See far too many of them here once we get to May. I'd be happy to send some your way.
See far too many of them here once we get to May. I'd be happy to send some your way.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
LOL
No, you can keep them - thanks, anyway!
Regards,
Duncan
I didn't hear it in the video above but there is a song that a cardinal sings that sounds like it is saying "pretty bird".
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
We have lots of Grackles here in Southern Ontario.Originally Posted by Duncan Glenday
The grackles have reached SE Pennsylvania. Yearly, they nest in the arborvitaes along our driveway. Besides making a racket and raiding my feeders, they have a very disgusting habit. Once their babies are born, they remove the droppings to help be predators from finding their nests. Unfortunately, the adults eat the droppings, forming a sort of casing around it, then dispose of it elsewhere. Where you may ask? All over our deck. For a good two-week span in the spring, I come home after work and have to hose off the deck. These awful little while blobs are all over the place. Due to the casing, they literally roll off the deck when I hit them with the hose. Just nasty. So, I am not a fan of the grackle.
Chad
We have to put up with grackles, perhaps the most obnoxious birds on the planet, year round.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Grackles are obnoxious and aggressive. Even their song is unpleasant. They're kind of the sea gull of the backyard.
We've got an enormous pine tree in the yard next to ours and the grackles always set up a colony there. My neighbor gets shit all over his pickup and SUV. At some point in June, one of our cats takes offense at their presence. My neighbor applauds when he sees the cat coming into their yard.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Always lots of grackles here in Rockland, NY. Not a big fan...bird feeder bullies one step below the bluejay (the asshole of the common bird)
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
One of my books accurately describes it as a "rusty gate closing."
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Aren't cuckoos also considered real assholes? Don't they take over the nests of other birds? (I'm too lazy to look it up.)Always lots of grackles here in Rockland, NY. Not a big fan...bird feeder bullies one step below the bluejay (the asshole of the common bird
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Some are brood parasites, but not all species of cuckoos are.
When I lived overseas, we had a thing called the indian mynah.
Worse than grackles, IMO.
For whatever reason, we (thankfully) don't have any grackles in central Maryland.
Regards,
Duncan
Down in Fla the Boat Tailed Grackles are a hoot.
Bold as all get out. Real noise makers.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
Not sure if they actually left for the winter, but the Red-Bellied Woodpeckers are back in Western PA, knocking away (and getting nowhere) on my aluminum fascia.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
They are here all winter, but the pecking has picked up this week for sure. Beautiful birds, but man when they start jackhammering aluminum it can drive you insane!
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
We live in a subdivision that was part of a nursery back in the 1950s before it started to get parceled out. Lots and lots of old-growth trees including three large river birch, a locust, arbor vitae, a large pine, and a massive oak all within 20-30 yards of our house. It's 'pecker heaven! We see them on a daily basis year-round, including red-bellied, red-headed, downy, hairy, and the occasional pileated. Our house is wood-sided, so without all those trees I think we'd have been driven insane in the first year! :-)
David
Happy with what I have to be happy with.
Odd. The Common Grackle's year-round range is a majority of the eastern US.
No, they're a year-round resident of the entire eastern half of the country, but certainly they are more active as the weather warms.
Very cool! They've become rather rare in SE PA.
If we want to talk about birds who are assholes I would offer up the Canada Goose (urban variety) as a leading contender.
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down.'- Bob Newhart
Absolutely. There are loads of them around here, and I've had more than one encounter with them. The worst of which was the time one of them marched over to me and snatched my headphone cord in his mouth and took off, yanking my headphones off my head in the process - and I had to chase him down to retrieve it. This was at 9:00 in the morning on my way to work, in front of plenty of people walking/driving by. I also had one squawk at me as loudly as possible the entire time I was trying to have a conversation on my phone (this was quite a few years ago now, before texting was a big thing). He didn't want anything in particular, he just could sense that he was disrupting something, so he continued. Make no mistake - they are assholes.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Funny. I don't find Canada Geese that nasty. I've had one hiss at me once or twice, but typically they move away or take off and fly. They're usually only territorial if they have young or a nest nearby. Even then, I've had them just casually walk away.
That said, the videos, like the one above, are hysterical.
Well, the incidents are few and far between. I've walked right through huge gatherings of them many times without incident. But some of them have bigger personalities than others.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
I haven't found them to be aggressive unless you intrude into the territory where they have a nest.
There is a gorgeous Cooper's Hawk (very common here) I see whenever I take my dog for a walk on a nearby golf course. She lives in the woods there and used to fly away whenever I would walk under wherever she was perched. She has grown used to me now and stays put. Even lets me take the occasional picture.
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
Damn picture comes out so small
"Who would have thought a whale would be so heavy?" - Moe Sizlak
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