Not much of a...

[altivo]

The weekend that wasn't. Hopefully the next one will be better, but I'm not holding my breath. (I'd be blue by then.)

Saw a great horned owl this afternoon, though. It was out in the corner of the pasture being pestered by two crows. Crows hate owls. I dunno why, they just do. They also bother hawks given a chance.

Gary saw a fox just before sunset, about to cross the road in front of him. Hopefully it didn't get squished by someone else.

And today it rained. Just enough to make doing anything outside unpleasant.

I have to admit I'm liking Debian so far. Of the two I tried, it's by far the better and more up to date distribution for the Alphas. Nearly everything is available, and it all just works. At least, once you install it. I wasn't about to download 30 CD images, so I did the one disc network install. That means I have to keep adding packages until I have all the stuff I'm used to having available. Getting there. Firefox is actually Iceweasel, but that's OK. Xchat is working. No OpenOffice on the Alpha, but Abiword seems to be fine. Now I just have to find the sound card driver and I can run my amateur radio stuff on there...

Comments

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

For us its the Currawong that seems to be hassled a lot by other birds.
Poor Mr Currawong he has such a nice song but looking like a cross between a magpie and a crow has taken it's toll I guess.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Is the currawong a predator? The birds that crows harrass here are usually raptors of some sort, not just those that eat other birds, but even those that eat small mammals (like the owls.) Of course, crows are opportunistic themselves and not above eating other birds' eggs or young, but birdbrains are not rational, obviously.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

More close in behaviour to a crow I think, they are omnivorous and are bigger than the magpie but smaller than the crow.
Also classified as a Passerine type avian.

They love a picnic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Currawongs_carnarvon_gorge_1994_email.jpg

Butcher birds are my favourite local predator type bird. They are omnivorous but do prefer meat, but they're small and quite personable and friendly making a muffled quiet "croop croop" sound when they're hoping for food from you. They also often sing a "thankyou" song when you've fed them. They can become semi tame, once we had 4 generations of the one family visit us :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Eewww. Butcher birds? Aren't they the ones that create a larder by skewering small birds and mice on the thorns of a spiny bush?

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Well yes but they don't tend to do that where I can see them,

[herefox.livejournal.com]

Cross harrass any sort of raptorial bird that comes near their nesting areas. Though sometimes I think they do it more as a game than protection because I've watched them drive a hawk away and they definitly look to be having fun.

I'm told that most birds, even other raptors, dislike owls. I'm not entirely sure of the reasons for this though as corvid tend to be my area of expertise :-)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Owls are apparently pretty smelly. That may have something to do with it. ;p

The big ones are definitely scary when they swoop over your head at dusk this time of year. I really like the little screech owls though. They make wonderful noises and they are just cute.

...If you're so inclined...

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

You could just make up a story about why crows and owls don't get along- something in the vein of Native American folklore would probably work. Hmm, "the Smelly Owl & the Clever Crow"... meh, sounds more like Aesop's Fables when you put like that :P