Birders' Nest

[Elgarian Redux]

Paying the thread tax with a smattering of new world warblers...

Wilson's Warber

Fantastic camouflage.

Townsend's Warbler

Gorgeous cuddly blob.

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Not a bird, but a licorice allsort sculpture.

Pine Warbler

Iota has it right. Exquisite photo. Thank you for all, Owlice.

[Elgarian Redux]

Are you not providing sufficient food for your pheasantosauruses, thus forcing them to raid the feeders?! I'm sure no matter how much food you put out, they will never consider it enough!

I suspect this morning the local flock of pigeons got to the fallen food first.

Yay!! Lovely to see the collection of waterbirds in your photos, and the sunlight on the water, too! And yay for feeling better and getting out!

Well, not entirely better. Let's not rush things. I haven't had my full quota of sympathy yet.

How are your viruses doing Owl? Seriously - are you OK?

[Iota]

I should have mentioned that the music for Swan Curlew Lake was playing in the background when the shot was taken.

.

There is in fact a statue of Eric on Morecambe Promenade:

Haha, perfect! The most iconic pose I know!

Not a bird, but a licorice allsort sculpture.

Haha yes, exactly! Licorice Allsort! 

[owlice]

The lighting of the Pine Warbler against that dark background is as perfect as if it had been set up in a studio!

It's lovely when light and shadow cooperate so nicely! Here's another time that happened:
Cattle Egret

Fuzz-headed, confuzzled, bedheaded... however this bird can be described, I'm glad he sat still long enough for the shot.

In looking for that pic, I came across another couple that have no relevance to anything except that they are birds.

Canvasback

Worth embiggening for the fine details of its feathers

Northern Carmine Bee-eater

[owlice]

Not a bird, but a licorice allsort sculpture.

hahahahahahahahaha!!! Oh, that's great!!

[owlice]

I suspect this morning the local flock of pigeons got to the fallen food first.

How dare they not share!

Well, not entirely better. Let's not rush things. I haven't had my full quota of sympathy yet.

Oh my! Can you not have your hot chocolate at home?! You must take good care and not overdo it!! Poor man. Please rest!

How are your viruses doing Owl? Seriously - are you OK?

I am not 100%, but I am much better than I was. Of course now I'm even more behind in my work than I was before, darn it!

[Elgarian Redux]

How dare they not share!

So I keep telling them. But do they listen?

Oh my! Can you not have your hot chocolate at home?! You must take good care and not overdo it!! Poor man. Please rest!

O heartless Owl! Your irony skewers me like a rapier.

Falling about laughing here. Except that the laughing is more of a faint strangled choking gurgling sound, because that's all my larynx will permit at present. The falling about is fine though. I can do that alright. [Shuffles off in search of large blanket and warm fireside.]

I am not 100%, but I am much better than I was. Of course now I'm even more behind in my work than I was before, darn it!

Steady upward progress is what we're looking for, and seem to be getting. Well done. You have gained points towards your 'I am getting better' badge.

[Elgarian Redux]

It's lovely when light and shadow cooperate so nicely! Here's another time that happened:
Cattle Egret

Fuzz-headed, confuzzled, bedheaded... however this bird can be described, I'm glad he sat still long enough for the shot.

Superb photo. Isn't it strange that he looks wise and stupid at the same time?

In looking for that pic, I came across another couple that have no relevance to anything except that they are birds.

Bring'em on!

Canvasback

Worth embiggening for the fine details of its feathers

Wonderful (yes, I embiggened). Your photographs of water are sometimes as beautiful as the duck it supports, as in this case.

Northern Carmine Bee-eater

What a beak! And what rich, deep colours!

Do these bee-eating chaps ever get stung? Are they impervious to bee stings?

[Iota]

It's lovely when light and shadow cooperate so nicely! Here's another time that happened:

Wow, yes! Incredible pic!

[owlice]

Superb photo. Isn't it strange that he looks wise and stupid at the same time?

The angle of the shot adds to this. His head looks small compared to his body; he looks out of proportion, and the eyes... the eyes... !

Your photographs of water are sometimes as beautiful as the duck it supports, as in this case.

That's very kind; thank you. I haven't so far framed any of my photos, but there are two, both of water, that I may someday possibly maybe frame (but probably not). Sometimes images look more vibrant on a screen and less so when printed and these are both pics that would suffer should that happen.

Do these bee-eating chaps ever get stung? Are they impervious to bee stings?

These are excellent questions! I asked ChatGPT your first one (slightly rephrased for this side of the pond), and the reply is basically, no. Here's the whole response:

Yes — bee-eaters can get stung, but they almost never end up stung.

Here's what happens:

1. They remove the stinger before eating the insect.
Bee-eaters have a specialized behavior: they catch a bee or wasp, return to a perch, and repeatedly smack the insect against the branch. This "disarms" it by:

squeezing out the venom,

removing or disabling the stinger, and

killing the insect.

2. They crush the venom sac.
By pressing the insect's abdomen against the perch, they force out the venom before swallowing it.

3. Being stung is possible but rare.
Because they catch prey in flight and handle it so skillfully, stings are uncommon. Their dense throat and face feathers also offer some protection.

Bottom line: Bee-eaters largely avoid being stung thanks to evolved handling techniques, even though their diet is dominated by stinging insects.

ChatGPT sometimes hallucinates, but this response is very much in line with this source, so yeah, accurate.

Must go mark my calendar!

[owlice]

Oh, here's another site that discusses bee-eaters eating bees. (Etymology, woo-hoo!)

That page also discusses other bee-eating birds, and ends with "... shrikes, who remove the sting before storing them for later speared on a thorn in their larders." Although these aren't bees, here are two examples of insects stored for later, not on thorns but on a handy-by substitute:



And here's an Iberian Grey Shrike who did not go hungry that day:

[Elgarian Redux]

These are excellent questions! I asked ChatGPT your first one (slightly rephrased for this side of the pond), and the reply is basically, no. Here's the whole response:

ChatGPT sometimes hallucinates, but this response is very much in line with this source, so yeah, accurate.

It's almost beyond belief that a bird would go to so much trouble, and one can't help wondering: why not simply go for non-stinging insects in the first place? I presume the answer is that there's a lot less competition among birds for catching insects that can sting them, and so the bee-eaters effectively corner the market.

Which sounds like a feasible Darwinesque answer, but then does such competition actually arise? You wouldn't suppose there was a shortage of things like aphids, would you? - so I'm not very convinced by my own reasoning.

It all makes me glad that I'm not an insect. Stinging or not.
                                     ***
Speaking not of insects, but of gastropods, we're finding that the window bird feeder is very attractive to slugs at night. Last night, for instance, a dozen slugs had crawled up the window to sample the wares in the feeder. What to do? (We could empty the food from the feeder every evening, but that's a chore neither of us wants to take on.)