bird baths

[w2amr]

Feb 5th 33 degrees, raining. Just add two big bowls of warm water and you have 6 happy pigeons taking baths and showers. Yes, two of them are IN the bowls.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33876736@N03/5419010556/

[ka8ncr]

Proof that no one likes to be called a dirty bird...

[NQ6U]

Pigeon soup...

[KG4CGC]

That's neat.

[kc7jty]

May the Lord look over you, and clutch you to his bosom:
http://www.treehugger.com/peregrine%20falcon.jpg

[KG4CGC]

May the Lord look over you, and clutch you to his bosom:
http://www.treehugger.com/peregrine%20falcon.jpg
Damn Brother Bill, do you throw large rock at ducklings swimming behind their momma?

[w2amr]

May the Lord look over you, and clutch you to his bosom:
http://www.treehugger.com/peregrine%20falcon.jpg
Unless he can open doors or use wire cutters he is going home hungry. :neener:
3926

[W3MIV]

Guy next door has four bird feeders in back yard. Place has turned into a deli counter for the hawks. One big red tail even goes for the squirrels that inevitably raid the feeders, but she hasn't scored as yet (at least I don't think she has, but I've seen her come pretty damned close).

[NQ6U]

On a tangentially related note, early last summer I was working on a 10m dipole so I could participate in a local net when I heard a noise directly overhead. I looked up just in time to see an explosion of feathers as a kestrel (AKA a sparrow hawk) nailed a scrub jay. It was like the Wild Kingdom in my own back yard, right here in the middle of the Southern California Megalopolis.

[W3WN]

Guy next door has four bird feeders in back yard. Place has turned into a deli counter for the hawks. One big red tail even goes for the squirrels that inevitably raid the feeders, but she hasn't scored as yet (at least I don't think she has, but I've seen her come pretty damned close).My transit stop for work is the parking lot of the local VFD. It's adjacent to a creek that feeds into Saw Mill Run.

A family of ducks have taken up residence there. On Friday, I counted 19.

There used to be 20. One got taken, killed, and partially consumed by the local hawks. I guess they have problems finding rodents and (non-Island) vermin in the winter...

[ka8ncr]

Guy next door has four bird feeders in back yard. Place has turned into a deli counter for the hawks. One big red tail even goes for the squirrels that inevitably raid the feeders, but she hasn't scored as yet (at least I don't think she has, but I've seen her come pretty damned close).

I was out sitting on the patio watching these killdeer chicks taunt my dog. The border collie just sat on the edge of her invisible fence, and the birds knew where they could prance and couldn't. They seemed to be enjoying the game

Suddenly, out of no where a Cooper's hawk swooped down and took one of the birds. It hit with such force that feathers flew out from the area. The dog looked back at me with a doggie grin as if to day "damn, that was cool". She didn't move.

[kc7jty]

Was watching trains about 12 years ago in the Cheltenham area of suburban Philadelphia while sitting in my car in a wooded area in winter. This dark colored bird with a wing span of at least 3 feet flies right over the hood of the car carrying a cotton tail rabbit.
I wasn't sure if it was real or not for a few seconds.

[KA5PIU]

Hello.

Large plastic birdbath.
Unwanted dogs who want to drink water from birdbath.
One 7 watt night light bulb connected to the AC line. ;)
The birds were not bothered any in the least.
Anybody who knew better, no problem.
Dogs, people, what have you?
This was before the era of the camcorder.

[w2amr]

:wtf:

[KA5PIU]

:wtf:

Hello.

It can always be worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kDgkwn7lnc&feature=related
Remember that I was far too young to understand this.
I grew up around electric fences as well as all of the other stuff common to agriculture.
Things were just not that safe back then, even the common radio could kill you.
You would be given a warning, the zap was on you.

[kc7jty]

What would it take to bother the birds, a 15 watter?

I grew up around electricity all my life. The old B&W TVs had 400 volts DC. You could do a number on someone with 400 volts in a big electrolytic can.
Tacos could be heated in a flash and the señoritas could always be counted on to do strange and un-thoughtout things in the heat of the moment.

[NQ6U]

Hello

When I was a child, we did not have electricity in our adobe in North Beach. We heated our tortillas with burning pasta.
Now I aways heat my tortillas with filter capacitors removed from the old Motorola APU controllers that came with my fleet of Bell 47s.

[KA5PIU]

What would it take to bother the birds, a 15 watter?

I grew up around electricity all my life. The old B&W TVs had 400 volts DC. You could do a number on someone with 400 volts in a big electrolytic can.
Tacos could be heated in a flash and the señoritas could always be counted on to do strange and un-thoughtout things in the heat of the moment.

Hello.

You see birds on power lines all the time, no effect.
It is the current flow that is the issue.
Evan at 110 volts AC, 7 watts could kill, if the circuit were complete.
I remember a kid having a shocking deck of cards a while back.
We just got the Taser.
He said for me to pull the deck open.
I held the Taser up and fired a few sparks off, the kid totally freaked and ran to his father.
His old man was furious, I showed him the Taser and explained that the only difference at this point was the severity of the shock and the ride to jail.
Come Monday I was instructed to only do guard duties.
Electric fence is the great teacher in and of itself.
If somebody has been warned about it and gets zapped that is one thing.
If somebody says something like it will not harm you, and you get zapped, it is time to deal with that person.
And, after the lesson is over I will explain in no uncertain terms that this person is not to be trusted and in short, screw with me again and pay the price.
At that point I am the prison guard and you are the inmate is the way I see it.

[w2amr]

What would it take to bother the birds, a 15 watter?

I grew up around electricity all my life. The old B&W TVs had 400 volts DC. You could do a number on someone with 400 volts in a big electrolytic can.
Tacos could be heated in a flash and the señoritas could always be counted on to do strange and un-thoughtout things in the heat of the moment.Actually it was much higher than that Bill. The flyback transformers can generate about 15 KV, Which can cook yer goose.

[w2amr]

Hello

When I was a child, we did not have electricity in our adobe in North Beach. We heated our tortillas with burning pasta.
Now I aways heat my tortillas with filter capacitors removed from the old Motorola APU controllers that came with my fleet of Bell 47s.

Wuss, that's nothing. I had to walk 10 miles to school, in 5 feet of snow, up hill, both ways.

[W1GUH]

I'm one of the original birdbaths from DEE-troit (where the sickest worm was Willie the Worm).

[WV6Z]

Coolness from Joizee George!