I'm two months behind, but I've attached some photos Jeane and I took during an Eagle Watching weekend at Kentucky's Land Between the Lakes, and Tennessee's Cross Creeks National Wildlife Refuge.  Land Between the Lakes has about 180 wintering Bald Eagles, with many more in the surrounding area, which is full of wildlife refuges, state wildlife management areas, Mississippi and Ohio River floodplains, and a general panoply of wetlands.  Most of the eagle photos were taken from the dock of a moving cruise boat using my Kodak point-and-shoot, so they are not ready for publication in National Geographic, but perhaps you'll enjoy some of them...

A "gallery" version you can browse using thumbnails:
http://bellhanley.smugmug.com/Birds-Bats-Butterflies/Around-Kentucky/Eagle-Watch-2011

A "slideshow" version:
http://bellhanley.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=16425588&AlbumKey=faG7P

Cats can get themselves into some fairly undignified sleeping positions, but I thought this one (by Simon) was above and beyond...

I feel very strongly that Anne didn't intend a personal attack, and I didn't interpret her comment as such.  I think her intentions were honorable: to encourage us, as Jan in CT echoed, to keep religious discussion off the board.  Was I offended by Janet's words?  No...disquieted would be more like it.  Did I interpret her words as being overtly religious, even before Anne commented on her post?  Yes.  Do I agree that religious topics are highly wrought with emotion and likely to cause hurt feelings, dissent, dissonance?  Yes, that was my sense of disquiet...generally on religious matters people are almost unable to hear or understand each other at all, and I could sense that's where the thread might head.  I'm generally one to simply take deep breaths and not get involved, but I value Anne's and Janet's contributions to the board and felt that Dawn's comment needed to be addressed...I really didn't hear any vitriol...just a plea that we get along, not discuss religion, and consider other viewpoints.

In 2006, Kathy G was the first falconwatcher I met when I came downtown to see where the Kodak Falcons lived.

Joyce

I had a similar experience Joyce; in my first visit to Rochester way back in 2004, Kathy G was one of the first falcon watchers I met, and I continued to enjoy her enthusiasm and friendly nature on each subsequent visit.  My condolences to her friends and family and those who knew her much better...

Patti

3 eggs ...and...a guest

Crazy starling!  I guess it wasn't enough to stick his head in...maybe his big brother dared him (or her).

My sister just heard raptor screaming and got to watch a redtailed hawk trying to terrorize the GHO sitting on eggs in a tree in the backyard. It was reportedly a very loud episode. A squirrel was running around on the same tree trying to see what all the commotion was about.

That was one extremely silly squirrel!

I cant offer the fun of the nestbox but Ive got several videos of Screech Owls including one with young. We have 2 sets that nested in a little park 10min from my home. Here is the first fall sighting of one of the Screech Owls. Found him by following the sounds of alarm calling chickadees. http://www.youtube.com/user/CPFFrank?feature=mhum#p/u/1/42lPA-MgVlQ click see all to find more Screech Owl etc videos Enjoy BIGFRANK

Great video!  I know the trick of following alarm calls, but haven't been lucky enough to find a Screech Owl yet.  I did once find an otherwise well-hidden Red-tailed Hawk by paying attention to the Blue Jays mobbing it.

I agree that where politicians are involved, hunters typically wield a lot of power, and their permit dollars and duck stamps do fund wildlife refuges and some conservation efforts, so that's not all bad.

However, the huge public outcry, both local and national, on the topic of the proposed Sandhill Crane hunt in Tennessee did cause the equivalent of their Fish & Wildlife commission to postpone the hunt for a few years pending more study...so there is a case where a public outcry did make a difference.

My Kentucky bird list folks are gearing up for a similar campaign in Kentucky...but I'll post that information in a separate thread.

We took a vacation in New Mexico some years back, and the bat emergence from Carlsbad Caverns was one of the highlights around which we planned the trip.  It's a much smaller colony, but still quite impressive (400,000 bats or so).  They don't winter there; they migrate to Mexico for the winter, but you can see their daily entrances and exits all summer, spring, and fall.

They're extremely common here; they eat off my feeders all winter; they're especially fond of shelled peanuts, and they feast on bugs during the summer...poking their long beaks into cracks and crevices probably looking for delicious spiders and other creepy crawlies.  I suspect a C. Wren of murdering my favorite garden spider last fall as I saw him poking around the spider's favorite daytime hidey-hole...and the spider didn't make his usual evening appearance that night.

I saw it earlier this winter not long after it broke the leg.  I figured it wouldn't make it through the winter.  I'm happy to see I was wrong.

I would guess that handicapped animals, as long as the disability doesn't interfere too much with the ability to forage, or doesn't set them up at risk for infection, etc., probably do relatively well in the absence of predators.  So as long as you don't have coyotes, wolves, bears, or other predators hanging around, he may continue to do just fine.  It seems like it's predation that separates the fit from the unfit.

I think it's a Carolina wren.

Yep

The Sandhill Cranes are passing through Kentucky on their way North, and there is an area full of cornfields and shallow ponds about an hour South of Louisville where many of them stop over to refuel during their trip.  I made it there yesterday (the area is near the small town of Cecilia, Kentucky), and found lots of Sandhill Cranes, both in the air and on the ground.  I took some photos and video, if anyone is interested:

http://bellhanley.smugmug.com/Birds-Bats-Butterflies/Around-Kentucky/Sandhill-Cranes-in-Cecilia


You can click on the large photo to see a larger version (and navigate through the larger versions of the photos), or click the “slideshowâ€� button in the right-hand corner to see a slideshow format.  There is a video at the end that is a compilation of lots of short videos I took.  I muted the audio because even though the Sandhills were their usual gregarious selves, the wind was so loud across my camera’s microphone all you could hear was the road of the wind!

Also, if you can't get enough Sandhill pictures, here is a reprise of the album I posted last November from the Festival of the Cranes in New Mexico:
http://bellhanley.smugmug.com/Birds-Bats-Butterflies/Wide-Wide-World/Festival-of-the-Cranes-2010

That album also has many raptor and other bird photos.

Patti

That's some list, Patti! I must count my winter visitors and see what I come up with myself. Of course, I see yours as much more exotic than mine!

That's a funny word, since of my list, only the Rock Pigeon, European Starling, and House Sparrow are exotic. 

I'm very sorry to hear about your loss, Donna...we lost a kitty to kidney failure a couple of years ago; it was in an early stage when they caught it, so we learned to do the fluids ourselves, but she never liked it!  She made it to 18 1/2, so I can't complain about the length of her life, but it was still terrible to lose her.  And making the final decision was horrible; like you, we decided the time had come when she finally went off to hide and was no longer social...up to that point even when she was too weak to jump into my lap she'd still make the effort, and I'd pick her up and put her down gently.

She was a special cat, and I still miss her after several years.

Take good care of yourself and Sam.