Now is the time of year when many of us are spring/summer ready to invite the birds to our yards. Yet the birdfeeders also attract squirrels. Here’s some tips for keeping them at bay:
Another tip: Change your birdseed! Squirrels love sunflower seeds, peanuts and mixed seed, the most common bird food available. They are not fans of thistle seed or safflower seed, which many bird species will eat.
Let us know if you got some tips and tricks to keep them squirrels out of your feeders!
DCG
Meet Msituni who was born February 1 at the San Diego Zoo. Msituni was born with a condition called carpal hypertension, causing the giraffe’s front legs to bend improperly. It was nearly impossible for her to stand and walk.
The Zoo consulted with Ara Mirzaian, an orthotist who has fitted braces for Paralympians and children with scoliosis. The doctor had never fitted an animal for such an apparatus, let alone a newborn giraffe.
The doctor and his team were able to create custom braces for the giraffe and now she’s up and walking! Watch the video below and read all the details of her story here.
DCG
The 2022 Mobile Photography Awards (MPA) recently announced the winners who had taken pictures on mobiles and tablets. Some pretty incredible photos!
The Lichtenstein Castle in Germany.
The Sonoran Desert in Arizona.
Photograph titled “Fog and Sunbeams.”
A winter shot of Niagra Falls.
Aerial shot of Kimberly Coast in western Australia.
See all the winning photographs here.
DCG
This wedding in Kansas, from 2012, had a surprise guest: a tornado! Watch as the wedding party and guests remain pretty calm, at least much calmer than I would have:
You can read all about the couple (who are still married) and see their wedding photo (with the tornado in the background) here.
Guess that’s how they roll with the tornadoes in Kansas!
DCG
This gave me a good chuckle!
From the Daily Mail:
“Harry and Meghan’s £11million California mansion is apparently engulfed by a foul smell leaving neighbours ‘disgusted’, it has emerged.
The duke and duchess’ headache is said to have been caused by the nearby Andrée Clark Bird Refuge, a 42-acre saltwater marsh. The area is one of the largest wildlife refuges in Santa Barbara and the water can become ‘stagnant’ leading to an odour.
The foul stink is said to have hit the area in Montecito, which is also home to Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry.
A local resident told the Mirror: ‘It smells like offal that has been rotting in the sun. It makes my stomach churn. I’ve seen lots of homeowners closing their windows when it wafts over.’
Local officials say the stench could last as long as the autumn, when improvements are in the pipeline. Cameron Benson, clean water manager for the City of Santa Barbara, said: ‘Water can become stagnant there. The odour issues are sporadic and sometimes they are worse in some conditions.’
Harry and Meghan have had to contend with odour issues in the past. Last year, it was reported the royals were living near a legal cannabis factory base in Santa Barbara.
The couple’s mansion is just up the road from the 20 large greenhouses full of the plants — leaving the luxury suburb reeking. Neighbours made a string of complaints, sparking the company to install new ‘odour control systems’.
Gregory Gandrud told the Sunday Mirror: ‘The stink was getting stronger and heading their way. I was driving along the freeway and was hit hard by the smell. It doesn’t make you high but it’s not what you want driving at 70mph.
‘I had to pull over. It made me completely lose my train of thought. Lots of people here are suffering.’
Read the whole story here.
DCG
Morning Cat
By Samantha Cole
Motherboard December 6, 2021, 11:18am
One of our cats is sitting directly behind me as I type this, screaming at the back of my head for reasons that only he knows. When he’s bored with that, he’ll stalk our other cat like prey while she tries to use the litter box. He regularly makes guests uncomfortable with prolonged, almost alien eye contact. He is undoubtedly a demon, but according to the findings in a recently published study, he may also meet the description of a cat psychopath.
A team of researchers at the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University in the UK devised a survey for cat owners to find out if the hellions living with them fit the bill for cat psychopathy. They wrote a survey that includes questions like: “My cat vocalizes loudly (e.g., meows, yowls) for no apparent reason,” “My cat runs around the house for no apparent reason,” and “My cat does not appear to act guilty after misbehaving.”
The researchers used the answers to these questions given by 549 cat owners who completed the survey to create a new criteria for psychopathy in cats. They started with the “triarchic” concept of psychopathy, where levels of boldness, meanness, and disinhibition have been used to measure psychopathy in humans. These three traits also emerged as factors that lead toward a psychopathic cat, the researchers wrote, but two more factors also arose: human-unfriendliness and pet-unfriendliness. They named this new method of measuring psychopathic cats the Cat Triarchic Plus (CAT-Tri+).
“Our cats and the differences in their personalities inspired us to start this research,” Rebecca Evans, one of the researchers on the study, told Motherboard. “Personally, I am also interested in how owner perceptions of psychopathy in their cat can affect the cat-owner relationship. My cat (Gumball) scores relatively highly on the disinhibition scale—which means he can be quite vocal, proximity-seeking and excitable!”
Minna Lyons, another of the study’s authors, told Motherboard that they are all “crazy cat ladies” who among them study primates, rodents, and psychopathy in humans. “We decided to join our forces and see if psychopathy is something that is relevant in our feline friends too,” she said. “My personal inspiration is my cat Axel, a fluffy and greedy little creature.” Axel participated in a part of the study that assigned activity trackers to some cats, to watch how they move about their days. “Axel is totally bold, and known to go into neighbors’ houses, cars, and garages to search for food,” Lyons said—a sign of a feline psychopath.
All of this sounds like normal cat stuff, which the researchers told me may just be the case; it’s likely that all cats have an element of psychopathy, as humans understand it, they said, as these traits make good sense for their wild ancestors whose main goals were securing food, territory, and mates. They don’t make a lot of sense in a small Brooklyn apartment where kibbles are doled out on a schedule, so to us, zooming up walls and body slamming other pets seems unhinged.
~ Grif
Evening Cat
Posted in animal altruism, cats, Fun, Funnies, God's creation, Nature, Uncategorized
Tagged wildlife
The Daily Mail has a happy-ending story about an Orca that was rescued by humans. Apparently the whale had got stuck on some rocks and was stranded for six hours before the tide brought it back into the water. Before the whale made it back into the ocean, humans kept the Orca wet and scared off birds trying to get to the creature. Read the story below.
From Daily Mail:
“Good Samaritans saved a 20-foot Orca that was stuck between rocks on an Alaskan shore by continuously dousing it with water and protecting it from birds who circled above the defenseless whale.
The whale was ultimately saved after a six-hour, labor-intensive life-saving operation.
Someone spotted the the large whale on the Prince of Wales Island near the coast of British Columbia Thursday morning. The Coast Guard was called around 9am local time.
Chance Strickland, the captain of a private yacht in Alaska, and his crew anchored and began life-saving maneuvers that were captured on video by Aroon Melane and posted on Instagram.
Strickland could hear the orca calling out to killer whales swimming in the area. ‘I don’t speak a lot of whale, but it didn’t seem real stoked,’ he told The New York Times.
People on other boats stopped with water and buckets to douse the orca. Mr. Strickland and his crew gave the whale a wide berth in case it started flopping around, he said.
‘There were tears coming out of its eyes,’ he told The Times. ‘It was pretty sad.’
The group of Good Samaritans formed a chain that passed buckets of seawater back and forth and poured the water on the Orca, which seemed to liven it up. It made a noise and raised its tail when it got water.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was called in, which can be seen on the video using a machine to spray a mist of seawater on the Orca, which doubled as a way to keep the whale cool and scare the congregation of birds that were hoping to feast on the beast.
Melane said in her video that the Orca was stranded for about six hours until the tide came in swept it back into the ocean.”
Great job, humans!
DCG
Posted in God's creation, Nature, Uncategorized
Tagged British Columbia, good Samaratins, NOAA, Orca rescue, Orca whale, Orcas
Making your own plant pots is both inexpensive and environmentally sustainable.
Materials:
After the seedlings sprout, transfer the biodegradable seed-starter to your garden and let nature take care of the rest!
~E
One place I’ve always wanted to visit is the Grand Canyon. I’ve only seen the Grand Canyon from an airplane and it is so stunning from that view! I can’t imagine what it is like to be on the ground and witness the true beauty of it all.
Located in Arizona, the Canyon was carved by the Colorado River and is 277 miles long and the carvings began millions of years ago. Here’s some fun facts about the Grand Canyon, from The National Park Foundation:
Supai Village
Here’s a bit of history about the Canyon and how it came to be a national park:
Here’s a video that explains the formation of the Canyon:
Have you ever visited the Grand Canyon? And if you have been, did you walk the Skywalk Bridge (see below)?
DCG