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An ash throated flycatcher has taken up a perch in the neighbor's tree and it's been chasing off the mockingbird that was keeping me up at night. It doesn't like the competition.
I was jumping with joy and cheering it on!
Plus the flycatcher doesn't make noise in the middle of the night. It's my new favorite bird.
Among other things, he categorizes bird species into three ways of reacting to human presence:
Exploiters—species that benefit from human presence, know it, and take advantage of it! Think crows, house sparrows, and other common birds.
Toleraters—species that put up with people, basically, not seeking to reap benefits from human presence but not driven away.
Avoiders—species who actively steer clear of humans and their accouterments.
Based on comments from people who have mockingbirds living close to them, it sounds like they are not usually avoiders, yet where I live they seem to fit that category. But “mine” are migrants.
BTW I was thinking about the phenomenon of mockingbirds singing in the middle of the night yesterday and had some musings about the whole thing ...
... So we know the ones who do that tend to be bachelor birds trying to woo a female. What, exactly, is the strategy there?
1. Are they trying to be so annoying in the hope that some female bird decides to take up his offer just to shut him up?
2. Or do they think they can prove their studliness by singing all night and forgoing sleep?
3. Or something else?
The other day there was a worm on my back patio that must have been close to a foot long.
I actually saw it twice. The first time I "rescued" it and took it off my patio and tossed it into my brushy area, where I thought it would be safer. Just before I did that, however, I witnessed what looked like it shedding its skin! Had never seen anything like that before.
A little while later it must have crawled back onto my patio again (either that or it was another one of the same length). I tried "rescuing" it again and it curled up when I touched it with a stick, and it did the shedding routine again, but this time it was more like it was secreting some yucky substance. I presume that was some sort of defensive thing. But it also made me wonder if the first time I saw it wasn't "shedding" but the same defensive measure. However, when it did it the first time nobody was bothering it yet, so I'm not sure what it was defending itself against.
Are you sure you didn't see a worm snake? Now would be the time of year they would be shedding.
I had that going on this morning between a crow and one of the eagles...
Half the time when I see a hawk or eagle I see other birds harassing it. Usually crows or blue jays.
When I was a kid I thought it would be cool to be a hawk or eagle, but when I grew up and noticed they spend half their time being harassed by other birds, now I'm not so sure.
I saw a Blue-Jay do something the other day to an unsuspecting squirrel that I would not have believed unless I seen it. I feed them peanuts and apparently the squirrel did something that Jay-Jay didn't like and Jay-Jay did a somersault in mid air and then with his legs, sided-kicked, ninja style, the squirrel in the head! The squirrel looked stunned for a few moments but was ok again.
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