Author: TWB

Ballistic Bird

Flying with your Wings Folded

 

 

I was taking a photograph of sparrows and goldfinches at my feeder during a rare lower Alabama snowstorm a few years ago. By sheer happenstance a female cardinal flew through the frame and demonstrated that birds are not always flapping while flying. She is out of focus but it is clearly obvious that her wings are fully folded in. It is probably an energy-saving technique. I have seen small birds fly through chain link fences without stopping. I would guess they use the same ballistic technique.

Cardinal Hour

 

Cardinals are some of the favorite visitors to our feeders. Their family interactions are entertaining and they seem to form long-lasting pairs. The male will shell out sunflower seeds and offer them to his mate. On occasion I have seen a female offer a seed to a male. Once the young cardinals have fledged, they will follow “Dad” around and beg for food, fluttering their wings, calling and opening their beaks wide. The bird at the top of our site is a young cardinal, colored similar to the female but with a dark beak.

We have noticed that cardinals are the last birds we see out feeding in the evening. We call it Cardinal Hour though it is closer to 15 minutes or so. All the other birds have disappeared for the day but the redbirds are still busily cracking sunflower seeds. It leaves us wondering why this is so. Do they see better in the dimmer light or perhaps feel as if their daytime adversaries are less likely to be present. They are also usually the first birds seen in the early morning.

The male cardinal photographed in bright sunlight looks as if he thinks it is no one’s business why he stays out late.

Excel Glitch

This is another computer issue post. I know that there have not been any posts recently, and I apologize that a computer issue does not lend itself to pretty pictures.

After finally shifting to Office 365 (not a fan of the subscription model), we found that Excel was running horribly. Any attempt to scroll stuttered horribly, and forcing it by dragging the scroll bars caused it to load in after the move. It did not seem to be the computer itself since it had no difficulties with other (non-gaming) programs. A search on the internet yielded many complaints, and finally a suggested solution, which worked for me.

Apparently the hardware graphics acceleration feature of Excel does not always work well with all combinations of hardware and resolutions. To turn this feature off, go to the file tab and then select options at the bottom. Select the advanced options and in the display section there is a check box labeled “Disable Hardware Graphics Acceleration”.

I can’t guarantee that it will work, but Excel now performs in line with other software. Now don’t get me started on DPI scaling behavior.

Annoying Ads

While I prefer advertising to having to pay half a cent (or whatever it would cost) a page to view sites on the internet, there are some behaviors that annoy me. Some sites use cookies in an attempt to harvest data and predict what kinds of products I wish to hear about. They have their own problems, but at least they are focused on the actual computer. Other sites appear to track IP addresses, leading to a very annoying problem.

When cookies are local to the computer in question it is possible to disrupt them somewhat by removing the unwanted cookies and using browser modes which at least attempt to limit them. While they can be more detailed, the important thing is they only affect one device (unless something like a social media app with a login gets involved). This means that unless the computer is shared, the tailored ads only appear on that one computer.

Now we come to the problem with what I assume to be IP address tracking: gift buying. I search for the gift in question. Then suddenly every computer/tablet/phone in the house suddenly starts showing ads for that product. There goes any chance of a surprise gift. Very annoying.

The Bees Will Not Be Happy

It was their favorite tree, but it had to go

This flowering cherry has been in our front yard every since we moved here. Each spring it would bloom profusely much to the delight of the local bees. With the tree and its blooms on their mind, they were fairly oblivious to anything else. Unfortunately, the tree itself was near the end of its lifespan. The first few years were great, but lately, it has not been putting on as much of a show. There are several other old cherries in the neighborhood and they have also been declining as of late.

The other problem with the tree is some damage to the trunk. Every year it seems to tip over just a little bit more. It is getting very difficult to mow under (a self propelled walk behind seems to be the only efficient way).

Last summer it lost it leaves very early, long before fall so we knew that its days were numbered. Early this spring, we had it cut down but plan to find a new flowering tree of some variety to take its place (and make the bees happy again).

Raking Leaves

If only we could train them to do the whole yard.

Every fall the leaves fall from the trees and cover our yard like many other people’s. We tend to collect some of the leaves to use as mulch in the backyard garden. The rest are usually allowed to remain where they are once mowing season ends. We are just not motivated enough to do anything with them. However, this feeling is not universal. A well cleared spot always develops in the middle of the front yard. The birds do not like leaves under their birdfeeder. For them, the leaves get in the way of more important activities.

Hummingbirds: Remembrance of Summer

Winter brings us birds that do not nest in our area. Some are just passing through; others are regular winter visitors that come for our bird feeders. We do miss our summer residents, especially the hummingbirds. This year our first hummer arrived on March 20th, later than usual. We enjoyed their antics (and wars) all summer. In October we start keeping careful notes to track our last sighting for the year which is usually sometime before the 14th. It is our practice to leave the feeders up until the end of the month which turned out to be a good thing this year. After a gap of several days we had a sudden flurry of visitors, 2 or 3 at a time with our last sighting on October 28th. Bad weather somewhere must have delayed this last group but we were glad to see them for whatever reason.


This hummingbird was a summer resident in a surprisingly peaceful mood.

 

Bird Feeder Problems

Not who we were intending to feed

Occasionally we run into an issue with our birdfeeders. This time the birdbaths were probably just as much to blame. Then again, the hawk knows that there will probably be something he/she? considers to be food here.We are not 100% positive, but we believe that this Coopers Hawk caught a young Northern Mockingbird in our front yard. While frequently seen attempting to scare insects out of cover in our slightly long grass, they also seem to have a fascination for Pennington seed blocks. Mockingbirds are also one the top three splashers (emptying the birdbath by splashing the water out while bathing) in our birdbaths. This happens sometimes and while it is a natural event, it is not necessarily one we like to see.

Starting a New Garden

Lettuce when we want it

We have recently started a lettuce garden in a new AeroGarden. We have had an older model for quite some time. We are looking forward to having a couple of salads a week off the garden once it has had a chance to grow. Lettuce can always be grown outside, but there can be temperature problems. Here that typically means too hot in the summer, but occasionally winter steps in as well,In the above picture are pepper leaves in the foreground and a rarer that I would like snow visible out the window in the background. Originally this AeroGarden was focused on growing lettuce but then I discovered the usefulness of Jalapeno peppers.

Our last attempt to grow peppers hit a snag when they didn’t sprout properly. They came up, but they grew much slower than they should (one of them only came up about 6 inches). Their leaves also looked a bit funny. We are hoping the problem is that the garden was not cleaned out well enough after the previous set of peppers, so we are going to try again soon with another batch, and fresh fertilizer just in case.