Among Friends

[just bee]

Fine-looking bird. 

[Snicks1]

I did get everything done that I wanted yesterday. I added a trip to a couple of stores in the late afternoon/early evening, I needed to pick up a prescription, then added a stop to buy some plants. The plants were for my big pots. I have 6 big pots and try different things in them every year. Except one always gets a Kimberly Queen Fern. Then I always add some Dusty Miller and some spikes in all my pots, so that's mostly what I bought last night, along with some other things. So, today if I ever get moving, I'll get those in pots and may make it out to the local greenhouse to see what else is interesting I want to try this year. That's all assuming the cloudy skies don't open up, lol. Hope you have a nice day.

[just bee]

[viva923]

got a good morn walk in think i racked up near 3 miles this morning . stopped by to see my other grandson house he was visiting his other grandma-lois lives about 1 mile from me. she lost her husband about 2 yrs ago.

anyway that is is all for now later guys

[geezerette]

@Bird mama 

Well that's another new one for me.  I never knew there were any other types of robins except for our own Robin Red Breasts.

They're attractive.  Sort of like they're wearing formal attire. ☺️

[Bird mama]

Hello all, the bird of the day is the Black Shouldered Kite  aka The Australian Black Shouldered Kite  aka  Australian Kite.

Current conservation Status LC (least concern) with an increasing population trend.

Black-shouldered kites are small graceful raptors found in open habitat throughout Australia. Males and females have similar plumage. Their crown, neck, and upperparts are pale grey, while the head and underparts are white. A black comma-shaped marking lies in front of and stretches over and behind the eye, which is deep red and surrounded by a black orbital ring. The leading edge of the outer wing is black. When perched, this gives the species its prominent black "shoulders". The legs and feet are also yellow or golden-yellow, and the feet have three toes facing forwards and one toe facing backwards.

Black-shouldered kites are found throughout Australia. They may be sedentary or nomadic and are generally found in open grasslands or valleys where there are scattered clumps of trees. They also forage over pastures, cereal or vegetable crops and vineyards, often focusing on areas that have been recently harvested or ploughed and hence rendering prey more exposed. In urban areas, they are encountered on the edge of towns on wasteland, irregularly mown areas, sports fields, golf courses or grassy roadside verges. Black-shouldered kites also hunt over coastal dunes and drier marshland but avoid areas with dense cover such as forest as well as the bare or rocky ground.

Black-shouldered kites usually hunt singly or in pairs; where food is plentiful they occur in small family groups and can be loosely gregarious, with up to 70 birds reported feeding together during a mouse plague. During the night the birds usually roost communally. However, when food is not abundant, Black-shouldered kites are territorial. They practice "tail flicking" which is thought to be a possible territorial display; ''tail flicking'' is a behavior where, on landing, the kite flicks up and lowers its tail and this movement is repeated persistently. Black-shouldered kites prefer to hunt during the day, particularly in the early morning and mid to late afternoon. They hunt by quartering grasslands for small creatures. This can be from a perch, but more often by hovering in mid-air. Typically, a kite hovers 10 to 12 m (35 to 40 ft) above a particular spot. When hunting from a perch, a dead tree is the preferred platform. When a mouse or other prey is spotted, the kite drops silently onto it, feet-first with wings raised high. Prey is seized in the talons and about 75% of attacks are successful. Prey can either be eaten in flight or carried back to a perch. Black-shouldered kites are generally silent, except in the breeding season when their calls, though weak, can be persistent. They primarily utter a clear whistled chee, chee, chee call in flight and while hovering, or a hoarse wheezing skree-ah when perched. A short high whistle is the primary contact call between a pair, while a harsh scraping call is the most common call used by the female and large young, and brooding females call to their young with a deep, soft, frog-like croak.

Black-shouldered kites are carnivores. They feed on grasshoppers, rats, small reptiles, birds, and even (very rarely) rabbits. However, mice and other mouse-sized mammals make up over 90% of their diet.

Black-shouldered kites form monogamous pairs. Aerial courtship displays involve single and mutual high circling flight, and the male may fly around with wings held high rapidly fluttering, known as flutter-flight. Courting males dive at the female, feeding her in mid-flight. The female grabs food from the male's talons with hers while flipping upside-down. They may lock talons and tumble downwards in a ritualized version of grappling, but release just before landing. All courtship displays are accompanied by constant calling. The breeding season is usually August to January but is responsive to mice populations, and some pairs breed twice in a good season. Both sexes collect material for the nest but the female alone builds it. The nest is a large untidy shallow cup of sticks and takes anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks to be built. It is constructed of thin twigs and is lined with green leaves and felted fur. It is generally located in the canopy of an isolated or exposed tree in an open country, elevated 5 to 20 m (16 to 66 ft) or more above the ground. The female lays 3-4 dull white eggs of a tapered oval shape and with red-brown blotches. She incubates the eggs for 30 days and when the chicks hatch they are helpless but have soft down covering their body. For the first two weeks or so the female broods the chicks constantly, both day and night. The nestling period lasts around 36 days, and the post-fledging period at least 36 days with parental feeding for at least 22 days. When the chicks are older both parents take it in turns to feed them. The young are fully-fledged and are ready to fly in 5 weeks. Within a week of leaving the nest, the young birds are capable of hunting for mice on their own.

Juvenile

[geezerette]

Wow, what a striking bird with that coloring and those blood red eyes!  Beautiful!

[Dazlin]

@viva923 ...3 miles is certainly a good walk!!

[mousiegirl]

I was talking about birds in the other thread I frequent, so since my post in answer to some's question, is mostly about birds, I am posting it here for a few laughs.

There are lots of worms and bugs around here, in addition to which I know there are people who feed, saw an elaborate feeding station of so many feeders a short bit from here, and the birdies know where to go.  They nest on my deck eve and in shrubs in addition to trees.  When the scrub jays come looking for the babies on my deck eve, I pound on windows and go out screaming like a banshee, lol, but they come back.

One evening while I was on the deck grilling, I heard a Jay racket so looked down the path to seem them on the hanging basket where I knew Mourning Doves nested, so got a tall ladder and up I went to see one baby, the other was taken, so put the nest and it into a cat carrier and into the house.  I placed it in a picnic basket with lid in front of the warm grow lights where I began seedlings, and the next day, I took it to Wildlife Rescue and gave them $20.  It was supposed to have been brought back here when it was old enough so I could let it go, but that didn't happen.

Since doves go back the following year to nest again, including their grown babies to nest, for all I know it came back to do that.  I always had at least ten hanging baskets with them nesting every year.  

One day, when DD was very young sitting in her baby swing hanging from a tree, a Jay flew onto my straw hat I was wearing, and stayed there while I walked around gardening.  DD was laughing so hard, a baby's laugh is like no other, so I was laughing at her while she was laughing at the bird on my hat.

I could write a book of all the critters I have rescued through the years, birds, baby squirrels, cats, dogs, and bunnies.

Remind me to tell you and everyone, the night I rescued a baby squirrel, looking back, some of it was pretty funny.

I came across a post, probably here, with a donkey and sign saying this is a nut house.  I told DD I should hang this on our house, got several lols.  For many years it was with all of the foster animals, rescues, and a little one running around, not to mention DH, LOL.

[just bee]