OT Things to ponder

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

This winter, I have a chickadee that will come let me know when the feed needs restocking.

What state are you in? I haven't seen any chickadees this year yet.

[MakeeLearn]

Tennessee. My house is surrounded on 3 sides by water and 4 sides by woods and pastures so I get lots of bird activity. Bald Eagles are common, I've even had to get a broom after one.

Ive seen 4 Chickadees at one time this year.

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

Feeders all dumped except for one that I've never seen the mockingbird at that has millet, peanut hearts (little pieces) and Nyjer. For the finches and sparrows. Haven't seen many in a while, I'll dump that too if the mockingbird defends it.

I read somewhere that changing the birds environment will change habits. Sometimes for the worst. But the dumping of the feed is a good idea to rid yourself of the mockingbird....GP

[MakeeLearn]

How could any respectable mockingbird be in a yard that doesn't have a Magnolia tree?[;)]

[MakeeLearn]

Mockingbirds still fly with D-Day markings

[btd64]

An American warbird.GP

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

This is mildly amusing at best. Not so long ago USPS was considering not doing Saturday deliveries. I don't remember if they ever did Sunday deliveries. If so, must've been a long time before my Alzheimer's set in. Anyways, this morning I checked on some things I had on order and two of the items were (separately) to be delivered today via USPS. I chuckled thinking 'no way'. Both items (separately, don't know if the human who did it in both cases was the same person or if droids are doing it, each rang my doorbell and as soon as I got there they were gone) have been delivered today, Sunday, on my porch. Perhaps Santa is hard up and has a non-seasonal job now delivering on Sundays.

Amazon made an arrangement with the USPS to deliver Sunday packages. I've had them delivered on Sundays a number of times. Had a package this Sunday.

Bill

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

Tennessee. My house is surrounded on 3 sides by water and 4 sides by woods and pastures so I get lots of bird activity. Bald Eagles are common, I've even had to get a broom after one.

Ive seen 4 Chickadees at one time this year.

Down where you are they would likely be identified as Carolina Chickadees. Black Capped Chickadees are said to extend south near you in the Appalachians. I can't tell the difference. You can't tell it from their singing and I look at pictures and the variations are insignificant and typical of what you would see in one species. I'm right on the border of their territories. I call mine Carolina but I don't know.

I'd swear I've been hearing a Baltimore Oriole singing in the mornings but I've never laid eyes on one.

[Canoerebel]

It is possible to distinguish between a Carolina chickadee and a black-capped chickadee, both by appearance and voice. But a birdwatcher has to be very experienced to do so. Otherwise it's like asking a high school German student to distinguish between a Bavarian accent and a Westphalian accent.

The ranges of the two don't really overlap except at high altitude. Here in NW Georgia we have only the Carolina chickadee. The same would be true in Alabama and the western 3/4ths of Tennessee.

It's been a weirdly warm winter in much of the eastern US, so birds may be out of the usual location at the moment. It's unlikely you'd have a Baltimore oriole this early (they're among the later migrants), but not impossible. But orioles have a whistling or caroling-type song that somewhat resembles an American robin, so that's a possibility.

[geofflambert]

The Oriole? sounds like it's singing from a giant oak tree across the alley from my backyard. My next door neighbor has two very large oak trees and a good sized sweet gum tree. About 15 years or so ago a Bosnian refugee family owned that duplex and occupied both sides of it. Once they had this old (he looked about 70 or so) Bosnian guy prune those oaks back. He climbed around in those trees like a monkey. He didn't have a rope or anything, just a bow saw. Not even a ladder. It was amazing watching him, he was really fast and obviously knew exactly what he was doing.

[MakeeLearn]

Looks to be Carolina Chickadees. Kinglets are my most rare sighting this winter.

Pileated Woodpeckers are common, the challenge when seeing one is seeing it's wingman.

Ive had a "few" sightings of cuckoo birds. Looking out the window and it flew out of the woods to the wood line, perched for a few seconds then flew back into the woods. Just like a cuckoo clock. I like the buckskin tan color.

I bird watched with Eugene Sledge during his last years of teaching. He was good at finding feathers on the ground. Sometimes I asked "Did you plant that?"

Before, during and after fronts moving in are the best times to catch out of place birds. Sledgehammer saw a Artic Owl in middle Alabama, that came in with a cold front. It stayed around for a few days.

Kingfishers are most enjoyable to watch.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

It is possible to distinguish between a Carolina chickadee and a black-capped chickadee, both by appearance and voice. But a birdwatcher has to be very experienced to do so. Otherwise it's like asking a high school German student to distinguish between a Bavarian accent and a Westphalian accent.

The ranges of the two don't really overlap except at high altitude. Here in NW Georgia we have only the Carolina chickadee. The same would be true in Alabama and the western 3/4ths of Tennessee.

It's been a weirdly warm winter in much of the eastern US, so birds may be out of the usual location at the moment. It's unlikely you'd have a Baltimore oriole this early (they're among the later migrants), but not impossible. But orioles have a whistling or caroling-type song that somewhat resembles an American robin, so that's a possibility.

I'm well familiar with robin song. They start their territorial singing around 3 a.m. I've got some video with sound of one singing on my fence at night. That particular song they sing before dawn reminds me of an episode of Star Trek that had Mark Lenard playing a Romulan. There was a pursuit going on and a lot of silent submarine like stretches on the bridge of the Enterprise. In the background there was this sound that was supposed to represent the equivalent of sonar and it sounded just like my robin's song. I bet anything that robin song was the inspiration for it.

About those German accents, when I took it in high school I was taught to speak it in the northern or Prussian way, and to annunciate very clearly. The ch in Ich I pronounce like a gargled k. In Bavaria it's "Ish". Someone I knew took a trip down south and the people in Stuttgart (which I pronounce as Shhtoootgart!) were pronouncing it "Stugger". [:D]

[MakeeLearn]

They start their territorial singing around 3 a.m. I've got some video with sound of one singing on my fence at night.

Don't think Ive heard one sing at night, if I have I thought it was a Mockingbird. Most familiar with them singing at night.

[Canoerebel]

ORIGINAL: MakeeLearn

...Ive had a "few" sightings of cuckoo birds. Looking out the window and it flew out of the woods to the wood line, perched for a few seconds then flew back into the woods. Just like a cuckoo clock. I like the buckskin tan color....

...Sledgehammer saw a Artic Owl in middle Alabama, that came in with a cold front. It stayed around for a few days.
...

Cuckooks won't arrive until mid to late April. You may have seen a brown thrasher. Whatever it was, it wasn't yellow-billed cuckoo or a black-billed cuckoo.

Sledge probably saw a snowy owl. They are exceedingly rare but not unknown in the Deep South. There is one mounted and displayed at the Arrowhead Wildlife Research Center near Rome, Georgia, that was recovered somewhere close by - maybe near Lafayette, Walker County, GA. I think it was road kill.

[Canoerebel]

Robins might sing at night under a full moon in April. They wouldn't in February in Missouri.

[MakeeLearn]

Sledge probably saw a snowy owl.

probably so, from memory I used Artic/Snowy as common.

Cuckooks won't arrive until mid to late April. You may have seen a brown thrasher. Whatever it was, it wasn't yellow-billed cuckoo or a black-billed cuckoo.

I know the difference, saw that one in the summer. The other time I saw a cuckoo was when I brought it home in the grill of my truck. When driving along the part of the road lined with cedars I have to slow down and dodge the brown thrashers.

cuckoos here have more of a tan color than what Ive seen in most pics.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Robins might sing at night under a full moon in April. They wouldn't in February in Missouri.

No, not this time of year. Back when STL was in growing zone 5 (Climate change has moved us south to zone 6) the robins would leave for the winter. Now they're here year round. It's during mating season they sing at night. Around here you can hear dozens of them, a cacophony in the wee hours of the morning. If I leave the window open it can wake me up. If anyone wants the video, send me an email. When it was zone 5 here I used to be able to grow huge tomatoes. I've given up on that, they just wilt in the heat. Starting in June a year or two ago we had six straight weeks when every single day the thermometer broke 100 degrees with plenty of humidity. I even tried watering them with water from my fridge, it did no good. Peppers do fine, but okra is never edible, they're like pieces of wood even when young.

[BBfanboy]

Re: the chickadees, we have only the black-capped ones up here and their breast is a very light grey, like a dirty white colour. IIRC the other chickadees have a bit of buff colouring in the breast. The chickadees here are some of the boldest birds around. They will perch very close to you and if you offer a piece of bread they will snatch it from you fingers. Once they get to know you they will perch on your hand to take food.

The other very brave bird here is the grey-jay or whiskeyjack. When hiking a trail once we stopped for a snack and the jay suddenly appeared nearby. I held up a cookie and he came straight to my hand and helped himself. I guess hikers do this all the time so the bird becomes accustomed to humans. Too bad jays don't have a pleasant song that you could get them to sing for their supper!

[geofflambert]

You tell the diff

[geofflambert]

Here's some others. The one in the middle looks more like your birds.