5/22/07 FOT Post Show Meet up....

[John Junk]

I also had the privilege of viewing a map Matt has drawn of another fictitious town, and i think he is aptly qualified for the task of the new bridge map.

That's good to hear because over the course of the whole map discussion I started to feel like I got in over my head.

[Matt]

I enjoyed the bird watching as well. I believe that those crafty birds were crows (their feathers were black/iridescent). Although I still haven't had my first "Fat Sandwich," I do not regret passing up the horrible food. I had another one of their smaller greazy menu items.

Matt has drawn another fictitious town, and i think he is aptly qualified for the task of the new bridge map.

Here is the fictitious town that I drew. The map that I will create for Newbridge will definitely be more legible and neat. More paper will be needed. HANDDRAWN ONLY! Even an inset for Newbridge Commons. This will be fun!


It was fun talking to you and Mary. I wish I had more time. Thanks for the meetup Emily!

[Matt]

HMM... the scanned file is 10MB
you could view here, but it would take a while to load
http://eden.rutgers.edu/~themaher/fictitious.bmp

[Emily]

I enjoyed the bird watching as well. I believe that those crafty birds were crows (their feathers were black/iridescent).

hmm. i'm not sure they were crows - i think they may have been Starlings. though i'm not a birder so i can't confirm this.
but this is what i found so far (relevant points in bold)



Starlings are about 6-7" in size. They have purple-green plumage and a yellow beak. Both sexes are the same colour.

Farmers find starlings especially bothersome, since they eat large quantities of feed and contaminate even more with their droppings. They can do good though, by eating ticks in the fields that sheep occupy. The birds travel in flocks of up to 2,000 in the winter and can eat more than a ton of feed while spoiling two or three times that amount with their droppings.

Even though they are quite large birds they can squeeze through a hole as small as an inch in diameter.
The birds prefer fruits and seeds, either wild or cultivated. They supplement during the spring breeding season with insects. They will eat virtually any livestock feed that is not bound and covered. Regarded as the 'bully' of the bird-feed table during the winter.

Starlings nest almost anywhere they can wedge a nest. Females lay as many as seven eggs which hatch less than two weeks following incubation. Young starlings leave the nest within three weeks of birth and may be one of two broods created each season.

what do you think?

[Laurie]

As long as you guys are talking about birds, I would like to share this: For the second year in a row, a pair of doves have decided to make the posts holding up the lanai in my parents' backyard their nesting site. On Friday, one of the two baby doves ventured down from the top of the post for the very first time. My mom told me this, and I went straight to their house after work. I got to see the mother (I think -- hard to tell, since doves in general are extremely egalitarian in, er, child-rearing, if I may anthropomorphize a bit) feed the dove who decided to remain in the nest, and the father feed the one hanging out on the lanai. The brave little guy eventually went back up to its sibling and stayed there until the NEXT morning.

I've been hanging out here for most of the weekend and watching. Yesterday, BOTH of the birds came down. They've mostly stuck to the patio. They're hanging out on the patio furniture, mostly on one of the lounges (which is covered in the fuzz they're molting and poop -- ew), the paddles of the fan, the ledge of the roof, the low table -- very cute. I snapped some pictures through the bay window sans flash, so I hope they came out okay. We'll see how they turn out when they develop, as I left my shitty digital camera at my place.

This is all very exciting for me. Oooh, today, Mommy (perhaps?) moved over to the other post, which is what they did last time. Doves tend to have two sets of two babies, one right after the other.

I love birds.

UPDATE: Both of the little birds moved up to the OTHER post, which still has nest stuff in it from last year. Also, it's dinner time. Mommy (?) is feeding the babies up on the post, and I'm glad they're staying there for the night. A storm's moving in. Stay safe, guys!

[Sarah]

You realize now that you have to give us (well, perhaps only me) regular updates on their progress, right?

[Laurie]

Sure! I'll post pictures as soon as I get this roll of film developed, too.

[Matt]

I enjoyed the bird watching as well. I believe that those crafty birds were crows (their feathers were black/iridescent).

hmm. i'm not sure they were crows - i think they may have been Starlings. though i'm not a birder so i can't confirm this.
but this is what i found so far (relevant points in bold)



Starlings are about 6-7" in size. They have purple-green plumage and a yellow beak. Both sexes are the same colour.

Farmers find starlings especially bothersome, since they eat large quantities of feed and contaminate even more with their droppings. They can do good though, by eating ticks in the fields that sheep occupy. The birds travel in flocks of up to 2,000 in the winter and can eat more than a ton of feed while spoiling two or three times that amount with their droppings.

Even though they are quite large birds they can squeeze through a hole as small as an inch in diameter.
The birds prefer fruits and seeds, either wild or cultivated. They supplement during the spring breeding season with insects. They will eat virtually any livestock feed that is not bound and covered. Regarded as the 'bully' of the bird-feed table during the winter.

Starlings nest almost anywhere they can wedge a nest. Females lay as many as seven eggs which hatch less than two weeks following incubation. Young starlings leave the nest within three weeks of birth and may be one of two broods created each season.

what do you think?

Yeah, the birds on the ground did look like that Starling. They were bullies as well.

Before, I was referring to the birds that were rummaging through the garbage cans.