Posted on 01/04/2016 7:09:44 AM PST by bert
I know that is life, but it’s still a sad thing to see. I had a hard time last week with my egg bound budgie. My husband was able to help her out and she’s doing much better now.
I see road runners and hawks catch small birds and prairie dogs frequently. I know it’s “nature” but I still hate to see it out our kitchen window.
Oh, yes. OK, my kestrel story:
I'd just moved into the cabin on the lake and was having central heating installed (blasphemy!) and we were done, and the installer was showing me how to use the thermostat. Had the front door open and the back wall is pretty much all windows. Anyway, he sez, "now just turn this thingy here and..." BANG! We both about jumped out of our shoes and I could see what he was thinking because it was what I was thinking: "waidaminnud, electric furnaces don't asplode."
A kestrel had spied prey out the front door and hit the back window at full stoop. Broke his neck. So there he was, dead on the back deck. Beautiful bird, and I really mean that.
"I'll get him stuffed," I sez to myself. HAHAHAHA! It was a Saturday so I had to bag him and put him in the freezer. Called the taxidermist and she said, "Uh, you're in violation of the Migratory Bird Act even having him dead on the deck." Dang it. Could I get him stuffed and donate him to a school? "Nope. Not unless they have a license." A museum? A zoo? "Nope."
So there I am with a dead bird bagged up next to the tater tots and she finishes, "you can't transfer him and you can't possess him." "What the heck do I do?" I'm asking her. "You ever hear of 'shoot, shovel, and shut up'?" "But I didn't shoot him!" I reply, starting to panic. "Doesn't matter," she said.
So Mr. Kestrel got a decent burial, not much for ceremony but sincere, meaning deep enough where nothing would dig it up or I wouldn't be haunted by any zombie kestrels. What the heck, I'm already a felon. I have an eagle's nest in the tree just over the property line. They shed feathers. I can't possess them, and I can't transfer them...
Mine kills stuff dead. Use the varmint pellets 1000fps kills squirrels, cotton tails, crows, gophers, etc.
Two Blue Jays attacked a juvenile mountain lion in my yard one day last year - tore hell out of the confused cat
I also have those translucent stickies on the windows that appear to be space to fleeing/flying birds. The stickies look like a spider web, and they really work. Before that, when a bird hit the windows, I had those dusty outline impressions of a bird with flying wings.
Everything eats and some are eaten.
I was playing in the back yard with them and around a corner I saw a fox (in the middle of the day) staring at them.
Another time a couple of the biggest birds I have ever seen swooped down near my smallest daughter- I used to think that the birds only went after small rabbits and stuff but I had just seen a video about an eagle attacking a deer.
Both times it freaked me out to think about what might have happened if I had not been right there.
Ny first thought on that fox was rabid. The foxes I’ve seen hightailed it out of the area as soon as they saw me.
Those birds definitely were sizing up your kid. Good thing you were there.
Btw- an interesting tidbit. Pigeons will eat anything. I fed them bits of beef and fries from my burger and fries combo. They ate it right up.
I also saw a hawk pick up a rabbit off the side of a dirt road and carry it off.
Uh, you’re in violation of the Migratory Bird Act even having him dead on the deck.”
“Well he’s not migrating anymore so he’s no longer covered by the Act.”
I watched a hawk swoop down and pick up a squirrel. The squirrel managed to wiggle free of his talons and fell about 20 feet to the ground. He was stunned for a minute then stumbled off to the bushes. The hawk didn’t try to get him again.
I saw a hawk nail a chipmunk from a few feet away a while back. It ripped it open, savoured the guts for a couple of seconds then flew off leaving the carcass on the ground.
Pining for the Fjords no doubt.
Yep! ;)
Really? That’s half the fun of a bird feeder around here. Hawks swoop in all the time. Fun to watch the sharp-shins lock toes with the Stellar’s jays.
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