Please do...I want to train them all (or the smartest of the smart) to open the coop my neighbor keeps her rooster in and carry him far, far away.......I'll plant a cornfield as reward to the first crow to do this.....
I'll be sure to spread the word....it looks like we have babies getting flight lessons, along with the scrub jays. I can't believe how noisy it is around here during the day right now!!!
Ha! I'll box up and send my neighbor's rooster to you. He starts at two in the morning. Then you will have it noisy day and night. Rooster's name should be Marianne.......
Such a sweet offer, but I'll pass. There's a rooster at the Berkeley animal shelter....he'd have company.
I used to have 3 chickens, but my girls always slept in.
Mourning doves.....gotta love 'em. Dumbest birds on the planet. So sweet, but they have the intelligence of a bag of hammers. The cats love it when they start flight lessons----it's like fishing with dynamite.
My orioles came back this week----I asked for and got an oriole feeder for Christmas. I was going to hang it today, but I realized if I didn't put up an ant moat along with it, I'd just be feeding the bugs. Although I haven't seen any ants all winter, which is either a miracle or a sign of the impending apocalypse......
Yeah, I have to remind people coming down the drive to stop for the doves...'cause they don't get outta the way. Our orioles are back also. Saw my first ants also.....yours can't be far behind...lol..
Saw our first ants this week. Nor orioles this year. In the past I would put out 'oriole friendly' food such as grape jelly and orange slices. But, they did prefer to balance precariously on the hummingbird feed and drink that.
Crows, you can have them. We get them in such large flocks that I find them scary and reminds me of the movie.
Orioles are here. So are Bluebirds, Tanagers. Haven't seen the Gray Thrashers yet....Baby bunnies, baby possums.
The crows are getting used to me. I'd like to get them to the point of coming when I call them. Yes, there are a lot of them and they're just birds until you interact with them. They are so darn intelligent. Wish we got Magpies down here.
We do not get possums, skunks or raccoons here on the property (at least no evidence of them). We had all 3 of them when I lived in San Pedro, but saw no gophers or bunnies. Trade off, I guess. The other night DH said "you better close that slider right away, there is a skunk out there". I said we did not have them here. He said well, we do now - smell it! Then I told him it was his new Miniature Pinscher he was holding. Those dogs have lethal farts!
We have a good habitat here for critters and everything has babies lately. I was watering the other afternoon and out of the corner of my eye saw a baby possum on the path next to me...he was having a good time poking around.
With company here, I haven't been keeping the oriole/hummer feeders filled - shame on me - so we haven't seen too many. However, yesterday a pair of mocking birds decided to build a nest in the Constance Elliot passiflora vine right in front of the kitchen window where we can see them. This is also next to the front door, but so far they have not objected to us passing by. I know people say they can get aggressive, but we've never had trouble with them here. We've already had one wren family from our hanging gourd, too. We have had thrashers here, Sherry.
The thrashers haven't shown up at the birdbath yet. One crow gave it a quick check, but someone went out the door and startled him / her. I can't wait to see a crow in the bath...lol.. I need to check on that and see if they would actually use one and perhaps install a larger one for them....
No crows in our front pond, thanks to the mockingbirds! Yeah! Mama is sitting in her nest. This morning Papa has been singing and I heard our cockatiel's song again - such a sweet memorial.
Surprisingly, two very young orioles were trying to use the hummingbird feeder this morning - it hangs less than a foot from the nest - and she just sat in her nest quietly. I think the male was off somewhere, because there was no hullabaloo. The house finches, however, have been banished from the area. That's OK, they can go to the backyard. Our only hint that the nest is occupied is the flag - her tail sticks up at one end!
