Post a picture... any picture

mhardy6647

^^^ a very poignant short story.

meanwhile, in Northern New England...

we might not live in the most beautiful place on Earth...
but it's effing close...

tonyb

Great pics Mark, but I could swear I've seen that house before. I think it was in one of those B movies about the end of civilization where the last survivors make their last stand against the Zombie apocalypse.

mrbigbluelight

^^^Well, that's my plan.

Just curious Mr. H: We don't have scarlet tanagers around here, but we do have their what-might-be cousins, cardinals. Cardinals have the position of Kings of the Birdfeeders. At the bottom of the pecking order are chippies, sparrows, etc. Blackbirds will land and chase them off until bluejays land and chase them off. The birdfeeder can be loaded with jays, but let one lone male cardinal land and the bluejays take off like they're shot out of a cannon.
Cardinals aren't aggressive and we've talked about the reason why they rule the roost. We wonder if it's their red coloring (in the males) that make other birds think they're .... zombies or something ?
Just curious if those scarlet tanagers have the same position in the hierarchy.

Nice pics, btw. And after the apocalypse, will refreshments be provided ?

mhardy6647

tonyb wrote: »

Great pics Mark, but I could swear I've seen that house before. I think it was in one of those B movies about the end of civilization where the last survivors make their last stand against the Zombie apocalypse.

Our biggest problem here is the bear apocalypse
Danged blighter pulled down a couple of feeder poles last night -- no feeders nor food on or near them... but he/she knows that there could be.

Effing bears.

txcoastal1

@DrH---But they are so cute and cuddly

@Tonyb---Amityville???? In jest of course

Doc you have quite the spread with a taste of everything and you are blessed

mhardy6647

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

^^^Well, that's my plan.

Just curious Mr. H: We don't have scarlet tanagers around here, but we do have their what-might-be cousins, cardinals. Cardinals have the position of Kings of the Birdfeeders. At the bottom of the pecking order are chippies, sparrows, etc. Blackbirds will land and chase them off until bluejays land and chase them off. The birdfeeder can be loaded with jays, but let one lone male cardinal land and the bluejays take off like they're shot out of a cannon.
Cardinals aren't aggressive and we've talked about the reason why they rule the roost. We wonder if it's their red coloring (in the males) that make other birds think they're .... zombies or something ?
Just curious if those scarlet tanagers have the same position in the hierarchy.

Nice pics, btw. And after the apocalypse, will refreshments be provided ?

Interesting question -- cardinals do have the reputation of being timid (except with each other during breeding season). Short answer: I dunno. Mrs. H didn't have any insight, either(?!).

Given the males' bright red coloring, they must not taste very good to would-be predators

We tend to get a lot of cardinals here, especially in the winter.
Interestingly, 30 years ago there were no cardinals this far north.

maximillian

At my bird-feeder the Jays are definitely the aggressive ones and the Cardinals get out of the way. The Jays are also noticeably larger.

[Deleted User]

down by the lake today

gmcman

Going to hit the sack, but tomorrow evening I should have it up and running.

txcoastal1

sexy....good night

And wasn't talking about your sack

tonyb

BlueBirdMusic

mhardy6647,

I really enjoy all of your photos of the wildlife, especially the birds. Do you live in Canada or just south of the border?

Harry Jones
Marietta GA

mhardy6647

We're roughly 2 hours south of Canada by car, in New Hampsha

BlueBirdMusic

Kid genius brothers, 11 and 14, graduate from high school and college this weekend



Claretta Kimp wants you to understand this:

Yes, she gave birth to two child prodigies, and yes, they're graduating from high school and college this weekend at ages 11 and 14, respectively. Carson, her oldest, is leaving Texas Christian University with a degree in physics and minors in Chinese and math. Cannan, the kid brother, will head to TCU next fall to study astrophysics and engineering. The first wants to get a PhD, the other wants to be an astronaut.

Four years ago, at age 10, Carson was admitted to TCU in Fort Worth and he began classes as an 11-year-old. On Saturday, he'll become the youngest graduate in the university's history.
http://www.ajc.com/news/kid-genius-brothers-and-graduate-from-high-school-and-college-this-weekend/gc21qWmsrE3w61cfQe1YdI/

Jimbo18

My youngest daughter made Teacher of the Year at her high school. Very proud papa.

msg

@voltz, captured by neighbor kid's drone early this afternoon.
Details are sketchy, something about a cold solder joint and cheap wire?

msg

Doc! Holy Moly! That is GORGEOUS!!!
Like the way you let the sun(rise?) light up the tips of the trees.
Love the warm tones...

mhardy6647 wrote: »

meanwhile, in Northern New England...
we might not live in the most beautiful place on Earth...
but it's effing close...

voltz

msg wrote: »

@voltz, captured by neighbor kid's drone early this afternoon.
Details are sketchy, something about a cold solder joint and cheap wire?

Okay so that is how I lost most of my hair.

EndersShadow

@mhardy6647

I blame you for the 200+ dollars we just spent on bird food and other bird related supplies lol.

Humming birds, finches, blujays and butterflies here we come

txcoastal1

EndersShadow wrote: »

@mhardy6647

I blame you for the 200+ dollars we just spent on bird food and other bird related supplies lol.

Humming birds, finches, blujays and butterflies here we come

You forgot the birdshitte

EndersShadow

txcoastal1 wrote: »

EndersShadow wrote: »

@mhardy6647

I blame you for the 200+ dollars we just spent on bird food and other bird related supplies lol.

Humming birds, finches, blujays and butterflies here we come

You forgot the birdshitte

Eh I got 3 dogs... its all the same lol.

EndersShadow

@mhardy6647

Your handywork... This JUST the backyard.. we have two more in the front lol.

4 regular feeders, a finch feeder (drying from its yearly cleaning), one tray for Blue Jays (my request), Hummingbird feeder, and a butterfly feeder.

We have one more to buy and hang off the shed but we may just do suet loaves...

Out front we have a tray of mealworms and another regular feeder.

We bought a 25 bag of seed and it ONLY filled the backyard once lol....

Gonna have to have stuff sent by the truckload as I promise 90% of it will be gone by tomorrow afternoon.

Any tips on attracting hummingbirds, Blue jays or finches appreciated.

Butterfly



Hummingbirg




Regular and Finch in main part of yard




Blue Jay



Regular by shed

mhardy6647

Yup, all of that looks good. We go through a lot of $eed, too, 'specially in the wintertime.

Your hummer feeder will attract hummingbirds; they're pretty amazing -- they find the feeders. They really don't need any other prompting, as far as I can tell.
DSC_2242 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr


Only one species east of the Mississippi; numerous species in the Western US, though.

Our first ones for the year showed up here about a week ago. There are essentially no flowers blooming at our house when they show up(!).

mhardy6647

Blue Jays will eat pretty much anything

Finches of all types will eat the usual seeds, too -- one thing all finches (gold, purple, house, etc.) enjoy and appreciate is so-called "thistle seed" (the commercial product is actually a seed called niger or nyjer, which is like thistle seed but won't grow thistles all over your yard!). Thistle seed and a thistle feeder is a good add-on for finches.

We feed mostly an admixture of black oil sunflower seed and hulled sunflower seed in our other feeders. The latter is nice in that it leaves no mess, but it can get gunky in feeders (especially in wet weather) and is pretty expensive.

EndersShadow

Yeah we have a 4 lb bag of thistle for the finch feeder once it dries. We were also told Blue jays ESPECIALY love whole peanuts for some reason lol. No idea why but we will see.

mhardy6647

They do like peanuts -- although... so do squirrels

Maybe we should start a 'for the birds' thread?

txcoastal1

Say what????

**** Ward, Town of Rideau Lakes (Ontario)
Buttertubs Drive, Nanaimo (British Columbia)
Dingle Bingle Hill Terrace, Nanaimo (British Columbia)
Jingle Pot Road, Nanaimo (British Columbia)
Ragged **** Road, Yellowknife (North West Territories)
Rue Schmuck, Shefford (Quebec)
Merrymeeting Road, St. ...
Quidi Vidi Road, St.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/sarahaspler/street-names-in-canada-are-weird-and-thats-ok?utm_term=.duQ25DOm1#.xlEL2G9VZ

https://youtu.be/ZcuwBW3t-ow

Gatecrasher

F1nut

mhardy6647

^ That's a poignant image.