March 18, 2008: Pest
 

http://cellar.org/2008/pest.jpg
Some birds just need killin'.

what kind of eagle/hawk? and the pesky one?

I expected to see a picture of myself here.

Golden Eagle and Magpie, I believe.

Your magpies are weird looking.

Great find though Bruce, I love the look on the Eagles face, you can tell he is mighty peeved.

Aussie Magpie, just as cheeky and make great pets. They tend to give cats and dogs hell.

Yep Magpie.

They are extremely smart birds. Damn gutsy too.
I would guess that magpie has 5x the brains that Eagle does.

Their intelligence is on par with higher primates. This is due to their abstraction, memory, and creativity. They were even proven to be able to count and remember up to 4.

There was a case of one landing on a horse's butt and saying giddyap.

Crows in Japan wait with the pedestrians at lights. When the lights turn green they walk out and put nuts under the car tires. They then return to the sidewalks. The light changes the cars drive off cracking the nuts. The light changes again they go out and eat.

There is a video of a crow, another Corvid member, fashioning a tool to hook a grub out of a tube.

British magpies are the same as American ones (unlike robins and starlings from what I remember).

They make a really harsh brassy sound, as I found out when my (ex) cats brought one into the kitchen, then cowered in fear as it recovered and claimed the cooker hood as its perch.

Awesome. I love birds.

I thought this was going to be that thing where the one bird rips the other one's neck off.

I was working from home one day in October and, as I was passing the front window, I noticed a deer in the driveway. He was standing with his head down, facing a magpie. The magpie was walking back and forth, with the deer watching him. It was almost as if they were having a conservation.

I went to get my camera and just as I got back the magpie flew away, but a second one came and took its place. After another few seconds of this strange negotiation, the magpie flew over and landed on the back of the deer.

The deer stood very still and the magpie started pecking him, as if looking for bugs. Over the next few minutes, the bird worked his way from the tail of the deer up to the head. Then the deer turned his head and the magpie stuck his beak into the deer's ear.

I discussed this with hunters and deer experts, and all said they had never heard of this kind of interaction.

Here are some pictures. They were taken through the window, so they're a little fuzzy.

That deer never moved around? Oh, I see one ear moved...must have been loving the attention. Very cool.

He finally moved when the magpie tried to land on top of his ear. He didn't like that. Here's the action shot.

[EDIT:] I just noticed, it looks like the deer has a spear through his head. That's just a shovel handle that I use to keep the gate from blowing closed.

Still, it's very odd that otherwise his head doesn't move. His tail doesn't move either.

edit: laughing my a$$ off at myself: I was thinking that thing on his back leg was the end of a tufty tail, like deer have long tails. What a maroon! :blush:

But I gotta call 'shop or fake deer or something because his lips/tongue don't move. Nothing moves but that one ear. Is he real? :rolleyes:

PS I didn't think that was a spear through his head. lol

Here's the only picture I took where his other ear moved. Now you can tell that he's real, and not just my neighbor dressed up in a deer costume.

(You can also see the living room and back yard reflected in the window.)

You know what? I seriously tried to google "fake deer with moving ears" to see where you got that thing. :blush:

He looks more real in that picture. :)

Weird looking magpie, then again I thought they were native to Australia so I may have only seen the one type.

It's hard to tell in those pictures, but the magpie actually has three colors, white, black and blue. The tail and back half of the wings are blue like a blue jay.

that bird has balls!

Your monitor must have very high resolution.

There's a fella who exercises a bald eagle over our valley from time to time. Massive creature it is. First time I saw it gliding about overhead and suddenly dropping out of sight, I had no idea what it was. Thought it was a much smaller bird, but closer to...then when I rounded the bend in the road and saw it come in from the west towards its handler, who was stood on the rocks at the side of the road where the valley drops away into hillside, I realised it was fucking huge.

One time I was stood further up the hillside on the other side of the road, watching the bird glide and swoop about in the valley below me, I saw this single magpie fly out from somewhere and seem to fly right at the eagle. It'd do these weird midair feints at it then dart away and come back again. Amazing to watch. I gather it had a nest nearby that it was seeking to protect. Was like watching a guy standing in front of a tank.

There's over a dozen different kinds of Magpies, around the world.

HLJ's bird must be part Oxpecker.

The ones here are native BeltNah.

Perhaps magpie is a generic name for a predominantly black and white bird world wide.

They're not all black and white.

it was just a theory.

Both the birds in the main IotD and HLJ's photos are European Magpies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magpie , well I have learnt something for the day.

When I was a kid, I used to see this type of magpie.:rolleyes:

One more of the same pair, and another pair that look like an Eagle and a crow/Raven.

Hung; Great pics man!

Corvids all regularily land on animals for bugs. I have no problem believing that deer pic. Deer also have a huge number of ticks on them that they can do nothing about and they are tormented by them. This one knew the drill.

That deer and magpie look delicious. (And yeah we have a lot of those magpies here in Vail, CO.




BLACK BIRD PIE
3 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup very warm water (almost hot)

Mix little biscuit dough. Knead 'til tough and dry - roll with rolling pin 'til very thin and cut into 2-inch strips.

Clean birds according to INFORMATION.

BIRDS:
25 birds well covered with water
3/4 lb. venison - optional

Cook until tender (at least 2 hours or 1 hour for chicken). Salt and pepper to taste. When birds are tender, keep broth at a rolling boil and drop in pastry - piece by piece, shaking pot constantly to keeep pastry pieces separated. When all is in pot, place cover on and let cook for approximately 10 minutes. Let set for about ten more minutes. Then eat.

If you are unfamiliar with making pastry from scratch, you can substitute canned biscuits (roll individually with rolling pin). Or buy frozen pastry from bakery. If you use canned biscuits, let set for one-half hour and roll or flatten again to thinness desired.

Or you can use flour tortillas cut in strips and chicken and have chicken & dumplings. :bolt:
BTW. I have a deer neck roast in pressure cooked now.

That's Tortilla Soup, brother. Throw some corn and beans in there. . . . Wait, wrong kind of tortillas.

If you can find slightly bigger birds, you can get away with using three and twenty of them.

VENISON STEAK

1 venison steak
Seasoned salt
Seasoned pepper
Monosodium glutamate
Juice of 1 1/2 lemons
1/2 c. butter

Sprinkle venison steak generously with seasoned salt, seasoned pepper and monosodium glutamate on both sides. Squeeze lemon juice on both sides.
Let stand for 1 hour. Broil steak in heavy skillet to desired degree of doneness. When steak is done, remove to a hot platter and keep warm. Serve with the following sauces:


HOT WINE SAUCE:

2 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. currant jelly
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp. salt
Cayenne pepper
1 c. red wine
1/2 c. water

Simmer butter, jelly, lemon juice, water, salt and pepper together with drippings in pan. Blend into a smooth gravy. Remove from fire, add wine and serve over steak.

GRITS GRAVY:

2 tbsp. flour
1 c. water
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. tomato catsup
Salt and pepper to taste

To drippings in pan add all ingredients. Simmer together until thickened. Serve over steak.

GRITS GRAVY: Hello. Where's the grits?

first ingredient, "Grits Gravy". :D

I have a chicken that regularly gets on my horses back and scratches around. Very funny!

Shawnee123, love your signature line, really explains how I feel currently, as I am just now recovering from wrist surgery.