Fat Birds

In a previous article, "Bob Chilcoat" said:
At any rate, the birds seem to have been really chowing down this year. I
have to fill the feeder at least once a week. Some of the birds actually
look fat. Do you think they have to recalculate their performance and W&B
as they bulk up? Will their takeoff runs increase as the weather warms up
and the density altitude rises? Enquiring minds want to know.

I hate to interject some facts into a fun discussion like this, but when
birds in cold weather look fat, it's usually just because they've fluffed
up their feathers to provide more insulation. If you watch these birds
take off or land, you'll see that for a split-second after landing (and
sometimes before take-off), you'll see them look thinner.

I wish I had a coat that I could make warmer or cooler as the conditions
dictated.

--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"If Bill Gates had a dime for every time a Windows box crashed...
..... Oh, wait a minute, he already does."

Bob Chilcoat wrote:

Some
mornings there is a small pile of feathers on the ground near it, perhaps
indicating that the red-tailed hawk that lives in the area is also feeding
there (or perhaps the owl we hear at night sometimes).

Redtails rarely take out birds, and almost never songbirds (they're too awkward
to catch them). Owls are even more unlikely to kill birds. Both raptors prefer
rodents, and small owls would have to be near starving to eat anything else. Of
course, a Great Horned owl will add skunks and cats to the larder, but I've
never heard of one eating birds. Your raider is probably something like a
sharp-shinned hawk that you haven't seen (or maybe your "redtail" is really a
sharpie).

At any rate, the birds seem to have been really chowing down this year.

I think it's the warm winter we're having. I actually saw some Starlings
yesterday. They should've migrated south months ago. I think we have most of the
usual winter crowd and some of the summer crowd too.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.

Redtails rarely take out birds, and almost never songbirds (they're too awkward to catch them). Owls are even more
unlikely to kill birds. Both raptors prefer rodents, and small owls would have to be near starving to eat anything
else. Of course, a Great Horned owl will add skunks and cats to the larder, but I've never heard of one eating
birds. Your raider is probably something like a sharp-shinned hawk that you haven't seen (or maybe your "redtail"
is really a sharpie).

George Patterson

George are we talking about the same bird? The Redtail hawks we have around here are anything but awkward, and they
definitly prey on birds. I have witnessed them taking out Bobwhite quail on many occasions while in the field
running a tractor and also while sitting in a deer blind. It is a sight to behold and nature at its best, (worst)?.
They'll hover over tractors tilling the fields and at the first sight of movement they'll fold their wings and come
screaming in for the kill, whether the target is a field mouse, baby rabbit, snake or meadow lark. Story time: Last
summer I was running a brush beater and flushed a rabbitt. As I watched it scamper off, out of the corner of my eye,
I caught a blurred streak that startled the crap out of me. It was so close that it passed within six feet. The
streaking hawk was off its mark and with talons out stretched it clipped a sagebrush plant and hit the ground
rolling... right up next to the also startled rabbit who promptly exited stage left. I'm not sure who was shook up
the worst; me, the rabbit or the Redtail.

I grew up on a commercial turkey farm. We raised thousands of them at a time and predators were a real problem.. My
father would hire professional trappers and use electric fences to deal with coyotes, stray dogs & badgers. They
killed an enormous number of birds. He even hired highschool kids to sleep in the turkey feeders armed with shotguns
that had flashlights taped to their barrels. (Disclaimer: this was back in the sixties). He had one critter that
outwitted all of them for a long time. Dad finally talked to an old timer who told him to place coyote traps on top
of the fence posts. A few nights went by and then one morning he found the culprit hanging dead from a post. It was
a Great Horned Owl that had perched on the wrong post to singleout his prey before dining. The predator loss stopped
for some time afterwards. That owl had killed 10's of turkeys before it was finally caught.



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Bob

Are you sure 'Tom' is not having a midnight meal )

Big John
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On Sat, 28 Jan 2006 08:51:31 -0500, "Bob Chilcoat"
wrote:

We have a pretty active bird feeder, with several different types of seed,
in the backyard near a large picture window. We get a variety of birds
ranging from sparrows and finches to woodpeckers, cardinals and jays. Some
mornings there is a small pile of feathers on the ground near it, perhaps
indicating that the red-tailed hawk that lives in the area is also feeding
there (or perhaps the owl we hear at night sometimes).

At any rate, the birds seem to have been really chowing down this year. I
have to fill the feeder at least once a week. Some of the birds actually
look fat. Do you think they have to recalculate their performance and W&B
as they bulk up? Will their takeoff runs increase as the weather warms up
and the density altitude rises? Enquiring minds want to know.