I was trying to see my neighbors' feeding operation to add to my yard list, but the parked car in their driveway blocks my window view of birds on the ground. A colony of House Sparrows frequents their yard, and I hoped a native species would join them, so I peered under & around their car as well. As a result I have just added another item to my list of House Sparrow adaptations to cars: drinking from dripping icicles as solar gain on the south side of the car melts fresh snow on the car (this was not from a filthy fenderberg). I already knew about House Sparrows using a parked car for shelter, using the underside of an idling car for warmth in winter (per Ann Mitchell near the game farm), and in summer foraging recently killed insects on the grills of cars stopped at gas stations. Those critters have got it made until the collapse of car culture!
--Dave Nutter -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
