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Greeting from inside of Noah's Ark in the
Garden State. Over ten inches of torrential rain fell in this area on
April 14th and 15th. My back yard in Elizabeth and my pretty large
fishpond became a huge lake. Most of the hundreds of fish flowed all
over the proximity. The neighborhood cat had a field day!
On Thursday with the greedy doctor's
permission and with a lot of anticipation, on April 12, I left Marco
Island driving to New Jersey, hoping that the spring had arrived before
I did. What a disappointment when I arrived in New Jersey very late
Friday night, April 13th.
In New Jersey, we had better weather
conditions when I was in the Garden State sometime during the month of
January. The cold and nasty weather that we have been experiencing in
the past few days, I am sure that many of us will never forget.
Personally, I never have seen that happen in my lifetime!
Fairly large groups of many species of
black birds are wandering around confused all over the area. They are
not as numerous as the numbers that we experienced in January, however
they are very unusually visible everywhere. Normally, at this time of
the year, all species of wild birds pair up and are barely visible.
Strange, the poor birds are disoriented and confused, usually at this
time the year, the weather is stable and mild, and spring should be in
the air; they cannot make their mind which direction to fly, north or
south. Wild greens and vegetations are in dormant stage in this area.
There are not many varieties of foods available that stimulate their
reproductive mood.
I was hoping that my bird room breeding
activity would have been in full swing. Not so far in this breeding
season! No question about it, something is wrong with the atmospheric
conditions. Even the birds in my bird room, who are in a very
comfortable environment with artificial light and natural light, as well
as comfortable temperatures cannot make up their mind if they should
start 2007 breeding or not. This never happened to me before.
On April 16th I found no young canaries
in the nest. Last year, during the same time I banded at least 500+
youngsters. However, I am still hopeful that things will change for the
better soon? I am only going to be here in New Jersey for few days, I
must return to Florida, the poor doctor's and hospitals need me!
The Gouldians finches are doing OK, a
lot of youngsters and all is going well in breeding them. Saturday,
April 14th early in the morning before the universal deluge started, I
searched everywhere for chickweeds and dandelions. I managed to find
some in areas close to house foundations and cold, protected areas. All
my birds have been having a feast in the last few days.
My huge greenhouse, where for many years
especially in the winter months I have been growing wild greens for my
birds and for our bird food productions, on February 14th due to a
terrible ice storm in Warren, NJ and other areas, a large tree branch
fell on the top of the green house enclosure. The branch busted the
heavy plastic cover; the temperature was below freezing for many days.
The frost killed everything! My helpers did not realize that this was
happening until it was too late. The greenhouse has been a good source
of wild greens for all of my birds for many years. Now I have to rely on
the greens in the wild, hopefully, the spring arrives soon? We must
rebuild the greenhouse with stronger materials and also clear the
dangerous trees that are close to it.
I started this posting on April 15th; I
am extremely busy with many other problems to solve. I am trying to do
the best that I can, just doing a little every day whenever I have a
chance. I continuously get interrupted with the many other problems to
solve caused by the heavy rain. I also have been away from my office for
a long time and things got piled up. For each day that I am away from my
desk, I have to work an additional 10 hours to catch up.
Today, April 20th, it seems that the
weather is getting better? What a difference a sunny day makes! Today
alongside a cemetery I found a considerable amount of crisp dandelions
and chickweed. All the birds are much happier today than they have been
for the past several days. Among the dandelions I found a lot of seeding
heads in the milky stage; these definitely have given a big boost to all
the European Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Linnets and others. This natural
food contributed a great deal in stimulating the Carduelan Finches to
start their breeding mood.
These natural foods also contribute a
great deal in stimulating the breeding mood of all the seed eating wild
Finches in their wild habitat. The wild birds will not start their
yearly breeding unless their food is plentifully available. All over the
world, no bird will start to breed in the wild, unless the atmospheric
conditions are just right, again coupled with a plentiful supply of
food.
My 10 pairs of Spanish Timbrados on
today's date seem that that are getting in the real breeding mood along
with all the other varieties of Canaries. I remain hopeful that from
today on, things will change for the better. I will be flying back to
Florida on Sunday, April 22nd, hopefully for just few days. My farming
activity must get started soon. I need to produce a lot of wild seed,
lots of Perilla and Evening Primrose seed as well as small wild
Sunflowers seed and others.
I've had telephone conversations with a
few friends and fellow fanciers from many parts of the USA and other
parts of the world, lamenting very unusual problems that have occurred
this year in bird rooms. I suggested to many of them to be patient and
perseverance will eventually pay dividend. Even though that this
breeding season started in a very problematic way, I am confident that
this will turn for the better. The weather has not been right in this
neck of the woods. I was talking to someone in the southern part of
Italy. They told me that January was so hot it resembled June. However,
in these days in mid April, it is so cold most people need to wear heavy
jackets, just like we are doing here in New Jersey for some time now. I
am sure the same situation is happening in other parts of North America?
Well, we must try to do all that we can to help the birds to have a
fairly successful breeding season. During the humid days, we must try to
keep our bird room dry and well ventilated to avoid the build up of
fungus and mildew. Excessive humidity in the bird room is very
detrimental to the health of the bird.
Well, this is all the time that I have
for now.
If you are not a member of the following
groups, please join and be part of the learning experience.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ABBASEEDBIRDSQANDA/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/COM_USA/?yguid=47202339
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ColorbredCanaries101Genetics/?yguid=472023\
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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EuropeanGoldFinch/?yguid=47202339
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GPA101911/?yguid=47202339
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NFSS/?yguid=47202339
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/timbrado/?yguid=47202339
Best regards to all,
G.A. Abbate
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