That will be great  to see.
Let m know when it opens, so I´ll add your city in my list of places to visit....
Mirta  

I will definitely do that!  We're told it should be finished and open mid-2010.  When you decide to visit you need to let me know so I can make plans to have our Curator of Reptiles available when I give you a grand tour (because you know I'll want to do that!)!   

It's too bad the Wikipedia pages don't include any info on who or what predators they have.  I'm sure there are a lot of them, including many birds, reptiles and mammals (opossums come to mind).

Any info on that aspect, Mirta?   

Spiders have a lot of predators: several mammals (from monkeys, bats, carnivores, insectivores to opossums), birds, frogs and toads, reptiles, other spiders, scorpions, other arachnids, insects (mantis, a lot of wasps, asassin bugs, etc), several parasites can kill them (fungus, bacterias, wasps, protozoans). And you must remember that most of the spides have short lifes, less than 1 year is common.

 

Mirta

Thanks, Mirta!  I haven't brushed up on my arachnid info in a long time, but need to as we're building a new reptile/amphibian/invertebrate center at the zoo (the name of it is the HISS Center) which will have a whole section devoted entirely to spiders, or so I've been told.  Our Spider City exhibit, although temporary, was a HUGE hit and they want a permanent exhibit. 

Judi   

Should I ask who won the shaving cream race     ...or is that going to be revealed in Part 2?  Fantastic photos!  Thanks for sharing your vacation with us...

That's my missing guy!  We checked and we can't find him.  We think we found a Preying Mantis nest in the evergreen next to the web.  A PM would be able to take down my spider, wouldn't he?

It's too bad the Wikipedia pages don't include any info on who or what predators they have.  I'm sure there are a lot of them, including many birds, reptiles and mammals (opossums come to mind).

Any info on that aspect, Mirta?   

I saw the deer also and the crab that I thought was a turtle....lol

Just remember that the crab walks sideways and has many legs (think big  with a shell) and the turtle skooches and only has 4 legs...(just trying to be helpful here!)   

Bai Yun got up for a minute...look how chubby he's (yes, I think it's a boy) getting!

 

 

He's starting to get his black markings!  So cute!   

Thanks, Jim!   

I figured that I'd mount the houses that are on fences in the area and sold locally.

That's a good way to go.  They're most likely the right kind of box for whatever bats you have in the area.

One thing that most people don't know about bats is how they get airborne - they don't "launch" themselves into the air like birds do, they kind of fall from where they are perching and then start flapping.  So you want to make sure that the box is mounted high enough for them to have enough room underneath to take off from.

Good luck with the bat boxes!

Judi

When I asked that question about the original hack box in that location (no answer so far) I was hoping that perhaps some of the folks up there might still be taking an interest. As I recall, Mark Nash was involved in setting up that hack box, so perhaps he might know who are the people to contact in hopes of some pics or some local awareness of Quest's presence.

DianaR

This might have already been answered on the KFalconCam board, but might as well ask again...has CPF/Mark Nash been notified that Quest is there?

Judi

I love bats!  Another GOOD Bug-eating critter!  I've been thinking about putting up some bat houses because they really are good critters. 

This is an excellent site for lots of good info on bat conservation.  This link takes you to the page on bat houses...

http://www.batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/install-a-bat-house.html

We found this site while doing some research on bat houses for the bat colony we have at the zoo.  They're about to lose their roosting structure, an octagonal shaped open venue which is used for banquets and things like that.  A donor has given us a carousel which will be installed on this land space (full sized with hand carved endangered species...it's beautiful!).  We are in the process of identifying the species of bats we have so we can mount the right types of boxes for them.

 

[Ginormous]

Shaky, that link to the new-style turbines was interesting - thanks for posting it. The wind farms are wreaking havoc on flying creatures across the nation.   Wind farms are a highly-touted "green" source of energy but not enough thought went into them. Bat Conservation International has been running a campaign asking that turbines be shut down at dawn and dusk, peak feeding times for bats, and that has resulted in fewer mortalities for farms that are willing to do it. It's not the speed that kills bats, it's the drastic change in pressure when they enter the turbines. With lots of letter-writing to legislators, perhaps turbines could be shut down during the raptor migration.  Hawk Mountain, a famous raptor corridor near me, is extremely worried about the new farms planned for NJ, NY, and PA. I sure hope something can be worked out to protect raptors and bats and still reap the benefits of wind power.

Dot in PA

There is a Ginormous wind farm in northern California run by PG&E.  They have been working with conservationists for several years now to try to mitigate the avian injuries and deaths that have been caused.  There are also several farms out by Palm Springs, I don't know what they have done though.  Hopefully, these organizations/companies that are planning these farms will look to those that have been working for years to learn the ins/outs of animal protections that have been learned so that they might be able to build better wind machines.

Bats are already in danger from white-nose fungus, which is decimating populations on the East Coast.  We don't need any other dangers to them, they're too important to our environments!

Judi

[(cont)]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8199000/8199726.stm

Blue tits use medicinal plants to disinfect their nests, scientists have discovered.

The birds line their nests with aromatic plants such as mint or lavender, which kill bacteria.

That creates a more sterile environment for chicks, which in turn grow faster and have a better chance of survival.

However, individual blue tits are quite picky about which plants they use, and it is not clear how they pass their knowledge on to other birds.

A number of European bird species add aromatic plants to their nests....(cont)

Actually, a lot of birds do this both in Europe AND the U.S.  I read an article about a U.S. study on this subject a couple of years ago.  I guess it's instinctive with the different species as to what plants they use when building and maintaining their nests.

Birds are so smart!   

I don't know if Dale has joined this forum yet, but Lincoln Karim has a whirlyhead Pale Male on his site today that I know she'll love...(I may have to redo the link tomorrow when it moves to the archive)

 

http://www.palemale.com/

Yep...she just joined today!  You're definitely going to have to redo the link tomorrow...   

This is "Lucky", I found her under my dresser after her mother passed away mysteriously. She was just a few days old in this pic. I had to buy special formula at the vets'....I loved feeding her like this. She was sooo sweet!

Oh my goodness, what a wee, sweet baby she was...I hope she's still as sweet.  How old is she now?

Not sure if anyone saw this on Yahoo News but those of us who love Bai Yun and were tuning in to catch a glimpse of the cub actually crashed the web site Thursday!   
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090808/ap_on_re_us/us_panda_cam_crash

Judi