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You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / This is the Dream

This is the Dream

by John Cole|  August 19, 202311:13 am| 134 Comments

This post is in: Pet Blogging

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I know my posts have been few and far between the past two weeks, and it’s because I am working through some shit and dealing with a lot of stuff. However, I give you this gift: The Altitude Birdie Cafe:

This is the Dream

Apparently a woman in Australia a while back moved into a new apartment in a high rise building, and one day she was sitting on the patio and a Cockatoo flew up. It hung out for a while, and she gave it a nut. Cockatoo’s are smart, so it came back for more. And then it kept coming back, and started bringing friends. She fed them treats, too.

And now, every day, starting at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, she has a constant stream of Cockatoos and Lorikeets who come and visit her and she feeds them a metric ton of almonds because they are good for the birds and the least messy nut out there. She has to be careful to close the patio door, or they just come into her house en masse. She has name them all, and one in particular is her BFF and comes in and hangs out with her and has house privileges.

You are welcome.

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Reader Interactions

134Comments

  1. 1.

    mvr

    August 19, 2023 at 11:14 am

    Thanks for checking in with the cool photo and story.

  2. 2.

    twbrandt

    August 19, 2023 at 11:17 am

    That is a wonderful story!

    Sorry you’re dealing with a lot of shit, and I hope you work through it quickly.

  3. 3.

    trollhattan

    August 19, 2023 at 11:19 am

    Birbs! Australia has cooler birds than the US and I’m not ashamed to admit that. These are over the top, even for Australia.

  4. 4.

    Hoosierspud

    August 19, 2023 at 11:22 am

    One of my best friends lives in a high rise in Brooklyn. On September 11th, a cockatoo that was missing the feathers on his head showed up on the railing of his balcony. He and his husband took him in and posted online that they had found this bird. No one ever claimed him and they kept him as long as he lived. His missing feathers never grew back.

  5. 5.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 19, 2023 at 11:25 am

    @trollhattan: ​
      Being Aussie, these birds are probably venomous. Just saying.

  6. 6.

    Rand Careaga

    August 19, 2023 at 11:26 am

    Speaking of messes, I am given to understand that lorikeets are given to “projectile” defecation. Don’t linger in the sidewalk beneath that balcony.

  7. 7.

    Almost Retired

    August 19, 2023 at 11:31 am

    A small murder of crows has lingered in the tree outside my bedroom window all week.  Perhaps they are attempting to noisily befriend me?   I have rebuffed them.  And yet, they remain.   Vociferous and incontinent.  My nightmares are full of caw caws.

    Maybe the incoming hurricane will blow them into Ventura County or something.

  8. 8.

    trollhattan

    August 19, 2023 at 11:38 am

    @Almost Retired: ​
    Crows are winged rats. Also the predominant bird in our metroplex, triply so in winter when they pack into downtown trees to stay warm. Significant vector for west Nile virus, also, too.

  9. 9.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 19, 2023 at 11:38 am

    The NOISE.

    Also joining the ‘I hope things improve, John.’ bandwagon.

  10. 10.

    S Cerevisiae

    August 19, 2023 at 11:39 am

    Birds on the balcony, love it! I would feed the chickadees up north during the winter and they would be bold enough to land on my hand and eat sunflower seeds. They would also scold me if the feeders were empty. We didn’t feed them in the summer because bears.

  11. 11.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 19, 2023 at 11:39 am

    @Almost Retired: Crows are supposed to be a link to the dead. It could be one of your ancestors visiting.

  12. 12.

    Almost Retired

    August 19, 2023 at 11:41 am

    @schrodingers_cat:   Could be.  I thought my Fox News-loving uncles had all passed on, but perhaps they have returned.

  13. 13.

    S Cerevisiae

    August 19, 2023 at 11:41 am

    @trollhattan: Don’t let them hear you say that, crows are wicked smart and will remember you…

  14. 14.

    trollhattan

    August 19, 2023 at 11:43 am

    Current path prediction for Hilary is landfall tomorrow midday at the Pacific coast of Baja, then north through San Diego, passing east of LA towards the desert, then eventually into Nevada on Monday where I guess it will be down to a tropical depression, having been away from the ocean for a couple days.

    Hopefully it doesn’t spawn a bunch of thunderstorms in the mountains.

  15. 15.

    Alison Rose

    August 19, 2023 at 11:44 am

    You posted this because you knew it was Alison Bait. And you were right.

  16. 16.

    trollhattan

    August 19, 2023 at 11:45 am

    @S Cerevisiae: Have had hummingbirds hover in front of my face when the feeder is empty. “You had ONE job!”

    Pretty bold for 5-gram critters.

  17. 17.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 19, 2023 at 11:45 am

    @trollhattan: ​

    Crows are winged rats.

    Highly intelligent, highly social, make a mess, hard to get rid of, have a weird reputation… yeah, that works! Love ’em or hate ’em, good analogy.

  18. 18.

    la caterina

    August 19, 2023 at 11:46 am

    Lovely birbs!  I hope things get better for you soon, Cole.

  19. 19.

    trollhattan

    August 19, 2023 at 11:47 am

    @S Cerevisiae: ​
    Have read that. Evidently if a particular flock IDs you as Enemy of Crows they’ll harass you every time they see you.

  20. 20.

    Nononan

    August 19, 2023 at 11:48 am

    I’d just name them all “Fred”.

  21. 21.

    Juju

    August 19, 2023 at 11:48 am

    How is your mother doing?

  22. 22.

    zhena gogolia

    August 19, 2023 at 11:49 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Every time some poor bird builds a nest in the rhododendron next to our house, they swoop in and kill / eat all the baby birds. I hate them.

  23. 23.

    twbrandt

    August 19, 2023 at 11:50 am

    @trollhattan: I thought pigeons were rats with wings, but I guess crows are too.

  24. 24.

    dr. bloor

    August 19, 2023 at 11:51 am

    Tippi Hedren would like a word about your definition of “dream.”

  25. 25.

    eclare

    August 19, 2023 at 11:52 am

    So cool!

  26. 26.

    Doug R

    August 19, 2023 at 11:55 am

    @Rand Careaga:

     

    Speaking of messes, I am given to understand that lorikeets are given to “projectile” defecation. Don’t linger in the sidewalk beneath that balcony.

    We lived in Victoria, BC for years when I was a kid:

    The Fairmont Empress in Victoria has lifted its ban against Nick Burchill — 17 years after dozens of seagulls trashed the Dartmouth, N.S., man’s hotel room while feasting on enough pepperoni to fill his suitcase.

    “I didn’t like the feeling of being banned from somewhere,” Burchill said. “So when I was out there last week for a different conference, I thought that I would approach The Empress and see if I could officially get my record cleared.”

    Burchill’s story began with good intentions. He was taking a small suitcase full of Brothers Pepperoni — a widely requested Halifax delicacy — to some of his navy friends in the B.C. capital.

    “It was a long flight, that time of the year where everyone travels, so the bag got lost, misplaced for a period of time,” said Burchill, who wrote a widely shared Facebook post about the ordeal.

    When the pepperoni finally arrived at the hotel, Burchill said he worried it would get warm because there was no fridge, so he laid the food out on a table near the window ledge and the chilly April air.

    “And that’s when things kind of went bad,” said Burchill.

    Burchill left the room for a few hours to take a walk. He returned to a room full of seagulls.

    “I don’t mean just a couple of seagulls. I can only estimate how many there were,” he said. “I’m thinking somewhere between 30 and 40 seagulls had come in through this open window while I was gone.

    “And I would have never thought of that because the East Coast seagulls aren’t that brazen. They’d never come into a room or do that sort of thing — at least I don’t think they would.”

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/seagulls-pepperoni-navy-fairmont-empress-1.4601675

  27. 27.

    Ken B

    August 19, 2023 at 11:58 am

    Some researchers did an experiment about ten years ago. They caught and banded a bunch of crows and then released them.

    What made it an experiment was that they wore masks while they did it. Later they would go out and crows would scold  them if they were wearing the same mask.

    The crows remembered for years afterward, and taught other crows to recognize them as well.

  28. 28.

    Nukular Biskits

    August 19, 2023 at 11:59 am

    How goes the home repair, John?

    I haven’t seen any updates on that, but I have been hit ‘n’ miss here lately.

  29. 29.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 19, 2023 at 12:01 pm

    @Almost Retired: In Vedic funeral ceremonies, a crow eating the offering  you made is taken to be a good omen.

  30. 30.

    Alison Rose

    August 19, 2023 at 12:02 pm

    @trollhattan: Hilarious you should say this, because in my Facebook memories today from 2018 was this:

    Was refilling the feeder and a hummingbird flew up and hovered near me for a few moments, like “Hurry up, damn it, I’m hungry!”

    I really miss having bird feeders, even if the birds weren’t always very polite.

  31. 31.

    eclare

    August 19, 2023 at 12:02 pm

    @Doug R:

    That story, wow!

  32. 32.

    Nukular Biskits

    August 19, 2023 at 12:02 pm

    @trollhattan:

    The absolute worst thunderstorm I have EVER ridden through on a motorcycle was, on/over of all places, Mt. Laguna east of San Diego.

    And that says a lot, given I’ve ridden in/through some pretty nasty stuff here on the MS Gulf Coast.

  33. 33.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 19, 2023 at 12:04 pm

    OT news from RWNJs in India: Rishi Sunak’s MIL and a BJP thought leader prostrates herself at the feet of a known bigot. Who most recently questioned M.K. Gandhi’s paternity

  34. 34.

    StringOnAStick

    August 19, 2023 at 12:09 pm

    This lady has figured out the best way to “have” large birds; all the joy, none of the cruelty and guilt.  As a woman who managed a bird rescue said to our group: “only humans would look at a gorgeous bird flying in the sky and think ‘I need to put that in a cage'”.  She said she took that job as penance for having bred and sold birds for many years.  Those white cockatoo are popular because for the first 10-15 years they can be very sweet (being a flock bird and gregarious by nature).  Then they reach sexual maturity and can become very dangerous towards anyone else in the house that they don’t think of as their mate.  They can also squawk at 130 decibles.  Her rescue operation was filled with birds that were once pets, became dangerous, and will now live for decades as too messed up to be released into the wild, too dangerous to be free close to any human who values the current arrangements of their facial structure.  Leave them in the wild where they belong!

  35. 35.

    Kathy

    August 19, 2023 at 12:11 pm

    Much appreciated. Gave us a good chuckle.

  36. 36.

    Jess

    August 19, 2023 at 12:14 pm

    Thank you!

  37. 37.

    Van Buren

    August 19, 2023 at 12:15 pm

    @Alison Rose: My mom always goes out a sliding glass door to fill her hummingbird feeders and if a feeder is empty birds will come hover by the door to let her know.

    They also hover at the door the day they return from Central America, usually April 30, to let her know she has work to do. It’s been going on for decades, so who knows how many generations have learned these behaviors.

  38. 38.

    StringOnAStick

    August 19, 2023 at 12:19 pm

    @Van Buren: Such a cool story!

  39. 39.

    Alison Rose

    August 19, 2023 at 12:19 pm

    @Van Buren: It’s amazing how quickly those tiny things guzzle down the liquid.

  40. 40.

    Orson

    August 19, 2023 at 12:23 pm

    @trollhattan: Love this!

  41. 41.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 19, 2023 at 12:26 pm

    @Doug R: The Letters Live version of this story.

  42. 42.

    Yarrow

    August 19, 2023 at 12:28 pm

    Thanks for the link. How’s your mom doing, John? Did you get the flood damage repaired?

  43. 43.

    Anoniminous

    August 19, 2023 at 12:29 pm

    In New Mexico we’re seeing hundreds of thousands of bird falling from the sky during the migration period due to exhaustion from starvation.  Tim Wright, a NMSU lead professor of the school’s aviation migration program has said, “these birds are literally the canaries in a coal mine for how human activities are impacting the natural world.”

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    August 19, 2023 at 12:30 pm

    @trollhattan: That’s wild.

  45. 45.

    Sister Golden Bear

    August 19, 2023 at 12:33 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: And have massive fangs.

  46. 46.

    StringOnAStick

    August 19, 2023 at 12:34 pm

    @Anoniminous: I just feel an overwhelming sense of sadness that we humans are seeing these signs all around us, and in order to make just tiny incremental progress to address this is such a struggle against the fascists.

  47. 47.

    trollhattan

    August 19, 2023 at 12:35 pm

    Simulated tough guy Ron Whiteshoes DeSantis wants you to know that unlike today, when he’s preznit we’ll be shooting people with fentanyl backpacks “stone cold dead” right there at the border, yo. No word on how one discerns which are the fentanyl backpacks.

    https://digbysblog.net/2023/08/19/stone-cold-dead/

    Erick Son of Erick has crafted hisself a teevee show. Bet he harvests tens of viewers.

  48. 48.

    The Pale Scot

    August 19, 2023 at 12:37 pm

    Woman Gives Toys to a Wild Magpie — and He Invites His Friends Over to Play

  49. 49.

    eclare

    August 19, 2023 at 12:37 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    That was awesome, thanks!

  50. 50.

    delphinium

    August 19, 2023 at 12:40 pm

    Thought this was kind of cool: Crows and magpies use anti-bird spikes in their nests.

  51. 51.

    eclare

    August 19, 2023 at 12:45 pm

    @The Pale Scot:

    That’s a lot of magpies!

  52. 52.

    kindness

    August 19, 2023 at 12:47 pm

    My Australian peeps think cockatoos are noisy pests.  I think they are magnificent.

  53. 53.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    August 19, 2023 at 12:51 pm

    @trollhattan: They break through wall where there is wall. Alrighty then.

  54. 54.

    kalakal

    August 19, 2023 at 12:53 pm

    Here’s your grudge bearing crows

    Corvids are scary smart, it still seems strange to not see magpies, rooks, and jackdaws here in Florida*, they were everywhere in Yorkshire. On the plus side I’ve fallen in love with Anhinga

    *Plenty of crows, jays and ravens

  55. 55.

    Alison Rose

    August 19, 2023 at 12:54 pm

    @trollhattan: The fentanyl backpacks are the ones with pins or patches supporting liberal candidates or causes.

  56. 56.

    Anoniminous

    August 19, 2023 at 12:59 pm

    @StringOnAStick:

    The Four Stages of a Catastrophe:

    1.  Those scientists (sneer) don’t know what they are talking about

    2.  OK, they may know what they are talking about but it won’t be as bad as they say

    3.  Alright, it may be as bad as they say but it won’t happen here

    4.  WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY TELL ME THIS COULD HAPPEN?!?!?!

    With Global Warming and the resulting Global Weather Changes we’re still stuck at #1.

  57. 57.

    dmsilev

    August 19, 2023 at 1:00 pm

    @Alison Rose: Been there too. “The service here sucks. I am so going to leave a bad review on Yelp, and forget about a decent tip!”.

  58. 58.

    Another Scott

    August 19, 2023 at 1:08 pm

    @Rand Careaga: Eagles do that (I saw one do it on the Decorah Eagle Web Cam a few years back).

    I also learned somewhere that birds don’t pee.

    Nature is weird.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  59. 59.

    p.a.

    August 19, 2023 at 1:12 pm

    @Anoniminous: I believe the Fux News progression has been

    1.  Not happening
    2. Needs study
    3. May be happening, needs more study
    4. Happening, not human caused
    5. Happening, needs study re: human cause
    6. Human caused, but we’ll be better off
    7.  Maybe not better off but minimal inconveniences
    8. tRump elected
    9. Not happening but who gives a fuck anyway, the rich can insulate themselves from its effects.
  60. 60.

    BruceJ

    August 19, 2023 at 1:19 pm

    @trollhattan: Hummingbirds are straight up psychos We had one in my yard growing up that would divebomb us if we go too close to his blooming bottlebrush, which sucked because it occupied a large space near out back door. Finally mom hung up a feeder and he grudgingly tolerated our presence.

  61. 61.

    opiejeanne

    August 19, 2023 at 1:20 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Crows take baby bunnies if they spot the nest, and sometimes when the babies are just out of the nest a few days. The poor mother rabbits scream and cry and it’s heart-breaking.
    We managed to stop crows from raiding the ground nest of a pair of dark-eyed juncos in our garden, and all three nestlings fledged and survived, but we had to sit in the garden for a couple of hours until they all left, including the scout that was still hanging around in one of the pine trees at the edge of our lot. One of the parent birds sat above us in the cherry tree and clicked her outrage the whole time. In return, they kept the bugs off of our cabbage and bok choi.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    August 19, 2023 at 1:20 pm

    @kalakal: I also love Anhingas. Here’s one sunning on our dock.

    This is the Dream 1

  63. 63.

    Albatrossity

    August 19, 2023 at 1:20 pm

    Yes, parrots can be cheeky and assertive. This Kaka decided to stroll into our rented cottage on Stewart Island (New Zealand) on Christmas morning a few years back

  64. 64.

    CaseyL

    August 19, 2023 at 1:23 pm

    Wonderful story! For me, being in an area (or country) where birds which are exotic to the US are just regular native species, seeing them fly free and roosting wherever they want to, is a special thrill.

    Though I’m not sure I’d want my house to be a regular hangout for cockatoos. They’re not just talkative, they’re LOUD talkative. I mean, “hear them in the next county” loud.

  65. 65.

    CaseyL

    August 19, 2023 at 1:25 pm

    (Double post deleted – I’m not sure how it happened; I opened my comment to add something, and the old version stuck around.)

    John, I’m sorry to hear you’re going through a bad patch, and hope things improve.

  66. 66.

    Betty Cracker

    August 19, 2023 at 1:25 pm

    @Another Scott: Another weird bird fact: only about 3% of the approximately 10K bird species have dicks (males, obvs). I read that in a book called Bitch: On the Female of the Species, which is pretty good.

  67. 67.

    jonas

    August 19, 2023 at 1:26 pm

    A few years ago there was a story in the LA Times about a woman living in a remote mountain community north of LA whose back deck became a major gathering point for a huge flock of California condors for some reason. I forget how she encouraged them to eventually move on, but in the meantime boy, did they leave a mess.

  68. 68.

    jonas

    August 19, 2023 at 1:29 pm

    @trollhattan:No word on how one discerns which are the fentanyl backpacks.

    The Lord will sort it out.

  69. 69.

    kalakal

    August 19, 2023 at 1:32 pm

    I remember being quite surprised when I found out the standard transliteration of Owls hooting is really a double act

    “Then nightly sings the staring owl, / Tu-whit; / Tu-who.”

    It’s a call and response by Tawny Owls, the first bit is the female, the second the male. I always feel very sad when I hear a Tu-whit  followed by silence.

     

    @Betty Cracker: Nice photo, I love  watching them dry out with their wings spread

  70. 70.

    JPL

    August 19, 2023 at 1:33 pm

    @The Pale Scot: So Sweet!

  71. 71.

    opiejeanne

    August 19, 2023 at 1:35 pm

    @jonas: It was near the SF Bay Area, and we had a neighbor several houses down when we lived in Castro Valley (the east bay) with the same problem. They would roost in the trees in her yard and crap all over her deck, and during mating season they screamed, sounding like a woman being murdered.

    One took a dump on my windshield as it flew over my car and I nearly crashed. It was like a bomb had gone off.

  72. 72.

    delphinium

    August 19, 2023 at 1:35 pm

    @Betty Cracker: ​
    Very lovely bird!

  73. 73.

    Miss Bianca

    August 19, 2023 at 1:37 pm

    @Anoniminous: :(

  74. 74.

    eclare

    August 19, 2023 at 1:37 pm

    @jonas:

    Whoa!  Those birds are huge!

  75. 75.

    Baud

    August 19, 2023 at 1:42 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Another weird bird fact: only about 3% of the approximately 10K bird species have dicks

     

    The other 97% are dicks.

  76. 76.

    Glidwrith

    August 19, 2023 at 1:42 pm

    @Almost Retired: It was vividly brought home to me a few months ago why it is called a murder of crows. Just outside my office window I spotted one crow and two of its buddies. The one crow had a songbird pinned beneath its claws and was in the process of killing it.

    Everything needs to eat, but damn, I didn’t stay around to watch.

  77. 77.

    Calouste

    August 19, 2023 at 1:45 pm

    @Nononan: You’d name them all “Bruce”, they’re Australian after all.

  78. 78.

    Roger Moore

    August 19, 2023 at 1:51 pm

    @Ken B:

    It’s apparently well known in ornithology circles that if you want to do something with crows that upsets them, especially investigating their nests, you need to wear a disguise while doing it.  If you don’t, the crows will recognize you and harass you wherever you go.

  79. 79.

    kalakal

    August 19, 2023 at 1:54 pm

    Courtesy of Sir Dave the amazing dance of the Birds of Paradise

    And who can resist the birds with the world’s greatest feet?

  80. 80.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    August 19, 2023 at 2:07 pm

    Telegraph Hill Parrots

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAtld3KOpuY

     

    Wild Parrots Of San Francisco

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzqKj40Q1WQ

  81. 81.

    Lethe

    August 19, 2023 at 2:10 pm

    Lived in a cabin in Talkeetna, Alaska for 8 months. No roads, you flagged the local train and rode 15 miles up the tracks and then hiked in 3 miles. We had Ravens. With the capital R.

    Every Sunday morning we would make pancakes with enough batter left over to make two skillet sized pancakes for the ravens. They would walk around the yard impatiently until we brought them their treat. Nothing funnier than watching two ravens try to fly off with the same 14 inch pancake, or try to hide it from the other guy.

    Occasionally we would receive thank-yous: little shiny bits they had found and would leave on the porch. I really miss those days.

  82. 82.

    Sister Golden Bear

    August 19, 2023 at 2:12 pm

    @trollhattan: Crows are Goth sky rats.

  83. 83.

    trollhattan

    August 19, 2023 at 2:13 pm

    @jonas: ​
    I’d sneak a steer carcass onto a neighbor’s property.

  84. 84.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    August 19, 2023 at 2:17 pm

    @opiejeanne: are you sure you don’t mean Turkey Vultures? Condors are HUGE and quite rare. Pretty sure they don’t hang out in the East Bay, whereas TVs are pretty big and relatively common.

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    August 19, 2023 at 2:17 pm

    @kindness:

    My Australian peeps think cockatoos are noisy pests. I think they are magnificent.

    Familiarity breeds contempt.  I find the parrots in my neighborhood are beautiful, but they’re also obnoxious.  They travel in large flocks and raid fruit trees.  When they eat, they scatter far more food than they actually consume, so they are real pests.  They also poop everywhere, and they are amazingly loud.

  86. 86.

    M31

    August 19, 2023 at 2:20 pm

    was walking in my hood and started seeing and hearing more and more crows, all flying in the same direction, a while later I saw, in the street, a hawk had caught and pinned a crow to the ground, but was looking around really nervously as more and more loud cawing crows landed all around it and in the trees, there was a big standoff for the longest time and I eventually had to leave.

    So I didn’t see what happened but came back later and no sign of anything, neither crow nor hawk feathers or carcasses, so maybe the crows saved their friend, and I’m sure that hawk stuck to pigeons from then on

  87. 87.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    August 19, 2023 at 2:21 pm

    @Roger Moore: I’ve read articles recently about peacocks in neighborhoods with that feeling. Gorgeous and at first everyone likes having them around, and then they squawk and shit everywhere and are a real nuisance.

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    August 19, 2023 at 2:22 pm

    and it’s because I am working through some shit and dealing with a lot of stuff.

    I absolutely understand you here, brother.

  89. 89.

    kalakal

    August 19, 2023 at 2:23 pm

    A place I really want to visit is the National Aquarium of New Zealand. They have a

    Little Penguin rehabilitation center

    and for years have been running the

    Naughty Penguin of the Month

    contest, culminating in the high stakes international vote for Penguin of the Year on facebook

    It’s a brilliant use of social media and I love it

  90. 90.

    M31

    August 19, 2023 at 2:26 pm

    somebody made a video a while back of a cockatoo ripping off bird spikes from a balcony with the music “Fuck the Police” blaring, it was good

    Here’s the original (no-music) video, need to find the other one, but it’s still good lol

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhszosgpSoM

  91. 91.

    Expletive Deleted

    August 19, 2023 at 2:27 pm

    There’s a family of crows on our road that I feed peanuts to, they’re too cautious to come very close for them, but the magpies sometimes will, there were jackdaws last year but not this one. I haven’t seen the corvids attack songbirds, although once they chased off a cat after the cat killed a blackbird.

    Its quite the nature documentary out of my home office window, really. Throughout the day you get a sequence of flocks passing through; a few fat pigeons in the morning, big loud flocks of starlings sweep through around ten, then blackbirds and sparrows hunting through the grass, followed a little later by the crow family doing a methodical follow through on the grass and also picking at any dropped litter for treats. Occasionally a loud flappy gull comes along, and if the crows are around they might chase the gulls out, but that’s fine by me.

  92. 92.

    Roger Moore

    August 19, 2023 at 2:28 pm

    @trollhattan:

    No word on how one discerns which are the fentanyl backpacks.

    I think the way law enforcement does this in practice is to keep a bunch of fentanyl around so they can plant it on the people they kill.  If someone is actually carrying fentanyl, the cops take most of it, some of it to plant on other suspects, some to sell, and some to use.

  93. 93.

    J.

    August 19, 2023 at 2:30 pm

    @dr. bloor: EXACTLY.

  94. 94.

    Jinchi

    August 19, 2023 at 2:32 pm

    Great story. I hope things get better for you soon.

  95. 95.

    JaySinWA

    August 19, 2023 at 2:32 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    and some to use

    Don’t be silly, haven’t you seen those police videos of officers touching Fentanyl and nearly dying?  It’s like Kryptonite to them. /s

    They need moon suits to be around the stuff.

  96. 96.

    Roger Moore

    August 19, 2023 at 2:36 pm

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):

    I’ve read articles recently about peacocks in neighborhoods with that feeling.

    Yes, there’s a neighborhood near me that’s infested with peafowl*.  They are beautiful birds and are on the city seal, but the neighbors hate them.  They poop everywhere and raid people’s gardens.  Most annoyingly, they have a call that sounds like a child screaming for help that they love to make first thing in the morning.

    *The area around the LA County Arboretum, for anyone who cares.

  97. 97.

    Sister Golden Bear

    August 19, 2023 at 2:38 pm

    A group of Olds at the next table are earnestly discussing how Peruvian miners are being smuggled into Canada via jet packs to work in the gold mines up there. Jt packs….

    Not sure if I should laugh hysterically or weep.

    Must. Resist. Urge. To Check. Fox.

  98. 98.

    trollhattan

    August 19, 2023 at 2:39 pm

    @kalakal: ​
    Fun read. Poor Tall Matt!

  99. 99.

    trollhattan

    August 19, 2023 at 2:40 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: If that hasn’t been a Bond movie subplot it needs to be a Bond movie subplot. Miners with jetpacks!

  100. 100.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    August 19, 2023 at 2:50 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: You mean, like the miners fly in via a device strapped to their back? Wow. I wonder where they got that one.

  101. 101.

    Brachiator

    August 19, 2023 at 2:50 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Another weird bird fact: only about 3% of the approximately 10K bird species have dicks (males, obvs).

    Here’s what birds have instead.

    Most male birds use their cloaca, a multi-purpose orifice used for both digestive excretion and reproduction, to mate.

    Male birds have the genetic coding for a penis, but the action of a specific gene known as Bmp4 prevents the development of a penis.

    BTW, chickens don’t have penises, but ducks do.

    Yeah, nature is weird.

     

    ETA. This knowledge is banned in Florida, Texas and selected red states. //

  102. 102.

    way2blue

    August 19, 2023 at 2:54 pm

    Ah.  Australia.  I remember sitting on a lawn at ANU waiting for a professor to return from lunch, and a couple Cockatoos flew by.  Whoa!  ‘They must have escaped from a zoo’, I told the professor when he arrived…   Australia.  Even the flies are a gorgeous shiny blue-black—as they coat your backpack…

  103. 103.

    jackmac

    August 19, 2023 at 2:58 pm

    Thanks for the post. Lorikeets are also quite colorful and lovely birds.

  104. 104.

    Roger Moore

    August 19, 2023 at 3:02 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    A group of Olds at the next table are earnestly discussing how Peruvian miners are being smuggled into Canada via jet packs to work in the gold mines up there. Jt packs….

    I think they probably got some news garbled.  There was a thing in the news recently about a gang of illegal gold miners in Peru who are using jetpacks as part of their attempts to terrorize the indigenous people.  I guess the illegal gold mines are lucrative enough that it’s worth going to crazy lengths to keep the locals intimidated and not interfering.  It sounds as if it feeds into local superstitions about flying humanoid beings.

  105. 105.

    Sister Golden Bear

    August 19, 2023 at 3:03 pm

    @Brachiator:

    BTW, chickens don’t have penises, but ducks do.

    Male ducks are pretty rapey and there’s a whole arms race between duck dicks and duck vaginas.

  106. 106.

    Brachiator

    August 19, 2023 at 3:03 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Yes, there’s a neighborhood near me that’s infested with peafowl*.

    A few years ago I got off the Gold Line train in Pasadena to meet a friend for lunch. There was a beautiful male peacock perched on a stone pedestal of a nearby apartment building, spreading his wings and preening. A couple of other peafowl were nearby. People were stopping their cars and creating a bit of a traffic tie up while they jumped out of their cars to take a picture.

    It was an oddly beautiful moment.

  107. 107.

    Sister Golden Bear

    August 19, 2023 at 3:06 pm

    @Roger Moore: OK, that sounds plausible.

  108. 108.

    dmsilev

    August 19, 2023 at 3:10 pm

    @Roger Moore: Someone at work had a previous job as staff at the Arboretum, and she had very little good to say about the peacocks.

  109. 109.

    LiminalOwl

    August 19, 2023 at 3:25 pm

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): When I lived in Berkeley, I saw a therapist whose office looked out on a neighbor’s yard—with peacocks. The birds’ screams were especially disconcerting during sessions.

    Recommended watching: The Parrots of Telegraph Hill

    Recommended reading: “Kiss Your Hand to the Magpie” (short story by Joan Aiken)

  110. 110.

    TheronWare

    August 19, 2023 at 3:27 pm

    “And she told 2 friends and so on and so on”….

  111. 111.

    Miss Bianca

    August 19, 2023 at 3:33 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear: OMFG

  112. 112.

    opiejeanne

    August 19, 2023 at 3:39 pm

    @A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): OH! You’re probably right. These were darned big too, but not as big as a full-sized condor, and I didn’t realize he said condor.

    D’oh!

  113. 113.

    Central Planning

    August 19, 2023 at 3:43 pm

    @trollhattan: I thought seagulls were the rats, not crows.

    A house at the end of my development has a woman outside in the early morning feeding seagulls. WTAF is wrong with her??

  114. 114.

    opiejeanne

    August 19, 2023 at 3:47 pm

    @Roger Moore: I knew you were talking about Arcadia or a neighboring town. I lived next door in Temple City when I was a teenager and knew about the lovely peacocks and their nasty ways. .

  115. 115.

    Brachiator

    August 19, 2023 at 3:52 pm

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Duck sex gives a whole new meaning to “corkscrew.”

  116. 116.

    Pete Downunder

    August 19, 2023 at 3:54 pm

    Mrs Downunder and I live in a leafy suburb and she is the bird whisperer. There was a group of kookaburras (related to kingfishers) that would come by every day for a feed – they’re carnivores so our meat bill went up. One was particularly cheeky and decided he was a pet with house privileges and would come in a sit on her knee in the living room to be fed. We also had a slightly dysfunctional family of king parrots – the males have a bright red breast – that would come and screech for sunflower seeds. The male was not the most faithful of husbands and would occasionally bring his GF along with his wife. Arguments followed. We also had a juvenile butcher bird who would sit on her shoulder and try to steal her earrings. The birds here are amazing.

    I won’t discuss the carpet python that lives in our yard.

  117. 117.

    Pete Downunder

    August 19, 2023 at 3:56 pm

    There was also a story in the paper – it’s too early in the morning to find a link – about some cockatoos in Sydney that learned to open the wheelie bins and were teaching their friends. The contagion was spreading….

  118. 118.

    Pete Downunder

    August 19, 2023 at 3:59 pm

    Here’s the link to the cockatoos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SihcSDnGqc8

  119. 119.

    Brachiator

    August 19, 2023 at 4:04 pm

    @dmsilev:

    @Roger Moore: Someone at work had a previous job as staff at the Arboretum, and she had very little good to say about the peacocks.

    It may be that peacocks came with the territory. From Smithsonian Magazine.

    In California, the birds may be descendants of those imported from India in the 1870s by rancher Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin. The L.A. birds, called Indian peafowl or Pavo cristatus, are one of just three peafowl species in the world. …

    After Baldwin’s death in 1909, a portion of his 8,000-acre ranch—with about 100 peafowl that lived there—was made into the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanic Garden. Since then, peafowl in the surrounding area have dug up gardens, scratched children, pooped on cars and caused traffic jams.

    In many California locales, it is illegal to feed free roaming peacocks, but also illegal to kill them.

  120. 120.

    opiejeanne

    August 19, 2023 at 4:10 pm

    @Brachiator: I love that wave of the hand that after Lucky Baldwin’s death in 1909 his property became the arboretum. It was a few decades later, like 1947 when it was actually purchased to become the arboretum.

  121. 121.

    Ivan X

    August 19, 2023 at 4:17 pm

    “the past two weeks”

  122. 122.

    Another Scott

    August 19, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    @opiejeanne: A few years ago, a pair of grackles made a nest in one of our holly bushes.  A couple of cardinals did not like that – at all.  The cardinals camped out just a few feet away from the nest.

    I never saw any baby grackles.

    Nature is not kind.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  123. 123.

    Frank Wilhoit

    August 19, 2023 at 4:41 pm

    Cockatoo walks into an antique shop. Owner startled, but waits and watches. Bird browses for a while and finally picks out a Colonial sideboard, and asks the owner, “what can you tell me about this piece?”. Owner springs into action: Massachusetts, 1795, mahogany and poplar, original brasses, unbroken provenance from the original purchaser (Albert Sinnett of Inaddyquot, Maine). The bird listens with increasing impatience and finally breaks in, “yes, I can see all that; but how does it taste?”

  124. 124.

    kindness

    August 19, 2023 at 4:51 pm

    I used to live in an orchard adjacent to one of the Gallo (wine) family here in Modesto.  They had about 20 peacocks that weren’t caged.  They would roam the neighboring orchards and yards in this large gang.  This is out were people would let their dogs run free because it was country.  The big dogs would leave the peacocks alone, even though the peacocks rarely flew.  Apparently they can be quite aggressive and protect each other in the flock.

  125. 125.

    Roger Moore

    August 19, 2023 at 5:11 pm

    @kindness:

    It’s good to remember that peacocks do survive in the wild in their native habitat, one that features tigers and leopards.  It’s not too surprising their domesticated descendants can deal with dogs.

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    August 19, 2023 at 5:19 pm

    @Frank Wilhoit:

    The bird listens with increasing impatience and finally breaks in, “yes, I can see all that; but how does it taste?”

    Love it.

    Reminds me of a favorite subtle joke.

    A termite walks into a tavern and asks “Where’s the bartender?”

  127. 127.

    Chris T.

    August 19, 2023 at 5:30 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Being Aussie, these birds are probably venomous. Just saying.

    Not venomous, but they can kill you with their voice.

    (The Lyrebird has the same talent, though instead of killing you with sheer volume, it will imitate jackhammering and other construction noises.)

  128. 128.

    TerryC

    August 19, 2023 at 5:34 pm

    @Expletive Deleted: We have a family of 7-9 Turkey Vultures soar over every day several times in season. They ALWAYS manage to put me in one of their shadows if I am  outside on a sunny day – like today. I am convinced it is a game to them..

  129. 129.

    mvr

    August 19, 2023 at 5:45 pm

    @Lethe: I want to know how they knew it was Sunday so that they could hang out and wait for pancakes.

  130. 130.

    evodevo

    August 19, 2023 at 6:54 pm

    @Another Scott: ​
      Well, they do, but it’s like with reptile “pee” – they excrete urea as semi-solid uric acid (the white stuff in bird poop). Saves on water. Mammals (except for desert rodents) are water wasters who dilute the urea with water and excrete it as urine.

  131. 131.

    evodevo

    August 19, 2023 at 7:03 pm

    @JaySinWA: Yeah…lol…what a bunch of misinformed pussies…a couple of them went to the local ER after arresting some guy who had a bottle full of pills that were spilled…I mean, SRSLY?  And then the news article went on and on about how tiny a dose of  fentanyl is lethal etc etc. Well, yeah, if you inject it or swallow several pills, idiot…they’re all scared to death to touch it.​
    ​
    ​

  132. 132.

    MichiganderGail

    August 19, 2023 at 9:12 pm

    Watched a rumble between peacocks and wild turkeys one winter night at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, MI (Xmas lights display).  Both sides were amassing and doing their strut and puff routine.  At the very last minute, the head male peacock, chest to chest with a Tom, screamed, as they do, often and loudly, and turned and ran.

  133. 133.

    Viva BrisVegas

    August 19, 2023 at 10:51 pm

    We had a big macadamia tree at my last place that would attract crowds of sulphur crested cockatoos. You have never heard such a noise. The military should use it for antipersonnel purposes. They were the only animal I knew of that could crack the nuts. They could tear the eaves off houses.

  134. 134.

    Lethe

    August 20, 2023 at 11:12 am

    @mvr: They had our schedule down! (I think they could smell the pancakes, too.) When you have to pack in a month’s worth of flour, breadmaking and pancakes are a once a week deal.

    The rest of the week we had our own Greek Chorus from them. We would fetch 5-gal buckets of water from the lake to do laundry, or chop wood, and they would be on overlook giving running commentary on stupid human rituals.

    Sometimes they would watch us use a tool, and hide it. Not take it, just move it. Amazing birds with with a very juvenile sense of humor.

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