Grandsons and birds!
This is Juju’s first Close Encounter. At nine years old, he was instantly comfortable with a new friend’s pet.
Interesting side story; this bird’s caretakers build a cat door for the bird to come and go through…which it has for 20 years or so…Talk about your Free Bird! (Can you hear the obvious song in the background?)
I feed my local crows every morning….for 35 years. My neighbors think I am nuts, and compare it to feeding the local RATS!! In their defense, I suppose their diagnosis of me comes from the fact that I stand on my deck “cawing” at the top of my lungs every morning at 7 until my birds show up….and they do! If I am not out there on time, they let me know…loudly!
From my desk, I look right out onto the deck and am just a few feet from them so I take a ton of pictures…not fancy photographs, just “extended animal-family” snapshots.
Crows are amazing birds, unbelievably smart. I keep a pan of water on the deck for them and if the day’s fare is too crunchy, or maybe too salty, these clever birds dip each bite into the water for softening or rinsing, before devouring.
Sometimes there is competition for their daily meal and there is a minor scuffle.
I had read about this one thing crows do that I always wanted to witness and finally, they complied. Like several other species I won’t mention, Teenage Crows act very entitled! They demand to still be fed, sometimes even after they have outgrown their parents.
I found this information on the Cornell bird site:
Most young birds leave their parents soon after leaving the nest, often being chased away, and never see the parents again. In contrast, American crows never chase away their offspring, and the young may remain at home for years….While they wait for a breeding opportunity, most crows help their parents raise young. They help feed the incubating female, feed the nestlings and fledglings, defend the territory and the nest, and stand guard over other family members while they forage. Such cooperative breeding behavior is rare in birds. Only a handful of species in North America exhibit it, and none are as widespread as the American crow. http://www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/planta.htm
Check out this series of snapshots. Can you tell who is the Entitled Teenager?
And FINALLY!!!!
Now, I just want to see a fluffy black baby and my crow dreams will be complete.
Dinner for Braveheart
or
Braveheart for Dinner!?
At this age, he fell out of the nest over our back door…twice….
Helpless on the ground!
We put him back with his siblings….and he survived so we called him Braveheart…
But the cats discovered him during his pre-flight and were full of longing……….(this one is Phineas, the Terrorist)….
And they were plotting to get at him……(This one is Zorro, the Gray Blade)….
But who would eat this sweet little guy for dinner?
(By the way, it took him days of hanging out on several close-by perches before he finally fledged….he was pretty damaged by his falls from the nest.)
His parents and siblings continued to drop by at dinnertime to feed him for two weeks.
Here he is, waiting to be fed….
And waiting to FLY!
If these “impossible” connections can happen…..
between predator and prey………..
between newcomer and homey…..
between natural enemies…..
between famous and fan…..
Then maybe in the FUTURE my sisters and I can reunite!!!
Looked out my living room window Easter morning to see THIS!!
It took three tow truck companies and finally a flatbed truck to save the car from its destiny of a crooked life!
Next door neighbor’s guest left late on Easter Eve and said she had to swerve to miss the Easter Bunny. (We do have a ton of bunnies around these days…)
I guess we are a pretty animal friendly community.
Not sure if this will work but it’s the first thing I thought of when the theme of “dance” for the Weekly Photo Challenge was announced. Maybe it’s cheating to try to post a video? But no still shot could capture this dance. I discovered it while cleaning out their terrarium a few weeks ago. I always play music while cleaning their home but apparently these guys don’t really like the Eagles or Bonnie Raitt.
Dinnertime