OT Maybe..... Raccoons

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[email protected] says...

I hate crows. They are too noisy, especially when you are camping and
they start at 5 am right over your head. At home I have two pieces of
flat board in the shop. In the spring I used to clap them together
(makes a loud crack, like a gun) when I saw them starting to try to
start something up in my tall pine trees, and scare them down the street
a ways;) Usually they wouldn't nest or hang out around my place, they
would just keep on going.
 
Re: [email protected]

Cheryl wrote:


Around here there are starlings all winter, heavier in late winter whien
migrations are starting back up. It's hard to tell when there are lots of a
given bird whether they are passing through or residents. I'm sure some
Bluejays have already showed up on their route back to northern states,
although some stick around all summer too. Grackles don't show up at my
feeders until well into spring though.

MartyB
 
On 2/27/2011 11:22 PM, Nunya Bidnits wrote:
Most of the birds around here are year round residents due to our
temperate weather. Robins come through occasionally. We had indigo
buntings in our yard for years but have not seen any since Hurricane
Rita knocked down most of the old growth trees in our town. I miss those
showy little birds. We sometimes get Carolina wrens in the area, they're
also pretty, nice yellow tint to their wings and backs. Cardinals peck
our tomatoes, blue jays all over the place, they like to chase squirrels
so we encourage them. In another month the house wrens will be building
nests in all the hanging baskets.
 
On 2/27/2011 10:43 PM, Omelet wrote:

Good for you Om, I do the same thing. Relocated a copperhead last year
to the deep woods and a coral snake the year before. Other than being
scared half to death when pulling weeds and I pull up a worm snake I
usually am not afraid of them. Was bitten by a ground rattler and later
by a small copperhead when I was a barefoot kid running around Orange,
Texas. Learned to wear shoes quickly.
 
On Feb 28, 11:29?am, Omelet wrote:

==
ALL poisonous snakes should be killed and replaced with non-poisonous
varieties if you want varmint control. We only have garter snakes
here...thank gawd.
==
 
Re: [email protected]

Cheryl wrote:


Ya think? ;-) Cats will eat just about anything they can physically take
down.

I found that the key to having both cats and a feeder is not to give the
cats any kind of cover close enough to the feeder area for them to carry out
an ambush on ground feeding birds. They may come for the birds but will
still keep the various rodents in check. I've even had one cat that would
snag the occasional mole.
 
Re: [email protected]

Omelet wrote:


Cherry's? I really don't use much fresh tomato, except for salsa, mostly
from yellow ones. Otherwise I want to cook them, and tend to seed and juice
them, sometimes even peel them or put them through a mill. So I want a big
pulp to skin and juice crud ratio. ;-)
 
"Nunya Bidnits" wrote:



MartyB

Let me explain what I meant.

As ornithologists we sometimes get to go into the field and conduct bird
collections. We have to shoot birds for our bird collection, one of the
largest in the world. We take meticulous data (including DNA) about the
birds, skin them and put them in cabinets at the collection.

We don't run around shooting up just any birds. We need permissions to
collect birds. What birds, how many of each bird we want to collect,
where we want to collect them, etc. We submit our lists to
government/wildlife agencies and they OK or cross birds off depending on
estimated populations. Apply for gun permits in a given country. It's
quite a lot of paperwork.

Why do we do it? To SAVE bird populations. If every bird brain could run
around the planet shooting specimens without following regulations,
before long birds would quickly go extinct. Let's say an ornithologist
wanted to study five humming birds in five different places on Earth, at
considerable expense, including an unknown number of dead hummingbirds,
they can simply call the museum and arrange a few days to visit us
instead. We'll gather a tray with those hummingbirds on it for them to
study on the premises.

So in reality we provide a vital service to bird science and the birds.

Best,

Andy
 
On 2011-03-01, Andy wrote:


Are you, in fact, an ornithologist, Andy?

What you describe is quite familiar to me, as Patrick O'Brian, one of
my favorite authors, writes about the practice constantly in his
Aubrey/Maturin series of books. One of the fictional characters,
Stephen Maturin, is a physician, naturalist, and spy and is always
bagging birds and other animals for dissection and study. Makes
perfect sense to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey–Maturin_series

nb
 
notbob wrote:



nb,

Yes. I wasn't schooled to become one. I jumped in pretty green and learned
what I know from my mentor/boss over the years. I never lectured or
published but it's safe to say I "learned" my degree on the job.

Best,

Andy
Ornithologist
 
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