The Evolution of Atlas: A Breeding (and Chat) Thread

[h2oratt]

I loved my gold laced Orpingtons but they didn’t last long. I am not sure what the problem was.

 

[speckledhen]

Being serenaded the last week by an eastern towhee. Had not heard one for a long time here. It's a very distinctive call, the first two notes you miss if he's far away, but it sounds like "Drink your TEEEEEAA!".
https://www.birdwatchersdigest.com/bwdsite/learn/identification/sparrows-allies/eastern-towhee.php

...and after searching and searching for a call I heard in the woods that I could not ID as a bird or some kind of frog, a sort of thrumming noise, I recently found it was a yellow-billed cuckoo. If you haven't heard that one, there are links at the bottom right of the article to its calls, which are the most unusual of all the birds around these woods.
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/yellow-billed-cuckoo

Haven't heard my night birds, the whipporwills and chuck-wills-widows, for quite awhile now. I miss those birds, who have similar calls. And it's been years since I heard quail. A covey used to frequent our woods, but no idea what happened to them.

 

[1muttsfan]

That cuckoo sounds just like an angry red squirrel. Makes me wonder if I've heard them before and thought that's what it was.

I don't miss having whippoorwills around at all, one summer we had one that kept calling all night in the tree right outside the house - whip-or-will - Whip Or Will - WHIP or WILL - WHIP OR WILL!!!!

 

[speckledhen]

All my life I'd read about whipporwills in books and never heard one. Then, a few years ago, I started hearing them in the woods here, plus the similar chuck-wills-widows' calls. I wake up and listen to them out the window. They make me smile every time. That's one thing I love about living here, the night sounds. Both are fairly ugly birds, very camouflaged for their surroundings.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Chuck-wills-widow/sounds

 

[getaclue]

I like to hear them too.

 

[speckledhen]

I like to hear them too.

I never get tired of seeing deer in the pasture, though I do wish they'd share my azaleas with me. And the birds...there are hundreds of species of birds here. I've seen more here on my property than I ever saw all my years before coming here. I love the mountains.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I never get tired of seeing deer in the pasture, though I do wish they'd share my azaleas with me. And the birds...there are hundreds of species of birds here. I've seen more here on my property than I ever saw all my years before coming here. I love the mountains.

We have lots of deer right outside our house. They hang out in the hay fields and eat all my apples, my apple trees, and hostas. Didn't used to, but a particular doe discovered the acorns and dish of whole corn one year and that was it. She raises all her kids in our yard so successive generations keep coming around now. The good thing is they bring the big boys around in the fall for my husband to hunt.

 

[speckledhen]

We have lots of deer right outside our house. They hang out in the hay fields and eat all my apples, my apple trees, and hostas. Didn't used to, but a particular doe discovered the acorns and dish of whole corn one year and that was it. She raises all her kids in our yard so successive generations keep coming around now. The good thing is they bring the big boys around in the fall for my husband to hunt.

I know what you mean. One doe will come toward me when I talk to her, like she's going to walk right up for some petting. I think she's been bringing her twins here yearly for the past several years. Seems like the same one. She's really big, like she has a few years on her.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Ours are big girls too. Unfortunately a pair of them went in our freezer last year. I was upset for a while, than someone destroyed my newest apple tree. We do enjoy seeing the little fawns running about.

 

[speckledhen]

Awful night. The weather alarm went off five times with severe storm and tornado warnings. Winds were probably 70 mph, rain, thunder and lightning, the cat was yowling because he was terrified. The temperature must have dropped into the 50's, it felt like.