And so, Sandi, like SJN said, the scarab beetles went running up your legs and you went screaming, "Take me to Jerusalem!" Fortunately for you, the beetles were flying beetles, and they en masse lifted you off the groundtoward Jerusalem. Alas, however, they were still only on your legs and you were flying upside down. Equally unfortunate, they had not flown with a person before and panicked, all running together for comfort, but the gathering was in your crotch, and you also panicked, in addition to a very uncomfy upside-down flight to Jerusalem. But fortunately as both you and the beetles were screaming, they had the good judgement to settle you and themselves down right next to the wailing wall in Jerusalem, and your collective cries fit in well at the wailing wall. Unfortunately, you did not have a prayer to stick in a crack in the wailing wall, and a group of people gathered around you as you and the beetles became the center of attention, embarrassing both you and them. But fortunately one of the men huddled around you said something in Hebrew, distracting you and the beetles under your pants. Both you and the beetles said, "Huh?" at the same time, and the beetles all ran out your pants legs and hopped up on your knees to look at the young man who was speaking to you. Unfortunately, the young man young man had a beetle phobia and typically handled his anxiety by sucking his left thumb and picking his nose with his right index finger, and he fell on his back with a panic attack as people pointed at him. Fortunately a very handsome young man looked at you and realized that you are drop dead gorgeous and leaned over and lifted you and the beetles and kissed you passionately as the people and the beetles cheered. Your fear of the beetles left you, as you became grateful to them for bringing you here,and you introduced them to the very handsome young man, who was actually a prince. Unfortunately the beetles were hungry from the flight and equally unfortunately whispered in your left ear that they were dung beetles and could they please have lunch. You were so grateful to them that you and the prince,who didn't have any hangups about that sort of thing, took them to lunch at a pile near the roadside. But fortunately you and the prince had a wild torrid love affair and after a week you revealed to him that you always wanted to go to Hawaii. The prince jumped with joy into the air and told you that going to Hawaii had always been his secret dream, but that he had always wanted it to be with a group, and now he had a group with you and the beetles. Unfortunately, as all of you are flying to Oahu there must be food for all to eat on the long trip. Felling kindly toward the beetles, you have carried a sack of sh** for them, which you have suspended from your belt and placed them in it. But fortunately, the prince is not like many men, who would leave you holding the bag, as it were. And beside, he is grateful to the beetles as well, and he lifts the bag from your belt and places it gently and with respect on a pillow across the aisle. You are very grateful that this lovely person respects your sack of sh** that you have been carrying from your past, as he knows that we all have a sack of sh** from our pasts. And the prince loves you just like you are, and you lean back in your comfortable leather seat and looking out at the clouds, with a profound sense of comfort in knowing that you do not need to be any better than you are for the prince to love you and knowing that you will learn to love his sack too, even as the Father of the universe loves us and the sack of sh** we all carry from our past. Merry Christmas and Hanukuh to all. You have brought joy and love to my life. Jim And now I wish that all of the daffodil bulbs that I have been frantically planting do indeed bloom and are gorgeous this spring.

That makes sense. It looks like a young and curious bird, or perhaps the cockatiels' calls sounded like a rival flycatcher. That would be my guess. In which case, it would definitely have to check out the competition. Great-cresteds are one of my favorite birds. In central Florida, they are only here during the summer, and I'm always so happy to see (or hear) them arrive. I call them "Threeps" because of their loud call. You can watch them feeding...they perch on a branch or wire and wait for insects to fly by, then they swoop out and grab the bugs out of midair, and return to the perch. They eat a LOT of insects, many of which can be pests. GCF's will use nest boxes if the entrance hole is the right size and the boxes are placed to their satisfaction. Very interesting birds. Marcia

SouthCountryGuy - I see your point and I don't disagree with you about terminology. You probably have seen a lot more snakes than I have since I live in New York City. I don't know why you think i'm out to kill snakes. They are not even part of my world. I'm just looking at it in the narrow focus of this thread and the person who posted this thread in the first place is a lay person asking about a snake. We are talking about snakes here as per the headline topic "Snake ID". Not Dart Frogs or Coyotes. Stay on topic. "Can please explain again how you cannot always tell the difference between a venomous (nice to see you changed from the improper poisonous) and non-venomous snake." Sure I thought I covered that but here again. There are those that are poisonous, and nonvenomous copycats, such as the scarlet king snake.. It's not easy to tell the difference for the lay person. Like if my grandmother took the dog out for a walk into the woods and the dog found a snake? Of course a zoologist would know the difference, but I'm talking about the lay person. Like if me and my college buddies went camping to the Adirondacks and a random snake crossed our path unexpectedly - a common scenario over here. They will even slither into your sleeping bag during the night. Who knows if it's poisonous or a copycat? A poisonous snake has venom, a non-poisonous snake does not. A big difference. That's the first question the doctor will ask you when you go to the hospital for a snake bite. It was very pompous and arrogant of you to mock my references. Are you the know-it-all? The reason I cited "Animal Planet" and "National Geographic" is for you to check it out for yourself. Just go to the freakin website and do some research. You just might learn something from the experts. I'm done here.

I love to see everyone's visitors. Wish we had frogs. The possums would eat them though. Snakes don't worry me. If they aren't poison snakes. The little ones are soft and give delicate brushes with their tongues to see who you are. How can they go so quickly without any legs or feet? We have hummingbirds now. I found a young one on the ground and gave it sugar water and made it a nest out of moss. I put it in a hanging basket in my bottle brush tree. It called all morning for its mother and I kept my eye on it. By afternoon the mother was flying around my nest and by sunset the baby was gone.