The best thing today

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Tue May 17th, 2011, 7:59 pm

I love the songs/sounds of finches, also. I'm anxious to get home and see how much the baby birds have changed today.

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Tue May 17th, 2011, 9:28 pm

You will have to give updates!

BrianPK · Post by **BrianPK** » Tue May 17th, 2011, 9:57 pm

Talking about birds,my wife and I get a great kick out of watching a blackbird and his wife swoop down with delight when I put a little cat food out on a dish for our old ginger tom.They just love eating his cat food even though he's sitting only a few yards away.Normally he doesn't bother to run at them as he's so lazy. I'm just tickled pink by the idea of birds pinching cat food.

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Tue May 17th, 2011, 10:04 pm

[quote=""Vanessa""]You will have to give updates!

[/quote] I wish I had a way to upload pictures here. Although they might not turn out, anyway, since I have to watch the birds mostly from inside the house. The minute I step out the front door the mama bird flies off (kind of surprises me that she would leave her eggs/babies like that at the mercy of a potential predator! Oh, well, I guess she figures she might as well save her own skin/feathers!)

[quote=""BrianPK""]I'm just tickled pink by the idea of birds pinching cat food.

[/quote] Are the blackbirds you're talking about the same as crows? If so, then the cats are probably afraid to mess with them. Crows are quite fearless and even aggressive. (I'm asking because I'm not sure if crows are a North American-only bird

).

Vanessa · Post by **Vanessa** » Tue May 17th, 2011, 10:18 pm

No, blackbirds and crows are different birds - the UK have both. Blackbirds have yellow beaks and crows have black ones. Blackbirds are by far the more attractive bird!! And then there is the raven....... a member of the crow family but larger.

BrianPK · Post by **BrianPK** » Tue May 17th, 2011, 10:27 pm

[quote=""Michy""]

Are the blackbirds you're talking about the same as crows? If so, then the cats are probably afraid to mess with them. Crows are quite fearless and even aggressive. (I'm asking because I'm not sure if crows are a North American-only bird

).[/quote]

Blackbirds are much smaller than crows.They are a very handsome, sleek bird with a glorious song ( the male,that is.The female, who doesn't sing is a browner colour so as to be camouflaged in the nest). Unfortunately a cat would make mince meat of a blackbird in a second.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Blackbird
Everybody has ugly crows

. They are as universal as any pest.But I like them as they squabble and argue so much and have such personalities that they remind me of people.

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Wed May 18th, 2011, 12:24 am

[quote=""BrianPK""]But I like them as they squabble and argue so much and have such personalities that they remind me of people.

[/quote] I heard a while back that some scientific study has been done on crows which concluded that they are able to recognize human faces. So you'd better be nice to your crows, because they know who you are!!

SonjaMarie · Post by **SonjaMarie** » Wed May 18th, 2011, 2:14 am

Ravens and crows freak me out. When I was at the Tower of London those ravens made me nervous.

SM

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Wed May 18th, 2011, 2:27 am

We're overrun with grackles at the moment. Their call is irritating, but they are pretty in the sunlight.

BrianPK · Post by **BrianPK** » Wed May 18th, 2011, 2:47 am

About crows . . .they are remarkably clever birds and I have a lovely story, from about 20 years ago, about one.
I was having work done on wall dashing at the front of our house when one of the workman gave a sudden cry of alarm.A young crow suddenly landed on the gate immediately beside him and gave him a fright.My neighbour from across the street called over that the crow was after falling down from the inside of her chimney and she shooed it out her front door and it had flown over to us. The remarkable thing was that the bird was incredibly tame and wouldn't fly away. I brought him indoors(wife immediately threatens divorce and rushes for safety into another room ,slamming door in terror behind her

) and gave him a little bread. He continuously caw- cawed to me and then flew on to my shoulder. Our children were delighted with this turn of events and after a short discussion named him Satan.
He refused to leave us despite encouragement by throwing him up into the air so I put him into the shed and every time I went in to see him he would immediately fly to my shoulder and start his excited cawing to me. He remained with us for two days and much to the delight of the children we found that if I rolled my ring across the floor he would immediately rush after it and catch it in his beak. He was a remarkable bird and the only reason I can think of, for his for his amazing behaviour, is that he was hatched in our neighbours chimney and was used to listening to people from the day he was born and formed an attachment to people once he lost contact with his mother for some reason. Otherwise I simply can't account for it .I became a little concerned for him on the 2nd day as I wasn't as knowledgeable about animals as I am now and didn't realise that he would have done well on cat food (our young cat was terrified of him by the way).
But his short stay with us came to an end that evening when I had him on my shoulder as usual and he looked up and saw crows flying above us. I took a chance and threw him up into the sky and this time he took off after the other crows. We never saw him again and hoped that he met up with his own kind. I often thought about him over the years but never had such an experience with a bird again although I've heard from some country people, since, that crows are easily tamed. I've always had a soft spot for crows since. . .and for my wife who's still here with me.