Thank you, Dumpsterkitty!  You have made my day!

Gayle

Someone posted that on KFC a while ago, it's still one great video. Thanks Ei, love the clock..HELLO!!!

I must admit I'm not so fond of the doves or pigeons. I swear they have bottomless pits for stomachs. There little heads just don't stop going up and down! They're like bobble heads gone wild!!!!  And how 'bout the house  sparrows never leaving. I've seen them steal food right out of the cardinals' beaks! I guess they all need to eat but enough is enough!

This am just as dawn broke, I looked at my feeders and saw Mr Squirrel was attached to one but on the upside...he was jiggling it around so much, all the birds were underneath on the ground gobbling up the fellen seeds. 

Oh and today, whilst babysitting, (I had put feeders up there too), there was Mr Downy Woodpecker pecking away at the suet when suddenly, I saw a shadow in the snow, very close and very big. I ran to the window and looked up. It was a RTH about 20 ft up...eyeing Mr Downy. The Woodpecker suddenly just stood still, frozen in time, not a movement from him until the Hawk left. Soon after Mr Downy came back again and again BUT this time, he looked up and around before he started eating. I found that very smart of him. Sometimes I let the dogs out and I'll stand on the deck while their out. Mr Downy is always up above in the tree yelling at me to go in. I know he's saying that because the second I go in and close the door, he's at the feeder. 

I must admit I'm not so fond of the doves or pigeons. I swear they have bottomless pits for stomachs. There little heads just don't stop going up and down! They're like bobble heads gone wild!!!!  And how 'bout the house  sparrows never leaving. I've seen them steal food right out of the cardinals' beaks! I guess they all need to eat but enough is enough!

This am just as dawn broke, I looked at my feeders and saw Mr Squirrel was attached to one but on the upside...he was jiggling it around so much, all the birds were underneath on the ground gobbling up the fellen seeds. 

   Very nice Donna.       

LOL MAK!!!!

PHOTOS: Birds in the Snow
Georgeous pictures of birds out in the storm

Updated: Wednesday, 10 Feb 2010, 6:06 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 10 Feb 2010, 6:06 PM EST


Although it may be difficult to go birdwatching in this weather, many people have managed to take some beautiful pictures of birds out in the snow. Here is a slideshow of some amazing shots sent in by viewers.

If you would like to see one of your photos featured on our website, you can upload them to MyWeather Photos . Send us your best shots!

http: //www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/weather/photos-birds-in-the-snow-021010  Pics here

[rare birds.]

The large bird shown flying over Zion National Park in Brian Passey’s Backways & Byways column (“Winter Wonderland: Snow creates picturesque scene on Zion’s east side�) in Tuesday’s Southern Utah Life section of The Spectrum & Daily News was misidentified as a turkey vulture. It is actually a rare California condor.

Although Passey regrets the error in the photo caption and in his column, the revelation of his mistake was a bittersweet moment as he realized he had a few photos of the rare birds.

Read more on Passey’s blog at TheSpectrum.com by following this link: http://tinyurl.com/bpasseyblog

This was in a page I read today.... Derby Vermont. Beautiful bird. 

I noticed I haven't seen any posts from you today...'puter stuck in a snow drift or something?

Just being a worry-wort!

LOL Ei! After digging my cars out for 1 and 1/2 hours this am, the *&%$ PLOW came back back and pushed all the snow back to where I just dug out. SOOOOOOOOO, I had to do it all over again.      Um, yes, I flipped him as he probably laughed all the way to the end of my road. "NO MERCY". Then I had to go babysit all day..."SCHOOLS CLOSED" but I'm here and all is well, SO FAR! Thanks for noticing. I'm trying to catch up now.

[And nest thieves don't always stop with property crime. "Sometimes starlings or sparrows will kill the bird they're overtaking," Joyce said. A sparrow that finds a chickadee sitting on eggs inside a nest "will peck the parent to death and build a nest on top of that carcass. It's warfare. It's pretty hard-core."]

Message for mourning doves: Move on! Is it really so wrong to focus just on looks?


I don't love all birds.

In fact, I hate some of them.

Especially when they are at my backyard feeders.

Just look at those mourning doves, sitting in — and pooping on — the platform feeder outside my kitchen window. Three or four of them jostling for space in what they apparently think is an outhouse with food, staring at me insolently with their pigeon-like eyes while the lovely cardinals gaze wistfully from distant trees and finally give up.

"Git!" I order the doves, banging on the window to chase them away. But back they come, crowding out other birds as effectively as their urban cousins keep people out of the heated shelters on an "L" platform.

My family is appalled.

"Stop hitting the window!" yelled my daughter when she caught me in the act. "The doves are birds too!"

"You are a bird racist," my husband accused.

Am I a bad bird person?

"How could you not like such a peaceful, beautiful bird?" chided Jeff Reiter, a columnist and blogger about birds and past president of the DuPage Birding Club.

But he was not shocked. "All birders have favorites," he said. "And if you're talking about backyard birders, people do get emotional. Especially about the pests."

And some birds are considered just that. The European starling, for example, is "one of the most widespread bird pests in North America," according to an article by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

House sparrows, like the starling a non-native bird and one that descends on feeders en masse, are just about as unpopular. The Cornell article advises knocking their nests down from backyard trees.

Why all the hostility?

With non-native birds, it is because they crowd out the natives.

"The sparrow and starling are much more aggressive than native birds," said Tim Joyce, manager and "birdscaper" at Wild Birds Unlimited in Glenview. "They will take over the nest of a native bird like a woodpecker."

Nest-stealing interrupts the victim's reproductive process. Competition from starlings has devastated populations of woodpeckers and the Eastern bluebird, Joyce said.

It also has annoyed populations of people who put out feeders in hopes of seeing cardinals, only to see starlings chase them off.

And nest thieves don't always stop with property crime. "Sometimes starlings or sparrows will kill the bird they're overtaking," Joyce said. A sparrow that finds a chickadee sitting on eggs inside a nest "will peck the parent to death and build a nest on top of that carcass. It's warfare. It's pretty hard-core."

Murder aside, what about table manners? Some birds are pigs, chowing down feeders full of expensive seed in minutes. TRUE!!   LOL

Finally, there is the question of looks. Not to sound shallow, but I got into bird-watching because I think birds are beautiful. Still, I didn't spend good money attaching feeders to the exterior of my house to get a better look at mousey brown sparrows. Conversely, people who might dislike blue jays for their bullying ways forgive them because they're so darned pretty.

So am I off the hook?

Not necessarily. My personal bane, the mourning dove, is native to North America. And though I think it looks like a pigeon, which is not a compliment, other bird lovers think differently.

"It's got that blue ring all the way around the eye, and … that iridescent quality on the back of the neck," said Reiter. "If the sun hits it just right, it's very pretty."

"There are folks that love everything, that take the attitude of live and let live," said Pat Leonard, staff writer at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "It just depends on how much seed you're losing."

In defense of sparrows, a crowd of them at your feeder can attract migrating birds trying to find food in unfamiliar places. And the other day a customer told Joyce he wanted to buy seed specifically for sparrows because he considered them representative of the common man.

"I thought that was kind of cool," Joyce said.

On the other hand, do you want a crowd of common men in your backyard?

Whatever you want, Friday through Monday, consider counting what you see.

The 13th Great Backyard Bird Count, an annual snapshot of North America's birds, is Feb. 12-15. The count enlists ordinary citizens to help scientists track bird populations, spot any declines and answer questions about the effects of weather and climate change. The bird count is run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the National Audubon Society and Bird Studies Canada, and supported by Wild Birds Unlimited.

To participate, pick a spot — it could be in a park or out your window — watch for at least 15 minutes and write down the highest number of each bird species you see together at one time, said Leonard.

You can participate for as long and at as many locations as you want over the four days. For more information and to submit your lists, visit birdcount.org.

Some 60,000 people participated last year, Leonard said, providing crucial data: "The only way to get information on a scale like this is to employ everyday people."

I expect I will be able to report a large number of mourning doves, my window-banging notwithstanding.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California brown pelicans have recently been dying in large numbers for reasons wildlife officials don't yet fully understand.

Organizations like the International Bird Rescue Research Center are maxed out, with no more room and little money left to help, spokesman Paul Kelway said.

There are usually about 400 pelicans among the more than 2,000 birds the San Pedro center takes in every year, but it has received more than 300 pelicans in the last three weeks. About 100 sick pelicans from Santa Barbara were sent to the IBRRC's Northern California center, and a quarter of all the pelicans received at the two centers in the last three weeks have died, Kelway said.

"Many of them were severely emaciated and hypothermic, and we couldn't get to them in time," Kelway said.

The Southern California center released 14 pelicans Wednesday afternoon to make room for more of the ailing birds. At Royal Palms State Beach in San Pedro, rescue workers lined the pet kennels along the rocky shoreline and opened the doors. The pelicans flew right out.

The Coast Guard reported a group of sick birds in the Los Angeles Harbor on Tuesday. Rescue workers found around 30 dead birds and rounded up 30 more that were sick and wet.

Biologists point to several reasons why more birds need help.

"This is an El Nino year. The weather is topsy turvy. Storms are forcing the fish deeper into the ocean, or the fish are in different places than they normally would be. The pelicans are not finding food and they are starving," Kelway explained.

"Something is also contaminating their feathers and stopping them from being weatherproof," he said. "The storms have been the final nail in the coffin."

Some parts of Los Angeles County have received close to 12 inches of rain in the last few weeks. The birds, already weak from lack of food, have gotten soaked, and in the ocean they've found themselves bathed in a murky runoff goo that has coated their already faltering feathers with a layer of grease. Another possible cause is an algae bloom, Kelway said.

Feathers have been taken from the sick birds and sent to a lab, he said.

When there is no food in the water, the birds will look on land, Kelway said, and they're ailing in very public places — on piers, at restaurants, hotels, harbors and beaches.

"People are upset," he said. "They expect us to rescue these birds."

About 1,000 California brown pelicans stayed in Oregon this year instead of migrating south to breeding grounds.

It could be a natural pelican die-off, Kelway said, but biologists don't know yet.

The research center hopes to release several more pelicans over the next week. Warmer temperatures should help, he said.

It is costing the two centers about $3,000 a day to care for the pelicans, which eat around 1,000 pounds of fish each day.

The rescues will have to do some serious fundraising, pushing their "Adopt a Pelican" and "Pelican Partner" programs, Kelway said.

All of the pelicans are banded, so if they get in trouble again, there will be a record. Some of the birds recuperating at the centers have been at the shelters before, Kelway said, although none of those released Wednesday was a repeat customer.

The brown pelican nearly became extinct in the early 1970s because of the pesticide DDT — the birds ate tainted fish and laid such thin-shelled eggs that they broke during incubation. But when DDT was banned in 1972, the birds bounced back, and today the brown pelican is prevalent along the coasts of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, California, Washington and Oregon.

The brown pelican was taken off the federal endangered species list in November, and its global population, including the Caribbean and Latin America, is estimated at 650,000.

[Just ask him. No, I didn't make it! I could never hurt a Snowman!]

Just ask him. 

No, I didn't make it! I could never hurt a Snowman!



Got about 13 here so far....been shoveling all day. I'm pooped.

Well she just came back and knocked more snow on top of the egg. Oh I wish I could help her.

Not looking good for this nest this year, Momma just left and it looks like she laid the egg on top of the old snow and Ice. I feel so bad.

Coming down BIG time here. Was just out "playing" in it. Maybe 5 inches so far. Not suppose to end until tomorrow sometime... I'm A Lovin this!    For Now!

I think that's actually what first went wrong on Saturday...Dad arrived, she stood up & the wall of snow fell in on the 1st egg.  Then she laid the 2nd egg on top of the snow...no way to stop that once it starts. 

I missed seeing her move, but she cleared the snow off & turned around...brood patch still on the egg...

Hope all goes well with this egg. Poor momma.