News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Bird watching goes both ways by eyelidlessness on Monday February 22, 2021 @08:37PM (#26232910)
About a year ago I moved into a house with an astonishing amount of bird activity (for a city, in my experience). And it’s definitely caught my attention how much they pay to me.

Seattle is apparently known for its crows, and of course I’ve had plenty around. They’re very attentive to my dog walks and have shown a mutual respect because I always instruct pup not to chase them like she would other birbs.

I’ve also had a few visits by their corvid cousins, Steller’s Jays. One of whom perched under my roof, looked over my curtains and took a somewhat unnerving interest in me having a bit of private time.

This morning I was escorted by maybe 50 robins to the store, rooting around on the ground ahead of me then flocking together a few yards at a time as I caught up.

I’ve been visited by 1-10s of hummingbirds most days, and they hang out much longer if my attention is on them than on anything else.

A couple northern flickers have come to hop around and seemed to love posing for a camera. But I had a falcon come perch on my neighbor’s fence about 10ft from me, who stayed comfortably there as I turned to gawk until I tried to get a photo. That’s a lot more common: almost all the birds I see bail the moment I look like I’m pointing a lens (and I’d imagine they’d react the same if I’d pointed anything).

Lots of other birbs come by, and I’m sad I don’t know what the heck they all are. But they almost always have at least a cautious awareness of me, flying or flocking around if they see even a tiny motion on my end.

Less interactive, but I also see a regular flock of seagulls in the morning a couple blocks downhill, and twice in the last couple weeks seen a bald eagle fly by, once directly over my house.

I’m not gonna get to stay here much longer because there’s problems with the house and the owners plan to develop the property. But I’m gonna have this year of bird life to hold onto by memory forever and it’s really special.

Re:Bird watching goes both ways by tzs on Tuesday February 23, 2021 @01:20AM (#26234347)
If you want to try for more interactivity, keep an eye out for Chestnut-backed Chickadees [1]. They are pretty common in the Puget Sound area.

I've found that those little guys will land on my hand for food [2]. They are the only bird species that has done that for me.

[1] https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Chestnut-backed_Chickade...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShPgZhSbxU0

Re:Bird watching goes both ways by eyelidlessness on Tuesday February 23, 2021 @02:01AM (#26234562)
Oh I didn’t know what they were but I get a ton of them! They’ve come in the dozens to zip around my yard and look for morsels. They definitely seem comfortable around me. I’ll try to keep something around for them. That’s so cool thank you!
Re:Bird watching goes both ways by wil421 on Monday February 22, 2021 @09:16PM (#26233145)
The house I moved into a couple years ago has woods and a stream behind it. The amount of birds I see is incredible. I put a few feeders out and I could probably see 100 birds in a day. My favorite is a pair of Carolina Wrens that forage around.

My toddler noticed a Northern Flicker the other day and it’s the first time I’ve seen one. We have at least 4 species of wood peckers that also stop by. There’s also a pair of red tail hawks that live close by. The female is huge.

How do you get crows to come close? They visit my woods but the trees are very high and they never come down.

Re:Bird watching goes both ways by eyelidlessness on Tuesday February 23, 2021 @12:26AM (#26234091)
I don’t really go out of my way to get the crows to come close. They do if they want to, sometimes I’ve left something out that they can get before I get it to compost. Mostly I just show them respect and they do seem to recognize it. They see me walk pup around them if they’re rooting around nearby, and they give us space if they see we don’t have an easy way around.

If you do want to make friends, a buddy of mine has done really well leaving unsalted peanuts in shells.

Re:Bird watching goes both ways by Tagbert on Tuesday February 23, 2021 @11:33AM (#26239255)
We have a large population of black-headed juncos (sparrow family) in our Seattle yard. Also Black-capped chickadees, Towhees and nuthatches. The nuthatches are very streamlined and fly so quickly among branches without collision it seems miraculous.

They all pay pretty close attention to us when we are out in the yard. The juncos in particular, probably because they like to build nests directly in my garden and I respond by giving them mealworms when their chicks hatch.

[edited for typo]

Re:Bird watching goes both ways by blastro on Monday February 22, 2021 @11:34PM (#26233858)
thanks for sharing this - brought back some nice memories for me