Comments on: Oh, Great

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:45:41 +0000

These berries are from the cinnamomum camphora or camphor tree, which is another invasive species and the source of camphor oil, so the taste might be a little off in wine, unless you're a robin.

By: Badtux

Badtux — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:04:00 +0000

Purple berries… elderberries? Hmm, I once knew an old black lady who made elderberry wine… and my grandmother made elderberry jelly.

– Badtux the Vegetation Penguin

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:09:21 +0000

Well, if it’s a book on a table, it’s almost a sacred duty for a cat to be sleeping on it.

It must be the hawks. The only hawks with an obvious presence are the little “pigeon hawks” which I only know about when it is suddenly raining feathers as another dove bites the dust, or, more accurately, gets bitten and talons by the little falcon.

By: hipparchia

hipparchia — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 02:21:25 +0000

look out my window? you’ve got to be kidding. when 12 cats hit the sliding glass door at a dead run and all at once, their teeth chattering with anticipation, it makes a lasting impression on all birds within a quarter-mile radius.

this neighborhood is given more to azaleas and camellias for ornamentals, and hawks for policing the smaller critters, but a previous house i lived in had a pyracantha bush just outside the front door. the avian panama city beach right on my front steps.

no, of course i wasn’t going to look up robins. it was just an excuse to remark on the fact there were a bunch of cats sleeping on top one of my bird books at that moment.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:35:48 +0000

I would hate to see the seagulls become vegetarians and get into the berries.

By: Cookie Jill

Cookie Jill — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:30:15 +0000

There’s nothing so sad and yet at the same time funny as seeing a “drunk” cedar waxwing flying into trees.

Haven’t seen drunk robins though. Would HATE to see the local crows on a bender, though.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:28:55 +0000

To have worms, FM, you have to have real dirt and we have sand, so berries is all they get unless they want palmetto bugs.

MB, the seagulls are the everyday problem, as I live a block or so from the water, but their mess is a lot easier to clean off.

We have grackles, Steve, but not in the hundreds, like the robins. Usually a dozen or two will show up after the lawns are mowed to go after the insects stirred up.

By: Steve Bates

Steve Bates — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:38:54 +0000

None of you have anything to complain about. Google this:

grackles “Rice University”

At least the Ecology – Evolutionary Biology folks get a lot of research and papers out of their presence. The rest of us get spots on our umbrellas (you don’t dare not carry one in the season) and the smell of grackles felled by epidemics and rotting in deep puddles after rain.

I understand it’s better now than it was in my day. It could scarcely be worse.

By: Mustang Bobby

Mustang Bobby — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:21:57 +0000

The robins passed me by, but I got the usual flock of parrots on Sunday morning eating the kumquats out of my tree in the backyard. They make a lot of noise, too, and I suspect their crap is just as fetid as the robins’.

Good thing the seagulls stick to the coast…

By: fallenmonk

fallenmonk — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:51:05 +0000

They’re just being robins and I park my car in the garage. I look forward to seeing them every year. They have quite a party in my backyard. I keep the birdbaths full and they get drunk and splash and have a great time. There are a few out there now only we had a little cold snap last night with a low of 25F. They are going to have to wait until the ground thaws a little before they will get many worms. The berries are holding out though.