Here and there, this and that

Nothing exciting is afoot around here, but I have snapped a few good pictures lately.
***

Someone please tell my dog she needs to relax:

"Zzzzzzz...........snort......Zzzzzz...."


"Talk to the paw."





The last scene of Charlotte's Web is being reenacted on our front door:

Tiny, perfect little predators.


But zoom in and it's kinda nightmarish. Feel anything crawly on your neck right now?


Oh, here's some fun news. RAPTOR, Inc. has a new program bird:

A female American Kestrel. Kestrels are one of the few raptors you can sex by color. Males have pretty blue-gray wings, and females are rusty and barred all the way across.
A very relaxed bird, at least as far as kestrels are concerned. A usually spazzy species, this lady is nowhere near as nuts at Steel.

Hmm. I guess this one needs a name, too? Anyone have any ideas?
She was our kestrel foster mom last year. She came in during the nesting season (blind in one eye) and was still hormonal enough to be able to brood and feed some orphans we had. She decided not to assist us this year. So now she has her spiffy jesses and will soon be on our permit.

Let's just soak in that face....

That's a fairly adorable bird right there.

What a weekend!

I have lots of photos, so if you are still one of those poor dopes with dial-up, go get a massage or a few beers and wait.


Da da dum dum, da da dum..............
Ready?

THURSDAY:
Isabelle graduated from Kindergarten. I cried. A lot.

(photo by Swami)

FRIDAY:
Caught some teeny hummingbird tongue action.







Powder thought my nice Longaberger bread basket would do for a bed.

Makes her look like she forgot her body somewhere.


SATURDAY:
I took the bird-sicles that Kathi gave me, to RAPTOR. I thawed out a starling and gave it to Lucy.


I left her alone, and by the time I came back to put her back she had de-headed it.

I did some glove training with No-No:

I could look at him all day. What a mixture of textures...pure white, copper, chevrons of dark grays...and let's not forget those big liquid eyes....Ooooooo.

Our first yard bird babies of 2008 showed up to learn how to use the feeders.
House finches:

Why is it that the last of the baby feathers are ALWAYS on top of their heads, like bad haircuts?

"Dad? Dad? Dad? Daaaaaaaaad? Daaaaaaaaaaad?"


This one hovered awkwardly for about 10 seconds trying to get back up to the feeders.

SUNDAY:
Picnic at Germantown Metropark.
My first kingfisher nest, on a cliff above the dam backwater:

Carrying a fish back to the babies!

This sign is by the fence above the backwater, just for those dummies who would think that a swim in an active backwater would be a great idea. I asked the girls to stand in front of it with frowns on their faces, and Lorelei, without any prompting, struck this pose:

Yep, that's my kid.


We took a nature walk and found a red-backed salamander:

Look, Nina! A Sally-mander!

I started turning over buckeye leaves and found a little blue caterpillar:

What kind of caterpillar uses buckeye for a host plant? Anyone know?

And a life dragonfly:

A Carolina Saddlebags. A goofy name for a spectacular dragonfly.

I didn't even include all the gardening I did in the past few days. I am typing with most of my fingers wrapped in Band-Aids. I will have to save all that excitement for the next post.

If you don't talk to your cats about catnip, who will?

This morning, I was in the right place at the right time. While at my favorite spot at Lake Isabella, I was listening to a Northern Parula and not seeing it...for like 30 minutes. I was listening so hard, my ears started to hurt, and I actually got mad at the little bugger.
While I was scanning the rapidly leafed-out trees, I noticed a few blue-gray gnatcatchers.



I also noticed that they kept landing in the same tree, on the same branch.


Nest building! I guess that qualifies as a confirmed breeding pair, huh?

I got the cats a few "cat tents"; basically vinyl cubes with windows. To sweeten the deal, I sprinkled a little cat nip inside...and let the games begin.

"Oh, wow. This is some goooooood sh*t."



"Mom? (in a panicky voice) Mom? Am I the only one seeing the giant bugs on the ceiling?"


"Hooper. Hooper, dude. Help me, man. You're upside down. IT'S FREAKING ME OUT!"




Oh, Hooper. Did you get into the cat nip, too?
"S'okay, Ma. I can quit whenever I want."

In other news, the FOS hummingbird showed up yesterday:


Thank goodness. Now where the Hell have YOU been?

I have been watching this particular house finch for about 2 weeks. (I would call this guy a "marker bird", since he is the only male house finch who looks like a prize fighter.)

He's eating well, he can fly...let's hope that he can get a girlfriend and pass on that immunity.

This is for Rachel, my soon-to-be sister-in-law (Geoff's brother Kevin FINALLY popped the question).
Rachel gave Isabelle sea monkeys for her birthday, and while I was leery (remember how short-lived sea monkeys used to be? They would live for like 24 hours and then go belly-up), we gave it a shot. I guess the sea monkey scientists have improved the formula.
They have grown really fast, and they are at that tender age when they feel that urge....you know that urge.....to knock some boots!

Sea monkey porn. In all its watery glory.
If you look at the two "stuck together", you will see a dark spot between them. That's an egg sack.
I gotta say, though....it must suck to be a female sea monkey. These gals have been carrying these slacker males around for days.

A cat, a kid, a frog and some birds

I thought maybe I would throw all of you by doing a coherent, solid post with a theme.
But then, I thought...naaaaa.

See why the legal way sucks? Could you identify a duck in that water? This is the view from the legal trail that runs between a public nature preserve and the pits.

I found a new white pigeon down the road from RAPTOR. It isn't the one I used to see...that one had a tan-colored tail. I love pigeons. Feel free to think I'm nuts.

We seem to have acquired an outside cat. For the past 8 nights, I have gone out to feed and try to capture this kitten. Despite lots of sweet mewing and rubbing his body all over the cars and trees, he will not let me get close enough to him to grab him. I may have to resort to the old coyote/roadrunner box held up by a stick, tied- with- a -string trick. Yeah, I bet that'll work.
When he is finally caught, he will be going to a shelter. Any one want a cat?

"It's not nesting season anymore, but I better check and see if my deodorant is still working."

I'm going to call this a Magnolia warbler. Gray head and face, yellow belly and white wing bars.

Late Summer light falls on my Winter baby.
When did she get so grown-up looking?
Where was I? Did anyone send a memo?

Surprise, surprise, surprise! (in a Gomer Pyle voice).
Our tadpole, who I thought would turn into a bull frog, has instead turned into a tree frog! This little guy is the newest generation of Cope's gray tree frog, a frog that I didn't even know lived in Ohio. Click HERE to see just how much it has grown and changed in 9 days!
Now we have to find teeny, tiny crickets to feed him. Ug.

Wordless Wednesday. NOT.

Just when I am down in the mouth, and not feeling like doing a program...
I get this:

This greeted me at the entrance of my program this morning. I have presented here before and they really dug it. And today, bless their hearts, they had a sign waiting for me. What a fantastic mood 360!

My own version of "The Dog". We are watching my Mom's dog while she goes to Alabama...

Wait for it...



"With a banjo on her kneeeeeee!"

"Ebony... and ivory... live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh lord, why don't we? "

(That pillow between the sleepy-heads is one I made while I was pregnant with Isabelle, like a million years ago. And it's still in one piece! A testament to my quality workmanship, surely.)

Nap...Interrupted.
"Huh?"

RAPTOR has so many butterflies around. This guy sat and waited for me to pass through the mew gate today. I wanted to thank all of your warm words and encouragement regarding Elvis' death. I can't say that Liam and I have the same view of Nature, but I was enraged about all this. The mink was doing what minks do. But this was OUR bird, dammit. And to refresh everyone's memory...remember the post about our baby robins? A red-shouldered hawk parent taking baby robins is way easier to swallow (excuse the bad pun there) than a mink working his way in to kill a bird that is supposed to be protected.
The birds are being ferried back and forth from protected mews or the basement during the night, and back to their usual mews in the day. Poor Marilyn...she is working her toochis off.
*****
Typing "toochis" reminded me of my favorite Yiddish saying:

"Eyb di bobe volt gehat eyer, volt zi gevezn a zeyde."
(If my grandmother had had *testicles*, she would have been my grandfather.)

Use THAT sentence sometime this week, and make me proud.

What is the white thing hanging out of my guppy

Mary's taking a break...
Beth has gone private...
These and other things have lead me to thinking about my blog and what it means. What it really means.
When I began doing this, back in October 2005, I had no lofty goals. I wasn't out to change the world. Well, I haven't, but that's okay.
My cousin Cathy is to blame for me trying this out.
"A blog? What's that?"
And now, I sit here every night and either:
1. Have twisted my ankle running down here to share my day with all of you, or
2. Scratch my head and try to come up with something that's even remotely near to interesting.
I've met the neatest, funniest, most interesting people through this little monitor, and I have seen people's blogs who really need medication and restraints. On the whole, my experience has been very pleasant, with only one troll so far (fingers and eyes are crossed that I don't get any more).
So, what does blogging mean to me?

Wait for it....


Answer:
Hell if I know. All I can say is that I like it.

I don't care what you say, but I make pretty children.

"I wuv you, Powder."

Still growing...

...and eating. My Lord, those little guys are beating the tar out of the Dutchman's Pipe. But I don't care. That's why I planted it, so a critter could use it. And they are only eating the fresh, new leaves. Smart little guys.
******

Have you ever researched Google threads to see how people find your blog?
I used SiteMeter to see how people find me. Most of the time, it's through another blog, so no mystery there. But sometimes, people find me by doing a Google search for these:

(Some of them I can understand, because I have blogged about the subject,
or something close to it...if you want to see what they found on my blog, do a "Search This Blog" for the keywords)

• trouble drinking gallon before colonoscopy
• beer and dish soap to treat lawn
• eradicating mites in purple martin bird nests
• home made bee trap mountain dew dish soap
  
• what is the white thing hanging out of my guppy (LOL!)
  
• doves and human interaction
• do you need to trim beard tongue for it to bloom again?
• it takes 46 muscles to frown but only 4 to flip 'em the bird.
• baby raccoon screeching
• Vicodin for my uti
• pet rat lonesome for lost sister?
• why do people hate house sparrows
• plant spiderwort itchy hands
• stopping robins from digging in cocoa bean mulch
• caterpillars that eat sunflower leaves
• small yellow fuzzy caterpillar eating my flowers
• tall weed purple stalk Cincinnati
  

I'm also listed on a few random blogs...here's one that I didn't know about until today:
Natural History Blogs
And then, there are searches where I have to wonder about:

• cute names pertaining to hotels
• Hawaiian punch garden statue

My favorite of all time...and a bit scary if you think about why someone would be searching for this:

• girls eaten by raptors.

Fast and dirty

I didn't take any pain killers today, and now I am paying the price. I seem to be having a bit of a relapse.
Just took two Vicodin, so I better get this down before I get all flubby.
Scenes from today:

Our tika-marked bunny came over to the fountain to sample the weeds (what are those wide-leaved weeds?). If you enlarge the picture, you can see a very fat tick in his ear. Poor guy. I hope he has someone who can groom that off.

The yard birds are starting to bring their babies to the feeders...a young chipping sparrow...

...and a young cardinal.

The tree frogs seem to have left the immediate neighborhood, but the bull frogs have moved in, so we don't feel lonely. I think this guy is trying to make a hula hoop.

"Hi! I is a squirrel. Is you allowed to come out and play wif me?"

Gotta love it. Beetle porn. Shameless hussies.
I am not ashamed to say that I tried to see exactly how they do it. Couldn't figure it out. But I did notice that the "bottoms" kept on eating. It must be boring...beetle sex. Imagine eating a sandwich in the middle of "you know". Must be demoralizing.

I am glad that I moved one of the feeders closer to the windows. First, it can cut down on window strikes (forces the birds to slow down) and I can get pictures like this without zooming.


And the gravy:

"My name is Queen....LAAAAAAAAAA!"