Posted on 02/15/2018 6:42:01 PM PST by Mariner
“The one I scared into flight went straight up vertically about twenty feet”
That’s the impressive jump I was referring to.
Have you ever seen one fly 50 yards?
Yes, they very often roost in trees at night, and build their nests there.
They think the “bumper tap” is the female loving them back. Then they try to mate with your car even more aggressively.
We have mourning doves and crows.
Hopefully the environment is diverse enough to support them both.
We have so many birds. Even the magpies have a strong population.
While hiking, I found one sitting on a fence rail last weekend, about 6 feet off the ground. That shocked me because, as you say, you never see them fly. When I got near, he jumped / fluttered to the ground. More like a rock falling through the air than flying.
That seems odd to me. Guess it needs to be more wooded for crows and doves to coexist. I have no shortage of mourning doves, American crows and ravens by me.
“Not sure why the turkey and coyote populations have soared and why they have moved into our neighborhoods.”
Maybe it’s all those lions in the hills!
“some of the big ones dropping a thousand pounds of acorns every year.”
Wow! Our neighbors across the street have a prolific oak. It was a volunteer that showed up when we moved in 35 years ago and it is now huge! It really drops acorns all over the road in the fall and the cars drive through them “crunch, crunch, crunch.” Acorn pulp all over the road. Every spring, I pull up about 20 that have sprouted in our yard thanks to the squirrels planting them for us.
I’m headed over to the Merced National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday on an Audubon Society Excursion. Lots of Sandhill Cranes and White Fronted Geese still there.
Yes, I’ve seen them fly distances of 50 yards and further. They do prefer to walk during the day, though. There are some that don’t fly too high when crossing interstates, though.
I’ve seen harems of as many as twenty, although they can get up to fifty hens.
I’ve got an old one in the schoolyard down the street.
The trunk is at least 8 feet in diameter and the tree is about 100ft tall.
Simply majestic.
It would be enough lumber to build two houses or a thousand pieces of furniture.
As long as your saw holds up.
Very, very dense and heavy wood.
That’s interesting. I saw my first Mourning Dove on a trip to the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge and Delavan Wildlife Refuge a couple weeks ago. But they have sure disappeared from around here on the Peninsula.
Crows love to raid other bird nests and eat their eggs. We are quite wooded here - the “urban forest.”
Near Atwater?
I used to hunt ducks there.
Millions of ‘em.
They are gorgeous, aren’t they? Unfortunately, Sudden Oak Death is killing a lot of them over here. Do you have that disease over there?
That’s one fine, underrated Bourbon.
The best in my book.
“Sudden Oak Death is killing a lot of them over here”
I think most of the “sudden oak death” is the dropping water table from the drought.
The Valley Oak will send a tap root all the way down to the water table, sometime twice as deep as the tree is high. That’s how they are able to survive in our Mediterranean climate of intermittent rain.
If the water table suddenly drops, the tree will most certainly die. Quickly.
He thinks the vehicles are other toms.
I hadn’t thought about that. So he’s fighting off competitors for his sweetheart?
Freaking feathered road menaces.
I’ve seen the damage accidentally hitting one can do to most modern plastic and crumple zone vehicles.
Watched three throw themselves into the side of a vehicle repeatedly.
See SOD FAQ.
"To date, all of the natural areas found with infection are cool, moist, and frequently foggy. Forests with disease are made up of a mixture of host and associated host plants, and often have either tanoak or California bay laurel trees present."
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