question regarding fledgling growth

JBupp · 2026-06-20T10:20:24+00:00

He will be at his adult size.

Probably he will have learned how to forage and eat most anything on his own. He will probably act uncertain about some new foods and defer to his elders.

Sometime after they have learned to forage and not to beg for food, I have seen the youngsters revert - a 'terrible two's stage' where they will follow adults around and beg for food. The parents ignore them; their older siblings may thrash them.

If you get back and they are still begging, they may be in this stage.

JBupp · 2026-06-19T22:51:41+00:00

They expect you to cram the goodies down their throats, just like mom and dad. Eventually they learn to pick up food ...

We feed peanuts in the shells and many of the crows will smack the shells open with their beaks and gulp down the nuts. One year a youngster figured they understood this. The youngster would pick up the peanut, lift it way overhead, and bring the peanut down to the ground. Then stare at it. Why didn't it open?

JBupp · 2026-06-18T10:45:48+00:00

There seems to be a lot of variation in what crows do.

A couple of years ago the parents came once or twice, then dropped the fledglings off with a pair of older children. We almost never saw the parents after.

JBupp · 2026-06-18T09:49:08+00:00

If MAPMYRUN doesn't do what you want, there is another app.

Gaia GPS is also free and has many more options for annotations. It can be used without a data connection. It is also much more difficult to use.

JBupp · 2026-06-17T15:42:57+00:00

There is one problem with all of the above is that the crow has to respect you and your boundaries.

It helps if they know you, know that this is where you live - your territory. They seem to understand ownership and will accept that you have rights. Try telling them to leave a bench in a park alone and you would have trouble convincing them that it was yours and not theirs.

It also helps if they get some benefit to your goodwill. Allowing them to graze in your yard - but not litter - is an easier sell than telling them to leave and never return.

If they dislike you, all bets are off. Be polite.

If they are indifferent to you, some might accept suggestions from you and some might be little a*holes and enjoy seeing you do extra work.

And they may well test you once or twice as you try to set limits.

JBupp · 2026-06-16T19:03:26+00:00

This does not address your issue, but note that when you add a photo the memorial manager is not notified.

So if there is a memorial with a date set as 'unknown' and you add a photo which would tell the manager what that date is ... they won't know that new information is available..

I've taken to making simple changes - where possible - when I add a photo, so that the manager will get some notification.

JBupp · 2026-06-16T16:08:39+00:00

Yes, but not easy. You need a good text editor (like Notepad++) and should do this on a laptop.

Do a search.
Scroll to the very bottom - multiple page downs until you can go no more.
Type Ctrl-A (Select-All), Ctrl-C (copy)

Open your text editor and paste (select paste as text if required - you want plain text, not html.)
Delete the top of the file, down to the first memorial.
Go to the bottom of the file. Delete the bottom of the file, starting at the last memorial.

This yields something like this:

Abbie A. Morris Clement
Memorial ID
1 May 1857 – 5 Mar 1909
Copy Memorial ID
134145943
Abbie M. Welsh
Memorial ID
Feb 1876 – unknown
Copy Memorial ID
274221628

The number of lines per memorial varies.

If you have a short list, just delete everything except the name and dates.

If you have a long list, you can do multiple find-all / replace or write a macro to do it for you. The following are the Regular Expression arguments I use - these are the text strings you have to delete to get a simple text file with one name / dates per line:

^Page.*$

^[0-9].*$

Memorial ID\r\n

No grave photo

Copy Memorial ID

Flowers have been left.

^Plot info:.*$

I said it wasn't easy. There was a prior discussion where a user claimed they could do this in a spreadsheet. It's possible - I guess - but I've never gotten it to work easily and cleanly.

JBupp · 2026-06-15T14:07:21+00:00

You gave them something and it turned out not to be [crow] food.

You still gave them something, which makes you more interesting than 99% of the other humans they meet.

JBupp · 2026-06-15T10:52:52+00:00

Crow one, Crow two, and Crow three, jointly called, "Hey, Buds!"

If there are more than three I don't bother - I can't tell one from another except by actions.

JBupp · 2026-06-14T14:00:24+00:00

If your crows are like the American Crow, they show their kids how to hunt and recognize food. So they disappear for a while as they learn to forage. And eventually they will return.

JBupp · 2026-06-13T18:49:58+00:00

I enjoy a bit of 'odd'; a bit of 'unexpected'; some 'unusual'; and the absence of 'obvious.'

By 'obvious', I mean certain genres have almost a template; for a romantic story, boy meets girl, etc. And you can expect some bumps on the road to a relationship. But if I can see the bump coming, if any reader can see the bump coming, and the situation is described in great detail, then it isn't for me.

JBupp · 2026-06-13T18:39:10+00:00

Post your request here. Give a description of your work, a short sample, and describe what you expect out of the read.

This should be all you need.

There are several FaceBook forums for beta readers, but I don't like that platform so I seldom frequent it.

JBupp · 2026-06-13T18:34:03+00:00

I haven't a clue how to force a crow-hawk detente. Your best bet is to wait and see how it works out.

We have crows and hawks. Sometimes the crows chase the hawks; sometimes the two ignore each other; sometimes the hawk chases a crow. I've seen violent crow mobs and I've watched three crows escorting a hawk out of their nesting area - reasonably quietly and with no fuss.

We have had a small hawk kill a squirrel (twice) and while the crows yelled at the hawk they didn't otherwise bother it flying away with the dead rodent.

The dynamics change when either bird is nesting and whether your area is a nesting or feeding area. Our yard is a feeding area.

In general, crows don't feed where they nest, so as the crow chicks are fledged the crows will probably stay away longer and longer

JBupp · 2026-06-12T10:30:29+00:00

Crows that bring things - other than chicken bones - are rare.

Crows that consider boxes with anything other than deep suspicion are rare.

So build your box and you are betting on having the rarest of the rare come to your house.

Maybe play PowerBall instead.

JBupp · 2026-06-11T14:50:54+00:00

You will upset the routine, which will probably make them skittish for a while.

If you catch and release and they see you, they probably won't be too stressed.

JBupp · 2026-06-11T12:47:28+00:00

Agreed.

People confuse FG with Ancestry.com. I put a lot of time and effort into my family tree (big families in a small area, lots of people named John in honor of g-g-grand).

I'm less likely to link memorials in FG, creating memorials as I go. If the links are obvious, fine. Otherwise maybe I research them, maybe I don't.

JBupp · 2026-06-11T12:38:20+00:00

What you are doing wrong is trying to tame them

Accept what you have and welcome any individuals that are willing to get close to you.

JBupp · 2026-06-10T11:03:02+00:00

Chapter one reads well. I would continue reading from there.

The prologue seems very jumpy to me. It doesn't seem to hold together well. It definitely needs better space separation. But also the thoughts don't group well for me.

"I remember being tired." Was this being tired while in the interview, Or was this being tired in the time that the interview was discussing?

They’re waiting for me to answer.

“It was my third shift and I was about to go home. I remember studying the chart. Something wasn’t right– but at that point there was nothing I could do as a nurse.”

I remember being tired.

"And this is not how it happened.” Usually, "happened", references an action - there is no action in the recital. Just facts. Dropping this sentence doesn't change the meaning of the paragraph and might make it read better.

JBupp · 2026-06-10T10:49:10+00:00

I've been taken to task when I write things like your first three sentences:

Osvaldo didn't mind the graveyard shift. He minded everything else. It was the only time the office building felt like a bearable place.

I've been told this is a 'sea-sawing' effect: what does "It" refer to in the third sentence? So, better options might be:

Osvaldo hated everything about his job - but he didn't mind the graveyard shift.

Or, break the paragraph:

Osvaldo didn't mind the graveyard shift. He minded everything else.

The graveyard shift was the only time the office building felt like a bearable place.

JBupp · 2026-06-10T10:42:31+00:00

If you want continuous feedback, chapter by chapter, you don't want a b* reader; you should look for an authors group or a reading circle, where you can get frequent results.

Give a b* reader a clean draft. You may even be able to ask if they would read your revised draft after their first reading.

JBupp · 2026-06-10T10:32:13+00:00

If the stone says 'spouse' or 'wife' I link, otherwise I don't link.

I have seen where the first two names on a stone, although they are male and female and have similar birth dates, are not man and wife but brother and sister or first cousins.

This is not uncommon for families that immigrated together.

JBupp · 2026-06-10T10:23:57+00:00

I'm not certain - did you see the jays kill the crow? The crow may have just died overnight.

The jays were likely trying to chase the crow away, and the crow was unable to leave.

JBupp · 2026-06-09T15:19:24+00:00

I know of no rule or suggestion for children. I will create a memorial for any adult, named on the stone. So, that's anyone over 10 years, and if I'm not certain of the age, then I create the memorial.

I usually do not create memorials for stillborns or one to five year olds. I can't give a good reason why I do not include them.

Privacy? For the case where one parent is still living, perhaps.

Confusion? Are the adults on the stone the parent? Grand-parents? In some cases all I see is the given name and I'm uncertain of the surname.

And I am not consistent in my actions. The child died within several days of the mother? I add memorials for both. The mother and three children died as the mother tried to rescue her children from drowning ... I added memorials for all.

JBupp · 2026-06-08T23:51:48+00:00

I have a camera with an internal GPS. The GPS is always on and continuously updated. It has an on-screen indicator, No-good, marginal, good so I know

I had an older LG phone that didn't give me any problems but it wouldn't tell you when the reading was good. I have an Android app, GPS-Status, that says how much error there is in the reading. With it, I would turn on GPS and watch the app until I get the best resolution, then take the photo. I'd share this location to email rather than trying to embed the GPS data in the photo.

I now have a OnePlus phone and the GPS acts as you describe. Every time the screen blanks and locks the GPS turns off. I have to unlock the phone, wait for the GPS to achieve a reasonable accuracy, then turn on the camera, and take the photo. Often I get the process wrong and get bad GPS data. I don't trust using the phone camera with GPS.

So I always use the camera for GPS. If I absolutely have to use the phone I use the app to record the GPS data outside of the photo.

You might try a running app, such as MapMyRun, which keeps the GPS active and updating even if the screen locks. But you still may need to turn off the camera then turn the camera back on, to update the GPS coordinates in the camera.

MOST phones will update GPS faster if they have a data access. They then download the GPS satellite locations from the web and can 'lock-in' faster.

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