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The Animals of Maka Road
May. 4th, 2020 07:53 pmI awoke this morning to someone screaming, really yelling at the top of their lungs.
Once I woke, I realized it was one of the myna birds who have invaded our lanai. We suspect they're trying to make a nest in a vent hole up above the lanai that got opened up at some point. I've got a 3" circular vent cover coming in from Amazon next Monday that I hope will do the trick.
The mynas are actually somewhat attractive. They're mostly brownish-black, but they have these little yellowish lines on and around their eyes and some white racing stripes on their wings, which makes them distinctive.
The problem is their volume. K. doesn't do well with loud, unexpected sounds, and we're now getting frequent loud and unexpected sounds from our backyard.
So, I chase the mynas off whenever I see them on the lanai, but they don't seem to care: they come right back.
Yesterday I did some googling on the internet and found "shiny things" as a way to chose off birds. So I put some aluminum foil on the railing of the deck. The next time I looked out, a myna was sitting on it.
I've now ordered a plastic owl with a head that swivels in the wind. (A review says, "If you are expecting a real owl, you will be disappointed.") I'm hoping it'll do the trick, and as I've told folks: "If not, we'll have a cool plastic owl."
But being in Hawaii, it'll take us a few weeks to receive it.
In the meantime, the mynas scream.
The birds in are front yard are more welcome. They're some new chickens that showed up: Carlito, Danielle, and their seven chickens.
We are currently happy to host chickens in our yard, due to the hope that they will eat centipedes, five or six of which have invaded our house since we moved in.
We regret not keeping Alberto and Bessie closer, both of whom have now entirely disappeared, so we're doing our best to seduce the new ones with occasionally tasty foods left in our yard. Thus far, it seems to have been a win, and the family seems to now be sheltering in the bushes north of our house, rather than on the other side of our fence, right on Papalina.
Well, family sort of.
One of the first times we went to feed the chickens, Carlito took off like the road runner in those old cartoons, totally leaving him family to be eaten by wolves. (There were no wolves: just us.) He hasn't been seen since.
And, I made the mistake of naming the chicks while I was out hiking on Saturday: Aphrodite, Hermes, Gaea, Ares, Zeus, Chronos, and Poseidon. Then, the next time I saw them, on Sunday, Poseidon was gone.
It was perhaps no surprise: 1 or 2 of the chicks had often strayed far from mom, and when I saw them on Sunday, they were all sticking much closer, with just one occasional stray. (But I wouldn't be surprised if Chronos disappears in the near future; if so, someone should have a talk with Zeus.)
Oh, and those darned chickens made it harder to mow the lawn. I had to shoo them from area to area and keep vigilant watch to make sure no chicks ended up under the blades. (I'm always having to watch more carefully whenever Julie goes in and out of the garage.)
At lunchtime today, I went out to see how the chickens were doing, since I heard them in the yard, and wanted to see if Danielle still had her surviving six.
I walked out onto the patio, and Danielle came right up the stairs, with chicks hopping up all around her!
Yikes! We've apparently got them used to humans.
(I went back in, got half a stale hamburger bun, and gave it to them. But, we want them out eating centipedes, not our cast-off food.)
Not only were the myna birds back today, but they brought friends ... and they went to war. This late afternoon, while I was working on edging away all of our encroaching greenery, four myna birds were assaulting each other. Flying at each other, throwing each other off of roofs, and squawking lots.
This is apparently some sort of territorial dominance.
Curiously, the four of them moved on to ... other ... activities after their big fight. Dunno what to make of that other than the fact that it's spring.
Hopefully at least two of the mynas will be gone after this afternoon. Hopefully it'll be the two who think they own our lanai.
Hawaii is full of beasties.
There is a lizard living in our closet.
Some bug bit me while I was mowing the yard yesterday.
There's a gecko in the garage.
Another gecko was hanging out in my office today, on a window sill a foot or two from a cat, and Callisto just found another lizard to chase around the Living Room this evening.
Ah yes, cats, the last of the Animals of Maka Road.
And Callisto in particular is being a weird beast, and not just because she's chasing lizards.
At least three times now she's gotten trapped under our new bed.
Now, she must squeeze under to get there. But then she just yowls and yowls and won't come out until I move my nightstand, creating a larger passage out, at the back of the bed.
Last night I tried for quite a while to lure her out with treats, but all she'd do is extend her paw as far as possible to grab it.
Animals are weird.
Once I woke, I realized it was one of the myna birds who have invaded our lanai. We suspect they're trying to make a nest in a vent hole up above the lanai that got opened up at some point. I've got a 3" circular vent cover coming in from Amazon next Monday that I hope will do the trick.
The mynas are actually somewhat attractive. They're mostly brownish-black, but they have these little yellowish lines on and around their eyes and some white racing stripes on their wings, which makes them distinctive.
The problem is their volume. K. doesn't do well with loud, unexpected sounds, and we're now getting frequent loud and unexpected sounds from our backyard.
So, I chase the mynas off whenever I see them on the lanai, but they don't seem to care: they come right back.
Yesterday I did some googling on the internet and found "shiny things" as a way to chose off birds. So I put some aluminum foil on the railing of the deck. The next time I looked out, a myna was sitting on it.
I've now ordered a plastic owl with a head that swivels in the wind. (A review says, "If you are expecting a real owl, you will be disappointed.") I'm hoping it'll do the trick, and as I've told folks: "If not, we'll have a cool plastic owl."
But being in Hawaii, it'll take us a few weeks to receive it.
In the meantime, the mynas scream.
The birds in are front yard are more welcome. They're some new chickens that showed up: Carlito, Danielle, and their seven chickens.
We are currently happy to host chickens in our yard, due to the hope that they will eat centipedes, five or six of which have invaded our house since we moved in.
We regret not keeping Alberto and Bessie closer, both of whom have now entirely disappeared, so we're doing our best to seduce the new ones with occasionally tasty foods left in our yard. Thus far, it seems to have been a win, and the family seems to now be sheltering in the bushes north of our house, rather than on the other side of our fence, right on Papalina.
Well, family sort of.
One of the first times we went to feed the chickens, Carlito took off like the road runner in those old cartoons, totally leaving him family to be eaten by wolves. (There were no wolves: just us.) He hasn't been seen since.
And, I made the mistake of naming the chicks while I was out hiking on Saturday: Aphrodite, Hermes, Gaea, Ares, Zeus, Chronos, and Poseidon. Then, the next time I saw them, on Sunday, Poseidon was gone.
It was perhaps no surprise: 1 or 2 of the chicks had often strayed far from mom, and when I saw them on Sunday, they were all sticking much closer, with just one occasional stray. (But I wouldn't be surprised if Chronos disappears in the near future; if so, someone should have a talk with Zeus.)
Oh, and those darned chickens made it harder to mow the lawn. I had to shoo them from area to area and keep vigilant watch to make sure no chicks ended up under the blades. (I'm always having to watch more carefully whenever Julie goes in and out of the garage.)
At lunchtime today, I went out to see how the chickens were doing, since I heard them in the yard, and wanted to see if Danielle still had her surviving six.
I walked out onto the patio, and Danielle came right up the stairs, with chicks hopping up all around her!
Yikes! We've apparently got them used to humans.
(I went back in, got half a stale hamburger bun, and gave it to them. But, we want them out eating centipedes, not our cast-off food.)
Not only were the myna birds back today, but they brought friends ... and they went to war. This late afternoon, while I was working on edging away all of our encroaching greenery, four myna birds were assaulting each other. Flying at each other, throwing each other off of roofs, and squawking lots.
This is apparently some sort of territorial dominance.
Curiously, the four of them moved on to ... other ... activities after their big fight. Dunno what to make of that other than the fact that it's spring.
Hopefully at least two of the mynas will be gone after this afternoon. Hopefully it'll be the two who think they own our lanai.
Hawaii is full of beasties.
There is a lizard living in our closet.
Some bug bit me while I was mowing the yard yesterday.
There's a gecko in the garage.
Another gecko was hanging out in my office today, on a window sill a foot or two from a cat, and Callisto just found another lizard to chase around the Living Room this evening.
Ah yes, cats, the last of the Animals of Maka Road.
And Callisto in particular is being a weird beast, and not just because she's chasing lizards.
At least three times now she's gotten trapped under our new bed.
Now, she must squeeze under to get there. But then she just yowls and yowls and won't come out until I move my nightstand, creating a larger passage out, at the back of the bed.
Last night I tried for quite a while to lure her out with treats, but all she'd do is extend her paw as far as possible to grab it.
Animals are weird.