Tag Archives: birds

Sliding Into Spring

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May DayMay first is a major holiday in most parts of the world, somewhat akin to our Labor Day in September. Our May First dawned with about three inches of snow on the ground seriously interrupting a number of local events, none of which had anything to do with the real May Day. I’m reminded of a May 1st in Pamplona, Spain where a demonstration turned into a riot causing me (and the shop owner) to take refuge in a nearby building. Someday I’ll need to get my journal out and post the story of that day.

Never-the-less, May Day here dawned cold and white. I spent the day doing some work, catching up on blogs and email, and then upgrading the blog software on all the blogs on my server. I then made a short video about the upgraded blogging software and sent everyone who has a blog on my server an email with a link to the video. A couple of people have already used the new software and seem to have survived. It is actually a very nice upgrade and I like the new features. However, the software has gotten so sophisticated that I can no longer easily modify the code to fit my taste. There’s one really urgent change I want to make and I haven’t yet found the place to make the change!

By early afternoon the sun was out and the snow was gone giving the grass a small drink of water. Today will be a nice, sunny, chilly day … more like the first day of May should be.

Last Sunday we took a drive looking for possible pictures. It was a nice drive through gray farmland and hills. The canyon I wanted to drive through was closed by snow and fallen trees about half-way through so we turned around and took the long way home. Up to that point the only wildlife had been one frightened doe. Driving back towards Inkom, Idaho on the west side of the valley, we came across a farmer’s field being flooded by irrigation water where a huge flock of fairly large birds had gathered. Looking out into the field, I spotted this group of black birds with one white bird. While the white bird may have been a pigeon, I don’t think so as the bird is far too big for that. And that was our wildlife for the Sunday drive. In a couple of weeks everything here will be green. The trees will be in bloom. Flowers (particularly wild flowers) will make their appearance, and another Sunday drive will be in order.

Motorcycles, Eyes, and Birds

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The motorcycle finally was put back together last Saturday. The entire project was to install a 12v accessory plug (aka cigarette lighter). I had to take the front end apart to get to where I could tap into a 12v power supply that was turned on with the ignition switch. It turns out there are several ways the front end can be taken apart, but only one sequence in which it can be re-assembled. I got down to the last item (speaker cover) and found that I had to disassemble everything because that needed to go on as the first thing. As it was, I dropped one of the screws down into the engine area somewhere and it hasn’t resurfaced. But, everything works as expected and the job is done.

Dad came over to see the ophthalmologist today for treatment of his macular degeneration that has changed from “dry” in his left eye to “wet”. During the examination the Dr. took a number of pictures of the eye which were very interesting. It is clear that he has a “wet” problem. In some cases they can use a laser to cauterize the errant blood vessels, but in dad’s case his problem is where a laser would make matters worse. The other treatment is to have medication injected directly into the eyeball (I’m cringing as I write this). The Dr. used a cocktail of anesthetics to deaden the eyeball and the went to the side of the cornea directly into the eyeball to deposit the medication. Dad gets three more of these injections over the next three months. Nina says he didn’t even flinch. Good for him!

bird feeder trayToday I built the tray below the bird feeders. The birds are quite picky about the seeds and toss about half of them to the side. Over the past few years the seeds tossed to the side have ended up on the ground as a feast for all the neighborhood mice. The tray should catch most of the seeds tossed aside and provide another place for the birds to feed. Hopefully this will significantly cut down on the mouse population in our yard.

I’ve also been putting poison down the mouse holes and collecting the dead mice to put them in the garbage for disposal. The poison has yielded a dozen mice (that I’ve found). That means there must be quite a colony underground. It won’t be there long, though. Next week the rototiller goes to work along that whole area and that should be the end of all the mouse holes. They won’t be missed!

News From the (Mouse) War Front

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Nina feeds the birds. The birds feed the mice. Roland kills the mice. It’s a vicious circle.

bird feedersNina has four bird feeders attached to the railings on the back deck. Two have thistle seed and two have some kind of a standard mix. However, the birds are very selective about which seeds they eat and they toss about half the seeds overboard onto the deck or onto the ground below the deck.

A colony of mice have discovered the bounteous supply of seeds on the ground and on the deck. Over the winter a number of mouse holes have popped up through the snow just below the back deck. A week or so ago we noticed a few of the little critters venturing onto the deck to feast on the seeds that hadn’t been swept up. That was the final straw. Time get rid of the mice before they decide there’s a better feast inside the house!

I loaded six traps with peanut butter and put them out on the deck. So far: eight dead mice. I’m also putting a bunch of Decon down the mouse holes every day. I don’t know what the count from that exercise is, yet, but the little blue pellets keep disappearing.

A neighbor cat was coming into the yard earlier in the winter, but after the snow piled up along the fence the cat couldn’t get in anymore. I’m going to make a pathway for the cat. I’m sure that’s why the cat was showing such interest in our yard and we need Tabby to come back!

When the snow finally melts (still a lot of snow visible in the picture!) and the ground thaws sufficiently, then it’s time to start the fourth front on this war with the mice: the rototiller. We’ll churn up the ground below the deck and I think we’ll put down paving stones or something so we can sweep up the seeds the birds toss overboard and dispose of them in a way that’s less inviting to the mice. If I’ve killed off eight of them in the past four days, there’s got to be hundreds down there … breeding … eating seeds … pooping … peeing … just good fertilizer for the yard after I rototill them up!

I hope I don’t have to bring out the big guns … I wouldn’t want this war to have to escalate with no endgame in sight, kind of like what’s going on in some unnamed country who’s initials are ‘Iraq’….