Clearly, no other person has sung the anthem as well as Whitney did at that superbowl. I remember it well! 

Don't rock the Anthem. Don't hop-hop it. Don't pimp it. Don't boogie it. Just sing it right! Get some high school kid from the neighbourhood and ask him or her to do it right! It does not need twists and turns and rubbish phrasing. Sing it straight! I am always soooooo embarrassed when I hear these hot rock people go at it. Just get up there, cut the rubbish and sing! Hand on heart and sing!

GO BOBBIE!! 

Yeah, they are big and have loooong legs! Cute though. You'll be home soon and back to Falcon watching.

Wow, great news and I love this pic!!

They having a blizzard?

[top bird anatomists in the world]

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner's office has identified the victim of a fatal car crash as Bradley Livezey, a world-renowned Carnegie Museum of Natural History ornithologist.

The crash occurred along Route 910 near North Chapel Drive and Pearce Mill Road in Pine around 9 a.m. Tuesday. Mr. Livezey, 56, of Wexford, was pronounced dead at the scene at 9:07 a.m.

Mr. Livezey served as the birds curator at the museum. His research focused on flightless birds and on using genetic analysis to study the evolution of birds, among other things. A seminal paper he authored in 1986 led to classifications of birds adopted by many field guides and books on waterfowl. Mr. Livezey was considered one of the top bird anatomists in the world.

 

Anna Björg Kristbjörnsdóttir, a resident of Gerdhamrar in Reykjavík’s Grafarvogur district, was surprised to find a short-eared owl resting on a fence near her house when she returned home at around 3 pm on Sunday.
“It was very exciting and special. I was really surprised to see an owl so calm that close to us,� Kristbjörnsdóttir told Fréttabladid.

“We parked the car and walked up to it and it seemed very tame and wasn’t startled. We were probably only two meters away from it and it didn’t fly away until after Fréttabladid’s photographer took pictures of it. At that point we probably moved a little too close,� Kristbjörnsdóttir speculated.

Ólafur Karl Nielsen, an ornithologist at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, said the short-eared owl is the only owl species that breeds in Iceland every year; other owl species that have nested in Iceland intermittently are snowy owls and long-eared owls.

A couple of hundred short-eared owls usually reside in Iceland in winter. “There are some short-eared owls in the Reykjavík area every winter,� Nielsen said, adding that they are usually out and about in the afternoon dusk, during the night and in the mornings.

“It isn’t especially common that they pose for people. They sleep in groves and well known sleeping habitats are for example in Öskjuhlíd, Ellidaárdalur, Fossvogur and Keldur. When they are awake they move around and try to catch mice and small birds,� Nielsen described.

Her home

Pic of Short-eared Owl

[So sad, they are so hungry.]

BETHEL — It took a few days, but state wildlife biologists on Sunday captured a barred owl that had been decapitating chickens inside a Bethel barn and flying off with their heads.

Wildlife biologist Chuck Hulsey said the owl was taken on Monday to Avian Haven, a wildlife rehabilitator in Freedom.

“It was probably under a lot of stress and is going to rehab, which won't hurt it,� Hulsey said Tuesday.

He said the owl was killing about one chicken a day at a Bethel barn when he was notified of the situation.

“It was reported as a northern hawk owl, which is rare for here,� Hulsey said. “They're a Canadian, southern Arctic Circle bird. Like snowy owls, they show up every now and then because there's a lack of food up north and they start pushing south.�

Wildlife biologist Judy Camuso in Gray told Hulsey that Maine has one or two sightings a year of northern hawk owls.

Despite the report, Camuso and Hulsey said they believed the chicken “serial killer� was a barred owl.

Owls are having a tough time finding food because of deep snow and Saturday night's rain that froze atop the snow didn't help, Camuso said Tuesday.

“Owls don't have very good luck getting at their prey right now when there's such a deep snowpack, and then you combine it with the rain we got that created a little ice pack on top of it, that makes it even harder for them,� she said.

She said many animals that owls eat — such as red squirrels and voles — live under the snow.

"That's why many owls, particularly barred owls as they're so common, are being taken to wildlife rehabbers now," she said. "They end up hunting along roadsides and tend to get hit by cars."

They might also kill chickens, Camuso said. “It's not a normal situation.�

"Chickens are too large for a barred owl to carry off, "so it just chews the head off and leaves with the head; not a whole lot of nutrition,� Hulsey said.

“Not really that great for the farmer, (either),� Camuso said. “Owls will often eat the head of an animal first. There are some nutrients in the brain that they like, like minerals in particular. Usually, owls and weasels are kind of notorious for eating heads.�

She said it was very unusual, however, for an owl to enter a barn to prey on chickens.

“I was very surprised to see an owl — particularly a barred owl — going into a building like that, so it was definitely getting pretty close to starving to come inside a building," she said.

“It's not surprising, given the amount of snow that we've had, but it was pretty well on its last legs and doing everything it could to survive,� she said.

“The owner of the chickens was very sympathetic towards the owl, and so we went over there to see if we could catch it with a mist net and eventually did,� Hulsey said.

But not before it had killed five or six chickens.

So sad, they are so hungry.

[Ultralight-led Whooping Crane Found Dead in Alabama]

Ultralight-led Whooping Crane Found Dead in Alabama

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the death of a whooping crane reported by an Alabama conservation officer at Weiss Lake, in Cherokee County Ala., on Jan. 28, 2011. The lake is located midway between Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga. Investigators believe the crane was shot.

The male whooping crane, designated 12-04, was equipped with a transmitter and leg bands to help track his movements. Trackers located it in January with other whooping cranes in a Cherokee County field not far from the lake where it was killed.

Scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Ore., are conducting a necropsy on the dead crane. It is the only lab in the world dedicated to crimes against wildlife.

Raised in Wisconsin at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, whooping crane 12-04 learned how to migrate behind ultralight aircraft flown by Operation Migration.

Operation Migration is a partner with the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership, and for 10 years has lead between seven and 20 cranes per year on their first migration from Wisconsin to Florida to increase whooping crane numbers to recover this magnificent endangered species.

The bird made its first migration to the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Florida during the fall of 2004. It annually wintered in Florida until 2009. Since then it has spent winters on the marshes in and around Weiss Lake, Ala.

“We are extremely disappointed by the killing of this whooping crane,� said Jim Gale, Special Agent in Charge of Law Enforcement in the Service’s Southeast Region. “We recently lost three whooping cranes to gunfire in south Georgia, now this one in Alabama. This senseless killing has just got to stop.�

Gale has asked for the support of the public, especially the fishing, hunting, and boating community who may have seen or heard about the killing on Weiss Lake to help prosecute whoever shot this crane.

A $6,000 reward is being offered for information that leads to a conviction. To provide information, call Special Agent John Rawls at 334-285-9600, or e-mail him at john_rawls@fws.gov.

Several organizations are contributing to the reward including Operation Migration, which led this bird south with Ultralight aircraft on its first migration in 2004, The Turner Foundation, the International Crane Foundation, the Alabama Wildlife Federation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership uses two techniques to establish the Eastern Migratory Population. One method trains cranes to follow costumed pilots flying ultralight aircraft from Wisconsin to Florida. The other releases young birds directly into wild populations of whooping cranes and sandhill cranes – called Direct Autumn Release.

Last spring, whooping crane 12-04 had paired with 27-05, the oldest Direct Autumn Release bird. The new couple successfully mated and had a late season nest with two eggs in Juneau County, Wis., south of Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. One egg hatched and the pair raised the chick for several weeks until it disappeared, presumably taken by a predator -- possibly a bobcat or coyote.

Captive whooping cranes produce Direct Autumn Release cranes at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wis. These eggs are hatched there, then raised in isolation by costumed caretakers for the first six weeks. Specialists then move them to an isolation facility in natural habitat on Necedah National Wildlife Refuge where costumed caretakers raise them. They are later released into the company of older whooping cranes around Necedah National Wildlife Refuge for the fall migration in November. They then follow those experienced whooping cranes and sandhill cranes, learning the migration route to the wintering habitat.

It has taken five years for the birds in the Direct Autumn Release program to learn to nest -- a milestone for the program that began in 2005.

The cranes are part of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership effort to reintroduce whooping cranes into the eastern United States. There are about 570 whooping cranes left in the world, 400 in the wild. There are about 100 cranes in the Eastern Migratory Population.

In addition to the Endangered Species Act, whooping cranes are protected by state laws and the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

[Have a very Happy Birthday Baerbel]

Have a very Happy Birthday Baerbel

I remember watching her sing...had tears! Great video Paul. Thank you!

 

Love it!

What she said!

What they said!

It ain't Paradise anymore! Your tough, you can get through it. I'd love to take care of the horses and dogs. Kids are rough, especially during video games!

Great story and CUTE video! Thanks

Have a look - so life-like, you could almost reach out and touch them!

http://php.democratandchronicle.com/blog/birds/?p=4155

Amazing photos! Thanks

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