What interesting creatures live in your garden?

[Pulsegleaner]

He or she does look so, but then again Sumi is in South Africa, so Big bird is probably some species we don't know since if he or she is a starling he or she is just as likely to be an African Starling as a European one (maybe when he grows up Sumi should try and see how well he can hold a coconut! )

Actually I did a little image search and if Big Bird IS an African starling, he will probably grow up to be VERY pretty
https://www.google.com/search?q=afr...=M405VPnwCZKfyASJv4HoBg&sqi=2&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ

 

[Smart Red]

Beautiful family. All I see around here are those dratted English Starlings that take over our native bird habitat.

 

[digitS']

When I was a kid, some folks kept mynah birds and they were taught to talk. Mynahs are related and not much different from starlings.

The story of the House Finch intrigues me. If I've got the story right, it is native to North America but its range was bordered on the north by the Southwest desert and short grass prairie. People carried it north as a caged songbird. It escaped into Eastern cities, then followed human settlements across the northern tier of states.

Now, that finch must be found in all cities in the 48 contiguous states. Anyway, it might have been an okay caged bird, about the size of a canary.

Steve

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The English Starling is even odder in story. We shouldn't HAVE it but around the turn of the century, a gentlemen in New York imported some and let them go, because he felt it was important that all birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare were found in the U.S. The English Starling is now a MAJOR pest pretty much everywhere.

A similar story involves the Monk Parakeet. People imported some as pets, they got out and it turns out can survive quite happily in cities including New York. So America now has wild parrots again (The U.S. only NATIVE parrot, the Carolina Parakeet, went extinct in the 1800's)

 

[Smart Red]

Ah, yes, some of the best intentions have gone awry. Did you know it took several attempts to introduce rabbits to Australia?

I should have learned from the mistakes of others when it took several attempts to introduce lily of the valley to my shade garden. Those #(@ dratted things are everywhere!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The one I love is that in the 1970's an anime cartoon showed up in Japan called Rascal the Raccoon. It was SO popular over 100,000 baby raccoons were imported into Japan as pets only to be released when they grew up. Racoons are now a common sight in the wild in Japan. In fact they are now SO common that in the mind of the current generation they've basically usurped the folkloric place of the native tanuki which is actually a raccoon-dog (superficially similar in appearance but an unrelated species). Now when you see a tanuki in popular media it will usually be a raccoon with raccoon traits (a good clue is to look at the tail, raccoons have long striped ones, raccoon-dogs don't)

And my version of the lily of the valley

"On now, it's OK for me to dump senna on the back lawn, there's NO WAY the seeds can overwinter."

 

[Smart Red]

Originally, "Rascal" was a raccoon turned pet here in the author's childhood home in Edgerton, Wisconsin in the late 1900s. Sterling North wrote about his adventures with his menagerie of wild pets, especially Rascal and was published in the 1960s. Edgerton is just up the road from here as roads go.

 

[thistlebloom]

I'd forgotten about those stories until you mentioned them Red. I loved Rascal!

 

[sumi]

Sad update today. Big Bird wiggled itself into such a spot last night it couldn't untangle itself. By the time I found it this morning it was already very weak and listless and passed away after 2 hours, in spite of my efforts. I'm really bummed as the little one was doing so well, we thought it was going to make it.

On a lighter note, DH just told me he found a spider the size of his hand in the garage. Come back, Winter, all is forgiven!

 

[Smart Red]

I sure hope your DH has small hands.

I love spiders as long as they leave me and mine alone and stay OUTSIDE. I've never seen one much bigger than a grape (with legs) and have no desire to do so.

It IS sad to hear about Big Bird. You know that you did everything possible to help. Sometimes Nature seems harsh, but it is usually for the best.