Our prime plumed pals

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by storm5510

A juvenile Bald Eagle. If the fox, coyote, or whatever, knows what is best for him, he will keep right on moving.

It looks like a red fox. It might have been looking for scraps. Pestering even a juvenile too much would have been a Bad Move. Here's an adult Bald Eagle stealing a fox's dinner: Bald eagle fights fox in incredible midair tussle

A photographer has captured a truly remarkable midair tussle between a bald eagle and a red fox fighting over a rabbit.

The photo, which was taken by Kevin Ebi, was awarded a "Professional Honorable Mention" in the 2019 Audubon Photography Awards.
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[Dr Sardonicus]

Key West wants to ban people from feeding roaming chickens

January 22, 2021

KEY WEST, Fla (AP) — Feral chickens run free in Key West, just one of those things that keep the Southernmost City charmingly weird.

But what's delightful here and there becomes a nuisance when they’re everywhere. With the population getting out of hand, city commissioners are taking action — not by hunting down the fixings for a massive tailgate party, but by going after their human enablers.

They're making it illegal to feed the free-roaming birds.

An ordinance unanimously approved on a first reading Wednesday said the Florida city's feral chickens can "carry and spread diseases, destroy property, and cause copious amounts of fecal deposits on public property."

[Dr Sardonicus]

When doves die: Prince's longtime pet Divinity

Prince told us about what it sounds like when doves cry, now the Purple World is mourning the death of one of his beloved doves at Paisley Park.

Divinity, one of his two original doves, died peacefully Tuesday, Paisley Park announced. She was 28. The average life span of pet doves is 12 to 15 years, according to bechewy.com.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Turkish man strikes up 37-year friendship with swan

EDIRNE, Turkey (AP) — An unusual friendship between a Turkish man and a swan he rescued has endured for decades.

Retired postman Recep Mirzan found Garip, a female swan, 37 years ago in Turkey's western Edirne province.
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Garip follows Mirzan whenever she is out of her pen, accompanying him when he is doing his chores around the farm or for his evening walks.
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Mirzan named the swan "Garip" which translates as "bizarre" but is also used to describe those who are down on their luck.
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[Xyzzy]

Our front yard yesterday:

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Our front yard yesterday:
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They look like either Common Grackles, or possibly some other kind of blackbird. Brewer's Blackbirds and Rusty Blackbirds are not entirely ruled out by coloration, due to unfavorable light conditions. But the tails look too long for anything but Grackles. Tails definitely too long for Starlings.

[masser]

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Our front yard yesterday:

Very nice video. Thanks for sharing!

[MattcAnderson]

Here in the North West of our United States of America, we have many awesome birds.

House Sparrow is one of them.

see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_sparrow

A guy I know made a custom home improvement. He put a black mesh, with screws, against the side of a house. It covers up a dryer vent. This project prevents pest birds from making a nest in there.

Good fun.
Matt

[storm5510]

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

They look like either Common Grackles, or possibly some other kind of blackbird. Brewer's Blackbirds and Rusty Blackbirds are not entirely ruled out by coloration, due to unfavorable light conditions. But the tails look too long for anything but Grackles. Tails definitely too long for Starlings.

I see lots of these in the area where I live. They seem to be far more numerous in winter. My father liked to make houses for Purple Martins from dried gourds. He usually had around 30 gourds hanging on wires each spring and summer. Starlings, grackles, or whatever, were problems for him each year. His initial response was to sit behind his house with a 410 shotgun and pick them off. I spent several hours in the local library searching for alternatives and found one. Reducing the height of the holes would allow the martins to get in, but not larger birds. He was pleased.

He always had his gourds up by mid February. Late February is when the "scouts" arrived. They would stay several days regardless of the weather and leave again. In early April, they would return by the dozens, or more. They stayed until late July or early August. Then they would start their migration back south. Being used to their constant pops and chirps for four months made it very obvious when they were gone. The silence.

In 2011, I attached a camcorder on a tripod and captured around 10 minutes of video. It is still here somewhere on a compact disc. They were quite active.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Followup to this post...

Trump policy that weakened wild bird protections is revoked

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - The Biden administration on Monday reversed a policy imposed under former President Donald Trump that drastically weakened the government's power to enforce a century-old law that protects most U.S. bird species.

Trump ended criminal prosecutions against companies responsible for bird deaths that could have been prevented.

The move halted enforcement practices under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in place for decades — resulting most notably in a $100 million settlement by energy company BP after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill killed about 100,000 birds.

A federal judge in New York in August struck down the Trump administration's legal rationale for changing how the bird treaty was enforced.

But the administration did not abandon its policy, rejecting concerns that many more birds would die and remaining adamant that the law had been wielded inappropriately to penalize accidental bird deaths.

Interior spokesman Tyler Cherry said the Trump policy "overturned decades of bipartisan and international consensus and allowed industry to kill birds with impunity."

Cherry said in a statement that the agency plans to come up with new standards "that can protect migratory birds and provide certainty to industry."

[Xyzzy]