Saturday, August 28

A Sparrow's Tail

Ok, normally when the house sparrows come to our backyard feeders, we hear the faint chirping. The windows are closed, we have the a/c on this time of year. So it was highly unusual to hear birds making contact with the sliding glass door, both on Sun. and Thurs. What the heck was going on?! ....

Some in the usual small flock of female sparrows were busy checking out one of the folding camp chairs...

...Quite literally...would this make good nesting material?!

"Mildred, look! Just look at this meshy stuff...are you thinking what I'm thinking?! OMG!"

Holy cow, just think! If we could hang this in a tree, it'd be a whole nest-in-one! No more of those ten zillion trips back and forth, building, building...always with the building...

"I hear ya Delores! And what about this meshy stuff over here?!"

"Hmm, not sure I can peck thru this without a major amount of effort...dang it all..."

"Keep trying Millie! I'll keep an eye out for the humans..."

"Hallllooooo?"

"Ladies, pull yourselves together...dang it Mildred, Delores, can we just get back to our luncheon already?!"

As I finished creating this post, there was a scratching sound at the window of my office...I looked out to find a female house finch clinging to the window trim! And, looking out in the yard, I see the female house sparrows at it again with the camp chairs.....

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A couple of questions were posed with my last post I'd like to answer...the bison and the buffalo are the same animal...the proper name for N America's largest land animal is bison...they were nicknamed "buffalo" because they resemble the water buffalo. So, either name works and I tend to use both....the other question, are the antelope native to S Dakota...here's what Wikipedia says..."Pronghorns were brought to scientific notice by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which found them in what is now South Dakota, USA. The range extends from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta in Canada south through the United States (southwestern Minnesota and central Texas west to northeastern California), to Sonora and San Luis Potosí in northern Mexico, with a small disjunct population in northern Baja California Sur." I have seen them in S Oregon also, by the way.

4 comments:

  1. Here's one for you, Jann...pronghorns aren't antelope at all, they are in a family all by themselves and are part of the artiodactyl clan (the even toed ungulates). My sister is a wildlife biologist, she keeps me straightened out on these things so I don't embarrass her, I think.
    :o)

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  2. A very amusing post jann :-)

    Thanks for answering my Question

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  3. Those sparrows and finches just might take a fancy to your hair next, Jann. We've had chickadees pull the fiber from rugs and drapes before, even the hair in our napping dog's tail!

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  4. Right Caroline, I knew that, the Wikipedia has a comment about antelope not being antelope, but that just does not compute, ha!

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