I was born in Cedar City. My maternal grandfather was the editor of the local paper there. They closed down the entire town for his funeral.
Last time I was there in July we drove up to Cedar Breaks and there was still snow on the ground; it was about 40 degrees up there, and it was about 90 in the valley.
My paternal grandparents lived in Orderville, not far from Zion National Park. My family moved to Provo when I was 11, and I lived there until I headed off to medical school in New Orleans.
Hmm....guess that wasn't much about birds. Sorry for the threadjack. On Sunday my wife and I saw a bird at the feeder that I have only seen a couple of times before. Not sure what it was. Size was at least as big as a blue jay. Color was brown with white markings especially on the breast. I will have to look it up in our bird book and see if I can figure out what it was.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
Sage Grouse
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'When I got on the bus for my first road game at Duke, I saw that every player was carrying textbooks or laptops. I coached in the SEC for 25 years, and I had never seen that before, not even once.' - David Cutcliffe to Duke alumni in Washington, DC, June 2013
I know you all have been anxiously awaiting my mouse shock and awe strategy. So, after the sunflower seeds in the ski boots I trapped/killed 7 mice in about a week in various basement locales. In parallel, I removed one feeder that was right next to the house and put a basket under the second one in the yard to hopefully catch most seeds and keep them off the ground. I also added a lot of cayenne pepper to my bird seed. I took some foam and filled a few gaps around electricals and dribbled some peppermint oil around my external fan. In the basement, I doused some cotton balls in peppermint oil and scattered them around in key areas. Place smells like one of Santa's elves ate too many candy canes. Brought down everything off the top two basement shelves except traps.
Wife says if my defeat and deterrence strategy doesn't work, I have to call the exterminator. We'll see. Incorporated lots of suggestions from this crew so thanks!
peppermint oil (the real thing) will definitely work, you just have to replenish periodically to keep up the smell.
Another part of my Mouse Maginot Line is the good old Victor mouse trap (sounds like you're doing this), with a dab of peanut butter as the lure. If you catch a mouse or the bait gets nibbled, you know you have an incursion..otherwise you're operating
on faith alone. My traps in the garage have gone un-nibbled for weeks now, so the Maginot Line is holding.
I don't think the exterminator has any better technology than you do...Onward!
Looking forward to seeing birds on the snow in the AM. Lots of juncos hopping around the base of my feeder now with the first flakes falling.
We had some freezing rain early, but it's gone now. The birds are hitting the feeders hard though. New faces are a pair of white crowned sparrows.
My wife texted me this morning to tell me that this morning there were at least four or five bluebirds at our feeder! We haven't seen any bluebirds at the feeder for a very long time, maybe 10 months or more.
"We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world." --M. Proust
My feeder is hanging outside my kitchen/dining bay window. One morning several years ago, thee was a little bluebird on my windowsill looking in at me. I came right up to the window and talked baby talk to him. He wasn't scared, he just stood there and looked at me. The next morning, there were two little bluebirds sitting on my windowsill looking in at me. I think he wanted me to meet the missus. They were not staring at their reflections, they definitely saw me.
Today I watched a woodpecker try to figure out how to partake of the sunflower seeds in my tube feeder. He first lit on the perch but couldn’t bend low enough, he then fluttered to the dome and slipped immediately off. Finally, he flew to the bottom upside down and raised his head to the entrance of the tube and grabbed a seed.
Not at my feeder but I was lucky enough to spot an American Kestrel yesterday near Stone Mountain State Park. Got to watch it through the binoculars for several minutes hunting a field from a wire. Very cool bird from the falcon family.
Also, saw two red tail hawks fly into the same tree and pose for me for a couple minutes. Only problem is all I had with me was my iphone so the pictures didn't turn out well. Still cool to see though.
"The future ain't what it used to be."
Kestrels are common here in winter. But are declining. Beautiful little falcons..
We do have a year round resident population, but in winter their numbers double.
Gives me a chance to re-post my kestrel chick banding pictures from earlier this year!
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