Deborah Lewis

Dylan and I got up at the stroke of early this morning to go bird
watching.

There's a wildlife management area (how did they manage themselves before
we took over?) south of us about twenty miles or so. There are several
big interconnected ponds.

We went to a place called "the rookery". It should be called "the
herony" because it's Great Blue Herons roost there in the cotton wood
trees, not ravens. Anyway, if you get there early you can see the
Herons on the roost. It's quite a site, twenty or so tall birds perched
in trees.

There were two Bald Eagle nests, and we saw a chick in one. One adult
Eagle made noises at us and we questioned the wisdom of walking under
that tree, but she stayed on her perch and we kept our hair.

Canadian geese, my favorite birds, but apparently not the brightest, were
nesting about twenty yard from the Eagles nests. Something hurts inside
when I think of soft little goslings as breakfast. Eagles are more
practical I guess.

There were yellow headed black birds by the hundreds and they would
squawk at us, flutter a few feet in front of us in the cat tails and
squawk some more. We tried to be stealthy but happy eleven year olds
can only sneak for short periods of time.<g>

We saw so many birds, walked for miles, got chewed up by mosquitos sat in
the grass and drank our hot chocolate and talked.

Dylan has a great memory for birds. He is able to identify several
types of ducks and grebes. He knows Spotted sandpipers. He knows all
the birds that come to our feeders and has for a few years, but I was
impressed today with how many of the water birds and shorebirds he knew.
And he knows them just matter of factly, as if everyone knows. It's
just another part of his ordinary life. When I was his age any bird that
swam was a duck and everything else was a sparrow or a robin. <g>

We saw an Osprey fishing, diving into the water and then shaking his
feathers dry as he flew over us with a fish.

It was a great morning. This afternoon I've been bombarded with
questions about World War two.

Deb L

Heidi

Deb, how COOL! I love bird watching, and am blessed to live in a
riparian area, within a few miles of water bird habitat.

As for the management of wildlife, before "we took over", "we" had no
laws governing hunting. There were no seasons, and people could take
down whatever animals, however many, no matter if they had a fawn in
the thicket, no matter if it were nesting season (nests were open
game, as well)..."we took over" and have had to apply external
controls, becuase "we" have proven ourselves incapable of harvesting
reasonably in the wild.

There even had to be a moratorium on fishing for cod on the east
coast, a fish that produces literally billions of spawn every year,
because "we" were wiping them out with our floating fish factories. :(

Thank goodness for wildlife management.

HeidiC


--- In [email protected], Deborah Lewis
<ddzimlew@j...> wrote:
> Dylan and I got up at the stroke of early this morning to go bird
> watching.
>
> There's a wildlife management area (how did they manage themselves
before
> we took over?) south of us about twenty miles or so. There are
several
> big interconnected ponds.
>
> We went to a place called "the rookery". It should be called "the
> herony" because it's Great Blue Herons roost there in the cotton
wood
> trees, not ravens. Anyway, if you get there early you can see the
> Herons on the roost. It's quite a site, twenty or so tall birds
perched
> in trees.
>
> There were two Bald Eagle nests, and we saw a chick in one. One
adult
> Eagle made noises at us and we questioned the wisdom of walking
under
> that tree, but she stayed on her perch and we kept our hair.
>
> Canadian geese, my favorite birds, but apparently not the
brightest, were
> nesting about twenty yard from the Eagles nests. Something hurts
inside
> when I think of soft little goslings as breakfast. Eagles are more
> practical I guess.
>
> There were yellow headed black birds by the hundreds and they would
> squawk at us, flutter a few feet in front of us in the cat tails and
> squawk some more. We tried to be stealthy but happy eleven year
olds
> can only sneak for short periods of time.<g>
>
> We saw so many birds, walked for miles, got chewed up by mosquitos
sat in
> the grass and drank our hot chocolate and talked.
>
> Dylan has a great memory for birds. He is able to identify several
> types of ducks and grebes. He knows Spotted sandpipers. He knows
all
> the birds that come to our feeders and has for a few years, but I
was
> impressed today with how many of the water birds and shorebirds he
knew.
> And he knows them just matter of factly, as if everyone knows.
It's
> just another part of his ordinary life. When I was his age any
bird that
> swam was a duck and everything else was a sparrow or a robin. <g>
>
> We saw an Osprey fishing, diving into the water and then shaking his
> feathers dry as he flew over us with a fish.
>
> It was a great morning. This afternoon I've been bombarded with
> questions about World War two.
>
> Deb L

[email protected]

In a message dated 17/05/2003 16:51:50 Pacific Daylight Time,
ddzimlew@... writes:


> Dylan has a great memory for birds. He is able to identify several
> types of ducks and grebes. He knows Spotted sandpipers. He knows all
> the birds that come to our feeders and has for a few years

What a great post, Deb.IT sounds like a great place to be. My son Tommy also
loves birds, and for a long time as a four year old(now he's 7) his favorite
book was our bird book. Last year we had a Merlin nest in our yard, and we
regularly see pileated, downy and hairy wood peckers on our property. Down at
the river down the road from us, we see kingfishers in the summer, and the
Canada geese fly over us spring and fall.
Sounds like you had a great unschooling day, I thinkyou have inspired me to
dig out the bird book and go looking again.
Nancy , in BC


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]