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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - 1:13 pm
Mybbusername: Young eagles begin to fly when they are 12 weeks old (usually in June or July). At least that seems to be the most common answer - but the US Forest Service's site claims they can fly at 2 weeks of age! Anyway, I hope you get to to see this family grow and thrive! Kristylovesbb: Oh you're so lucky! I have always wanted to live near a large lake in a quiet, wooded area. Instead, I'm in Amish country - lots of fields, lol. Which are nice but it's not like they're big sky prairies or anything. Still, I'm working at turning part of my yard into a wildflower meadow so I can at least pretend they are!
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - 1:31 pm
2 weeks! The poor little things are still covered with only down at that age. The feather and flying thing is still several long week away. Must have been a misprint.
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Kristylovesbb
Member
09-14-2000
| Wednesday, April 13, 2005 - 4:20 pm
Thank you Calamity and be sure to post pictures of your wildflower meadow! I am sure it is going to gorgeous.
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Thursday, April 14, 2005 - 6:16 am
Well, I went down to give Mabel her morning corning. She in turn gave me my morning hissing. Girl isn't warming up too fast. LOL. She's harmless, though - never gets up off her eggs while doing her cobra impersonation. Her babydaddy (or husband, I don't know maybe they made it legal) is a bit more of a worry - he swims in circles around the boat honking and flapping whenever I come down. I think he bogarts her corn, too, when I'm not looking. Gotta find a name for babydaddy. We picked Mabel for Ms. Gander because it sounds like a showboat hussy. Any suggested names for a rogue and a riverboat gambler?
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Kristylovesbb
Member
09-14-2000
| Thursday, April 14, 2005 - 6:42 am
Napoleon Bonaparte
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Ddr
Member
08-19-2001
| Thursday, April 14, 2005 - 9:11 am
Rhett Butler
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Thursday, April 14, 2005 - 9:22 am
"Rhett" was my first thought too, Ddr! Ophiliasgrandma: Yeah, I'm thinking it was a typo too. Most of the sites said 3 months, which equals 12 weeks, so I figure they just left the "1" off. Kristylovesbb: I will post some pictures if it looks half decent, lol. This will be my third season trying to get the meadow established - who knew it would be so difficult to get rid of grass & weeds?!
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Froggiegirl621
Member
02-14-2003
| Thursday, April 14, 2005 - 10:46 am
Bogart! 
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 10:55 am
Well, we were still in the process of picking the name for Mabel's mate when we got hit with some very hard weather. Severe thunderstorms Thursday night followed by severe thunderstorms yesterday complete with an inch of hard hail and dropping temperatures - we're at 27 degrees right now I think. I looked out back to see how Mabel was faring and she had abandoned the nest, which I couldn't even see anymore. Colossus went down to take a look and the boat and nest have totally swamped, Mabel's brood is lost. Strangely, all this happened just a few days after Colossus had approached the owner of the boat about buying it. The neighbor said he should just throw the nest overboard. Colossus very nicely advised him that a number of the neighbors were watching Mabel closely and he might not want to do that. What he really wanted to do was pick the neighbor up by the Adam's apple, but anyway . . . It's a sad end to the story. Thanks to everyone for their help in naming the goose. We'll have a bunch of ducklings here soon who need naming, so maybe we can take it up again then.
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Landi
Member
07-29-2002
| Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 11:04 am
ohhhhhhh GAL, i'm so sorry. poor mabel.
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Juju2bigdog
Member
10-27-2000
| Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 1:57 pm
Awwwww, what a shame, GAL.
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Twinkie
Member
09-24-2002
| Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 5:15 pm
Oh that's so sad, GAL. I don't blame BigC one bit. I can think of things I'd want to do to the neighbor.
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Froggiegirl621
Member
02-14-2003
| Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 9:56 pm
So sorry to hear that GAL. BigC and you have hearts of gold!
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Monday, April 25, 2005 - 1:09 pm
Oh poor Mabel . But I'm grateful the wildlife in your area have Colossus and others looking out for them!
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Kristylovesbb
Member
09-14-2000
| Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - 8:43 pm
Oh Gal, sorry to hear the sad news. I am so glad there are such kind and loving people such as you and Colossus that care so much about God's creatures.
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Gina8642
Member
06-01-2001
| Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 8:47 am
Just posted this in breaking news - but it probably fits here too... Any bird watchers out there? Because this is HUGE!!! CNN is reporting that the Ivory Billed Woodpecker has been found alive in eastern Arkansas. God I hope this is true, and not something just hyped up my non-science savy media.
quote:Experts: Woodpecker feared extinct found Ivory-billed woodpecker last confirmed 60 years ago Thursday, April 28, 2005 Posted: 10:36 AM EDT (1436 GMT) WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The ivory-billed woodpecker, long feared extinct, has been rediscovered in a remote part of Arkansas some 60 years after the last confirmed U.S. sighting, bird experts said Thursday. Several people have seen and heard an ivory-billed woodpecker in a protected forest in eastern Arkansas near the last reliable sighting of the bird in 1944, and one was captured on video last year. "The ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis), long suspected to be extinct, has been rediscovered in the 'Big Woods' region of eastern Arkansas," researchers wrote in the journal Science in an article hastily prepared for release. "Visual encounters during 2004 and 2005, and analysis of a video clip from April 2004, confirm the existence of at least one male." Drumming sounds made by the birds have also been heard, the researchers said. "This is huge. Just huge," said Frank Gill, senior ornithologist at the Audubon Society. "It is kind of like finding Elvis." Gill said there is little doubt the sightings are genuine. The experts were expected to display some of the evidence at a news conference at the Department of the Interior later Thursday. "The ivory-billed woodpecker is one of six North American bird species suspected or known to have gone extinct since 1880," wrote the researchers, led by John Fitzpatrick of the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology in New York. "The others are Labrador duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius), Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis), Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolinensis), passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius), and Bachman's warbler (Vermivora bachmanii)." etc...
It's not everyday you find a species thought extripated. This is equal to finding the black footed ferret alive and well in the 1980s
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 1:40 pm
Oh Gina, I posted this in the Environmental thread too. Guess it's all over TVCH, lol. But it is wonderful news, isn't it? I've read about this bird before.
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Friday, April 29, 2005 - 5:17 am
I love that story about the woodpecker, Calamity - thanks for posting it. I'd seen the headline but didn't take the time to read it until you posted. I always hoped at some point they'd find a live duck-billed platypus, but that's considerably less likely since it was a much larger bird/mammal/sea-creature/whatever it was. Duckling alert!!! They're here already - early this year. We heard a tiny duckling lost out on the lake last night (the lost ones have a very distinct repetitive peeping to call their mother while they patrol back and forth). This morning Colossus got up early to see if he could hear the duckling again so we could go collect him if he hadn't found his mom. Lo and behold right down at Mabel's dock there's a mama duck with 12 (count 'em - there might be 13) tiny, tiny ducklings. And she was actually doing a pretty good job of keeping them all warm. I couldn't tell who the mama is, but she let me come down and give them some cracked corn. Mabel and her mate tried to get in on the action, too, but I had to run them off (they are still swimming around the boat where their nest was). Unfortunately, the geese are just plain mean to the ducklings - I've seen geese pick up the ducklings by the neck and throw them down in the past. These little ducklings must have just hatched in the past couple of days - they are as tiny as I've ever seen. Anyway - YAY!! Colossus tried to get a few pictures this morning. We'll see if they turn out (although you can trust that if he got the wierd corn lady with her bed head, robe and tennis shoes in the pictures they WON'T be posted.)
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Jeep
Member
10-17-2001
| Friday, April 29, 2005 - 8:03 am
Not sure this goes in the bird thread, but it sure doesn't fit anywhere else. For the last two days, I have seen two chickens on the side of the road near my house. Now these are not regular chickens. They are small and look like prize chickens. Very colorful and just standing there in the same place. They haven't moved. I can't believe someone would dump them out and it's a miracle some cat or other animal hasn't killed them yet. I feel really bad not doing anything, but not sure what to do. I looked in the local newspaper to see if there was a lost ad, but nothing. I don't know of anyone raising prize chickens in my area and the only way I know they are different is because one of owners of my office used to raise them. We often had a chicken delivered by UPS in a crate! LOL
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Ophiliasgrandma
Member
09-04-2001
| Friday, April 29, 2005 - 8:18 am
How they got UPS in a crate we'll never know.
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Jeep
Member
10-17-2001
| Friday, April 29, 2005 - 8:32 am
Geesh! I should review my posts, huh? LOL Correctly: We often had a chicken delivered in a crate by UPS!
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Friday, April 29, 2005 - 8:56 am
Jeep, maybe your owner would come out with you and try to catch the chickens? (and PLEASE get it on video). Wildbirds Unlimited keeps lists of people/organizations that help round up stray/injured/lost birds. You might want to check with them and see if they can recommend someone to go out and catch the chickens before they get hurt.
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Friday, April 29, 2005 - 10:59 am
Jeep: Hope those chickens are safe. You could also check your area Yellow Pages for vets/animal hospitals that handle wild/exotic/farm birds. GAL: Oh yea, ducklings! Are they mallards or some other type? A few years ago while passing through a wetlands area of the Valley's scenic trail, I got to see a pair of wood ducks. They were so gorgeous. There used to be a Wild Birds Unlimited in the town where I grew up but it closed. I get my feed from the local Farmer's Exchange. But anyway, I liked looking at the bird feeder cam at WBU's website. Thanks for reminding me of them! There's a nice story on CNN today about a man who first spotted the ivory-billed woodpecker. The illustration reminds me of the pileated woodpecker that flew into my yard last spring. It was a warm day and I was looking out an open window at my feeders and this GIANT bird swoped by. I was able to get a good luck at it 'cause it landed on a tree right across from me. I'd never seen one before and was so excited. I'm such a geek sometimes, lol. P.S. I hope that lost little duck found his/her family!
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Goddessatlaw
Member
07-19-2002
| Friday, April 29, 2005 - 12:12 pm
Calamity, we have mallards. I have no idea why we don't get the white farm ducks or any other kind, but we seem to be limited to mallards (we had one really cool one year before last, though -Sven. He was a silver mallard - Clearly the product of an illicit romance). Anyway, the ducklings are the cutest little guys you ever saw - at this age they're just a tiny little ball of brown fluff with yellow-striped eyes. The Canadian Geese - well, they have their own thing going. They're fascinating to watch as parents, they really work as a team. But the goslings are the opposite of cute, and goose temperament makes it hard to love them big or small. We have a mated pair of loons this year, and they're also fun to watch dive and fish. Our great blue herons are back, too, even though their old nest got both run over by the lawn guys AND swamped by the floods early this year. If you haven't seen a great blue heron fly overhead, you're missing one of the great treats of nature. What a magnificent bird. Ummm - what else what else? Oh, we have a finch feeder out back and we see all varieties of those. What sweet little faces they have, but they still scare me when they get in the house. We have pretty much the whole panoplay of tweeters outside. Still waiting to see if our blue jay bandit shows up this year, but the cardinals and robins have been in full song.
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Calamity
Member
10-18-2001
| Saturday, April 30, 2005 - 1:42 pm
{GAL:} Oh yes, great blue herons are SO gorgeous and awe-inspiring! Every once in a while I'll see one. Btw, amongst a flock of Canadian geese in a field (there's a reservoir on the land too) near the restaurant we went to yesterday there was a huge white bird. I think it may have been an egret but can't be sure. I grew up across the street from a farm and know all about the geese temperment. Hissing...chasing...they ran the show over there for sure. I still love the sound of Canadian geese honking as they fly overhead though. Sounds like you live in beautiful spot! I've never seen a loon except in photos but I do have a CD of their haunting calls. My blue jays especially love peanuts in the shell (unsalted). They test each one they pick up - I think they're trying to find the heaviest ones! P.S. I posted a lovely piece about the ivory-billed woodpecker in the Op/Ed thread in N&V.
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