A Bird In The Hand

[paper thorn]

I love birds.

When I first got the idea for this thread, I didn't think there were any other 'bird' threads here. But there are. I will get to them when I have time to see what birding type interests and stories are here.

This is where I'll tell my bird stories. OK, not just 'stories' but general observations and pics and general bird stuff.

Feel free to post any bird pics or stories you like.

Hopefully. I'll get a few pics up now and then, some old some new. But for now I'll start off with something that happened about ten years ago. It's nothing really to most peeps, but to me it was an amazing experience.

I went out to my van (had a van back then), and I saw a hummingbird buzzing around inside the van. He was banging against the windows. Birds don't really understand glass. Now, I've seen a sparrow in a car before, but this was a hummingbird.

I was worried that the little guy would hurt himself so I went into the van to let him out. I opened a window but he just would not go to it. So I decided I had to catch the little guy before he killed his self. I gently cornered and caught him. I cradled him carefully in my hands. I got out of the van as my wife was nearby watching.

Wanting to show her the bird, I walked toward her and opened my hand to let her see my prize. the little guy was sitting on my palm and fell over on his side like he was dead. I knew he was not dead, but just frightened by the giant holding him. I walked over to my wife who was about 15 feet away, with my hand open and the bird just lying there in my palm.

Once I got over to where my wife was the hummingbird stood up suddenly and buzzed loudly away.

Anyway, that's my first post bird story.

I'll never forget holding that amazing little bird in my hand. I think it was a Costa's Hummingbird.

I've got more bird stories, and some are about holding other wild birds, but nothing will match holding a hummingbird.

 

[Stoner4Life]

back in NY I carried a bucket of bird seed in my blazer, wherever I'd stop to toke up I could attract dozens of birds by tossing out a scoop or two, mostly sparrows (my favorite little bird btw) and various finches, I dig birds, very pacifying.......

 

[Perpetual Nooch]

Cool story bro.

 

[paper thorn]

Thanks PN, So cool S4L. Throw out a cracker around here and between the sparrows and grackles, some bird sees it and gets it.


OK,
I'll save my hawk story for another day. Need time to type, and bedtime is approaching fast.

Since I started with a hummingbird story, I'll add another really short one. Working outside in the yard one day and a ruby throated hummingbird (well, he had a red throat, i think some other HBs do too) flew over to me and stopped and hovered maybe 18 inches in front of my face and just looked at me. He moved his head side to side to get a good look and I said Hi and after 5 or 10 seconds he just buzzed away.

He hung out close by all the time. Had his main perch in my palo verde tree.

Anyway, I really thought it was cool that I got such a good look at him while he was getting a good look at me.

 

[paper thorn]

Driving around an alfalfa field on the farm the other day and had a flock of must have been 50 cattle egrets that were sitting nearby. I remember thinking that the were taking a rest from a busy morning doing bird stuff. As I slowed at the corner of the field, the whole flock came flying over to my truck. They swooped in all around me.


not my pic^^ but the same kind of bird

I've seen them follow tractors and swathers (alfalfa mowers) around eating bugs the machines stir up, but never had them follow me. So I'd move up a bit being careful not to run over the ones the kept flying and running in front of the truck. I'd roll up a hundred feet and they'd come after me. Kept it up all the way around the field. Really cool the way they come in for a landing; all those wings around me, one was flying right beside me as I was driving, he was like 3 feet away for maybe 25 feet.

They would land and immediately start looking for bugs. As the zoom in on one they stalk it and move their head side to side a little. their necks sort of swing side to side, kind of funny looking, then BAM! they get that grasshopper.

It really made my day, so much better at work when your surrounded by birds.

 

[paper thorn]

shadow birds

shadow birds

speaking of birds and cattle.

A nearby farm has a pasture where they graze about a dozen or so head of cattle and a few horses.

Gotta get a pic or vid of this someday... As the cattle and horses graze, they slowly walk form one side of the field to the other. There is a flock of blackbirds that live there and they (during the 115 degree summer anyway) hang out in the shadows of the cows and horses all day. So they have to constantly move as the livestock moves. The cow walks a few feet, the blackbirds hop and flit over a few feet so they can stay in their shadows. I suppose the cows and horses scare up bugs for them to eat in addition to providing them shade from the brutal sun.

anyway, it's way cool to watch.

 

[paper thorn]

a robin on the shoulder would be way too cool. I dream of birds landing on me but so far no. Though that does remind me a little of my Hawk Story.
but later for that.

 

[chefbudz]

spent many days tokeing up by the river watching the bald eagles for hours

 

[Stoner4Life]

spent many days tokeing up by the river watching the bald eagles for hours

we have an amazing # of bald eagle in this area of minnesota, the Chippewa Natl Forest claims to have 150 nesting pair by itself. if I take my time & hang out near a couple of flyways I know of I'll spot several, to many, on any given day.

they love to scavenge deer carcasses along the roads come spring thaw, one road that's popular with the poachers for dumping gets a lot of eagle action, I can see 6/8/10 of them (all different birds) in a 2 mile stretch feeding on 4 or 5 obviously butchered deer.

 

[waveguide]

well bro, i'll tell you bcs it's early and i talk too much before i get high.

in my 30's being awesome paid off and i started to be able to understand birds, insects and animals. it would be easy to think from that that i must be psychotic, but too much real interaction has verified it, at least for me.. pigs can do a bit of talking.

so i've had years of waking up to a greeting from the neighborhood, constant hours of abuse at the hands of mockingbirds and some allegiant doves.. been taught shit by crickets and shit.

..a few months ago i was on a trail in the rincons and this dude is walking down the trail, and i hear some birds talking and realised they were talking to him and not to me! amazing to finally meet another person tuned in.

i knew a viet vet who had a dove land on him when he was watering his garden and "steeped in sorrows". bird sat on his shoulder for 10 minutes. generally, the size difference = not good playmates


here's a story... this spring a local sparrow has a son, the son keeps saying about this and this is a "..thing of beauty!" the name stuck and now and then i hear other birds call him that.

here's another... i keep a bowl of water out for the wildlife. normally you see folks come round looking for a drink. last summer solstice i went out somewhere around midday and the yard is FULL of critters... ground squirrels, rabbits, all kinds of birds, like they were having a water bowl party.

i've seen a lot of unbelievable shit in my life, but that was supremely weird.


anyway - they can perceive stuff we're not tuned into, they might not care a whole lot about c++ but otherwise i wouldn't care to limit the intelligence of some of these creatures.. if there's no line of sight, they can still sense you emotionally or spiritually or something. not all of them are your friends.. they can have agendas and allegiances, but keep your ears and eyes open for their input

 

[trichrider]

last summer I took the grandkids crabbing in the sound. while we were letting the pots sit I noticed two large birds of prey coming towards us.

I clued the kids to watch the birds as they approached and as they came closer we made out a mature bald eagle chasing an osprey. fucking cool to see...

they both were screeching loudly and the osprey had a large fish in its talons which the eagle was attempting to steal. they would roll and dive and screech and were just above us now.

the eagle swooped and dive-bombed the osprey and it loosed its grip on the fish. the eagle then caught the fish mid-air and they departed in opposite directions, leaving us with open mouths and pounding hearts.

 

[meadowman]

i was working on a dam watching the osprey catch fish when a bald eagle came in and stole the fish. i thought it was cool but felt kinda bad for the osprey, well right about then this huge bird went after the bald eagle. the B E dropped the fish like a hot potato, this was when i realized the huge bird was a golden eagle. first time i ever seen one.

 

[paper thorn]

hey chefbudz, man I love Bald Eagles, I wish we had some around here, been years since I've seen them.

S4L~ I guess i didn't realize that eagles would scavenge a carcass, I guess if it's fresh enough. I see hawks and vultures flying behind tractors when they disc a field. Buzzards eating the ones killed by the discs, hawks getting the ones running away injured or not. Now, I suppose the hawks are getting freshly killed ones too.

waveguide, that's the best post I've ever read. Rincons huh, Arizona boy like me. You got better mountains etc, than we do in my neck of the desert. I do love it down there, beautiful country, and maybe a touch cooler than here. I'll have to get over your way one of these days, and smoke one with you while listening to the critters.

Yo trichrider, great story. Birds sure can be thieves. I usually thing of sparrows swiping each other's tidbits, but mid-air osprey/eagle battle over a fish, wow, that had to be a sight!

mm~ from one osprey eagle thieving story to another. Damn eagles using their size to rip off ospreys, then getting a bigger eagle to do it to them. Funny, funny.

Eagle talk has reminded me of a place far away and a time long ago.

I was living at a boarding school near Ft Davis, Texas back in 76. The school was up in the Davis Mts

Me and another kid we called Slim, we were about 17, were digging postholes and putting in wooden posts for a barb wire fence on some mountainous pasture land. We were way out far from anywhere. Anyway, I looked up on the nearby mountain and saw what I thought was a black mountain goat. Mountain goats there look pretty much like regular goats, not them big hairy white ones that look so cool.

So I could see this 'goat' was standing next to a cactus. his head was higher than the cactus. I was pointing it out to Slim and I started slowly walking towards the goat to get a better look. The base of the hill was about 50 feet away and soon I was heading up the side. I hadn't gotten far when the creature turned his head to the side and I realized that it was a bird. As I got closer, the bird spread his wings and started to fly. with each downward stroke his body raised up and with each upward flap his big body would sink down fairly close to the ground. It took four or five of these powerful flaps for him to clear the rocks and brush. I hiked up to the spot where he was and the cactus he was standing by was a good 3 feet tall. He was a big, big black eagle.

I was thrilled. A one time experience. I had seen a Golden Eagle before and this guy was at least as big as any Golden Eagle. I looked him up in my Audubon Encyclopedias and found that he was a Texas Black Eagle. Beautiful bird.

 

[paper thorn]

kissing crows

kissing crows

Saw a couple crows kissing the other day.

They're really Ravens, but I always call them crows. So they were up on a telephone pole and biting gently each other's bills. Never saw that before. Seemed very loving. Crows, like many, maybe most birds, are monogamous lifelong mating birds. These two are never far from each other. Sometimes they separate as they're out doing bird things, and then you'll see one up on a pole calling loudly for the other. when the other crow finally comes into view, the one who was calling will fly to meet it.

They are rarely apart though.

 

[stoned-trout]

I like birds and have owned a few ..a macaw , a cocatiel....heres my last bird pepe..he loved chewing on stems and eating seeds..humming birds are cool 2 ...theres hundreds of ravens here ^^^^^

 

[Pinball Wizard]

The Turkey Vulture always arrives for Christmas leftovers. ..(plus, he heard my sex life was dead)

 

[stoned-trout]

we got bunches of them too..one took out our electric for a bit ..landed on something electric ie lines,transformer whatever.. got zapped caught on fire started small fire...yeehaw

 

[redlaser]

Turkey vultures clean up around here pretty fast, usually less than 18 hours before they get a start on a new project. last week a couple took apart a skunk in front of the house, holy hell, that was a bit much smell wise.

 

[stoned-trout]

they fed on a deer carcass here a bit back...there was like 10 of em

 

[redlaser]

Vultures have an unreal sense of smell, besides good eyes they find old meat wherever. Last summer I threw a wadded up fast food bag with maybe half a bite of a Big Mac towards a garbage can and it got wedged in between the can and a tree a few feet off the ground. Was going to get it later and later became tomorrow morning. I don't think the vulture could have seen it because of heavy tree cover but sure enough by 10 am the next morning he was already done with it.