Rain Gryphon

According to the state, whatever pestilence ran rife among the birds in the latter part of summer is now past us, and it's safe to once again feed and provide baths/water to them. I've got all my stuff set up again, and a fair crowd in the backyard, even as I type. As one might expect at this time of year, the food is being passed over in favour of what can be had from the land, but the bath is immensely popular! Even though no-one is eating from the feeder, just having the bath there apparently makes the back yard a popular place. I've got little groups of Starlings hunting through the grass for bugs, as well as some Sparrows eating seed that I spilled under the tree, apparently convinced that it's 'wild' food. I didn't have nearly this kind of activity when my bath and feeders were shut down. And, of course, every few minutes someone jumps into the bath and splashes around.

As I noted earlier, we had a bit of a storm Wednesday afternoon.


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Here, you can see my nice new red trash barrel, with its exposure to imminent destruction by traffic well illustrated.

The limb that fell off the Ash tree was one where the Starlings have nested for years.

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You can see the sad little hole which is all that's left of their home. Fortunately, all of the babies were gone, and nobody got hurt, but it's still sad. I've watched babies coming out of that hole many times.

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So, early Thursday morning, we had another storm, with rather more-widespread destruction. This time a big ol' branch from one of the maples fell off.

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Again, the Red Barrel has survived a near-miss!


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From the back, the grey car and the red barrel are almost entirely obscured. The blue car initially appeared to be untouched, but such was Not the Case!


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As I sawed up and hauled away the branches, I found... that my side mirror was smash-ed! (say it in a Dexter's Laboratory voice).

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As well as the top of the frame on the driver's side.


I'm inclined to accept this as a sign from the Fates that they're not gunning for me personally - just busting up my stuff a bit. I'm astonished that no glass was broken in the blue car, and (so far as I'm able to tell) the weather sealing around the doors stills seals. Both doors open just fine, and the damage to the side mirror looks to me as though it can be glued. The wires are still in place, and the mirror motors work. It hit just absolutely perfectly, on the strongest part of the frame, where the door pillar, shocks, and tires took the load vertically. A few inches inboard, and it would have caved in the roof, and busted all or most of the glass. A few inches the other way would probably have damaged the grey car rather severely, as well as busted out the driver's side glass from the blue car. I'll take this. No real functional damage inflicted, plus it makes the blue car look rather rakish and disreputable. :)

Addendum: The constant rain and cool weather get tiresome, but on the good side, Indiana will have record crops this year. You'd be pardoned for reading the MSM and accepting that America is all burned up and dry, since that story is constantly pushed. In the Midwest, it is an absolute jungle. Such intense greens, everywhere you look!


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The storm knocked these pears off the crumbly little Pear Tree. They're not entirely ripe, but will get that way soon, if stored in paper bags. I'm not yet sure what I'll do with all of these.

So, now it's Bird Plague time, and the DNR recommends that we stop feeding to prevent crowds gathering. Sad, but the really desperate part of the season when everyone has nests filled with babies is pretty much over, so there's that.

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An absolute downpour last night, from maybe midnight until two or so. I checked afterward, and we had standing puddles in the low spots of the yard as usual, and the south field was rapidly filling with water, which is expected, as it acts as a catch basin for neighbors' much larger fields to the north, east, and south. We let one of the neighbors plant it for free (soybeans this year) as you can't really do much with it otherwise, and we don't need any more lawn.

That was around 2am. When I got up at 9am to watch the F1 qualifying, lo and behold! The puddles were all gone, save one that forms on the north side of the house and always lasts longer than the others. The big surprise was the south field, though. Water would ordinarily stand there for several days after such a rain, slowly draining away through the culvert to the west while more slowly arrived from the neighbors' fields. In addition to being a great inconvenience, as well as a mosquito nursery, it usually killed about half of whatever was planted there.

This time, there were *enormous* quantities of old corn stalk debris showing the high water mark, which was *high* - almost to my driveway. The bean bushes are entirely covered in a thin layer of mud, another indicator of how high it got. The water, however, is almost drained away. Apparently the field filled rapidly, then drained rapidly, which, I suspect, is rather how it was originally intended to work back when it was set up. Mother reports (I didn't see them) that either a contracting firm or the county engineers were out there briefly looking it over.

I'm going to have a horrible time raking up and removing old corn stalk fragments, but I do believe the drainage issues are resolved. I rejoice!

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We've reached the point in time where Olympic qualifying is on TV. The excitement builds!

Edit: And at a bit after two (12 hours), the south field is drained and starting to look dry, except for a big puddle which is lower than the culvert. Amazing :)

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So, a friend who had a severe fall Friday (landed on his head, of all things :P) and wasn't expected to live, is now awake and breathing on his own. Ich freude mich!

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Back in mid-February, the artist Likeshine started a "Birds' Family Portrait" project, in which she proposed to draw colour portraits of as many Bird and Bird-related furs as possible. I learned about it at the very tail-end of April, after the project had grown far beyond the bounds she had envisioned, she had injured her hand, and had announced that she was ending it. To make a long story short, she was kind enough to add me anyway!

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Here's the bit with me in it. There're somewhere around 200-300 Birds altogether. Stuff like this makes me ridiculously happy, beyond my ability to explain.

The fact that crack addicts, when sick, view a clown as a better option than a doctor is probably relevant to understanding the problem.

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Great Bird Pictures Contest!

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Why on earth would anyone want these? And the illustration on the box is Buer, one of the 72 Goetic demons, and certainly not the Adversary himself.

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The Alert Level on St. Vincent is now at "Scream and Run Away".

Edit: And I am darkly amused that in order to board the evacuation boat, you must first show evidence of full vaccination. Honestly...

If everyone on Earth sat in the ocean at once, how much would sea level rise? Space.com doesn't shy away from the important questions.

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This is the first day that the bird bath has had a waiting queue. I had birds in there bathing, while others waited their turn / stood watch on the limb above. It's really kind of amazing, watching how they regulate that by themselves, with no input from outside. Everyone does get a bath, in the end, although the lower-dominance birds have to wait. The high-dominance birds often, but not always, stand guard after they bathe.

I had a Brown Thrasher at the seed tray earlier. They're by no means uncommon birds (you *hear* them ticking away in the bushes, constantly) but they're very secretive. You just don't see them in the open. This guy flew right in, no poking around, then hoovered up seeds for about three minutes, then left. I have to conclude that he was very hungry, and the temptation was too much for him. He may have just arrived from migrating.

The Downy and Red Bellied Woodpeckers have been eating from the seed tray as well. I ran out of suet blocks, and everything's closed today, so I'm glad that worked out.

I'm tempted to spend some or most of my TrumpBux on a garden pond/bird bath combo. It would be a pain to install, but would keep me busy for much of the summer. It would be nice to offer the birds filtered, flowing water as well, plus I'd not have to fill it so often. Given that everything's flat, there's no obvious place to put a water feature, but that doesn't seem to stop anyone else. The local yards are filled with piles of rocks emitting gushing waterfalls.

Late season snows are often the heaviest, and prettiest, at least around here. It's snowing again, rather heavily. The wind at ground is calm, but the flakes are coming down as big, compound flakes that look rather like eiderdown. I think that means there's vertical winds further up, to allow the big flakes to form. A trip out back to restock the feeders sunk me over my knees in places.

The little birds are busy outside at the seed and suet cakes, filling up before it's night. I took a new cake out and refilled the cake holder, thinking it had gone empty awfully fast. Sure enough, a little digging beneath it revealed 3/4 or so of a cake on the ground. I suspect that either the Pileated Woodpecker, or possibly the Crows, were the ones who pulled it out. I can't see anyone else being that strong. At any rate, I left that one for the guys who eat off the ground to have.

Right now I've got Sparrows, a smattering of Starlings, and at least three Cardinals, two cocks and a hen. The Sparrows esppecially are much calmer, and less inclined to constantly fly in mobs to and from the bushes, when it's snowing like this. I suspect that they feel hidden, with the reduced visibility.

One Cardinal cock is getting aggressive, chasing the other birds around the seed tray and so forth. His feathers are coming in much redder than the other cock already. It's just about that time. It's hard to believe, but in two months or less, everyone will be making nests.

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This is the best thing ever!! Guy incubates and hatches a duck using only body heat. I'd been pondering building a small incubator, as I've found abandoned, undamaged starling eggs each spring for the last two years. Now I'm inclined to build a little brooder similar to his, and see if I can hatch one out myself.

This is interesting. A study from last summer about the information included in birds' alert calls. I like that they have a "bailout" call. That would pretty much have to be hardwired rather than learned. I'm doubtful about the ethics of making the young fledge early, although it's entertaining to imagine playing that call, and getting showered with young birds.

This kind of reinforces what I was saying a few days back, about the local crows having one call for me (or at least for known-harmless humans, as a class) and another one for strangers.

At the store earlier, I came across a wet stripe on the floor. This, plus the whooshing noise, gave me to believe that a floor-washing machine was being used. Well... It came around the corner just then, and no-one was driving it. It had an operator's station and all, but was driving itself. I walked in front of it to see if it would run me over, but it stopped and beeped until I had cleared the way. The March of Progress!

I considered hopping into the seat, and seeing if I could go for a ride, but didn't.

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Guy at the store, chatting with clerk about a product he was buying, which both agreed was shamefully overpriced: "Well, I'm retarded though, so I guess I'll pay that much."

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I bought a couple small succulent plants. They're not labelled, and I've not a clue what they are, but they look interesting. I really miss the Conservatory, with its Palm House salvaged from the 1892 World's Fair. Such a wonderful Winter destination. Also the Bird Jungle at the Zoo. No better place to go during a sleet storm, when one could have the Birds to oneself for hours, sometimes.