Sammy..... The only critters that get removed from my garden are rattlesnakes. I plant enough food for migrating birds to feed on while making their trip south, but not enough to make them stick around. I always have water available for them because I have read that more birds die of thirst than lack of food. I don't feed stray cats or dogs, but report them to Animal Control (Rabies is a problem up here, so I no longer rescue stray cats or dogs) ... nor do I feed the deer, at least not on purpose ... lol. When I had a stare down with a cougar one night, I decided to have the fuel reduction crew work in our neigborhood to remove the brush that created both a fire danger and provided the preferred habitat for a hunting cougar. I got all of our neighbors involved in the project. Yes, we changed the habitat, but our homes and children are safer. (There's plenty of places for the wild animals that lived in that brush to move to up here.) The deer moved back to their usual deer trail, but if there is a hunting cat, I think it will be further down, or up, the deer trail...at least I hope that's true. My whole view of wildlife has changed as I got more information, but each of us has to decide how we are going to live with the animals that are a part of our world. Smiles, Lyn

OMG! I just looked at this picture when I got home and there are three baby birds in it! I did not see them at all when I took the picture! I just seen the egg and nest and thought I would snap a quick picture as I was at work and have to walk by it a lot. Most of the time the daddy and mom don't move sometimes they do and flop on the ground playing like they are hurt. The killdeer made a nest right on a sun someone made out of white rocks right by a busy sidewalk and road. It's a odd spot I hope the family lives! cats are always around. I made fun of the parents I guess they knew what they were doing after all, pretty good camoflauge huh?

I have no problems with Jeff Corwin and especially Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. He lived for conservation. What you see on TV was just the tip of the iceberg and it got millions of people to care about crocodiles and snakes. He spent millions of dollars worldwide on conservation projects and scientific research. Plowed the money made by the TV shows into conservation and upgrading Australia Zoo also a state of the art vet hospital where they treat and release thousands of injured and sick wild animals. The crocodiles captured were being saved or being used for research. Australia routinely shot them before Irwin and his father before him starting moving them or removing them to the zoo to save them. Anyone ever watch Wild Kingdom? They jumped out of helicopters and off jeeps and horses on to the animals to catch them because it is safer than drugs. All those animals that were caught and radio collared, measured and blood tested add to the database of knowledge about the animals. Many were also relocated because of human development. The more scientists know about a species, the better armed they are to save it. Zoos, animal parks, aquariums (that have safe, healthy habitats and healthy, happy animals) help the wild ones because they get people to care. I've never been to any such facility that didn't have education and conservation as their purpose. Zoo raised animals are being released into the wild, endangered species are being saved in zoos. California Condors, Black Footed Ferrets, Arabian Oryxs (an antelope) Prezewalski's Horses, Pere David's Deer have all been saved by captive breeding and are now back in the wild. There are many more projects like these going on world wide. Accredited zoos keep studbooks and have Species Survival Plans and share knowledge and animals for breeding around the world to benefit the various endangered species. It would be fabulous if all animals lived free and wild but it isn't an option with the billions and billions of people on this planet. Millions of whom could not give a rip if all animals were gone, all forests cut down, all ground drilled etc. as long as it doesn't affect them, personally, right now.

Hey, on 5/20/07 i was in my backyard enjoying the sun and i noticed that a hawk was circling over the backyard. I have an Italian Greyhound and he was strolling about so i thouht the hawk may have been looking at him. I kind of got nervous so i rushed over to him to try to catch him but he was having to much fun to come inside so he starts speeding around the yard playfully. As i'm trying to catch him i notice a still bird sitting in the open grass I study it for awhile and it hasn't blinked or moved at all, i gently touch its beak with the tip of my shoe to see if alive or dead because i often find dead birds but this one wasn't shredded. Once i touch its beak it opens and i relize the hawk was stalking the bird! I dig up a few worms clean them then let them soak in a little Gatorade for a minute and feed them to the bird. I look to see if the hawk is still around and it has perched itself on the neighboor's roof. The little bird being replenished starts to hop around so i think to myself it must be a fledgling. I let it hop around without any interaction and the parents start to react nerviously, thats when i discover it was a baby robin. As it hops closer to the neighboors fence i soon put together the pieces and the parents are panicking becuase the hawk is over there so i walk as calmly and fast as i can but i startle it and it goes under the large wood fence as the parent robins start to scream and squawk. I run to get a garbage can, a net, the stick part of a broken shovel, and duck tape. I now have a very long net and something to stand on to see over the fence. I swoop it in the net just in time and the hawk takes of from the closer part of the roof frustrated. Sure the parents are mad at me now but i couldn't just leave it there for the hawk to get it later. So i took it inside. That afternoon i put it in a Nike shoe box and went back to my other house in NYC. The next day i brought it to school to ask my math teacher what i should do because she has helped injured birds before, she upgraded its box to an office paper box. She recommened Exact hand feeding formula for baby birds and an eye dropper. A couple of days i bought a small hamster cage that fitted the robin well and then later i set out to find some worms. It is very hard to find wild worms in NYC but i did. As the bird got a little fatter we cleaned up the cage and switched it for a real bird cage. I let it out in my room whenever i'm not at school. It is happy as can be. I am currently trying to teach it how to eat on its own by gently pushing its beak into various fruits - I research what it should and shouldn't have. Tomorrow will make it a month that its been living with me. I do plan to give it the option of leaving, but thats after i teach it to eat without my assistance. It will peck and eat small insects that it finds on the patio in NJ. Well thats my story in great detail, hope i have some interesting comments to view in a few days. BTW it taught itself to walk in a hamster wheel which i took a short video of. (NOTE: It is no longer in the hamster cage) I'll post the link for anyone that would like to see. LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRflDdmRu0c