These pics admittedly aren't the best. It was getting dark and I was in a hurry (chore time). However, this may give you an idea of how many mallard ducks are coming down in the field behind the barn and the barnyard most evenings. (At least five hundred.)
I think they are recycling corn (very green of them). The boss says they seem to be staying out of the Ag bags, which is more than can be said for the crows and starlings. He was up on the corn bag patching holes the crows pecked the other day. We failed to paint faces and eyes on them this fall and are paying the price for that. Any place they peck a hole lets in oxygen and creates major spoilage. As I was taking these photos a flock of starlings that probably took twenty or thirty seconds to pass flew over my head so low I could hear their wings. That is a BIG flock! I think the hard winter has more birds coming close to the buildings then is normal...just wish they would stay out of our feed....
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I could do without the starlings that come down here for the winter. Pesky little things for sure!
I know they are a pest, but I'm imagining the whistle of all those duck wings.
The starlings are another story ... not a fan of exotics, so I'm imagining something else for them!
Creepy. Did you happen to see Alfred Hitchcock standing around?
Wow that is a lot of ducks!
Starlings are a real pest...that guy who brought them from England needs to feel real bad about what he has done. REAL BAD!
We have to put our feed in barrels or in the bins or the starlings will consume it all. You can't leave out anything...dog food, cow grain, anything that they can get a eye on, once they see they swarm in, and for some reason they send out radar signals so more starlings can come.
Then they sit in the trees and sqwack squawk squawk....I would rather have the crows and ravens visit.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/
Wow! That there is a lot of birds!
Hitchcock would be proud... :-)
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I'm thinking same as "Jan" and "Ed". Wow...
That's a whole lot of ducks!
Dani, I am not wildly fond of them either. They do a lot of damage to stored feed. They do also eat crop insects, but I am not sure that that cancels out their destructiveness
FC, as long as they stay out of the actual bag they don't do much harm....and the wing whistle is incredible. It is amazing the comeback waterfowl have made around here in my lifetime. It used to be an event to see a single pair of mallards....there are at least five hundred in this flock!
Jan, no, but the Birds scared the heck out of my. My kids think I am an idiot but...
Tipper, it is indeed!
Linda, they are terrible. The crows are worse! They pick the bags right open!
The Wife, they are pretty amazing...
Ed, I crawled under the dining room table and hid when the family watched the Birds when I was little.
MML, thank you so very much!! I don't know how to put the graphics in my blog, but I am very grateful for the award. Thanks again!!
Teri, really they are quite pretty against the sunset. Next time I see them I hope to have time to run over and get some closer shots...or maybe even set up the tripod./
Laurie, got to be five hundred if there is one!
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