Even-More-Gigantic Giant Orb Spider Discovered "Scientists have found the world’s largest species of golden orb-weaver spider in the tropics of Africa and Madagascar. The discovery marks the first identification of a new Nephila spider since 1879. Females of the new species, Nephila komaci, measure a whopping 4 to 5 inches in diameter, while the male spiders stay petite" "We fear the species might be endangered, as its only definite habitat is a sand forest in Tembe Elephant Park in KwaZulu-Natal," ecologist Jonathan Coddington of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History said in a press release. "Our data suggest that the species is not abundant, its range is restricted, and all known localities lie within two endangered biodiversity hotspots: Maputaland and Madagascar."
(1/15/22) Saturday The day didn't start out well. In the morning there were FIVE squirrels on the deck eating bird seed. I forgot to bring the suet block and the dried mealworm block inside the night before, and those were both completely gone. A possum would love those I imagine. I should ask Mr. L if it might have been coyotes. Many of these birds prefer the suet and mealworms, so I took off to Walmart before 9 am to get replacements. Big mistake. Unknown to me, there was to be a parade at noon, starting from Dooley Gardens at the track, to the stadium, in honor of the (National Champion) Dawgs. Traffic so heavy it took 30 minutes to drive home, 3 miles as a fast crow flies. Would have been much, much worse a half hour later. Turns out there were 92,000 in the stadium, plus those on the parade route who didn't go to the stadium. Should have been well over 100,000 people. More than on game days. And I didn't have a clue all this was going on. I need to subscribe to the local paper. 1/15/2022 The silver car below parked half way in front of the driveway for 2 hours. When the ceremony at the stadium ended, no one could enter our road to get away from the main flow out of the stadium because of this car. It took 2 hours for the traffic to clear out. Reminds me of the old days when you didn't dare leave the house before a game, because of people blocking your driveway when you got back. The good news is the downy woodpecker showed up for the new suet block, and the female bluebird showed up for the first time to eat the new mealworms. So it was worth it.
A male downy woodpecker showed up yesterday and today. That is one ugly bird, with very strange behavior. All these birds are a lot more interesting than hummingbirds. For one thing, they don't spend all day fighting and chasing each other. I think I'll give up on the hummers out at the farm this year. There were only 3 last year, as far as I could tell. It is sad you can't feed the smaller birds, just because of the squirrels and doves. And squirrels pi$$ on everything. I wouldn't want to eat anything they've even been around. I solved the squirrel problem with flashing wrapped around the bottom, when the feeder was mounted on the clothesline pole, but couldn't solve the dove problem. So I gave up. I'm not going to give up this time, because having the birds up on the deck where you can get a good look at them is so much fun. The deck will make this even more challenging. You can't keep squirrels from walking up the steps. As I mentioned before, this deck is overdue for a makeover, to bring it up to code. I don't care if it gets a little messy for a year or two. Fast forward to 1:50 I do have a plan. More on that later....
Horse head squirrel feeder Good exercise for those abdominals. Work off all those extra peanut calories.
What an exciting morning! . Just checked and both bluebirds were in the feeder. Then they took off and headed straight for the new bluebird house! Each bird in turn flew right to the opening and checked it out, but didn't go inside. I hope the opening is not too small. I made it to the specs (1.5"), which seemed awfully small to me. The hole in the clothesline pole last year was very large, maybe 4 inches"
These birds are messing up my sleeping routine pattern times. They are waiting at daylight. I have never seen a bird anything like this before. He is not rare at all. I've just never seen one. He is called red-bellied because, if you look carefully, there is a slight hint of red on his belly. According to several videos these birds can hold their own against the bluejays.
Woodpeckers can be annoying. A few years ago, we had one that was determined to drill a hole in our metal gutter downspout. He'd get out there bright and early, sounding like a machine gun on the side of the house. Little dumbass.
There was one that did that at an apartment I lived at years ago, pecking on the gutter. I never saw him. Just heard him. Why would they do that?
"Woody Woodpecker is a cartoon anthropomorphic woodpecker that has appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz Studio and distributed by Universal Studios between 1940 and 1972." "Woody was modeled after the pileated woodpecker! Who knew? Pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) are native to North America as well territories near the Great Lakes, Canada, and parts of the Pacific Coast."
Hard to watch, but the best sound I could find. They do this to establish their territory. And attract a mate. (That would sure do it for me. ) (FF to 1:00)
I don't know what's more irritating... the poor camera work or the pecking noise. I was trying to figure out where the downspout is on that short run of gutter near the end of the video. (1:58) Not sure if my eyesight is faulty or there is none. That is exactly the sound I remember from when we had "Woody" on our metal gutter. We finally had to run him off by spraying him with the water hose.
There is a door right below, and probably a small deck. It looks like they are just diverting the rain water to the sides so it doesn't hit you in the head when you walk out the door. My father put up a short piece like that over the front door at a duplex I rented once.
(1/21/22) Friday The squirrels and I are experiencing a failure to communicate. They don't even run when I chase them now. Just mosey off. I got out the slingshot, but have no ammunition. Yet. Leaning toward building a bird feeder something like this one, for sale on Etsy for $55 (plus $25 shipping). It's only 14" long and doesn't have a roof. The wire grids are 1-1/2" squares. There is an experiment on YouTube to determine the maximum width of a rectangle so the squirrels can NOT pass through. Length was ignored, about 3". LINK 1-3/8" for the shoulders 1-1/4" for the head I already had a roll of 2"x3" wire fencing. There is no use building a feeder unless the grid has optimum spacing. So I started my own experiment. Maybe our squirrels are stupid. Contraption to haul goats. Two back doors never worked well with only one person trying to handle a goat at the same time. Easy to dismantle. Corners already square. Removed the inside of one door, temporarily attached fence wire, and covered the bird feeder inside a box. 1. Would the birds go inside? 2. Are there any night critters that might be a problem? Bluebirds and smaller went through just fine. No critters overnight. Nothing more until 8:30 this morning Round 1: Human: 0; Squirrel: 1 (This was not unexpected) Continued later...
continued... (1/22/22) Saturday A deer can jump a 7' fence. Many claim that two shorter fences run parallel to each other, spaced a few feet apart, is better than one high fence at deterring deer. One reason is, they can't see the 2nd fence, and it confuses them. I bring this up because next I tried two layers of fence wire, one fastened on each side of the 2x4 frame. Grids offset half way, both up and down. A straight path through both wires is only 1"x 1.5". The widest path through both would be on a diagonal, both sideways and up. I can't for the life of me figure out how to calculate what the clearance would be that way. Maybe 1.5 x1.67 inches? Anyway, a squirrel should be able to get through. Hopefully going at a diagonal will confuse them. Just grasping at straws, otherwise I'm going to have to exclude a lot of the bigger birds when it comes to the usual bird seed. More squirrels will keep coming. Didn't get this finished until late yesterday afternoon. Only chickadees went inside so far. They are the smallest birds. Pretty soon a squirrel showed up: Round 2: Human: 1; Squirrel: 0 I'm not fooling myself. This squirrel didn't try very hard. He probably just needs more time to think. What you hope for is they give up trying before they figure it out. Not holding my breath. It's cold outside (25 degrees). Nothing is showing up yet. I shouldn't mention all this. If it doesn't work I could pretend I didn't ever try it.