Oh Please! Don't throw yourself under a bus, Sarah! When I get cold and clinical I'll be cold and stiff. :-) Maybe some rehabbers can get that way (or need to) because they see hundreds of creatures and they need to cull out those who will take up their time and space in the facility? Poor Mr. Cardinal. Poor Barry! They might not be around if that would be the case!!! This is not a clinical setting here. This is our home. Whoever comes here for aid gets all we can offer to the best of our ability. Emotionally it probably isn't the best because we quickly fall in love with the latest addition and are heartbroken if things turn out less than the best. Always a big supply of tissues here. When I say I have bloodshot eyes ... I *really* do. But the joy that comes from helping someone far outweighs the sad times! Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal showed off their 4 fledglings last Sunday. We are 113% sure it is OUR Mr. C.! OMG! We have grand-chicks. :-) How can I care if I don't care? You wouldn't be able to care for animals either, Sarah, if you didn't care. That's all we can do is to try some days, isn't it? The rest is out of our hands. Thanks, S. Until the next guest ... C3D (Gotta have at least ONE happy ending this year! We'll work on it!!!)

Thanks Claire for the comment. I like this one better too because I can zoom in while videoing besides having clearer videos. It's mostly Crooked Beak's bottom bill that is growing out. Squeaker has been teaching Baby how to Squeak like him too- it's funny listening to them. --------------- Hi organic_bassetlvr. I been having many redpolls show up (have on videos), but there still is some that seem to have what looks like a black top with a long black spot on the chest Claire provided photos and info about the redpolls in her post about 'Great Backyard Bird Count' (thanks again Claire!), so I'm leaning towards them being redpolls more than the warbler. It's no problem on skipping the orbs, it was just something else I was sharing. I'm glad you enjoy Crooked Beaks story and thank you for your kindness and concern. --------------------- Hi dreamgarden. Thank you for you kindness, I'm glad you like! The camera I was referring to about videoing and being better was the Sony HD (Handycam) HDR-CX260. The new camera before that was a Samsung HD- it seem to have multiple problems like with focus, sound and stability. The camera before that was my original Kodak EasyShare that just started having multiple problems too- it was a good camera. The cameras I have for monitoring outside are the IR night vision. I have 16 of them now to monitor the birds and any other activities I have around the house. I did install mine myself and have them all hard wired (I can't use wireless) . You might have better luck with the wireless than I did (frequency issues). The wireless are easy to install, it's also the best bang for you buck. You can get them on ebay- http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-4G-Wireless-Home-Outdoor-CCTV-Security-Night-Vision-IR-Color-Camera-System-/221041070311?pt=US_Surveillance_Security_Systems&hash=item33771310e7 Or you can type in- '2.4G wireless CCTV IR Night' on ebay search. The system comes with two wireless cameras and a receiver. It cost under a hundred dollars too. The 16 cameras I use are the 2.4 GHz waterproof 380 TVL 1/3 CMOS NTSC 3.6mm lens CCTV Night vision with audio. ------------------ Here are some videos I added if you haven't seen them already- "Zippy" the Red Breasted Nuthatch- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVYPQ5FpBDw --------- "Rav" the Raven- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyyaWHIN_lM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2R7k7tjle0 --------- "Sue and "Lou" the Common Redpoll- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UelrTOoY0U ---------- "Centra" the European Starling- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-j6gXSQ9FM ----------- Some other Redpolls- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klb44uKe6Z0 ----------- My dog "Cody"- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f11FUslzBA Hope you like them, Ed This post was edited by Trickyfingers on Mon, Mar 25, 13 at 21:50

That is too bad. Hard to tell what happened. Is the nest close to the hole in the box? I know when I checked on my TRES for the last time on day 15 there was one little one in there that was very brave. It tried to jump out twice while I was trying to do a head count and make sure all were living after we had that three day cold wet spell and lost 3 other nestings. Maybe like you said that one was doing some early peeking and got a little to far out, they wouldn't be able to fly well at all at day 15, mine didn't leave until day 22. Last year I had a TRES fledgling that couldn't fly well but it could fly, spent two days on top of the box until its brothers or sisters left the box and it flew off with them. Mom and Dad would feed it on top of the box. It would fly around a little bit but never far and would return to the top of the box. I think it too just left too early however not as early as your poor little TRES. I sure hope the rest stay put until they are good flyers! Have you seen the adults around feeding the babies?? Donna

John_Blakeman: With all due respect to your "take" on the post I made, let me assure you that I observed a pair of Snowy Owls nesting. I have observed owls for many years, and I have not the least problem distinguishing a foot-tall Barn Owl from a two-foot-tall (plus) Snowy Owl, as far as size alone is concerned. The weight, from memory, is about a pound for the Barn Owl, compared to about 4 pounds, for the Snowy Owl. This, regarding size and weight, alone. The appearance is totally different, also--I could NEVER confuse the two, particularly when we observed these owls flying quite low (the water tower was 20'-25' high, as was the open door to the barn loft--and that's as high as the owls flew, from point A to point B). I spent most of my summer vacation from school watching the Snowy Owls, daily, as did my aunt, uncle, and two cousins. Of course we had the intelligence to consult a bird book immediately, as none had ever seen such huge, white owls. The identification was simple--pictures of Snowy Owls were carbon copies of the owls flying from the water tower to the open barn loft. I have surmised in later years, that the owls wintered in the area, and found such an abundance of mice and rats in the barn, that a pair stayed over and nested--it's basically that simple, and it definitely occurred. My uncle used to go down to this barn at night, over the years, with a flashlight in one hand, and "Kitty" (a black-and-white farm cat, and a great rat and mouse killer) in the other--and me, when I was young, tagging along. He would shine his light in the rafters, and rats and mice--sometimes twenty to twenty five visible at a time--would take off running the rafters. He would throw Kitty up onto a rafter, and the cat would chase the rats and mice, killing them and dropping them below, as it chased others. It was unbelievable to me, as a child--first, the sheer NUMBERS of vermin present, and, second, the NUMBER the cat would kill before they could all get through the holes they had made in the barn siding. It was not unusual for her to kill 6 or 8 rats/mice, after being thrown into the rafters, and before they could escape. So much for the number of prey animals that the barn contained. To answer some of the other points you bring up in your post: You mention "woods" and "wooded area" at least 3 times Where did you get the idea that any "woods" were present? Please reread my post. The water tower couldn't have been in a more open area. To describe it further: Our farmhouse sat in a large open yard of about two acres; then, there was a fence to an open pasture. In this open pasture, no more than 100 yards from the house, was the water tower. It was 100 yards or less to the barn, where the Snowy Owls caught rats and mice--in the same open field as the water tower. There were no woods for half a mile in any direction, and the pasture was grazed by cattle year-round. This was really the only place a Snowy Owl COULD have nested, to keep from being trampled by cattle. Like a raised hump or mound in the tundra of the Arctic. You mention Snowy Owls prefer open skyview. They certainly had it here--the water tower was UNCOVERED--like a large, OPEN, barrel, used to catch rainwater (possibly over a hundred years old, as the house was built in 1852). You mention Snowy Owls can't provide enough food for 5 chicks. Are you aware that the average number of eggs laid by a Snowy Owl is 3 to 9--depending on the food supply? (Another source says 5 to 8. Do a search for Snowy Owl if you're in doubt). Are you aware, also, that Snowy Owls are diurnal, and that Barn Owls are the MOST nocturnal of the North American owls? Also, that Snowy Owl chicks are "downy white", just as I described them? That Snowy Owls have been observed nesting in abandoned Eagles' nests? That they have been observed in Georgia, the Gulf states, and as far south as the Carribean? My post stands totally correct, except for one conclusion that I should not have drawn. I mention that the handful of sticks I observed on the floor of the water tower was "placed there by the owls". Of course, I have no way of knowing whether they placed these sticks there, or whether they remained from some previous nesting. They were definitely no organized nest--but loose sticks spread about in the center of the tower floor. I was expecting to see a "nest" in the tower, and remember the site being conspicuous for its lack of one. RichardZone7Maryland: Prior to my observation of a pair of Snowy Owls in the woods in Virginia in 1991, I previously saw a lone Snowy Owl in the Winter of 1980, in a tree in the median of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, as I traveled northbound to BWI. There was some snow on the ground, and he sat motionless, looking down, for prey. Others: To reiterate, has anyone observed Snowy Owls nesting in states other than Alaska?