The little things.....

[ROADTOAD1340]

I have been seeing large flocks of Black Cockatoo ( Parrots ) flying over my area lately . Rarely seen often as lately , beautiful loud raucous birds . We get lots of parrot types though , I am surrounded by gum trees , sort of like an oasis among suburbia , plenty stop by like Sulpher Crested Cockatoo , Galahs and Rainbow Lorikeets and Rossellas . I have Magpies call in everyday , morning and late arvo for a feed , feeding those guys for over 22 years now .

 

[Bumblebee]

I have been seeing large flocks of Black Cockatoo ( Parrots ) flying over my area lately . Rarely seen often as lately , beautiful loud raucous birds . We get lots of parrot types though , I am surrounded by gum trees , sort of like an oasis among suburbia , plenty stop by like Sulpher Crested Cockatoo , Galahs and Rainbow Lorikeets and Rossellas . I have Magpies call in everyday , morning and late arvo for a feed , feeding those guys for over 22 years now .
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Pretty cool, those Magpies are a smart bird...

 

[ROADTOAD1340]

I love my Magpie , but they are pretty harsh to each other , and they eat my reptiles ( skinks ) that live in my yard , and in the past , my baby turtles when I had nests around the old pond setup . They swoop my boy (dog) on the park out front , but nothing serious , the young often practice on him .

 

[Bumblebee]

I generally watch two channels on TV, the "Animal Planet and Discovery Velocity"

I recently watched a show depicting crows and their intelligence. They put a piece of food in a tube and had several different length sticks where the crow would choose a certain length to push the food through the tube. Once the crow found which length stick worked, it would choose the same stick each time even if the testers messed with it...

They also said crows remember faces, if you mess with a crow, they will remember you and make a fuss everytime they see you....

 

[Bumblebee]

While out for a walk this morning, I saw what appeared to be a raptor of some sort gliding overhead....all of a sudden it folded up and dived taking out a dove...then I knew it was a falcon...

I didn't know there were any falcons around here so that is a good surprise....

At least now those pesky doves will be kept on their toes.

 

[sixpack577]

It's amazing the amount of animal migration that I have seen in my lifetime, unfortunately mainly due to destruction of habitat.
I'm 44, been blessed to have traveled around, but have lived in Va all my life, and in the country.
When I was a kid we didn't have coyotes, bald eagles, fire ants, and now an occasional brown bear, and a growing mountain lion population(they claim they aren't in Va, but my friends and I have pictures of them too, so there are definately more around).
Still cool to see all them, and there is a bald eagle nest nearby. It's at the very top of about an 80' tall tree, and the nest must be 6' in diameter.

 

[Bumblebee]

It's amazing the amount of animal migration that I have seen in my lifetime, unfortunately mainly due to destruction of habitat.
I'm 44, been blessed to have traveled around, but have lived in Va all my life, and in the country.
When I was a kid we didn't have coyotes, bald eagles, fire ants, and now an occasional brown bear, and a growing mountain lion population(they claim they aren't in Va, but my friends and I have pictures of them too, so there are definately more around).
Still cool to see all them, and there is a bald eagle nest nearby. It's at the very top of about an 80' tall tree, and the nest must be 6' in diameter.

When I was in Alberta on exercise, the base we operated on was a migration route for many birds.

Sometimes there'd be thousands upon thousands of birds flying over, so many we had to postpone any helo ops for fear of bird strikes...if we had any down time between training sessions, sometimes I'd use my binos to watch them....a couple of the guys thought this was pretty lame until they too took a look and then they were hooked...

I was surprised at how many different birds fly in the "V" formation.

Right now I am watching a documentary on the recovery of plants and animals from the wild fires in Australia, it's very interesting

 

[sixpack577]

When I was in Alberta on exercise, the base we operated on was a migration route for many birds.

Sometimes there'd be thousands upon thousands of birds flying over, so many we had to postpone any helo ops for fear of bird strikes...if we had any down time between training sessions, sometimes I'd use my binos to watch them....a couple of the guys thought this was pretty lame until they too took a look and then they were hooked...

I was surprised at how many different birds fly in the "V" formation.

Right now I am watching a documentary on the recovery of plants and animals from the wild fires in Australia, it's very interesting

Cool, and the fire recovery sounds really interesting too.
I hope the ecosystems can fully recover.
I've never been to Austrslia, but it seems to be a very unique and amazing place...and full of deadly things I can watch safely from tv.

 

[Bumblebee]

Cool, and the fire recovery sounds really interesting too.
I hope the ecosystems can fully recover.
I've never been to Austrslia, but it seems to be a very unique and amazing place...and full of deadly things I can watch safely from tv.

You are correct about the deadly critters, the safety brief we had going into the training area was almost as long as the exercise....

 

[sixpack577]

You are correct about the deadly critters, the safety brief we had going into the training area was almost as long as the exercise....

Funniest part of that is all the people born and raised in Oz...it's just everyday life to them, lol.
Here, we have black widows and brown recluse spiders, and copperhead, water moccasin and rattlesnakes.
All their bites can leave some horrible wounds that can take months to years to recover from. fatalities are rare.
There, well...it seems you just die...
I always wanted to visit Oz, then a dozen or so years ago I watched a show on Discovery on the world's top 10 most deadly snakes and spiders.
I'll give you 3 guesses where All 10 of each lived...
To our friends here from Oz, thank you for all the great pictures, they are now visit enough for me, lol.

 

[ZeePopo]

I have been seeing large flocks of Black Cockatoo ( Parrots ) flying over my area lately . Rarely seen often as lately , beautiful loud raucous birds . We get lots of parrot types though , I am surrounded by gum trees , sort of like an oasis among suburbia , plenty stop by like Sulpher Crested Cockatoo , Galahs and Rainbow Lorikeets and Rossellas . I have Magpies call in everyday , morning and late arvo for a feed , feeding those guys for over 22 years now .
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Beautiful!

 

[Bumblebee]

One of the senior ladies we look after was having some trees cut down by a tree company (well a lot of trees cut down) and mulched up...the crew showed up and looked a little light on the ground so I jumped in with them...

It was a hard day's work, we cut down a lot of cedars which have become very large and over-grown a couple 50ft maples and a 60 or so foot walnut tree...

We started at 0800 this morning and finished up around 1800...I still have a full day or two of work at her house but I'm not too egotistical to say, I am a tired puppy right now.

The sad part of it all is it was a decent day for going on the bike...

 

[Bumblebee]

Just went out to check the mail (community mailbox right beside the entrance to my driveway.

...along comes "Mr Beemer" rider walking his dog who said he's probably going to store his bike early as he's sick and tired of watching the weather for a good riding day...he had a sensor go on it which put it into limp mode and it had to go to a dealer for the sensor to be replaced as it has 1500kms on it.

I told him I hope the day after he puts it into storage, the sun comes out and stays out for a week...because the Bumblebee will be still out buzzing around...