I will do whatever this fox tells me to. pic.twitter.com/vgN3yerYY9
— Miss Demeanor (@Gwynnion) May 15, 2020
snow leopards against surveillance https://t.co/5YqrWXDFd6
— ?? y’all doin stunts n shows ?? (@atypewritersing) May 16, 2020
'The only reason to have a backyard is that we could feed crows regularly and they could bring us gifts.' – @larsonchristina
— James "Stay In. Make Masks. Test People" Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) May 16, 2020
HUMANS LIKE THE SHINY THINGS THAT THEY GIVE EACH OTHER. HERE IS A BOTTLECAP FOR MY HUMAN COLLEAGUE.
— James "Stay In. Make Masks. Test People" Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) May 16, 2020
We have (what I assume, from the dawn noises every morning) a family of crows nesting near our yard. But we also have coyotes (and possibly raccoons) in the neighborhood, and everything I might feed a crow would also be attractive to them, so I restrain myself.
Bonus urban interaction: We’re doing hands-off food delivery now. When the Spousal Unit opened the front door this evening to retrieve the pre-scheduled order from my favorite Indian restaurant, a squirrel had torn through the paper sack and was trying to unwrap the aluminium foil from my papadum…
Kent
Maybe I need to feed our local crows so they don’t wake us up every damn morning. Our house backs up to a greenbelt full of large big leaf maples. There is a flock of crows (murder of crows?) that nests back there and kicks up a racket every morning.,
NotMax
Repeating, as it’s a better fit here (now with added linkiness).
In case no one else has mentioned it, comic character actor Fred Willard died at 86 the other day.
His last (?) appearance is as the Secretary of Defense in Space Force, coming to Netflix near the end of the month.
HumboldtBlue
We are all connected.
We are and it used to be a closer connection.
Side note: YouTube is not having a good week. Site has been splotchy for a few days and at times refuses to load at all.
Krope, the Formerly Dope
Man, when did everything become all Corvid news all the time…?
NotMax
@HumboldtBlue
Have experienced nothing like that. Then again, browser is configured to only let through the parts of any YouTube page which are absolutely necessary in order to watch and hear something – excluding ads, which I never encounter.
HumboldtBlue
@Krope, the Formerly Dope:
Ba-dum-tss!
@NotMax:
Same here, it’s been mentioned in other online spaces I frequent and I have no clue what it is.
Anne Laurie
YouTube’s been pushing some kind of mystery-to-me UPGRADE! for some time. The only thing I’ve noticed so far [please Trickster God, let it be the only thing] is a change in the ‘More – share this‘ line. Thought they’d eliminated the button for embedding, but — I discovered by accident — it’s just been switched from a dedicated drop-down to one item on a right-click-on-the-video list…
Roger Moore
@Kent:
To be pedantic, they most likely roost (spend the night) there rather than nesting (laying eggs and raising offspring). Crows- and most birds- don’t live in their nests. Crows do return to the same location to nest year after year*, but once the young have fledged, they don’t stay in the nest. The family moves out and just perches in trees (roosts) overnight. If you have a big, loud flock of crows, it’s probably a multi-family group who are only roosting rather than nesting there.
Jackie
@Kent: My backyard neighbors had a huge pine tree the crows would nest to every evening. It was one of my favorite times of evening – watching them caw caw and circle in for the night.
HumboldtBlue
@Anne Laurie:
I noticed the change with the new banner at the top showing what appears to be my most searched/watched subjects about a week ago. I’ve been using the right click on the video for linking for a while, at least I think I have.
Mike in NC
That is one very cool looking critter.
HumboldtBlue
@Mike in NC:
You should see its web browser.
SectionH
Hmmm, crows, coyotes, raccoons. Lived among all three – not at the same time, mind. 3 different places, and they don’t compete in most ways…
Coyotes will eat your cat or small dog, but if there’s a big supply of rabbits, they’ll go for the rabbits first. Raccoons will invade your attic* and wreck your house if the person there is an Obliviate, and Crows, well if I were a Mother Bird, I’d worry like fuck, but I’m not, and the crows here in central San Diego seem to co-exist with plenty of smaller birds.
*I think they organize drilling shifts.
JWR
;@HumboldtBlue:
Hmm. Which browser could that possibly be? ;)
[End stupid “joke” here.]
Yutsano
@Mike in NC: My fox furry friends are all a-twitter.
Kent
@Roger Moore: OK, they are probably roosting. And it is a bunch of them so probably a multi-family group. I like them, but I’m a morning person. My daughter not so much. She wants to put the AC on so she can close her window but I refuse to run AC when we can just open windows. Yes, I’m THAT dad.
Mallard Filmore
Crows! A post with crows. Many decades ago my college roommate shared a poem about a crow by Ted Hughes.
https://climbingsky.com/poetry-review-crows-theology-by-ted-hughes/
It ends with:
SectionH
Not sure I want to make friends with crows tbh. Nodding acquaintance is fine.
We used to have hummie feeders, and finch feeders, and random other bird feeder (Carolina Doves? Yeah, they’re beige pigeons ffs, and they’re just as greedy as your regular pigeons) on our 70 sq ft balcony. The week when we had 2 – TWO – Hawk* strikes was when I decided we’d maybe been a bit too successful at feeding the local Avian tribes.
We still have the Hummie feeders. I need to replace one of them. Ours don’t like tasteful one I found someplace, all they want is the cheap plastic one. Ok, fine, guys, I’ll get you another cheap one!
*Well, not Hawks, but it was Holeee Fuck, really scary. BAM! Otoh, whoever it was missed both times, but I kinda started being careful about how much food I put out.
They were the Peregrin Falcons that live over at Mercy Hospital, about a 4 minute ambulance ride from us. And yeah, I know that from real family experience, both the ambulance running time and getting educated about the Peregrins.
Brachiator
Anyone know the subspecies of fox in the photo up top?
HumboldtBlue
@SectionH:
That reminds me of this eye-opening story on unintended consequences.
An Organic Chicken Farm in Georgia Has Become an Endless Buffet for Bald Eagles
HumboldtBlue
@Brachiator:
This is what I found, black and orange fox.
Yutsano
@Brachiator: It’s not a subspecies per se. It’s a melanistic variant that shows up randomly every now and again. I don’t know if that specific fox is the same one as in the article, but it’s always striking when they show up.
SectionH
@HumboldtBlue: That’s terrible. I really feel for that guy. And admire him for keeping on.
As the saying is: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.
Brachiator
@HumboldtBlue:
@Yutsano:
Very cool. Thanks.
NotMax
@HumboldtBlue
Oh, if only could rent them to deal with the noisy chickens wandering the neighborhood that congregate in the yard, close to my cottage, and set up a cacophonous racket for some part of nearly every day. Sometimes for minutes, other times for hours. One friggin’ rooster crows repeatedly at random times of the day directly underneath the window nearest my desk.
HumboldtBlue
@SectionH:
No shit.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
It might help to think about your favourite chicken recipes — honey mustard roast chicken, spicy Buffalo wings, chicken tikka masala, Nashville hot chicken, usw., and viciously imagining your feathery tormentors being prepared accordingly for your delectation.
CaseyL
@HumboldtBlue: That is a wonderful story. It makes me want to buy a chicken, and book an eagle-watching trip :).
In fact, excuse me while I go visit their website….
Achrachno
@Yutsano: Yes, it looks like a color variant of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes). I’ve never seen one like that in the image.
SWMBO
OT: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SATBY!
Brachiator
@HumboldtBlue:
I remember this from an old NPR Planet Money podcast. Great, sad, story.
Eagles do like flied chicken.
NotMax
Eagle humor. (Yes, it unfortunately contains a homonym faux pas.)
And another.
:)
Sm*t Cl*de
One thing I have learned from Oglaf cartoons is that following the instructions of a Derp Fox sometimes ends well and sometimes less so.
ThresherK
@Sm*t Cl*de: Upvote for Oglaf. That is all.
satby
@SWMBO: Thank you! and Good morning!
Kathleen
@satby: Happy Birthday satby!