It sounds like maybe one of the programmable function buttons is set up to change to illustration mode. Then it would just take an accidental pressing of this button to change rather than having to walk through the menu to make the change.

Thanks for the reply. I'll wait until after fledging season is over to try any rearrangement of the birdhouses.

Is this birdhouse wars?

We have a number of birdhouses sized for swallows and other birds that size. For the past several years we have had one family of Green-Violet swallows fledge a brood and I had hopes that other families would elect to move into the neighborhood.

This spring a bluebird couple showed up and we were excited to see them. But they began harassing the two swallow families in an apparent effort to drive them away. I would never have thought that bluebirds would be so aggressive.

Have any of you birders out there seen this type of behavior with bluebirds, or any other birds? I built the birdhouses to the proper specs as far as hole size and all that goes, and there are birdhouses going empty because this one bluebird family seems to want it all.

2017 brood being fed

2017 brood being fed

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this years tenant

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New family on the block

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This is MY house!

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I've always been fond of this one:

The bustard's an exquisite fowl,
with minimal reason to growl.
He escapes what would be Illegitimacy
By grace of a fortunate vowel.

Hurry, get things done
Tomorrow will be today
And yesterday gone.

It took eight years to get the setup.


https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/27/bucket-list-shot-australian-gets-rare-photo-of-space-station-in-front-of-moon

Someone told me that the British expletive "bloody" is a truncation of the expression "By our lady" but I've never confirmed that. Also, "bedlam" comes from Bethlehem hospital which I think is a London hospital for the mentally impaired ("loony bin" less politely).

Good list.

I just got a good rubdown from my misogynist.

Stop! Murder us not, tonsured rumpots!

Would that be a "Smart Fart" ?

This reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me. He had just recently moved to a rural mountain area in western NC. When someone new moves into a backwoods place like this, the local folks are naturally curious about their new neighbor. And sure enough, one evening a pickup truck with several good ol' boys in it rattles up his driveway and one of the bunch pulls out a quart mason jar full of moonshine to share with the new guy.

Well the evening progresses with the inevitable tall tales and stories, fuelled by the corn likker. At some point the leader of the bunch says, "I got to show you something." (kind of in the same spirit as "Hey y'all, watch this!") And he starts up his truck, gets out and opens the hood, reaches in and jerks loose a sparkplug cable which he holds in one hand. With the other hand, he zips down his trousers, pulls out his 'member' and holds it up close to the fender of the truck and gets a sparking display intended to impress the new guy. Lot's of well-lubricated laughter at the demonstration.

Well, it would have impressed me! It would also have hurt just to watch.

I wouldn't recommend trying this without at least 3 or 4 shots of moonshine. Maybe the OP should have had a few before mowing is lawn, just in case of an encounter with an electric fence.

It's a rufous sided towhee

You are lucky it's not a woodpecker that is pecking his head off on a downspout... at 5am!

Men are so literal.

When we are going out for the evening my wife will dress up and often asks me something like, "Do I look too frumpy in this dress?"

I'll answer, "No, you look *just* frumpy enough."

Fortunately she has a great sense of humor.

What is really amazing is that American factories were cranking out 100s of these planes and other planes and thousands of tanks etc. during the war. I often wonder if there will ever be a time when the American people will work together again with such a commonality of purpose. I guess having the homeland under attack is a powerful incentive.