Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[Passinwind]

With some snow on the ground, the wild birds in the park are always hungry.

Every day, I drop off a mix of seeds or suet with seeds for the birds near a particular tree. The next day, it's always gone. Yesterday I was pointing at a small bird with light blue wings and a white breast near the tree where I leave the food. It flew over and landed on my outstretched finger, cheaped hello, and flew off. Today when I dropped off some seeds a group of the same breed were there.

In over 42 years, I've never seen them there. That's enough of a Thanksgiving gift for me.

Cool! That's not an especially common color scheme for small birds in the US or where you are (AFAIK); White-breasted nuthatch would be my first guess. They can be quite tame and are really fun to watch and listen to. Tufted Titmouse would be another good possibility, but we don't see them out here and I don't know a lot about them.

 

[Jeff Scott]

This was a pretty nice winter scene we woke up to one morning. The previous day was clear and sunny, with no snow in the valley, only a little at the tops of the highest peaks and cliffs.

Sentinel Rock from Yosemite Creek, Copyright © 1990 Jeffrey P. Scott All rights reserved

 

[beans-on-toast]

Cool! That's not an especially common color scheme for small birds in the US or where you are (AFAIK); White-breasted nuthatch would be my first guess. They can be quite tame and are really fun to watch and listen to. Tufted Titmouse would be another good possibility, but we don't see them out here and I don't know a lot about them.

Thanks Charlie. Based on images, it could be a White-Breasted Nuthatch. There was one in the group with an orange breast that could have been an orange-breasted nuthatch. The vividness of the colors struck me.

 

[GwenOnBass]

I found Los Angeles enjoyable in that I could see snow in the mountains without actually being in the snow. Reminded upthread of waking in my tent (a 17-year-old Morrighan) to fresh snow. Crampons are good. The current iteration of Morrighan views hot running water and electricity as the best part of waking up.

New Orleans is a city that has always been good to me. Boston always seems to me the flip side of Dublin.

 

[LBS-bass]

Thanks Charlie. Based on images, it could be a White-Breasted Nuthatch. There was one in the group with an orange breast that could have been an orange-breasted nuthatch. The vividness of the colors struck me.

Blue wings with orange breast could be a bluebird, but they would be much bigger than a nuthatch in comparison.

 

[Fat Freddy]

I walked into a bar in Boston....(resist obvious comments...)....

Ordered a pint of the black stuff and sat at the bar to enjoy it.....

Then I noticed the beer mats...."History of this bar"....blah....."used in the filming of" blahblah....."Repelled the hated English"....bla.....wot???.....

I drank up more quickly than planned....

 

[beans-on-toast]

Blue wings with orange breast could be a bluebird, but they would be much bigger than a nuthatch in comparison.

I don’t think that it was a bluebird, it was smaller. Some were smaller than a sparrow, maybe younger ones, some were larger. They also had longish legs.

I don’t know if these birds winter in the cold or head to warmer climates. The forest is always changing. No sign of the big birds like crows that are usually there. Saw a solitary woodpecker last week.

 

[beans-on-toast]

Boston always seems to me the flip side of Dublin.

Don’t they drink a lot more in Dublin? How else would you see the little green men and their pot of gold.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Happy Blues Monday

​

 

[GwenOnBass]

I walked into a bar in Boston....(resist obvious comments...)....

Ordered a pint of the black stuff and sat at the bar to enjoy it.....

Then I noticed the beer mats...."History of this bar"....blah....."used in the filming of" blahblah....."Repelled the hated English"....bla.....wot???.....

I drank up more quickly than planned....

Well, right, were I to come into the care and keeping of a green B-15, I would hold it, and hug it, and squeeze it, and call it George.


My friend and companion in Milan considers my question carefully. Upon reflection, he shakes his head and replies he thinks not. I asked him if he is a descendant of John Ball of the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. This Mr. Ball, in his present form, is a saucy one. It is over a pint he tells me his version of Agincourt:

"We were minding our own business as we were walking home, when ..."

 

[beans-on-toast]

Blues Monday redux

 

[El Güero]

Pocket Full of Money, by Frank Frost

 

[El Güero]

Happy Blues Monday

I was listening (not watching) at the end and heard something at 2:10, and thought how'd he do that. So I tried to back it up and he said, "Stupid phone." I thought he did something slick, but it was his phone.

 

[Passinwind]

I don’t think that it was a bluebird, it was smaller. Some were smaller than a sparrow, maybe younger ones, some were larger. They also had longish legs.

I don’t know if these birds winter in the cold or head to warmer climates. The forest is always changing. No sign of the big birds like crows that are usually there. Saw a solitary woodpecker last week.

We get both White-breasted and Red-breasted nutchatches here, both are quite winter hardy and do the whole seed caching thing. They are much more common here in the winter, they come down from higher elevations to the relative banana belt where I live. If you're feeding suet they will figure that out right quick, especially WB. RB will hang out on your hand (once hand tamed) and sort sunflower seeds until they find "the one." They pitch the rejects as they go. I have pretty mixed feelings about hand taming, which typically benefits the humans a lot more than the bird in the long term, IMO. But as with so many things, that just depends.

 

[GwenOnBass]

I find it good form to pay attention to any animal that wishes to converse, birds included.

 

[Passinwind]

I find it good form to pay attention to any animal that wishes to converse, birds included.

Yes indeed Gwen. Psycho Jay is informing me that breakfast is late, but since the quail haven't lined up on the fence yet it must not be too late. Out of the fog, into the smog...

 

[Fat Freddy]

I find it good form to pay attention to any animal that wishes to converse, birds included.

I asked a squirrel his name once and he told me that it was Cyril.....He went on to tell me that ALL squirrels are called Cyril....Even the females!!!......He said that they did this in recognition of the Mediocre Clubs same number policy......AND he said it also avoids confusion....

 

[GwenOnBass]

"Knowledge is good."

 

[Fat Freddy]

"Knowledge is good."

It all depends on the knowledge.....

 

[GwenOnBass]

It all depends on the knowledge.....

Very good point.