The call of this bird is very, well, disgruntled sounding.
It is a all is not well with the world call.
Something akin to squeezing a baby kitten or small animal until they cry out.
Yea, I know, not pleasant.
This new bird is nocturnal, yea, I know, hunting just before dark, dark and the wee hours.
This would be find if it were not for the call of the wild over and over and over.
3 am seems to be a favorite time.
Then again around 5 am to just light.
Then they go sleep while we are awake.
Grumble, grumble......
We finally had to look this bird up and find out what it is. I could not figure out how to search for, disgruntled, sleep piercing, sounds like it is squeezing a kitten, nocturnal, fresh water bird.
I spent one evening just guessing and then Mark finds it in 2 minutes.
We have a pair, yes one for each end of the pond, Black-crowned Night Heron.
Now, we are determined to spot them.
Trying to see birds that are only out at night is tricky- we have not figured out how yet.
But, they are up most of the night making sure we know they are there.
Buggers.
I have a do not harm policy about wildlife.....but these are making me rethink those kind thoughts.
It is their good fortune that windows close soon as heating season arrives. Lucky birds.
About Ms. B....
How can one kiln so small cause such headaches?
She fired well up to cone 8.
At cone 8 the top shot up to 10 and no begging, cajoling, cussing, fussing or spitting of nails would change this.
Mark shut her down with 10 on the top and a bent 8 on the bottom.
I have not pulled any peek bricks to look. She has once again lived up to her name.
Because when she is bad, she is very bad.
We hope we have at least 3/4 of a load.
To be continued.....
Time to get my game face on.
M
12 comments:
Look for them in early morning or near dusk. I have spotted them on occasion, sitting up higher than most herons....in trees as opposed to in the water. My home backs to a lake with a walking path. Lately we have been seeing a white heron (or maybe a great white egret) which I only spot in the fall.
I've had similar encounters with the heron in question. Good luck spotting! We'll keep our fingers crossed for the kiln...
Never heard of that bird, sounds like a barking dog, listened on Cornell sight. Ha. We had a family of blue birds show up just this week.
They taste like chicken.
ahhh.... Ms. B! at least she's cute :)
We have two owls in the woods behind us that like to hunt and chat all night, and they make it very clear why they are called "screech" owls! and then we have two roosters that like to start soon after the owls, around 4am. I say they all taste like chicken!
Sometimes I think the small kilns are harder to fire than the larger ones. Our baby kiln gets hotter at the top, we often go to cone 11 on top and 10 in the bottom. We now know that there are some glazes that can't go in certain places, I am not a fan of grinding shelves!
Good luck, I hope more than 3/4 are fantastic.
Not like you or Mark are asking for advice about firing your kilns... I will keep my advice to myself. If you want to talk about ideas, email me. Happy to help if I can.
As for stalking those elusive critters that haunt the nighttime... motion detectors at Home Depot are dirt cheap. You can rig something to throw a floodlight on pretty easily. Most of those criters freak out and leave when something that big and bright sparks up the night. Just a thought.
Our cats sleep in the day and keep us awake in the night... I have heard that they also taste like chicken!
Are you sacrificing anything to the kiln gods?
Lori- my heart and soul.
Like Linda, I had to check out their call, described as a loud harsh squawk. Lol, hopefully they won't find our pond!
You could get some nightvision glasses to try and see them in the dark! We sometimes get screeching owls around our house in winter, now they're pretty loud too!
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