Saturday, June 18, 2005
Hide and Seek Birdies
Ebbey: They visit my bird feeder, then play hide and seek.
Like sparrows and starlings, the nonnative Hungarian or gray partridge is now a common species in North America. During the winter, they often feed on bird seed which smaller birds drop on the ground from our bird feeder. We also throw wheat down for them.
Ebbey really gets excited when they visit. She sometimes makes convincing displays to go outside, but her real aim is to chase partridge. She regularly searches for these ground birds on walks, hoping to catch one as they take off in flight. Except for this one day. Three birds took off, but one bird remained on the ground and just stood there. Living in a garbage dump, Ebbey has learned not to judge by size. (Except for mice. All mice are up for grabs.) Garbage dump cats are extremely fierce and Ebbey will not chase a cat that stands it's ground. Seeing this small gray partridge standing it's ground, Ebbey thought twice. By then I had her collar and the bird scrambled away. I suspect it was a young bird who had just used up one of it's lives.
This one night we saw a partridge scalp itself on a powerline. Feathers flew as the bird skinned it's head and back. Not a good mistake during the cold of winter.
Like sparrows and starlings, the nonnative Hungarian or gray partridge is now a common species in North America. During the winter, they often feed on bird seed which smaller birds drop on the ground from our bird feeder. We also throw wheat down for them.
Ebbey really gets excited when they visit. She sometimes makes convincing displays to go outside, but her real aim is to chase partridge. She regularly searches for these ground birds on walks, hoping to catch one as they take off in flight. Except for this one day. Three birds took off, but one bird remained on the ground and just stood there. Living in a garbage dump, Ebbey has learned not to judge by size. (Except for mice. All mice are up for grabs.) Garbage dump cats are extremely fierce and Ebbey will not chase a cat that stands it's ground. Seeing this small gray partridge standing it's ground, Ebbey thought twice. By then I had her collar and the bird scrambled away. I suspect it was a young bird who had just used up one of it's lives.
This one night we saw a partridge scalp itself on a powerline. Feathers flew as the bird skinned it's head and back. Not a good mistake during the cold of winter.
# posted by Allex Michael @ 10:05 AM 
