I had to laugh out loud at the instructions your Wildlife Department gave you, and I had mental visions of your husband in his trapping gear. It's prolly an everyday occurrence to them and they think nothing of it. I have been clawed and bitten sufficiently by my gentle little hens to take beaks and talons with anything but the greatest respect. Like Lilo says, I have a great deal of empathy with birds of prey. Life isn't easy for that kind of predator. I get daily performances from our turkey vultures (who are carion eaters and not likely to kill anything) and it's amazing to watch them. Over the years, I see that they do their hunting with a precision routine, and it's not at all random. They plot out zones and soar up high, and circle down low and then move over to the next zone and do it again if they don't find food. Sometimes there'll be a dozen of them doing this in tandem. When they light, I know that somewhere in the fields or pastures below, an animal lays there dead or dying. In the wintertime, I watch the routine of one particular female Cooper's Hawk. She is magnificent and for the last couple of years, I have watched her make her daily rounds. Our property is part of it, although she roosts in a grove of trees between some pastures up and across the road. After she checks out our feedings stations, she heads up to our spring grotto for awhile before moving on. Last winter, one of her progeny (I'd presume), a young male followed her same route almost daily. It was so funny, yet sad, to watch him as he first started learning to hunt. He tried to fly into the vines after the smaller birds, and got entangled. He sat there in full view under the feeders for long periods of time, like the birds would going to fly down and into his mouth. He caught on, eventually.

Glad you're all liking the photos. Posting more soon in a new thread.. Kippy, you must get Buff Beauty. I love this rose and have 4 of them even with my limited space. The fragrance is wonderful. OK in part shade. Takes a few years to get going so be patient. Carol, I've got 2 Penelopes. Also a great shade rose. Ingrid and Carol, not ready for wide shots yet as much of the garden is also pot ghettos until bands get established so it's all rather crazy here. mzstitch, I purchased Belle Isis from Rogue Valley Roses as a huge 1 gallon plant. The blooms start out pinker than fade to white. It's a once blooming rose. Flowers last a few days. Pamela, thanks for the warning. You'd helped me decide where to plant it. Belle Isis will go into one of the new 25 gallon above ground pots in the new front garden area that's my solution to the invading cypress roots and she can sucker to her heart's content then I'll have suckers to give away. Jeri, I really love Alika and am glad my conditions are allowing me to grow Gallicas. I'd be sad without them. But you can grow the Teas which stick their tongues out at me and shrivel away. I had hopes for the Lady Roberts from Sac Cemetery but she's sulking and her blooms don't open well. Thanks again for everyone's compliments, Diane

These may have seemed harder, but you guys are actually doing pretty well. And without any clues! The only one nobody's mentioned yet is the second half of #3. Yes, Kerry, one point for genus and one for species, I hadn't figured cv. names into the equation. Perhaps I should have had a 3 point system, but it doesn't seem to be an issue with any of these. Keeping score has gotten a bit harder now with all of the changes and multiple answers, but I'll do my best. Japie, are you sure it's #2 you want to change? So far that's about the only one that everybody seems to agree on! I have a feeling your answer was meant for #4, as a couple of the others had. Assuming that to be the case, your current score is 14, otherwise it drops to 10. It's not always wise to go with the majority. ;-) Kerry has moved into the lead with 16.... or 15, depending on how I score #8. Glad you caught the boat, Yong, you have 13 points. Andrew, you changed a couple of your answers mid-post. If I count everything mentioned you get 12 points, but if I go with your final answers, it's 11. BTW, your suspicions are correct. ;-) So, I'll let you math/logic wizards figure it all out while I sleep, and I'll give the full list in the morning. In the meantime, for #3..... think small.

Don't you hate those darn mealies??? I've been getting hit lately (once again...after a big hit over the summer). I treated them with alcohol and also used a systemic (BATS), and that worked WONDERS! So I did that again with the new "attack"...we'll see what happens. As for the ID, can you post a picture taken from further away? Also, what size are the leaves, are they pubescent, etc. If the leaves are pubescent (fuzzy), could it be H. lauterbachii? Check out the post I linked to at the bottom, and click on the links in the 5th and 12th posts - those are some good pics of lauterbachii. Here is a link that might be useful: H. lauterbachii post