So, as I'm working on the eagle album I realized I never finished labeling my pics from my July visit to Rochester...so I never posted a link to them.

I can sympathize; I'm several months behind organizing vacation albums.  Thanks for sharing!

[Never trust a man who has been writing the same book for years and years! I have a bad feeling about this story!! I'm waiting for a punch line!! SHAKY!!!]

Never trust a man who has been writing the same book for years and years! I have a bad feeling about this story!! I'm waiting for a punch line!! SHAKY!!! 

Wait...he already gave you not one, but two punch lines!

"Freeze a jolly good fellow." 

Then, they kick him in the ice hole.

Now that you have me babbling on about Caves, another great experience was the bat show at Carlsbad.  We actually planned that trip specifically to see the gazillions of bats exit the cave at night; the rest was just a bonus.

If you want to see the cave and flight, try:
 
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=5141994070103%3A386704083

 
Paul

Thanks Paul, it looks like a nice cave.  We enjoy touring caves, which is easy since we have both the Indiana and Kentucky cave countries within spitting distance.  Mammoth Cave N.P. is one of those heavily toured, heavily marketed caves you talk about, but it's so enormous there are many tours offered, some of which are "historic", or by lantern light only, and have few participants.  Their Wild Cave tour is one of the most strenuous things I've ever done (and I was in my early 30's when I did it) -- every muscle in my body was sore!  We've also done plenty of trips to Mammoth Cave where we didn't bother going into the cave at all since the hiking, birding, and biking there is so good.

One of my favorite experiences as a high school Girl Scout was an overnight in Southern Indiana cave called Marengo...sleeping bags just spread out on the cave floor.  They turned the lights entirely out, so when you woke up in the middle of the night you were in utter darkness...and had to feel around for your flashlight if you needed to visit the latrine.  Very cool.

This nest is about 15 minutes from our new home, just outside of Chattanooga, TN.

Lizz, you're fairly close (at least relative to me) to the wildlife refuge where the Sandhills and the special Asian crane have been hanging out!  I can't quite bring myself to do a 5+ hour drive from Louisville, but I'm mighty tempted.

Dale posted this earlier: http://rfalconcam.com/forum/index.php?topic=6881.0

Nice photos -- the kestral was my favorite.

    Joe Kieper, an entomologist who is executive director of the Virginia Museum of Natural History, says they are swarms of either mayflies or midges...

Jeane and I got caught in a swarm of mayflies one day on a lunchtime walk along the Ohio River...we kept seeing a few bugs here and there, then suddenly there were hundreds!  We had to shield our faces with our hands because they were smacking into us...eventually we passed through the swarm, but it was pretty disconcerting. 

Thanks Donna, for posting some samples, and MAK, I could get to your sunset photos just fine, and haven't had a problem with any of your other links before today.  I noticed that the ones that work have "media" in the URL, while the one that doesn't work uses a slightly different URL.  I don't know what the difference is...

I see that Donna posted one of your Black Vultures, but that first one she sent that is a half & half vulture is pretty cool.

You're welcome Lola! And now for day 11 in paradise. More beautiful sunshine with temps in the 50's to near 60 and more beautiful nature! There's always something to see or find! Below is the link for this mornings pics around the ranch Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=335661049797165&set=a.335660036463933.96140.100000598194281&type=1&ref=nf

I'm a just lovin this pic MAK!!!!!

MAK's facebook link isn't working for me, but that photo is quite bizarre; looks like half turkey vulture and half black vulture!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=335661049797165&set=a.335660036463933.96140.100000598194281&type=1&theater  Patti, try this link.

No...same problem, but thanks for trying.  I get this message:

This content is currently unavailable
The page you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.

You're welcome Lola! And now for day 11 in paradise. More beautiful sunshine with temps in the 50's to near 60 and more beautiful nature! There's always something to see or find! Below is the link for this mornings pics around the ranch Enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=335661049797165&set=a.335660036463933.96140.100000598194281&type=1&ref=nf

I'm a just lovin this pic MAK!!!!!

MAK's facebook link isn't working for me, but that photo is quite bizarre; looks like half turkey vulture and half black vulture!

That would be way cool, but about 3 hours farther away than Indy...

Jeane and I spent Christmas Eve morning at the Louisville Zoo, mostly enjoying the antics of Qannik the Polar Bear.  The young cub came to the zoo early this year after being rescued in Alaska (full story here: http://www.louisvillezoo.org/glacierrun/snowflake.htm)

We took a few photos...shot through glass, so we got some reflection and glare, but they're still kind of fun.  Enjoy:
http://photos.bellhanley.com/Around-Town/Louisville-Zoo/Qannik-the-Polar-Bear-2011

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.330753786954558.94897.100000598194281&type=1&l=b7bdada64d

Hey MAK, one of your turkey vultures looks a lot like a Black Vulture.  It might just be the angle of the bird in the photo, but one of the distinguishing features of Black Vultures is that they have very short tails (Turkey Vultures have much longer tails).  Here's a good photo of one the air:
http://www.hawkmountain.org/raptorpedia/hawks-at-hawk-mountain/hawk-species-at-hawk-mountain/black-vulture/page.aspx?id=642

You can also see that they have white on the ends of their wings, while Turkey Vultures have white on the trailing side of their wings...in addition to the short tail.  So you might see if you can see any of these distinguishing characteristics.  It's not unusual for a Black Vulture or two to hang out with a group of Turkey Vultures, so you could have both at the same time.

Hi gang.  I ran across this book yesterday while filling my Kindle with freebies.  I downloaded it but I have not read it, so aside from knowing that the theme is falconry, I know nothing about the contents.  I thought maybe some here might be interested.  If you don't have a Kindle, Amazon.com has a free Kindle reader app for your phone or desktop.

Jen S. in PA

http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Collection-Inspired-Lift-ebook/dp/B0056C3XOW/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1324601114&sr=1-2

Rise: A Collection Inspired by Lift [Kindle Edition]
Rebecca K. O'Connor (Author)

Thanks for the tip; I just sent it to my Kindle!

Patti

I am going to try one of these days.

You're killing me!  Just do it! 

I was toying with driving to Indianapolis where there has been a Snowy hanging out...no time, though.