seeing my husband asleep, he is in so much pain when he is awake and sleep is so fleeting for him, right now he is asleep. seeing sunshine pouring through my windows, snow melting, birds singing, (and in summer my garden makes me smile) seeing my son when he is happy and excited about life. seeing my mom (almost 90) and my sister still alive and having a good day, with less pain. my two kitties and the two kitties of my sons, they just love unconditionally seeing good people treating other good people, good and even being kind to people who treat them bad innocence

Hiya Lovely. Our dearest Bub did NOT die. She is still very much alive and Grackle-ish! :-) We have had other Grackle youngsters die soon after arrival but Bub is going strong since her arrival in 2006. :-) Riboflavin .... I do not know of any *real* dose for the ~curled toe paralysis~ but usually one can get or order the 100 mg. tablets. Generally I mix in 1/8 of a 100 mg. tablet with the baby cereal I feed and use that with each feeding. What they do not need gets pooped out. ( Actually peed out but no matter....) Depending on how severe the problem is ... the paralysis or weakness will reverse within a few days to a week. How much of a baby is your crow? Depending on the age they need to be fed between every 15 minutes to every hour from about 5:00 AM to about 10:00 PM. I use Nutri-Start baby bird cereal mixed 50 /50 with a jarred baby food like Gerber's strained beef or strained turkey. Cut the riboflavin tablet into 1/4s then 1/2 those pieces again. Place the 1/8 piece in a piece of folded wax paper and crush it by rolling a can of dog food or other canned product over it. Mix this powder in with your baby cereal mixture. It will become a bright yellow. Please be warned that the baby's poop will become bright yellow too and it DOES STAIN anything it comes in contact with. Have you ever fed a baby bird? That is to say place food in the crop? If not it may be best to contact an avian veterinarian to get some advice on how to do this or get in touch with a rehabber to take over. Crows are a native species and for the long term one should not keep them without a federal permit. They may become imprinted on you and never be able to be released. Having said that ... How very kind of you to care enough to try to save the little crow! :-) If you are unable to contact an outside source of help ... I can talk you through how to tube feed a baby bird if you do not know how to do this. I'll check in at about 7:00PM EST. OK? Thanks for taking the time to care! C3D

Herons sometimes spear fish, leaving holes and marks on them, but other times will snatch with those ugly beaks of theirs. The only way it would have dropped the fish would be if something startled it away or the fish was too big to consume. I'm thinking the fish are probably jumping. Fish will jump for a variety of reasons. They will jump if parasites are bothering them (i.e. flukes, etc), but they will also jump if there has been a sharp change in ph, which irritates their skin. Test the water and see what your readings are. If the ph is low, add some baking soda to bring it up. I also use koi clay, which contains beneficial minerals. I had jumpers this spring, which stopped when I adjusted the ph and used the clay.

The boat tail grackles began coming to this area a few years ago (& most of the starlings-thankfully- then began to leave!). I do think they are beautiful & laugh at their 'look at me!' demeaner & take over our 50 ft. red cedar tree for their noisey 'conferences!but I don't like their aggressive behavior towards other birds! The ones here have black beaks. Am told they rob other bird's nests, eat the eggs, kill & eat the baby birds so am wondering when I see them fly with a small object in their beaks if it is the mosquito eating minnows that we keep (they are live bearers) in the small fish pond. I see them stand on the edge of the pond on rocks to drink & bath so guess when they see one of the top swimming (not to 'bright!) minnows they could catch one? Now we are putting netting over the small inground pond to be safe! Guess we can hope for a new variety of bird to come in when (? if) the grackles move on to an other area of the U.S. Odd, how here we seem to have these migrations of different varieties of birds! Few years ago we had ONE pair of mourning doves in our area.... now they are all over! Then the starlings came & took over for awhile but are a lot fewer now since the grackles arrived. We had one pair of curved billed threshers (orange eyes) three years ago & now our yard has dozens & some build nests in our cactus & seem to be not afraid at all ... even chase the resident squirrel! Now the influx of so many toads to our yard & pond ... THAT is another mystery! They are not afraid & seldom move away & don't seem to be of interest to any of our dogs even when the dogs sniff them at the pond... do they have no aroma or maybe it is offensive to the dogs? Now the blue tail lizzards keep the dogs in a perpetual/fruitless chase!! What a blessing of on-going 'fun' in our small city lot in the high desert!