In Defence of Crows

[red750]

Crows removing bird spikes from building

[Jerry_Atrick]

Wouldn't want to be walking below when they were doing that

[spacesailor]

It will be the super sticky gunk, on that ledge next .

It was banned after a leak'd TV video ' showed , the rodent catcher, rippinging the legs off the live birds .

spacesailor

[old man emu]

4 hours ago, red750 said:

Crows removing bird spikes from building

I saw a similar video of a cockatoo doing the same thing. Crows and Cockatoos must be pigeons' superheroes.

[onetrack]

Ravens are surprisingly strong. I've seen one pecking at a dead rabbit in the centre of the highway as I approached - and rather than fly off, the raven picked up the entire rabbit carcass in his beak, flew off the road carrying it, flew over the roadside farm fence, and landed in the open paddock, where he went on with eating his McRabbit meal. A fully-grown rabbit must be a couple of kilos, at least.

[Litespeed]

I see them daily having fun and communing with their family and friends.

 

The yacht masts  are perfect perches that include a play pen of interesting toys like wind vane and wind speed devices which are great swings and merry-go-rounds.

Plus the rigging lines for spinning/hanging on.

 

Once I observed a couple land on a mast and try out the wind vane and wind speed generator, they were very sticky and would not turn.

 

They looked at different angles, chatted, made a plan and then pushed and pulled on both devices too loosen up the bearings etc. 

They helped each other in a very careful way and quickly had both spinning freely.

 

Now their play pen was fixed it was play time.

 

One would sit on the wind vane and the other would push and spin it. It was funny watching them like children playing for fun, but they had to fix it first. Then they tried hanging on a flying in circles, the arm was too short for success but they tried and learn very quickly.

 

Unlike the galahs, cockatoos etc they are not destructive but help with maintenance.

 

Which is a good thought, if they decided to run a avian led planet- we would be stuffed.

 

 

It's always best to have benign geniuses.

 

Edited February 14 by Litespeed

[red750]

 

 

[onetrack]

SWMBO called me out onto the front verandah this morning as I got up (she'd been up since 6:00AM, painting the lounge room!) - and she said, "Come and have a look at this!"

 

Right out front of the porch we have a big Carob tree, it's about 6-7M high and very lush. So she walks to the edge of the porch and points into the tree, and here was this visitor ....

 

He was very docile and sitting only 2M above the footpath. He seems to take catnaps all day, rather than continuous sleep. Stepdaughter reckons he probably couldn't find a tree hollow in time before daylight, as she reckons that is apparently their preferred snooze spot. However, Wikipedia says they like to retreat to trees with dense foliage during the day.

I've identified him as a Boobook. Never seen one here before, but I have seen the occasional owl gliding around at night, and we also hear "mo-poke", every now and then. 

 

Wikipedia also says the passerine birds go ballistic when an owl perches in their territory. This is what gave him away this morning, the New Holland honeyeaters starting making a huge racket, and this made SWMBO go and find out what was up.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_boobook

 

Edited March 3 by onetrack

[willedoo]

We get Boobooks here and they are great little owls. There was always a misconception that the Tawny Frogmouth made the 'mopoke' sound and that's why some people call the Frogmouth a Mopoke. In reality, it's the Boobook Owl that makes the sound.

 

If they are perched on a tree branch at night and you shine a torch at them, they will turn around in incremental steps until their back faces you. Often they will call out 'mopoke' at every turn, a bit reminiscent of a cuckoo clock. They're amusing little characters.

[willedoo]

My block is 20 acres and nearly all natural bush. One thing I really like about it is the menagerie of wildlife on the place. I've had the place for 35 years now and have seen the life cycles of all the birds and animals ebb and flow. It has two distinct ecosystems with the corresponding wildlife types. The block starts with a northern slope rising away from the road which peaks on a volcanic rhyolite ridge where I live. Then it falls to the south into a valley before rising up a second northern slope. The northern slopes are a drier forest type with mainly ironbark, bloodwood, grey gums, sheoaks, brush box and wattles. The southern slope and the valley with the creek are sub-tropical rainforest.

 

There's a crossover of species that move between the two ecosystems, but some like the Noisy Pitta and the Whipbirds stick to the rainforest area. More cover and less predators there I guess. It can be quite humbling because the more observant you get, and the more involvement you have with the wildlife, you start to see your own position in it all. It makes you realise that it's not just my place, but theirs as well.

 

This Brush Tail Wallaby in the photo is about 10 metres from my verandah. They come a lot closer if they think nobody is looking at them.

 

[willedoo]

This is the creek area on my place. A lot of nice birds and animals live in the rainforest down there. Except for the **@^/^^##* bush turkeys that is; they're a pain in the rear.

 

[onetrack]

We still have a few numbers of the Scrub Turkey here, otherwise known as the Bustard. They're pretty slow-moving and slow-thinking birds, and excessive clearing for farming knocked their numbers back badly in the W.A. Wheatbelt in the 1960's to 1980's.

 

Here is one I came across in Oct 2014, along the Great Central Road, East of Warakurna, W.A. (just inside the W.A. border, heading West).

 

When I first started in business as an agricultural earthmoving contractor in the mid 1960's, there was one farm I worked on at Newdegate, where there was a flock of about 50 Bustards that were extremely docile. 

There's some argument about whether they're good eating or not. I've had people tell me they're great eating, others have said they taste terrible!

But they must have tried eating them a long time ago, because they're a protected species now, and have been for a long time, because they're threatened with extinction.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_bustard

 

 

Edited March 3 by onetrack

[old man emu]

We really are fortunate that we have such a variety of birds and animals which allow us to share their ranges. It is not uncommon to see the regular inhabitants, but it gives you a lift when you see the rare ones. There is an echidna that I see occasionally and each time it gives my spirits a lift. I went for a walk along the creek through our place and saw a goanna in a tree, and a black snake crossing the path ahead of me. They aren't beautiful animals, but they let you know that the place is not a lifeless waste.

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

We still have a few numbers of the Scrub Turkey here, otherwise known as the Bustard. They're pretty slow-moving and slow-thinking birds, and excessive clearing for farming knocked their numbers back badly in the W.A. Wheatbelt in the 1960's to 1980's.

 

Here is one I came across in Oct 2014, along the Great Central Road, East of Warakurna, W.A. (just inside the W.A. border, heading West).

 

When I first started in business as an agricultural earthmoving contractor in the mid 1960's, there was one farm I worked on at Newdegate, where there was a flock of about 50 Bustards that were extremely docile. 

There's some argument about whether they're good eating or not. I've had people tell me they're great eating, others have said they taste terrible!

But they must have tried eating them a long time ago, because they're a protected species now, and have been for a long time, because they're threatened with extinction.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_bustard

 

 

This is where common names can be confusing. In most of Australia, this one in the photo below is known as the bush turkey, brush turkey or scrub turkey. The bustard is usually known as the plains turkey. Some Aboriginal people call it the bush turkey.

 

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

There's some argument about whether they're good eating or not.

I've only ever had the experience once. The Aboriginals I was working with ran over one (accidentally they said) and turned it into roast turkey sandwiches. They gave me one and I thought it was good, no different than domestic turkey.

 

On the other hand, the old joke about cooking a brush turkey is that you chuck a stone in the pot with the turkey. When the rock goes soft, the turkey is tender enough to eat.

 

 

[willedoo]

The plains turkeys have a bad habit of crapping on your windscreen when they take off from in front of you on a road. It's a real bustard. I've no idea why they tend to take off and fly down the road in the same direction you are driving. Maybe the crapping on the windscreen is revenge for being disturbed.

[willedoo]

I can't remember whether it was on the Sandover or Plenty highway, but there's a roadside rest area not far from the Queensland border on the NT side. When we pulled in there quite a few years ago, you could tell that the indigenous folk had been regularly having big bustard feasts there. There were feathers and carcass remains scattered everywhere. I estimated at least 20 or 30 birds.

[nomadpete]

10 hours ago, willedoo said:

 you could tell that the indigenous folk had been regularly having big bustard feasts there. There were feathers and carcass remains scattered everywhere. I estimated at least 20 or 30 birds.

And that is why they are an endangered species.

They can't breed as fast as they get eaten

[facthunter]

Birds crap when flying from danger to lighten the load. Nev

[willedoo]

Jettison the extra ballast.

[red750]

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1175564620479520

[old man emu]

I had to laugh this morning when I saw the crow eyeing off the mouse carcases I had thrown in the paddock. You could almost hear it thinking. "Why aren't they running away?"

[nomadpete]

What? Not bloody mouse again! Haven't you got something better for us?

[old man emu]

56 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

What? Not bloody mouse again! Haven't you got something better for us?

You expect me to fork out quid pro crow?

[pmccarthy]

They’ll soon be raven about it.

[red750]

Not crows, but a interesting video....