Funny Sally, I was noticing how many birds were at the feeder earlier this morning.
Something a bit sad happened yesterday. A few weeks ago we had a doe with a yearling come and visit the bird feeders. The yearling had no fear of us, the doe let him eat and kept a good eye on him then called him away. Sometimes we do have deer come to the bird feeders in late winter but not this early. Ric thought that the doe was keeping to safer areas near the houses and away from the hunters, as hunting season had just started.So yesterday Alfie started barking and we looked out there was the yearling eating under the bird feeders and still not very afraid of us. Ric was going to chase him when we realized that the doe wasn't anywhere in sight. So we let the poor little thing eat in peace. Ric says it should be large enough to survive on it's own.
Feeding feathered and furry friends
Holly, it's possible that the doe abandoned the yearling. I believe that does tell yearlings to "get lost" before spring comes because they will have new babies to take care of.
Too early for that, they would have stayed together thru the winter.
It must be Bambi
Aww, poor doe may have been taken by a hunter :-(
... thereby reducing the local deer herd, but we've been down that road! :-) if it's any consolation, hunters who shoot for "sport" don't generally settle for a doe, whereas those who shoot for the table prefer them to a big gamy tasting buck.
Catching up with this thread -- really ROFL at the house with all the green meatballs. I think they DID get a landscaping design from somewhere, one of the birds-eye view ones where each plant or shrub is represented as a little rounded shape, and they took it very literally.
And maybe they prune the trees to look like beach umbrellas..
I haven't seen umbrellas, but I've seen plenty of corkscrews...and hourglasses, thanks to deer pruning.
I forgot to mention that when I put on my gardening shoes today, I found that a little mouse friend had stashed peanuts in one. Then I found clumps of seedlings growing in a bag of soil, which probably was another mouse larder.
This message was edited Dec 28, 2014 6:27 PM
Muddy - sounds like you need a cat. ;-)
I have a cat who would dearly love to get rid of those mice, but so far they have not ventured into the house. As long as they don't come any closer than the garage, we can coexist!.
Just as long as it's peanuts and not something else left in your shoe...
Ha ha, funny! It couldn't be much worse than the dead mouse I found in the toe of a shoe when I lived in an apartment eons ago.
Yikes! When I used to leave my mowing shoes in the garage, I would bang them out just so there weren't any surprises in there.
Usually I feed my cats when I get up (or, alternatively, I get up when my cats demand to be fed) but one morning I ignored their pleas and set out to finish a letter I was writing and wanted to get in that day's mail. I successfully ignored them until all but one gave up. I looked him squarely in the eyes and said "Five more minutes!" and added. "I promise." He left but returned shortly and sat quietly at my feet. I finished the letter and looked down at him still sitting there and noticed that at his feet was a freshly caught mouse. I got up and fed him. Sometimes I need a little reminder of the promises I make!
too funny, coleup!
yeah Jeff could be a snake...
3 or 4 years ago when we had a massive stinkbug population I went to put on my gardening boots stored on the deck and discovered at least 20-30 in each. Yuuck! :-(
Lol funny stories guys!
Ick - I'm still finding stink bugs. Over the holiday, I did clutter control on the bottom drawer in the armoire in the living room. It basically contained office type supplies - reams of paper, clear plastic sheet protectors, rolled up poster board, and a lot of loose paper copies of misc recipes. Live stink bugs were holed up for the winter between, in, and under the supplies. YUCK. I also still find piles of dead stink bugs in every conceivable place from the major infestation we had a few years ago. I almost expect that, but still having live ones is driving me crazy.
In the past, I've found stashes of pellet dog food and/or fish food in boots and other odd places that the mice had stashed - knew it was mice from the tell tale droppings nearby.
We have been having a few pop up since the warmer weather cycle started a few days ago but not many.
LOL Coleup, We use to have a cat that brought us mice on a regular basis. She would leave them on the front porch right in front of the door. A few times I was in a hurry rushing out and forgot to check and stepped right on them.
Oh Holly EW!!!!
We've had maybe 5 live stinkbugs this fall, inside.
My wife decided she never wanted to see a bug in the house a couple years ago so we now get it sprayed regularly. We haven't seen a stink bug in a while. Perhaps there was one this past fall. They are a huge pain though. I used to pick them up with my bare hand that was until one put its stink on me and I had to put gas on my hand to finally get the smell off.
Next time you get the "fragrance" of a stink bug on your hands, just rub the area with a sliced lemon. The acid in the lemon reacts with the smelly organic base causing the odor and chemically neutralizes it pretty much instantly. Leaves of Lemon Verbena will do the same and we keep a large pot of it from year to year in part for this purpose.
Yukky, but funny, coleup!
One of my daughter's cats caught a mouse once. I heard squeaking noises and thought they were from a cat toy until I saw the mouse in her mouth. I grabbed the cat, took her outside and yelled "drop it!". She did, and fortunately the mouse wasn't injured because this cat has no teeth.
Funny related story. My daughter was convinced that her cats wouldn't hurt her pet mouse because "they knew the mouse was important to her". She would put the mouse on the cats heads and bodies and hold it close to their faces until one day, the toothless cat grabbed it with her jaw. So much for that theory!
My ski boots are in the basement, and once I found the following odd assortment inside them: a few colored plastic beads that kids use to make necklaces, a miniature cat made out of playdoh, something else I can't remember, and some seeds of course. I really laughed about the little cat!
Interesting GT, thanks for the tip :)
Muddy, those are pretty funny stories LOL.
On the stink bug stink, I am so used to it by now that it doesn't even smell that bad to me anymore.
Oh terrible!! I don't think I could ever get used to such a terrible stench.
One time a few years back I was working at a nursery part time and it happened to be a rainy day. I threw on a rain jacket from back in the greenhouse and went about my business. On break I got a pack of peanut M&Ms and put the bag in the pocket of the jacket so I could eat it as I worked. Well wouldn't you know there was a stink bug in that pocket that must have fallen into my bag of candy. As I blindly grabbed for M&Ms, I picked up the stink bug too. Darned near put that guy in my mouth too. The bug was stuck on my lip and I didn't know what it was until I felt it and picked it off. This was after it had already secreted its stink onto my lip. Ugh, it was terrible gross but at least I didn't eat it.
EEWWWWW!!!!! No wonder the stink is indelibly glued to you.
So, there IS a plus side to not being able to smell well. Hehehehe. I pick them up in a tissue and squeeze and have never smelled anything.
Oh man, do they make that crunching sound when you squeeze them? I never kill them because the crunching sound bugs make when squished really creeps me out.
Lunch = lost
hahaha
I agree, I hate the sound
Yeah, kind of, but maybe my hearing is going as well. Heehee
Lol...perks of hearing loss!!
Hehehe!
I refilled the squirrel & sunflower feeders yesterday, and it's half gone already, reminding me that the weather is supposed to turn cold again. We enjoyed having my brother's family here the past couple of days... but I missed another gardening opportunity! Alas. LOL
It's 28 degrees here : - (
I've had lots of blue jays and mourning doves at my feeders this winter - about a dozen of each - but very few juncos and less cardinals than I usually see.
Muddy--
Slate colored Junkos are the most common visitor to my feeders.
Haven't seen any Blue Jays yet, but i don't throw out whole peanuts.
I see plenty of others...even a wren--with it's tail sticking straight up.
Sparrows (of course). Chickadees, lots of Doves, some Cardinals,
Finches _not to many Gold-finches-- but they are drab now--so I may miss them,
Saw a Downy the other day--and some Nuthatches too.
SO happy--only a few blackbirds so far.
If I could have a platform feeder and put all kinds of stuff on there--
I would see many other birds. I don't--because the squirrels will trash it in an hour.
I want to see a Hawk--closeup!!!
Gita
You could put a mix of millet and safflower on a platform tray, or just millet. The squirrels will leave it alone.
Muddy--I tried that on sally's suggestion and none of the birds ate it either.
May not be fresh enough--I still have an unopened 10lb bag of it.
If not--I mix it into the seed mix I put in my big feeder and it gets eaten.
I keep a big, plastic saucer on the patio floor under a chair for the ground feeders.
I usually mix all kinds of seed in it and add corn and safflower to it as well.
Someone eats it! The saucer is empty every 3-4 days.
G.
It's true that the birds most fond of millet - doves, juncos and sparrows - prefer to eat on the ground. I put my platform feeder on the ground even though it is designed to hang from a chain.
Try putting some of that seed on the ground. If it's still fresh, something will eat it.
Happy New Year everyone!
Most of my feeders were empty this a.m.; I think a raccoon must have cleaned them out overnight. I suspect that they can defeat my truly squirrel-proof Yankee Flipper bird feeder.
I made a lovely concoction of suet, peanut butter and dried mealworms for one of my suet feeders. Yum! : - )
Gita, why don't you dump that bag of seed on the ground and see if something eats it? It would be better than letting it go to waste IMO. If it has gone bad, I think the birds will know that and will avoid it.
If it's a bag of safflower seed, it'll be great for the birds because they're high in fat.
Muddy--
I won't do that, b/c i am too cheap! i will not throw out a 10lb. bag
of seed just because it is last year's. It has been sitting, unopened,
in my cool (58*) Shop for a year now. Don't think it is stale....
Today I was running around shopping--and picked up a small bag ($4.99)
of the seeds and nuts and berries mix. I cannot put it on the floor anywhere..
it will be gone in a day.
Thinking i will put it in a nice small feeder I bought last year and hang it
from the other end of my patio roof. Squirrels will NOT reach it.
Be interesting to see if some of the bigger birds will fly up to it to eat.
I have 2- 20lb. bags of seed sitting in my basement. One is all Black sunflower
seeds. The other is a mix--heavy on same.
I should be more generous with all that. Maybe I will just throw that around.....
G.