[tschmidlin]

I'm a bird person but .22...

 Yes!

But no, I can't do it.  It's just following instinct and should stop as soon as nesting season is over. I think we just have more robins than usual this year so this one is a bit more territorial than normal.  It's never happened before, and it's our 4th spring in this house.

Having spent a lot of time around many types of birds, I can tell you without a doubt that they have no awareness of their own ass holes.  Poop flies out whenever - where ever, without conscious effort or thought.

That said, I've only seen two hummingbirds in person in my entire life.  One was at Mount Vernon.  That was an extra special day.

The quantity of poop is astounding!

Hummingbirds are cool to watch. 

[punatic]

I think we just have more robins than usual this year so this one is a bit more territorial than normal.  It's never happened before, and it's our 4th spring in this house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjj32CavzU0

(Melanie Griffith's mom)

[Mark G]

We have a pair of robins that decided to build a nest on the back iron of our basketball hoop in the driveway. At first the wife and kids thought they were so cute to have built a nest there. Then even cuter when eggs appeared. Finally, babies hatched, and the cute factor was over the top. Now the babies are learning to fly, and under that basketball hoop is parked my truck. Well, last night I got in my truck to run to the store... Bird crap all over the windshield.  More than I thought ever possible from such small creatures. Anybody have a .22 I can borrow?

[Hokerer]

We get hummingbirds, it's pretty cool.  I saw a hairy woodpecker on the feeder the other day, that was awesome.

Cool,

We get the red-bellied woodpeckers at our suet feeder

[ccarlson]

I am thoroughly convinced that at least some the same hummingbirds return each year. Why else would the first hummingbirds, in late March, be hovering around the corner of our patio where the feeder was last year?

[SiameseMoose]

We get boatloads of woodpeckers at our feeders. The largest number are downy, then red belly, flickers, hairy, and pileated, in that order. A couple of springs ago we had a pileated arrive at the feeder, leave and immediately return, and repeat for a few cycles. We realized that it was alternating male and female, and when we looked harder we saw them flying to a nearby tree and feeding a youngster, who looked to be every bit as big as his parents.

[bluesman]

The wife and I took our dogs out for their daily walk over the weekend and we encountered two adult Canadian Geese along the way. As we approached them we noticed they were not flying away as they normally would. The dogs started running toward them yet they still didn't fly away until they had gotten right on their tails. We then noticed baby goslings tryting to run away. Thankfully I have my dogs trained to the point where they didn't instinctively snatch the baby goslings up. A close call but we allowed the goslings to get away unharmed.

[SpanishCastleAle]

I have a dwarf poincinana that blooms during summer near a window right next to the TV.  After a rain the hummingbirds always come to visit that shrub and you can stand next to the window and have one go flower-to-flower, literally a couple of feet from your head.

The mockingbirds here in Florida are very aggressive.  If any other bird, no matter how big, gets near their nest they will pester the heck out of it.  You often see big buzzards getting pelted by two mockingbirds as it tries to fly away.

Out at Kennedy Space Center (where I work) we have Scrub Jays.  These guys are so 'tame' they will eat right from your hands.  I even had one dive-bomb me after I bought a bag of chips and had just opened the bag and pulled out the first chip.  He probably thought it was for him/her.

[Hokerer]

The wife and I took our dogs out for their daily walk over the weekend and we encountered two adult Canadian Geese along the way. As we approached them we noticed they were not flying away as they normally would. The dogs started running toward them yet they still didn't fly away until they had gotten right on their tails. We then noticed baby goslings tryting to run away. Thankfully I have my dogs trained to the point where they didn't instinctively snatch the baby goslings up. A close call but we allowed the goslings to get away unharmed.

Not sure you did any favors there.  While I'm all for birds, those geese seem to be overrunning things and are basically just loud, obnoxious, "tootsie-roll" producers.  

[ccarlson]

The wife and I took our dogs out for their daily walk over the weekend and we encountered two adult Canadian Geese along the way. As we approached them we noticed they were not flying away as they normally would. The dogs started running toward them yet they still didn't fly away until they had gotten right on their tails. We then noticed baby goslings tryting to run away. Thankfully I have my dogs trained to the point where they didn't instinctively snatch the baby goslings up. A close call but we allowed the goslings to get away unharmed.

Not sure you did any favors there.  While I'm all for birds, those geese seem to be overrunning things and are basically just loud, obnoxious, "tootsie-roll" producers.  

You're lucky the geese didn't come after you and your wife. They can be very aggressive and outright mean.

[bluesman]

The wife and I took our dogs out for their daily walk over the weekend and we encountered two adult Canadian Geese along the way. As we approached them we noticed they were not flying away as they normally would. The dogs started running toward them yet they still didn't fly away until they had gotten right on their tails. We then noticed baby goslings tryting to run away. Thankfully I have my dogs trained to the point where they didn't instinctively snatch the baby goslings up. A close call but we allowed the goslings to get away unharmed.

Not sure you did any favors there.  While I'm all for birds, those geese seem to be overrunning things and are basically just loud, obnoxious, "tootsie-roll" producers.  

You're lucky the geese didn't come after you and your wife. They can be very aggressive and outright mean.

They would have gotten a dose of pepper spray. 

[punatic]

Out at Kennedy Space Center (where I work) ...

Are you a member of SAAZ?

There are no mocking birds here.  I really miss them.  Especially in the early summer when the fledglings are learning to fly.  Pairs of them would zoom around my yard like fighter jets in a dogfight.  Talk about joie de vivre...

Da bluejays are da mean buggahs!  Always at war with squirrels.  You can hear them yelling at each other up in the oak trees all the time. 

No bluejays, squirrels, or oak trees here either.

[tschmidlin]

We occasionally get some pileated woodpeckers here too, and lots of flickers.  I've really enjoyed the grosbeaks, pictures rarely do justice to how brightly colored they are.  We've had a family or three visit or feeder the last couple of summers, sometimes as many as 9 or 10 at a time.

But it's time to put the feeder away.  Last night the dog went crazy around 2:30 AM.  We didn't see anything, but this morning I noticed the bottom was ripped off the feeder and the wrought-iron pole is bent about 15 degrees.  I think the dog scared it off before it was finished, but the only thing I can think of that can and would do that is a bear.  They've been seen in our neighborhood before, but never in our yard.  I figured the smell of the dog would keep them away, but the smell of the sunflower seeds was more attractive I guess.

[SiameseMoose]

We see one or two Grosbeaks a year, and never two at once. Our heavy populations are downy woodpeckers, all manners of finches, especially goldfinches, blue jays, and sparrows. We have a lot of mockingbirds around, but they don't come to the feeder. There is one mockingbird I've seen and heard for two years now. He's learned to copy the neighbor's phone, so when I work in the yard I occasionally hear a phone ringing in the woods.

We feed through the end of May. We used to end earlier, but we get a lot of fledglings this month so we now leave it up for the "Nature Babies" show.

[SpanishCastleAle]

It's that pic-a-nic basket they're after Tom.

punatic,
No, I'm not in SAAZ.  I live near Orlando and I'm in CFHB.  At work we get birds nests all up in the corners/beams/rafters of the open-sided structures.  Then at some point a dead baby bird on the ground that fell too far.  Once the 'flying lesson' starts, they learn really quickly.  But some don't survive those first few attempts.

Pro tip: don't try to pick up a baby bird that fell when trying to learn to fly.  Those things can be covered in mites (or something mite-like).