Fogbow

I was thinking about my cardinals and it may be that they have already mated so the male is not feeding as part of the mating ritual (yes, it's a thing). When the ladies are ready to lay and incubate eggs, I may start seeing the males at the feeder more often.

Minneapolis StarTribune -

It's time to take down your bird feeders because of bird flu

Time to take down your bird feeders.

The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota is now recommending that people pause things that bring birds together in groups, like bird feeders.

"This would be for the next couple of months, until avian flu in wildlife decreases," Dr. Victoria Hall, executive director of the Raptor Center, said in an e-mail announcement.

"It's just not worth the risk when there are so many unknowns about the role songbirds might play during this unprecedented outbreak," she said.

The center had earlier thought that precaution was not necessary. But the center has seen unprecedented outbreaks involving raptors as the bird flu situation continues to evolve.

Now would be a good time to clean your bird feeders so they're ready when it's OK to rehang them.

(Because it's short, I posted the entire article.)

We saw our first hummingbird today in south Arkansas.

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 1:39 pm We saw our first hummingbird today in south Arkansas.

Meanwhile in Virginia.... And I've had the feeder out for a week now...

Avian flu has likely killed hundreds of double-crested cormorants nesting at Baker’s Lake near Barrington.
Wildlife biologist Chris Anchor said this is the largest outbreak of disease in wild birds he’s seen in Cook County.

This is a HUGE breeding rookery near me. My son and I were actually out at the viewing area a week ago. There are a pair nesting Ospreys there.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/env ... tVPTydv2Fg

Chilidog wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:08 pm

Avian flu has likely killed hundreds of double-crested cormorants nesting at Baker’s Lake near Barrington.
Wildlife biologist Chris Anchor said this is the largest outbreak of disease in wild birds he’s seen in Cook County.

This is a HUGE breeding rookery near me. My son and I were actually out at the viewing area a week ago. There are a pair nesting Ospreys there.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/env ... tVPTydv2Fg

Sigh... I guess I need to take my feeder down tomorrow. We have hawks here and lots of lakes that include various water birds. Barrington is not all that far away as the crow flies.

Social distancing for birds

New Turtle wrote: ↑Thu Apr 14, 2022 11:00 pm Social distancing for birds

Chickedees are the best at distancing. They get their seed and go to a tree branch (the take out birds).

The white-breasted nuthatch have distance because they're size tends to cause others to back away.

The various finches and pine siskins (and ruby breasted nuthatches) tend to loiter at the feeder but only in couples or groups of three (or just one nuthatch).

We already discussed my weird cardinals.

House sparrows are the anti-vaxxers of my bird world (and are an invasive species).

Birds Aren't Real. Really.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -theorists

From French country side



re "not politics" - the guy usually comments on Brexit

Fancy l'oiseaux!

Walked outside this morning and a sound filled the air. Brown-headed cowbirds are back.

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/04/19 ... 650399335/

World's largest hockey stick under attack by woodpeckers

Officials in a British Columbia town said they are looking into options for protecting the world's largest hockey stick from a pair of destructive woodpeckers.

Residents of North Cowichan said they started to see a pair of northern flickers, a type of woodpecker protected by the British Columbia Wildlife Act, perching on the 61,000-pound hockey stick outside the Cowichan Community Center in early April.

One of the birds has been seen pecking holes in the stick, which bird experts said likely means the avian is building a nest.

Community center staff plugged the first hole with steel wool, but the birds had removed it a few days later.

Lori Iannidinardo, chair of the Cowichan Valley Regional District, said a bucket truck will be brought in soon so officials can investigate the holes. Officials said the birds will be left alone for the season if they have established a nest, but if the nest is not yet completed they will look into methods for urging the birds to consider a new location.

We went rafting this Easter weekend on the Kings river near Fresno. Didn’t see a single convoy! We left the 5 at Bakersfield though. They may have been on that.

The section we did was near Pine Flat Lake (ha! 15 miles but that’s kinda near in the wilderness). We lost cell coverage as we entered the Sierras. No internets for 4 days!!

Across from our camp was a ridge line. All day we saw ravens and Golden Eagles flying high. In the afternoon, the ravens started chasing an eagle, at least 5 suddenly mobbed her. She must have been in their rookery.

On the way home we stopped to gas up, air up, and redistribute the load. Rafts are heavy! And slippery! The Chevron sign was very close to the car so I watched two ravens build a nest in the gap at the bottom of the sign, 20 feet up, while mr520 did all the work.

Big Guy was gathering grass. When he had a beak full he did the misdirection thing birds do, finally landing on the sign near a pile of sticks the missus was arranging. He laid down his load and she chose a long piece to tuck into the nest.

Nearby was a group of maybe 4 younger, smaller ravens. One of them flew casually by the nest, turning his head to look. Big Guy didn’t like that. He flew directly to a tree, chose a pretty large stick and flew directly back. He sat on the edge of the sign with his stick, looking for all the World like he was gonna smack the next one who came too close right out of the sky.

I love watching bird behavior.

ravens are wicked smart.

Yeah, they are. On a river trip years ago I spent a couple of hours watching some play a game with a rock. There were teams and rules, although I never quite figured out what they were. A couple of times the whole crew would get ruffled at a move and mob the mover.

They were in a wide, slanting field across the river from me. Ravens kept arriving. Some just watched, but most joined one side or the other. The game started with half a dozen birbs; by the time they were done there were almost 2 dozen.

I love bird behavior!

MONTY IS BACK

https://wgntv.com/news/chicago-news/bel ... share-link

“You see it at your feeder, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that woodpecker? He’s a mean one!’ and you ascribe these individual preferences to birds at your feeder,” said Cornell University ornithologist Eliot Miller. “But if you zoom out, all these same interactions are happening millions of times in cities across the continent, and the way they play out is predictable.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... ing-order/

Much better image at the WaPo if you can access it. American crow at the top; Carolina chickadee at the bottom.

Grackles are fairly evil looking birds, they're also bullies at the feeder

Yep. However, I was watching the Gettysburg feeder last year and a mourning dove decided not to take their shit. They would come around the dove and the dove would puff up and hold its ground.

This helped me identify the Cardinal's call.

Yesterday, I was heading to church and there was a blacked-capped chickadee doing it's Fee-Bee song (https://nature-mentor.com/chickadee-calls-explained/) and this morning on the way to pick up lunch, I saw and heard a goldfinch talking/singing away (along with others in the distance).

These birds are common around my area, but what I noticed was that it's amazing how loud such a small bird can be.

For TRL, I have found the Merlin app to be helpful in understanding calls/sounds (it has a sound search now). It is not always correct but usually gets it right.

Thanks, N10!

Look who finally showed up, we haven't seen any of these guys for a while

Beautiful birds! Lucky you.