OLDNAVYMCPO
US Veteran, Absent Comrade
I'm really not a bird watcher as such. I do feed about 200 white wing doves every day and I put out a hummingbird feeder. Starting in the early spring, I get a few migratory hummingbirds passing thru. After that, I have 5 hummers that are pretty much permanent residents. We get a few finches, grackles, mocking birds, cactus wrens and once in a while a woodpecker.
Lately, we've had some strange bird behavior. Last week, we had an adult roadrunner come into our yard. He stayed for two days, prancing back and forth on our rear rock wall. At feeding time he would attack the feeding doves even though he doesn't eat bird seed. He had my doves more intimidated than by feral cats. After two days he left. The nearest desert is like 5 miles away, I don't know why he was here.
Sunday, we had severe wind and sand storms, later, severe thunder storms. The wind was howling at 70+ miles per hour. I looked out the sliding glass doors and there was a mockingbird trying to balance on the top of the gazebo next door. He looked like some TV reporter battling a hurricane. I don't know what he was attempting to accomplish but he kept at it in the most determined way for a full 10 minutes.
Then Monday, at the range I saw two doves on the adjacent berm. They looked like miniature pheasants, they had tails twice the length of native doves. Supposedly, their native habitat is lower Mexico and Guatemala. I have never seen them here before.
Yesterday evening, I was grilling in the back yard, two houses away is a very tall tree. Sitting on the very top of the tree was a falcon, un-moving. A mockingbird was frantically flying a figure 8 pattern about the falcon. Back and forth, frantically, with the intersection of the figure 8 right at the falcon's head. Went on for several minutes until the falcon fled.
Then this noon, I'm on my way to a doctors appointment and stopped at a T shaped intersection. Across the street is the head of an arroyo. The wind was blowing from the Rio Grande, up the arroyo at a really brisk speed. There was a flight of sparrows, about 8 birds at the mouth of the arroyo, trying to fly against the wind. They were clustered really close together and flapping their wings like crazy but going backwards. After about 10 yards backwards, they would make enough headway to get to their original starting point and do the same thing all over again. They repeated this performance for about six times then flew off to a bush. They had to have been just playing but they would actually fly backwards.
I'm beginning to think I've been transported to the twilight zone.
Lately, we've had some strange bird behavior. Last week, we had an adult roadrunner come into our yard. He stayed for two days, prancing back and forth on our rear rock wall. At feeding time he would attack the feeding doves even though he doesn't eat bird seed. He had my doves more intimidated than by feral cats. After two days he left. The nearest desert is like 5 miles away, I don't know why he was here.
Sunday, we had severe wind and sand storms, later, severe thunder storms. The wind was howling at 70+ miles per hour. I looked out the sliding glass doors and there was a mockingbird trying to balance on the top of the gazebo next door. He looked like some TV reporter battling a hurricane. I don't know what he was attempting to accomplish but he kept at it in the most determined way for a full 10 minutes.
Then Monday, at the range I saw two doves on the adjacent berm. They looked like miniature pheasants, they had tails twice the length of native doves. Supposedly, their native habitat is lower Mexico and Guatemala. I have never seen them here before.
Yesterday evening, I was grilling in the back yard, two houses away is a very tall tree. Sitting on the very top of the tree was a falcon, un-moving. A mockingbird was frantically flying a figure 8 pattern about the falcon. Back and forth, frantically, with the intersection of the figure 8 right at the falcon's head. Went on for several minutes until the falcon fled.
Then this noon, I'm on my way to a doctors appointment and stopped at a T shaped intersection. Across the street is the head of an arroyo. The wind was blowing from the Rio Grande, up the arroyo at a really brisk speed. There was a flight of sparrows, about 8 birds at the mouth of the arroyo, trying to fly against the wind. They were clustered really close together and flapping their wings like crazy but going backwards. After about 10 yards backwards, they would make enough headway to get to their original starting point and do the same thing all over again. They repeated this performance for about six times then flew off to a bush. They had to have been just playing but they would actually fly backwards.
I'm beginning to think I've been transported to the twilight zone.
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