Nice hawk pictures, Emily! I wonder why it was looking around, maybe it thought another hawk was going to try to rob it of dinner? Here the House/English Sparrows have taken to lurking in the depths of an old berberis, and the Cooper's Hawk has learned to strike at the shrub to scare them out. I don't think the hawk can get inside, the branches are thorny and dense, but the sparrows panic and burst out and the hawk chases them. I haven't seen a kill yet but it could happen just out of sight if the hawk is fast enough. I once saw a hawk keep running around a euonymus shrub trying to get into the center. It even used its claws to reach inside. Whatever was inside survived, unless it died of terror. Claire

Warning to game camera buyers..BUY INFRA-RED FLASH ONLY! It's clear that animals are avoiding the annoying flash-which always scares me when I hike up there at night-and doubtless explains why there are few repeat animal photos. I can see by their tracks that they are skirting the camera, including the Big Foot. When I took photos yesterday afternoon, the ice was just melting slightly in sunny spots, and there was no new jaguar sign. I thought he'd moved on, but this morning there were several new, now frozen, scrape marks right where I'd been photographing yesterday, meaning that the jaguar had visited and scrape-marked his territory right after I left, before the temperatures dropped again. I could see that he was giving me a warning, so I circled the pond to where he'd previously left his scat, sniffing the air to see if he'd scent-marked anywhere close, like the jaguar websites said they did. Sure enough, I became aware of a very strong, pungent odor, almost a skunk-like muskiness, so I followed the smell to a scrape-marked tree a few yards away from the scat. 3-4-09, farm pond, scent-marked tree with jaguar (?) scrape From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat paw-sized claw marks From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat First scrape photographed, 3-2-09 From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat Old frozen scrape, possibly the same one? From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat 3-4-09, new frozen jaguar (?) scrape made yesterday afternoon in the same spot I'd been photographing, before night freeze From 2-24-09, Tracks and scat Several websites said jaguars are unafraid of people, which makes them easy targets for hunters. Another website claimed that Amazon Indians are frequently followed by male jaguars to escort them off their territories. Still other websites said that jaguars seldom bother to mark territories unless there is a boundary dispute or overlapping territories. Perhaps our constant poking around "his" territory is prompting the alleged jaguar to warn us off. The meerkats in Meerkat Manor are always "furiously scent-marking" bushes and rocks to "see-off" trespassers, so he could be warning us to back off. If he is imprinted on humans from being in captivity as a cub, he might see us as rivals, but maybe all jaguars view humans that way. Of course, I was here first. Websites also say that about their second year, male jaguars move on to establish their own territories, which can be up to 500 square miles, depending on food availability, so he might be moving on soon.

We switched to feeding safflower, thistle and upside down suet feeders along with fruit, jelly and nectar, after our first year living in the country. We moved from the city to a rural area in Wisconsin and decided to put nest boxes out for bluebirds and wrens, our first year we had mostly HS but we also had one set of bluebirds and one set of tree swallows. Before the little ones had a chance to fledge the HS killed them and nested on top of them, we were sick over this. I removed all the nest boxes and started researching on how to keep the non-native and rough birds away. The switch to the foods we place out on our property was the biggest part of not attracting the non-natives and rougher birds. When the HS try to take over the nest boxes in the spring I shoot them, it is the best way to keep them out of the box, plus it gets rid of another non-native invasive bird. I tried removing their nests at first but they are persistent and do not give up until you get rid of them. We now get one or two nesting pair of bluebirds and usually four to five nesting pair of tree swallows and a pair of nesting wrens(all have fledged within the last week and a half) the few starlings that come in the yard to feed on bugs in the grass do not stick around long ( they get shot as well). This is not intended to offend any bird lovers ( we are bird lovers at our house ) it is only to tell how we deal with the invasive non-native birds that are taking over the territory of our native song birds.

I taught small animal husbandry and gardening at a Bible Institute in Mexico, for a little over 8 years. Rabbits were a mainstay of our production because they grew really well on alfalfa and corn, which we raised ourselves. The domestic rabbit was developed for culture in cages. I know that many are prejudiced against cages. But the rabbits themselves don't mind. Having each adult animal in its own cage allows one to control their breeding and maintain better hygiene, and thus protect the health of the does and, indeed of the entire rabbitry. Someone above mentioned starting with a buck and two does. That is indeed the way to go. If one doe fails (and a certain percentage of them do, right from the start) then you are not out of completely out of production. More than two does will produce A WHOLE LOT of offspring, which may be more work than you want. Each will have at least four litters a year of an average of, say 7 kits. The kits reach butchering size in 12 weeks. A standard meat breed, such as California or New Zealand White, will yield a 2 1/2 to 3 lb carcass, dressed out, at that time. That is mainly meat. Their bones are quite light. So, in four months, from breeding, a doe can be responsible for the production of about 21 lb of meat. One of the beauties of rabbitry is that one could raise a whole lot of meat in a shed or garage, and neighbors might never even suspect. They do not stink. They do produce a lot of manure, but it is not smelly as manures go. It can be spread directly on gardens without hurting anything, as long as it doesn't carry urine in it. Well fed domestic rabbit meat isn't all that lean. But it isn't marbled. The fat is easy to separate from the meat. I happen to like eating it, as it comes, on the carcass, when we roast it. Our favorite way to fix a rabbit, is roasted whole, like a whole chicken. Place the rabbit in a baking pan, sprinkle with lemon juice and salt and roast for about 1 1/2 hour at 350F. The meat should easily pull off the bones when fully cooked. After serving rabbit this way, the left overs can be picked from the bones and used in a stir fry or soup. We have frequent dinner guests and I cannot, in 20 years, think of anyone who didn't think that it was just wonderful. It is a white meat. Anyone raising a few rabbits at home could fairly easily harvest weeds or grass to supplement their feed. Before teaching rabbitry at the Bible Institute, I raised rabbits in a more remote setting, where there were neither prefabricated cages nor commercial rabbit food. Our rabbits did fine on local weeds, cover crops and either whole kernel corn or stale tortillas for a carb. The domestic rabbit is the easiest of all animals to butcher and prepare. It is definitely the least messy. Duck is another favorite of our family. Duck is all dark meat, which I dearly love. We raise Muscovy ducks, which are not nearly as fatty as other breeds. The Muscovy, is, in fact, from an entirely different species than other domestic breeds. Muscovies are wonderful foragers. Ours roam our pasture and pond, devouring insects, rodents and small reptiles. They lay eggs, easily twice the size of a regular chicken egg. Their eggs are delicious. I like to roast a duck exactly the way we roast rabbit. The meat is flavored like... duck, which we enjoy. Leftover duck makes WONDERFUL soups, stews and stir fries. Just be sure to cook it no higher than 350 F and for however long it takes for it to easily pull off the bones. Most of the fat in a Muscovy duck is in the skin. So it is easy to remove, if so desired. Muscovies actually beat rabbits for exponential reproduction! As a homesteader, I find that my greatest challenge with them, is to keep them from producing too many ducklings. The wild reproduction seems great during the summer, when they are eating so much from foraging. But after a killing freeze, suddenly those cute ducks consume A LOT of expensive feed! They are also much more laborious to process than are rabbits. The argument against beef is completely slanted, as a couple of people have already mentioned. Most places that raise beef have a drier climate and poorer soil than where the "anti beef people live." Somehow they seem to think that if ranchers didn't raise beef on their ranches, that those ranches would be converted to luxuriant gardens. But that is not the case. Believe me. I LOVE to garden, and have several nice sized vegetable gardens on our little farm. But I never cease to battle with rocks and constantly work at building tilth. After I have spent all available resources and energy to grow gardens, I still have a lot more than 90% of the property well suited for ruminants. We like to have a few cattle along with sheep and goats, as the three species do not eat exactly the same things. They actually produce better in a mixed herd. George Tahlequah, OK