Bird Houses anyone?

944_Jim wrote:That's too cool! Does it look like your house?

No Jim, neither of the birdhouses bear any resemblance to our actual houses. I would have thought that the birdhouses would have been more expensive.. but my daughter's cost $30 and mine cost $40. The man who built them is retired. He built approx. 70 birdhouses last year. These were the "last two" that he had for sale.

944_Jim wrote:My mom is on pumped well water (So GA). Taking a trig class, the teacher indicated we could exempt the test if we came up with a creative way to use trig...the only catch was we had to show the formulae.
I made a scale model of my mom's house to cover/heat the pump in the winter. Of course, I included the numbers for the angles in the valleys in the hip roofs, and the peak to walls, underside of the soffets, and pictures of the house...along with the pencil drawings of the house. Even the paint matched!

Very interesting Jim! I was challenged by mathematics when I got into high school. It confused me.. and I never sought the extra help that I needed. I envy you and others who were able to grasp trig, calculus.. etc. Ironic that this hobby I love so much, is highly based on math..

Any chance that you still have those photos/pencil-drawings? I'd love to see them.

Wrap a layer of metal flashing under that bucket where the squirrel is climbing. If they cannot hang on, they cannot chew the bucket away.

Fierce squirrels there.

Phil

Ah yes.. the squirrels. It's amazing to see how astute they are at problem-solving when it comes to getting food.

So far; my Roddie-re-engineered baffle has stopped them from getting any further up the pole to the Roddie-engineered deluxe bird feeding station.

I bought the steel "cone-type" pole-baffle on clearance at "Ocean State Job Lot". It was missing its' mounting-hardware.



I ended up drilling-through my feeder-pole (1.5" EMT conduit) to install a "tension-spring" which would serve as a pivot for under the cone.



The squirrels have not been able to defeat it. I now only need to top-off/refill the feeders every four or five days. Before I re-engineered the baffle-mount, the squirrels would gain-access to the cedar/trough-style feeder and empty it daily.. (probably within an hour) This was frustrating; as I was custom-blending expensive seed-mixes that contained nuts, berries sunflower and safflower "hearts". The squirrels would also knock the suet-baskets off the pole.. and try to drag them away.. if they didn't open from hitting the ground.  

Birdhouses! Yea! Those were (still are) on my bucket list of hobbies to take up upon retirement. I have a stash of “ How To” books of Birdhouses and whirly-gigs. I inherited my FIL’s wood planer, joiner and dust collector. Just have not taken the time to set them all up properly. One of the retired old guys in my neighborhood of my youth, use to make batches of little birdhouses and sell them on a farmers stand out by the road. He got quite creative with the decoration on the window trim and porches. He was sold out quite often, with a “ put the money in the coffee can” trusting people to pay for what they took.  
Another thing I’ve been wanting to do is make a actual scale Airport style “Windsock”
....yup! As soon as i get a roundtoit!  

I thought it fit to post here in this thread; the sighting of a rather large bird that was sitting on our deck railing.. out back last Sunday morning. I spotted it while brewing my wake-up cup of coffee. A BIG bird.. that I first thought might be an owl.. but its' head was smaller than most owls.. but I knew that it had to be in the hawk family.




He stayed long enough for me to get those two photos.. then I watched him leap off the railing while spreading his wings.. as he flew low and slow across our back yard.. and through a hollowed-out path that leads to the back-woods.

Speaking of unusual avian visitors, we've had four of these little fellas in our garden the past couple of weeks.
My photography skills suck, so this is one I  (someone else) prepared earlier.  

In contrast to Roddie's visitor, these guys are absolutely tiny.  Probably only 2.5 inches from beak to tail.  (Barely a mouthfull for Roddies friend).  Called a Pardalote, or Peep Wren.

I can't believe how tame they are.  We can get to within a couple of feet from them and they don't seem at all troubled by it.  Because it's Spring here it's their breeding season, so the males are currently giving their rivals a hard time. Actually, they're busy attacking every mirror and window around the place.  As soon as a new vehicle comes in the drive they're straight to the side mirrors.
This morning I was sitting in a car when one came and sat on the wiper, looking through the windscreen at me.  It hopped backwards and forwards from wiper to wiper.  The key was in the ignition so the warning was beeping.  As soon as I took the key out and the beeping stopped, it flew away.  

My only fear is that if they're this tame, they'll be easy prey for local cats, but let's not get into that discussion again.

[quote="Marleysky"
....yup! As soon as i get a roundtoit!  [/quote]

Can't help you with a round tuit but for that job you started but didn't finish and need to get back tuit I think I can help there.




Can't remember if I've posted the following story before so I apologize if I'm repeating it.

I was a member of a clay target club for many years. At the end of the days shooting the spent shogun shell cases were picked and and stored in plastic 44 gallon drums in an open shelter shed at the back of the shooting lanes.Several years back there began a period of several months where when we went to the range, spent shells that had been collected were now spread out over the ground, sometimes numbering up to a hundred or more.  Eventually over the months this went from amusing to mild annoyance to extremely frustrating. So I staked out the range from the club rooms until dark thinking that perhaps local kids were the culprits but nothing so I decided to stay the night thinking it must happen in the mornings, perhaps on their way to school.
As dawn broke, armed with my camera and telephoto lens I awaited their arrival while peeking through the gap in the slightly open side door.
One minute there were no shell cases then when I looked again I saw a couple glinting in the rising sunlight. What the... I'd already checked before dawn that the range was clear of spent shells so where did these come from. So I watched constantly now and suddenly there, caught in the act was the culprit. As soon as I showed myself the guilty party was off and away but I had the photos. During the day I received a few phone calls from some club members who new what I was up to and inquiring as to whether I'd caught anybody.
Here was my report to the Club Committee.

News Flash

A wanted suspect was shot dead while attempting flight from his hideout earlier this week.
Known as Shellby, he was wanted in connection with various ongoing acts of vandalism and nuisance at the Palmerston North Gun Club grounds. At times up to several hundred shell cases were scattered around where Shellby’s hideout was situated.

A club official stated that while searching the grounds Shellby suddenly burst from cover with a shotgun cartridge in his beak and unsure as to whether it was a live round he had no option but to fire killing Shellby instantly.
To prevent possible martyrdom, Shellby’s remains have been disposed of in an undisclosed location.





A spokesperson for Forest and Bird said that Shellby had come from a broken nest, been abused by a skylark as a fledgling and this was just another case of entrapment by shooters attempting to feather their own nest.

The truth is Shelby wasn't harmed at all, I just put covers over the drum tops

Roddie that looks like a red tailed Hawk as best i can tell , we have them here alot . There cool to watch fight off there enemies from taking their young Nice little story Daven

roddie wrote:I thought it fit to post here in this thread; the sighting of a rather large bird that was sitting on our deck railing.. out back last Sunday morning. I spotted it while brewing my wake-up cup of coffee. A BIG bird.. that I first thought might be an owl.. but its' head was smaller than most owls.. but I knew that it had to be in the hawk family.




He stayed long enough for me to get those two photos.. then I watched him leap off the railing while spreading his wings.. as he flew low and slow across our back yard.. and through a hollowed-out path that leads to the back-woods.  

Yep, a Harrier alright also known as a Marsh Hawk. A family of 5 Harriers have reduced the tree rat population in our yard down to a single bird seed poacher who travels about two blocks to destroy my feeders.
The Harriers stand watch in an 100ft tall oak tree in our neighbors yard across the street until a squirrel ventures out in the clear and then dives a very high rate of speed.
The bird's approach to the tree rat is about two feet off the ground and in a blink Problem solved !!!
One day in the Spring I saw what looked like large snowflakes ( Georgia 95F ) falling from our oak tree. It was large chunks grey fur...Harrier 1 Tree Rats 0 ….
Love the empty bucket idea .. Great ingenuity !!

We tried greasing the pole for the squirrels on the bird feeder.  Only slight success.  A bird in the hand.  The boss is pretty quick and likes the birds. Cardinals are really hard to get close to. They bite pretty hard too.