I'm confused with the hairy and downy!

Sam doesn't play with normal "CAT" toys, he likes sox and underwear, (clean) and this Winter head band. He carries this all over. One time we had people over and he comes down with a pair of boxers in his mouth, just dragging them along. Don't leave any clothes on your floor or he'll bring them down. 

Bucca thinks he's nuts too!  :silly

Thanks Joyce, great watch. Beauty sure gets around and seems to be on the look out for anything that moves. Hope Archer comes back soon to keep that gal settled.

[I caught that on Huckabee last night also. OMG, I cried myself to sleep. I felt so sick after watching and hearing these poor dolphins scream as they are being attacked. Awful. The slaughter ends this month but will start back up on Sept 1st. They need at least 1000 journalist there in Sept to get the word out. Most of the Japanese don't even know this is going on. I hope this ends soon as these poor Dolphins don't deserve this. I could never watch the full version, what I saw last night was enough and I'm very weak when it comes to KILLING anything but Kudos to the film makers for getting the word out.]

We switched on Huckabee last night, caught the end of the Rove interview and as I was getting ready to do kitchen clean-up, saw "actor from the Cove".  Ok, plopped my butt back down and got a very real understanding of the herding and slaughter of the dolphins.  Between looking for Flipper/Cathy and the bloody slaughter, I'm not very comfortable about seeing dolphin shows again nor swimming with them at Discovery Cove.  Ok, only about 20 fisherman do the killing and it has been going on for about 400 years during the migration (for food), but it is the trainers who "sort" through the dolphins looking for the "right" ones that are perpetuating this slaughter.  150K for a Flipper and about 500.00 for food.  I get fishing and hunting for food, but this is literally shooting fish (mamales) in a barrel.

I caught that on Huckabee last night also. OMG, I cried myself to sleep. I felt so sick after watching and hearing these poor dolphins scream as they are being attacked. Awful. The slaughter ends this month but will start back up on Sept 1st. They need at least 1000 journalist there in Sept to get the word out. Most of the Japanese don't even know this is going on. I hope this ends soon as these poor Dolphins don't deserve this. I could never watch the full version, what I saw last night was enough and I'm very weak when it comes to KILLING anything but Kudos to the film makers for getting the word out.

Things to know before accipiters attack

Folks often ask how I come up with column ideas.

It seems somehow like an arduous process to come up with something unusual or amusing once a week. While I should let them keep believing it is a difficult, almost occult phase of the writing process, in fact, it is easy. All I have to do is glance around. If that does not produce something worthwhile, I just open up any newspaper and make a list of headlines.

This is never disappointing.

Today's exercise provides a good example. Here are the headlines I found:

"Man vandalizes urinal, is arrested;"

"Some unhappy with bikini ad for Perky Cups coffee;"

"Patients try to keep appointments with jailed doc;"

"Tacoma police find naked woman tied to a tree;"

"Kentucky deputy tries to shoot himself out of jail cell;"

"Hamas bans men from women's hair salons;"

"Conn. town terrorized by harmful hawk"

Looking over the list, some sound better than they really are. The first one, for example, is no real surprise.

While I remain at a loss to explain it, many people, particularly young males, attack bathroom furnishings with great ferocity.

On Memorial Day weekend my unit always drew security detail at the campsites, and we could depend upon there always being at least one incident involving the destruction of a toilet. Pencil-neck college seniors about to graduate with a degree in English literature or art history would have a few beers, arm themselves with a club, and begin to savagely attack bathroom fixtures.

I always wanted to do a research paper on this behavior but found, when interviewing the subjects after the alcohol was out of their system, they seemed baffled themselves and could never come up with the basis for their grudge against lavatories. The toilets never did anything to provoke them and only rarely struck back.

There was one dramatic incident wherein, in the midst of using the toilet for its intended purpose, a fellow was overcome with the need to blow it up. The combined effect of alcohol and illegal chemicals rendered him oblivious to cause and effect, so he remained sitting, lit an M-80, slipped it behind him into the toilet tank and turned around giggling. The tank lid hit him in the back of the head with such force that it was broken in two (the lid, not his head which was harder than the porcelain).

He was propelled through the stall door, ripping it from the hinges and landing him unconscious in a face plant on the very nasty floor just moments before the contents of the bowl, which had been blown skyward, landed on his back. No one would render any help because said contents continued to drip from the ceiling for several minutes.

The only tragedy is that this all occurred pre-YouTube.

Regrettably, I cannot for the life of me figure out a way to relate this to nature so we will have to go with the "harmful hawk" business - which is pretty mundane.

The article said wildlife experts were being called in to identify the savage beast, but anyone who spends much time outdoors can tell you there are two strong candidates.

The issue is nest site protection, and the absolute king of this is the peregrine falcon.

During the nesting season, it is sometimes necessary to close off certain popular rock-climbing sites. The reason given publicly is so as not to disturb the nesting peregrine falcons. A bigger concern is that the ultra-high-speed dive-bombing by the falcons has been successful in dislodging climbers and causing nasty falls.

This guarding behavior developed primarily to drive off avian nest-robbers who might like to dine on falcon eggs.

A more likely candidate, given the area where the complaint was generated, is a goshawk.

These are largest of the common accipiters; long-tailed, short-winged, hawks that specialize in preying on other birds. The northern goshawk is large enough to take rabbits and squirrels but it greatly prefers prey like grouse, pigeons and ducks. The preferred attack method is a high-speed pass and a hard strike with both feet balled into fists. The resulting blow stuns the prey and knocks it to the ground where the goshawk can then finish it off.

The goshawk is found throughout North America and Eurasia. The American form tends to be more gray while the Eurasian birds have more dark banding across their breasts.

In the Arctic, many of the birds are nearly pure white. It is noted for being fierce, so much so that Attila the Hun wore the image of the northern goshawk on his war helmet.

This ferocity is never more evident than when something approaches a goshawk nest. In spite of the fact the nests are typically high in the canopy, nothing is safe either in the sky above or on the forest floor below. Younger birds may guard an area as much as 30 yards from the tree although more mature pairs become a little more tolerant.

The first inkling you may have is a high-speed pass within a yard or so when you first cross the imaginary line the goshawk has drawn around its nest tree. If you persist, the next time or two, you get to experience stunning buffet used to incapacitate prey. I know from experience this can raise a nice lump on your noggin. Continue and the attacks will escalate to the point of open claws.

Last year a local bicyclist had an irate goshawk fasten to his helmet, claw and bite viciously while beating him with its wings. The helmet took the brunt but he wasted no time in getting away from the area.

Must be we are more tolerant around here. That attack did not even get an honorable mention, much less a headline.

Bird strikes were cut nearly in half at the Albany International Airport in 2009 compared to the previous year, following stepped-up efforts to keep potentially dangerous birds and wildlife away from aircraft during takeoffs and landings.
   
There were 28 reported bird strikes last year compared to 47 in 2008, none serious enough to cause any injuries or to disable a plane.

"We've taken a lot of steps to help reduce the hazards of bird strikes," said airport spokesman Doug Myers.

The issue of bird strikes became major news on Jan. 15, 2009, when moments after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City the pilot of US Airways flight 1549, Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III radioed air traffic control and said the plane had suffered a "double bird strike" and had become disabled. Sullenberger became a national hero for ditching the loaded plane into the Hudson River, averting tragedy.

There were more than 108,000 bird strikes reported nationwide between 1990 and 2009, equivalent to about one strike for every 10,000 flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA said 92 percent of the bird strikes occurred below 3,000 feet.

Albany International Airport in Colonie uses an arsenal of noise to harass and divert birds and other wildlife, including a dozen propane-fueled cannons that fire random booms of air; pistols that fire Screamer Siren and Bird Banger cartridges, which resemble fireworks; and the occasional shotgun with live rounds. Going lethal is a last resort.

In addition to increased patrols, airport workers regularly consult with USDA Wildlife Services officials. That collaboration led to a change in allowing the grass along runways to grow longer, up to 8 inches tall, to discourage birds of prey from swooping down to snatch unsuspecting rodents because the long grass snags on their wings.

Despite a downward trend of bird strikes, there were some increases in wildlife reports from 2008 to 2009: Ducks (from 4 to 14); geese (from 56 to 96); gulls (from 33 to 40); and hawks (from 5 to 14).

Coyote sightings dropped from 32 to 4.

It has started. If it happened all at once and in daylight, the great migration would be astonishing to behold: 16m birds streaming into Britain from Africa, stretching from horizon to horizon. As it is, they flutter in day after day, at dusk or at night — birds as tiny as the goldfinch and siskin; birds as central to our idea of summer as the swallow and cuckoo; birds as emblematic of wild places as the gannet, redshank and great skua. And their arrival means it is spring.

These spring-bringers, as Michael McCarthy calls them in his elegiac book about migration, Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo, have one thing in common. They come via Malta, a key stepping stone on the central migration lane into Europe from Africa, where tired birds roost and feed after their long flights.

Sadly, there is also evidence that many of them are being illegally shot and trapped on the island. Which is why I found myself in the Maltese countryside last week, at 5.50am one morning, with a team from Birdlife Malta. By 7am we were crouched behind a stone wall looking over a bleached landscape of small rocky fields, carob trees and prickly pears. Below us lay a huge trapping site — a built hide, raised platforms for decoy songbirds in cages and cleared patches of red earth.

Within 10 minutes an illegal finch trapper was setting out his clap nets. Before the two security guards with us could call the police, the trapper spotted us, gathered up his nets and retreated into the hide, where he stared back at us through binoculars. It was a standoff, so we moved to a new, concealed vantage point. By the end of the day we had seen dozens of similar hides on the surrounding hills. Trapping sites are estimated to cover a larger area of the 16-mile long island than Valletta, the capital.

The country has 12,000 licensed shotgun owners plus 3,000 licensed trappers — a density of 80 hunters per square kilometre. Under a disputed exemption from European Union law, Malta last year allowed the trappers to catch quail, turtle doves, golden plovers and song thrushes. But the truth is that many use legal trapping as a cover to catch finches — illegal under both Maltese and EU law — which sell for hundreds of euros. Instead of fluffy dice, local bus drivers hang greenfinches in cages alongside flags of English football clubs.

While we were hiding, a male marsh harrier flew over, en route to Scandinavia. It had fooled the local hunters by arriving early. When raptor migration hots up in a few weeks’ time, according to Birdlife’s spokesman Geoffrey Saliba, the hillsides will echo to the sound of guns as birds of prey come in to roost in the eucalyptus trees. Birdlife volunteers in red T-shirts try to discourage the shooting by pitching “raptor camps� near the trees. Violence is not unknown. A reserve warden’s head was recently peppered with shot.

Big birds seem to spark a shooting frenzy. Tests of marksmanship include eagles, harriers, ospreys and honey buzzards. Even flamingos are regularly shot. In 2008, when a skein of 12 black storks arrived over Malta, they were followed by a darkly comic procession of two police vehicles and a number of Birdlife supporters, constantly being fired at by the hunters. By the time the storks left 24 hours later, only four were airborne.

Malta’s native peregrines and barn owls were polished off in an orgy of shooting in the 1980s; hence the enthusiastic targeting of many EU-protected migratory birds. It may be repellent, but does the shooting of these species actually matter in conservation terms — and is it really any of our business? The answer is pretty clear. Of the 170 or so types of bird migrating over Malta, some 75 are EU-protected species on the way back to 35 countries. Those shot include the pallid harrier, a southern European bird of which there are only 50 breeding pairs; the lesser spotted eagle, now the target of a conservation project in Germany; and our own bittern, hanging on in small numbers in Britain.

Not surprisingly, Malta’s annual bird slaughter was considered a serious obstacle to its accession to the EU before it joined in 2004. But the Nationalist party government, which is still in power, protested in writing to the European commission that it had promised the hunters their sport would be preserved — above and beyond the 32 birds on the official EU “legal quarry� list. So what did the EU do? It merely noted this statement, without pointing out that Malta would have to bring its laws in line with Europe's. In the end, Malta secured an EU agreement to allow the trapping of finches until 2008. The bigger issue was fudged.

Since then the government has been wary of upsetting the 20,000-odd hunters on the island — not least because the last general election was decided on a margin of fewer votes than that. So local penalties handed out for killing protected birds have been too low for deterrence. Last year Malta was found in breach of the EU birds directive by the European Court of Justice. If the same happens this year, Malta could be fined. So be it: the government evidently sees this as the price for staying in power.

Preventing the slaughter of birds migrating across borders is one of the better justifications for European law and Brussels officials must take much of the blame if heftier sanctions, ones that really hurt, are not soon applied. Remember that the next time you wonder when you last heard a cuckoo.

This rare white Atlantic puffin was seen playing with its more common black friends off the Isles of Scilly.

Barbara Fryer, from Umberleigh, Devon, who took the picture, said: “I’ve seen many puffin colonies and have never seen a white one before.� The bird — once considered mythical — is the result of leucism, in which colour pigments form but are diluted.

The bird expert Peter Robinson, who has worked on the BBC Springwatch programme and for the RSPB for 25 years, said the white puffin was extemely rare.

“I lived on the Isles of Scilly for 12 years and worked ringing puffins in Scotland for a season and have never even heard of a white puffin let alone seen one.

“It’s a stunning photograph and wonderful bird. The contrast between the orange bill and white feathers is particularly amazing,� he said.

Albinism is a genetic mutation that prevents the strong black pigment — melanin — from forming. With leucism, colour pigments form but are diluted.

Ms Fryer, who photographed the puffin from a boat, said: “We had been out every day that week taking photos of puffins and we saw the white one on the last day.

“It was lovely to see it swimming underwater and I am thrilled to have got the shots I wanted in quite difficult conditions.

“The white puffin was sitting on the water as we were floating near rocks, watching adults return to their nests to feed their young.

“It played around with the other puffins for about 15 minutes before flying away. They didn’t seem to mind its unusual colour and treated it like a good friend.�

Puffins are widely distributed across the North Atlantic for most of the year and only come ashore to breed.

Invasion of the turkey vulture


Turkey vultures have invaded Graham, and Michelle Johnston has just about had enough of the birds.
Johnston, the owner of the Kiddie Kottage day care center, said the vultures have created havoc at the day care.
“They are puking and crapping all over my vehicles and van and all over my play yard,� Johnston said. “They’re roosting all over my yard. I’m worried about the kids. This stuff they’re puking up is disgusting. It’s very unsanitary.�
Some of the turkey vultures in the city have made their home on a cell phone tower directly behind Kiddie Kottage. As a result, all of their waste is being dropped onto the day care center.
“The main thing I worry about is the sanitary issues for my kids,� Johnston said. “We’re afraid to go outside with all of them out there. They’re a pain in our side. Our play yard is a mess.�
Game Warden Brent Isom said turkey vultures are nothing new to Graham, but he said there does seem to be an increase in the number of birds.
“I think they’ve built some new antennas where they roost easier than they used to,� Isom said. “They have to roost around town. They look for high structures, the higher the better. When they take off to fly, they’re already up high and can just take off. They’re also incredibly good smellers. Being high, anything that’s dying, they can smell.�
Isom said while the vultures may be a nuisance, there is little area residents can do to stop the birds.
“They’re federally protected,� Isom said. “They’re considered migratory because they will come and go. There’s always going to be some that have established this area as their home turf. Some will move south as far as Mexico and most will go north to stay cool.�
Isom said the increase in vultures in Graham is directly linked to an increase in food in the area. He said massive numbers of fish dying off in recent years at Possum Kingdom Lake has made the area a popular stop for the vultures. An increase in wildlife has also added to the lure of the area.
“There is an increase across the whole county,� Isom said. “There’s probably as many vultures here as there ever have been. Some of the conditions have changed through the year. The amount of wildlife has increased which leads to more animals dying.�
The good news, Isom said, is the fish die-off at Possum Kingdom has not materialized this year. Without that food source, the vultures are likely to leave the area.
“Over the last several years, we’ve had a die-off of fish, and they gorge themselves,� he said. “We haven’t had a die off of fish this year. As summer approaches and it gets hotter, some of them will head north for cooler weather.�
For the average person in Graham, the vultures are an interesting development. For Johnston, they are a real pain.
“They’re not a nuisance to the normal community, but to those individuals where they roost, they’re definitely a nuisance,� Isom said. “Probably the biggest nuisance is they’re excrementing all that stuff.�
Isom said the nuisance would likely continue for the near future.
“As long as there are reasons here for them, they’ll be here,� Isom said. “If the reasons end, they’ll go away. Once they determine the fish kill won’t happen this year, they’ll have to move on because there won’t be food.�
Finding a method to get the vultures to go away is something Scott Johnston has been looking at for over three weeks, ever since the birds arrived near Kiddie Kottage. He has made numerous phone calls and finally feels like there is hope. Johnston explained that by working with the Brazos River Authority, there is a chance the vultures might be forced to leave.
“The Brazos River Authority is the one we’d have to get with to get this done,� Scott said. “He said normally he has to kill two or three of them and then they’ll get the message and go away.�
Scott said whatever has to be done to make the vultures move is fine with him.
“They’re just making a mess,� he said. “We’ve had to start parking out almost on the street to keep their mess away. It’s a health hazard, especially being right there next to the day care. The kids don’t need to be into that.�

Thanks, Ei and right after I posted today, I saw them both there! 

Maybe some eggs soon too!! 

I elect Donna to be our OFFICIAL CHAT STARTER UPPER.   

Sorry I missed the chat last night.  I love talking about Orville!   

"GULP", I opened a can of worms. Orville does have some history!

P.S. Now I have to buy more candy! 

#3 hatched during the night last night...first all 3 heads visible at the same time sighting wasn't until 2:30 this afternoon...



 

3 in a row!! CUTE!!! Thanks Ei.

46 is going to be a worse than usual commute from Dante's Inferno!  Imagine driving to Wayne!

Wayne is probably way under water. The Rockaway river always overflows in bad rain.

When Prudential had the office in Williowbrook, I drove my CJ-5 Jeep through waters up to my doors - feet got wet, too.  Stupid 18-year old kid!

Done it too....we were COOL!!!

  Could be a Beauty in the upper right hand corner. Fly by. Could be something else too.

46 is going to be a worse than usual commute from Dante's Inferno!  Imagine driving to Wayne!

Wayne is probably way under water. The Rockaway river always overflows in bad rain.