Community Chat

[Bird mama]

Hello there Birding Friends - it's gloomy, but since I'm back to work, I don't mind (lol). The arborist came out and trimmed the mulberry tree and two spruces yesterday. I must have all of the trees that company dislikes. I already knew he doesn't like pine trees. He called my mulberry tree an overgrown weed and said it was one step above a box elder (have no idea what a box elder is). He said he'd cut it down if it was him and said the lady who planted it must have been a tree hugger. I stood in my yard and said, yes, she was and she happened to sell her home to another tree hugger - ME. He stopped bad mouthing my tree after that.

The bird of day is the Mute Swan

[Winifred]

Mousiegirl - that little bunny is just adorable. There is a cute one living next door to me - it showed up in their yard a good year ago. They did have two but one died. They had no money to take it to the vet but they sure cared for it as best they could.

Hopefully all had a great Easter - I thoroughly enjoyed my day!

Storm is due here tonight - sure hope it actually happens. Had to chuckle as our illustrious governor last week decided to give his message about HIGHER fees, MORE cutbacks, RATIONED water, etc on a dry bed - really dry. Well today it snowed all over it so needless to say many on TV are having fun with it. It is completely covered with a LOT of snow. LOL. And so we go and go and go!!

Hope all had a great day!!

[mousiegirl]

Winifred, we actually had rain last night. It was supposed to rain on Sunday, and we did get some big drops for a whole ten seconds, then the sun was out, what a joke! We were also supposed to get two thunderstorms and rain today, but only sun and wind, and the rest of the week and for quite a while it is supposed to be sunny.

Every time there a drought, I think too much is made of it, because eventually, we get back to normal rainfall. I think it is a ploy to charge people more, because when the rainfall is normal, the cost is not reduced.

I hope you get your promised storm.

[possummink]

Hi Birding Friends, I chose a rainy gif hoping that it's what Winifred and Mousie get tonight and tomorrow. We got it at home this morning and afternoon. Severe thunderstorms hit the St. Louis area and it hailed so much that cars got stuck in it, just as if it were snow. They used front loaders to move it and then there were flash floods. We got over 2 inches and some areas nearby got 3 inches.

Earlier this afternoon I had a post all ready to submit and lost the whole thing. I haven't a clue what happened. This laptop is the one with Windows 8 and I hate it. It's going to the computer hospital as soon as I get the other one back. The other has some Microsoft software that is 'corrupted' and so they are saving a lot of my stuff, and cleaning out the whole computer and will reinstall my stuff except for the security, Malwarebytes, and Ccleaner, and probably Trusteer. All of the things I hopekeepthe computer safe.

I had posted a photo of the osprey visiting the nest where the Great Horned Owlets were hatched and fledged. I was thinking it would be cool if she made a nest there and raised a brood of baby ospreys, but then I saw a photo ofMama Great Horned Owlvisiting the nest during the night and calling her babies. I can't imagine what would happen if the osprey was there when Mama came to visit.

Osprey~~~

Mama Great Horned Owl~~~

Babies, a photo taken by a resident who lives at the Landings(nest cam is in that neighborhood), on Skidaway Island, near Savannah. She sent it to the Landings Bird Cam people and they posted it on Facebook. ~~~

I sure do miss seeing them every day in their nest. I am watching a GH Owl in Montana, and a Long-eared Owl there too, but the cameras aren't as well placed and the infrared at night leaves a lot to be desired. There are at least 2 GH owlets and the Long-eared Mama is sitting on 6 eggs. On top of those two I watch the Barred Owl in Indiana and she's sitting on 2 eggs. It's cool to listen to her hoot, calling her mate and he brings her food. Crawdads for two or three times that I've seen him bring it. She seldom leaves her nest box.

I haven't seen any action at all in Maine at that Osprey nest. Beautiful area, though. The Osprey nests here have occupants, but I can't tell if there are any babies yet.

Birdmama, That arborist is certainly not a bird lover if he is so negative about mulberry trees. We have two and the birds love those berries. It's a good food supply for them. We lost our old big one a few years back, maybe about 8 years ago. It was over a hundred years old and had housed possums, squirrels and who knows what else. I have photos of it before and after it fell. I was able to walk under one of its limbs that formed kind of an arch when it fell. My granddaughters sat on top of that "arch". It was a massive tree and we had to have a tree company come in and saw it up, even though my brother has several sizes of chain saws. It shaded our pet 'cemetery' and when they dragged the big limbs out they moved a lot of the 'markers' for our Rainbow Bridge pets and now we aren't sure who is where.

I guess I need to get this posted before I do something stupid and lose this post.

Have a nice Wednesday, Everyone, Waving to all my Birding Friends, stay safe and be well.

[Winifred]

We DID get some moisture last night but certainly NOT a storm. It is wet outside but that is about all I can say. I sure hope we get some more before the end of summer. Geesh. Loved the pix Possum, been a long time since I have seen rain like that - it would be lovely to look out the window at that. I so agree with the ploy about droughts - at least out here in Sou Cal. When we get an excess of moisture - and it does happen - costs are never lowered and so I suspect these high rates and add on fees will remain. Would be anything. And then during one rainfall we will hear where they open the gates and let the water run out - such as in the lakes, basins, etc. Yep, they do that out here also. I know, I cannot stand California any longer.

Another busy day - I am getting so tired of trying to keep my house somewhat livable. Spoke to the kids Mom last night and asked her to stick around and help me with a few things and all I got was a big verbal explosion. She has problems for sure.

Birds are probably not happy as I THINK their feeders were mostly empty late yesterday. SEems that is what I saw. LOL.

Hope all have a good day.

[Bird mama]

Happy Hump Day Birding Friends -

I need to check my local weather forecast because I heard on talk radio this morning that severe weather is blowing through the middle of the country. I feel bad for folks in the Ohio valley because they always get nailed by inclement weather. It's raining (not heavily yet) here and not too cold.

The bird of the day is the Corncrake

I found many photos of the bird being vocal - my guess is this one's a talker

[mousiegirl]

On 4/7/2015 possummink said:

Hi Birding Friends, I chose a rainy gif hoping that it's what Winifred and Mousie get tonight and tomorrow. We got it at home this morning and afternoon. Severe thunderstorms hit the St. Louis area and it hailed so much that cars got stuck in it, just as if it were snow. They used front loaders to move it and then there were flash floods. We got over 2 inches and some areas nearby got 3 inches.

Earlier this afternoon I had a post all ready to submit and lost the whole thing. I haven't a clue what happened. This laptop is the one with Windows 8 and I hate it. It's going to the computer hospital as soon as I get the other one back. The other has some Microsoft software that is 'corrupted' and so they are saving a lot of my stuff, and cleaning out the whole computer and will reinstall my stuff except for the security, Malwarebytes, and Ccleaner, and probably Trusteer. All of the things I hopekeepthe computer safe.

I had posted a photo of the osprey visiting the nest where the Great Horned Owlets were hatched and fledged. I was thinking it would be cool if she made a nest there and raised a brood of baby ospreys, but then I saw a photo ofMama Great Horned Owlvisiting the nest during the night and calling her babies. I can't imagine what would happen if the osprey was there when Mama came to visit.

Osprey~~~

Mama Great Horned Owl~~~

Babies, a photo taken by a resident who lives at the Landings(nest cam is in that neighborhood), on Skidaway Island, near Savannah. She sent it to the Landings Bird Cam people and they posted it on Facebook. ~~~

I sure do miss seeing them every day in their nest. I am watching a GH Owl in Montana, and a Long-eared Owl there too, but the cameras aren't as well placed and the infrared at night leaves a lot to be desired. There are at least 2 GH owlets and the Long-eared Mama is sitting on 6 eggs. On top of those two I watch the Barred Owl in Indiana and she's sitting on 2 eggs. It's cool to listen to her hoot, calling her mate and he brings her food. Crawdads for two or three times that I've seen him bring it. She seldom leaves her nest box.

I haven't seen any action at all in Maine at that Osprey nest. Beautiful area, though. The Osprey nests here have occupants, but I can't tell if there are any babies yet.

Birdmama, That arborist is certainly not a bird lover if he is so negative about mulberry trees. We have two and the birds love those berries. It's a good food supply for them. We lost our old big one a few years back, maybe about 8 years ago. It was over a hundred years old and had housed possums, squirrels and who knows what else. I have photos of it before and after it fell. I was able to walk under one of its limbs that formed kind of an arch when it fell. My granddaughters sat on top of that "arch". It was a massive tree and we had to have a tree company come in and saw it up, even though my brother has several sizes of chain saws. It shaded our pet 'cemetery' and when they dragged the big limbs out they moved a lot of the 'markers' for our Rainbow Bridge pets and now we aren't sure who is where.

I guess I need to get this posted before I do something stupid and lose this post.

Have a nice Wednesday, Everyone, Waving to all my Birding Friends, stay safe and be well.

Possumm, how in the world did the picture of the dog and owl occur, I wonder.

[mousiegirl]

On 4/8/2015 Winifred said:

We DID get some moisture last night but certainly NOT a storm. It is wet outside but that is about all I can say. I sure hope we get some more before the end of summer. Geesh. Loved the pix Possum, been a long time since I have seen rain like that - it would be lovely to look out the window at that. I so agree with the ploy about droughts - at least out here in Sou Cal. When we get an excess of moisture - and it does happen - costs are never lowered and so I suspect these high rates and add on fees will remain. Would be anything. And then during one rainfall we will hear where they open the gates and let the water run out - such as in the lakes, basins, etc. Yep, they do that out here also. I know, I cannot stand California any longer.

Another busy day - I am getting so tired of trying to keep my house somewhat livable. Spoke to the kids Mom last night and asked her to stick around and help me with a few things and all I got was a big verbal explosion. She has problems for sure.

Birds are probably not happy as I THINK their feeders were mostly empty late yesterday. SEems that is what I saw. LOL.

Hope all have a good day.

When I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday and heard the rain, when I got back in bed I left my ear bud out so I could listen to it, it sounded so good. I guess that memory will have to last a while, as I doubt there is anymore rain on the way.

[possummink]

Visitors to the Great Horned Owl nest. Maybe new tenants??? Haven't seen the Ospreys at the Maine nest cam yet, in fact the camera was down and being repaired Should be interesting.

[Puddles]

to everyone!

Finally, we have our travel date back to England......Monday, May 4th. To say that we are anxious to get back is putting it mildly. We still have to finish replacing the windows in the flat, as well as paint and lay new carpet. It is then we can put it on the market. The sooner, the better and we are planning our move back to the U.S.