Beautiful Animals

dj, Did the penguins show up at the bird feeders? Stranger things could happen. The bears and the fox remind me of a nature program I saw. Polar bear with kill. Arctic fox hanging around, sneaking in, grabbing something, running sideways with its booty. Polar bear kept eating.

Osso, There's one in every crowd.

Maned wolf:

ha, that pup does not want to go

no penguins this morning, gonna start warming up in the next few days

Too bad about the penguins.

Mongoose:

Hellllllllllllloooooooooooo! I’m new here - I’m a SISKIN…










Oops…. I’m Down Under now



OK - that’s better





Hey….. Whatcha looking at a?



http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/siskin/index.asp





Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….. I’m new tooooooo…. I’m a NUTCHATCH (and I am truly gorgeous and the mad woman with the camera got awful excited so I flew away!!!!!)









http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/n/nuthatch/index

Course, y’all know me - I am the Blue Tit









OY… what’re you doing on my feeder….



Back off bubba









Errrrrrr…. It’s snowing…. What’s going on!!!!!!!!!!!















Snow snow go away, I’m having a bad feather day!





I am a GREAT tit






I am a DUNNOCK




http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/d/dunnock/index.asp


And I am the most handsome CHAFFINCH

















Yep… I’m still here too




I wish I knew what I was - I thought I might be a baby great tit…. But I’m not sure so I’m going to have to go look me up










And naturally, my flock of LONG TAILS are here all the time - including in the snow shower

LOOK OUT LOOK OUT LOOK OUT - COMING INTO LAND……………..



Yay….. Perfect landing







WOW bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz wings








Hey hey…………. Such a lot of peace today! Snowstorm on way…. Brrrrrrrrrrr!

lovin' the pics miz iz

Izzie, You've outdone yourself. Gorgeous boids. I appreciate the identification, although I tend to think of all these birds as Izzie's backyard boids. Stunned to see bees and flowers in the snow.

Yeh, that amused me...

Translucent roundbelly cowfish. (The photographer's light makes it look purple.)

I appreciate the id's too ..

loved that chaffinch.

Another sweet, from sfgate --

copy from the sf site -
Your bachelor days are over, Zenda: Before Isis moved in in July, it had been 15 years since Chicago's Brookfield Zoo had a lioness. No wonder smitten Zenda is smiling.

I try not to copy a lot of stuff from zoos, but I'm not entirely anti zoo.

Total Pokemon!

OK - goils and bois...

here's a question - I have a visitor!!!!! It's the most magnificent MistleThrush and he's knock knock knockin on my door - well, my window actually.

It's is quite bizarre. This is happening every day now. I kept hearing these noises upstairs and thought one of the kitties was playing with a marble on the floor in the bedroom next to mine. Then.... when I realised both kitties were downstairs - took a peek in ... and there sits this beautiful boid - pecking the window outside - as if he wants to come in. It's really bizarre. I walked in - he flew away. Came back and even tho I am moving in the room - he's watching where I'm going. I can't be more than 2 meters from him whilst taking lots of pics (through the dirty windows) - then he flies up, hovers, land back down on the window sill. Knocks.... flies up. I have NO CLUE what he's doing. I can sit right beside him with the glass between us (too close for pics tho).

Anyhoo. I did ask someone because I was so gobsmacked - this thrush (big boy) does this for hours!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Literally hours. The chap I spoke to who is semi-Dr Doolittle said that he could be pecking the sealant/putty from the windows for nesting.

Whaddya reckon?

Any ideas?

I desperately want to open the window and let him come in - but I know he'll flap and panic and end up getting hurt. I can sit nose to beak to him at the window. Just amazing.

Will post some pics later. Luverly backyard boid!

Is it a male or a female? The male might see it's reflection and since it's springtime, could be thinking he's in a territorial challenge.

Is it pecking the glass directly, or the material around the glass? Bird's beaks are very accurate, so you can assume it's hitting whatever it's pecking at (even if what it's aiming at is a reflection of something).

Thanks Ros....

I'm sure it's a male.....he's very handsome - I don't think the girlie Mistle Thrush looks like that - just getting the pics of my camera card now...

he directly pecks the window.... it's so funny - just like he's knocking to come on in - then he flies up, hovers at the top of the window and lands again. In the pics you can see "stuff" all over his beak - so it could be the sealant/putty around the window.... either that - or he really needs to clean his beak more often (and my windows are bird pooped all over). He's got a "look" about him too - maybe terratorial and certainly - having taken a pic from the outside looking up to the window it could be the reflection he's seeing and he's challenging - it's a real loud "knock" tho - over and over.

Tried to find the difference between the male and female...

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/m/mistlethrush/index.asp

it doesn't say, so far as I can see.

possibly tho, it could be a song thrush!

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/s/songthrush/index.asp

Here's one pic of him...(how handsome is he?) as he follows my movement around





and knockin' on the window



OH MY!

I've seen many birds exhibit this behavior on my windows. Robins and Chickadee's and others.

Many people argue that birds see their reflection in the glass and are compelled to challenge it (but who can say for sure what's in the mind of a bird). You could go outside at the particular time of day this is happening and see if there is an obvious reflection in the glass.

The other possibility is that there are bugs on the glass (or something which looks like bugs) and the bird is trying to eat then. Another experiment you could do it so clean that window thoroughly and see if the behavior changes.

Very interesting, and... quite touching.