6:38pm: MAK said Callidora is having a grand old time flying around the Apts behind High Falls...talons down. Wish Jemison was there to play with her. Go Callidora! Beauty on Kodak. Archer around also. MAK, jeanne, Brian and Carol on Ped bridge.

4:19: MAK has Callidora on FCT...at first hard to tell with Sun. Definitely Miss C. Falcon #2, prob Archer was way way up circling Tower and disappeared into the clouds. Brian had Beauty some where else....GO FALCONS!!

When it comes to white-tailed deer, we all know how they are supposed to look. But ocassionally we get genetic abnormalities and end up with something totally different — which is usually white (albino) or even more rare, black. All mammals, including white-tailed deer, can have black fur and these animals are referred to as melanistic. They are called melanistic because their body produces too much melanin, a dark pigment that causes their hair to be very dark brown or black.

Melanistic whitetails are the most rare color abnormality that deer can have – even more rare than piebald or albino deer. The photos seen here were sent to me and they allegedly came from somewhere around Austin, Texas. The photos are that of a melanistic white-tailed buck. The pictures where taken in a residential area so this rare buck may have lucked out.


Well I guess there is such a thing.

A black fawn, has anyone heard of this?

On a hunch, I Googled Greystone...
Bingo, it's yet another of the magnificent old Kirkbride asylums, many of which have been destroyed or at least abandoned, and falling into ruin.
http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/greystonepark/
When I was in Nursing School, I had my Psychiatric Nursing rotation at the Danvers State Hospital, which is on the list at http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/
The concept was innovative, and the buildings beautiful.  Sadly, too many were allowed to deteriorate after closing, and will never be duplicated.
Carol
WV

Over Population

In just four years after Greystone opened, it was already accommodating around 800 patients in a facility designed for 600. . Then, on September 8, 2005, the New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority closed a $186,565,000 bond issue on behalf of the State of New Jersey Department of Human Services for the completion of a new, 43,000 m² (460,000 ft²) Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, which is scheduled to be open in October 2007, still with a shortage of about 75 beds.

The decision to close Greystone in 2000 came about not only because of concerns for the aging buildings, but also due to the recent negative press it was receiving. Specifically, accounts of sexual assault in a hospital elevator, patients committing suicide, patients becoming pregnant, and a twice-convicted rapist escaping did not help Greystone's public image. The last patients left Greystone's Kirkbride building (the main building) in 1988 and, for the most part, the building remained unused.

The current Greystone campus covers over a square mile and consists of 43 buildings.

Ground was ceremonially broken on November 16, 2005, for the new psychiatric hospital on the Greystone campus. The expected date of opening was October 2007. The new hospital is two-thirds the size of the Kirkbride building and can house about 450 patients, with another 100 patients living in hospital-run cottages on the grounds around the main building.

   A little buckshot in his posterior would be even more fitting!    

PS

Graystone is the old nut-house in Morris County.

and it's still in business, sometimes the crazies escape!  That place is creepy, I'll have to go take some pics.

Take some pix, Donna? Now, just how are you going to do that... unless, of course...

~~~~I LEAVE THE HOUSE~~~~

   A little buckshot in his posterior would be even more fitting!    

PS

Graystone is the old nut-house in Morris County.

and it's still in business, sometimes the crazies escape!  That place is creepy, I'll have to go take some pics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL8fnx-JoRA&feature=player_embedded Another video of baby hawks being fed. One eats a foot! 

Bobbie, that's one of the babies. 

he bows with intense
Look at that bow: Archer
Beauty

One hundred dogs in shelters along the Louisiana coast who were given up by their families due to economic hardships caused by the BP oil spill are about to get one-way tickets to Chatham Township and, hopefully, new homes.

The president of St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center said Monday that hundreds of people who relied on the fishing industry for their livelihoods began relinquishing their pets after the spill because they were faced with the decision of feeding their pets or themselves.

"Unfortunately their families are breaking up by having to give up their animals. We wanted to extend our arm and help in any way we could, by helping to take in the new animals.'' St. Hubert's president Heather Cammisa said.

On Thursday, approximately 100 dogs are scheduled to make the 24-hour drive from Louisiana to St. Hubert's shelter in Chatham Township. Adoption centers around New Jersey will then take the dogs and try to find them homes.

While the dogs are due to arrive Thursday, shelter officials are not sure when the dogs will be available for adoption.

"We're in a unique position to be able to assist,'' said Kim Saunders, a member of St. Hubert's Board of Trustees and vice president of shelter outreach for Petfinder.com, a website that lists animals available for adoption and has a foundation that is providing a grant to help pay for the transport operation.

Saunders had talked about the situation facing many pets along the Gulf of Mexico with Cammisa and the Humane Society of the United States, and plans to transport the animals were put in motion. The Humane Society is organizing transportation for the animals.

Several coastal parishes began reporting an immediate spike in the number of owners giving up their pets after the spill, according to the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

At St. Bernard Parish Animal Shelter, one of several expected to send some of its dogs to New Jersey in the operation, 117 owners surrendered their pets in June. The year before, the shelter only saw 17 surrenders in that month. The shelter took in 288 animals in May, up from 60 the same month the previous year.

"Folks are moving into apartments, they are uncertain about employmenet opportunities for the future and reliqinquishing their pets to feed their families,'' said Katherine LeBlanc, communications director for the Louisiana SPCA, which has arranged similar transports to other parts of the U.S.

Saunders said the operation on Thursday will be carefully orchestrated so pets are cared for quickly and in the least stressful manner possible.

Cammisa said Thursday's forecast is hot, so volunteers and staff members will be sure plenty of water is available for the dogs when they're unloaded.

Some of the shelters partnering with St. Hubert's to take the dogs include Mount Pleasant Animal Shelter in East Hanover, Noah's Ark in Roxbury, Animal Alliance in Lambertville, the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as well as St. Hubert's North Branch and Madison shelters. That shelter has a Madison mailing address but is located in Chatham Township.

[Follow up from last year: What a joke PTI??]

Follow up from last year: What a joke PTI??

A 67-old Randolph man has been accepted into a special probation program in Morris County for shooting his family's 20-year-old African Grey parrot to death with a pellet gun last year.

Dennis Zeglin was admitted last Wednesday by Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan into the county's Pre-Trial Intervention program for first-time offenders. If he successfully serves three years on probation, an animal cruelty charge will be dismissed and he will not have a conviction on his record.

Under the PTI terms, Zeglin also must complete 100 hours of community service assisting a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals or another organization that provides humane care to creatures. He also must comply with alcohol counseling and pay $1,000 for services and investigation done by the animal control officer for Randolph.

Zeglin declined to comment Monday. Defense attorney Stephen Fletcher could not be reached. He previously has said that Zeglin was intoxicated when he shot "Mikey" on June 7, 2009, because the parrot distracted him with its squawks as Zeglin watched a NASCAR race on television.

Zeglin's wife heard the shots and called police when she saw the bird had been shot.

Zeglin willingly turned over the pellet gun, a Daisy Powerline Model 93, to police and immediately started intensive counseling for alcoholism, Fletcher has said. He has said his client was extremely remorseful over the death of the parrot that had been in the household for two decades.

Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi said the decision to let Zeglin go into PTI was made after careful consideration and proof that Zeglin was rehabilitating himself from alcohol dependency.

''While deterrence is always a consideration, so too is the fact that this defendant has taken significant steps to rehabilitate himself on his own. He is extremely remorseful,'' Bianchi said.

Besides the other PTI conditions, Zeglin has to forfeit any weapons he owns and his firearms ID card.

Osprey Diary August 3rd
August 3rd, 2010 by E Rawling, Perthshire Ranger SWT

Thank you to all our bloggers who have contributed such wonderfully detailed observations so far. It is a great help, especially overnight, and we can be sure that we aren’t missing a moment of our Lady’s’ last days here this year.

 Many people have been asking what to look for as our female osprey prepares to leave, and the honest answer  is that there are no real anticipatory signs. She simply decides one day that the time has come, and flews off and doesn’t return to the nest- if we haven’t seen her for more than 24hrs on the nest or Loch we can usually presume she has headed south. 

 Meanwhile our chicks are giving us all a fantastic show here at Lowes, with spectacular and sometimes comical action over the loch. They are getting bolder by the day, and can be seen trying their luck at diving into the water regularly around the loch side. None of these runs so far has been successful, but it won’t be long before we have the first fish we hope!   

Emma Rawling

Perthshire Ranger

  Holy cow what a close up of that eyas!   

Funny, most do that when there's a cam in the nest. Remember C & J doing it?

Callidora

  Holy cow what a close up of that eyas!   

Funny, most do that when there's a cam in the nest. Remember C & J doing it?