{"id":1238,"date":"2017-03-24T06:00:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T06:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/?p=1238"},"modified":"2017-03-27T17:02:10","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T17:02:10","slug":"3-24-17-revealing-the-dissimulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/3-24-17-revealing-the-dissimulation\/","title":{"rendered":"3.24.17 Spring is for the Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We can\u2019t conceal the fact that every spring here in Joisey, we always have a DISSIMULATION of birds.<\/p>\n

We get all the usual suspects. First comes the VATICAN of Cardinals, followed by a ROUND of Robins, a DULE of Doves, a CAULDRON of Blue Jays, a HOST of Sparrows, a HERD of Wrens, a MURMURATION of Starlings and finally a TREMBLING of Finches. But we wanted something unique. So a few years ago we went online and bought a huge house that needed to be constructed, painted and installed on a 20-foot pole. Alas, our efforts were in vain; we failed to attract a COLONY of Purple Martins.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, down at the pond, it\u2019s a similar deal. WEDGES of Canada Geese pass overhead, and finally a GAGGLE lands on our property. They happily co-exist with the occasional SPRING of Teals or FLUSH of Mallards. They don\u2019t even mind the odd visit by a Green or Blue Heron – but if a whole Heron BATTERY had ever shown up, who knows\u2026?<\/p>\n

Twice we had deer die on our property. Each time the body was found by a KETTLE of Vultures within a day or so. The buzzards would alight as a COMMITTEE in the trees overhead, and then the whole WAKE would bounce down onto and all around the carcass.\u00a0 Twenty four hours later\u2026nothing but Bambi bones.<\/p>\n

We get huge FLOCKS of Turkeys that wander through every now and then, so unconcerned with us that they are a veritable RAFTER.<\/p>\n

Once we were in the local nursery and saw something unusual: a box for Wood Ducks. (We had read that Wood Ducks inhabit holes, like the kind created by a DRUMMING of Woodpeckers in a dead tree. But would they live in a man-made box?) We bought it and hung it up, and almost immediately it became home to\u2026a FAMILY of Screech Owls. So we bought a second box. Nothing happened for a year of two except that the Owls would alternate from box to box. This week we looked out and saw both boxes were now inhabited; what a hoot, we\u2019ve got an entire PARLIAMENT of Owls.<\/p>\n

Which is ironic because the very next day who should arrive but\u2026a SAFE of Wood Ducks! They waddled around on the shore, jumped into the pond and formed a PADDLING, and then looked up to see their houses occupied by Owls. Oh well. Looking a little forlorn, they formed a SKEIN and flew away.<\/p>\n

And so spring has sprung. The entire VOLERY of birds is settling in, under the watchful eyes of our Crow MURDER.<\/p>\n

(It\u2019ll be interesting to see what happens when the Crows discover that KETTLE of Cooper\u2019s Hawks nesting in the back forty\u2026)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We can\u2019t conceal the fact that every spring here in Joisey, we always have a DISSIMULATION of birds. We get all the usual suspects. First comes the VATICAN of Cardinals, followed by a ROUND of Robins, a DULE of Doves, a CAULDRON of Blue Jays, a HOST of Sparrows, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1593],"tags":[141,1610,907,1609,1160],"class_list":["post-1238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1593","tag-birds","tag-ducks","tag-ornithology","tag-owls","tag-spring"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1241,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}