“The turkey vulture not only acts but looks as if it had been born in a garbage can and doused with slop and ashes.” American Wildlife Illustrated (1953) These are black vultures, which are described as “another unbeautiful bird.” Little known fact, vultures are protected by law because they are migratory birds. In some regions,
At Ace of Spades Headquarters Sunday Morning Book Thread. The Book Thread always includes this feature. Today it was a bit different than usual and I liked it.
Mr. Big Food cut the Southwest and Hidden Pastures yesterday as best he could given how wet it still is in places. Told me there were a couple of trees down by Copperhead Crossing. So this morning Rocky, Missy, and I went to take a look. At some point, I saw Missy running with a
Had to call Miss M. Out in the garden this afternoon. Heard screeching. Looked up– way up— and saw two, no three, hawks soaring. Red tailed right? I could see their tail bars. Oh. Red tailed hawks have red tails. No bars. Red shouldered it is. It’s so nice that among the five of them–
Thursday evening’s videos showed clouds to the east– the rain we’d had an hour or so earlier. This photo is the beginning of a little squall line that blessed us with an evening shower. Years ago, I took up bird watching– even bought the National Audubon Society Field Guide. It told me that every year
Turn your speakers up all the way. The Days Gone by! O the days gone by!The apples in the orchard, and the pathway through the rye;The chirrup of the robin, and the whistle of the quailAs he piped across the meadows sweet as any nightingale;When the bloom was on the clover, and the blue was
Another easy way to prevent bird impacts is simply to keep your household or apartment lights off from dusk until dawn. Andrew Del-Colle, “Three Ways You Can Help Migrating Birds This Fall,” August, 2018. I like birds just as much as the next bird lover, but that’s just stupid. To begin, a spot of editing is
That’s a pigeon up on the roof. A city-dwelling flying rat pigeon. I know that it does not look much like a pigeon, but trust me, it’s the same city-dwelling flying rat pigeon that was sitting in the driveway yesterday. Gosh, I hope Tiger doesn’t get it!
No. No, that’s not something from The X-Files. It is what the Frugal Gourmet’s Basic Brown Soup Stock looks like after the roasted SOUP BONES and celery and carrots and onions and all have simmered for ten hours and the bones, celery, carrots and onions have been scooped out with a spider and the broth has
May’s Crappy Old Book of the Month was Science in Your Own Back Yard (Cooper, 1958). There was a lot I didn’t get to in this book. I had hoped to comment briefly on Chapter 10: Plants from Spores because one of the funniest things ever is the settled science of crappy old cook books, specifically the
Eastern towhee; L ♂, R ♀ A strikingly marked, oversized sparrow of the East, feathered in bold black and warm reddish-browns – if you can get a clear look at it. Eastern Towhees are birds of the undergrowth, where their rummaging makes far more noise than you would expect for their size. Their chewink calls
Let’s make suet! If you’ve never made suet for the birds, you’re missing out on a fun winter activity. You can find suet recipes on the World Wide Web, or you can wing it. These are the items I gathered up this morning. Note: I opted to not use the baking mix– I thought there
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