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Was out in the yard todat building a composter out of scrap lumber. Actually I was building a 4 yr old and using a composter as an excuse. My daughter had fun. Anyway, As i was using the table saw I fels something brush my cheek, saw a blur, and heard Christina giggle. I told her not to come close when I was working the saw, and thought little more of it, till a few minutes later, when I was working with her again, and a little chickadee landed on my arm while I held a board for her to hammer. She said look Daddy he’s back, and told me that it was this bird that had landed on my shoulder (unnoticed by me) when I was running the saw, and now he’s back!
The bird came back about 3 or four more times in the next hour or so, and kept coming to me, never Christina (too bad). It was the neatest thing, this little bird so unnafraid of all the noise and commotion coming to share our day.
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My bird story: A female goldfinch hit the window yesterday. Went out to check, and she was still alive, so I picked her up and held her in my hand (to keep her warm) and after about 10 minutes she looked up at me and flew away. When you hold them you realize they're even tinier than they look. I've heard that there's net you can put over windows to soften the impact.
*Great stories JAG and Martagon! I once, while sunbathing--you can imagine how long ago that was!--had a hummingbird hover around my face for a minute or two, seemingly looking right into my eyes. Amazing. (And you don't want to know about my other two bird/sunbathing incidents!)Martagon, if Grasshopper is still having her bird-pecking-at-the-window problem, she'd probably like to learn about that netting. I had a bird do that for about a month, but if it happens again, I'd like to know the source for that netting, too. TIA
*Last Summer a hummingbird flew into my garage and got caught in cobwebs in the rafters and fell to the ground.You talk about tiny. I was so afraid of hurting this bird not much larger than a bumble bee. I very carfully removed the very sticky cobwebs from his feet and wings.Opening my hand ,palm up, the bird laying there with its little heart beating a zillion beats a minute, looked at me, then lifted off like a warm summer breeze.Bob
*That's another great one, Bob, thanks. I've also heard that when you find a bird's feather, it means another angel has gone to Heaven, or wherever.
*Dead center, at eye level, a Bluejay flew into our kitchen window. I didn't see it but he left some feathers. And a elongated deep scratch where his beak must've been.Also last week. I'm out front running some moulding through the shaper when I see a female adult Bluejay land on some frshly painted moulding abou 4 feet away from me. She's looking at me--you can tell because they cock their head that way--so I stop to watch. Soon she hops closer, closer yet. She lands on my outstretched finger. Now I'm talking to her. "Hey boidy, hello boid." I am enthralled. After about 10 minutes her mate comes round and they fly off. Seems my neighbor has been handfeeding the birds with his kids.And the hummingbirds! Those little guys zoom around like they're jet fighters. I'll be in the yard and I'll see them tearing up the sky and then one or two will alter course to zoom right past my head. I guess it's a game with them to see how close they can get. A couple of times I actually felt the wind off their wings as they flew by. Outside my office window, there is some kind of flowery shrub which the hummingbirds love. It is amazing to watch them up close. It's like gravity doesn't exist for them.
*i Outside my office window, there is some kind of flowery shrub which the hummingbirds love. It is amazing to watch them up close. It's like gravity doesn't exist for them. Wow, how wonderful. I remember feeling that little breeze, too, when one was hovering near. I swear I felt kissed by an angel.
*Once I was chest deep in a pool of water, in a river near Mt Ranier. It was late summer, and I had a large format camera in the pool with me. I was composing and fussing, trying not to let the camera swim, and a cloud of butterflys came out of nowhere and landed on my head, arms and camera. Dappled sunlight, little yellow wings opening and closing. It was funny knowing at that moment that the really special part of that day was something I could never hope to put on film.
*Martagon,kai,Haven't seen the net, but in I believe it was Lee Valley Cat. there is a self stick film that is good for stopping strikes.We have a Merlin living in a green space by house, its unbelievable his flights down the little brook, sometimes when I'me out a dusk (we luckly have no mozzies) he swoops within inches of my head, I'me sure he is playing!so long from the Kootenays, gtw
*I walked up my mother's driveway the other day, and there was a wild turkey hen standing on the roof of her Cadillac. It wasn't small.
*My Wife and I used to volunteer at a wildlife rehab center, and had some unusual experiences.Had an old lady call to say she had a woodpecker caught in a suet feeder, and wanted us to come out immediately and get it. She called and called and called until we finally had to quit what we were doing and go cut it loose.Had a call to go retrieve an owl in a rough section of Alton, Illinois once. Went down there to find that they were holding the injured owl for us by keeping it under a recliner. Had another lady bring a nest fuill of baby birds in that were tiny - about as big as your thumb. They weren't a species we were set up to take care of, though, and we refused to take them. She was livid, and took off in a huff. She thought she would outsmart us, and stuck the nest in the mailbox as she left. But the mail had been checked that day, and the baby birds cooked in the sun and 90 degree heat until the next day I once had an owl attack me - it had been imprinted and thought it was a human male. During breeding season it thought I was a competitor and tried chase me off. Scared the crap out of me, and I decided to vacate the cage rather rapidly. My Wife was afraid the owl was going to get out, and tried to hold the cage door shut. But I body slammed that sucker and dang near knocked her down. The owl flew out right over our heads, never to be seen again.That's all I can think of at the moment..........
*Yep, it's amazing how things like that happen, and remind us to try to really be there in the moment that we are in!You must have felt like you were in the middle of a miracle.
*Dam crows keep picking at the lunch trash thrown in the dumpster,dropping it all over the place. I'd just like to pull back the safety on the nailer and let em have it.
*With regard to birds flying into the windows.......I read once about some people who stuck a black paper silouette (sp?) of a hawk/predatory bird etc on the windows getting hit. All the strikes stopped.My brother had a pet magpie once that would ride around on the top of your foot. If you were digging the garden it would get off and eat any worms or bugs that got unearthed, then get back on your foot to wait for another.
*My sister, who was going through some bad times, asked us to keep her two Peach Faced Love Birds. She had hand fed them as chicks and were quite attached to them. We set them up in the living room near the couch. I could get one of the birds to do his mating dance by whistling (I think these were a gay couple). There was also a mean one that bit you if you put your hand in the cage.Anyways, the birds were quite clever and knew how to open the cage occasionally. One day we came home and Bandit our dog who loves to kill critters was happily munching the mean one. I hope this little story makes you feel like your in heaven too Kai.bluePs I do like birds too. But not in the house.
*Thanks gtw, AJ, and yeah, right, you devil ;-)
*Kai, the story does have a happy ending. My sister replaced the bird with a new one and it's not mean. The two love birds actually seem like they're in love now!I once had a Sharptail Hawk plow into my vinyl sided house. It puntured a hole in the siding. It died. I fed it to the Racoons.They (who's they?) estimate that picture windows kill millions of birds annually. Predators make a habit of walking around houses scavanging the dead birdies. We've had a number of kamikazes around our house. blue
*We feed a group of Stellar`s Jays with in-shell peanuts (about 100 lbs worth each winter). Sitting on the porch the other morning and the birds arrived so put out the usual handful of nuts. One of the birds flew away with nut and moments later arrived back and very carefully put one shelled peanut down on the rail, then headed for the bowl of nuts. Another bird headed straight for the shelled nut, the first dropped the nut it was in the process of taking from the bowl, flew back and drove the second away, picked up then put down the shelled nut and then returned to the peanut bowl, grabbed another nut and flew away again. I ate the nut the bird left me.
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Was out in the yard todat building a composter out of scrap lumber. Actually I was building a 4 yr old and using a composter as an excuse. My daughter had fun. Anyway, As i was using the table saw I fels something brush my cheek, saw a blur, and heard Christina giggle. I told her not to come close when I was working the saw, and thought little more of it, till a few minutes later, when I was working with her again, and a little chickadee landed on my arm while I held a board for her to hammer. She said look Daddy he's back, and told me that it was this bird that had landed on my shoulder (unnoticed by me) when I was running the saw, and now he's back!
The bird came back about 3 or four more times in the next hour or so, and kept coming to me, never Christina (too bad). It was the neatest thing, this little bird so unnafraid of all the noise and commotion coming to share our day.