Critter Picture Thread

[WalterB]

Work, especially your line of work, can certainly bring on stress. (Like folks from Texas bitching at you because they have to go buy a VPN, lol)

I feed my birds here in the winter. They swarm the feeder, usually wrens. I had to buy a second feeder because of the pigeons. They would sit on the feeder and keep the smaller birds away. So I bought another with a smaller perch. Now the pigeons get one and the wrens get the other. And about a million others just land on the ground and eat what the others kick out of the feeder, lol.

[lance_s]

......

Dave was putting bird seed out for the birds,.......

Putting out bird seed in winter in Quebec cottage country;


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And the birds do come:

Do you run LInux? I just thought to run "file" on both a file that my browsers can handle and the duck videos which they can't. It says Vicky's videos are MP4 V2, whereas the video that my browsers can handle is MP4 V1.

And nice bird pics! I'm guessing that level of snow is normal for you each year?

That level of snow USED to be normal. The last couple of years its been a lot less.

This year was particularly irksome. I paid $ 500 for snow removal from my drive for the season. They company had to send tractors out about 5 times all winter - $ 100 per removal! The companies must be laughing all the way to the bank. But I really feel sorry for the poor drivers; they only get paid when they work. Their incomes must have really taken a hit.

[ErikB]

......

Dave was putting bird seed out for the birds,.......

Putting out bird seed in winter in Quebec cottage country;


899.jpg


And the birds do come:

Do you run LInux? I just thought to run "file" on both a file that my browsers can handle and the duck videos which they can't. It says Vicky's videos are MP4 V2, whereas the video that my browsers can handle is MP4 V1.

And nice bird pics! I'm guessing that level of snow is normal for you each year?

That level of snow USED to be normal. The last couple of years its been a lot less.

This year was particularly irksome. I paid $ 500 for snow removal from my drive for the season. They company had to send tractors out about 5 times all winter - $ 100 per removal! The companies must be laughing all the way to the bank. But I really feel sorry for the poor drivers; they only get paid when they work. Their incomes must have really taken a hit.

Yeah, the snow plow guy I had for 20 years just left the business. There is a lawyer around here who is helping grifters sue the plow company if someone slips on a sidewalk. This has raised insurance in the area, and the smaller plow companies aren't getting enough business the last few years to be able to afford the increase. So, now I have a new guy. The folks who share my driveway had a quote from him, but hadn't followed up because they wanted to see what I was doing. The major names that came to mind weren't taking any new customers by the time I found out. The problem was made worse by the fact that my old guy only texted me the news instead of using email or actually using the phone as a phone. I don't text, so I only found out when talking to the neighbors. It turns out I had the text sitting in my phone for a couple of months. My eye doctor's staff does the same thing. They are all addicted to their smart phones, so no matter how many times I tell them that they need to use the phone as a phone, they keep just texting.

[WalterB]

People sue because someone plowed the sidewalk and then someone slipped on the ICE? Are they successful? My God! When are we going to STOP rewarding idiots? You know what's wrong with that? The sidewalk belongs to the city (even though it's on your property.) The city can attack you if you don't clear your walk. (Well, it was that way in Denver.)

So, the city gets you if you don't clear your walk, and some idiot sues you if you DO clear it. They didn't wear the proper footwear and slipped and fell. So the court gives them a ton of money from YOU? (for medical care or for being stupid?) No, slipping on the ice is not stupid. We've all done that, Well, except for Vicky "I live in Florida" Vette, lol. (Haha, sorry, girl.) But it does not mean that someone can sue you for obeying the law. My opinion? This type of lawsuit should be thrown out on the face of it.

Got news for you, folks. Ice is SLICK! If you walk on ice and slip and fall, how does someone owe you $50,000?

(Sorry for the rant.) I remember stories like this from my 17 years in Denver. I also love the folks who go out there in a pouring snowstorm and start shoveling. Me? I just wait for it to stop snowing, so I only have to do it once, lol. I also used "Safe" Salt (Don't think it's really salt. It' something more environmentally safe.) So that, of course, melts the ice and gives you a solid surface to walk on. Then, after all that, I never saw someone come along and walk on my nice, clean sidewalk

[lance_s]

......

Dave was putting bird seed out for the birds,.......

Putting out bird seed in winter in Quebec cottage country;


899.jpg


And the birds do come:

Do you run LInux? I just thought to run "file" on both a file that my browsers can handle and the duck videos which they can't. It says Vicky's videos are MP4 V2, whereas the video that my browsers can handle is MP4 V1.

And nice bird pics! I'm guessing that level of snow is normal for you each year?

That level of snow USED to be normal. The last couple of years its been a lot less.

This year was particularly irksome. I paid $ 500 for snow removal from my drive for the season. They company had to send tractors out about 5 times all winter - $ 100 per removal! The companies must be laughing all the way to the bank. But I really feel sorry for the poor drivers; they only get paid when they work. Their incomes must have really taken a hit.

I suspect some of the smaller companies here will end up out of business. It will be either large companies, or small family run and operated businesses who only take on a few clients.

[greggl]

some of the lawsuits people win are ridiculous. I remember reading about a guy who was stealing the hubcaps off a car. He was squatting down by the rear passenger side where he couldnt be seen by the owner who got in his car and backed up. The thief was trying to get the hubcap off while the car was turning and got his hand run over. He sued the driver and won. I read another case where a guy sued his neighbor because the neighbors dog bit him. Came out in trial the the dog was leashed in the owners fenced in yard when the guy hopped the fence and went up to the dog and started shooting it repeatedly with a bb gun. The dog was finally in so much pain that he bit the guy. The asshole still won. When I lived in Fl 25 years ago I read about a guy who was trying to break into a school. He climbed up on the school roof at night in pitch blackness, tripped and fell thru a skylight. He wound up partially paralyzed. He sued the school for not having lights on the roof so he could see and keep him from falling thru the skylight while breaking in and won. the school board has to support him the rest of his life.

[lance_s]

some of the lawsuits people win are ridiculous. I remember reading about a guy who was stealing the hubcaps off a car. He was squatting down by the rear passenger side where he couldnt be seen by the owner who got in his car and backed up. The thief was trying to get the hubcap off while the car was turning and got his hand run over. He sued the driver and won. I read another case where a guy sued his neighbor because the neighbors dog bit him. Came out in trial the the dog was leashed in the owners fenced in yard when the guy hopped the fence and went up to the dog and started shooting it repeatedly with a bb gun. The dog was finally in so much pain that he bit the guy. The asshole still won. When I lived in Fl 25 years ago I read about a guy who was trying to break into a school. He climbed up on the school roof at night in pitch blackness, tripped and fell thru a skylight. He wound up partially paralyzed. He sued the school for not having lights on the roof so he could see and keep him from falling thru the skylight while breaking in and won. the school board has to support him the rest of his life.

I remember reading about all these cases one time or another. To add to the list:

Someone used an inflammable solvent from a can clearly marked "Use in well ventilated spaces and away from sparks" in a closed room and turned on an electric fan to get rid of the smell. After the inevitable explosion, he won a lawsuit against the manufacturer .

A woman tripped over children running around in a furniture store and broke her leg while she was out shopping for new furniture. She won a lawsuit against the store even though the children running amok were her kids.

A woman slipped on the icy pavement (sidewalk) outside her out her house and sued the homeowner (her husband, whom she lived with) for not clearing the pavement properly. She won. Or in this case, they won?

[stickyvicky]

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I truly love all creatures including squirrels, but boy this guy really made himself at home LOL

I don't mind feeding you, but why do you have to destroy the bird feeder?

I went to refill it this morning, and it was pouring out the bottom as fast as I was pouring it in the top!

Maybe I need some duct tape to fix it haha get it duck tape!

[ErikB]

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I truly love all creatures including squirrels, but boy this guy really made himself at home LOL

I don't mind feeding you, but why do you have to destroy the bird feeder?
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I went to refill it this morning, and it was pouring out the bottom as fast as I was pouring it in the top!

Maybe I need some duct tape to fix it haha get it duck tape!

Wow! That's some determination! I have hanging platform feeders. Just the other day I finished filling them, and a squirrel climbed up onto one. I must have surprised him by not having gone back in the house yet. He jumped off the platform to grab a tree branch, and dumped the entire contents onto the ground. They hang by chains from an overhead stand. I grabbed a shovel and tried to scoop as much of the seed back into the platform. The next day the platform was empty except for a single rock I had not seen in all the dirt and seed.

Speaking of duck tape, have you seen your ducks and ducklings recently?

[stickyvicky]

Here's a video of them from the day they wereborn! On april 14!

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Count em! 10 baby ducks! As of right now I believe we are down to four of them. The coyotes keep getting them. My neighbors see the coyote on their ring doorbell eating the baby ducks. It's quite distressing but that's nature.

[greggl]

Our bird feeders are on poles attached to the deck railings and the squirrels were constantly getting to them and damaging them so we made a squirrel feeder. We screwed a metal colander to the deck railing and put peanuts and bird seed in that and now the squirrels just sit in that to eat and leave the bird feeders alone. And since we used a colander when it rains the water just drains out the holes so we dont have to empty it and the seed dries out right away so its not wasted.

[stickyvicky]

Omg! Brilliant! I love it! Stealing that idea from you!

[ErikB]

Here's a video of them from the day they wereborn! On april 14!

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Count em! 10 baby ducks! As of right now I believe we are down to four of them. The coyotes keep getting them. My neighbors see the coyote on their ring doorbell eating the baby ducks. It's quite distressing but that's nature.

Nice videos! They actually show up in my browser as audio-only, so I didn't realize they were videos until you said "Here's a video...". If I save the files locally and use a different player (VLC), I can see the video as well as the audio. I didn't realize the squirrel video was so cute! And the ducks, too!

[stickyvicky]

Here is a video from May 6th, basically a week ago so they were 3 weeks old in this picture. At this point there are still six of them.

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[ErikB]

Here is a video from May 6th, basically a week ago so they were 3 weeks old in this picture. At this point there are still six of them.

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Very nice video. Thanks! I like how there's one guard duck staying on watch, another standing close to the chicks, and they let the chicks eat first. When the chicks have finished, the closer guard gets to eat, then finally the watch duck gets to eat.

[stickyvicky]

As of now they are about a month old, and yesterday and today I see all the chicks cruising around without any parents, but there's only four of them now.