the picture is not the best. i've been hearing these two birds of prey in the mornings. 100 yd from my driveway. sometimes it pays to live in podunk.

kevin

pesky crows!

I always love it when our mated pair resident red tailed hawks show up....the crows split faster than size 8 designer jeans on Oprah....

Best part of country living!!! A deer wandered into the gate of our backyard cyclone fence, when I went onto the deck to look at it, it tryed to run, couldn't jump the fence so it repeatedly ran into the fence and made sounds that I have never heard out of a deer. It did this for awhile and when I was just about to call animal controll it found its way out.

I saw an eagle in Brown County State Park a couple years ago. It's was awesome!!

The Fall Foliage Tour ended there last year. I think we'll start in the park this year.

True story

Neighbors down the road put an aluminum TV antenna in a tall fir tree for better reception. A pair of bald eagles built a nest on it. They wove the aluminum in with the sticks. Since then every year for about 10 years either bald eagles or osprey have nested there. The kicker is the tree is about 15 feet from the house and very close to the driveway. The birds won't foul their nest so the driveway and the house get creamed with eagle sh*t and fish parts. The birds are protected so they can't do anything to disrupt them and they can't sell because nobody wants to get near the place. The only time to visit them is in the winter when it doesn't stink.

So hope they don't take a liking to your place Kevin. Nice to see for a visit but they make loosy neighbors.

Dave

Drop a match while they are away....

I've heard stories like that also Dave. They can do wonders to your property value.

10 yrs a go ,or so we had only a pair of nesting bald eagles in a state park on the shore of lake Erie. Now
there are Eagles nesting all through that area. But more incredible is that they now nest there and along the banks of the Maumee River for a distance of about 40 miles. THe people who,s property they are near,get pissed at the people stopping in there yard ,and walking through there yard to take pictures. Last yr. my wife took the 914 on a drive along the river . We saw 15 of them in a 5 mile area. My god what a site! Amazing what a little care will do for species like that. DAVE

Well, it's hard to top eagles, but we have a family of racoons living in the refinery and a couple nights ago one of them walked up to me and started pulling on my pants leg. he was begging for food. Seems they are pretty much pets and everyone feeds them on a regular basis. I grabbed a sanwich from my lunch and hand fed the fat little bugger. He would take the bread right out my hands with no fear at all.
My guess is he's at least 25 pounds.

Maybe not a big deal to you guys but to a city rat like me that's wild kingdon.

YOU SURE it's a racoon? Could be a NYC RAT with a bad dye job....

When I lived in Ut. (shhhh, dont tell anyone), There was one bald eagle that flew around near the hometown airport. That area was real open and desolate. We would have parties out there. Wow that bird was Huge, and very beautiful. Flew around that area for a couple of summers. It was being watched by the forest service because it is endagered.

My boss has racoons that come up to the house in the late night and eat out of the food bowls. Boy they are noisy and they make a terrible mess out of the bowls. It seems like they take the cat food, and dunk it in the water bowl, then they bathe in it afterwards. I have had the bowls dissapear before when we changed the cat food brand. I have opened the door when i heard them outside. They just look at me and carry out their business. Its almost like they dont give a sh** as long as I didnt disturb them eating. Interesting....

We have a problem with racoons up here. The incidence of rabies in the racoon population is quite high. I've read it may be as high as 13%. Anyway, if you end up in the ER with a racoon bite, if you can't supply the animal you get the rabies series. It's not as bad as it used to be, 4 big ones in the shoulder instead of 7 big ones in the gut.

I'm not anti wildlife. I love to watch the eagles, deer, racoons, bear, coyotes and everthing we are fortunate enough to observe. But, I remind myself that they make the rules so, I try to give them the space they want.

Dave