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Flower Sniffer
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Flower Sniffer
Sniffer of flowers
PostMon Mar 05, 2012 7:25 am 
I love crows! When I was a kid, my family kidnapped two babies from a nest and raised them over the course of a summer. Of course this was completely wrong, but it was around 1973, and seemed like a good idea at the time. dizzy.gif I will say, it was a really neat experience. Their mother knew we had them, and she hung around all summer calling to them. It all ended well as they finally flew off with her. They are really amazing birds. Ours loved all things shiny, and were especially fond of stealing car keys. I can remember my Dad out in the yard working on a car and one of the crows (Johnny Crow and Flippity Flam) snitched a nut or screw or something he needed. It then proceeded to hop a few feet away and drop it. I remember watching as my Dad slowly approached the bird, and just as he got close, the bird would grab the tiny object and hop away a few more feet and drop it again. This went on for some time, and I don't remember who ultimately won the battle of wits, but I'll never forget it!

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.
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ChuckM
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PostMon Mar 05, 2012 10:32 pm 
We have sharp-shinned hawks that frequent our backyard. It's rare we see them before they make their move on a bird or red squirrel. Many times, just walking out on the deck will flush one out of a nearby tree. I did catch this one that got a mourning dove ...
What are you look'n at?
What are you look'n at?
We had a new deck built last summer and put in glass panels for a better view to the backyard. It has proved to be a challenge to a lot of our birds. This hawk was struggling to find it's way off our deck. It's an awkward position but it slid under the rail and flew off just seconds after the photo.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostTue Mar 06, 2012 10:26 pm 
ChuckM wrote:
What? Is this guy practicing gymnastics or something? Uneven bars maybe.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostTue Mar 06, 2012 10:31 pm 
Flower Sniffer wrote:
I can remember my Dad out in the yard working on a car and one of the crows (Johnny Crow and Flippity Flam) snitched a nut or screw or something he needed. It then proceeded to hop a few feet away and drop it. I remember watching as my Dad slowly approached the bird, and just as he got close, the bird would grab the tiny object and hop away a few more feet and drop it again. This went on for some time, and I don't remember who ultimately won the battle of wits, but I'll never forget it!
That's hilarious! I'm sure your dad wasn't amused though. I've never heard of a crow messing with a person like that. We do experiments on them to test their intelligence or problem solving capabilities, who's to say they're not doing the same to us?

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ChuckM
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PostSat Mar 10, 2012 7:20 pm 
Thank you FS for the very cool idea for feeding the Pine Siskens ...

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Flower Sniffer
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Flower Sniffer
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PostSat Mar 10, 2012 8:49 pm 
That's cool Chuck! I'm looking forward to trying it with hummingbirds!

If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSun Mar 11, 2012 11:56 am 
Wow, multiple siskins going for the hand feeding. Camp robbers are the only bird I've enountered routinely that are that bold, but it looks like siskins are too.

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ChuckM
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PostTue Mar 13, 2012 8:29 am 
This morning at 3:17am I woke up to the sound of one of these ...
That's when I realized it snowed all night! We hear Barred Owls much more often than we see them ...

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSun Apr 28, 2013 6:06 pm 
Bumping this one. Towhees are back again, glad to see them.

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tmatlack
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PostWed May 01, 2013 2:44 am 
Caution: Wayward Thread... Since we have some bird watchers here.... Anyone else notice a very disturbing increase in common mergansers and cormorants on the upper rivers of W. WA? I paddle/dog walk the upper rivers all the time and common mergansers are just about the only waterfowl I see. I have seen cormorants as far up the S. Fk. Stilly/MLH at Wiley Creek. I have contacted Audubon etc but no one seems to care. Tom

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meandering Wa
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PostWed May 01, 2013 6:16 am 
the mergansers belong in the upper rivers at this time of year for nesting. Cannot say I have noticed Corms, but they might be pushed out of more limited nesting areas closer to population areas. They too will nest on fresh water.

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Davidą
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PostThu May 02, 2013 3:37 pm 
Go on eBird.org - you can pinpoint the location any species you want, month by month, year by year See if your pattern holds true ..or just do what I do and play with the data for hours hockeygrin.gif

Warning! Posts may contain traces of sarcasm. Hiking Website: http://members.shaw.ca/karenanddavid/Index.htm
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tmatlack
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PostFri May 03, 2013 3:23 am 
Meander, One theory on the prolification of mergnasers and corms is that the planting of trout fry and salmon fingerlings...exactly their food source...has artificially increased their food supply in places where they were not common(inland lakes/upper rivers) and these are big, aggressive, diving ducks. They have done well. Corms also over-population inland waters in the Midwest for same reason. Tom

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wolffie
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PostMon May 13, 2013 2:04 pm 
We just saw common mergansers 5 miles up the Duckabush -- of all places -- a pair of harlequins, too. Are they both tree cavity nesters? My sis has photos of a dickcissel at her feeder near Mt. Vernon.

Some people have better things to do with their lives than walking the dog. Some don't.
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Tvashtar
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PostMon May 13, 2013 3:38 pm 
This year's Goodwill birdfeeder experiment finally worked:
Bird Feeder 2
Bird Feeder 2
Bird Feeder 2 by PatGallagherArt, on Flickr I caught a chickadee nabbing a sunflower seed from it this week, after weeks of wondering whether it had all be a waste of time. So far, no squirrel attacks that I'm aware of. Every one of my previous birdfeeder designs was squirrel proof, right up until the moment it wasn't. We were wondering if the shininess/mirror finish was turning them off. Guess not. So far, the hummingbird feeder experiment has been a fail, though:
Colleen's late father's calipers and a candle holder hopefully rings the dinner bell for the smallest bird.  They love the rose of sharon 20 feet to the north, so chances are good they'll stop in.
Colleen's late father's calipers and a candle holder hopefully rings the dinner bell for the smallest bird. They love the rose of sharon 20 feet to the north, so chances are good they'll stop in.
Humming Bird Feeder 2 by PatGallagherArt, on Flickr I put some red duct tape around the opening...even hung a red ribbon on the cable, but no love.

"We are, all of us, in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
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