Donna's laptop reminded me that there was a sale at Best Buy (strongly dislike the store, but the price was right) on a Western Digital 2TB external hard drive for $119...it's backing up my 9,500 & change pictures as I type.  Half the price I spent on a 500GB drive a few years ago that filled up last year. And I remember getting excited at my first 1.2MB floppy drive...hard drive was still a pipe dream then.

No time like the present to back up your important stuff.  Never know when the blue screen of death will come to visit.

I'm using Crashplan backup software...it's interesting in that it gives you multiple destinations you can backup to.  Their "unlimited" online storage account costs money, but it's pretty cheap, and I need about 40 GB worth of storage space.  I also backup to a network drive, but like having offsite backup as well.

I've got a room booked for 07/15-07/18 at the Radisson...hopefully my math is right and there will be some flying to see!  As I said before, even if it's not the "official" weekend it's the only one not spoken for already, so I don't have much choice until late August.

Darn...Jeane and I have a long vacation planned for July 23rd through August 1st, which means if I took off for Rochester the weekend of the 15-18th, I'd been gone three weekends in a row.  That's probably more than my stress level can stand, so I 'spose I'll miss this year.  I hope you guys get some good flying, and I hope B&A get an earlier start next year!

I will do migration-related research and try more seriously at a later date.

There is a hummingbird festival in Western Kentucky around the first weekend of August, but basically anytime between early August and Labor day they see peak hummingbird numbers (often 200 a day).  It's at a visitor center at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area where they have a magnificent hummingbird garden and bunches of feeders to catch the little terrors on their way down the Mississippi flyway.  Your headdress could be quite a hit there, and could generate some sales for Lou, in case he'd like to go into the hummer-helmet business  .  It can be untolerably hot and humid here during August, so Lou would need to invent a way to air-condition your bike helmet.

Patti

The Rfalconcam Merchandise Team has been hard at work, coming up with new ideas.  Our newest design is the "Quest Tour", made by Lou.  On some items, we've included a list of places visited by Quest through March, 2010 (the Quest Tour), which will be on the back of the shirt.  You can also get a shirt with nothing on the back.  Quest is definitely living up to her name.  This is by no means a complete list.  We may have to update the list in the future.   

Please consider ordering something from the Rfalconcam Store to help support this site.  Now that Archer and Beauty have 4 eggs, it won't be long before young eyases will make an appearance.     Keep watching!

http://www.zazzle.com/rfalconcam 

I thought folks might want to see one of the Quest T-shirts in an unusual color!  I hope the unprofessional model won't dissuade anyone from buying one...

Thanks for the great design, Lou!

Patti

Here's a link to my website with a short video of the kakking, err, banding.

http://web.me.com/talluto/Wildlife_2010/Jersey_City_Banding_2010.html#0

Cool, Bonnie, thanks for sharing!  Looks like you didn't just get to attend...you got to hold an eyas.

Very nice article...thanks.

I really have appreciated Dale and Ei for keeping us all posted on the Screech Owls.  Great fun...thanks you guys!

Patti

Beauty did the right thing, disposing of the broken egg.  According to our friend Mark Nash, CPF, the material inside the egg can be very distructive if it gets on their feathers.

Plus, having used so much calcium manufacturing the eggshells, it's nice that she can reclaim some of it.

I spent most of last week at a birding festival in Northern Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie.  I visited the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, which is famous for being a "migrant trap", and bills itself as the "warbler capital" of the world.  I would concur, based on the number of warblers I saw!  Next door (down the highway a short distance) is the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, where I managed to successfully digiscope a couple of Great Horned Owl fledglings just out of their nest, along with a Bald Eagle.  There were two little round bowling balls with feathers; most of the time I could only get one in my scope.

The owl photos are pretty darned cute, and some of the warbler photos are passably interesting.

Warning: there are a couple of snake photos near the end of the album, so please be prepared...

Here's the gallery:
http://bellhanley.smugmug.com/Birds-Bats-Butterflies/Wide-Wide-World/Lake-Erie-Birding-May-2010

An update from the fellow who monitors and maintains this Osprey Cam:

All three chicks are doing well. There is always some concern about the 3rd or 4th chicks when this many chicks are present. Since the 3rd or 4th chicks are smaller since hatching 2 or 4 days after the first and second chicks. Lake Barkley 3rd and 4th chicks seem to do well likely due to the abundant supply of fish at Lake Barkley. With the flood water, muddy water color and debri it was a concern that fishing for the adults might be more difficult resulting in less food for the chicks. Two new video clips have been added that hopefully show that fishing has been successful perhaps as good as ever. A second more recent "feeding three chicks" clip was added showing the smaller chick getting most of the fish in the clip and "male catches large fish". The largest fish we have seen brought into the nest so far. The fish looks like a "River Herring" or "skip jack" to me. We have also added one hour of streaming video availability each day beginning now at 7
 am eastern time. Nest viewing is at:  http://keepky.org/index.html  Saved video clips are at the "Photos and Videos" tab under the word "Home".
 
Ed Ray, Hopkins Co.  

Thanks to everyone for the birthday greetings.  It was just a relaxed, low-key day...did a lot of yard work, but I always enjoy getting my hands dirty!

Weird mixed feelings since my birthday fell on Mother's Day this year, and I lost my mom last fall.  Jeane's Mom took us to lunch so at least I had a surrogate Mom...

I've had such a crazy winter and spring I got very far behind on organizing my photos.  But if anyone is interested, here's an album from January:
http://bellhanley.smugmug.com/Birds-Bats-Butterflies/Around-Kentucky

Jeane and I spent a weekend in Western Kentucky doing eagle watching...the first day we took a cruise on Kentucky Lake, the second day we took a van tour.  No really great pictures...shooting at distance on a cloudy day on a moving boat doesn't make for a successful photography experience.

There are two major lakes in Western Kentucky and between them they support about 180 wintering eagles.  We saw roughly 35 on our cruise, and probably 15 on our van tour, which ended at an evening roost for Bald Eagles. 

Patti

My deepest sympathies, Anne.  I'm so sorry to hear this news...and you've been through so much already.  My thoughts are with you.

Patti

His trooper told him they sell them in NYC for $1500-$2000 a van load!

It seems really strange to me that they would sell for so much money, when in my experience, cut lilacs do not last long at all.  I occasionally cut a sprig for a bud vase, but they look pitiful within a couple of days.

I got stung by a few fire ants when I was in the Peruvian jungle...I put my hand on the wrong tree while trying to navigate the underbrush.  The stings were really, really painful, and not very short lived...seems like the pain endured for 1/2 hour or so, but it's possible my memory is blown out of proportion since time always goes more slowly when you're in pain.