Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Non-Fish Eating Birds

Dave,

I seem to remember a virus killing them out east. Maybe there is a correlation?

So what is anyone doing to keep squirrels off of the bird feeders?

something like this

Dave,
I put a bat box up shortly after buying our place. The brochure said it could take a few years for them to find it. I don't know where you placed yours but my pamphlet suggested near water, facing south. I placed out between our 2 ponds (approx 100 yards apart). The bats moved in the very next summer. Be careful walking under it. Had the crap scared out of me by a young one that fell out and decided the fastest way back was up my sock!

I installed mine in the top of an old barn. All of the literature I read said to give them a SW exposure so they could stay warm. I don't think they have to worry about that around here. I do occasionally check and clean out wasp nests in it. Oh well, maybe someday.

Jeff, LMAO about the baby bat climbing your leg.

I reached in a piece of oilfield equipment years ago and felt something kind of fuzzy. When I jerked my hand out a bat came out attached to the end of my finger. He hit the ground and then flew off. I got to go to the doctor for 33 rabies shots. I still like bats though.

How do you feel about doctors?

Reminds me of a story a friend told me although I have my doubts it's original. He claimed to have a pet squirrel that his mother made him release into the wild because it kept crawling under the couch cushions and tearing them up. He told me it liked to crawl up your pant leg and out the top of your pants. Said he was telling the town drunk about it and the drunk didn't believe him. So he took the guy out to the tree and sure enough the squirrel came running just like they were old friends. Just as the squirrel ran up the pant leg of the guy, my friend told him, "Oh I forgot to tell you. He sometimes mistakes your nuts for acorns." The friend claimed he never saw a guy take off his pants so fast!

Rose Breasted Grosbeaks checking out the feeder.

Theo, doctors not so much. Although I had to give the shots to myself on the weekends when the clinic was closed. Come to think of it I don't like myself anymore all that much.

Sure, its funny NOW! Thank God no one was home to hear me scream and flail like a 12 year old girl.

I was working fence today, burying an electric fence line under a gate hole in a new fence row 10' away from the old fence row. There were a whole bunch of small birds making a ruckus in the bushes in the old fence row. They turned out to be 12 - 15 baby Mallards!

About half of them came out of the bushes to see if I or the tractor was their Mother. One of them fell in the ditch I had dug and got himself out without much trouble. Then they all went back through the bushes and under a small brush pile on the other side.

It was a neat diversion from fencing.

What a difference taking out all those sparrows made. My eastern blue birds have showed up two days in a row. Also, have a lot more cardinals. I encourage anyone to trap those sparrows and get rid of them. It really makes a difference in the survival rate of song birds.

I need some help with a bird ID, I saw quite a few of these while fishing Bilby Ranch Lake in NW Missouri this weekend. I think this is yellow warbler.



a closer view.

Looks like a female prothonotary warbler, Shorty. I've been seeing them around my pond for years although they have never been plentiful. Really beautiful, aren't they?

Today's $2 word is courtesy of Dudley - " prothonotary "

I'm with you, Dudley. My first reaction was PW, but when I looked it up for pic resemblance on-line, I backed off as uncertain.
I paid $3; the premium gave me access to the acronym.

I still think it is a yellow warbler, you can see a chesnut streak just under the one wing. It is also one of the most common types of warblers.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Yellow_Warbler.html

OK. No problem for me. Yellow warbler it is.

Prothonotary Publics everywhere mourn.

Anybody have swallows on their ponds? I have both ground and barn swallows. I have a pair of swallows nest in my inflow pipes every year. I had to use one this year so they moved to another one. Cute little birds. I'll have to get pics.

I had a male and a female sitting on my two pier posts respectfully in the perch pond just staring at me. Wish I had had the camera at that moment.

We have both barn swallows, tree swallows, and maybe a few cliff swallows too. My folks have been vigilant in the last couple of weeks knocking down the beginings of barn swallow nests that they try to start building on the house.

Both Barn and tree swallows as well as a few flycatchers. They constantly buzz the pond. Needless to say between them and the bats my mosquito population is very low. Now if I can just convince the flycatchers to leave me dragonflies alone.

and for all you Monty Python fans.......

King Arthur: The swallow may fly south with the sun or the house martin or the plover may seek warmer climes in winter, yet these are not strangers to our land?

1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

King Arthur: Not at all. They could be carried.

1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: What? A swallow carrying a coconut?

King Arthur: It could grip it by the husk!

1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.

King Arthur: Well, it doesn't matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?

1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Listen. In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?

Just returned from the Lazy W. Have eastern bluebirds trying to nest in holes in my fence post in back yard. They wouldn't even come around when sparrows were there.