Posted on Monday, 2/23/2009 - 10:20 a.m. PST — by roygur
We now have fifteen quail and a dozen doves congregating at our backyard bird feeder. They are very respective of each other. The quails eat first, then the doves. The finches and sparrows don't give a damn who's at the trough, they just muscle their way in amongst whoever is chowing down. Blackbirds, regular and red-wings just wait until everybody else is gone. The blue jays just turn up their noses and leave, as if the food isn't up to their caliber.
Stopped buying bird food several months ago at Pet Smart, just using raw shelled sunflower seeds now that we get from one of our suppliers for store products (At 1.50/1b in a 25 lb. box, we can afford to feed all of 'em!). The birds don't seem to mind and there's one heck of a less mess to clean up! I wish they'd stay still for a good photo op. Really cute critters, especially when they come up on the deck during a rain and are asking "When do you plan on refilling our dish?"
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Roy, can we come get some of those birds and take them home in the boxes? What else do you have an abundance of over there?
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In abundance? Just about every dried nut or fruit you can think of. I only have two bags left of Bazooka Joe Trail Mix, however. I'll make more if the demand is there.
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Alas, the rains have precluded our daily visit from the birdies. Will try to get some pix later. And NO, you can't have any of 'em in a box. Geez....they're permanent fixtures til hunting season, and no, you can't hunt them here, either....
It's not raing now, so, I'm going to feed the little darlings and see what happens. Hopefully they'll all land at once for a good pho-op.
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Five minutes after filling the food dish, a lonsome dove.
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And then the quail come in to chow down, kicking some goodies to their bretheren on the ground.
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The lonesome dove, again. Damn, I wish I could figger out posting pictures...
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This fella was feasting on carcass a little lower on the food chain.
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Can you tell from all of my posts on the forums that I'm going stir crazy and have nothing else to spend my time on? It's too wet to work in the yard or the orchard. Might just as well post inane stuff on the forums, I guess. Hey, it's a good mental health thingee.
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I agree, with all this rain I'm about to do a re-make of "The Shinning"....Can you say "Here's Johnny!!"
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Here's Johnny!!
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Why not give philately a try?
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That has my stamp of approval ! :-}
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Not into stamps, thanks.
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Oh, yes the finches make their entrance
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And then the red-winged blackbird, one of four, so far
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Male and female Mallards decided to either fly-in or waddle in through the gate..
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another pic
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last pic
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If they start swimming in your pool I'd get them fitted in a pair of HUGGIES ASAP.
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Interesting, they haven't done that yet, but good idea. It could be worse, though. They could be the geese that crap up the Brentwood Golf Course.
Had a problem poosting all three pictures in the same post. Kept getting the message that I had exceeded 1MB limit, even though the aggregate size was less than 700KB. Anyone else have that problem when doing multiple pictures?
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At first I thought that duck was The Drake, coming back to thank his old pal and mentor Roy, but then I noticed the happy lady companion at his side and figured that can't be The Drake.
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The Kildeers have returned, too. Can you see 'em? Neirther can we, but we hear their distinctive chirps
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Kildeers are some smart birds. They lay their eggs in bare patches of ground, not in the green strips that get mowed every two weeks in spring and summer. Had two pairs last year with 8 chicks. Hope they all return this year. Too cute!
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http://www.birdwatching.com/stories/killdeer.html
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Thanks, Smokey! I now know my pets are typical. I thought "Kildeers in February?" But, it appears that's natural. Roy Gursky ..
Aha, found the "nest", a hollowed out gravel depression in the parking lot. Had to put warning cones out so customers don't crush it. Three eggs so far. Will get picture later..
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It will be fun waiting for them to hatch. Like my little quail they will start walking as soon as they hatch.
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Latest pictures:
Broken wing dance, the "nest", mom on the eggs.
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I guess my eyes are going bad. All I see in that picture is the not so uncommon California Orange Traffic Cone and her two little pink offspring.
What's with that picture of the white pickup truck? If it's making a chirping noise, try applying a little "chirp-be-gone" on the serpentine belt.
Hey Roy, my son asked this morning if he could borrow one of my baseball hats to wear to school today. He went upstairs and passed over the Giants and A's and came down with my black OFEC hat on. I can't tell you how proud that made me feel.
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The bird pictures were posted today. The Kildeer is in the middle of the traffic cone and it's maller versions, all posted after the pickup picture. Did you pass the DMV eye test?
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The second time. The first time I had to keep one eye on all the unruly kids running around while their parents were busy taking cell phone calls!
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You only have one eye!!LOL I guess I will have to get mine and Marilyn OFEC hats. She will want black(Raider fan) but you know I need the red one. I bet your son has his own idea what the letters stand for.
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Oh, not the "f" word!? Nah, BJ raised him better'n that...
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Well now....Mrs. Kildeer finally laid the fourth egg yesterday. Now we wait for 28 days to hatch. I'm marking Sunday, April 5th.
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Well, they hatched early last night, 5 days ahead of the 28 days since the last egg was laid. All four hatched and are out with mom and dad scurrying all over the orchard!
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Hope they survive that volley of yellow arrows. Quit shooting at the critters Roy!
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They're just very, very low velocity NERF arrows, so the birds won't be harmed. You a member of PETA? ASPCA?
Can't wait for the quail young'ns to hatch. We're probably going to have to add another feeder once that happens. You should see the shoving match that goes on in the evening after we fill the feeder and the doves and quail are are all trying to feast at the same time! Hilarious! The quail are the smart ones, though. They throw out a bunch of seeds to the ground for their brethren so they don't have to line up at the trough. What nice, sociable sorts they are!
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"What nice, sociable sorts they are!"
Like OFECS!
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:: sung to the Mr. Ed theme tune ::
WE'RE SOCIABLE SORTS
WITH ALL OUR WARTS,
YOU MIGHT SAY WE'RE ALL
A BUNCH OF GOOD SPORTS.
JUST LINE UP THE BEERS
AND WE'LL DOWN A FEW QUARTS.
WE'RE THE INFAMOUS OFEC CLAN.
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See what you started. Now we all have to listen to Stoney sing.
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Now we have an official song!
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How exciting was that to watch! Thanks for posting outcome.
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Hey, the OFEC hat is "in"! Hope you didn't tell your son what the acronym stands for. Might be a little hard to explain to the teachers. I'll be wearing mine with pride at the "In the Mood" show at the Campanile 2:00 matinee Friday, Row H.
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Enjoy the show, Roy . . . tap your toes a time or two for me, would you?
I'm still not allowed to sit down, so I can't go.
I've been reading this thread the past few days with Ye Olde Green-Eyed Monster standing on my shoulder, wishing for quail in my own back yard. Such cute little guys! There are probably too many neighborhood cats skulking around out there. There are at least two regulars who like to pick fights with my indoor-only kitty through the window (there's a sight!).
I haven't seen quail since my son was attending Park Middle School back in the '90s. I had to chauffeur him back and forth every day, and was tickled to look over my steering wheel one afternoon to see a little covey trundling past underneath the bushes in the parking lot. Before that, I hadn't seen quail in probably a coupla decades. Obviously, I'm not hangin' out in the right places, LOL!
Our usual backyard contingent these days are scrub jays, mockingbirds, crows, pigeons (which have been conspicuously absent lately . . . dare I hope they're gone for good?!), the occasional hummingbird, aaaaaaand . . . Roy's "favorite": squirrels!
There may have been some squirrelly hanky-panky out there earlier today. An unusual motion from outside caught my attention, and I looked up to see a squirrel sitting in the neighbor's tree with it's tail circling madly counter-clockwise in complete revolutions. After several seconds, he aggressively ran down the branch, whereupon the tail swiveling recommenced before I lost him in the foliage. Hmm . . . mating ritual, male aggression, or nest defense? I couldn't see what might have been causing it, but he looked for all the world like a prop plane about to take off . . . or mebbe just doing its best, squirrelly Exorcist impression!
_____
Coexist
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Shame you don't have quail in the backyard. They are most entertaining. You can keep the Jays, pigeons and Squirrels... I like the crows this time of year, since they pick up any crummy walnuts out of the trees (most likely have a bug in 'em). Come Fall, however, I can do without them as the walnuts ripen and start to fall.
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Looks like the four kildeer hatchlings are grown up enough to mate. Notice two new nests out in the orchard..
We now have a baby cottontail rabbit that comes up on our deck to vist in the evenings, too. What a zoo!
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Well, another 4 kildeers are runing amok through the orchard. They usually take over twenty days to hatch, so these must have been eggs in the nest long before we noticed them. The eggs in the second nest don't seen to be well-attended; mom and dad are seldom home. Those two must be the delinquents from the first batch..
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