Birdbrains

[telophase]

Some of you may remember my posts about Hank the cardinal, way back in the pre-tag days of 2005 or so, so I can't find them quickly. Hank lived in the bushes outside the windows here in our basement (the bottom of our windows are at ground level, about 4 feet up from the floor) and for a long time fought companionably with the cardinal in the window. And when the head of Housekeeping parked her new, big, shiny red truck in the reserved parking space outside our windows, Hank was beside himself with joy at the new, very large, cardinal to fight, and managed to scratch the hell out of it. Anyway. Hank's not back, having flown on to pastures greener, and there's no new visitors to our windows, but the library staff break room on the third floor, with its windows with deep outside ledges, is currently the target of some vicious attacks.

I thought crows were supposed to be the smart ones of the avian world. Apparently, that's not saying much, as two crows have now spent well over a week attacking the crows in the break room window. It used to be just one crow doing it. I saw him bring a friend over one day, who watched him attack the crow in the window, and then flew off with a distinct air of "You moron!" But our merry attacker has now found a companion for his folie à deux, and the pair have been beating the hell out of the window for a few days.

They're pretty intent on it, too. Just now, when up getting a Coke Zero from the machine, I was able to walk within inches of the window before one flew away, then I stood and watched the other one work for a while before experimentally waving frantically at him to see if he'd notice. He stopped, looked at me for a bit, then flew off. I'm assuming there's a pretty strong reflection on the window there, and maybe we've got some sort of reflective tinting on it. Not worried about them breaking it, as it's double-glazed and strong enough to stand up to mild hailstorms.

But the noises are loud enough that the first day I experienced it, eating in one area of the break room while the crows were busy on a window in the kitchenette area, which is a separate room, I assumed it was workmen back there hammering something. :D

Comments

[benchilada.livejournal.com]

We all get sad when birds make nest in the library light-courts. Some of them are four stories tall, which means that the likelihood of the chicks getting out is kinda low.

We sometimes see bird skeletons that the maintenance guys have to go grab. :(

[telophase.livejournal.com]

:( At my previous job, we had a window with a deep ledge. It was supposed to be pigeon-proofed, but the long, spiky wire stuff they put up there to keep them off proved to be an excellent place for a pigeon nest, and a pair raised several successive broods before we managed to get the maintenance guys to do something about it.

Pigeon nests are built of sticks, pigeon crap, and the occasional dead chick. Not fun. We got it cleaned out and a slanted piece of metal put in to keep them from landing there after some construction guys were on break and throwing a tennis ball against the window. Pointing out the health hazard it would be if it broke got people moving.

[the_rck]

A place where I worked kept a large plastic owl in the window because it decreased the number of pigeon attacks. I've no idea if it actually decreased the problem or just was supposed to and never got taken down.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

We had some sort of weird balloon-thing in the tree outside the window that was supposed to fend off pigeons. I think they liked it.

[chomiji]

You used to be able to get bird-of-prey silhouettes to paste onto windows for this kind of purpose, but I don't think it would work well with crows because their reaction to a hawk is "Evil Enemy! Everybody - kill, kill, kill ...!"

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I feel like posting a sign that reads YOU ARE A MORON! STOP DOING THIS, DUMBASS!

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

AHAHAHHAHSDklafjs;df *dies*
Corvids = hours of endless entertainment.

Did I ever tell you about the ravens that plagued the resort I worked at in Jasper? One little bugger would wait until the cleaning staff entered a cabin, leaving their big cart of supplies outside, then he'd jump into the cart and peel the paper off all the wee complimentary soaps and gleefully toss them on the ground.

Or the cheeky beggars who'd sit on the roof by the outdoor bbqs and swoop down to swipe meat off the grill! WHOLE STEAKS!

*sits by the window and taps back at the birds*

[telophase.livejournal.com]

No, you didn't tell me about that! XD

I guess we've got the morons of the corvid world hanging out here. Ironic, on a college campus. (Or maybe they're strung out from finals week. XD)

[cicer.livejournal.com]

Bwah! I remember the tales of Hank! Birds are really funny. When I had a cockatiel as a child, we put a mirror in her cage, and I swear she spent 75% of her time pecking frantically at it. Every day, she'd 'rediscover' the mirror and totally flip out and dance around it and peck at it some more. Hours of entertainment, right there. XD

[oyceter]

I'm on the fourth floor of our building, close to the window-lined walls, and we get flocks of ravens or crows who come by and attack the Dread Reflecting Ravens every afternoon. When I first worked here, it was sort of freaky, like the birds, but now I just mock them.

I sort of wish my rats would attack their own reflections or groom them or something, but for once, they are too smart. (either that, or it's just that the mirror doesn't smell like rat)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my cat doesn't pay any attention to the kitty in the mirror. I think she may even recognize that I am in the mirror and out of the mirror at the same time, because she stares at me in the mirror, but pays no attention whatsoever to the cat.

I read, some time back, on one of the newsgroups that I lurk in, a post wherein someone explained that the funniest thing in the world is watching a kitten walk across a large mirror that is lying face-up on the floor, notice the kitten below him, spaz out and jump about a foot in the air, and then notice that the kitty below is approaching while he is descending. Apparently that continues for some time. XD

[oyceter]

You know, I think I might even pay money to see that kitten thing! That's awesome! I will try it with my rats, bwahaha. Though I don't think it'll work on them -- rats have awful eyesight.

Oh well. I will just have to amuse myself by laughing at them when they try to groom themselves, fall over backwards, and then lie there flailing because they can't get a hold on something to flip back over (Bya, I love you, but I think that means you are a little too fat).

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I've had birds off and on for much of my life, so seeing bird-brains go nutso for their reflections is pretty familiar...but what was rather amusingly strange was when I had an iguana and he started doing the same once he hit sexual maturity. The house I was living in at the time had mirrored closet doors, and I swear he treated Attacking The Evil Rival Mirror-Ig as his full-time job; he'd pace back and forth puffing up and bobbing threateningly, and occasionally charging headlong into the doors, for HOURS on end.

It was particularly entertaining when you left one of the doors cracked open -- he'd run behind that funny invisible wall and then stomp back out, peeved that his enemy had somehow managed to vanish, only to reappear when he came back out into the hallway.

(Was the kitten-mirror thing Kibologically related, perchance?)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Hee! I always thought that Hank had to be so proud of himself every day at 3 when the truck left - look! how mighty a cardinal am I that I have driven off this huge cardinal!

(Don't remember. Might have been. It also might have been from the Monastery, somewhere else I lurk off and on.)