Birds of a Feather
17/06/20 07:56
I'm happy to have found just the right suet for my suet feeder and the birds that it attracts. I'm talking about woodpeckers mainly just so you know. Cowbirds tend to come by only occasionally and despite the fact that their bills don't seem to be particularly well suited to the holes in the mesh of the feeder they seem undeterred. I'm in constant fear that now that I've found a suet that the birds clearly prefer that it will become all the rage at the local Walmart and that I will find it more often than not out of stock due to its popularity with both the birds and the people who love to feed them.
I might like to mention that I have an outstanding suet feeder. Like everyone else I started out using one of those cage like feeders but quickly discovered that I was losing more suet to squirrels and other animals than I was to the birds that I was hoping to attract. I'm not even sure that I was looking to attract woodpeckers at the outset but I was definitely not wanting to feed the local squirrel population day in and day out. So I found this one feeder online that is just perfect in that the mesh is small enough to feed just the birds and the cage has a solid stainless steel construction so it is indestructible for all intents and purposes. Did I mention that it can accommodate two suet cakes? Perfect!
I sometimes no sooner refill the feeder than I have to start thinking about when it might require another replacement bar or two. I'm not sure when I started to notice this but woodpeckers will actually feed each other while at the feeder which is behavior I've not seen with other birds. I looked it up and it seems to be related to their mating ritual. It also seems somewhat commonplace given how often I see it so it makes me wonder. And how often do you see selfless acts in the wild unless maybe it is not all that selfless.
One of these days I'll sort out which is the female of the species and which is the male species and then, I suppose, it will be good to know which birds are mature and which have yet to reach full maturity. I'm not looking to go full Audubon here but something short of that might work out. Nancy said something about the fact that woodpeckers mate for life so I found that interesting. I've heard that that is also true of mourning doves and everything I've seen about those birds supports that widely held understanding.
So much so, that I feel a little sad for mourning doves when and where I notice that he or she has no apparent mate. Did it lose its mate to a predator? Perhaps it has yet to find a mate to its liking. That's a big decision so I suppose even in the bird kingdom those decisions are not made without considerable deliberation and review. I watched yesterday as a mourning dove (with no apparent mate in sight) took a few sips from our bird bath on the deck and then proceeded to plop down squarely in the center of bird bath where he languished contentedly with his body half submerged for the better part of fifteen minutes or so before flying off. He didn't seem to have a care in the world. Maybe birds have something to teach we humans about living in the moment.
I should like to get back to the gym but not sure just yet that it's going to work out. It's one less activity in my playbook and one that I would rather not scuttle given half a chance. Do I dare take a chance and pay a visit now that they are open again? I am not otherwise fearful of contracting the dreaded coronavirus so aside from the usual and now standard precautions I may just take the plunge. I've never been a gym rat if you get my drift but doing a little treadmill work and maybe a little work with the weights will help me become even more fit. I have to believe my biking has done wonders for my cardio so I think its time to work on other areas now that the gyms have reopened. There, I talked myself into it.
I was getting a little short on coffee at home so I popped my head into Starbucks the other day in downtown Portsmouth. No sooner had I walked into the store than a woman from behind the counter asked that I step back outside. I had read none of the signs and had largely ignored the various taped markings, arrows, and the like that had been laid out on the floor of the store in order to provide direction to the customers entering the store. Had I done so I would have understood that they were only allowing 5 people in the store at the same time which, by the way, was just ludicrous.
I waited my turn and reentered the site after about 5 minutes and proceeded to order a pound of coffee to go. I have to say, with the plastic shields, the masks, with the background noise of coffee machines grinding and whirring, placing my order with the person behind the counter was no easy task. It helps to see peoples lips moving even if you can't read them and that goes unnoticed in the course of a normal back and forth because it's just taken for granted that those cues are there for the taking. It's probably no different than the flailing of the arms in a conversation between two Italians where the arms tell the story and lips follow with a less instructive version of that which is being articulated. I know I'm working myself into a lather here so I'll just quit while I'm ahead.
I got the distinct impression that the entire cordoning off of certain sections of the Starbucks store, the flashing red and green lights, the taped arrows on the floors, walls and ceilings, was all about preserving the health of the employees and it had little to do with safety or concerns of the customers entering the store. I wondered if I were an employee of the store would I be willing or wanting to return to serving customers who might infect me at every turn. What kind of commitment would I expect from my employer before I would be willing to step behind the counter and take orders from a spitting, spewing, coughing, hacking, and breathing customer base? Maybe you couldn't pay me enough.
But I celebrate every store and every business that is now opening its doors because getting back to normal is just the elixir that the world needs now that we've turned the corner with this virus thing. Or, have we? You just don't know who to believe when it comes to getting the truth about where we are in the course of the pandemic. Are we moving out of phase one and into a period where the virus is less virulent given the summer temperatures? Have we moved directly from phase one to phase two without so much as a respite from the weariness of it all? My own community of some 5,000 residents has seen 14 (increased to 15 overnight) cases in total since it began and usually has anywhere from 1 to 4 cases on an ongoing basis. Don't know about related hospitalizations, intubations, deaths, etc. Just not a big deal.
I was delighted to see last night that the anarchists were unsuccessful in tearing down the statute of Andrew Jackson that sits in front of the White House. The anarchical soy boys and girls had attached ropes to the statute lilliputian style just before nightfall in Lafayette Square and the ropes had turned taut on both sides of the statute when the baton wielding officers arrived enforce. Every red blooded American watching that scene from the comfort of their living room had to be pulling for the forces of good who would stand up against these mobs looking to destroy our monuments and they were not disappointed.
I couldn't help but wonder if the tools the officers employed when dispersing the unruly crowds weren't somewhat out of date. There must be a more effective way of dispersing crowds than to push their lines back and away from the statute by standing man to man with batons in hand while raining down rubber projectiles on the more violent and unlawful amongst them. Why not just throw a fucking net over them like a school of fish? Tanks might be a little heavy handed but how about a sonic dog whistle that causes nose and ear bleeds?
These radicals were dressed to the nines complete with gas masks, bicycle helmets, and the dark arts garb right out computer games the likes of Dungeons and Dragons. It was hard to tell if the excesses seen in their outerwear were a result of their desire to remain anonymous or simply them exercising their choice of mob-wear over something more aesthetically pleasing to the eye like jeans and a tee shirt. It seemed hardly possible that Trump would allow these animals to take down a statute in such close proximity to the White House and that is precisely how it turned out. Put that down as a victory for the American people and a defeat for the forces of evil.
We'll be paying Mrs G a visit in a couple of days so that will be nice. Nancy hasn't seen her mom in some three months now since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic back in March. I think we wondered if we might ever get to see her at all with the pandemic raging as it was and with all the precautions put in place by her facility. Now that cases are trending up while deaths are trending down, and with no cases whatsoever having seen the light of day in her independent living facility, they've relaxed the rules just enough so we can pay a visit. We'll have to keep our distance and we'll have to wear masks but that seems reasonable under the circumstances. It's all good.
I might like to mention that I have an outstanding suet feeder. Like everyone else I started out using one of those cage like feeders but quickly discovered that I was losing more suet to squirrels and other animals than I was to the birds that I was hoping to attract. I'm not even sure that I was looking to attract woodpeckers at the outset but I was definitely not wanting to feed the local squirrel population day in and day out. So I found this one feeder online that is just perfect in that the mesh is small enough to feed just the birds and the cage has a solid stainless steel construction so it is indestructible for all intents and purposes. Did I mention that it can accommodate two suet cakes? Perfect!
I sometimes no sooner refill the feeder than I have to start thinking about when it might require another replacement bar or two. I'm not sure when I started to notice this but woodpeckers will actually feed each other while at the feeder which is behavior I've not seen with other birds. I looked it up and it seems to be related to their mating ritual. It also seems somewhat commonplace given how often I see it so it makes me wonder. And how often do you see selfless acts in the wild unless maybe it is not all that selfless.
One of these days I'll sort out which is the female of the species and which is the male species and then, I suppose, it will be good to know which birds are mature and which have yet to reach full maturity. I'm not looking to go full Audubon here but something short of that might work out. Nancy said something about the fact that woodpeckers mate for life so I found that interesting. I've heard that that is also true of mourning doves and everything I've seen about those birds supports that widely held understanding.
So much so, that I feel a little sad for mourning doves when and where I notice that he or she has no apparent mate. Did it lose its mate to a predator? Perhaps it has yet to find a mate to its liking. That's a big decision so I suppose even in the bird kingdom those decisions are not made without considerable deliberation and review. I watched yesterday as a mourning dove (with no apparent mate in sight) took a few sips from our bird bath on the deck and then proceeded to plop down squarely in the center of bird bath where he languished contentedly with his body half submerged for the better part of fifteen minutes or so before flying off. He didn't seem to have a care in the world. Maybe birds have something to teach we humans about living in the moment.
I should like to get back to the gym but not sure just yet that it's going to work out. It's one less activity in my playbook and one that I would rather not scuttle given half a chance. Do I dare take a chance and pay a visit now that they are open again? I am not otherwise fearful of contracting the dreaded coronavirus so aside from the usual and now standard precautions I may just take the plunge. I've never been a gym rat if you get my drift but doing a little treadmill work and maybe a little work with the weights will help me become even more fit. I have to believe my biking has done wonders for my cardio so I think its time to work on other areas now that the gyms have reopened. There, I talked myself into it.
I was getting a little short on coffee at home so I popped my head into Starbucks the other day in downtown Portsmouth. No sooner had I walked into the store than a woman from behind the counter asked that I step back outside. I had read none of the signs and had largely ignored the various taped markings, arrows, and the like that had been laid out on the floor of the store in order to provide direction to the customers entering the store. Had I done so I would have understood that they were only allowing 5 people in the store at the same time which, by the way, was just ludicrous.
I waited my turn and reentered the site after about 5 minutes and proceeded to order a pound of coffee to go. I have to say, with the plastic shields, the masks, with the background noise of coffee machines grinding and whirring, placing my order with the person behind the counter was no easy task. It helps to see peoples lips moving even if you can't read them and that goes unnoticed in the course of a normal back and forth because it's just taken for granted that those cues are there for the taking. It's probably no different than the flailing of the arms in a conversation between two Italians where the arms tell the story and lips follow with a less instructive version of that which is being articulated. I know I'm working myself into a lather here so I'll just quit while I'm ahead.
I got the distinct impression that the entire cordoning off of certain sections of the Starbucks store, the flashing red and green lights, the taped arrows on the floors, walls and ceilings, was all about preserving the health of the employees and it had little to do with safety or concerns of the customers entering the store. I wondered if I were an employee of the store would I be willing or wanting to return to serving customers who might infect me at every turn. What kind of commitment would I expect from my employer before I would be willing to step behind the counter and take orders from a spitting, spewing, coughing, hacking, and breathing customer base? Maybe you couldn't pay me enough.
But I celebrate every store and every business that is now opening its doors because getting back to normal is just the elixir that the world needs now that we've turned the corner with this virus thing. Or, have we? You just don't know who to believe when it comes to getting the truth about where we are in the course of the pandemic. Are we moving out of phase one and into a period where the virus is less virulent given the summer temperatures? Have we moved directly from phase one to phase two without so much as a respite from the weariness of it all? My own community of some 5,000 residents has seen 14 (increased to 15 overnight) cases in total since it began and usually has anywhere from 1 to 4 cases on an ongoing basis. Don't know about related hospitalizations, intubations, deaths, etc. Just not a big deal.
I was delighted to see last night that the anarchists were unsuccessful in tearing down the statute of Andrew Jackson that sits in front of the White House. The anarchical soy boys and girls had attached ropes to the statute lilliputian style just before nightfall in Lafayette Square and the ropes had turned taut on both sides of the statute when the baton wielding officers arrived enforce. Every red blooded American watching that scene from the comfort of their living room had to be pulling for the forces of good who would stand up against these mobs looking to destroy our monuments and they were not disappointed.
I couldn't help but wonder if the tools the officers employed when dispersing the unruly crowds weren't somewhat out of date. There must be a more effective way of dispersing crowds than to push their lines back and away from the statute by standing man to man with batons in hand while raining down rubber projectiles on the more violent and unlawful amongst them. Why not just throw a fucking net over them like a school of fish? Tanks might be a little heavy handed but how about a sonic dog whistle that causes nose and ear bleeds?
These radicals were dressed to the nines complete with gas masks, bicycle helmets, and the dark arts garb right out computer games the likes of Dungeons and Dragons. It was hard to tell if the excesses seen in their outerwear were a result of their desire to remain anonymous or simply them exercising their choice of mob-wear over something more aesthetically pleasing to the eye like jeans and a tee shirt. It seemed hardly possible that Trump would allow these animals to take down a statute in such close proximity to the White House and that is precisely how it turned out. Put that down as a victory for the American people and a defeat for the forces of evil.
We'll be paying Mrs G a visit in a couple of days so that will be nice. Nancy hasn't seen her mom in some three months now since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic back in March. I think we wondered if we might ever get to see her at all with the pandemic raging as it was and with all the precautions put in place by her facility. Now that cases are trending up while deaths are trending down, and with no cases whatsoever having seen the light of day in her independent living facility, they've relaxed the rules just enough so we can pay a visit. We'll have to keep our distance and we'll have to wear masks but that seems reasonable under the circumstances. It's all good.