Ah I wish my possum had stuck around. I fed him part of my ham sandwich, well I left it on the floor for him, and it (and he) were gone the next morning, never to return. As far as unwelcome furry guests, I do seek to control the numbers of the mice in the barn, via passive/aggressive predator measures, despite the fact that I consider white-footed field mice to be one of the cutest creatures on the planet. Cats, snakes, and weasels are all enlistees in my rodent control volunteer army. There are only a few specimens of wildlife that I relentlessly exterminate. Hornets and wasps top the list and I shoot for a zero population of these stinging insects every summer. They are followed by the fleas, ticks, and internal parasites that seek to victimize myself and my family, both two and four footed. These particular unwelcome insects, arachnids, and nematodes are the only pests to provoke me into chemical warfare, as my general rule is to shun pesticides and herbicides. If my house sparrows had left with the blackbirds, they would have been no problem. Not that my blackbirds leave, they are full time residents each summer. I would have welcomed raptor sparrow predation, but I've never seen a hawk touch ground here, although they frequently circle overhead above the woods. They probably have a collective memory of being shot at unfortunately, and seek prey in distant meadows away from human habitation. The rapidly multiplying plague of house sparrows that descended on my property, bent on colonization, was something I liken to a swarm of locusts. I've never seen anything like it. I now understand why they have so many enemies, and I am generally very tolerant of invasive wildlife. I even like feral pigeons! Then there are those pests who have bested me. I sadly concede defeat to the red lily beetle. (RIP my beautiful tiger lilies.) I also see no reasonable means of eradicating the Japanese beetles, now that they have found me. Instead I am planting only those flowers this year that seemed to have resistance to the beetles last year, and giving up on those that were a sought after delicacy. Thankfully my perennials are among those with resistance, so none have become casualties. Turning to non-pests, "my" pair of tufted titmice are checking out last year's nest in my barn, thinking about refurbishing it I guess. They're next to impossible to photograph, as is their partially hidden nest up in the rafters.

Molie: I would suggest a Great Blue Heron, perhaps a juvenile, for the darker bird. These are photos I took in August of a rather mangy looking Great Blue Heron preening in Ellisville Marsh. The dark crown is visible. Check out All About Birds - scroll down to the Field Marks section and then click on the arrow to see more photos. About five photos in is a juvenile. Claire Edit note: One thing that bothers me about the Black-crowned Night-Heron ID is the fact that they mostly hang around at night. According to All About Birds: "Black-crowned Night-Herons are common in wetlands across North America - you just may have to look a little harder than you do for most herons. True to their name, these birds do most of their feeding at night and spend much of the day hunched among leaves and branches at the water’s edge. Evening and dusk are good times to look for these rather stout, short-necked herons flying out to foraging grounds." This post was edited by claire on Thu, Sep 18, 14 at 15:06

OK People!!! When you feel as if you can manage to move, there's the annual Oktoberfest going on in the city today. Lots of food (if you can stand more)lots of beer (just in case you didn't get all you wanted last night and this morning) and music from an OOMPAH Band. The Big thing every year is the Weiner Dog Races. They had over 200 of the darling racings last year. It's down at the River Front Park in the Historic District. You can hang around here as long as you like, just eat up all the leftovers and drink all the booze and tidy up the place. I'm going to take a long nap. Thanks everyone for making this a blast...a literal one thanks to Dynomutt. I'm sorry I didn't mention that you should be careful about sparks and all that dry marsh grass. My husband says you can keep those pants....he doesn't want them back..ever! I took scads of pictures for those on the RP that had to stay home. Unfortunately, I left the camera on the railing and it got dumped in the water when someone got a little too excited. I really didn't think my belly dancing was THAT good!! That Pig Roast was exceptional.. I simply must get me one of those roasters for when all the grandkids come over. Then I would have an excuse for making them eat outside. That little thunderstorm that popped up was rather exciting, wasn't it? You'll have to admit that 30 mminutes of watching lightning over the marsh was not your usual party entertainment. But, it was over quickly and the moon came out just beautifully. Take care on the way home, Aggie a

Don't be surprised if that crow continues to harass you from now on. I've seen documentaries where they have proven that not only can they recognize human faces that they feel are a threat or a menace, they can relay that information to the next generation of crows, you might be in for a lifetime of crow harassment! I know my dog once brought down a crow (how I'll never know) and I happened to be right there after she did it, she was getting ready to go in for the kill and I stopped her. The crow seemed injured and hopped away to the woods while I took the dog inside. I then went to see if the crow was still on the ground and happened to see that it had made it up into a lower branch of a pine tree. Later it was gone. But a long time after that whenever the crows were around they raised all kinds of hell at my dog. So I'm assuming that the crow told it's buddies about it.