Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Nudging Nature
Nudging Nature
Lots of changes for the flora and fauna in and around this little Mexican village. The failing 800 acre marina/golf project destroyed precious habitat
for birds and fish and animals. Then the killing seven years of drought in the southern Baja state. Then too much rain all at once changing things
again.
All of these things brought to our little house/yard more and more exotic birds of the tropics; to our feeders, our fountain and our trees where they
sometimes nest. Our big Royal Poinciana trees have held the nests of colorful orioles, chatty house wrens. Now we are seeing male and female
cardinals, phainopepla and pyrrhuloxia. The birds show little fear of our two old dogs and since we have no cats they grow bolder every day.
One bright cardinal male brings his fledglings to the feeder and continues to feed them long after they are gone from the nest, able to fly and fend
for themselves. Now one brave male has decided to call our place home --- he is busy staking out our oceanside yard, looking for the best place for a
nest. He believes he is beset by competition.
Somehow he has seen his reflection in the windows of our cars in the center of the lot and he thinks he is besieged on all sides by big healthy birds
like him --- they challenge him in every window and mirror. I watched him for an hour fly into my old beach buggy Isuzu looking for rivals. His
frustration is touching so I opened the back door (a swing door) to give him easier access. It did little good because this morning he is fighting off
all the images in every mirror and window of both cars.
At times the bird is in a frenzy and I’m afraid he might go ‘round the bird bend, so to speak – we don’t have any strict building codes here in Old
Mexico but if he should build a nest of nothing but laundry lint, very old TV guides, clarinet reeds and scotch tape I will be gravelly disappointed.
I want to be a good shepherd, give him reason to stay, to nest but it’s a pain to cover all the mirrors and windows, have to uncover them each time we
drive away to the store or the beach. I don’t need another project right now but I’m intellectually and emotionally equipped to handle things like
this. I once made a scarecrow for our garden in the likes of Lynda’s mother. Worked like a charm because the crows brought back corn they stole two
years earlier.
I’ll get back to you after I devise and implement a plan for my newest, reddest, most harried potential tenant.
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Whale-ista
Super Nomad
Posts: 2009
Registered: 2-18-2013
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Sunny with chance of whales
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Ha! Thank you for a funny story. I saw many of these birds while visiting la Ribera last month. The males are very territorial and aggressive.
Could you throw and old tarp/blanket/sheet over the car to give the poor bird some rest?
I hope he sets up nestkeeping near you. They are beautiful.
Good luck!
\"Probably the airplanes will bring week-enders from Los Angeles before long, and the beautiful poor bedraggled old town will bloom with a
Floridian ugliness.\" (John Steinbeck, 1940, discussing the future of La Paz, BCS, Mexico)
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shari
Select Nomad
Posts: 13047
Registered: 3-10-2006
Location: bahia asuncion, baja sur
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Mood: there is no reality except the one contained within us "Herman Hesse"
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I too feel besieged when I look in a mirror!
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DanO
Super Nomad
Posts: 1923
Registered: 8-26-2003
Location: Not far from the Pacific
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
Worked like a charm because the crows brought back corn they stole two years earlier. |
Bada-bing!
\"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.\" -- Frank Zappa
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Martyman
Super Nomad
Posts: 1904
Registered: 9-10-2004
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I think some birds are just whack. Hopefully another one will come in and be less aggressive.
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Shari, we've never met but in pix I've seen of you I think that when you look in the mirror you can't miss the woman who has fought and won -- I see
nature's child who knows the secret to the human condition. One who learned long ago that battles are won now not with swords or words but with
smiles. (and an occasional cold Pacifico - especially when they are brandished against the thing in the mirror).
[Edited on 7-16-2014 by Osprey]
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