Birds

Nother variety of hummingbird

Oh man, I miss hummingbirds, lots of them over time visiting our yard in Venice.

On the other hand, I like getting to see a lot of quail in my abq neighborhood. They go toward the Petroglyphs at the opening to the road that is an allee on the other side of the duplex I live at. Also, we have the occasional strolling roadrunner.

You're lucky, I had a flock of these bastards flying overhead yesterday. Each one is the size of a small dog.

Gulls are a bunch of birds that most people dont appreciate. The Blackback, (the world's largest gull) is a yr round resident of Eastern N America , Greenland, and "Doggerland Europe"(includes the low countries and NW France)
These bad boys are like crows, that bikers of the bird world. Qt this time of year we see them in Walmart Parking lots and they create a major problem at airfields. They can be the size of Snow Geese and qre pretty damn fearless.

We have several feeding stations set up for wintering bluebirds in a small paddock are and the Black-backs have consistently torn the damn thing apart for the raisins and orange slices . The GH Owls nd Coopers hawks have dive bombed the gulls and At least one gull was eaten in a fashion that was indicative of a Cooper Hawk. (They leave a "puddle of feathers" where they stoop qnd kill smaller birds like barn pigeons,

Ive seen black-backs as far west as Pittsburgh .They seem to wander afield from the Ocean and the Great Lakes.

People really don't appreciate them over here.



https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/08/05/gull-cull/

wanna buy some hungry Coopers Hawks??

We call em "Dump Chickens" over here. Theyre not too popular either but they do have a place in the ecosystem (Ive been told)

The city centre is not really the best place to keep birds of prey.

Cooper Hawks are like Peregrines , they are quite adaptable to urban life quite nicely (after all, the favorite prey of the Cooper Hawk is the pigeon. I didnt mean for you to raise em, Just let em be free, theyll manage

Let them be free? Are you mad? They're a non native species, look what grey squirrels did. I don't want the Environment Agency banging on my door.

paint em pink and noone will admit seeing them. No problem

Disguising them as flamingos just opens another can of worms.

I used to like the gulls at the California coast.

There is something about the cry of a gull that brings back childhood memories of the seaside. seagulls in Britain are becoming a nuisance, there's been a spike in population and they're getting more and more confident. They steal a lot of food, especially chips.

I don't care if they grab my sandwich out of my hand, I just don't want them dropping gull do do on me. They are big and very aggressive, we live in an area that's chock full of streams and rivers, the gulls sometimes gather in parking lots to scrounge for scrapes.

I met someone on a work course. We were there for a week and got talking. He said one morning he found his cat trying to drag a seagull through the catflap. For about a month afterwards he would be divebombed by them every time he left the house.

They are nasty, aggressive and very ploppy.

There is a souvenir beach sign that is very popular along the Maryland (Ocean City) and Delaware (Rehoboth Beach, Lewes) tourist areas. it says
"Happier than a seagull with a french fry"

Bet they don't accept these.

Seagulls may be fine at a distance. They don't make good pals.

Why not? Tom Paine was well loved in US and his writing (and rope making skills) were appreciated.

Ben Franklin discovered him and made him a star.
Is th LEWES pound legal tender in UK?? If so, a bank'd cash it into US