Our prime plumed pals

[kladner]

I have no explanation for that long-dead woman's actions. Many of the eggs may have been well on the way to becoming peafowl balut before she found them. I suspect that delicacy would have been in very low demand in that region in those times.
EDIT: When we encountered them in the water they were hydrogen sulfide bombs.

[Dr Sardonicus]

It's been noticeable for some weeks. And, of late, the pace has been accelerating.

More and more bird songs, calls, and appearances as they soar overhead. Birds I haven't seen since last fall.

Spring is almost here!

[xilman]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

It's been noticeable for some weeks. And, of late, the pace has been accelerating.

More and more bird songs, calls, and appearances as they soar overhead. Birds I haven't seen since last fall.

Spring is almost here!

But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by xilman

But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide.

Why would somebody coat a bird with cyanide?

[xilman]

Originally Posted by LaurV

Why would somebody coat a bird with cyanide?

I suggest you ask Tom Lehrer.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by xilman

But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide.

With all due respect to Tom Lehrer, the peanuts would probably be taken by squirrels.

Luckily, there is an exciting new alternative that takes feeding the birds to the next level!

Introducing -- Xilman Brand™ bread crumbs! Specially formulated for feeding pigeons, with cyanide and strychnine! A real bargain, just tuppence a bag!

[Of course, as anyone who isn't a birdbrain knows, poisoning pigeons or other birds is a Bad Idea. For one thing, it could result in their being stricken in flight, and plummeting out of the sky, landing who knows where. For another, the birds could get to their nests, in some nook or cranny on the outside of a building where they then die. Ugh! Or, their bodies could be scavenged by other animals, which could then be poisoned and die.]

[Dr Sardonicus]

This story might cause a few fundies' heads to explode. The bald eagle is, after all, the US national symbol...

Eaglets have 2 daddies — and a mom.

"It's definitely our own little soap opera," said Pam Steinhaus, visitor services manager at the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

[kladner]

We are hoping that the trees outside our new place will have the same migratory visitors we saw in the old place. Favorites are the Yellow Bellied Sap Suckers and Downy Woodpeckers. There are warblers passing through, too, but they are harder to identify specifically.


EDIT: I went to school for a couple of semesters just North of the eagle menage a trois, in Mt Carroll, IL.

[kladner]

We've been hearing cardinals singing. I think they are full-time residents here. This morning, however, I was out early and saw a pair robins: the first ones in a couple-three months. They may have been investigating mud in the gutter for nesting materials. They make a cup-like nest from mud.

[kladner]

https://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176...ptying_out%22/

The other morning, walking at the edge of a local park, I caught sight of a beautiful red cardinal, the first bird I ever saw some 63 years ago.

Actually, to make that sentence accurate, I should probably have put either “first” or “ever saw” in quotation marks. After all, I was already 12 years old and, even as a city boy, I had seen plenty of birds. If nothing else, New York, where I grew up, is a city of pigeons (birds which, by the way, know nothing about “social distancing”).

Nonetheless, in a different sense, at age 12 I saw (was struck by, stunned by, awed by) that bright red bird.

Think about it this way: as last year ended, Science magazine reported that, in North America, there were three billion fewer birds than in 1970; in other words, almost one out of every three birds on this continent is now gone. As Carl Zimmer of the New York Times put it, “The skies are emptying out.” Among them, warblers have taken one of the heaviest hits -- there are an estimated 617 million fewer of them -- as well as birds more generally that migrate up the East Coast (and so have a shot at landing in Central Park). Many are the causes, including habitat loss, pesticides, and even feral cats, but climate change is undoubtedly a factor as well. The authors of the Audubon Society’s most recent national report, for instance, suggest that, “if Earth continues to warm according to current trends -- rising 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 -- more than two-thirds of North America’s bird species will be vulnerable to extinction due to range loss.”

Extinction. Take that word in. They’ll be gone. No more. Fini.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Today while out on a walk, I saw an Eastern Bluebird -- a first for me.

A week and a half ago I saw something bobbing around in place in a grassy area from quite a way off. I couldn't tell whether it was a squirrel trying to dig up a buried nut, or a goodly sized bird.

I approached only close enough to make out that it was a crow-sized bird of prey, apparently having dinner. I stood still and watched. The bird finally finished its meal, and casually flew up to a nearby branch. Not completely certain of the ID, but I'm fairly sure it was a Cooper's Hawk.