Good morning!!!!

[dave1949]

Good evening, shooting at the Canadian parliament building in Ottawa today, 1 Canadian soldier killed, 1 gunman killed. Don't know whole story yet but it is getting to close to home.

A sad and senseless day for sure. The thought crossed my mind that the soldier on ceremonial duty may not have had a loaded weapon. It sounds like he was ambushed with no chance.

 

[rswyan]

The past few days there have been about four dozen dark-eyed juncos feasting on our weeds and grass seeds.

Interesting bird ... I think I've seen 'em around here but didn't know it by name.

Some of their sparrow cousins are traveling with them. We don't have bird feeders but I try to keep the more or less natural buffet stocked. Open space with grass and weeds isn't really a natural state of things here, but I like to see the sky, the bees and bumblebees like the blooms and the birds like the seeds.

We've had a large amount of some sort of thistle grow up in some untended areas around here the last few years ... and it seems like there are always small birds (finches, gold and others) coming and going on it ...

Probably a better way to go, in terms of not making the wildlife dependent on human handouts ...

Had blood drawn this morning to test for Lyme and other tick-borne bad stuff. I've had a couple bouts of muscle and joint pain, low-grade fever and extreme lethargy for three-four days (as opposed to my normal somewhat lethargic state :laughing the past two months. The doctor prescribed a two week course of doxycycline without seeing the test results. I think the tests are not all that reliable anyways.

Hope you are able to get a handle this soon ... certainly doesn't sound like any fun ...

 

[dave1949]

RS: I don't think there is a problem with bird feeders as long as they are cleaned and sanitized weekly to prevent the spread of diseases, which I never seemed to get around to when we have used them in the past.

Supposedly song bird populations are declining mostly due to quality habitat losses. Probably 50% of TBN members are folks who have sprawled into the countryside and contribute to habitat losses and fragmentation, just as I have. Add to that the millions of CRP acres that have been pulled out of the program recently as grain prices rose. Feeding and/or making suitable habitat with natural food sources are ways to compensate for that I hope.

For example:
Pheasants Forever Press Release
"Pheasants Forever says the more troubling statistic is the 25 percent loss in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acreage in the state [S. Dakota] since 2007, a loss that finally appears to be catching up to the state’s overall pheasant population."

 

[Larro Darro]

RS: I don't think there is a problem with bird feeders as long as they are cleaned and sanitized weekly to prevent the spread of diseases, which I never seemed to get around to when we have used them in the past.

Supposedly song bird populations are declining mostly due to quality habitat losses. Probably 50% of TBN members are folks who have sprawled into the countryside and contribute to habitat losses and fragmentation, just as I have. Add to that the millions of CRP acres that have been pulled out of the program recently as grain prices rose. Feeding and/or making suitable habitat with natural food sources are ways to compensate for that I hope.

For example:
Pheasants Forever Press Release
"Pheasants Forever says the more troubling statistic is the 25 percent loss in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acreage in the state [S. Dakota] since 2007, a loss that finally appears to be catching up to the state’s overall pheasant population."

Feral cats do a lot of damage to them too.

 

[dave1949]

Feral cats do a lot of damage to them too.

True.

 

[rswyan]

RS: I don't think there is a problem with bird feeders as long as they are cleaned and sanitized weekly to prevent the spread of diseases, which I never seemed to get around to when we have used them in the past.

Well, I'll admit to being lax in that department ... do it occasionally (with a bleach solution) but not certainly weekly ...

But you're right ... I probably should incorporate a weekly cleaning or a "clean-when-empty" ... since with most of them the seed fillings only last a week ... if I'm lucky ... lol ...

Supposedly song bird populations are declining mostly due to quality habitat losses.

I can believe that ...

I leave dead timber standing wherever I can (without endangering structures) for the cavity nesters ... and we've got a good bit of it ... have a good sized stand of poplar, which has migrated over from the neighbors ... seems pretty short-lived.

Also have a large maple out on the east side of the house in the yard ... it's been in the process of dying for a few years ... wife has been after me to cut it down, or have it cut down. I just noticed a couple days ago when we were picking up leaves that somebody has drilled a number of holes in the dead wood ... so cutting it down now would be difficult (for me)

Probably 50% of TBN members are folks who have sprawled into the countryside and contribute to habitat losses and fragmentation, just as I have. Add to that the millions of CRP acres that have been pulled out of the program recently as grain prices rose. Feeding and/or making suitable habitat with natural food sources are ways to compensate for that I hope.

For example:
Pheasants Forever Press Release
"Pheasants Forever says the more troubling statistic is the 25 percent loss in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acreage in the state [S. Dakota] since 2007, a loss that finally appears to be catching up to the stateç—´ overall pheasant population."

Yup ...

It's a mixed bag here on our property ... when we built here in '69 probably 80% of our acreage was grass (8 acres) ... 3' tall ... old farm field ... and inhabited by pheasants who I assume fed on the field corn grown next door. We lost the pheasant population ... I think due to a hard winter and then the neighbor got too old to keep raising the field corn. And we didn't maintain the field, keeping it mowed ... it's now a woods ... with 30' to 40' tall trees ...

The habitat is still there ... but it's a different habitat.

And we now have neighbors behind us, where before it was just woods.

One of them was shooting last year at turkey vultures on the wing/up in trees ... SMH ...

 

[rswyan]

Feral cats do a lot of damage to them too.

Larro,

It's not only the feral ones ...

Our two cats, IIRC, became house cats about the time one of 'em showed up at the front door with a bird in mouth which was a bright blue ... might have been one like in Maclawn's avatar ... or just a bluebird ...

They don't go out unless they manage to escape (and they're always trying) ... and even then they get hunted down within minutes and brought back inside.

Left to their own devices, they'd stay out for days at time in good weather.

 

[RoyJackson]

2014-10-23, 0326

43 right now and it's raining, but not too hard yet. Today's high will be about 49 and 90% probability of rain...dreary day ahead of us.

That's terrible about the attack in Canada...2nd in two, three days.

 

[WayneB]

47 and moderate rain it could be worse,,,,,snow!
One more day of this stuff then a sunny weekend.

 

[daugen]

48 degrees going to 68 today, another nice Fall day.
guy coming at 8am to measure for a hot tub on the back porch.
Considering I was in the shower last night at midnight in agony with locked up leg muscles with the hot water on full blast, boy I
can't wait for this thing to get installed.
concrete piers put in to support the tub, with 6x6 supports coming up.

my oldest and best friends are coming in next Monday to help me unbox. So far I have no box spring for the mattress I put in their room. Needed to order a special split queen. Wonder if I can put a 4x8 plywood sheet on the frame to support the mattress; was told not to put mattress on frame alone. Makes sense. Am told the box spring might come in Friday. Hope so.