Let’s have a Nightly Open Thread for this delightful evening. I’ll start with a topic but hey talk about whatever you want. It’s late. Most of us are sleep-deprived. Some of us are probably drinking. It’s all good.
Tell me something unique about where you live now or a place you’ve lived in the past.
I really like watching the birds in my backyard because I just think birds are cute and happy little chirps and birdsong does a lot to help my mood. I’m not that knowledgeable yet about all the species I am seeing, but I did notice today that I’ve got at least one European tree sparrow in my yard!!!
European tree sparrows are not native to North America. St. Louis area has really the only real population of them. How does a random midwestern city have a population of birds from Europe?
In 1870 some German immigrants wanted to be reminded of the Old Country so they released birds into Lafayette Park. They released lots of birds from several species, but the 12 Eurasian tree sparrows established a successful breeding population. They are identifiable because they have cute little black cheeks!
Also if there are topics you’d enjoy for future NOTs, please leave in comments.
First posting on a new platform, I’M SO EXCITED!!!
This song’s about where I live, and… while the area HAS gentrified a LOT in the ensuing decades, and even in the 20+ years since *I* first moved to the Uptown/Lyn-Lake part of Mpls, there are STILL all sorts of folks who this line, especially, REALLY could describe😉😁💖;
“We don’t let society tell us how it’s supposed to be. Our clothes, our hair, we don’t careIt’s all about being there”
The “We don’t CARE what y’all think of us!” vibe has ALWAYS run like a heartbeat throughout this part of town😉💖
I’m getting an error message trying to post the direct link but hopefully then this will be a decent surprise with a cut + paste
Oh, darn – now it’s not a surprise but here is something else
…honestly it would always be a pleasant surprise to see you in this neck of the woods
…the prince tracks are also welcome, in fact I’m going to miss your “it’s the weekend” playlists a fair bit, come to that…not to metion all the other posts you used to be kind enough to put up on kinja
Hi Brighter! Lovely to see you and your little birdie!
I’m equally excited about the house finches.
Maybe I need other hobbies???
Thank you for being here and for bringing the NOT back to life!
I saw a blue heron standing very still in the shallow river (GTA) the other day but it didn’t really appear to be watching for fish or anything. Perhaps it was just bored.
Oh and it’s, um, 2:30am and I believe I am finally finished backing up Kinja blogs so I’m going to try to resume somewhat of a normal life this weekend.
Herons are such cool birds! I work up near the Missouri River (I don’t live close to any of the rivers near St. Louis) and one summer there was a heron that hung out in one of the overflow canals all summer. Felt like I was seeing a friend when I passed them on the highway every morning.
Great Blue Herons made a huge comeback here many years ago, now they are everywhere. A friend had a Koi pond and lost a bunch of expensive fish to one that would hang out in his back yard picking off Koi.
We have, or used to have, quite a few hawks in Manhattan, at least in northern Manhattan. One was often spotted perched at Mary Tyler Moore’s Fifth Avenue apartment building. The hawk became a celebrity.
My building has a roof deck and I’d often be up there hanging out. You’d see flocks of pigeons circling in formation, in no apparent hurry but seemingly with some purpose. Then a hawk might be spotted on the horizon. It was like the scene(s) in jaws when the shark is spotted off the beach. Pigeons fleeing for their lives. They’ll also swoop in and grab rats, then eat them in mid-air, dropping body parts to the ground. It’s always fun for pedestrians when a rat body part lands near or (shudder) on you, as happened to a neighbor of mine.
With New York under this unceasing lockdown we have mush less wildlife, lots less human trash to scavenge I guess.
Hawks are such good adapters for urban and suburban environments. I see Cooper’s Hawks all the time around my neighborhood, last summer there was a juvenile that liked to perch on a utility pole and bitch for its mother. Sometimes I see red-tailed hawks up circling in the sky.
…well, the sleep-deprivation thing landed pretty close-to-home, if that counts…but as you say that’s not exactly unique
…in fact it’s pretty hard to think of much that was really unique about the places I’ve lived since mostly they’ve been cities so a lot of people could say the same things…plus the sleep-deprived thing…it’s basically pretty hard to type much that isn’t gibberish right now, to be honest
…but on the bird front I do know that however european sparrows ended up flitting about in the US can’t have been much more surprising than non-migratory african parakeets in bits of the UK…including london which is on the list of cities I’ve lived in…but they’ve also shown up in places like glasgow…so still not unique
…basically I’m either more tired than I thought or the unique thing is a deceptively tricky question?
…seems like a good place for one of those why-not-both.gifs, really
That’s really interesting! I am not surprised to learn of feral parakeets or parrots (like I am sure there are feral parakeets all over south Florida), but I am surprised they can survive where it gets definitely cold in winter.
Aside from nasty geese, birds are cool. Geese can fuck right off.
(no no I totally haven’t been attacked by geese multiple times in my life, why would anyone think that)
Horses! Every place has them but not in the same abundance. The city is surrounded by large horse farms. We have 3 tracks, a retired thoroughbred shelter, and a Horse Park for large events. We are the only US city to have hosted the World Equestrian Games.
Have you had the opportunity to attend those championships? I’m not particularly knowledgeable about horses and equestrian stuff but I bet they’re super cool to see!
I’m not a big fan of the races, particularly with all the horse deaths in recent years but I have gone. And it is a lot of fun. The WEG were amazing. We went several days. So many gorgeous animals, you could get up close and the people obviously were knowledgeable, and happy to talk about their particular breed. We saw a lot of competitions. My daughter was in HS and they took all the students 3 days of the week, and if they volunteered the other 2 days it was an excused absence. We’re supposed to be getting them again in the future and I will definitely go again.
We used to show Arabians when I was a kid. That was during a time when you didn’t have to be rich as fuck to do it. The big event of every Arabian horse show is the Liberty class. That’s when they have a trainer set a stallion loose in the ring to strut his stuff. There’s all sorts of whooping and hollering, and the stallions will arch their necks and prance, like they know they’re the shit.
There was some of that going on. And these are the top horses in the world. The Friesians were my favorites.
The thing that most impresses me about the small city (60,000 pop) where I live is that through an active branch of CWS, we take in 20 times more refugees per capita than the rest of the US.
That’s so awesome! I wish more places were willing to take in refugees with such openness. St. Louis was the designated relocation city for Bosnians displaced by the Bosnian Genocide. We have like 70k Bosnians here, the largest population outside of Europe. When the situation got so bad with Syrian refugees, I was just stunned when people here were like “what do you want us to do, just bring in like 10k refugees? what do you think will happen???” Oh, I don’t know. A thriving community of people revitalizing parts of town decimated by white flight and urban sprawl and bringing in new businesses and growth to my city?
Everything is weird in Florida. I was waterskiing with a friend as a teenager, and I was driving the boat. He was getting his skis in place at the end of the towline, and started screaming. “Something’s in here! Something’s in the water with me!” Now, gators are always a possibility but they’re largely nocturnal and don’t typically bother people. They were also extremely endangered back then.
I started to move the boat back around to him (this is something you do NOT do quickly) and I swear he levitated a good three feet out of the water, skis and all, yelling like a banshee, ditched the skis and started swimming hard for the boat. When I got over there and dragged him in, we saw a manatee surface. The manatee had given him a nudge.
Still makes me laugh. I’m cruel that way.
OMFG I love that a sea moomoo scared him so much.
Where I live we have lots of birds. I am obsessed with getting the perfect bird pictures but not quite there yet. I thought about posting something on bird photography but thought it might seem like just wanting praise for my photography. My favorite subjects are hummingbirds, eagles and owls. I got some good shots of the first two but owls are a little tougher.
Anyway, great to see you here and look forward to more of this.
That’s so cool! I’d totally enjoy recurring posts about birds.
Are the owls harder to photograph because of their face shape and feathering? Like harder to get good contrast and details amidst the fluffy feathers?
Owls tend to hide really well in the forest in dark areas. They blend in so well and don’t make noise during the day usually. I’ve caught a few shots of them in the day hiding in the trees but never caught one in flight. I’ll start posting some of my bird shots. We have tons of Bard owls and a few Great Horned owls. The Great Horned ones will eat the Bard owls and one almost got my neighbors Dachshund when we just moved in. He yanked the leash right before he grabbed him. We have a falcon near us too that likes to eat the pigeons that hang out on a power line. Haven’t been able to photograph him yet. He is the only bird that the crows are afraid of. They were harassing him and he got tired of their shit and pegged one.
Crows seem to be the pigeons of Seattle. They are everywhere! When I first moved here, I made the mistake of
waging war withdisturbing the crows on my roof. What started off as me ineffectively shoo-ing at four crows culminated in a murder of crows swarming in cyclone formation above me. As I retreated from the darkerning skies and deafening caws, I was both in awe of nature and super embarrassed. I’m sure my neighbors were thinking “They must not be from around here. Don’t fuck with the crows.”Seriously don’t fuck with them. A couple of years later, I bore witness to a pair of crows terrorising a squirrel. At first my partner and I couldn’t make out what was happening. One crow was pursuing the frantic squirrel and other crow kept blocking its way if it tried to climb a tree. In panicked desperation, it bolted for the forest across the road. “I wonder what’s…” *SQUASH* “Oh.” Scavengers my ass.
And one last mini tidbit. Bald eagles roost in the woods nearby. They are enormous and regal and all things magical that you can imagine about apex predators. Of course that doesn’t stop the crows from ganging up on them. It is a regular occurence to hear a cacophony of cawing and to look up to see a bald eagle majestically gliding through the air while being dive-bombed by crows.
(Yay! Been lurking here for 8 months. Finally got my password reset. First post feels good. And unrelated to this post: is Kender going to move back to Deadsplinter? I’ve lost the masochistic willpower to peruse Jezebel.)
Welcome Hammer! I’m north of Seattle and live on the edge of a forest. We watch the crows chase eagles and everyone else for that matter every day. Yeah, don’t fuck with crows! Even the ravens around us are tortured by them. As soon as we see eagles soar over our house it is “how long til the crows come…oh there they are!” At least once a week about 50 to 100 fly in from all over and gather in one tree near our house. Weekly meeting? Planning take over? I don’t know but UW has been doing lots of great research on crows for years.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/crows-may-learn-lessons-from-death-uw-research-shows/
It’s The Crowening!
In Hawaii, Mynah birds are like crows, the bullies of the area. Right at sunrise, right below my bedroom, they would gather in a circle and have a fight club! Two birds in the middle would fight while the rest egg them on. Drove me crazy! I would yell and throw things at them but they just kept going.
I’ve seen that exact same thing with House Sparrows, which are basically the prison gangs of the bird world.
…sounds a lot like the idea of “the parliament of rooks”
Crows are smart! Seriously smart.
My old neighborhood was like West Side Story between the crows and the blue jays. I’d be out walking the dog and see 5 or 6 blue jays going after a crow. Blue jays are vicious!
Crows are insanely smart. Like capable of stuff that 3-year-old humans have trouble with. I’m sure they planned that squirrel murder.
But here, sandhill cranes rule. They are super endangered, and it’s crazy illegal to interfere with them in any way. They are about 3-4 feet tall, and they will fuck with literally anything. They have no fear, because protected, and you do not want to piss them off. I’ve seen them terrorizing ducks, dogs, crows, and all sorts of creatures. I’ve seen 50 crows go dead silent when a sandhill strolls up. They’ll stand in the middle of the road, stop cars in both directions, and dare you to do shit.
It reminds you that dinosaurs were birds, not reptiles.
Thanks @Loveshaq! The PNW is great for bird watching at photographing. Since the lockdown, I’ve seen some more “wild” birds like osprey and kingfishers in my neighborhood (according my limited bird species knowledge). As to you posting wild bird photos, I say go for it! You could be DeadSplinter’s answer to the shelter-cat guy.
Sorry, brighter, I just now noticed this post. We live on a lake in New England and during the year we have seen the following:
Blue Herons
Kingfishers
Hawks (Red Tailed, Coopers and Sharp Shinned)
Great Horned Owls
Ospreys
Ring Necked Ducks
Hooded Mergansers (my personal favorite)
Mallards
Canada Geese (the lake is a regular stopping point for their migrations so they land in the evening and take off in the morning)
Goldfinch
House Finch
Chickadees
Juncos
Hummingbirds
Towhees
Orioles (a close 2nd place to the Mergansers)
Downy Woodpeckers
Hairy Woodpeckers
Flickers (a type of woodpecker)
Song Sparrows
Carolina Wrens
Pine Siskens
Red Winged Blackbirds
Blue Birds
I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all I can think of at the moment. Of course, there’s all the trash birds like Starlings and House Sparrows and such.
We also have two swans who regularly fight with other swans that try to horn in on their territory. Swans are nasty bastards, which are also classified as invasive species. Fortunately, the snapping turtles do their part to keep the cygnets from growing up.
There is also a family of otters who we see here and there. Just this morning, one of them was swimming in front of our dock, probably grabbing blue gills.
If you’re a big fan of attracting song birds, I recommend staying away from hardware store bird seed. Most of it is old seed, filled with shit like millet that birds don’t eat, so you get the garbage birds and the rodents. A good starting point is safflower seed, because the garbage birds don’t like it. There are seven Wild Birds Unlimited locations around St. Louis, so I would recommend going there and talking to them about it.
That’s amazing! All those birds!
I will have to check out Wild Birds Unlimited. I’ve never bothered feeding birds before but let’s be real 2020 has sucked in a lot of ways and seeing them flit about is very soothing.
Also a few weeks ago we had a cold snap and I called a friend crying because I was worried about what the little birds were going to eat once my plants died (they were rooting around in the planters on the deck) and so naturally the only solution was birdseed. Stress and hormones suck!
Yay, bird post! We traveled to southern Utah a couple weeks ago. Our first campsite had a resident great horned owl. Not a great shot, but it was the best I could do with my phone and the conditions.
I think it’s a great pic for a phone shot!
I once saw one take flight about 10 feet in front of me. The experience was surreal because it was like someone had turned the sound off. Utterly silent hunters.
They are amazing. Here’s a nice read about their silent flight ability.