My friend in Detroit had a pet store and with the moartality being as high as it is, the owner I know has to at least double the wholesale price to make a profit, and cover the losses from fish, that die on the way and also soon after delivery and before they're sold. I guess it's almost the same for other pets as well. I'm still wondering obout that on-line ordering, since I think it's a similar situation, where the price is high , but up to a certain point you can order many more fish for the same shipping price , provided they're not large fish. I guess in a sense the shipping direct wouldnt' be that different than many fish store owners get , since I know my friend had to order his fish direct from the breeders in Florida or wherever they came from and he'd have to drive a long ways to the airport to pick them up at the airport , I guess. I imagine though in some large cities the retailers might have local wholesalers to buy from??? I am thinking about "Freecycle" to locate possibly even a free aquarium, and setup, but I can't seem to get back on their site, and it's maybe a matter of fogetting my right memebership name and password. Seems I have so many different ones nowdays I can't remember them all sometimes, and I must start writing them down. I've heard of numerous people , who for various reasons decide not to continue their aquarium hobby and then just give away all their equipment and aquariums etc. I'd be willing to pay for a used one, but is there a problem with disease or "sterilizing' all that old equipment??

maryanne: Thanks. Its amazing but I took both photos from my deck. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to aim the camera effectively yet. Both birds flew directly over me and were sailing. The back of my house and deck face a valley with a creek at the bottom about 100 feet or so below the house. The land on other side of the creek rises more slowly to about the same height of my house. The large raptors catch the breeze coming up the hills and they really seem to enjoy it. The vultures are very simple to identify (if I can identify them, anyone can). As you can see, the turkey vulture appears to have a white bottom from tip to tip around the back of its wing. It is large--about 6' across. The black vulture has white only on the tips of its wings and is only about 5' across. Up close the turkey has a red head and the black has a grey head. I've found that the turkey vultures will come down to check me out when I am outside working. They just fly above me about 30' up or so. They will also fly through the woods (when leaves are off the trees) cutting a trail in and out of the trees. I have no idea why they do this since it appears a bit dangerous for a 6' bird. Its almost as if the turkey vultures want to show off. The black vulutres do not do this. They seem more aloof. The read tailed hawk was also enjoying a sail without flapping. That is why I think its tail was completely opened. It was just above me and I couldn't focus on it so I just clicked the camera and looked and there it was--just dumb luck. Last week, I heard what sounded like a death scream in the front yard. I looked up and it was 3 of these hawks making passes at each other. The bald eagles are less common than the hawks here. However, they do land in the trees in back of my house. From the top of the trees, they can survey their kingdom. With some luck, I should get a chance at an image within 100 feet or so.

Ivy, I think the only thing sadder than taking down the nesting area now would have been to have had to take it down after the eggs were laid. It must be awful when you have to take down "occupied" nests! There used to be a lot of bald eagles here when I moved up to this end of town about 15 years ago. It was on the very edge of the developed area and there were big old cottonwood trees along the roads overlooking huge fields of prairie dogs. One morning on the way to work I counted a dozen of them. It was way cool! Now all the old trees are gone and everything is built up and the eagles are gone! At least the Rocky Mountain Arsenalnow wildlife preserveis close enough that they had somewhere to go. Sure wish there were still a few around here to watch! Now I have to watch the bird cams if I want to see eagles! I was planning to put something on top of the box to keep them away, Bean, but I was so tired when I razed the condo yesterday that I almost dropped the bricks on top of my head when I took down the roof! Today I crisscrossed some of the shims I had used for leveling the roof on top of the box, and Im pretty sure theyre off to other digs. When I took the old nest down I was wondering if the robins might be into recycling, so I put it down in the perennials near the condo site, and today I noticed that the one side of it has disappeared, so I think they are using some of the old building materials in the new nest! Itll be interesting to see if more of the old nest disappears in the next few days. I didnt see them around too much today, but then I was out in the backyard all afternoon. At least they werent hanging out staring at me anymore!!! If your tree is no taller then me, Digit, Im not sure it even qualifies as a tree! Im 5'3"! Yeah, I know how tough they areand it looks like theyre up, up, and away already. And, oh, yeah! Theyll be back for the worms! Sometimes it gets very frustrating when Im "fixing" the bark mulch over and over and over where the robins have been digging for wormsbut theyre always forgiven! Its fun to have robins around. Im amazed how close theyll get to me when Im out working in the yard. I think were familywhich didnt help when I had to evict them! Ever since I moved in here the house sparrows have been building a nest in the Euonymous thats growing up the side of the house at the end of my deck, but it made such a mess in the flower bed below it that this past fall I pulled the nest and most of the Euonymous down (and out from under the siding!) I can live without the house sparrows! At the last house a pair of hairy woodpeckers built a nest in one of the dying limbs in the cottonwood in my backyard! It was fun to watch them the year they nested in it. Before they could come back the next year, the limb fell off of the tree! When it was cut up I saved the section of the limb where they built the nest. I keep thinking maybe some day Ill mount it on a post or something and Ill see if anybody else would like to live in it! It sure is amazing what woodpeckers can do with just their beaks! Maybe you need to hire some woodpeckers to build some nests for you, David! ;-) Skybird

You're going to have more trouble than the birds are. Birds are immune to the effects of capsaicin, unlike mammals (I figured out that the squirrel digging in my potted peppers was burying nuts in the nice soft dirt, he didn't nibble. But the turkeys were eating the peppers in the garden til I put the deer netting we'd taken down for Irene back up.). In fact, they often include dried chiles in parrot mixes. Too bad for your friend, though.