Hey, that's why I love posting here, because I'm definitely NOT a know-it-all. I need backup. :D It all happened so quickly (gliding, landing, sitting pretty), but I really think it had a banded tail with darker colors! I know the chest was white, with brown vertical speckles, if that makes sense. I took the camera out yesterday morning, as I will today, but it didn't show up. There is another bird, though, maybe someone can ID for me. Again, not a very good pic, but it's one of a few birds that have been hanging around. They have a weird flight pattern, where they take off from their perch, swoop out (or up) and around, returning to their perch, almost like a boomerang (or like they're snagging some insects in mid-air?). Anyway, I've mentioned it before as having a light yellow front, and you can just see some peeking out from above the tail in this pic. They usually hang around in pairs, and they're very protective of their "area". This is the one and only time any of them have ventured this close to the house, that I've seen, anyway. It was very hot that day, and it definitely wasn't doing the swoop thing. Maybe someone can help! :) Brenda

I thought you might be slipping the 'squirrel chimney cave shrimp' and the 'oval pigtoe' into the list just to test us, but I looked them up and they are real :~) Seriously, it's easy for people to be upset about the loss of something beautiful or large but it is the loss of small, normally unnoticed creatures that signal early bio-changes. I appreciate you posting this list and increasing everyone's awareness. The loss of any species can have a terrible effect up the food chain.

So many nice images. Looks like you had a great weekend. The starling image is cool. Really enjoyed the Marsh Wren Bob

These are gorgeous. Perhaps you can answer an image question for me. I'm pretty new to this forum and even newer to posting pictures. I just posted a small one today for the first time. How do you post these large images here? I kept getting my image rejected until I reduced it so much that it's now the size of a postage stamp. I must be missing something because I see other images here that are larger with great resolution such as these you've posted. Thanks for sharing your beautiful pics and for any help you (or anyone) can offer. Jann