Sunday, June 28, 2009
Happy thought!
Here's a happy thought. Don Kroodsma told Laura Erickson that MY song was his favorite bird song!!! I've been doing my best to elude her camera, but when she told me that this morning, I decided what the heck, and though I kept my distance, I cooperated at least a little.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Oh, wow, I have a headache!
Please make your windows easier for us to see BEFORE migration! Dr. Daniel Klem, the hero for many of us birds, has a new paper in The Wilson Bulletin about how humans can reduce window crashes, titled Preventing Bird-Window Collisions. Please read it and help my friends and me to have safe passage. Please..
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Check out my fledging checklist!
Julie O'Connor and Debbie Waters worked out a checklist we Peregrine Falcons must complete before we can leave the nest. Remember--think OUTSIDE the box! Check it out on Sam Cook's blog: http://www.areavoices.com/samcook/?blog=54000
Monday, June 22, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
My hero
is Margaret Morse Nice. And if you don't know who she is, there's an excellent article about her in Wikipedia.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
I eat a few baby ducks and geese
They sweeten my disposition. You'd feel snappish, too, if you had a leech on the back of your neck.
Honey, I know you're mad at your little brother,
but siblicide is common in Great Egrets, not Great Blue Herons. So you're just going to have to get along.
Great blog, or the greatest blog?
When I was a baby, I got very sick and would have died except for Marge Gibson. She is a world-renowned wildlife rehabilitator, and she saved my life. And guess what! She has a blog. And boy is it interesting--she gets the coolest birds in, and shows photos of them and is SO interesting! Check it out! http://raptoreducationgroup.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Did you know that some people don't like geese?
It's interesting learning about the world. But rather scary, too.
Little things mean a lot.
Yes, I'm still bringing sticks home to my sweetie. It's nice to show our little ones how important it is to share and work together.
Family Portrait
Do we have a third or even a fourth chick hiding in here? We're not saying! So you'll just have to keep checking.
Friday, June 12, 2009
I love waking up early!
And when I say early, I mean it. I've been starting up singing every day about 3:55 a.m., when it's still quite dark. What's the point? I want everyone to know that this is MY territory--that I made it through the night, I'm still here, and I'm not going anywhere.
Couldn't I hold off until a "civilized hour"? Nope. When it starts getting light, it's time for breakfast! There's just a brief window of time between the sun coming up and the worms going down for the day. So I like to sing, loud and vigorously and long, before it's light enough to hunt. That singing will dispel any doubts about how filled with vim and vigor I am--a robin needs the respect of his neighbors more than just about anything!
After I've eaten my fill, I'll start up singing again, until I have babies to feed--they keep me hopping!--but my favorite singing is always long before dawn. Cheerily, cheerily, cheerio!
Couldn't I hold off until a "civilized hour"? Nope. When it starts getting light, it's time for breakfast! There's just a brief window of time between the sun coming up and the worms going down for the day. So I like to sing, loud and vigorously and long, before it's light enough to hunt. That singing will dispel any doubts about how filled with vim and vigor I am--a robin needs the respect of his neighbors more than just about anything!
After I've eaten my fill, I'll start up singing again, until I have babies to feed--they keep me hopping!--but my favorite singing is always long before dawn. Cheerily, cheerily, cheerio!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
We cuckoos are killed by windows a lot.
People don't like putting window screening or bird netting on the outside of their picture windows, but boy does it help us!
Monday, June 8, 2009
I love...
that National Velvet's horse was named Pie--for the same reason that I'm a Pied-billed Grebe! And we're both speedy. (Though I'm a far, far better diver, if I do say so myself.)
I love preening my back.
But this isn't some stupid reality show. Please avert your eyes. And that blasted camera!
As a trap, neuter, and release cat myself...
Hi. My name's Kasey and I'm a Trap, Neuter, and Release cat. Except then I found a home. I sometimes miss the olden days when I could rip a little bird like this one to shreds, and I'll never forget the cool sensation when I chomped through their bones. But I also remember the tapeworms and roundworms, the fleas and lice, and the cold and rain and fighting with other cats to get a nice safe sleeping spot. I remember running for my life from foxes and coyotes. I love being an indoor cat, and getting to knock around chess pieces and other toys to my heart's content without my very life depending on successful kills and the cheap dry catfood they set out that we're supposed to share with every other TNR cat around.
Inside, in my cushy life, I've learned that predators only thrive at the peak of the food chain when there are a LOT of animals on the lower levels. But these TNR programs subsidize us, turning what's supposed to be a food pyramid on its head. I can't help wanting to chase things. It's hard for me to remember that that White-throated Sparrow out there is not a chess piece for me to push around. So you've got to do that remembering for me. If you're really humane, your sympathy should extend to the birds we subsidized cats love to toy with, shouldn't it?
Look, people. If you care about cats and want to create a world that is really sustainable for us, for wild birds, and for you, take one or two strays in and encourage others to do their part, too. And read this: http://wildlifeprofessional.org/blog/
No one--least of all us cats--wants people to have to euthanize unwanted strays. But guess what. We cats are predators--lean, mean, killing machines. We can't help it. And so guess what--we understand death and accept it. It's what happens in nature. You deluded humans romanticize nature and think that just because we want to play outside, that we should be allowed to. But I don't see you letting your toddlers play outside unattended. Love us? Take us in and take care of us and protect us from toying with birds like so many chess pieces, or soon this planet will go all to hell and we'll all go down together. We cats aren't rocket scientists. But some of you humans are. It's time you started acting like the most intelligent species on the planet.
Inside, in my cushy life, I've learned that predators only thrive at the peak of the food chain when there are a LOT of animals on the lower levels. But these TNR programs subsidize us, turning what's supposed to be a food pyramid on its head. I can't help wanting to chase things. It's hard for me to remember that that White-throated Sparrow out there is not a chess piece for me to push around. So you've got to do that remembering for me. If you're really humane, your sympathy should extend to the birds we subsidized cats love to toy with, shouldn't it?
Look, people. If you care about cats and want to create a world that is really sustainable for us, for wild birds, and for you, take one or two strays in and encourage others to do their part, too. And read this: http://wildlifeprofessional.org/blog/
No one--least of all us cats--wants people to have to euthanize unwanted strays. But guess what. We cats are predators--lean, mean, killing machines. We can't help it. And so guess what--we understand death and accept it. It's what happens in nature. You deluded humans romanticize nature and think that just because we want to play outside, that we should be allowed to. But I don't see you letting your toddlers play outside unattended. Love us? Take us in and take care of us and protect us from toying with birds like so many chess pieces, or soon this planet will go all to hell and we'll all go down together. We cats aren't rocket scientists. But some of you humans are. It's time you started acting like the most intelligent species on the planet.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Nestlings? Yum yum.
We cranes, both us Whooping Cranes and our dinky relatives the Sandhill Cranes, do in fact eat nestlings when we chance upon them. They're rich in protein and their crunchy little bones give us calcium right when we need it most. (Shhh--don't tell those pesky Red-winged Blackbirds that their paranoia is justified!)
My babies are probably not going to be killed by this crane.
And your babies are probably not going to stick forks in that electric socket. But good parents do what we can to protect them from EVERYTHING.
There are nine...
And yes, I have duck lips. But if I hear one more person make a crack about "Octomom," I'll just scream.
(Anyway, everyone knows she has grouper fish lips, not duck lips.)
(Anyway, everyone knows she has grouper fish lips, not duck lips.)
Semipalmated means our toes our half-webbed.
But we're hardly going to show them to the likes of you.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Macho?
I'm bigger, tougher, and more aggressive than my mate. Sure, he's speedy and he brings home the bacon, so to speak. But in our world, there's no such word as "macho." The word is "macha."
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