Critters Photo's (living)

[skeet3t 0]

On 10/9/2020 at 6:33 AM, xterrabill said:

now that was unexpected and very cool, great photo, is it hump day? immediately I hear utopia's caravan in my head and think of my favorite movie Laurence of Arabia.  

Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour in Road to Morocco. "Like a book, we're Morocco bound!"

[skeet3t 0]

Have a Cooper's hawk hanging around the house to feed on doves, squirrels and other feathered snacks.

[Guest]

Xterrabill, what are you using to attract 

[mikechell 0]

Several years ago ... while fishing ... this little guy swam right in front of me.

[xterrabill 0]

1 hour ago, denduke said:

attract the bug eaters

atm blains farm and fleet woodpecker suet, but I started with C&S woodpecker treat suet (best imo), I also have black oil sunflower seed in a tray/stand that I built with holes in it so I can stick branches out of it, sorta looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, and a bowl of water next to it, had a HUGE raccoon in the water bowl last night (no pic sadly).

a bird on a branch is much more photogenic than in or on a feeder (try to keep all man made objects out of photo's for aesthetics).

I also put out nyjer seed, commonly labeled "thistle", 1/2 cup with 1.5 cup of sunflower seeds and I fill a sock feeder with nyjer for the goldfinches.

my neighbor has a 12' wide, 5' deep pond with a rock waterfall that attracts every living thing in the hood and has been feeding the birds for over 30 years, he buys the cheapest wild bird food he can get by the 50lbs sack.

with all the birds around here, my wife calls our home bodega bay and says she feels like Cinderella when she walks outside, I call her Tippi.

[xterrabill 0]

55 minutes ago, mikechell said:

little guy

EE-GADDS man!!

that a rattler? looks big and fat to me! I ate rattler once at a wild game dinner, I liked it, tons of bones tho.

[xterrabill 0]

3 hours ago, skeet3t said:

Cooper's hawk

that is a cool rodent/pigeon trap/feather provider if I ever seen one!

[xterrabill 0]

4 hours ago, skeet3t said:

Road to Morocco

"This must be the place where they empty all the old hourglasses".

[mikechell 0]

1 hour ago, xterrabill said:

that a rattler?

Yeah ... a baby Eastern Diamondback, I believe.  It LOOKS big, until you realize it's lying on a canoe paddle that's about 6 tp 8 inches wide.

THIS one was a good 5 feet or so.  On Wildcat Lake in the Ocala NF.

[xterrabill 0]

7 hours ago, mikechell said:

Diamondback

very cool photo and another good reason to stay in the boat, unless its in the boat with you, then he can have it!

had a 3" wolf spider crawl out of an anchor rope as I was letting the anchor out one time, I jumped like a school girl.

"I don't like spiders and snakes" jim stafford

[skeet3t 0]

17 hours ago, denduke said:

Xterrabill, what are you using to attract the bug eaters? Tried the suet but down here in this heat they don’t respond tried the wax worms no luck either.  Ocassional peckerwood comes to the grains.  Mostly red birds and jays; couple indigo bunting come too.  Thanks.

Suet not recommended in warm weather. We put out a bird feeder with a mix of seeds and grains. We also have three hummingbird feeders around the property. One platform feeder has whole corn for birds and squirrels. BTW, I recommend a magazine that we found a few years ago-Birds & Blooms.

https://www.birdsandblooms.com/

[xterrabill 0]

as per their website...

About Our No Melt Suet Dough Delights

C&S Suet Delights are mixed into a soft dough texture, which is then pressed into cake form. C&S’s unique process, unlike others who pour their dough products into a tray, creates the only true NO MELT bird suet product line in the world. The base of corn meal, rendered beef suet and roasted peanuts, along with other quality fruits and ingredients, makes C&S Suet Delight products unmatched for wild bird acceptance in the bird feeding industry.

All of our cake trays and brick containers are made of 100% recycled PETE because C&S promotes environmental responsibility. If you wish to have more information about our No Melt Suet Dough Delights for Wild Birds, select from the list below for that product’s information.

33 minutes ago, skeet3t said:

Suet not recommended in warm weather

I have not put it out in the summer myself, in fact I don't feed the birds anything daily, the seed I usually put it out every 2-3 days maybe depending on the weather and if I plan to try photographing them and if I see the neighbor stopped feeding them.

why?

I prefer to not let them become dependent on it.

the suet..

we had 3 days that hit 85deg+ in the sun since I started and it did not melt, also the sparrows eat it up in 5-7 days (little Parana's) so it doesn't get the chance to spoil.

thanks for the mag link, I will check it out, I had 3 hummingbird feeders, a storm took one, now we have 2 but those little guys are gone for the winter now.

[mikechell 0]

We have suet out all year long.  Seems the birds don't know they're not supposed to eat it.

[xterrabill 0]

a good site is the cornell lab of ornithology/ebird, I have taken the free courses and have completed a few checklists, there is also an app for identification on the go, be warned they spam your email, (always good to have an email account not connected to anything important for such things) but it is a great site.

I am fairly sure suet can spoil during the warmer months, maybe that's what you meant skeet, so mike maybe replace it?...you probably have several times to no avail.

mike, I started the process of luring the feathered critters by spreading the seed and stale bread out in the open, once they started coming regularly I introduced the feeder then the water and slowly week by week moved it into camera range.  

keeping feeders/bird baths clean is a must to stop the spread of disease, btw I owned a Australian red winged parrot for 30 years, he was suppose to live for 24-27 in captivity, much less in the wild, it really tore us up when he passed, ya get super attached in that long of a length of time.

[xterrabill 0]

Australian red winged parrot

we were extremely fortunate to have this very rare bird in the usa, my wife rescued him from a pet store that went out of business (he was a baby and neglected/dying). he was very intelligent, never clipped and was free range in 2 of our homes, he did his business in baskets (ONE IN EACH ROOM) was an extremely good flyer, extremely quiet, ate seeds and grapes, drank water and orange juice out of shot classes, never drew blood when ya pissed him off and he bit ya, it didn't hurt (usually on purpose LOL), slept in his cage at night,(would fly upstairs into the room with his cage when it got dark and put himself to bed), we could leave him for up to 3 days unattended but preferred not to, hated toes and balloons, loved cashews as a treat, would sit in your shoulder all day (fly off to poop in basket) didn't talk but could whistle andy Griffith on rare occasion, had the soul of an 85 year crabby old man 10% of the time, was sweet as can be the rest, the games we could play with him were hilarious! he was tough as nails, only got out once, flew to neighbors gutter, I walked over and asked him "ya wanna cashew?" and he flew right back and we walked back inside.

we were blessed to have him, he now lays in our yard, he is still very missed.