A day overflowing

Today, awake at 5 am to chase a Western Kingbird at the Oxbow with Les.
No kingbird, but still.
A day overflowing:


A quiet, chill Sunday morning
Perfect for watching the world with a like-minded soul



Adding to my ever-growing list of things that fly

(Tennessee Warbler)


We watched a thousand swallows dance over
A million sparkles of light



The smallest things caught my eye and became beautiful


A small animal in need found us and came home with me

(He's not staying.)

Afternoon: Germantown Metropark with my family.

A different place but the same feeling of overflowing

Enjoying an elegant lady resting


Dancing with dogs,


Catching baby leeches by accident


And pursuing an Eastern Tailed-Blue by choice,

Showing that elusive blue, just a glance, like fancy petticoats under a printed muslin.

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.

A great weekend to be Outdoors

What a great day.

A day spent teaching the public about birds of prey and their importance...meeting new faces, grilling out, baked beans and chips.

The first part of the day was a four-hour informal program with some of our birds perched out in front of the CNC. Storm, Sylvester, Isis and Lucy.

A word (or many) about Isis:
A few months ago, I found it more and more difficult to use Isis for programs. Her original injury (a gunshot to her right wing...what kind of idiot would shoot a hawk like her????) had become so calloused, every time she hit it against something in her mew, it would bleed. And she was breaking blood feathers constantly.
Being a nearly pure-white bird, it was rather obvious that she was a mess. I went to our board and our bird care director and asked them to do something. She went to one of our vets, who agreed that more of the wing needed to be removed.
A small portion of the remaining bone was removed, leaving a flap of skin. The flap was sewn over the wound and needed only four stitches. She healed up very nicely (and is even growing feathers back where there were none) and today was her grand re-opening to the public. She does very well perched out for programs, but today she was even better than I thought.

(that's the GHOW way in the back, doing his "I am a totem pole" thing)

I do love that owl...

Such a polite bird (except at sunset when he's more active, and in the months of December and January, when hormones get the best of him)

A very, very cool find:
In front of the red barn, we were all chatting and had no idea a small amount of possible death was crawling around our feet. Craig, a young volunteer, shouted, "There's a black widow!"
Nunh-uh.

Yep, it was:


Someone handed me a stick so I could turn her over to get a shot of that red hourglass...then I realized that I was hold an effing black widow spider and someone needed to rescue me.
I tried very hard not to cuss.

She was gently and respectfully carried to the woods' edge and deposited.

Let's meet Ethan:

This darling 6 year old...here's the history of RAPTOR and him:
Last year at the Great Outdoor Weekend, I met Ethan and his mom, Liz. This kid had a very healthy interest in birds of prey, and birds in general. I had a great time talking with him and marveling at his knowledge.
A few months later, I got a call from his mom for an educational program at Ethan's birthday party.
Thanks to that program, I got in the Cincinnati Enquirer, the article saying that this was the "new" way to throw a kid's birthday. I got quite a few programs out of that.
And today, he and his mom were at the member's picnic. Turns out that Ethan is a member of RAPTOR now. The youngest member, to be exact.

I had to photograph him with some of our birds.


During a nature walk earlier in the day, he found some feathers...he showed me where he had thrown them back into the woods (because he remembered what I had said about them being protected and that possessing them was a crime). My God. Someone is actually listening to my programs?
He said there were many, many "downy" feathers, so something had tackled something.

The one on the left is a great horned owl feather, and at first, I thought the other one was a red-shouldered hawk. I did some research and found that this was a turkey feather. Looks like a GHOW tackled a turkey. Awesome.



"I disapprove of your use of fire. And what the Hell is a S'more?"


I was putting Isis back in her carrier as the picnic ended, and realized I didn't have a picture of Isis and me.
Cindy, our Bird Care Director, was good enough to oblige:

Good bird. Glad you are feeling better.

The whole day was so fun. I got to meet old RAPTOR members, revel in some new ones, and Isis, our Flagship Bird, is feeling great. Life is good.

The life list is growing (and a few non-bird species of Florida)

If I added correctly, my life birds in Florida came to 13. That makes my life list 199! One more and I can get one of those "200" pins!

My life birds from the trip:

Common Peafowl (Countable in Florida! Woo Hoo!)
Muscovy Duck (domestic) (Poop. Not countable.)
Brown Pelican
Anhinga
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Common Moorhen
Laughing Gull
Eurasian Collared Dove
Monk Parakeet
Loggerhead Shrike
Boat-Tailed Grackle

Florida isn't just about birds and beaches. We saw so many lizards, crabs, butterflies...All different from what we can find here in the Northern reaches of Southwest Ohio:
The Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood, Florida looked promising for birds, but you know what? I saw Zero birds there.
As we drove in, I saw a sign that gave us a preview of what we would see:

Land crabs? Cool!


I went back after a thunderstorm and there were hundreds (thousands?) of small, medium and large crabs scurrying everywhere. The small ones (about the size of a quarter) were covering the boardwalk and would scuttle out of the way as I stepped through. The big ones were in their dug-out mud holes and would disappear before my eyes as soon as I noticed them. It took a lot of finesse to get this picture. If you click on it, you will see that he is nibbling on that leaf!


The butterfly action was nice. I saw no butterfly there that I could immediately ID, which is so fun! This one is called a white peacock.
We also saw a great fritillary and this guy:

Zebra longwing.


We walked under this guy on the boardwalk:

A Spiny-backed orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis) It looked like a colorful beer bottle cap from underneath. From what I have read, this is not a spider you have to worry about killing you or anything.

As far as I can tell, the lizards we saw running all over were Florida Scrub Lizards. I don't know from lizards...I'm a bird gal.
This one was found by the girls in the middle of the street at the Nature Center:

A baby, obviously. The other ones were about 6 to 8 inches long, and this guy measured in at a whopping 2 inches long. He hopped right up onto my hand, then jumped onto Isabelle, who thought it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her.



Anyone wondering if we saw alligators?
Um, HELL YEAH. We saw alligators that were way too close to us.
We visited the Everglades on two different days (more on the first time in another post). Finishing a walk along one of the levees, we came to a boat ramp where some young guys (and one small girl about Lorelei's age) were fishing. 30 feet into the water was an alligator.
An eight-foot alligator:


The guys were at least smart enough to lead the little girl away, but they were not smart enough to leave themselves. We kept our distance, knowing full well that an alligator would consider
one of our children a nice meal. And that a full-grown alligator can run up to 35 miles an hour for short bursts. We retreated to higher ground to take pictures. The gator got to within 10 feet of the fishermen, looking very interested in what they were doing. I'm sure gators learn quickly that fishermen will toss out the guts as they dress a fish, so fishermen=free meals. But we were not going to allow our kids to be in any danger. We got in the car and later drove by to make sure there was no carnage. The fishermen's car was gone. Or maybe the gator ate them, then their car?
(A sobering stat: I read that of the last 20 alligator-related deaths in Florida, 10 of them were kids under the age of 13....that is plenty for me to have had an unbreakable grip on the kids)

Ooooo...you so nasty!

We have our very own Spiderus living on the front porch. You can only know who Spiderus is if you have little kids who watch Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends. I couldn't find a picture of the cartoon Spiderus.

Looks like Mary's spider.

My mini-marsh, like every thing else, is bone dry. And cracked open. And sad. But at least some butterflies are enjoying the massive patch of goldenrod growing there.

I had a very nice, long belly-laugh tonight.
Some background: We have not had good luck with pet snails in the girls' fishtanks. Geoff went to the pet store a few weeks ago and bought some cheap little snails, and we decided that if we couldn't keep these guys alive, we would give up on the snails.
Wellllllll...
While putting the girls to bed tonight, I noticed some spots on the inside of Lorelei's fishtank. Oh, man, now what? ! A weird type of algae or creeping water fungus?
Nope. Baby snails. I laughed and laughed and laughed. Geoff bought a pregnant snail.



This is a macro shot of one. Some are no more than minuscule dots, and the largest ones are about half the size of a BB.



Such tiny perfection. I counted 56 such tiny perfections in Lorelei's tank. And that's not counting the two egg sacks hiding behind the filter.
I laughed some more.



Henry the Betta was interested in the little flashing light on my camera.
See the two babies? They are cute.
I laughed a little bit more.

Then we put Isabelle to bed, and as I was feeding Cuter, her Betta, I noticed some spots on the inside of the tank. Yep. That snail had babies, too. I laughed again. I was so tickled...every other snail we have added to the tanks has died within a few days. And now, we have a few hundred immaculately conceived snails. I have some research to do...how does a snail give birth 2 weeks after being removed from the company of other snails? Do they keep the "stuff" inside themselves until they are ready to lay eggs? Eewww.
I have to see if these snails are a native species, because if they aren't releasable, say in the fountain/bird bath, I have to dispose of them. Eewww.

Speaking of long-awaited births....the Cincinnati Zoo's female Indian Rhino Nikki, is due to give birth the week of Christmas this year.
Nikki’s pregnancy is not only the first successful artificially inseminated pregnancy in the endangered Indian rhino, but also the first pregnancy produced in any rhino species using frozen-thawed sperm. Sperm was collected from a male Indian rhino named Himal, living at The Wilds in southeastern Ohio, near Bill and Julie's neck of the woods..
Not to diminish the huge news of this scientific breakthrough, but I had to ask myself:
How do you collect sperm from a male rhino?
Smirking Hooper knows:

"That's a no-brainer. You give him a few back copies of National Geographic and he knocks on the door when he's done."

A post about raising young ones and having them disappoint you

You know, when you have young ones, you hope the best for them.
You hope they have a wonderful magical childhood, you hope they meet nice kids just like them.
Who they hang out with can dictate whether they are good kids, or they pick up bad habits and become punks.
Well, the latter has happened to us.


.....



The juvenile cardinal is hanging out with house sparrows.

I know! Isn't that disappointing?
I tried. Really I did.


Yesterday, we had to inform Lorelei that her beloved Betta, Twinkle, had died.
We had a quick "burial at sea", and then I asked her if she wanted to get another one.
She wanted a goldfish.
We went to the pet store and as we were watching the goldfish, I pointed out one who looked as if it was wearing lipstick. Lorelei wanted that one.
Meet Lipstick the Goldfish:

I had a program today, and while Geoff was watching the girls, Isabelle was especially helpful and well-behaved, so we decided that she could pick out something at the pet store, too.
She wanted a snail, to keep her Betta, Cuter, company.
Meet Lolly the Snail:

(Lolly is the name of a snail in a book we have been reading, "Let's Spot Dot", a story about a turtle named Dash who loses his friend Dot, who is a ladybug. Cute book. Available at Starbucks)
Coming home from RAPTOR, I passed this sign and couldn't resist getting a picture of it.
I think they might mean yard "sale".

Ahh...dumb people make the rest of us feel better about ourselves, don't they?

The pipevine caterpillars are still going strong...originally there were 12, but I have only been able to find 8 now.
Here are the smallest of the bunch:

...and the largest of the bunch, off on his own leaf:

When the cocoons begin, we are going to bring ONE inside and place it in our butterfly habitat so we can watch the transformation.
Anyone remember our butterfly disaster from last year?

While bending down to get pictures of the cats, I noticed a spider hanging under the fence right by my face...

It's either one spider molting out of his old exoskeleton, or one spider eating another spider. I didn't get close enough to find out which.

I haven't done a "Sunday Sketch" in a long time, but I have been doodling...


Tomorrow is the BOOK RELEASE DAY!
We will be seeing the inside of many bookstores...
I'm so proud of Geoff, I could burst into a million shiny pieces.

Things I spotted today

I think we can all agree that Mary is hands-down, the Queen of 60 mph-0 mph, I-See-A-Bird, illegal U-turn, screeching tires kind of driving.
But I think I am the Balance-The-Camera-On-The-Steering Wheel, Take-Pictures-At-70 mph sort of girl.

(and BTW, Mary...I am not letting you "give up" on birds of prey. Nope. Ain't gonna do it.)


Some things I passed to and from a program today:

Carnival animals on the expressway!
I LOVE summer Catholic church festivals, though we never seem to make it to one. The last one I was at was when I was pregnant with Isabelle.
I love the rides, the games, the food....funnel cakes, hot dogs, cotton candy. Yummy.

Lebanon Correctional Institution. (NOT where my program was!)
I have never done a program for inmates. I wonder if anybody in there is a birder? Guess it would be hard to find birds behind bars.
Jail birds!
(I crack myself up.)
And THREE water towers? Are criminal types thirstier than other people?

I was happy to see a tiger swallow light onto our pear tree. Isabelle, our resident Bug Girl, was thrilled when I showed her the picture. (I was on my out the door and didn't have time to go back in and round her up)
We found a beautiful caterpillar on the dill last year, but I am really not sure what kind it was. I thought a swallowtail...I need a butterfly/caterpillar field guide. And a tree guide... and a wildflower guide...

And now, hold on to your shorts....

Aiiiiiiiiiii !
I was putting the GHO back in her mew, and as I put my hand on the door to lock it,
I. Saw. This. Thing.
When I am alone, I tend to swear. Like a sailor.
Today, basically I said, "Holy F***! What the Hell is THAT?????"
When I got home, Isabelle and I got on the Web (Ha! I did it again!) and researched.
As far as I can tell, this is a fishing spider.
They are found in woods near streams, and RAPTOR is right next to Mill Creek.
It was HUMONGOUS. Bigger around than a pop can. And unsettlingly hairy.
I will be watching where I put my hands at RAPTOR from now on. Jeez!

By researching this spider, I learned quite a bit about other spiders...
Like wolf spiders. They are called that because of their ability to run down their prey. Ack!
But they exhibit an unusual degree of parental care as far as spiders are concerned. They carry their egg sacks around until they hatch, then the spiderlings climb onto the mother's abdomen where they will ride along for about a month. That is very cool.
And wolf spiders mate for life! You wouldn't think that spiders would be so...I don't know...committed to each other.
But all this spider-image viewing is making the back of my neck tingle.