What made you smile today? 5

[raisindot]

While I was walking from building to building at the hospital where I work, I heard an odd noise in one of the trees. It turned out to be a Red Tailed Hawk, hanging out . I feel bad for the many squirrels on campus, but what a beautiful bird.

Majomull! Glad to hear there's a fellow Bay Stater here on the forum! Wee Yanks are pretty rare around here and I thought i was the only one outside the Midwest!

I love red-tailed hawks. I grew up in a city next to Boston and never never never never saw one. Then when I moved about 15 miles west of the city I began to see them quite often. One day one of them landed in my back yard, caught a chipmunk, and started eating it then and there. Kinda gross but fascinating to watch. Even today, if I'm outside and am not walking, whenever I saw one circling in the sky I just stop and watch for several minutes. If I was ever reincarnated as something other than human, I think a red tailed hawk would be one of my top choices.

[chillicamper]

Received a package in the post from the lovely Catch-up. The kids were incredibly excited to have a surprise parcel from the USA. Watching their faces was a joy

[Mycroft Vimes]

^Nice,those are the priceless things!

Today my smile came from actually having my cheek brushed by the wingtip of a Great tit.
I have a 'little' feedingstation on my balcony...


For neighbourly(/sanitary) and monetary reasons,it's been made accessible for the smaller songbirds like the Great and Blue tits only.
I change the water,give a scoop of live mealworms and top off anything other which gets low twice a day.
This morning,whilst putting the top back on and fastening the bottom with the blue clothespins,one great tit wasn't expecting to find me in it's path and only veered off at the very last moment and as said i got to feel its wingtip on my face,great stuff.
The smile stayed on for a while after that...

[Tonyblack]

What's with the stuck-on swift? Looks great, Mycroft!

[Mycroft Vimes]

The stuck-on swift is one of several birdstickers i put on,after there were a few collisions on that mainly glass door,luckily it never seemed to have led to a serious injury.
I do recommend this to anyone,i love these birds,they put on a great live show all day,every day.
It does involve some expenditure though,greedy as these can be.
Great tit.

Blue tit.

The Great tits in particular are very fond of the live mealworms.

The one thing that's very sad about having to restrict access to the larger birds,i also won't be seeing the Great Spotted Woodpecker(Dendrocopos major) again.

And the Rose-ringed(/Ring-necked) Parakeets(Psittacula krameri),that came to see,what all these great- and blue tits were after,went away disappointed,so i'll probably won't see them again.

[Penfold]

That Great Tit is fantastically captured for the timing.

I am soooo envious having had to get rid of my bird table since the neighbour got her bird murdering cats (I had no problems with the other cats in the neighbourhood, it's just hers that seem to do it).

[Tonyblack]

Lovely pictures!

After my dad had his stroke that effectively paralysed him, including his ability to speak, he went to a nursing home where we fixed up a bird table outside his window. It was a great source of joy for him to see all the birds.

Well I assume it was - he never said anything in complaint.

[Catch-up]

Received a package in the post from the lovely Catch-up. The kids were incredibly excited to have a surprise parcel from the USA. Watching their faces was a joy

This made me smile!

Mycroft, your bird pictures made me smile too! What an amazing set up.

[wicked woman]

Mycroft I am incredibly jealous. They are a lot of fun to watch, I use various methods of feeding the right birds and not feeding the starlings and pigeons too much, it's a constant battle. The starlings can get down a fat block - cost £3 - in 1 day and the tits don't get a look in. I want one of those cages.

[Mycroft Vimes]

Bit of DIY and you'll have one of your very own.
It was the starlings that had me redoing the cage with smaller openings twice.
With my first attempt these just tucked in their wings for passing through the holes at full speed to then do an 'airbreak',land and stuff their faces(was a pretty neat thing to see in itself,but not exactly the idea).
The second time they could still wurm their way in,although not out again as easy.
I had to rescue two,who couldn't get out anymore(sort of a Winnie the Pooh-problem maybe ).
And although i buy my blocks in bulk(http://www.vivara.nl/ctrl/node:163;product_group:68;/pindacake_met_insecten#.UGnLba7m5P4),they're still € 4,49 and they did go through them somewhat quickly,not surprising when you've got 'little' ones to feed.


They can be quite beautiful,when the light hits them just so...this just hints at the full rainbow of colours.

But with them and other larger birds as the pigeons...

it was all getting a bit too expensive.
The songbirds alone,i can just about manage though,so they get to freeload for quite some time to come,hopefully!

[Penfold]

The songbirds alone,i can just about manage though,so they get to freeload for quite some time to come,hopefully!

Are you saying the birds are scroungers? (to paraphrase Monty Python)

I love starlings, btw, especially a large flock swirling in flight but I can imagine it would quickly get very expensive given that I've seen them strip a bush bare of berries in a matter of seconds.

[Batty]

I didn't fully appreciate how beautiful starlings are, until last year.
When the light shows off all their hues, it reminds me of motor oil in water, with the greens and purples intermingling.

Our garden is happily visited by all the tits, sparrows, robins, & greenfinchs, but since we cut back the bushes, the blackbirds, starlings and pigeons seem to have deserted us.
I have a lot of respect for the blackbird, as he seems to be the sentry of the garden.

[Tonyblack]

I didn't fully appreciate how beautiful starlings are, until last year.
When the light shows off all their hues, it reminds me of motor oil in water, with the greens and purples intermingling.

Our garden is happily visited by all the tits, sparrows, robins, & greenfinchs, but since we cut back the bushes, the blackbirds, starlings and pigeons seem to have deserted us.
I have a lot of respect for the blackbird, as he seems to be the sentry of the garden.

Starlings are actually the same family as myna birds and can copy other birdsong, or barking dogs or even human speech.

Check out the beautiful versions of starlings on this Wiki.

[wicked woman]

And mobile phone rings.

[cheery_j.]

watching hedgie TV.