newbie here with three chicks and a duckling. two Comets, a Delaware and a runner duck. I am petrified of predators and am researching everything. :( I am so sorry for all of your losses. I cannot stand the thought and before they go out I am going to focus on the most secure barriers I can come up with. We live on 32 acres in Western NY and have it all out here. we have 5 dogs, horses, cats and a 5 year old son. I am a SAHM so will be around a lot. We have approximately 1/4 of an acre with a falling down 6 ft. stockade fence around it that we are going to gradually replace. There is a large area within that fence next to the house where we will put the coop ( the rambler from www.chickensaloon.com and then secure a pen area. Part will be the house, two sides the re-enforced fence and a new part will have to be put up to make the rectangle. We want to put the black plastic shrubbery barrier down ( 6") and then pour cement around the fence. I will get the night time predator lights to move around and do whatever else I can do. If anyone is still reading this thread I am open to suggestions. we also will put bird netting along the top of the run. The problem is that there are no trees in the back. I need to get some put in and also find some things for them to hide under for when they spend time free ranging. In the winter I plan on letting them have a stall with a dutch door and making an enclosure for them but that is a ways away.

Hi every one! Can you believe it? I still cannot believe my luck and I was there!!! Again while on my way to work this morning there was someone white and *quite* chunky looking flying across the road. I pulled over, backed up a bit, and admired a stunningly beautiful snowy Owl perched on top of a utility pole. This one was much larger than the first Owl I had seen and was more heavily barred. The barring seemed darker / black. I believe this Owl was a female as her face, nape of the neck and center of the breast were white. From what I was able to research that does describe the female snowy. Maybe this was an immature but I did not find much description of them. Any way ... I am 113% sure this was another Snowy Owl! What a wonderful start to the day! As my luck would have it, I did not have my camera in the car for the past week. Had the camera been there then for sure the Owl would NOT! LOL! So that was a great start to the day. I was 20 minutes late to work but work is just soooo over-rated. LOL! The rest of the day was downhill but who cares? I saw another Snowy Owl! The Owl was about 1 mile south of the earlier sighting on Rt. 83 in N. Ridgeville again. C3D and 2 Snowy sightings this year!

OK, Jean, I think it's time you 'fess up and tell us just WHICH ornithilogical publication you do professional photography for... Your photos ALWAYS look like they came right out of a book, or should be in one! I'm humbled by your skill and aspire to attain anything close to it with my own bird pictures! As for the Carolina wren, I got a picture of one just outside my dining room window a couple years ago, perched on one of those cage feeders... picture's through a dirty window, but it's an otherwise pretty clear picture of a wren and I think I posted it here before at one point, so let me go see if it's in my Photobucket... Well, I THOUGHT it was, but maybe I deleted it. It's late, and I'm not gonna hunt it down right now, but maybe you'll figure out if that was a Carolina wren or not by looking at online sources, FTM. Happy Birding, all! Jeff

Maureen, I'm looking at three different birds there, right? I see two sub-adults, and one that looks mature. Interesting! The young birds take about 4 years to acquire the solid white head and tail and solid brown body, so you can figure the young bird that is mostly speckled is probably only a year or two old, and the one in the next to last picture is probably 3 to 4 years old and will soon finish molting into his adult plumage. Were there any other adults around? Landfills are good birding spots, especially for various gulls. Your pictures are fantastic, as always! Marcia