to my female cat who quietly watched the murder and mayhem from the deck), the hawk flew off within less than a minute clutching my bird, of course.

 He, or she....was a young juvenile and looked more like the photo below, the tail was still banded and not reddened but was most defiantly square. It has amber eyes (another hint of age) and it was smaller the the normal adult.
Wikipedia has all the info
anyone could want to read about when it comes to these raptors. It informs that these are the birds falconers use for their falconing. The falconer is only allowed to take "passage" hawks for training, that is birds under one year are are out of nesting (Hey, I know where one is!). It is to make sure the population of the hawks are on steady numbers. Hawks are protected in the United States and their feathers fall under the Eagle feather law....that is, no feather may become the property of anyone and only American native Indians can apply for a permit to keep feathers, and keep for tribal purposes/uses only. This is ONLY if the proof of the heritage of the applicant is solidly clear.

Wikipedia goes on to say the Red tailed Hawk (chicken hawk) will eat any bird, amphibian, rodent, squirrel, chipmunk, rabbit (which is heavier), groundhog (which is heavier), and has  even been known to ferret out a badger or two (which is heavier), I'm petrified for my cats.....if Wooly get caught he'd be on the menu for the rest of the summer!

These are migratory birds, will nest 4 meters off the ground to higher heights and they sometimes lose their homes to owls as owls aren't into nest building. Relocation of the new nest is within a mile though. This bird reaches a speed of 120 miles per hour while diving in air and can catch a bird in flight by doing so. Grrrr. Nothing I can do to help in preventing other birds from being food. Grrr. The other thing about this hawk......they will siren screech when upset.(apparently my backyard Robin made someONE angry that morning!) They will also be flying free following a falconer as he walks with (dogs?) and the hawk will hunt above the trainers head. When it kills its acquired food, the gourmet dinner will be willingly removed for a traded piece of meat.
Read about Pale Male by clicking here. He is the New York, Red Tailed Hawk, with interesting background history.

Juvenile graphic of a red tailed hawk. C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn, C&G Design.

"There is a ginormous bug..."

"Ginormous", that's what my daughter said to her brother when she was 4 and he was 9. We heard the conversation over the monitor, she said it was on the ceiling, then we heard a tiny "Ohh" of discomfort. Madame was sleeping in a top bunk at the time, yes...indeedy, we needed to investigate. Well, having lived here for almost 18 years, I've seen plenty of bats. The night of the "ginormous bug" for example......it flew down the hallway of our mobile home right at me. We figured it came in the house when we let the dog in. I screamed ducked and slammed the door thinking I'd hear a thud against my bedroom door, nope, these mammals can turn on a dime. Saturday night though, was a unusual night, we had a scheduled power outage for maintenance on the transmission lines, midnight to 5 am, yep...and on the hottest night of the year. Now whether the bat came in while the deck door was opened for air or what, it's a mystery, I'm sure his sonar was messed up because I think if we had the constant humming from the fish tank, we wouldn't of had this visitor. But....this one is a pretty....good....sized one. It had a wing span of about 7 inches. Eww. Well, I sat watching this guy for the biggest part of the morning and finally cornered my husband to remove it. After all...it hung just behind the entertainment stand and every time I glanced at the t.v. I saw mister B. Right about the time my husband moved the stand and positioned himself behind it, the hairy GIR-NOR-MOUS bug took off. I hid in my bedroom where I could peak out the door and feel safe. This was after it dawned on me.....gee, that thing just flew up into the skylight, and DOWN it came! Guess my dog didn't take a liking to my fear and started snapping at it. You could tell he had no clue what-so-ever it was, it was more of a obligatory snap. See the fright in he eyes.

My poor husband waved his arms and blocked areas of the house when we considered it flying the wrong way, shortly, the bat settled on this sign, just above the open deck door and to the world of freedom.

I think the poor thing had exhausted itself, it didn't make attempt to budge when my husband reached for it. My husband was concerned the bat wouldn't make it out the door without getting hurt in some way.

But that mean little thing felt well enough to bite! C&G Design

Words and photos by Dawn,C&G Design.

Bee Happy

I can tell that I'm enjoying my new camera, I want to take pictures of everything! This is my Goat's Rue, or Mother love, it is spectacular this year. I have a 10 x 6 foot area that is filled with Goat's rue, It was used to produce better lactation in goats, cows and pigs. The animals were fed a dried potion of this herb , the actual live plant is toxic, it caused bigger breast and better milk production, thus the Mother love nickname, it derives from the nursing connection.

On this day I was annoyed by a low hummmmmmmm.....some distant chainsaw, I'm sure.

Soon a big 'ole late spring bumble bee came into focus,

he raided my pink flowers pretty aggressively,

and after this one in a million shot, I decided to leave him bee, ha! Buzz on over to How Sweet The Sound for more pinks.

C&G Design

There's a mouse in the house

DISCLAIMER: I have to say right up front, this is a post about my cats and that no harm came to any mouse.



Why not? You ask? One of the reasons to have a cat is to have a good mouser, the other reasons include company, friendship, and sometimes, their ability to make us laugh. One of my felines is a good mouser, this cat can be in a dead sleep upstairs and jolt awake, fly down over the stairs, only to catch a mouse. Problem.....the cat has no killer instinct, in fact this cat doesn't play and toss these little rodents around, the cat is a live gift giver. Oh my. I don't care how clean one's home is, I've yet to see one mouse free. Through the heating business, I've had the opportunity to be in many basements, basements of the most pristine houses. There is either a noise maker plugged in (annoying the mouses hearing), evidence of traps, or worse chewed material! Well, one part of our house is over a garage and sometimes....both overhead doors are open, even all day long. It's a habit we must stop!



I'm convinced these mice find their way in and through the second story plumbing. I've even found large toads in that part of the house (the garage)! Last spring we had baby mice appear from under the bathroom vanity, there is a dead spot there and since the plumbing comes straight from the floor into the vanity itself, it's perfect! I'd blame the builders....except that's me! Anyhow, since I do have cats poison is out! I couldn't deal with traps, even harder, I couldn't deal with a mouse sitting in the dogs food dish while a cat was drinking water from the other dish.



I broke down and invested in those electronic devices.



It worked....until lately. Which cat won't maim a rodent? Won't play with it til death?And occasionally let's it go just so the chase could be on again! Always, always brings it to us so we can watch.



The above mouse was the second one caught on this day. The first one was caught and brought to Madame's bed early in the morning! Madame moved quick enough! Thank goodness it wasn't my football playing 16 year old son who will walk on the furniture when one of these scurry creatures is around! Only if, Madame thought well enough to grab the cat! CAT! Thank goodness the mouse was addled and still trying to get it's bearings when DH went to go get it. It was still there and quite lively, as with the one in the above picture. Get the idea? Astute hearing, amazing quickness, compassion not to kill.

Would it be the scrappy stray, Sophia? Who lived on rodents and string beans before coming to us?

The furious coon cat? Who could add a mouse to his collection of sticks that accompany him inside the house "getting caught" in his fur?

Or the sassy Siamese? Who is seven, likes my clean clothes (and dirty), and is crossed eyed?

I know! It's the big guy! No, no, no.

Two of these two feline pets are whispering, "Psst, you don't have to do that anymore, we get food from a box, remember?" The conversation would then continue like this...."Hey, man. Your making us look bad, try to be lazy, will ya?"

But...Veshneau, doesn't listen, even with her big ole' ears and her bad vision, a cat is a cat, is a cat......"Who me?"

She must see at least three mice where there is only one. Truly amazing..... C&G Design

Finch Folly

C & G Design

They're Baaaccckk!

Although I don't think they ever left, just on vacation for a month.


This past Wednesday ushered in another 4 inches of snow....it also collected up my hardy bunch of blue jays. They hopped around the trees nearest the house, dive bombing the peanut tray until I noticed, and figured they were hinting.

This one has snow stuck to it's beak! I found the more the snow covered the peanuts, the more of a mess they made! Scattering the peanuts everywhere.

This is a second helping and when my hubby got home, they had a third helping!

I stood for a while at my door to get the close-ups, it was worth it as the delay in my camera caught this one ready to leave with it's treasure.

C & G Design.

Updated Finches

I might be getting the hang of my different finches. They are lovely little birdies that are so social outside my window, sometimes I think their noise is someones bad breaks squealing on the main road!




Imagine my excitement when two red birds showed at the feeder at once! Snap pictures, I did. Being a mottled red....I'm guessing Purple Finch.
So close, I almost felt like I could touch the two friends, unfortunately the sun had gone behind the rooftop of my house, otherwise my pictures would be brighter. I've taken the best of what published from my camera, enlarging the upper picture will show a muted red on the back of my birds, around the head and speckled throughout the chest.
This is the best photo, after that, my flash decided to kick in and everything became misted like in the next photo. That photo was taken from another vantage point, farther away. I thought it would be nice to include it for a short comparison to the other orange visitor, still unidentified.
He was really brighter. I have not had the pleasure of seeing him again but ....it is nice to have the feeder outside my window, least I can see some of our feathered friends without the cat interfering.

The brighter guy will be back. C & G Design.

Special Vistor

Okay, I'm totally baffled about my visitor to the bird feeder, I've just spent 3 hours looking at sites that are on finches and I'm even more confused.

Madam P and myself were watching our blue jay screech for peanuts, (we now have a tray screwed to the deck railing for peanuts) we watched until the "smart one" rebelliously jumped on the feeder and scooped the seed to the ground, quite upset. Needless to say Madam filled the tray with peanuts. Low and behold! Everything else jumped on the bird feeding coach!

I grabbed the camera and took a sequence of pictures, here he (definite 'he') is with the female redpoll. The pictures aren't all that clear, it was raining this day and I was so excited about seeing him, I was hurried. The top picture is the best and the one I put there so it will enlarge. (I still haven't figured out what I'm doing that won't allow all my pics to enlarge.)

My very first post, ever, was done on reddish/orange bird on my sister's blogspot at:http://tinaramsey.blogspot.com/, at the time...I thought the bird was a redpoll because he hangs with the obviously identifiable female redpoles, seen briefly in the top photo to the left of the red bird. You can faintly make out her red colored cap. I have several females visiting lately. Here is the first picture , the one that accompanied my first post.

I'm not even sure this is the same finch, but I tell ya.....there is about 5 different finches and the best site I found for them is at:http://www.whatbird.com/browse/objs/All/birds_na_147/59/Family/11086/Finches%20(Fringillidae)/default.aspx

Some of the sequenced pictures include the redpole and this bird flying to a nearby branch but only I, can locate them in the photo, he flew back to the bird holder and seemed very curious.

Although somewhat citrus colored like the house finch, he doesn't have a streaked underbelly and my bird has a forked tail, house finch doesn't. He has the remarked raspberry color like the purple finch but the tail seems long and forked, not short and forked like the purple finch. The redpole has the clear double banding on the wings, but seems to have a red cap broken by white, there is continued color all the way down the face of mine. My bird has the lighter colored beak and the gray feet, the color is reminiscent of the red crossbill. The red crossbill has eight different calls (do to a variation in the bill, and it's bill is black) and it's believed to be of eight different species. The common rose finch and the cassin finch looks to be of the same colors and markings but they range in the west. All the above finches measure 5-9 inches, one other measures 9-12 inches and this bird could be the larger of the one, smaller of the other.

That is a pine grosbeak, oay vey. C & G Design.

Got the blues, fine feathered friend

We battle the endless line of blue jays, and on any given day our house will have between 8 to 12 of the screeching flashes of blue flying around.

This year we decided we'd be smart and put up only tube feeders for the birds. Being tired of the swing feeders getting cleaned out within a day by the blue jays....something had to be done. One determined blue jay adapted to eating from a small spot......or at least he tried.

After a few grosbeak attempted to eat, we relented and hung a swing feeder again, a small one. Our truly smart blue jay feeds from it and seems to always chase away the smaller birds. Even when this jay spins and spins he manages to empty the feeder with in three days.

We resorted to doing what he does best....chasing him off. It worked...somewhat.... he began getting a mouthful of seed and setting the seed on a branch that can be seen behind the feeder, returning to the feeder for more. We found the other jays pilfering his seed when he went back was turned! Poor guy.

This is what we found tonight when we returned from a ball game and I'm beginning to believe this jay is being flogged for his intelligence! This lovely, vibrant blue feather was found under the "Jay" tree and I'm convinced it came from our feeder fiend. I'll have to keep a closer look for this guy and perhaps put a house up for him/her.

Who can't help but go for the underbird. C & G Design.