Birds that tease me

Do you have birds that tease you? Well I do! Come meet some of my bullies.....


Why oh why does the Oriole have to hang out in the tops of tall trees, far, far away from me? One good close up photo, that's all I ask....






And this guy! He teases me with his incessant calls. Hush already! Your voice isn't that great!





And come on Mr. Purple Finch! Can't you look at the camera for one second so I can get a full frontal shot of your handsome face?


So, who are some of your bird bullies?? :-)

Birdy Questions of the day

Which one of these birdys is not like the other?





And which one has the biggest butt? :-)

Ghetto Bird Feeder

Okay, now I want you to admit it. Do you have a bird feeder that is in bad shape but you're still using it even though you know you should've put it in the trash long ago? Well that's my story...but I don't have the heart to throw this feeder away. True, it's missing the plastic plexi glass on one side. And a squirrel has chewed the wood to smithereens. But the birds still seem to like it....


Here's my feisty Cardinal enjoying the feeder....




My Red-breasted Nuthatch has no problem with it...





...okay, maybe not everyone likes my ghetto bird feeder!

Bird Humor

How to tell if you're mom's favorite!


















*My mom sent this to me so I'm not sure who to credit for this photo. Hope this gives you a good laugh today! Now I have to email this to my sister and break the bad news to her.......ha,ha!

Bird Humor

I'm headed to the cabin this weekend and participating in a craft show on Saturday (in downtown Gaylord, MI in case you're in the area!!) I thought I would leave you with some bird humor! I'll catch up with all of you on Monday.

Burkett's laws of birding

*The First Law of Birding: The greater the time spent searching for a rarity, the greater the chances it will be sitting on your car when you return to the parking lot.

*The Second Law of Birding: There are two sides of a tree; the side facing you and the side where the bird is.

*The Third Law of Birding: When you see the bird that you have always wanted to see, it will be in the last spot you thought of looking for it.

*The Fourth Law of Birding: The best bird seen during a trip is usually seen in bad light, isn't calling or singing, is seen for less than a second, and is the last "trip bird".
-- by Cody Burkett, Phoenix, AZ

************************************************************************************************

You just might be a bird lover and squirrel hater if... (#6)
1. You always wait for all of the birds to fly away before running outside and chasing squirrels from under your bird feeders.
2. Sometimes you forget to put on your slacks before running outside and chasing squirrels from your feeders.
3. You chase squirrels from your feeders by standing at your open patio door and barking loudly at them.
4. Squirrels run away when you bark at them but the birds at your feeders have learned to ignore the barking.
5. Your neighbor asks how you trained your dog to scare the squirrels away from your feeders by barking loudly at them from the patio door and you don't have a dog.
6. You chase squirrels from your feeders by running through the yard, yelling wildly, and squirting them with the water pistol you bought for your grandson's birthday next month.
7. You decide to keep the water pistol you bought for your grandson's birthday and get him another gift because squirting squirrels is both effective in chasing them away from your feeders and a whole lot of fun.
8. The birds in your backyard have become so accustomed to seeing you chase squirrels that they no longer bother to fly to nearby trees.
9. When running after squirrels and squirting them with your water pistol, you never notice you've forgotten to put on your slacks until you're in the far back corner of your yard.
10. It's laugh-out-loud funny to see a squirrel running away from the feeders and falling head-over-heels over the bird water dish that you placed in the grass between the feeders and the tree.

--- from Anita Riechers, retired pre-birder from the greater St. Louis area

Games I like to play

I'm headed to the cabin this morning and will be back on Monday. I am excited to check out the Loon's nesting raft to see if they have settled in.

On another note, Bob the Mourning Dove should be a father any day now! His wife is still nesting in our roof gutter and coos at me everytime I walk by.

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there and I will catch up with you on Monday!

You might be a birder if.....

I'm up at the cabin for a few days but wanted to leave you with some bird humor.

You might be a birder if....

Someone yells "Duck!", and you look up and shout "Where?"

Every time you practice your bird calls thinking that you are alone, someone pops up from out of nowhere.

Vacations are planned to maximize the number of life birds.

You criticize television programs and commercials that depict a bald eagle but play a red-tailed hawk call.

People stop and stare when you pish at the shrubbery at the local mall.

You might be a birder if you know the real name for shopping center pigeons.

Lunch breaks find you driving to check out your favorite hot spot.

You might be a birder if you want to see just one more warbler before lunch.

You might be a birder if you tell your friends you saw 78 birds today even though you saw 600.

Your spouse says, "It's either me or the birds," and you have to think about it.

On sunny days you hop in the car, crank up your tape of bird calls, and drive like crazy to the nearest mountain where the thermals are great for soaring hawks.

You pay a neighbor kid $20 to roll on a carcass and lay still while you search the sky for vultures.

Clouds take on the shape of birds, and you can distinguish male from female, and adult from immature plumage.

A machine squeaks at work and you describe it to maintenance as sounding like a black-and-white warbler.

The first time you meet your future in-laws you demonstrate the courtship dance of the woodcock, replete with sound effects.

You spend fifteen minutes preparing dinner for your family, and thirty minutes mixing and placing seed for your birds.

You wake up your spouse at 5:30am and exclaim, "Is that a phoebe I'm hearing outside the window?"

Preparing for trips to visit out-of-state relatives involves contacting local birders, securing local bird lists, and buying the appropriate Lane's Guide.

You identify calls of birds in the soundtracks of television shows and movies.

You're willing to fight with anyone who criticizes your optics.

You participate in hours-long discussions about the pros and cons of using a certain field guide.

You lose friends, and perhaps even your spouse, from fighting over the pronunciation of "pileated."

You spend most of the day on Saturday, after getting up at 4 a.m. making a five-hour drive, in near zero degree weather in snow and sleet with wet feet and inadequate clothing, looking for an unusual bird, and then exclaim "YES!" with a big grin on Monday morning when someone at work asks you if you had a good weekend.

You are the only one in the room who doesn't think "Prairie Chicken" and "Sapsucker" are funny.

You have trouble following movies, because whenever they have a scene with birdsong in the background, you try to ID all the songs and then lose track of the plot.

Answering "yes" to any of these questions qualifies you as a birder.

*The following birding humor is credited to the following site:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bbowman/birds/humor/index.html