Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Birb Bed and Breakfast Hopping Today

Birb Bed and Breakfast Hopping Today

by | 95 Comments

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We got a bunch of snow so I fed the birds, cleaned out the bath and put some warm water in, and the house is a rocking:

Birb Bed and Breakfast Hopping Today

Ton of black birds and I could not make out if they were fat grackles or crows but I heard no crow sounds and they didn’t have that blueish tint. There were some cardinals and other songbirds but every time I pointed the camera at them they flew off, and all that was left were these fatties and I have no idea what they are.

No birb shaming I don’t care if they are exotic or rare I just like that they come to my house.

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    We got three inches of snow yesterday so I filled up all the feeders and put out a second suet cake for them. A few hours later I looked out the window and there was a huge bird perched on the bar the feeders hang from. Looked like an owl, but it was broad daylight so probably a hawk. A disappointed predator, whatever he was, because the smaller birds were nowhere around.

  2. 2.

    Yarrow

    Had a hawk in the birdbath and other day. They so big – take up the whole damn thing and splash all the water out. Also scare all the other birds away.

  4. 4.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yup, Starlings.

    Yet another import via a crazy old white guy:

    In 1890, Schieffelin released 60 imported starlings from England into New York City’s Central Park.[10][11] He did the same with another 40 birds in 1891. According to an oft-repeated story, Schieffelin supposedly introduced starlings as part of a project to bring to the United States all the birds mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare.[12][13][14] Some historians have cast doubt on this story, as no record of it exists until the 1940s.[15][16][2] He may have also been trying to control the same pests that had been annoying him thirty years earlier, when he sponsored the introduction of the house sparrow to North America.[17]

    Schieffelin’s efforts were part of multiple releases of starlings in the United States, ranging from the mid-1870s through the mid-1890s.[2] The successful spread of starlings has come at the expense of many native birds that compete with the starling for nest holes in trees.[18] The starlings have also had negative impact on the US economy and ecosystem.[19] European starlings are now considered an invasive species in the United States.[20]

    His attempts to introduce bullfinches, chaffinches, nightingales, and skylarks were not successful.

    I saw a bluebird in the local park a year or so ago. I just got a couple of bluebird houses to put up – I’m hoping that some of Schieffelin’s monsters don’t take up residence.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  5. 5.

    satby

    @Yarrow: Yeah, this guy was big, but his beak didn’t seem to protrude as much as a hawk’s, which could have been just my poor eyesight not catching detail. I was trying to take a picture when he flew off.

  7. 7.

    JPL

    There’s a lot of power outages in the Atlanta area, including my son’s house.   The estimated time to fix it was 8 pm but now it has changed to close to midnight.   I have power and heat and am only twenty minutes away, so it might be time to load up the baby and toddler and come over.   DIL is on a business trip.

  10. 10.

    VeniceRiley

    @Another Scott: When I read The Ouster War, it struck me how much California fauna and flora originated with h Euros imports of nostalgia from home. Terrific book. Highly recommended.

  12. 12.

    JPL

    @raven:  Earlier I heard a loud thud, but fortunately it wasn’t a tree.   Just a large limb.   By the end of the week, it will be in the high seventies.  Did you have any damage?

  14. 14.

    satby

    @JPL: Ha! It’s 16° here right now with brilliant sun after snow off and on all day. Tomorrow will get close to 50°, and by Wednesday 63°. Talk about your March Madness!

  15. 15.

    Brachiator

    @VeniceRiley:

    When I read The Ouster War, it struck me how much California fauna and flora originated with h Euros imports of nostalgia from home. Terrific book. Highly recommended.

    Peacocks and palm trees…

  16. 16.

    Mike in NC

    A couple days ago the forecast for Saturday was 70 degrees, so I wore shorts and a t-shirt. Instead we got high winds and rain. Lost power at 10 AM for several minutes. I filled a leaf bag with all the branches that landed in the driveway. Now I’m wearing jeans, a sweatshirt, and a zippered sweater.

  18. 18.

    Steeplejack

    It’s 25° outside, and we got two or three inches of snow here in Threadkill Lane. I was shocked. My sleep patterns are shot, so I was up until after 5:00 a.m. It was cold, but only about 40°, and we had only gotten a little drizzle so far, so I thought, “It’s not happening.” Slept until after 9:00 a.m., read in bed for a while, and when I got up about 10:00 I was shocked to see substantial snow on the ground.

    It was bitter cold all day, with gusty winds, and I had a hell of a time scraping the thick ice off the doughty Kia to go pick up my Trader Joe’s friend at 4:30. We got Chinese takeout on the way home, so I’m back in the bunker and warming up with some hot and sour soup. Egg rolls and chicken fried rice to follow.

  22. 22.

    CROAKER

    ODE to the Waning of Winter and Springing forward 

    Wren winter is over

    The Junkos fly back

    Finches change colors a new

    Red Tails and Coopers begin to circle

    The Country Pigeons  … well lets just say… the peck less few

    When the Crows use the bath to soak the road kill we know their chicks will take flight further still

    The Cowbirds return their well laid egg plans staged

    We will now know winter is Nill

  23. 23.

    Cameron

    @raven: It must be pretty nasty- we’re not getting the low temp here (Bradenton-Sarasota), but the wind is kickin’ it and apparently there’s all kinds of rip tides, etc. at the shore.  Stay safe up there!

  25. 25.

    Brachiator

    Oh, yeah.

    Daylight Savings Sunday. Spring forward.

    All the devices I have now do this automatically.

  30. 30.

    Dan B

    Rocket attack on the US Consulate in Erbil, Northern Iraq / Kurdistan.  No news of perpetrator.

  31. 31.

    JPL

    @zhena gogolia:  The Atlanta area has had a lot of rain, and todays strong winds, brought down a lot of trees.   With the wind chill, the temps have felt like it was in the teens all day.

  32. 32.

    realbtl

    48º and sunny in NW Montana so my friend and I took my Mustang convertible out for a cruise.  Top down of course.  Then sit down Thai for the first dining out since 2-20.  I could get used to that kind of thing.  Sigh.

  33. 33.

    jnfr

    I so love watching  the birds at my feeder. It’s house finches and chickadees most days and I’m always thrilled to see them and worry if they fly away for very long.

    Last year I got a big bird bath, and especially in the blasting Colorado summer heat, every bird (and squirrel) in the area visits it. Over the winter I got a trap camera, and I’m going to set that up this spring and see whose picture I can catch. I do get robins and blue jays, doves, woodpeckers, and occasional juncos or towhees, so it could catch lots of birds.

  34. 34.

    Redshift

    @Betsy: I’ll defer to you. They look the wrong shape for starlings to me (more sparrow-like, not so long), though the coloring looks like a starling. Maybe it’s just the angle that’s throwing me off.

  35. 35.

    Martin

    What am I supposed to do here? It’s sunny and 75. Everything is in bloom. I’m pruning the lemon tree.

    None of us here in CA can participate in these things.

  37. 37.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @Another Scott:  Agree European Starlings. Yellow beaks and spots over black feathers. They were mobbing our bird feeder on this snowy day too.

  38. 38.

    Dan B

    Was sunny most of the day and the sun felt warm.  We’re supposed to get five days of atmospheric river, weather all the way from Not Max’s vicinity.  Wet, wet, wet.

  39. 39.

    Ohio Mom

    @Baud: All day long I’ve been thinking I’m getting an extra hour tomorrow, then read your comment and realized wishful thinking must have taken over. I’m getting cheated out of an hour of birthday.

  40. 40.

    CaseyL

    Hey, John, have any of your porch birb families shown up yet to start nest-building?

    I spoke to my Aunt in Philly a little while ago, and she also mentioned fresh snow.  Here in the PNW, it was sunny for a while (though chilly) and now the clouds are back.  I went out to put the cover back on the deck sofa.  Hoping for better (drier!) weather next weekend, so a friend and I can take light rail down to Columbia City and explore a bit. (Columbia City is a neighborhood in the very south end of Seattle; has one of the most diverse populations in the city, and lots of restaurants and shops we want to check out.)

  42. 42.

    nc lurker

    here in nw north carolina,40 /50 mph wind gusts ,snow squalls.

    snapped a fifty foot pine tree in half ,right on top of power lines about six am.

    right across from my house.

    guys got here and repaired damage around 1pm.

    damn glad to have inter tubes back ,but heat and lights are pretty nice as well.

    guinness and jameson seem to be in order,since it is now 12 degrees

    slainte’ all.

  45. 45.

    Betsy

    @Redshift: I’m glad to support my ID with details, like all responsible birders!

    Starlings aren’t very long; they have short, stubby tails.

    Most species of sparrow (there are many) have short, triangular beaks (close to equilateral triangles when seen in profile).  These birds in John’s  photo have sharp, elongated-triangle, straight beaks that are characteristic of starlings. (Seen easily on the two birds on the left side)

    The bird at the right side has its beak down in a little trough  which makes its beak look short and blunt. But also on that bird  you can nicely see the greenish iridescence for which starlings are well known.

    The gold(ish) speckles on a black background, and pinkish/pale feet, are also typical of starlings.

    Here’s a link to “similar species” and field marks in starlings from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/id

    I like that site ‘cause I can obnoxiously name-check Cornell, like that obnoxious co-worker on The Office.

  46. 46.

    satby

    I live right near the time zone border and always have to account for a lost or gained hour every time I drive 30 minutes east, so DST doesn’t bother me normally. I’m going to miss the light in the early morning again, but later sundown means I could maybe eat a dinner out at a normal dinner time instead of at 4pm before dusk and no driving for me. So, I’m excited.

  48. 48.

    Dan B

    @CaseyL: Columbia City is a mile south of us so it’s my grocery shopping.  Island Soul is fun, and verrry diverse.  Have fun!

  49. 49.

    Abnormal Hiker

    @Ohio Mom: One year I slept through my entire birthday. Left Vancouver for Sydney at 11pm the eve of my birthday. Fell asleep shortly after takeoff and woke up a few hours later after having crossed the dateline. I do gain an hour back this fall though.

  50. 50.

    Almost Retired

    There is a (locally) famous flock of feral parrots that infest my part of Los Angeles.  Last night they took up temporary residence in my tree.  These are not colorful pet shop parrots but are kind of rough looking characters  from the wrong side of the parrot tracks. Polly didn’t want a cracker, but she did want to shit on my car and try and pry off a couple roof shingles.

  52. 52.

    Juju

    @Mike in NC: Here in the eastern part of NC we went from 71 early this morning to 36 by the afternoon. I hate this kind of weather. It’s a migraine trigger and I feel like I have an icepick behind my left eye. It’s windy too. Bleh.

  53. 53.

    Kalakal

    @Another Scott:

    His attempts to introduce bullfinches, chaffinches, nightingales, and skylarks were not successful.

    Part of me is actually sorry about that, espescially the bullfinches, I miss those guys. Then sanity returns.

    Just be thankful he didn’t try it with English  (Eurasian) magpies, the place would be knee deep in them. They’re super smart ( the only birds that can recognise themselves in a mirror) and very resourceful

  55. 55.

    Dan B

    @Dan B: Missles that hit Erbil were from Iran.  Probably the Revolutionary Guard retaliation for the death of two guard members.  It may have been a hit on a US base and not the consulate.

  58. 58.

    evodevo

    @Redshift: ​
      Yeah…they look awfully small for starlings…starlings also have yellow beaks and dark eyes and stumpy tails; grackles are larger and have yellow eyes and dark beaks and long tails. The one on the right looks more like a sparrow. Can’t tell about the other one.

  61. 61.

    Steeplejack

    @Betty:

    I’m in Falls Church (VA), about halfway between the Beltway (5 miles) and the Potomac River (6-7 miles) on the east-west axis of the Beltway circle. I rarely have to get on it, but once you’re inured to D.C. traffic it’s no big deal. From what I’ve seen, the convoy was experiencing normal traffic, maybe with a few more flipped fingers.

  63. 63.

    evodevo

    @evodevo: The picture you all are describing doesn’t look at all like what I am seeing in the post…wait…is this like that frog thingy where you have to hunt for it?

  65. 65.

    Steeplejack

    @evodevo:

    Click on the picture to embiggen it? The birbs are kind of hard to see—gray on gray. They’re on the railing to the right of the white bowl.

  68. 68.

    HeleninEire

    @Baud: Does it really affect you? I find that people have such different reactions. It affects me not one wit. I think that may be because I’m such a huge insomniac that I’m not gonna sleep regardless.

  69. 69.

    Martin

    @Dan B: Interesting. We’re pretty close to getting a new Iran deal signed. Russia is currently holding it a bit hostage in exchange for sanction relief from the US. Might also be the Revolutionary Guard is not a fan of the deal.

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    Just turned the stove top heat off under the simmering big pot of a wintertime favorite chez NotMax, curried eggplant. Doctored it up this time with some finely diced red and green peppers, chunks of baby carrots and diced portobello mushrooms.

    Served ladle over white rice. Enough in the pot to last through most, maybe all, of next week.

  73. 73.

    J R in WV

    Here in SW West Virginia, it was shorts and a tee shirt yesterday to go to town. This morning it was 9 inches of snow (next door neighbor measured it, I thought it was more like 8 just eyeballing it) and blowing pretty dammed cold. Around noon I put on sweats under my jeans, my heavy work jacket, and fired up the leaf blower, which didn’t work great on snow that was getting heavier by the hour.

    If I had started at dawn it would have been fluffy enough to just blow away, maybe. Maybe not.

    I shoveled and blew off the car, the front steps, and much of the path from the upstairs front door thru the woods and boulders down to the car park, which runs about 220 feet long. Tomorrow I’ll fire up the tractor and plow out the farm road, and maybe the county road out to the pavement. Wife has a Dr appointment early Monday morning, or I would let it all melt down Monday, when it’s supposed to be spring again.

    It rained hard one day last week , and all the runnels of water coming off the hillsides were full and white with gushing water. Some day I’ll take pix of all the tiny rainy day waterfalls on the farm, there are 6 or 8 on our property, dozens in the neighborhood.

    I’m having a G&T right now, will fix swordfish later on, Wife is having her dark rum and tonic before dinner drink. Didn’t see many birbs, heard an owl while shoveling, think Mr Owl was just speaking up from his storm roost.

  74. 74.

    Cameron

    @Dan B: That’s not good at all.  We give a lot of aid to Israel, but I don’t think this is something we really support.  Things are getting dicey enough with the nuclear-arms deal, what with Russia trying to throw a monkey wrench into it.

  78. 78.

    Martin

    @Dan B: Good luck with that.

    But we’re trying to take Russia off the board, so maybe things will get less inscrutable.

  80. 80.

    Ivan X

    I really love the birds that come visit our feeder. The smallest of them I think are lesser goldfinches, yellow and black, quite tiny. Sometimes when the feeder gets too low one of them gets greedy and manages to get under the glass and ends up in bird jail :(

  81. 81.

    Geminid

    @Cameron: Israel has been attacking Iranian targets in Syria for years now, as many as 200 total strikes. They don’t often kill IRGC members, but it’s happened before without the Iranians shooting at U.S. forces. Maybe someone has changed policy, but why now?

  83. 83.

    Yutsano

    @HeleninEire:  About that marriage thing…

    It also amuses me slightly that the drug my doctor gives me for my insomnia is primarily an anti-psychotic. Or he’s trying to say something about me…

  85. 85.

    Cameron

    @Geminid: If I were more paranoid, I’d think that Iran and Russia were coordinating something – which makes no sense, since Israel and Russia have OK relations (Israel can bomb Hezbollah/IRGC targets as long as they don’t get too close to Latakia or any other Russian spot), and Israel and Iran most certainly don’t have OK relations.

  88. 88.

    geg6

    @satby:

    7 inches here.  Amazingly, we must have warmed up the ground enough in the last week or two that very little snow survived contact with our driveway once we got a few glimpses of sun this afternoon.  It’s all on the grass and our deck and front porch (one is elevated and one is concrete).  The driveway is asphalt, so it warms up pretty quick.  It was nice not to have to call our plow guy.

    However, it is ridiculously cold and with the strong as hell winds, it is going to 14 tonight with wind chill dropping that to almost zero tonight.  And then into the 60s and 79s next week!

  89. 89.

    debbie

    @Cameron:

    Pity. There won’t be a deal then. Russia will undermine anything the U.S. is involved with, just because they can.

  90. 90.

    Betsy

    @evodevo: Would you be able to be more specific about which species of sparrow it looks like?

    I am not aware of any black sparrows. For this reason, I’m curious — What specific field marks are you seeing in the picture that identify it as the sparrow species you have in mind?

  92. 92.

    susanna

    @JPL: Good to know about the weather warming up!  Here’s hoping it lasts for awhile.  Friends and I are coming to Savannah for 4 days beginning 3/21.  I’ve been too busy to do much reading yet, but will catch up on info and sites tomorrow.

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