Thursday, February 27, 2014

Not a pretty picture

Don't be taken in.


Things are not as they seem.


Our small, and exceedingly cold world
Has been swarmed by cruel invaders.


The cowbirds and starlings
Have located Camp 61!


A chickadee at the cupboard,


The cupboard is bare,
Emptied in one day by a starling.
Most on the ground.
Perhaps he's in league with the squirrel.

World affairs in the front yard!
Ukraine?

26 comments:

  1. When I lived in Ohio, I could tolerate the bluejays wreaking havoc with my feeder... I rationalized... they're hungry critters... why should I discriminate? I could even close my eyes to house sparrows (we didn't have many of them, so it was fairly easy)... but... starlings and cowbirds! (really bad language here).... while I don't think I could bring myself to shoot them (like a woman in town did), I'd probably spend all day out there screaming obscenities at them. It would be one thing if they ate what they needed, but they are so damned wasteful!

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  2. I did not know those birds are wasteful gluttons.

    Love,
    Janie

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  3. That reminds me of the grapes I grew when I lived in town. There would be a great number of beautiful bunches of grapes hanging on the vine and then it would rain starlings which would eat every grapes within an hour.

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  4. I have to say that I love your photos, Joanne. I wasn't aware of the gluttony of these birds.

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  5. This is exactly why we stopped feeding the birds...the blackbirds and starlings and squirrels cleaned us out daily. Our lawn is a mess of stuff growing up through the grass.

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  6. My hubby gets upset when the doves eat the finch's food. He thinks they should know better

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  7. Well, at least the birds entertained you. Lol.

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  8. I moved to a finch feeder for precisely this reason. The finches snub it, though, so no birds to watch for me.

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  9. That's a pretty house. Poor chickadee.

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  10. A hungry belly is a hungry belly...especially at this time of year.
    Jane x

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  11. Pigeons here. As the food goes out a zillion of them materialise. And stand on each other to attempt to get in first. One of the cockatoos drags them off the feeder by the tails. Drag and drop. Someday I will capture it on video.

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  12. Never a dull moment at the bird feeders!

    betty

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  13. Suck it up!! It is cold and ALL birds are hungry...I know you agree so open your purse and refill the feeders. Soup Kitchen don't discriminate......

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  14. Now that they have found you, they'll be back every year. You'll be spending a fortune on bird seed.

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  15. they get hungry too but they do seem glutinous

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  16. ONE DAY? I am (seriously) surprised it could even fly! English starlings go in flocks, I don't know about the ones where you are, but they wouldn't get very good pickings if they did, if that is how much they eat!!

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  17. umm... I think they came to you via my garden !

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  18. Gosh! You are still in the depth of winter over there. My parents' greatest problems came from blue jays and squirrels. We found the antics of the squirrels to be fascinating -- no matter what contraption my father spent money on as 'squirrel proof' -- the only real guarantee was that they would always 'figure out a way'! We would see a slew of them on the ground looking at the thing coming up with a new plan of attack and no matter how many times they failed would be back again with another plan...

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  19. Funny - similar story here, except our raiders are squirrels who have outwitted the distance, wires, and baffles we've set up between them and the feeders.

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  20. Ours get emptied on a daily basis. We don't even bother to fill it when the grackles come through.

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  21. And don't forget the bluejays! Those 'blue meanies' scare everyone off with their sharp cry and swooping tactics.

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  22. And this is why we only fed the birds one winter. I always felt I couldn't do enough. Then I read that if the birds are not fed, the ones that can migrate will do so. That's most of the birds around these parts. If there's a food source they will stick around - which means if we start to feed them we need to keep on, or they will starve. Good luck with your unexpected guests :)

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  23. Sigh... I remember those days of blackbirds and squirrels.

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