What a wonderful idea to honor Cally, and all of the sweet animal companions that we have all known and loved. I think I will purge my linen closet this weekend. Thanks, Janet!

Kapi, I know Sherlock had a wonderful life with you; what a lucky dog! Your life is richer for having had him in it. He is free now with all the other loving animals, happy and healthy, and waiting for you with his heart full of love at the rainbow bridge. I too lit a candle in his honor.

Debbie

The photo of her sticking her head out of the Christmas tree was in 1993, her first Christmas with us. Holy cow, there is a real tree in the house! Up the trunk she went! The next pic is of her sitting on the foot rest of our loveseat, giving me the "Don't you want to use those hands to pet me?" gaze. The one of her by the water bowl was last week, the day after Christmas. See how all that silky, fluffy fur disguises the fact that she was too thin? The last pic was taken Monday, showing her stretching out on the floor beneath our Christmas tree trying to find a position of comfort. After taking that pic we took her to our vet for her release to the next world, where she has all her strength, beauty, and personality again.

Every day I feel better, though I still expect to see her everywhere in the house. Thank you again to all of you who have sent comforting messages and have lit candles for her. The great thing is that life always goes on.

I don't know how to include a photo here. Anyone who would like to see a photo of Cally is welcome to email me directly off list at xxxxxxxxxxx.

Have a good evening everyone!

Debbie

EDIT: I removed her email address to prevent spammers from stealing it. You can contact Debbie by sending her a forum Personal Message by clicking on the speech bubble icon to the left of this post. -Shaky

Thank you, Donna, for starting the candle page. Thanks to all who have posted their sympathies, and who have lit candles. It really does help to read these comforting words. I am thinking about all the wonderful years we shared. Thanks again, falcon friends!

Debbie

Yesterday we lost our kitty Cally. She was a long-haired calico cat with golden eyes. Her fur was brilliantly colored. On March 12, 1993, we adopted her from the Nevada Humane Society. She was about a year old then, so she was around 20 years old. This wasn't sudden, as she has had failing kidneys for a few years, and been on a prescription cat food diet, and took Meds to help her. After a couple of weeks of slow decline, yesterday she became too weak to walk, so with the help of our loving veterinarian we gave her the last precious gift of release from this world.

Cally was an indoor only cat, and really was our baby. She loved life, she loved us, always wanting to be beside Bob or I, or on a lap being petted and purring. It would be much appreciated if one of you who knows how would please light a candle in her memory. Cally enhanced our lives, and we are grateful for having had her for so long.

Wishing you all a happy and loving New Year with all of our animal friends.

Debbie in Reno

Good morning everyone from Reno, Nevada!  Thank you for the wonderful birthday wishes. We are expecting a beautiful day here, high 89 F. I do have to work, but I love my job, so that is no problem.

Sunday I did a little birding outside town in an agricultural valley north of Reno called Sierra Valley, surrounded by majestic mountain peaks. While there are cattle grazing in the fields, and those fields are irrigated, the natural wetlands up there has almost completely dried up due to the drought we are experiencing. There was a small ditch running under an old suspension bridge, and in that area and the surrounding mud flats I saw two great blue herons and five great egrets.  The raptors were plentiful: four American Kestrels and five or six Red Tailed Hawks; unlimited turkey vultures, ravens and crows. The rest of the water birds I usually see there were long gone.

I truly enjoy reading your posts every day from Rochester, and all over the world. I celebrate Orion's successful fledging with you all!

Thanks again for remembering me on my birthday!

 

Debbie
Falconatic

Thanks everyone for the birthday good wishes.  As you can imagine, it is difficult to celebrate on September 11  . However, I refuse to let anyone take my birthday away from me; then they will have won  .

I spent my day birding, of course, with my two sisters, who always come to make sure I can still enjoy the day  .  In a lovely area called Sierra Valley, which is all agriculture and ranching, we saw a prairie falcon, very unusual, along with many other birds that can be hard to find, including sandhill cranes, an osprey, a Virginia rail, black-crowned night heron, nine American kestrels, seven northern harriers, and over 60 red-tailed hawks (yes, that was 60!)  It was truly a day to remember good things as well!

And we did spend time in the evening watching some of the tributes and honoring our fallen countrymen. No, we will never forget.

Your birding friend,

Debbie Z

        

We are lucky enough to have magpies in the US also.  In my region, the mountain west, we have the black-billed magpie everywhere.  They are very common, and in fact, there are several in pine trees outside my office window.  Another species is the yellow-billed magpie, which I think may be found only in the central valley of California.  I was visiting a wildlife sanctuary in Fairfield, California (between Sacramento and San Francisco) and saw some there (in the wild) just hanging around.

Debbie Z
Reno

Wishing you a very happy birthday from the high mountain desert out west, Shaky!  Hope you have a bird-filled day!

 

Debbie Z in Reno

Yesterday, Sunday May 15, 2011, three of the San Jose peregrine juveniles fledged.  Their names: Ahote, Hermes and Unita.  It is with a heavy heart that I report to you that Unita, the only female in this clutch, suffered a collision with a building on her first flight, and did not survive. 

The first to fledge, Ahote, landed on a sidewalk outside San Jose City Hall, where a policeman and a bystander saw him, and called animal control, per our fledge watch procedure.  Animal control called our biologist from the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, Glenn Stewart, who came to the scene with other fledge watchers, and placed Ahote into our high-tech transport device (a cardboard apple box with holes in it). Ahote was escorted up to the roof of City Hall, where he was sprayed down with water to keep him from bursting out of the box and trying to fly immediately.  He was released onto the roof, and is still there. 

Hermes is on the roof of one of the San Jose State University buildings, and fledge watchers are there.

The fourth juvenile, Shadow, remains at the nest box. He slept alone for the first time in his little life last night. Clara, his mom, took care to feed him.  This morning he has been out of the box and up onto the ledge, flapping and looking over the edge, but he's back in the box at present.

Best wishes to Beauty and Archer, and keep us all in your prayers for successful fledging of our remaining three.

Debbie Z
Falconatic 1

If I'm not mistaken, falcons will flip onto their backs and put their talons up to be able to fight any threat if they are "cornered" and see no escape.  Do other raptors do this I wonder? 

Debbie

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes to me!      As you may imagine, it's difficult to celebrate on September 11  .  However, my friends and family, especially my falcon friends, make a special effort so that this day that is special to me was not taken away.  I spent my day doing my favorite things:  birding first, quilting second, and eating (and yes, drinking!) third!   

Thanks to all for your wonderful sentiments, and special cards and photos.  I do appreciate it!!

Love from Reno, Nevada,

Debbie Z         

Hi falcon friends on the East coast.  I'm part of the San Jose, California falcon watching group (even though I live in Nevada).  Part of my contribution to our falcon and fledge watch efforts was to design a brochure about Fledge Watch to be distributed to businesses in the neighborhood that lets them know what's going on, and why there are people on the streets with binoculars, scopes, chairs, and all our paraphernalia.  It also lets them know who to call if they see a downed bird, etc. I would be happy to correspond off this forum directly with whoever would put one together for your folks; making a Word document or PDF that could be printed on demand would be easy since we've already done it.  Let me know if I may be of help to you.

Debbie Z
queeniequilter@yahoo.com 

Oh dear, I posted this message to a different topic about the San Jose falcons  .  Oh well.  At the risk of repeating myself, here is an update:
Clara and Esteban Colbert made use of their new nestbox, with laying beginning on March 2, and finally had four eggs.  The first three eyasses hatched on April 11, and the fourth on April 14.  The saddest note is that our fourth eyas did not survive.  It seemed to just "fail to thrive" and expired around April 17.  We've taken a lot of video and posted to YouTube, so you can see their progress.  We now have three very robust three-week-old eyasses, and expect fledging in about two weeks or so!

Please visit our YouTube site: http://www.youtube.com/SanJosePFA  every so often.  Every few days we try to get some new video uploaded;  they change so fast!  You can see the webcam live streaming video also 24/7 here: http://www2.ucsc.edu/scpbrg/nestcamSJ.htm

I am watching your falconcam personally, checking in on the progress of Beauty and Archer every day.  Best wishes for their first brood, falconatics!   

Debbie