|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
my dad gets wild birds to eat of of his hand every year..
the blue jays are the easiest..
he start out by picking the bugs off his plants (by hand,) and placing them in a disposable pie plate..
at first the birds wait till he goes indoors before coming to eat the bugs..
but soon, they fly to the pie plate as soon as he puts it down..
soon after that, they will fly in and grab the grubs if my father just hold his arm out for a few seconds--with the pie plate far from his body.
then he just puts the bugs in his open palm, and Mr Blue Jay is always the bravest..and land on my fathers out stretched hand, and gobbles up the (by now, gigantic!) tomato horn worms.. other birds follow Mr Jay's example.
(some blue jays return to the same area, for a few years, and are fresh and will eat from the pie plate as soon as they see my dad out in the garden.adn will eat from my fathers hand, early in the season. )
I hate hand picking the bugs! (and now its a moot point, because i don't have a garden!)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Oh, I'd love to do that. I think I'd have to import bugs though. The only ones I've seen on my plants are tiny ants and ladybugs.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
What a squirrely bunch o' nuts youse guys are! ((((((((((((((((hug)))))))))))))))))))
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 1,529 |
While reading of troy's memory of her dad hand feeding birds I had an "Uncle Bill Hunt" moment and thought back to gentler times when I was a member of a street gang known far and wee as the "Celts".
One day we stopped stealing hub caps and breaking into parking meters and rode over to Pratt City to watch a man call down wild birds.
The man, a gruff-talking retired steelworker, didn't much like punk kids but after a little begging and cajoling he led us around to his back yard and seated us on his porch. Then with great ceremony he put on a heavy long-sleeved hunting shirt with lots of pockets and walked slowly to the back of his yard by two oak trees and stretched out both arms in the manner of a cross.
We saw a miracle. In a sudden, squirrels came down from the trees and birds came down from the sky. Sparrows and redbirds fed on seed from his shoulders and head and outstretched hands while the squirrels searched his pockets for peanuts.
After a short while the boisterous squirrels ran the birds off and the man moved to a nearby bench and sat down.
Finally, after every pocket had been checked and rechecked for nuts the sqirrels scampered back to the trees and the show was over.
The man became our hero. We badgered him for his secret.
Was it the jacket? Years of training? He wouldn't tell us. All he said was that you had to have a calm and peaceful mind.
And then we left and went back to stealing hub-caps.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,614
Members9,187
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
202
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
