Friday, April 01, 2011

Suave - and Not So

As I walked to me office at CyFair the other day, a male Great-tailed Grackle was strutting across the parking lot. He was looking very handsome and the nearby female Grackles were looking suitably impressed.

A Northern Mockingbird perched by the library building was looking much less suave. I watched as he worked on his feathers.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

When I left, several minutes later, he still hadn't managed to get the look he was aiming for. And he didn't seem at all happy about it.

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2 comments:

Paul said...

Hey Jeff, I haven't checked out your blog for a couple weeks or so, but I'm impressed with your latest slate of photos. Nice ones. I appreciate our Cardinals as you do. I rarely see a house finch, and you apparently have several, though we're only 3 miles apart or so. You must, correction, you do have a denser tree population than we do. We have nice trees, but we're in Hunters Valley, an older subdivision. That must be the difference.
Question for you: my squirrels are a real problem. They outsmart all the feeders that can service Cardinals. I have to use smaller access feeders suitable to smaller birds in order to screen out the squirrels. this means I must use feeders sized to small for Cardinals, and I don't like this.

My primary fantasy is buying a pellet gun to solve the problem, but the neighbors may be too politically correct for such an appropriate action. what do you think?

Jeff said...

Hi, Paul. I've added to my most recent blog post photos of the only two feeders I have found to be squirrel-proof. I would recommend the round cage type - but only if you fit some kind of dome above it. Otherwise the squirrels will get into it.