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Dana in TX
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I'm new at posting...hope this works!
We are Feederwatchers and last Thursday we had a Northern Bobwhite show up with the mourning doves out front. He was all alone. I've never seen a Bobwhite before, only heard them. He stayed another day afterward, but after the neighbor's cat jumped up on the fence with him, we've not seen him again.
My son decided to try that adage, "If you build it, they will come".
He built a nesting box for eastern bluebirds. They came. We now have 5-6 nestlings in there and very active parents fluttering way back in the lot.
We've had a couple of Titmice make a home in the box out front of my kitchen window. They are now busy feeding some very loud nestlings. I had never noticed these birds around before this year.
The third box my son built was an Eastern Screech Owl box, knowing a red-phase was checking out our front yard. The male brought his mate and she is now sitting on four eggs! My son rigged his infrared camera in the box a couple of weeks ago, so we are watching it all live!
All to report at the moment...
Dana in TX
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Dawn
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Dana in TX wrote:
| I'm new at posting...hope this works! |
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Worked perfectly! 
Dana in TX wrote:
My son decided to try that adage, "If you build it, they will come".
He built a nesting box for eastern bluebirds. They came. |
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How wonderful Dana! Your son must be quite skilled at woodworking.  We have lots of feeders here, but only one (so far) uninhabited bird house. Your post inspires me to try more.
Dana in TX wrote:
| All to report at the moment... |
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I look forward to hearing more!
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Dawn, mum to 3 boys 
By Sun and Candlelight
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MacBeth
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| Posted: April 05 2006 at 9:01am | IP Logged
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Wonderful, Dana!
That reminds me to put up the bird house Trip made last fall. I doubt we will get bluebirds  , but I'm sure someone will use it!
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MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
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marihalojen
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Dana in TX wrote:
| The third box my son built was an Eastern Screech Owl box, knowing a red-phase was checking out our front yard. The male brought his mate and she is now sitting on four eggs! My son rigged his infrared camera in the box a couple of weeks ago, so we are watching it all live! |
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That's amazing!
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Mother to Mariannna, age 13
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Dawn
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| Posted: April 06 2006 at 1:21pm | IP Logged
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I think we just had an Eastern Kingbird in our yard! I'll have to keep my eye out for him so I can verify ...
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Dawn, mum to 3 boys
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MacBeth
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| Posted: April 06 2006 at 5:31pm | IP Logged
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Dawn, I thought of you when my aunt (in Hingham MA) sent me a photo of her backyard visitors (she lives on the marsh). Do these guys look familiar?
Vultures
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MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
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Dawn
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Yes MacBeth!! We didn't see them this close up, but they looked just like these birds in flight. Ugly critters, but very cool to watch. 
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Donna
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Would you believe....38 turkey? They weren't in my yard...they were in my moms.
She said it was an incredible sight. There were 6 males and several of them were performing for the females by fluffing up their feathers and spreading out their tails while strutting around. Mom said they were beautiful. One of the hens finally gave in...to which my mom replied..."I'm sure glad I'm not a turkey." 
Here's an interesting site on wild turkey.
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Donna
DH, Keven
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lapazfarm
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Today in our backyard we saw some larvae of mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, and dragonflies, a crayfish or two, some eggs we didn't recognize, a pair of American goldfinches,a pileated woodpecker, some butterflies,...what a glorious day!
MacBeth, I posted a picture of the eggs at my blog. Care to take a guess as to what they are? We are stumped. Could they be some kind of fish egg?
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Theresa
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MacBeth
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They look like slug eggs to me, but they would not be under water. Maybe you folks have a snail down there with which I am not familiar? Did you check under a scope? Anything developing?
Waiting and watching is always fun, and it gives you something to put into the journal  . Great photos of the kids and critters. Nice nymphs!
Gosh, and I was excited to find barnacle nauplii a few weeks ago...I can't wait till our bigger stuff starts moving more. We have not done a pond study in ages...
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MacBeth in NY
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lapazfarm
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We do have a few aquatic snails in this area. I have not seen them in this stream, but they could certainly be here. we didn't put them under a scope, but we did make sure to note which rock they were under so we could come back and check on the progress.
Right now we have brought inside a clutch of toad eggs that we are observing and drawing each day. Fascinating how quickly they develop!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
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marihalojen
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 Yeah!
The Tarpon are back!
Now we know the water is warm enough for swimming. (without wetsuits)
Yesterday when dh was below scrubbing the bottom (wearing double wetsuits for protection purposes) there was no sign of the tarpon but huge schools of small grunts were waiting for goodies knocked off the prop. This morning when I stepped onto the dock they were right under me - 4 in a row and each tarpon at least 5 feet long!
Seeing that just below your feet will wake you up sans coffee in the morning!
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Dana in TX
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marihalojen wrote:
This morning when I stepped onto the dock they were right under me - 4 in a row and each tarpon at least 5 feet long!
Seeing that just below your feet will wake you up sans coffee in the morning! |
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Seeing 5 foot long fish right under me would send me running! Over here something that long could only be an aligator! Where are you?
dd
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Dana in TX
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Dana in TX wrote:
He built a nesting box for eastern bluebirds. They came. We now have 5-6 nestlings in there and very active parents fluttering way back in the lot.
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Yesterday, as my youngest and I were sitting under the "blossom tree" (our huge Catalpa) doing read alouds, we spotted some flits of color over on the fence. I got really excited b/c I thought another pair of bluebirds must have come to the yard. Then we realized...the fledglings were out and having flying lessons! All but one was out and the parents were all over the place. The last one did come out finally, so all the babies have flown the box. Needless to say, we stopped reading and got out the binoculars.
Now, we await the screech owl hatching, which should be next week!
Dana in TX
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MaryM
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Dana in TX wrote:
| Then we realized...the fledglings were out and having flying lessons! All but one was out and the parents were all over the place. The last one did come out finally, so all the babies have flown the box |
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How cool. We have a house finch setting right now on 4 eggs. Their nest is right inside our back porch so we get a great view. They should start hatching in the next 3 days.
Jennifer, your "backyard" has to be one of the coolest here! Thanks so much for sharing.
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marihalojen
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Dana in TX wrote:
| Seeing 5 foot long fish right under me would send me running! Over here something that long could only be an aligator! Where are you?dd |
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We are in the Florida Keys. We apparantly have alligators, crocodiles and caymans here - the only place in the world all three co-exist. How many have I seen? Zero. How many do I want to see? Zero!
Even the iguanas are a little too reptile-y for me. And when they stand on their back legs to run...
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~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
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Elizabeth
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A wild turkey! We live in completely mowed down, cookie-cutter suburbia. This is not even close to a wildlife preserve. But there he was, looking totally out of place, strutting across the backyard. We were all a little concerned for his safety because last year our neighbors had three or four chickens in their backyard one afternoon and the next day there were chicken feathers in the trash. But the turkey was hustling along and he's well out of harm's way now.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Dawn
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We had deer in the woods behind our house Saturday evening (I posted a photo here in my blog). We haven't seen them since last spring!
My f-i-l is always saying he'll bring up a salt lick for us to put out back so as to lure the deer within a range of vision. Does anyone know if this o.k. or would it be harmful in some way?
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Jen L.
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A beaver!
My 5 year old and I walked down to the small neighborhood lake around 7:00 pm and saw something swimming by. Boy were we surprised when we realized that it was a beaver! It was quite unafraid and we got to watch it eat leaves, climb ashore, and even gnaw off a branch (that it then brought into the water and started eating for supper).
Fun!
(I'm afraid that we won't have it long, though. Not everyone in the neighborhood appreciates them )
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Dawn
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Yesterday we observed worms, watched an injured bird on our deck, and caught a creepy bug.
We are trying to figure out what kind of bug it is, so if you have a moment would you mind taking a peek at my post? Thanks!
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Dawn, mum to 3 boys
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Look what I just saw in my yard!
