Freaky, froggy, inFlammed Friday

I'm itchy.

Let's take a tally of the rash so far...
1. Top of right foot.
2. Side of left ankle.
3. Top of right hand.
4. Underside of right forearm
5. Small of back (WTF?)
6. Left side of face (!)
*And I was CAREFUL!*
It's not to the grody, fluid-filled blister stage yet. Just itchy for a minute, then it's quiet.
I am rather distressed that it's ON MY FACE.
Next time, I think it's someone else's turn to fall on their sword.


Random pics from today:

We took a very quick nature walk at Camp Dennison after a raunchy-horrible thunderstorm. (Our TV is fried, and Geoff has no Internet access...lightening hit very close, if not right on the house...I smelled something burnt).
Lots of birds in the trees, but damn if I could have had a minute of zero "I Wanna Go Home's" and "Babble Babble Babble's".
But Isabelle found a pill bug, and so at least she was happy.



They are NOT cute.
We have like, a posse of young ones in the yard. One of them is either learning-impaired, or just braver than the others, because we can walk out of the house and he just sits there.
"NO, you vermin! That Zick dough was NOT made for you!!!"




On the nature walk...a very nasty locust tree, complete with daggers.



Our cedars are full of cute little blue yummies. I am impatiently waiting for the waxwings.



Another find on the nature walk. A sweet red caterpillar, feasting on either wild blackberry or raspberry.


I make a habit of going outside every night, just as the sun has gone to bed. I look at the front of the house, searching for our amorous tree frogs.
Tonight, he or she was right above our light, on Lorelei's shutter.
Enlarge the photo. This is a seriously gorgeous amphibian.

(Imagine the tune "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred)

Girl power, Junior update

A good day.
I have come back to reality, doing my first program in almost 2 weeks, a great crowd of kids at an inner city Catholic school. It makes it so much more enjoyable and pleasant experience for me to talk with kids who have at least a small amount of respect for me and for the birds. And they learn so much more when they just sit and listen. Some schools I go to are like zoos, with no real stability in the kid's behavior.
Today, it was a group of 4th and 5th graders, very pleased to have me there. Nice.
A highlight, not just for the day, but for my education "career" in general:
A girl came up to me as I was packing up to leave, and she politely asked me if she could say something.
Girl: "You know, when I heard that someone was bringing raptors, I thought it was going to be a man talking to us. You know how girls are afraid of things like bugs and big scary animals? And boys aren't afraid of that stuff? I just thought it would be a man holding the birds."
Me: "Did I look scared?"
Girl: "No! You were COOL."
Me: "So, I guess girls and women can do anything they want to do, huh?"
Girl: (pause)..."Yeah. They CAN."
I think that may be the most perfect conversation I have ever had.

Finally was able to get a better look in the chickadee box, and there are four ready-to-fledge youngin's in there.
See the beak?
TRES egg" height="240" width="180">
I couldn't wait. I had to pull down the TRES gourd and count.
Four cold, perfect eggs. She will probably lay one or two more and then start to incubate.
I love how small they are. That egg is about the same diameter as my wedding ring.

Most folks in Cincinnati think Pete Rose needs to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
(The "4256" pertains to the record he broke in hits, previously held by Ty Cobb)

I found a mammoth slug out by the mews at RAPTOR today. It was as big as my thumb.
I understand that most slugs encountered in North America have been introduced and they can make your garden look like Swiss cheese. But I think they are beautiful.


They breathe through this hole in their mantle. I guess he was exhaling. Or belching.
I got this from Wikipedia:
"Some species use slime cords to lower themselves on to the ground, or suspend from them during copulation."
Ewwww...so they can make their own rappelling lines and sex swings?????

Sad news at RAPTOR...I was early getting the birds today, so I walked around, checking out the rehab birds to see if anyone new came in while I was gone.
The juvenile Cooper's hawk was laying on the ground in his mew, and had been dead for at least a few hours. He will be examined by our bird care director, to see if it can be ascertained what exactly happened. From what I hear from our more seasoned volunteers, Coop's are challenging to rehab. I wish we had one for education, but apparently they are for the most part too squirrelly to "man down". Coop's, sharp-shinned hawks...all too spazzy. Too bad. They would be fun.
Junior update: Junior will be "adopted" by a educational center in Illinois soon. One of their volunteers will drive down to pick him up. Cindy, if you are reading, I want to be there to say goodbye, okay? He and I did have that one magical night together, you know.



After my program today:
"I have fulfilled my duty as education prop. Please get the Hell out of my mew."

Smooshy, sweet piles of cuteness

You know, we never really have problems with squirrels. And we don't see them too much, except for Spring and Fall when their young emerge from the nests.
They are a form of amusement for us, though I know some people have a Hell of a time with them breaking into bird feeders and keeping dogs busy.
The only mammal who has raised my blood pressure is the raccoons who visit most nights. They have carried off very expensive peanut feeders and I have only found one so far, rusty and battered in the weeds.
This is as good as it gets with our squirrels:
The Squirrel Olympics!

"Look! No hands!"

Lorelei and I took a break from my trip planning to go to Symmes Park again.


Raccoon tracks

We enjoyed the splash-down of some Canada geese (they are freakin' everywhere, aren't they)...

...and admired the glossy purple of a mallard's head...

...and some sweet, sleeping parents?
Across the pond, I saw some movement...

Four baby ducks! And check out the colors: Two yellow, one brown and one brown/yellow!
Total mutts, but cute mutts, nonetheless. I can only assume that the pair of adults across the way were the parents, but why were they not over here with the young?

Those stubby wings...hard to imagine that someday soon, those little stubs will be able to hold that bird aloft. The largest one kept falling into the water and scrambling back out.

I couldn't help it. I had to hold one. And Lorelei was in transports of delight, being able to actually touch a real live baby duck. I was surprised how smooshy they were. I expected a firm ball of duckness, not mashed potatoes.
We put them back and wished them well. When I picked up Isabelle and told her what we found, she was rather insistent that Geoff take her to see them after supper. That's where they are right now, wallowing in the cuteness and baby duck fluff.