Author |
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Tuesday, May 02, 2006 - 5:41 pm
Yay Lexie. Whew Gal.
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Lexie_girl
Member
07-30-2004
| Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 4:47 am
Since we discovered this nest last week, I've been wondering "Where is the daddy?" After all, I did see March of the Penguins. Anyway... I just looked out my window and there is a BIG male cardinal perched on the side of the nest!!! I'm so psyched!!!!
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Lexie_girl
Member
07-30-2004
| Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 9:26 am
A heartwarming duck story: About a week or so ago, while working on fixing the breach at the 17th Street Canal the Army Corps of Engineers found a nest with the mommy duck with her eggs. The Corps is now working around the mommy duck and the eggs while they fix the breach before hurricane season starts. The mommy duck and her babies will be relocated to the Bayou St. John/City Park area when they are ready.
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Wednesday, May 03, 2006 - 10:33 am
Yea for all the good news, Lexie! Yesterday I saw the male oriole for the first time this year and a pair of mallards showed up at my dad's feeder (my dad lives right by my office so I always stop there). I hope they stick around, I love watching the duckies. I have lots of goldfinches this year, plus quite a few birds I don't recognize. Unfortunately the red-winged blackbirds seem to have scared off most of my blue jays and cardinals. I know many people don't like grackles and starlings and blackbirds but I usually don't mind them because I like hearing them sing and call. But I don't want 'em bothering my beautiful jays and cardinals! Oh well. No hummingbirds in my area yet.
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Lexie_girl
Member
07-30-2004
| Friday, May 05, 2006 - 4:38 am
Now I'm totally freaked out. I noticed yesterday when I came home from work that I didn't see the mother or father out by the nest. This morning I looked outside my window about 10 times and still didn't see the mother or father. So I'm worrying about the babies and I went outside and peeked inside the nest and its EMPTY!!! Even the egg shells are gone. Do you think the parents were afraid of me or maybe the other birds in the area may have spooked them into moving the nest?
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Supergranny
Member
02-03-2005
| Friday, May 05, 2006 - 11:05 am
Wow Lexie...are you in an area with snakes? They will climb up in trees and they just swallow the eggs whole. If it was a cat or racoon you would see some egg shells around. That is heartbreaking when that happens...I'm sorry!
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Lexie_girl
Member
07-30-2004
| Friday, May 05, 2006 - 2:50 pm
I've never seen a snake or a racoon around here in the 5 years I've lived in this neighborhood. There is a neighborhood cat that sometimes hangs around my house, but she usually hangs out up in the front yard. This nest was to the back side of my house about 5 feet up in towards the top of some bushes. I seriously doubt this cat did it because for all intents and purposes the nest is completely undisturbed and there are no broken limbs on the bush. Would a mother and father cardinal move their babies that are only 5-6 days old? I am sooooo upset about this.
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 8:48 am
Lexie, I'm very confused about what may have happened to your little cardinals. Where would the eggshells have gone, could they have deteriorated already? I don't think parent cardinals could have moved brand new cardinals from their nest, but I don't really know much about cardinals I just know I love seeing them. I don't blame you for being upset, I truly hope the babies are ok and somehow were relocated for whatever reason and not harmed. Unfortunately, it seems we have two very aggressive hawks on the lake who are nested somewhere near our home. Three nights in a row hawks have attacked right in front of our faces. The first one I told you about, above. The second night a smaller hawk came flying into the tree above our deck and hesitated long enough that I had a chance to run down the hill and throw myself into the middle of the ducklings on the lake, scattering them and scaring the hawk so she flew off without a grab. My clothes and shoes are still drying out from that situation. The third night Colossus saw a hawk swooping in for a grab and stomped hard and repeatedly on the deck, scaring off the hawk again with no grab. Up til then each hen still had two ducklings. Last night, I came home and heard a duckling peeping for his mother from across the lake. I spied him and kept an eye on him until he came across to our dock. He nuzzled up on the shoreline all by himself, although Hans, Gertrude and the Boyfriend tried to stay close and give him company. Wargod showed up with her two, so i knew something had happened to Mojo and her family. Eventually, our neighbor with the outdoor cats came over and he had a duckling in his hands. He had come home from work and the duckling was in the house, one of his cats had brought it in sometime during the day. The duckling was unharmed, and I took it down to the lake where he teamed up gladly with his brother who had been peeping so sadly. The two of them huddled together and glided across the lake behind the Gertrude menage-a-trois. Colossus and I decided that if Mocha and drake didn't show up by noon today, we'd collect the ducklings and call a wildlife conservationist to raise them. This morning, it's just the one peeper again. He's out there by himself tormenting us with his calls for his mother. Unfortunately he's a fast little sucker or he'd be swimming in my sink by now. I'm going to have to borrow a fishnet to have a chance to get him, but otherwise he has relatively no chance at all. Sigh. The hawks got the squirrel in our tree, too, leaving his carcass in the crotch of the (very tall) tree for us to see everytime we go out on our deck. Unfortunately, not feeding the ducks doesn't present a solution, their nests are nearby and this pretty much is their territory on the lake. I just keep hoping somehow the hawks will relocate. Oh, and the neighbor learns to keep his cats inside. This season has been pretty depressing.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 9:03 am
Aaaack!! Not Mojo!!!
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 9:32 am
Oh, No, GAL!! Too bad hawks don't eat snails.. Lexie, sorry you've lost your cardinal family. I doubt that it had anything to do with you watching them.
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 9:37 am
Mocha, I was just sure Mojo and her drake would come back if they could. I just wasn't sure they could. But not 10 minutes after I posted last, I hear little peeper out there getting very frantic. I look out the window and he's running on water toward a pair of ducks on the other side of the dock - sure enough, it's Mojo and her drake. Mojo and the peeper have been glued to each other ever since, grazing the shoreline while drake does the proud papa thing. Neighbor with the cats has been out feeding the birds this morning (this is a first). I have mixed feelings towards him. I think one of his cats got the duckling again last night and maybe he had an unpleasant surprise this morning, but I don't know that for sure and I was sure grateful to him last night for bringing the duckling over to me. But for now, my heart is glad for little peeper (we'll give him a name next week I think) and we have five new bright yellow goslings just showed up this morning while I was posting about this being a depressing year on the lake. If only they would stay little and cute Colossus wouldn't have so much animosity towards them (the geese I mean). Sigh.
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Grannyg
Member
05-28-2002
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 9:45 am
I cannot believe that you don't have one named after your favorite Granny!! Ack!!! how disturbing. lol Just kidding. I'm so glad things are kinda back to normal. And I'm glad I got to read the before and after at the same time. Glad Mojo and her drake have surfaced again. You need to build a fence around them. lol
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 9:57 am
Well Granny there's a long spring and summer to go, just waiting for the next family group to show up so they can be the Granny crowd!! We figure Mojo flew down to Broadripple to get some bohemian booty and her drake followed her to put the paddle down on all suitors (he's a mighty fine drake, I don't know why she'd want to booty around on him). Anyway, they're back I hope they learned their lesson LOL.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 11:14 am
You could name one of the goslings Granny Goose! Colossus would have to love that one..
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Grannyg
Member
05-28-2002
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 12:35 pm
Sea, if he didn't there would be a war party on his deck.
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Saturday, May 06, 2006 - 4:29 pm
Whew and lol.
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 5:54 am
ROFL Granny and Seamonkey. I'm going to have to work him up to pet gosling very slowly. I at least managed to keep him from taking a wrist-rocket to the new goose daddy this morning. Well, the best possible thing happened yesterday. Mojo and drake flew off again and left their little one on our shoreline. All afternoon he tried desperately to be adopted by Wargod with her two little ones, he'd sidle up and get run off, sidle up and get run off. Finally I got them all eating together without pecking each other, and by the end of the meal Wargod decided to adopt the little orphan and they sailed off as a family. This morning she came up, and yep - she has three. So I've decided there is no more Mama Mojo, but the orphan who has been through so much and now has a new mama is to be called Mojo. He's a tiny bit bigger than the other two, so I can tell who he is. But a happier little duckling you never saw, he is IN!! It was very interesting watching all the ducks deal with the little lost peeper and take turns keeping him company. And I've never seen any of the mother ducks adopt a strange duckling like this. Wargod is my favorite mommy duck of all time.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 8:13 am
Awww, Bless Wargod!!
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Mocha
Member
08-12-2001
| Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 9:33 am
Awww. Poor lil wee one. Glad mama War adopted him.
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 8:19 am
Thank goodness that little duckling found a new family. I hope the cardinal family is safe. A gorgeous red fox was in the field behind my yard on Sunday. Ran off into the woods. I hope to see him or her again, with a family! Also saw a male cardinal feeding either a female or a juvenile.
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Lexie_girl
Member
07-30-2004
| Tuesday, May 09, 2006 - 12:28 pm
Thanks everyone. I'm still pretty heartbroken about my cardinals. I'm hoping the mother and father moved them earlier than they should have because I can't bear the thought that something might have gotten to them. 
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 4:28 pm
Colossus insisted before we go on vacation that I post the names of our three little ducklings who are THRIVING (I named one, he named the other two). The one I named is Mojo, the other two are Larry and Curly. So we have Larry, Curly and Mojo. LOL. Wargod, did you know you were raising the Three Stooges?
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Riviere
Member
09-09-2000
| Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 3:27 am
Remember to feed those hummingbirds!!!

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Yankee_in_ca
Member
08-01-2000
| Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - 8:07 am
Three Canada geese are fighting in the lagoon right outside my window. They are ferocious... and loud! They've been fighting for about 10 minutes. My dh went outside to try to scare them into stopping, and one just charged him and hissed (I told him they'd do that!). Yipes.
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Seamonkey
Moderator
09-07-2000
| Wednesday, May 17, 2006 - 5:22 pm
Geese can be fearsome! I think they are better watch animals than some dogs!
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