Hi All:
jsb: At the end of the previous Weekly Chat are two responses to your posting about the birds with French accents. One is from me and not especially profound. The other is from Diane, and reads as follows : Lovely article. I always have two pairs of house wrens (known as jenny wrens here) who return about the same time in the spring. Even though both females are house wrens, I can always tell which bird is singing, no matter where they are. I don't know whether the slight difference is because they winter in different regions or because individual wrens have distinct sounds. I always put up houses for them, but, this year, one pair decided that it would be more fun to nest in the nook above my propane gas tank, where the dials and controls are. So I had to fiercely guard the nest from the gas company employees who periodically check the gas levels. The gas company guys think I'm looney but they didn't dare to defy me and bother the wrens!
Everyone: AQ posted this one: Adelaide 10.50 am 12 C. Pumpkin soup for lunch thanks to friend giving me 2 large butternuts. Today is the Bay to Birdwood Classic for cars 1956-1977. Once upon a time they left from Glenelg (the Bay), but lack of space means they now leave from West Beach (2 km north). They travel about 70 km (44 miles) to Birdwood in the Adelaide Hills where there is a Motor Museum. Next year is the run for the Vintage cars (pre-1956). A picnic day. A bit chilly today but not as chilly as Wattle's.
And Teresa had this tip: If you delete something by mistake it is worth holding the Ctrl key down and clicking on Z. In lots of instances it undoes your last action - not always though but still worth a try.
AQ and Teresa: Hope it was okay to copy and paste your comments on this page - didn't want anyone to miss them.
Caerann said: To Everyone since we're all bird lovers: I was able to find this beautiful film about the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Texas on YouTube. I'm not sure if anyone had posted this in the past but it's a 5:33 look at these wonderful people who take in birds and either rehabilitate and release them, or keep the birds that can't live on their own. Warning: When she removes the Barn Owls from their cages they screech very loudly so please watch your volume level. =O) This is how I wish everyone in the world could be. Please enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD2t-LXrjzk
To Everyone since we're all bird lovers:
I was able to find this beautiful film about the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Texas on YouTube. I'm not sure if anyone had posted this in the past but it's a 5:33 look at these wonderful people who take in birds and either rehabilitate and release them, or keep the birds that can't live on their own.
Warning: When she removes the Barn Owls from their cages they screech very loudly so please watch your volume level. =O)
This is how I wish everyone in the world could be. Please enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD2t-LXrjzk
Everything in life is speaking in spite of its apparent silence.
DjoanS said: Allen Thought you might like to know (or maybe not!) ... have just been to Focus DIY ... and bought a Thunderbirds badge :))) ... selling them in aid of The Meningitis Trust and I couldn't resist. Thunderdog Hamish would still need his sunglasses here in Northumberland this p.m. ... and I have just watered the garden ... cue the rain!!
Allen
Thought you might like to know (or maybe not!) ... have just been to Focus DIY ... and bought a Thunderbirds badge :))) ... selling them in aid of The Meningitis Trust and I couldn't resist. Thunderdog Hamish would still need his sunglasses here in Northumberland this p.m. ... and I have just watered the garden ... cue the rain!!
FAB DjoanS
Well said Caerann and thanks for the link. It would be wonderful if everyone was like the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre, sadly this is not the case but there are many people who do such good work and I am so glad there are. I never fail to be amazed by nature in any form and it is so important that we look after what we have.
Margobird
Good one Alan I hope Thurnderbird Hamish is pleased with his badge. Glad you still have sun, it has been mostly cloudy here since mid-morning so I think watering your gardem may bring me some rain at least. Need it though no appreciable rain for nearly 3 weeks now.
Afternoon all (5pm here). Totally agree what Caerann and Margobird wrote!
It has been a beautiful autumn day here, only downfall is that now I have a red nose beeing out! But it kind of matches with the hair...
Gary, hope that Clover is getting better.
Alan, mayby You could teach Hamish to do accent test, and thus he could chase gently away the unwanted birds :)
my photos in flickr
Just watched the preview for the ken burns program and was just wandering if it might be shown at sometime on Discovery over here as it looks as if it will be a wonderful series. The BBC did a program about Yellowstone a while back and you could put Scotland in the area of just one of your National Parks. It is only now that the politicians in this country are realising how important it is to look after the wild areas of a country so that nature gets a chance. I think they are also realising that the seas around our country also require to be looked after and they are discussing making some parts conservation areas so I hope they will stop speaking and act quickly before the wildlife in them becomes extinct.
george g
Hello Auntie your weather sound cooler than here although the sun which has been constantly shining for the last 3 weeks dsappeared mid-monring. It does feel a bit cooler first thing and at night but no red noses for me yet. Autumn is just about here and I have been watching a squirrel in my garden eating and burying peanuts which is what they do at this time of the year. I am also seeing more birds now as in summer they tend to live off natural things and don't require too much help with food. Obviously it is starting to change and they know there is always plenty for them in my garden, grated cheese, fat balls, seed, dried fruit, and porridge oats. I also get a lot of wood pigeons in the garden as well and it is their peanuts that the squirrel is feedieng on. I get immense pleasure from having them in my garden and spend a lot time watching their antics now that I am retired.
Morning all. Cooling trend here for the next few days (temps around 70; then up to the 80s for a day or two, then back down again). If El Nino holds, we could have a nice wet winter....
I spent an hour yesterday cleaning oriole and hummingbird feeders, then put the oriole one away until next June and refilled the hummers' feeders, also the regular feeder, so I'm sure the area around the regular feeder will be covered with cast-offs again today. We have one fat little brown visitor who gets into the feeder (it's a flat tray at this point),and whose sole interest seems to be in tossing out great sprays of seed; haven't ID'd him/her yet and wonder what the purpose is. Maybe just too lazy to poke about carefully like the regulars.
Nice video Caerann: Our Wildlife Rescue Center is just two blocks away from the house. When I lived in LA, I found a hummingbird laying right in front of the wheel of my car, obviously very sick, and was advised to take him to a lady 30 minutes away who rescued only hummingbirds. Her whole house was converted into a nursery for ailing hummers, complete with ICU and incubators! Her "patients" graduated from ICU to small cages in the house and eventually, prior to release (in their original neighborhoods), to a huge aviary in her garden. Was quite a set up. She had about 80 birds there at that time. Sad, but my little fella didn't make it through the night..
We have to put sunblock on our cat's ears - she's white - and apparently it's a common spot for skin cancer. I tell you, if it isn't one thing wiith pets (and families), it's three or four others.
Do hope we get an update, both from Richard and GE today - Alice spoiled us with her daily notes!
Hi Margobird. Jep, our weather is now getting cooler as the autumn really is here. The below zeroC nights are to be expected this week, brrrr. Altough I love autumn, these colours and beautiful dark evenings with moon and stars.
I don`t have a garden (living in a flat), but there is planty of trees in the yard, and thus I get nice sightings from my windows of squirrels and brown hares and birds and once I saw a stoat running under my balcony.
Oh, Margobird - I too put out porridge oats for the birds (as well as seed, peanuts. fat balls, and coconut treats from the RSPB) - all sorts of birds go for the oats, don't they ? My resident Robin really likes a tuck in - not to mention the doves and wood pigeons - the sparrows and dunnock enjoy them, Mr and Mrs 'B' will have a tuck in when it gets a bit colder as well .
Gary, didn't realise Clover had been poorly. So sorry, reallly hope he is on the mend now.
Alan, on my Saturday hike, I too saw a muncjac deer leaping over a ploughed field after we came into view. More interestingly, just before we saw the deer a large very black 'something' - larger than a fox - as big as a large Alsation dog, crossed the track we were walking along and disappeared into the hedgerow on the other side. Saw no sign of a dog making its way back across the field to the houses, distant ! Very black it was and I was wondering if it was hunting the muncjac !! Maybe Dartmoor isn't the only place in the UK with exotic pets let loose 'cos they can't be cared for any more ???????