WHAT'S BUZZING OR FLYING NEAR YOU 2020

A lovely image Hydrogardener and a very distinctive bird.

 

Thanks, Sheal, too bad he was having a bad hair day but it happens to all of us now and then. The males have a red cheek patch while the females have a black cheek patch. They are fascinating critters for sure, they sort of look prehistoric, like Dinosaurs.

 

This magnificent critter is an American Crow. They are big, but the Pileated Woodpecker is slightly larger and has a larger beak so the crows give way at the feeder.

 

@hydrogardener even though crows are not my favourite bird, I was worried a few years back over the West Nile business. Used to have lots of cawing in the conifers around her and it stopped for a few years. Still not back to prior nile.

 

Lori, we don't mind them at all, they are noisy but tolerable. And, there are literally thousands and thousands of them, thankfully not in our neighborhood, we have enough thank you. About 45 minutes prior to sunset they begin to fly over toward Troy, NY where they take up residence for the night. The flights seem endless from horizon to horizon. The city has tried any number of times to get them to move on as they make a racket and really mess with people's cars. They use lights and fireworks but the birds just seem to love Troy. It makes me glad I live in Brunswick. I do not recall ever having a shortage of crows.

 

@hydrogardener I suspect my disenchantment with crows started with a certain story by Daphne Du Maurier being made into a movie by Hitchcock and crows were featured. My cousin and I walked home in the dark, from the show, arm in arm, singing to try to stifle our fear. We were only 12 but some memories stick

I had read the story about a year earlier because I had to wait for the film to get to a second string and affordable theatre. But the crows weren't as horrifying in the book as the movie.

The sparrow, chickadees, house wrens?, cardinals and a couple other breeds have been populating the bird feeder the last week or so. I suspect a hawk was watching over the feeder before that and it is the reason things were quiet for awhile.

 

Crows are very intelligent and family-oriented, they put off breeding for a few years to assist their parents in raising their siblings. You can almost see the wheels turning behind their eyes. I had a parrot for 23 years and he had the same intelligent look about him.

 

Yes they do look like something prehistoric. The stripes on it's face make it look quite vicious.

 

If the covers were shiny @shiney that's the reason they would pull them out. All the crow family are attracted to things that sparkle.

 

Much prefer crows, in fact any corvid, to the noisy seagulls.
In fact the crows keep the seagulls from getting comfortable on my roof; watching a crow buzzing a seagull is a bit of light relief.

 

Then the only other reason I can think of, is that they do it to annoy you.

 

Saw a Woodpecker eating suet pellets a few days ago. Don't see them very often, only when winters are very cold and usually just one. Not sure where it's come from as not woodpecker habitat here. Yesterday saw an enormous Buzzard in my garden, size of a Spaniel dog. Can't say I'm thrilled about it's appearance or it's taste for rattus norweigus.