General Chat (Non-Music-Related)

Billy, one of my favorite birds is the scissor-tailed flycatcher, love their tail-feathers.. quite common in this part of Missouri in the summer.. but more on the prairie grass areas around Morrisville etc.. here where I live too brushy and scattered trees. I always see em around the high-lines in o pen grass

I forgot about those, they live around here too. When I first moved here around 1991 or so I never saw a Scissor tail, they seem to have moved (or moved back) into this area sometime in the past 10 years or so. Last summer I got pictures of a few right up the street, but this year I haven't seen one yet. Have seen them a few miles away though, so they still come to the area in summer. I know they nest here too but have only found one nest, and it was in Oklahoma at a RV park. Still had about 4 babies in it, mom was scolding me nonstop while I got a few shots of her little ones.

There was one around here but it became traumatized after shooting AR 15 and I haven't seen it since. But my neighbors 7 Year old Girl Loved It.

Billy, one of my favorite birds is the scissor-tailed flycatcher, love their tail-feathers.. quite common in this part of Missouri in the summer.. but more on the prairie grass areas around Morrisville etc.. here where I live too brushy and scattered trees. I always see em around the high-lines in o pen grass

new Oklahoma automobile license plates will now feature a scissors tail flycatcher silhouette on them..

My war time weapons were FN FAL in 7.62 which was a serious rifle and would fire full auto if you were dumb enough to try it, and later AK-47 in 7.62 Kurz which I loved dearly.

When I got home I shot my friends AR 15 and I swear there was no recoil at all and it was super accurate. Also super noisy. Personally don't care for them however but they have become America's rifle as the AK is in Africa and Asia.

Note that some of the M-16 / AR problems in the early days were related to bad ammo. Still, they seem to require more TLC than most.

Talbot

Jook - You can build a Bluebird nesting box and probably lure then into your yard. In general, around 6 inches square, 7 to 8 inches tall, 1 1/4 to 1 3/8 inch hole about 2/3 of the way up, no perch. I use 1 3/8. I hinge the bottom of mine to make it easy to empty in winter, leave it open for about a week to encourage all the bugs to move out, and it's ready for next spring. They have been nesting in them for 4 years straight, a pair set up housekeeping in the first one in a couple of days. It need to be in an open spot with no trees very close, 4 to 7 feet off the ground. Chickadees will fight them for it, I made one with a 1 1/8 inch hole for the Chickadees, Bluebirds can't get in.

IMGP78349 by Paleo Pete, on Flickr

That's what mine look like, got a shot of a female about to go out for more groceries. When they have little ones you can tell, it's a nonstop back and forth for both birds.

Male perched on top

IMGP77828 by Paleo Pete, on Flickr

Finally found the overall view, this is actually the Chickadee box, but the only difference is the size of the entry hole.

IMGP64318 by Paleo Pete, on Flickr

I made one for the Tufted Titmouse, it turned out Prothonotary Warblers took it over instead.

IMGP52087 by Paleo Pete, on Flickr

Found it...the shot I was looking for, youngster looking around from the box in back, the one with a Male perched on top of it. I;m pretty sure they nest in the same spot year after year, so probably his offspring.

IMGP48004 by Paleo Pete, on Flickr