Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[rural mouse]

How big was it?

About the size of a robin, maybe a little bigger. Not as big as a crow.

 

[rural mouse]

I baked them as you suggested and they are delicious! Even our little one loves them! Thanks again for the tip

I have to fight the kids for them.

 

[featherhead007]

I'd have wrecked the car if it was. I was driving home. Sadly we get neither types of coconut carryings swallows here.

Blame Monty Python for that joke. (I just can’t let it go)

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Seems like there is conflicting data: visual and auditory. Very small study, but:
(Robins) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000334729690411X

(Magpies) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0003347281801121

I can't find the referenced study regarding visual, but this is a very detailed article on bird vision:
https://www.researchgate.net/profil.../5a1c4c250f7e9bd1be5c5cc6/Vision-in-Birds.pdf

Interesting. So I got that the Magpies are mostly using hearing to find the larvae of scarab beetles wriggling under the soil. Robins also used hearing to find the mealworms in the study, in conflict with another study that concluded it was visual. I didn't see all of the vision pdf article. Thank you!

I haven't found anything about earthworms or their slime being more visible in UV light. I bet this idea is not going to pan out.

I will add this, I did find that mouse urine is visible in ultraviolet light, and that at least some hawks make use of that. So chickens can see it too. Was it @RoyalChick with the mouse invasion earlier? Apparently then the chickens should be able to tell where all the trails are and so how they were getting in. We just have to get them to tell us!
"Did you know that some species of raptor can see ultraviolet light? This is helpful because small mammals such as voles and mice mark their tracks with urine, and urine is a substance that reflects ultraviolet light. Because of this, some raptors are able to see the ultraviolet urine trail of their prey, helping them to find a food source. Studies have shown that American Kestrels and Rough-legged Hawks are very adept at this, but it is unknown if every raptor species sees this "prey trail," and it might be inaccurate to assume so since all birds are adapted to hunt and find food differently. So, when birders talk about the amazing eyesight of a raptor, now you can add this element of their vision to the conversation." https://hawkwatch.org/blog/item/1103-raptor-fun-facts-ultraviolet-sensors

Some slug slime, the defense kind they emit when threatened, is visible in UV light:
"Slime protects snails from drying out and it has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. A thick slime is exuded when snails feel threatened, which makes them distasteful to things that want to eat them. The defense slime of some species is visible under ultraviolet light, perhaps as a warning to predators that see in the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum. (Slime can also attract predators; some carnivorous snails, such as the gray-footed lancetooth, Haplotrema concavum, hunt other snails by following slime trails.)" https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/snails-slime-is-sublime

 

[featherhead007]

About the size of a robin, maybe a little bigger. Not as big as a crow.

Then obviously, no coconut!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

Early by one day Monday Mugs...guest starring combs!

Repeat of Whip (love this pic)
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Pingu (she doesn't like being close, so hard to capture a good shot)
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Piscia...she has been difficult in posing lately.
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NaeNae...in good health and happy without add'l vet visits!
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Dr. Tacky's comb cracks me up
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Mean girl Alelle
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Ms. Meatbird playing shy, but her comb looks good
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You get such great close-up pictures!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

snow depth is probably a big key too. it mostly melts/gets blown into a few banks leaving clear ground. occasionally we get some deep stuff (2 feet is shocking). you tend to get snow piling up, right?

Well that would be it then, we get a good base built up by end of March, 2-4 feet or more usually. There are a few places it is thin from the wind but because we get a wet snow usually even there is pretty hard and impenetrable with ice.

 

[micstrachan]

The worst of the beak problems.
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Begining to look like chickens.
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Both Volt and Amp will tolerate me now.
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Fantastic all the way around.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

About the size of a robin, maybe a little bigger. Not as big as a crow.

And you were driving, so it was a very visible neck ring. Meadowlark? A stripe on the front breast/collar. It's about that size. I don't know what their flight is like though. Flicker is another one, yellow under the wings (Yellow-shafted) but they fly nothing like swallows.

 

[BY Bob]

OK then altitude has nothing to do with why they don't hang here in the thick of winter. Maybe your more active farms help.

I would imagine the farmland does provide a lot of available feed for their prey. So an abundance of hawk food is likely here.