Crazy Dang Bird

My house has this awesome covered patio in back, but it presents a few challenges since it's not screened in. Leaves are the big one. This year, though, I have a new problem. A crazy bird was trying to build a nest on top of one of the columns! There's literally like a half an inch of space available up there, if that, but he (or she) kept trying.

As soon as I noticed the mud going on the top, I'd scrap it off. I refused to even let it reach nest stage. I sprayed bleach up there, hoping the odor would deter it. No dice. So every day as soon as I got home from work, I'd go outside and scrap off the layer of mud.

And then my dad and I were going up to Minnesota to put his house on the market and I knew if we didn't do something, we'd return home to a full-blown nest. The mud all over the patio floor and ceiling and on the walls of the house were bad enough--I did not want to see what a nest full of little baby birds could do with their poop shoots. (If you watch the web cams of eagles nests, you know what I'm talking about here.)

Researching online didn't offer much in the way of solutions. The only idea someone had that seemed to work was fastening a mirror atop the pillar so the bird thought another bird was there. I didn't have any mirrors lying around the house and I really didn't have time to go shopping for one, so I gave it some thought and came up with my own idea.

You can see the mud that darn bird left all over the side of my house! (boo) But I'm not sure you can see what I did. You know when you order something and the store uses those air-filled pillows to keep things from knocking around? We used two of those and taped them on top the pillar with painters tape.

We caught the bird there a couple of times before we left and I expected to come back to find he had ripped down our makeshift barrier or that a storm had blown it away. That's not what happened. When we returned home, everything was still up there and there were no bird's nests to be found. Hurrah!

Adventures In the New Wild Kingdom

I went over to my parents' house the other night for dinner and my dad had an Adventure With Wildlife story. It doesn't have a sweet outcome or humor, so if you feel this might disturb you, I'd suggest skipping today's blog.

The story as told to me by my dad:

The neighbor across the street called and said he'd had a sick raccoon in his yard, but that the animal had left and gone into my parents' backyard. He warned my dad that they shouldn't go outside. It's been reported in the newspapers here that raccoons have a high infection rate for rabies, so a sick animal is definitely dangerous. The neighbor told my dad that he'd called the police.

It was about 3pm when the officer showed up. (I don't know what time the neighbor called. My dad didn't mention this, but I'm imaging it wasn't too long.) He rang my parents' doorbell and warned them that he would need to shoot the raccoon so they shouldn't become alarmed if they heard the noise.

As soon as the raccoon saw the officer, it became belligerent and tried to attack. (Which definitely makes me think rabies.) The officer shot it with a small caliber weapon. My dad said it was barely a pop. Then he gloved up and hauled the carcass away. My guess is that they'll test it for rabies, but I could be wrong about that. If they already know most of the raccoon population is infected, it might not be necessary.

This story was kind of scary to me because if the neighbor hadn't seen the raccoon, noticed it was sick, and saw it go to my parents' yard, my dad could easily have gotten bitten. He loves being outside and goes out all the time. And while he's incredibly spry for his age, I'm not sure he'd get out of the way fast enough.

I'm continually surprised by the wildlife adventures. When did suburbia become an episode of Wild Kingdom?

Adventures With Wildlife

Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I left my office (I was cleaning it out with a bulldozer) and saw a wild turkey walking in my backyard. I turned, grabbed the camera, and took a couple of pictures before the flash spooked him and he took off running for the neighbor's yard. I was all excited about this because this is only the second sighting I've had in my yard. I see them walking along the road or along the freeway all the time.

So it's later on that evening, still light out, but heading toward evening and I'm sitting on the couch checking email on the laptop. There's a loud thump on my deck and my heart started to pound. My first thought was that someone had come up the stairs, but a split second later I decided that it must be another nail popping. That happens when it gets cold and every other time I've freaked about a noise like that, it's always been a nail pop. Then I caught motion out of the corner of my eye.

Up on the railing of the deck is that great big wild turkey!

I think the thump I heard was his landing on the rail and I think it's the same one I saw earlier. I'll add another guess--I think he wanted to check out what had caused the flash of light when he was here and I was taking pictures.

I was afraid to move because he was looking around, but I really wanted to grab the camera and get a shot of this. I've never had a turkey on my deck before and I might never have another one. Staying as still as possible, I watched him check out the area for a few minutes. Then, deciding nothing was worth hanging around for, he jumped off the rail to the ground below. By the time I got to the door with the camera, he was in my neighbor's yard again.

My plan was to post a picture of my turkey, but I'm having issues on the computer that the camera is hooked up to. I also realized that I've lost a bunch of pictures that I hadn't backed up or uploaded and I'm hugely sad because they're all gone. The worst part is that it was my error. I was in a hurry and not paying close enough attention to what I was doing. Ah, well. Lesson learned. Always backup.

Wild Kingdom

Well, it happened again. I don't know what it is about Sundays in my neighborhood, but the wildlife always comes out on this day--usually when I'm writing. It's getting to be almost routine to look up from the computer and see some kind of animal or bird around. Today, though, I think takes the award for weirdest sighting--a wild turkey. Yes, I kid you not, I had a wild turkey in my backyard.


Here he is, walking up the side of my yard.



He's walking from my yard into the one next door




In the middle of the yard next door




And now he's walking toward the house beyond the one next door


And here I thought the hawk sightings were cool. :-)

Other than this, it was a very quiet weekend. This hero and heroine are nocturnal again, preferring to work late at night than during the day. That makes me nuts because I like to sleep. :-/

My dad goes in for his surgery on Tuesday. I'll try to post on Wednesday, but no promises.