Hi everyone,

All of this talk about animals reminds me of a funny experience a few years ago. At a nearby Kroger (nationwide
chain of grocery stores), there's several -big- tom turkeys living in the grove behind it and in winter, when
the toms get hungry, they go to the main door at Kroger and beg for food. It's the funniest thing.

They can get nasty though. They probably weigh 30-40 pounds each.

-- Sean

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All of this talk about animals reminds me of a funny experience a few years ago. At a nearby Kroger (nationwide
chain of grocery stores), there's several -big- tom turkeys living in the grove behind it and in winter, when
the toms get hungry, they go to the main door at Kroger and beg for food. It's the funniest thing.

They can get nasty though. They probably weigh 30-40 pounds each.

I bet it is funny. I have never been around a lot of them, but that is one wild animal I wouldn't suspect of being a food begger. I wonder if someone
got in the habit of feeding them to start it off? :D

Mike


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Mike Powell wrote to DIGIMAUS <=-

I bet it is funny. I have never been around a lot of them, but that is one wild animal I wouldn't suspect of being a food begger. I wonder if someone got in the habit of feeding them to start it off? :D

Oh, I'm sure they did. I don't think turkeys are naturally aggressive begging humans for food.

-- Sean

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I bet it is funny. I have never been around a lot of them, but that is one wild animal I wouldn't suspect of being a food begger. I wonder if someone got in the habit of feeding them to start it off? :D

Oh, I'm sure they did. I don't think turkeys are naturally aggressive begging
humans for food.

I always thought that Canadian Geese were but then I encountered some in
Canada that didn't seem bothered at all that I was nearby eating lunch. I
was surprised that they paid me no mind & left me alone. I think it is
in places where they are used to people showing up and offering food that
they become (*very*) aggressive beggers.

I used to joke that the Canadian Geese in Canada were more polite than the
ones that migrate or settle here. :D

Mike

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Oh, I'm sure they did. I don't think turkeys are naturally aggressive begg

>> humans for food.

I always thought that Canadian Geese were but then I encountered some in

>Canada that didn't seem bothered at all that I was nearby eating lunch. I
>was surprised that they paid me no mind & left me alone. I think it is
>in places where they are used to people showing up and offering food that
>they become (*very*) aggressive beggers.

They are, if nothing else, pragmatic. Some have gone South for winter
and, being well fed in parks and such, have stayed there. We get quite
a few of them around here but we didn't 35 years ago. They would stop
here but then continue further North to Hudson Bay, but for quite a few
years now we have a good number that stay in this area and they are not
much being fed by people.

Some in the Provincial parks probably are but they have signs and such
asking people not to feed them because they are loud, aggressive
beggars.. plus they don't want them to think that if they winter here
there will still be people around to feed them.

But I've gotten used to seeing them here. They have Goosey Daycare
where, once the goslings are swimming around well, you'll see one
Mother Goose with 15 or 20 of them following her so you know that
they don't all belong to that one female. They say 2 to 8 eggs for
one nest but I'd say that 3 or 4 would be most common.

Pretty much every day now when I head outside I have a couple of
them honking at me, more commonly this time of year when they are
just starting to nest.. They do that often from several hundred
feet distant, likely a warning to all of them in the area that
there is someone outside not too far away.

I used to joke that the Canadian Geese in Canada were more polite

>than the ones that migrate or settle here. :D

Well, they are Canadian, eh? B)

At the moment, as I type this, the Whippoorwills are making a heck
of a racket outside. They are quite loud and generally do their
calling starting at about midnight.

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At the moment, as I type this, the Whippoorwills are making a heck
of a racket outside. They are quite loud and generally do their
calling starting at about midnight.

I don't think we have any of those in this area.

That said, I used to say there were no Catbirds or Oriels in this area but,
in the past 1.5 weeks, I have seen both at my home.

Mike

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Mike Powell wrote to ROB MCCART <=-

At the moment, as I type this, the Whippoorwills are making a heck
of a racket outside. They are quite loud and generally do their
calling starting at about midnight.

I don't think we have any of those in this area.

That said, I used to say there were no Catbirds or Oriels in this area but, in the past 1.5 weeks, I have seen both at my home.

I used to have 3 outside my house, I live in Ireland and we don't have wild turkies :) I bought 3 to fatten and sell for christmas but my children decided that was cruel so they grew and chased everyone :)

TC


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I used to have 3 outside my house, I live in Ireland and we don't have wild turkies :) I bought 3 to fatten and sell for christmas but my children

ecided

that was cruel so they grew and chased everyone :)

LOL, yeah they are territorial if I remember right. What eventually
happened to them?

Mike

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At the moment, as I type this, the Whippoorwills are making a heck

>> of a racket outside. They are quite loud and generally do their
>> calling starting at about midnight.

I don't think we have any of those in this area.

They are sort of neat with their unique call, saying their name,
at least until you're trying to get to sleep. One of them is back
again as I write this.

That said, I used to say there were no Catbirds or Oriels in this area but,

>in the past 1.5 weeks, I have seen both at my home.

I don't think we have Catbirds this far North, and not many birds that
are really colourful. Bluejays are common and Robins but more than
anything else here I see Seagulls, Crows and a few types of Woodpeckers,
plus Swallows and Chickadees for the smaller ones.

But there are lots of hunting type birds here, Hawks and Eagles and
Turkey Vultures. The county builds nesting spots on high towers for
the Osprey Eagles to nest on. For some reason they encourage those
more than anything else.

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That said, I used to say there were no Catbirds or Oriels in this area

ut,

>in the past 1.5 weeks, I have seen both at my home.

I don't think we have Catbirds this far North, and not many birds that
are really colourful. Bluejays are common and Robins but more than
anything else here I see Seagulls, Crows and a few types of Woodpeckers,
plus Swallows and Chickadees for the smaller ones.

Catbirds are not very colorful, but the Oriels are.

There is a young lady on YT that, IIRC, lives in the Maritimes who often
posts videos about Bluejays. Apparently, where she is, they molt. I have never seen a featherless jay down here but they are pretty weird looking. ;)

Lots of Crows here also. Woodpeckers, too, in all sizes. The Swallows
tend to stay near where there is farmland (so we have them but I don't see
them at the house). Chickadees and "Sparrows" are common.

But there are lots of hunting type birds here, Hawks and Eagles and
Turkey Vultures. The county builds nesting spots on high towers for
the Osprey Eagles to nest on. For some reason they encourage those
more than anything else.

There are Hawks and Falcons nearby as I live near the Pallisades. Turkey Vultures are EVERYWHERE here. Just about as common, if not more so, than
the state bird -- the Cardinal. Eagles are not plentiful in my immediate
area, but are more common in Eastern Kentucky, especially around our
several man-made lakes.


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That said, I used to say there were no Catbirds or Oriels in this area

>but, in the past 1.5 weeks, I have seen both at my home.

I don't think we have Catbirds this far North, and not many birds that

>> are really colourful. Bluejays are common and Robins but more than
>> anything else here I see Seagulls, Crows and a few types of Woodpeckers,
>> plus Swallows and Chickadees for the smaller ones.

Catbirds are not very colorful, but the Oriels are.

No, I knew that and was referring to the Orioles..

There is a young lady on YT that, IIRC, lives in the Maritimes who often

>posts videos about Bluejays. Apparently, where she is, they molt. I have
>never seen a featherless jay down here but they are pretty weird looking. ;)

I don't think I've ever seen one doing that, but they do. But they
lose the feathers slowly and they are replaced so the bird is better
protected and the only obvious clue they are molting is they can
lose most of the feathers on their heads leaving them rather bald..

But there are lots of hunting type birds here, Hawks and Eagles and

>> Turkey Vultures. The county builds nesting spots on high towers for
>> the Osprey Eagles to nest on. For some reason they encourage those
>> more than anything else.

There are Hawks and Falcons nearby as I live near the Pallisades. Turkey

>Vultures are EVERYWHERE here. Just about as common, if not more so, than
>the state bird -- the Cardinal.

Eagles are not plentiful in my immediate

>area, but are more common in Eastern Kentucky, especially around our
>several man-made lakes.

We never had bald eagles here that I ever knew about until we
got a couple local the last few years I see flying around now
and then. They are more common in British Columbia. A friend of
mine wand hiking there and took a picture showing probably 30
or so of them around a small lake in the trees. I'd have thought
they'd be more territorial than that but I suppose there was
lots of food available..

I don't think I've seen any Falcons here and known what they were.
There are 4 types that live in Ontario, Canada though so maybe I've
just missed them.. Looking online Peregrine Falcons are year round
residents not too far South of here, but not this far up..
That's the type that you know right away what it is..

Merlin Falcons only Migrate through this area but Gyrfalcons should
actually be here in Winter, and furter North year round. I guess
they like the cold, and it would explain why they are mostly white..
And Kestrels could be here year round too.

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There is a young lady on YT that, IIRC, lives in the Maritimes who often

>posts videos about Bluejays. Apparently, where she is, they molt. I have
>never seen a featherless jay down here but they are pretty weird looking. ;

I don't think I've ever seen one doing that, but they do. But they
lose the feathers slowly and they are replaced so the bird is better protected and the only obvious clue they are molting is they can
lose most of the feathers on their heads leaving them rather bald..

That is what I meant, featherless-headed jays. ;) When I was much
younger, we did have a male cardinal that would show up bald. Thing is, it
was bald year-around so that it might be molting never occurred to us. My
mom used to call it "Baldy" and would feed it. She'd joke that its mate probably did that to him. ;)

We never had bald eagles here that I ever knew about until we
got a couple local the last few years I see flying around now
and then. They are more common in British Columbia. A friend of
mine wand hiking there and took a picture showing probably 30
or so of them around a small lake in the trees. I'd have thought
they'd be more territorial than that but I suppose there was
lots of food available..

I bet they are more common there. They love the mountains and lakes. Like you, I also suspect they are less territorial when there are plenty of resources available.

I don't think I've seen any Falcons here and known what they were.
There are 4 types that live in Ontario, Canada though so maybe I've
just missed them.. Looking online Peregrine Falcons are year round
residents not too far South of here, but not this far up..
That's the type that you know right away what it is..

Yeah, we had at least one that nested on the top of the last office
building I worked in. They moved the nesting box to the top of our
building before they tore down the (much taller) tallest building in town.
I don't think she was as happy on top of ours, though... the buzzards were frequent flyers over our building as it was not taller than the nearby cliffsides, and the other building was right next to the river and (mostly) away from the cliffs.

Merlin Falcons only Migrate through this area but Gyrfalcons should
actually be here in Winter, and furter North year round. I guess
they like the cold, and it would explain why they are mostly white..
And Kestrels could be here year round too.

I don't know for sure what other kind of falcons we might have. I do know
we have some red-tail hawks.

Mike


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That is what I meant, featherless-headed jays. ;) When I was much

>younger, we did have a male cardinal that would show up bald. Thing is, it
>was bald year-around so that it might be molting never occurred to us. My
>mom used to call it "Baldy" and would feed it. She'd joke that its mate
>probably did that to him. ;)

You'd think it would only molt at a certain time of year. They say
online late summer into fall is when to expect that. If he was
bald year round maybe you could blame his 'mate'..
(That's what I did..) B)

Bald Eagles are more common in British Columbia. A friend of

>> mine wend hiking there and took a picture showing probably 30
>> or so of them around a small lake in the trees. I'd have thought
>> they'd be more territorial than that but I suppose there was
>> lots of food available..

I bet they are more common there. They love the mountains and lakes. Like

>you, I also suspect they are less territorial when there are plenty of
>resources available.

Yes, I didn't think there were any here in Ontario until we saw one
the last couple of years, but there was nothing to suggest there
was more than one, although you'd hope there was a pair at least.

I visited the neighbours a couple of days ago and they had a couple
of wheelbarrows blocking an area where people would often park
on their property and just past those there were a couple of small
flagpoles. He explained to me that it was because some Killdeers
(a type of Plover which are birds that spend a lot of time on the
ground and wading in shallow water) had built a 'nest' there.
That nest was just a slight hollow in some gravel on the ground,
and he was trying to protect it until the eggs hatched.
As of yesterday the only change there was that instead of the
original 2 eggs, there were now 4 of them.

I don't think I've seen any Falcons around here..

Yeah, we had at least one that nested on the top of the last office

>building I worked in. They moved the nesting box to the top of our
>building before they tore down the (much taller) tallest building in town.

They had a story on the news a couple of days ago about Geese that
were nesting on tall buildings in Toronto I think, but they had to
keep sending wildlife people to rescue them once the eggs hatched.
Seems the mothers didn't think about how they were going to get
the babies down to the ground after they hatched. They were going
up to the roofs of the buldings and catching the mother in a big
net and putting the goslings in a bag and taking them all down to
the ground and then across a busy highway to where there was a good
sized body of water and letting them go there..

The guy they talked to said they have to do this for dozens of
geese in similar situations every year..

This could be one source of the term, 'Bird Brain'.. B)

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I visited the neighbours a couple of days ago and they had a couple
of wheelbarrows blocking an area where people would often park
on their property and just past those there were a couple of small
flagpoles. He explained to me that it was because some Killdeers
(a type of Plover which are birds that spend a lot of time on the
ground and wading in shallow water) had built a 'nest' there.
That nest was just a slight hollow in some gravel on the ground,
and he was trying to protect it until the eggs hatched.
As of yesterday the only change there was that instead of the
original 2 eggs, there were now 4 of them.

In this area, the killdeers are bad about nesting in the middle of gravel driveways and other places where cars or foot-traffic would be likely.
They make a lot of racket when disturbed. IIRC, they are also one of the
birds where the parent (probably the mother) will feign injury in order to
draw predators away from the nest.

They had a story on the news a couple of days ago about Geese that
were nesting on tall buildings in Toronto I think, but they had to
keep sending wildlife people to rescue them once the eggs hatched.
Seems the mothers didn't think about how they were going to get
the babies down to the ground after they hatched. They were going
up to the roofs of the buldings and catching the mother in a big
net and putting the goslings in a bag and taking them all down to
the ground and then across a busy highway to where there was a good
sized body of water and letting them go there..

Makes you wonder what is drawing them up there. Maybe the lack of places nearer the ground for them to nest in urban areas.

The guy they talked to said they have to do this for dozens of
geese in similar situations every year..

This could be one source of the term, 'Bird Brain'.. B)

Could be one of many sources, I am sure. :D

Mike


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