Birds

[Jess from VA]

I like birds, but this year they are making nests all over my property like never before in 35 years.

Like on both front and rear porch lights, ornamental trees, under the aluminum awning over my basement walkout, and a giant mud nest on a rear downspout.  I knock them all down before babies and perpetual mess.  

My backyard is a very secluded shady spot they've always liked.  And I have a pair of robins that have moved in permanently who I talk to, and they follow me around and watch when I'm working (maybe to collect worms after I use a rake) (but I'll be bike cleaning or other maintenence, and one will just stand and watch 10 feet behind me).  But I never feed the birds, that brings gray squirrels which I hate and destroy on sight.

And the increased bird activity has resulted in increased gooey bird sh!t all over the place (the walks, deck, the house and my truck).  To the point that I've turned over all three of my nice concrete bird baths I've had out there forever.  And to the point I have to go out and hose it all off.  

This spring, my old spit rail fence around my corner lot property was all greyed out, so I gave it a fresh coat of beautiful chestnut brown.  And now it's streaked in white globs of bird sh!t.  It would also have been covered when it was grey, but didn't show.  No good deed goes unpunished.

I've even had a few hummingbirds which I love (and wouldn't disturb their small nests, if I found any).

"I like you guys, but please go and sh!t on someone else's house."



 

[Jersey mike]

No advice for getting rid of the robins other than get a cat. 

As for the topic of birds in general, the woodpeckers around here seem to have multiplied in the last couple years. This morning around 6am one was drilling into a neighbor’s aluminum gutter for a good 15 minutes. Many times they like to sit on top of chimneys that have a metal chimney top/cover and do their drilling and always just after dawn. Sometimes it sounds like dueling banjos when 2 or more decide to get busy. Maybe it’s some kind of woodpecker Morse Code.

[LadyDraco]

It does sound like you have the nasty Starlings have moved in..
That have big nasty poops..

We always  kill them the only bird we kill...
They are an invasive species..

[Hook#3287]

No advice for getting rid of the robins other than get a cat.  

As for the topic of birds in general, the woodpeckers around here seem to have multiplied in the last couple years. This morning around 6am one was drilling into a neighbor’s aluminum gutter for a good 15 minutes. Many times they like to sit on top of chimneys that have a metal chimney top/cover and do their drilling and always just after dawn. Sometimes it sounds like dueling banjos when 2 or more decide to get busy. Maybe it’s some kind of woodpecker Morse Code.

Ha, yeah, it is.  It's "Here I am lady woodpeckers, I'm the biggest pecker in the neighborhood". Second woodpecker " No your not, I am ".  First "No your not, I am"

Goes on for hours around here.

I've got 7 bird houses around my property, but only 2 are occupied at this time.

A pair of bluebirds and a pair of house wrens.  Hopefully more will show up during summer nesting.

I chase out the house sparrows that come around.  They're an invasive bird and attack natives.

I've stopped worrying about bird droppings.  Just doesn't seem important to me any more.

I get it Jess, by your posts, you take great pride and enjoyment (somewhat) in your home maintenance.

[Jersey mike]

The biggest bird pooper’s around here are seagulls and Canadian geese. We get giant watery splats that seemingly dry on contact (especially on hot surfaces like cars sitting in the sun) and stick like superglue if not cleans off quickly.

[Jersey mike]

No advice for getting rid of the robins other than get a cat.  

As for the topic of birds in general, the woodpeckers around here seem to have multiplied in the last couple years. This morning around 6am one was drilling into a neighbor’s aluminum gutter for a good 15 minutes. Many times they like to sit on top of chimneys that have a metal chimney top/cover and do their drilling and always just after dawn. Sometimes it sounds like dueling banjos when 2 or more decide to get busy. Maybe it’s some kind of woodpecker Morse Code.

Ha, yeah, it is.  It's "Here I am lady woodpeckers, I'm the biggest pecker in the neighborhood". Second woodpecker " No your not, I am ".  First "No your not, I am"

Goes on for hours around here.

I've got 7 bird houses around my property, but only 2 are occupied at this time.

A pair of bluebirds and a pair of house wrens.  Hopefully more will show up during summer nesting.

I chase out the house sparrows that come around.  They're an invasive bird and attack natives.

I've stopped worrying about bird droppings.  Just doesn't seem important to me any more.

I get it Jess, by your posts, you take great pride and enjoyment (somewhat) in your home maintenance.

The echo off the aluminum and metal is amazing, and the speed at which they can drill is something of a master craftsman using a small air hammer but without the compressor noise.

[Hook#3287]

The biggest bird pooper’s around here are seagulls and Canadian geese. We get giant watery splats that seemingly dry on contact (especially on hot surfaces like cars sitting in the sun) and stick like superglue if not cleans off quickly.

Seagulls around here are mostly at the recycling centers (Dumps) so aren't much of a problem, but those Canadians are if you live on a lake or pond.

People put those coyotes silhouette up with mixed results.

[Jess from VA]

It does sound like you have the nasty Starlings have moved in..
That have big nasty poops..

We always  kill them the only bird we kill...
They are an invasive species..

The starlings are around Tracy, but not at my place.  But every fall, flocks invade my 2 40 foot Nellie Stevens out front for the ripe red berries and make a tremendous mess, and I go at them with the hose, over and over.  I've gone after them with a .22 (subsonic ammo) too on occasion (a local criminal offense).

I get it Jess, by your posts, you take great pride and enjoyment (somewhat) in your home maintenance.

Yeah I do Mike Whoops, sorry Bill.  I'm not really a yard nut, I'm an outdoor (not indoor) activity nut.  I live a pretty solitary life and enjoy physical work (after a lifetime in offices).  Yesterday, I did laundry (early), then scrubbed off my filthy aluminum awning over my basement walkout (full of pollen crap) and most of vinyl siding on the back of my house (bleach and soap), fully winterized my big generator after the recent big/long power outage (drained 5 gallons of good fuel, easy; and changed the oil and plug: quite the pain in the ass as the drain plug is an inch off the ground, and fill plug an inch higher, and I cannot lift the heavy monster), hung a fake security camera in back, wiped down my big truck with ceramic detailer, and washed most of my windows (outside, though they can be tilted to do it inside).  After my hour on the treadmill.

I run out of things to do, I make things up to do.  And I help my neighbors when they need it.

Today, I ride.  

[HayHauler]

Here South of Houston, we have Night Herons.  They eat animals out of the ditches and their poop is much like the seagulls that contain parts/pieces of crawfish and small fishes.  These can ruin your paint if not cleaned off the same day.
They are a national protected bird species, so the only way to get rid of them is shoot them with the water hose or put mylar balloons up in your trees.  They seem to react to the water hose which is what I use.  I personally know someone that went to jail for cutting down a tree containing their nest.  He knew the nest was there and cut down the tree, against all advice from the local animal control division of the PD.

Hay 
Jimmyt

[3fan4life]

Here South of Houston, we have Night Herons.  They eat animals out of the ditches and their poop is much like the seagulls that contain parts/pieces of crawfish and small fishes.  These can ruin your paint if not cleaned off the same day.
They are a national protected bird species, so the only way to get rid of them is shoot them with the water hose or put mylar balloons up in your trees.  They seem to react to the water hose which is what I use.  I personally know someone that went to jail for cutting down a tree containing their nest.  He knew the nest was there and cut down the tree, against all advice from the local animal control division of the PD.

Hay 
Jimmyt

That must be what these things were:

[henry 008]

The biggest bird pooper’s around here are seagulls and Canadian geese. We get giant watery splats that seemingly dry on contact (especially on hot surfaces like cars sitting in the sun) and stick like superglue if not cleans off quickly.

Seagulls around here are mostly at the recycling centers (Dumps) so aren't much of a problem, but those Canadians are if you live on a lake or pond.

People put those coyotes silhouette up with mixed results.

I live on a small lake and I've seen the silhouettes of coyotes around here, and it works, for  a little while, then the geese get used to them and just ignore it. In the spring I use a little BB gun from my bedroom window. i just use 4-6 pumps, depending on distance, and pop them on their backside and they fly off squawking.  Then they tell the flock and all of them stay off of my lawn. no kidding. for the rest of the summer you can see them hang out in my neighbors yard but my yard remains clean. 

[Jess from VA]

My thread, my thread drift.

Today, I ride.

Just back from the absolute sh!ttiest ride of the season.

It's going to be high 80s today, so I think to get an early start, but 10AM wasn't early enough. 

Right away I get caught in a multi intersection road closure, stuck.  I get off the bike and ask the policeman if I can go left (somehow, out of town).  No sir, but you can go the other way and turn aorund.  So I go the other way, do a nice slow illegal U turn with the cop smiling at me and run through a non working light (no cross traffic) out of there.  I should have just gone home. 

I get in several more road construction tie-ups (3-lane to one) long enough to switch off and sit there on the kickstand (I'm not letting the radiator fan run).  Even out in horse country which never happens, so I start taking roads I've never been on to avoid the tie-ups, just using my general knowledge of North/South/East/West and finally I'm completely lost (in a wide area I've lived in for 35 years).  And no, it's not old man brain fog.  And it's really getting full sun HOT out there. 

A little Hindu man in a 711 out in nowhere gives me directions, and I'm back on track, but have to piss so bad I can taste it, so I pull into this old closed truck weigh station.  And a State Trooper pulls in wondering what I'm doing there.  Officer, I'm an old man and this was the only place I could find to pee, I was hoping to go behind the old building.  He laughs and says go ahead, that happens to me too.  Two more construction tie-up stop and slow roll practice and I'm home.

Drinking icy water to make up for sipping all day (because of the peeing thing).  With the house AC cranking.  Ahhhhh. 

Weekends are always better, but after working all day yesterday, I wanted to go today. 

[Serk]

Ya' know a modern GPS system on a phone will alert you to traffic, construction and other stuff BEFORE you're stuck in it (Usually) as well as always giving you the ability to route yourself back where ya' need to be...

...just sayin'... 

As they say, a good ride is any ride you walk away from, and a great ride is any ride you walk away from AND the bike is still rideable, so sounds like a great ride to me!

[Jess from VA]

Ya' know a modern GPS system on a phone will alert you to traffic, construction and other stuff BEFORE you're stuck in it (Usually) as well as always giving you the ability to route yourself back where ya' need to be...

...just sayin'... 

As they say, a good ride is any ride you walk away from, and a great ride is any ride you walk away from AND the bike is still rideable, so sounds like a great ride to me!

You know Brian, people keep telling me to get a C phone w GPS (like EVERYONE I know).  I'm not gonna.

The whole idea just stresses me out.  If I had a good teacher to sit down and patiently put me through a class, maybe, but I don't. 

The thing is, I know all the best little back roads and trails to get out of town and back with minimal traffic.  Today (for the 1st time), they didn't work.  When I went a completely different way home, avoiding the all bad stuff on the way out, I got more of it coming back the different way.   

Most of the ride was still great out in the countryside.  But it turned into an ordeal and spoiled the day. A tie-up or two for 10 minutes is usual, 6-7 in one day is a record. 

Big lunch/dinner and I feel better.   

[Hook#3287]

Jess, back on track here, I noticed another of my bird houses became occupied by another family of house wrens. So that's 3 out of 7, one more and we're past half way

Brian is right, a cell phone gps is very helpful to avoid traffic, but I don't use one.  I like the phone in my pocket and ignore it while riding.

A stand alone gps would help to navigate back roads and even a relic like yourself could learn to use it.  (But my garmen will only give traffic info if you subscribe and I don't.)

I can operate it, so with your work ethic ( you tire me out just reading what you do ) you could figure it out.  They are somewhat simple to operate.

Backed up with a road map, that guys of our age seem to know how to read, you probably wouldn't have to ask a foreign born citizen for directions.

[scooperhsd]

My Zumo396 will give traffic info - if you have it paired with a Smartphone that has the App loaded on it. It's also a discontinued model, although you can still find them in places.

[Jess from VA]

Ride day #2 was the best this year.  Even though yesterday was a disaster, I decided to go again today as it will rain all weekend.  

I hadn't had my trunkless interstate out in several months (no low beams, no radio) and it needed to be run. I did a few quick fixups and wipedown, full tank of treated no corn and off I go (10AM, just like yesterday).

Blockhead Scotts/Irishman that I am, I've been passing through that terrible, forever-under-construction intersection for the better part of a year (my main way out of suburban sh!t).  I go on Google maps and discover there is a very simple way around it.  DOH.

I don't get in one single tieup or construction zone all day long.  Perfect weather, warm not hot, no traffic at all in the countryside.

But mainly I love my trunkless interstate.  It has 12.5" Progressive shocks (not the OE 13s), it has the much more comfy Ultimate Bigboy (not the Lowboy), it has 6' (Harley Deuce) risers with longer braided stainless hydraulic lines (not the 4" on the trunk bike), and it has 4' offsets on the Hwy pegs (unlike the trunk bike).  The trunk isn't that heavy, but it's tall weight, and a sailboat at times.

That bike fits me like a glove, and is the reason it has 114K (and the trunk bike has 77K).  I can be on those Hwy pegs leaned back in that plush seat in pure cruising comfort all day.  And I did.      

I when I pull into the house, there's only like 4 buggies to wipe off.  Perfect.
 

You tire me out just reading what you do

I didn't even do any work when I got home Bill, just came in and made dinner and watching the best show on TV.... Derek Bieri's "Roadworthy Rescues."