interesting sandy. i knew the vit k treatment but i didn't realize it was heparin! which leads me to my mystery, though i never would use poison bait. it is all this talk of rats and mice. someone is trying to move into my romeo's sleeping box in the shed. but my reason for posting is quite hilarious- he went to investigate why my 15 some pound bag of composted manure was moving. i am standing at the back door and hear "SQUEEK!" i wish i saw it, but alas i had only my tshirt and undies on and it was still daylight. hey, i work midnights, ok? :) i had a mental picture of it jumping in the air and squeaking at the same time. the big oaf ran out of the shed, belly to the ground, and wanted back in the house. that surprised me. my old man at romeo's age would have had his whiskers twitching in anticipation. so, my mystery continues....though maybe in the process we have discouraged our visitor. i also took the top off his sleeping box to make it less inviting. i have found no rear projectiles. i am also considering leaving the feeders empty for awhile. i would hate to do that. just sharing a story. i didn't want to start a thread just for it. it almost applies.

Really,... I was a member of the model air plane club in Lethbridge, we had a field to fly on the west side, [University] that wind surely made it difficult at times. Going skying to Fernie or Kimberly on the Crowsnest Highway I have fond memories seeing the HUGE nest in town, not sure anymore which town. At times it was above 0 degree in the hills, going back to Lethbridge it would still be in the deep freeze!

Thank you so much!! I will do that. First I better tell you the area we're in. We live in Illinois between the Mississippi River and Rock River in the Quad Cities (Ever hear of the Rock Island lines or John Deere of Moline, Illinois?...well, we're from the Rock Island/Moline area.) Here is the wading bird that's so dark looking. I'm so sorry these photos are so small and hard to see...there was a huge marshy area between me and the birds. I'm in the market for a better zoom lens, but WOW have you seen the price of them?? This is the swooper...some sort of plover or sandpiper maybe? At first I thought it was a swallow of some sort...then when I saw the photo I thought maybe a killdeer, but I don't think so. Sorry these are poor photos too...it flashed by me so quickly, I just snapped away as a spur of the moment thing! Would someone please confirm that this is a female redwing blackbird? This one was from a different day in the woods. There were lots of orioles, bluebirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, and a myriad of other birds in this area. I was wondering if it could be a female oriole...the tail doesn't seem long enough. Again, sorry for the quality, it was a long way away from me. I did unspeakable things to this photo to get it to even show any markings but the color is just not there. Thanks so much for any help! Ginni (the bird challenged)

Whitelacey.......this is so funny! I looked out my kitchen window, and on the ground under my suet feeder was a bird that looked just like what you described. Very black head and back with white stripes on the wings, and very white chest and abdomen. Of course, just as I turned to get my camera, it flew off. I should have stayed and observed more instead! As it flew off, it had pretty obvious white wing stripes. My first inclination was a juvenile male towhee.....since we have lots of towhees around. I saw no brown. I'll keep my eye out and my camera close-by........but I immediately thought of you and wondered if, now, I will be driven crazy too. hahaha What caught my eye as it was flying up to a tree was the white on it's wings, which made me think of a red-headed woodpecker. I looked up juvenile redheaded woodpecker and some of the pics looked like it, except mostly in the pics, their heads were grayish. Oh well.....hopefully I'll see it again!