OK, so birds

[ElvisMerckx]

A pair of Red Shouldered Hawks returned to nest in the white oak in our front yard for the third or fourth year now. Ma and Pa fly in with squirrels, chipmunks and lots & lots of snakes all day long. They're about 60 feet up, so it's hard to take any decent pictures, but by the chirps and bobbing heads we see at feeding time, there are at lest two, perhaps 3, fledglings.

[echappist]

A pair of Red Shouldered Hawks returned to nest in the white oak in our front yard for the third or fourth year now. Ma and Pa fly in with squirrels, chipmunks and lots & lots of snakes all day long. They're about 60 feet up, so it's hard to take any decent pictures, but by the chirps and bobbing heads we see at feeding time, there are at lest two, perhaps 3, fledglings.

It's slightly discomforting to think there could be so many snakes around one's property. I mean, further south than NoVA (e.g. NC), I get it. But in NoVA? Also, it's a wonder how they can spot so many snakes out there...

[ElvisMerckx]

...But in NoVA?

Not sure how familiar you are with NoVA, but it's not all sprawl, data farms, car dealerships, and strip malls. I live among mature trees and my property backs to many wooded acres of floodplain and a stream that feeds into the Potomac. We regularly see bald eagles, herons, ducks, geese, hummingbirds, about 6 types of hawks, about 10 varieties of woodpecker, and more song birds than I can count.

[zachateseverything]

don't believe the lies. Birds aren't real.

https://birdsarentreal.com/

[j44ke]

It's slightly discomforting to think there could be so many snakes around one's property. I mean, further south than NoVA (e.g. NC), I get it. But in NoVA? Also, it's a wonder how they can spot so many snakes out there...

Early settlers' narratives often commented on the prevalence of "serpentes" in the Virginia colony.

[davids]

edit: BTW best treatment for a bird that bonks itself on a window is to put it in a paper bag. Reduces external stimuli and allows them to better get their equilibrium. Concussion treatment essentially. Which is probably what they have. When you hear the bird rustling around in the bag, pecking to get out, open the bag and let them go.

Jorn wins my internet today. I will remember this!

[davids]

It's slightly discomforting to think there could be so many snakes around one's property. I mean, further south than NoVA (e.g. NC), I get it. But in NoVA? Also, it's a wonder how they can spot so many snakes out there...

Wha? Dude there are animals everywhere. They try not to let you see them!

This was from a warm spring morning a few years ago, around the corner from my urban home, at the intersection of a human-built rock wall and human-poured sidewalk. Baby garters:

20160313_153945.jpg

don't believe the lies. Birds aren't real.

https://birdsarentreal.com/

Oh man, there's a gift membership (and t-shirt) going to a friend. His kids talk about how goes out to watch birds, just to provoke him: "It's birdwatching, not watching birds!"

[thollandpe]

Our whippoorwill is back! Such an amazing, and amazingly repetitive, call. Wonderful to behold, unless you’re in a tent nearby and trying to sleep.

But I have never, ever, seen this nocturnal and elusive bird even though I can place its location within several yards.

[Mabouya]

Do bats count as "birds" for the purposes of this thread?

Almost every year I have at least one, sometimes more than one, bat in the same corner under the eaves near my front door. Then it moves out when the weather turns cold.

I haven't checked yet to see if it back yet. Maybe tomorrow before I leave for work.

[bbillington]

A30A26E8-3708-444D-85DC-3F61CBC63AEF.jpg
The big blue birb was unimpressed with the pace of my run this morning. He clearly isn’t a cyclist.

[Mabouya]

Bat update:

This morning I checked the "bat corner" and sure enough, there was one hanging there.

I wonder if it's the same one that was there last year...

[davids]

Do bats count as "birds" for the purposes of this thread?

Almost every year I have at least one, sometimes more than one, bat in the same corner under the eaves near my front door. Then it moves out when the weather turns cold.

I haven't checked yet to see if it back yet. Maybe tomorrow before I leave for work.

I love bats, but no. Absolutely not.

...fond memories of watching them eat dinner above a calm Maine pond, repeatedly swooping in to grab gnats out of the air.

[echappist]

There appears to be another robin's nest in the yard. Still not so sure of the security of its location (to the side of the house, in a bush, and closer to the street), but i think there's at least an egg in there already.

I suspect it may even be the same robin as the one who built a nest outside of my kitchen. I saw signs of construction on Saturday and a completed nest on Sunday. Nest was still empty Monday evening (I took a sneak peak when the mother was gone), but I'm pretty sure she's sitting on top of at least one egg today. I was actually surprised at how close I was able to approach the bush. Also, anyone knows the species of this bush?



Also, the nest outside of my kitchen is abandoned for good. There had been an egg remaining for quite a few days, but someone got to it yesterday and left it half eaten. It's completely gone today.

[Tom]

Crows are funny. A bunch were sort of flying around, sitting in the trees making "maa maa maa" sounds. Then all of a sudden a giant shouting match erupted between a bunch in a big beech tree and a bunch in the pines. I thought the big hawk that patrols the neighborhood was in there but it all dispersed after 10 or 15 minutes with no evidence of the hawk.

[j44ke]

Crows are funny. A bunch were sort of flying around, sitting in the trees making "maa maa maa" sounds. Then all of a sudden a giant shouting match erupted between a bunch in a big beech tree and a bunch in the pines. I thought the big hawk that patrols the neighborhood was in there but it all dispersed after 10 or 15 minutes with no evidence of the hawk.

A bit of clan warfare perhaps. Corvids (crows, ravens, jays) maintain networks of extended family and relations. They nest and raise young as a pair, though young from the previous year can help out and then there is the rest of the family who can be called in if someone finds a Great-horned Owl or something really good to eat. Or if another clan is trying to poach members to freshen their ranks a bit.

[Tom]

Definitely inter-crow. It calmed down significantly after a dozen or so flew off with the rest circling around, then back and forth flights with some running at each other until two or three flew back finally.

[davids]

This guy on my front walk yesterday:

IMG_1385.jpg

About a foot long, so a young'un. And it just froze in front of me - is that a strategy for Garters? I'd never seen that happen before (and yes, it was fine.)

[Tom]

"Nothing to see here. I'm a stick. Just a stick. You don't have a retriever do you? If no, we're all good. I'm just a stick."

I got a laugh out of a goose family this morning ambling across the road as I rode up on them. Goslings picking up everything on the road, sticks and rocks to see if they tasted good and going "Pfft pfft" and spitting them out. Dad walking along behind alternately all puffed out going "Look what I did!" and "Hey you, you wanna fight?" Me, I'm like "OK, I'll ride out into the other lane on the blind corner, ya nimrod."

[j44ke]

This guy on my front walk yesterday:

IMG_1385.jpg

About a foot long, so a young'un. And it just froze in front of me - is that a strategy for Garters? I'd never seen that happen before (and yes, it was fine.)

Might not have been you but the sun. Warmth. But yes, garter snakes are pretty docile.

They have some aspect of their physiology that allows them to be active when other snakes are still hibernating. First snake in the spring, last snake in the fall. Sometimes surprisingly reappear on warm sunny midwinter days.

[davids]

I found half a garter snake on the same walkway this morning.

OK, so birds.