Love the cuckoos too. Most of the locals here call them rain crows since the myth has it that they call before a storm. They do have an odd call. CCox, you think it's a sad one? I don't know, it always reminds me of sitting in a fishing boat with my dad years and years ago. A cuckoo would do its cuk cuk cuk ca ca kow kow kow thing and dad would say, There's a rain crow, gonna be good fishing today. Never seemed to really have a bearing on the good or bad of the trip but the call still reminds me of those days on the water with him. I discovered a nest on a rather low branch of a tree here years ago. For days all I would see was a bird butt sticking out one side, and from where I was standing it looked almost like a dove's tail but not quite. Then one day I saw the cuckoo fly to the nest. I'd never seen one before and was delighted but unfortunately I never did see a brood. We had a series of strong storms and had to bring in one of our tractors to clean up the snapped off trees. The stack with all its hot fumes and roaring deisel engine were still not enough to make that bird leave the nest and after the cleanup was done a tail could still be seen jutting out of the flimsy nest. Too bad the chicks never appeared. I always assumed a snake was responsible.

Vonyon, I listened to the recordings of the barn owl and then the screech owl. I'm certain it was not the barn owl. The first time I heard the sound (which was the summer before last) it sounded like the "a" call. I went in immediately and listened to various owl calls to decide if it was an owl and which one. Then, on Halloween (last year), I was outside and I heard sound "B". Around the same time I heard some voices of kids on another street, so I thought it was some kind of recording that they had; however, I heard it again sometime after that and checked out the owl calls again and determined it was the screech owl.

Texas_Annie: When I lived in Southern California, half of my time gardening was spent dealing with gophers. People in the East have no idea what these little buggers can do! Once, a neighbor and I were growing giant pumpkins for a contest, and as they grew larger and larger, we would try and lift them off the ground a bit, to guess their weight. Ours were each about 150 pounds, or so, until one day when he lifted his pumpkin, it came right up off the ground. Gophers had tunneled in from beneath it, and eaten all its insides out--nothing but a shell remained. This, after 3 months of special care given the pumpkin. I'm sure he would have liked to wring the little critter's neck. They do make traps for gophers that are pretty effective. You open their run (when you see soil piled up) and put the trap in the run, then put a board over it. Lifting the board and checking it periodically should yield a squashed little plant-eater. If you continue doing this for the rest of your life, you'll probably keep the gophers under control.

The reason I looked to the dates I chose: You can purchase all of those tacks today on the internet. But you would not likely see the ones on the wings on older furnishings (too modern for a 20's piece). The variety is lovely, but more recent than the early part of the century. Secondly, the velvet. It is likely professional felted velvet, which starts out basically worn (it has less nub than real velvet you'd find on clothing). Clothing velvet is too slippery for the base of a piece of art. Felted velvet is very very thin and wears quickly because of that if it's seen any time). But let's just play that it's real velvet of the period (which would have been silk velvet most likely if we're talking early 1900's). I have a couple silk velvet gowns from the 30's hanging in the closet. I wear them to formal events and have owned many. They all have different stages of wear on them, but if I'm going to wear them in person, they look basically new. So you can't say that because it's X years old it has to look like Y. Use determines the wear most often as well as conditions (ie sliding over a counter or shelf off and on will wear more than a dress that's danced in). But still being a basically unknown artists piece, you don't know where that velvet came from. It could be a scrap from my 1920's velvet dress, reused from grandma's sewing basket (but unlikely again because it wouldn't be stiff enough for a base) or it could be some old piece they picked up at a garage sale, or most likely, given that the piece is an obvious planned piece, it's felted velvet specifically used for the base of a sculpture or lamp. That stuff shows wear day one. Turn over a lamp and see what you see. I could turn over a couple of lamps I have from 10 years ago and show you wear. But the big issue is the takcs. Those wing tacks just aren't that old. Too shiney, too big, too not early 1900's :) But still, and I'll say it again LOL Still beautiful. I hope you are able to find out more, but I'd guess you won't be. It's a cool art piece and should be enjoyed as such. I would even go so far as to say it has a decent value, but you need the right person to set that price (a specialist in folk art etc). I know I'd buy it LOL