Catfish are scaleless and he may be showing signs of burning from the meds you have used. Scaleless fish are very sensitive to meds and you can burn them if you are not careful. I would give him a dose of stress coat to sooth the skin and just let him be in some clean water and see if that does not heal the welts.

June, Thank you, thank you, thank you for giving me the correct identification. I looked it up on the web and you're right, mine looks just like russelia sarmentosa. It's funny because I don't really care for the looks of the firecracker plant (equisetiformis), except for in a large pot. I've never seen it in a nursery since I purchased it so I'm glad I found it when I did because the hummingbirds really like it. Thanks again, Annette

The only thing with Crossley's Raptor guide is that, for relative beginners, it's photograph overload. Turn to any particular page and one could quickly feel overwhelmed by intricate plumage differences that ultimately jumble together to form one big complex hawk in your memory. Kind of like a library without a card catalog. There's very little you can do other than commit some field marks, flight styles, and behavior to memory. Or, just get good pictures and ask me. :-) Although there are times I have trouble IDing a hawk myself. Depends on how good of a look I can get. I think what else may be helpful is to always know what you might be likely to see in your area. In CT, your Red-taileds are going to be easterns. They pretty much all look the same. You probably have many year-round Red-tailed residents and the guy you photographed up there probably has a mate on a nest right now. A nesting (adult) pair of Red-taileds have the rufous tails. A juvenile (last year's brood) bird will lack a rufous tail and will show brown and white tail bands instead. A clean, lightly marked underside is more indicative of an adult- juvies have more brown markings and look streaky underneath. Some adults are heavily marked too though! Adult Red-taileds will also show a thin dark rim around the back of the underwing. You can see that on the bird you photographed. I recommend Dunne/Sibley/Sutton 'Hawks in Flight, 2nd Edition'. I have to say that I bought the Crossley guide for pleasure rather than purpose. I love the photos! But when I first sat down with it, I could already score very high on the "quizzes" he embedded within it. So, I learned my skills elsewhere. Hawks in Flight was a huge help with that.

The young are yelling for their food. The adults still tend the young for a while after they are out of the nest. Be glad you have hawks they are efficent at keeping varmin, rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels in balance. The yelling will soon end when the young can fend for themselves.