The World of Layonara  Forums

Author Topic: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?  (Read 576 times)

Makashi

Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« on: May 19, 2008, 03:50:35 pm »
Well a few of us decided to try and get the BBQ going this weekend, as I went to clean it up though, got a bit of a shock really, thought I'd share the sight with you all...

http://forums.layonara.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=123802&ppuser=2819

Guess I'll have to leave the ugly little things alone. :)
 
The following users thanked this post: Lynn1020

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2008, 04:39:58 pm »
Could you unhook the gas please...  Would be horrible of someone accidently turned the gas on and killed them  
 

Stephen_Zuckerman

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2008, 04:46:15 pm »
Wowza. Check back occasionally (touching as little as possible) to make sure the parents haven't caught your scent and abandoned the nest - thus dumping three screaming little birdlets into your care.

Well. If you're not just going to crank the gas and handle it that way.
 

merlin34baseball

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2008, 04:53:06 pm »
[INDENT]um... thats a myth Steven about the scent.

...and maybe that's where buffalo wings come from.
[/INDENT]
 

ycleption

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2008, 04:54:59 pm »
Quote from: Stephen_Zuckerman
Wowza. Check back occasionally (touching as little as possible) to make sure the parents haven't caught your scent and abandoned the nest


snopes.com: Rejected Baby Birds

I've been meaning to look this up for a while, I've heard that too and always thought it didn't make sense; thanks for giving me a good excuse to do so ;-)


Seriously, they're really adorable...

And if you do find that the mother has died or abandoned the nest or whatever, go down to your local bait shop and buy a carton of wax-worms, you can mush them up and feed the little things. :)
 

scifibarbie

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2008, 05:01:19 pm »
and dont forget to chirp like momma bird if you have to feed them yourself!

i hope you have properly documented your training in the use of the animal language ear in your cdt. ;)

Your gonna need it. :D
 

jecklar

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #6 on: May 19, 2008, 09:45:16 pm »
Hey! This is actually one of those places where my RL knowledge is useful!
 
 I'm a zookeeper at the National Aviary in the United States (as well as a biologist). I can help you ID the nest with a smidge more information -- starting with what country you're in! :)
 
 As for birds abandoning nests if humans touch the babies -- complete myth. Most birds don't have a sense of smell. In fact, you can often relocate a nest that's in an inconvenient place, so long as you do it by increments over a period of days. We have nesting containers that we move every day as part of cleaning. Mama bird startles off the nest, we clean, we put nest back, mama returns. And people who manage purple martin colonies here in the States handle baby martins a couple times a week to no ill effect.
 
 So let's start with what country you're in, and maybe a rough estimate as to diameter of nest, and we'll see what we can do!
 

jecklar

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #7 on: May 19, 2008, 10:08:47 pm »
Just checked your profile, and it looks like you're from England.  That being the case, I'm going to bed that's a blue tit nest.
 
 Congrats!  They'll grow up to be adorable adult birds.  And it only takes about 3 weeks, so you'll be grilling again before you know it!  You shouldn't need to do anything to facilitate this.  Obviously, parent birds could get into the grill just fine with it closed, since they managed to build a nest, lay, and incubate eggs without your suspecting.  I suggest just closing up the grill the way it was and leaving it in peace.  Peek in every week or so, to make sure the babies are still alive and doing well.  If you can roll it somewhere close by and in the shade, that might be good, too, since overheating will really be the only danger to the hatchlings.  Whatever you do, don't assume the babies are not being cared for just because you don't notice an adult coming and going.  If you sit and watch the nest from a hidden spot (like an inside window) for 15 minutes or so, I'll bet you see the parents make a few quick trips then.
 
 And, of course, take pictures and let us see them on your weekly nest checks!  :)
 

jrizz

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #8 on: May 19, 2008, 10:34:06 pm »
Ok dude, birds aside. How long did you leave your grill like that? You know you are supposed to clean it every week even if you are not using it and of course there is the monthly maintenance and bi-yearly replacement of parts. What I see here is a clear case of grill abuse :)

But the birds are cute! Put a web cam on them :)
 

Hellblazer

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #9 on: May 20, 2008, 12:40:51 am »
Quote from: jecklar
JIf you can roll it somewhere close by and in the shade, that might be good, too, since overheating will really be the only danger to the hatchlings.

wouldn't moving the nest possibly confuse the parents and have them stop looking for their chick thinking they got hunted away by a predator?

Stephen_Zuckerman

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #10 on: May 20, 2008, 01:06:05 am »
Huh. Looks like I'm the victim of rural myth.

Though, the thing about Snopes...
 

Makashi

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #11 on: May 20, 2008, 02:35:56 am »
Yeah we worked out it was blue  pretty qucik, and it explains the feathers and twigs around the floor in the area :)

@ Jrizz - you tell my housemates that. :P
 

jecklar

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #12 on: May 20, 2008, 06:20:11 am »
Quote from: Hellblazer
wouldn't moving the nest possibly confuse the parents and have them stop looking for their chick thinking they got hunted away by a predator?
 
 If you move it 20 ft all at one go, maybe.  But if you move it 5 ft per day, the parents have no trouble following it.  (This is also true of nests in inconvenient places like above doors that you want to move into nearby trees/bushes, FWIW.)
 

Chazzler

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #13 on: May 20, 2008, 07:34:02 am »
If you really want to and have to feed them, I recommend small forceps with chich you deliver the food (worms) into the hatchlings' mouths. Otherwise they might not open their mouths in terror due to large human fingers (the forceps resemble the beaks of birds to them). We had a baby "harakka" with us when I was a child, and that technique worked for it :)

But if the mommy and papa bird feed them, then there is no need for that :)
 

lonnarin

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #14 on: May 22, 2008, 04:43:38 pm »
Sadly, nothing this cute survives in my yard for long.  Our little demon-kitten Squeaky murders everything in sight smaller than she is!  Just this morning at around 4am I was woken up by her cat-howling (mroooowr!) downstairs.  Thinking she was about to spit up a furball or something, I ran down with cleaner and paper towels in hand... only to find the white kitchen tile streaked with blood!  Immediately I feared the worst, that she had gotten into a fight with a large dog or something... and found her hunched over eating something.  Turned out to be the bottom half of a fat white rat, split right down the middle.  She had already devoured its head and whole upper torso and was making those slavering, orc-feasting noises that the LOTR orc cannibals made when they said "Look's like meat's back on the menu!"  I've NEVER seen that much blood come out of one small rodent.  It was like somebody chopped it in half and used it as a magic marker all over the place!

Needless to say, I had to spend at least half an hour that I should have been sleeping mopping up rat blood while she purred proud and contently.  There's NOTHING that pleases her more than either murdering some poor little animal horribly or rolling around in something stinky.

On the plus side, she ws inside for the night, meaning so was the rat.  So she got some tuna for dessert and extra cuddles!
 

Chazzler

Re: Anyone want to lend me a BBQ?
« Reply #15 on: May 23, 2008, 02:49:51 am »
I still remember when our cat Missus brought a child wild-rabbit to our porch, purred happily and asked to be let inside, which I of course did not do. So I took the rabbit to my hands, petted it, let the cat inside without the rabbit and made sure all the three of our cats (Missus, Boyo, Girly) (or Rouva, Poitsu, Typy in finnish) were inside, took the poor rabbit to the edge of the nearby forest.. and went back inside.

Well, somebody had let the cats out during the night, and when I went for my morning smoke I found a rabbit's front leg on the porch. ;)

They sure are cuddly, but at the same time predators, which is why I like them :D

And no, I did not keep the rabbit's paw as a lucky charm ;)
 

 

anything