Lifetime Ambition Achieved

Subject: LIFETIME AMBITION ACHIEVED
From: nutty
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 05:49 AM

It's often the simplest of things that give us the most pleasure but today I achieved an ambition that I've held for many years .... I have actually stood and watched (with the naked eye) a woodpecker.

It was (according to the RSPB site) a female great spotted woodpecker.

I have heard them on numerous occasions but never managed to track them down, so to be so close to one as I was this morning has given me a real buzz.

Anyone else out there like to share a simple achievement???

Subject: RE: LIFETIME AMBITION ACHIEVED
From: freda underhill
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 06:10 AM

hi nutty

yes, for me it was a bird experience as well. a few years ago I was in the Kimberleys, (up in the remote north of Western australia) in a jeep being driven back from a beautiful gorge and waterhole.

as we drove along the red road, I saw two brolgas mating. They are large pale grey native Australian birds, a bit like storks, and very graceful. When they mate, they hold their wings out and perform an intricate "dance" it was very beautiful, and like your little woodpecker, not often seen.

brolgas

Subject: RE: LIFETIME AMBITION ACHIEVED
From: gnu
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 06:20 AM

It's quite a thrill isn't it?

Subject: RE: LIFETIME AMBITION ACHIEVED
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 06:22 AM

Wow....

One of my lifetime ambitions was achieved last year. I have lots of recordings by the 'Academy of St Martin in the Fields', the big church on Trafalgar Square, London; and at the age of 10, formed an ambition to sing there.

I achieved it in July 2004, with the Mozart Requiem... what a piece!!!

Trouble was, I was having a bad spell with my heart so didn't really appreciate it. This year, we're doing the Mozart Coronation Mass, a favourite piece of mine, and I'm bloody well going to enjoy every note of it!!

I was lucky enough to live in an area where woodpeckers weren't unusual, so I've seen Greater and Lesser Spotted (red and black) and Green woodpeckers.

Whilst walking in The Undercliff
at Lyme Regis about 20 years ago, the sun was blotted out by what looked like a door coming down off the overcliff.... it was a buzzard - we were too close to her nest and she wanted to warn us off.... That was a special moment in ornithology... just an eagle to see and I'll be happy.

LTS

Subject: RE: LIFETIME AMBITION ACHIEVED
From: freda underhill
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 06:27 AM

that sounds amazing Liz - a buzzard!

Subject: RE: LIFETIME AMBITION ACHIEVED
From: mack/misophist
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 09:55 AM

It wasn't an ambition until after it happened. That is, it was so eerie and beautiful that I had to see it again. The rattlesnake's mating dance is amazing. I'll never see it again but 3 times is better luck than most.

Subject: RE: LIFETIME AMBITION ACHIEVED
From: PoppaGator
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 10:37 AM

Music thread? or BS?

Subject: RE: LIFETIME AMBITION ACHIEVED
From: GUEST,Sooz (at work)
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 10:46 AM

I'm still hoping to see a kingfisher, but elephants in the Serengeti will take some beating.

Subject: RE: LIFETIME AMBITION ACHIEVED
From: Allan C.
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 10:47 AM

Thank god you are on guard here, PG!

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Crystal
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 11:23 AM

seeing a red kite for the very first time. It was about a year before the release sceme in Oxford was publicised. Also seeing a bittern, what a magical moment.

Another simple triumph which I hope to fulfil tonight is to get a dance which I have written actually danced!

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: CarolC
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 12:18 PM

I've seen a lot of woodpeckers, buzzards, and a few eagles and kingfishers in the wild, but what I have been wanting to see in the wild for many years is an anole (small lizard that changes colors from green to brown and back again). I finally had that experience a few months ago when I discovered one living and on in my shed.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 01:07 PM

What we commonly experience depends a great deal on where we live, I guess. Eagles and cranes and woodpeckers are common to me.

Pumas, mountain lions, panthers- whatever you call them, are a different thing to me. I was thrilled a couple of years ago to see one cross the road ahead of my car at dusk in high desert a few miles outside Bend, Oregon.

I remember once in the woods coming upon two snakes joined together. I was about 12 years old, and I confess with regret that I killed them both. In our family we routinely killed snakes, even those that are beneficial to farmers. It is inexplicable to me now- we got the instructions from my father- I guess he developed the compulsion in North Dakota where he grew up, probably from his father.

So many regrets.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: open mike
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 01:51 PM

I saw two bald eagles circling above me in the sky..
i saw two a few years ago from a fire lookout tower
on July 4th. and when i ws on the way to town to do
my first radio show, one flew over me as i was crossing
over the river..i took that as a good omen for my show!
Once while driving in Oregon, I saw a bald eagle over the
ocean with a fish in it's talons...i was heading straight
for the water and while watching the glorius sight of the
bird almost missed the turn in the road...that might have
been the last one i ever saw!! i was transfixed..luckily
i turned in time..

I saw a mountain lion...it has just killed my milk goat.
She (the lion) was treed by my dog and sat in the tree
for hours. Kingfishers regularly fly over my house with
their checkerboard wing flight and their white necklaces
cackling s they go. Dipper birds, Ouzels, can often be seen
bobbing along in the streams. once i saw a bear..it was
ly8ing down in the meadow. luckily my dog did not see it,
or there could have been trouble. I was fortunate enough
to find (and release) a fox caught in a leg hold trap.

Last night i saw a possum crawl under a foot bridge i was
crossing. We have ring tailed cats here too. and raccoons.
oftten a wood pecker-like bird will drill holes in my apple
tree seearching for bugs..i think it is a sap sucker. Lady
bugs swarm here....sometimes the air is red with their little
wings. Did you know that they can bite? just a small nibble,
but when you are in a swarm of them.....they hibernate in the
brush here.

One of the most amazing natural phenominon i experienced
recently was to see a group of a few dozen dragon flies
flying in a cirlce...about 10-15 feet in diameter, they
were from 2-6 feet off the ground. they were in an open
meadow, and kept circling in this smallish area...i do
not know what it was--perhaps some sort of mating ritual?
i was so fascinated i went and stood in the middle of the
circle to see if they would continue to stay in that spot,
and they did!! they were zipping around but managed to steer
clear of me, and each other, except for an occasional clip
of the wings as they buzzed around and around. I wish I knew
what it was, and wish i had gotten a picture. A friend of
mine holds a special significance for dragon flies as she
saw a swarm or flock or whatever of them at the time that her
brother died, and thinks of them as carrying his spirit. It
did seem like quite a spiritual experience being in their midst.

Factoid:
dragon flies have 4 wings and land with their wings out stretched
damsel flies (smaller, daintier) have 2 wings which fold when at rest.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 02:09 PM

One night I was driving home down the A6 from Manchester about 1a.m.

Somwhere just outside of Buxton. A great big owl swooped down into my headlights beam. I slowed down and it flew alongside me, about the height of my wing mirror, in my slipstream. It flew off into the night, but before doing so told me the secret of life. And thats how relationships are on the road - brief, but intense!

Owl Song

There is an ancient magic, the owl said to me
she flew into my headlight's beam , saying listen carefully
We that take the midnight hours, we travel joylessly
And I, a talonned predator - I don't need to see,
The heart that sits inside of you, I feel its muffled beat
Listen to the music of your heart, are you wedded to defeat
I know you sang to rabble all night long,
alien words, in   a subject tongue
I'm flying now in your slipstream, and I can speak the magic rune
From the walls of my temple, mix it with your trashy tune

On such a night when the stars are restless
Its written on a sky of midnight blue
Its like an old time magic show
The magician casts his spell and says lo!
Lo and behold
All the floors of heaven are lined with gold

Long after midnight, travellin' east out of Manchester
First the closed up towns, and then the lonely hills
the road it twists and turns, and turns and twists before me,
Like a lifetime of sadness that never bending to my will
Her finger - a ring encloses, so does her breast enfold my heart
I sing to the darkness sentimental songs,
Songs that say we will never part
I felt the Talonned owl falling from the sky, to a valley spread below
Joe Cocker was singing "Bird on a Wire"
I snapped off the radio

On such a night when the stars are restless
Its written on a sky of midnight blue
Its like an old time magic show
The magician casts his spell and says lo!
Lo and behold
All the floors of heaven are lined with gold

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 02:36 PM

What a great thread! And now I'm thinking about starting a thread about what animals and experiences one can have after one no longer smokes. Until I quit smoking I couldn't stand still and silently long enough to have unsuspecting animals approach me.

Open Mike, I call the dragonfly my totem. I would love to find myself in the midst of a cloud of them.

A few years ago I was going by bus to the main glacier around here and invited an elderly woman to accompany me on the couple-mile walk to the glacier.

As we walked, dragonflies were raising and whirring around. I mentioned to 'Dorothy' that these were all small, that I like the big ones best- they remind me of helicopters. Just then a large one raised from in front of us and flew across the highway. Then it turned and came back past us and flew down the road where we had come.

Then something made me turn and here it came again, right at me. I offered it my shoulder but instead it landed on my cheek. It had a three-point grip and I could feel its belly pulsing against my face, while Dorothy clasped her hands and squealed, I wish I had a camera!

The dragonfly stayed until I put my hand between it and my face and gently pushed it off. Then it flew away.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: gnu
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 03:52 PM

open mike... when you walked into the circle of dragon flies, did you notice any mosquitos or like insects rising from the meadow grass? I've seen something similar where the dragon flies are actually hunting mosquitos in dense clover.

Lady Bugs!!! A good sized nest can fetch US$5000. But there are large companies starting up Lady Bug farms so that price will fall, if it hasn't already. I wonder how they brand them? Bite? They bite? Didn't know that.

Ebbie... on your face? pulsing? Eeewww! Worth a picture, though.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Cool Beans
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 04:13 PM

To get away from birds and bugs...I'm fairly close to seeing every one of Shakespeare's plays performed live. I'm four short, but have plans to see one of the four ("Measure for Measure") this summer.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 07 Mar 05 - 04:27 PM

My wife and I were driving home one evening when a large owl flew into our headlight beams several yards in front of the car. It was big enough and close enough that my wife, who was driving, hit the brakes hard enough to almost stop the car. Almost immediately, three deer jumped across the road at about where the car would have been had we not slowed down. I've hit two deer in the last ten years and I was extremely thankful that our encounter with the owl prevented hitting a third.

We subsequently learned that owls often follow herds of deer at night because the deer's movement through the underbrush flushes mice and other small animals on which the owls feed.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Davetnova
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 03:49 AM

Walking in the woods in Perth on a cold new years morning I heard a snuffling and stopped. A large brock walked almost over my toes. I won't forget that.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 04:08 AM

Oh Davetnova!! Wonderful!!! I'd love to see a live badger. I was born and brought up in the country, been to many a badger watch in the local woods, but only ever seen badgers in 2D, after encounters with vehicles.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: GUEST,Mingulay at work
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 04:55 AM

Have had a kingfisher and heron at different times on a rear deck railing, watched a large pike rolling on the surface on a hot summer's day, cursed the legions of copulating wildfowl who are nearly as noisy as the parakeets (this is darkest Middlesex). Laid awake at night listening to foxes and cats tramping over the deckhead in hobnailed boots. Got rid of the tap dancing rat. Once had to pull a vixen out of the canal, unfortunately she died. That apart, I wouldn't miss any of it. Cuckoos will be here soon, maybe this year I'll actually see one.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: freda underhill
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 07:38 AM

once upon a time, about twenty years ago in fact, i took my youngest daughter (catter bugface) who was about two at the time, to Hyde park in the centre of sydney - to feed the pigeons.we sat on the carved stone edge of the fountain throwing them bits of bread.The pigeons came closer and closer and finally sat all over me, and came around me, while bugface & I kept feeding them little crumbs of bread.

i still remember the look on her face -i looked like a big sculpture made of pigeons, they were all over me, including on my shoulders n head.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: heric
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 12:41 PM

A brock?? Got a French or Spanish name for that?

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: greg stephens
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 12:46 PM

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: nutty
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 12:53 PM

Thank-you all for contributing, this is a great thread.
It has certainly reminded me where my priorities lay.

The woodpecker is still around ... I saw it again today, in fact it flew over my head as it moved from one tree to another.

I just pray that the local scumbags with air rifles don't decide to use it as target practice.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: greg stephens
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 12:59 PM

Well, I live smack in the middle of Stoke, a famously ugly and depressed industrial city in England. But herons and buzzards fly over my house, and if I stroll down to the River Trent or the Trent and Mersey Canal I can see kingfishers any time I like.
    But in terms of life time ambition, in years and years of boating I've never got really close to a whale, and that I do want to do.I've seen them, but only a long way away. So here's hoping.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: GUEST,*Laura*
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 01:12 PM

Before we got our dog we used to get badgers in the garden - they were a real pain digging up the lawn - so we left out nuts and brown bread for them instead and they came every night and brought the babies!
Twas very cute - you could get really close to them too if you were quiet. There were two big ones, one medium-sized one, and four or five little ones. They made lots of noise and they used to push each other over to get at the food and they were very noisy eaters! hehe.
And then when they left you could nip to the front of the house and just watch then scuttling off up the lane!

xLx

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Metchosin
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 01:41 PM

Wow dragonflies! I had the good fortune many years ago, to work with Rob Cannings, one of the foremost authorities in Canada regarding dragonflies and his enthusiasm was infectious. I've been drawn to them ever since and on occasion wax poetic.

Trapped upon a deceptive pane of glass,
No longer do you swoop and soar.
Too soon, within my hand
Two luminescent emerald orbs
Slowly dim.
The soft green glow recedes
Until your essence ceases
And eyes are dull.
Where does your radiance travel?
To heavenly realms?

Fortunately, eventually I found that by putting them in a container in the freezer, for a short time, that I could examine them more closely and then release them, seemingly unharmed, when they warmed up.

They were a big part of my children's life when they were small, when I dragged them, sometimes not so willingly on their part, through a lot of swamps. Consequently, over the years, they have presented me with a collection of "dragonflies" as gifts.

Some are of stained glass and hang on fishing line from a skylight and some are paper maché or metal, stuck in plant pots. Last year, for my birthday, my youngest daughter gave me a string of clear dragonfly lights that glow at night over our deck. I guess they are sort of a totem for me too Ebbie.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 06:30 PM

Y'all kinda' short on birds over there huh? Seriously, not that wooepeckers are common here, but I can probably find one with 20 minutes in most woods around here. And Liz, I need to get you over here and we'll go the the Buzzard Fest in Hinckley, Ohio.....just up the road about a hundred miles. every year in March, like the swallows at Capistrano, the buzzards return to Hinckley!!! Google it and you'll get a real kick out of it.

Last year at an auto race, a short track oval, a hawk flew directly along the stands at a height of only about 8 to 10 feet. He appeared out of virtually nowhere and passed the entire length of the stands, landingin a tree in turn 4. He stretched a bit and preened while the cars raced around and then preceded to sit there for the rest of the race.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: John Hardly
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 06:36 PM

Hmm.

Here in Indiana we only have Red-tail hawks. Ohio has Red-neck hawks then?

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 06:38 PM

LMAO....Good one JH!!! I guess he must have been. I figure the red-tails go to Mid-Ohio to the sports car races.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 06:44 PM

Hey.....LIZ....Here's some buzzrd day info right from the BBC website!!!!

Buzzards Return to Hinckley

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 06:54 PM

Metchosin, I too am given dragonfly gifts! Most of my friends know the attraction I feel for them. One friend was riding his bike at high speed on a path and saw something that looked familiar to him. He turned around and went back and it was a large black dragonfly in the path, dead, but in perfect order. He put it on a bed of cotton and broght it to me. I still have it.

About 3 blocks from here in the summertime is a colony of Great Blue Herons. I counted nine of them in the nests and in the treetops. Although I tell tourists about them (tourists are transient), we are careful not to let too many local people know about them, so the huge birds don't get harassed or driven away. The herons spend a lot of daytime hours fishing at the liveaboard harbor, standing motioneless for long minutes in the shallow water.

Speaking of eagles- as it happens, I enjoy ravens more but eagles are ok too - one day I was reading at my window on the third floor of the large house where I live when I saw a shadow cross the window. I looked up and there it came again. It was an eagle, close enough that I could see his yellow eye as he peered in. He had probably seen his reflection in the glass and come back to check it out.

An apartment window a few blocks from here used to have in it a poster of an eagle. The eagle, with its fierce eyes overlooking the parking lot, was captioned "I am smiling."

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 08:02 PM

Spaw, I am glad you have yore race cars and yore Weimerwhatchacallit dawgs to entertain you 'cause it's plain as hell that birds ain't really yore thang. What Liz saw was a real buzzard. Buzzards are "old-world" birds. They live in Europe and Africa and Asia. What we have over here in the Americas, and what visits Hinckley, are vultures. They are incorrectly called buzzards by about half-a-zillion people, but that doesn't make 'em buzzards. They're still vultures.

Do a Google image search for "buzzard" and look at all the different kinds. They don't look a damned bit like a turkey vulture.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Metchosin
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 08:02 PM

I also have a thing about ravens as well Ebbie. We have a pair that nests and raises their young, for years now, in one of the trees close by and they share the water from our pony's drinking trough.

Despite my affection for them, as you probably well know, they can be buggers. In the summer they constantly drop old chicken feet, potatoes and all manner of things, in the water, that they have scavanged from neighbourhood composts and roadside slaughter.

I like to think that the offerings in the trough are their way of thanking me for the constant supply of fresh water, when it gets really dry, but it could be they are just really messy birds that haven't quite mastered getting a grip. BG

I'm working out a different watering system this year, so that they will no longer be able to "foul" the pony's water, but I am going to put a tee on the water line, so they can have their own private trough, just outside the fence. This will be sort of my thank you to them, for the privilege of being a part of their lives and able to witness their antics.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 08:56 PM

I've never seen a raven's nest close up. That is an ambition of mine. (By the way, on the Alaska tundra where there are no trees ravens make their nests on the ground. Now that is something I would like to see.)

There have been many studies made of the raven that establish its intelligence but the main reason I prefer the raven to the eagle is its spirit. The eagle is lordly and self-focused; the raven is having a delightful time.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 08 Mar 05 - 09:36 PM

I know this is a total change of direction, but I don't care.

I have ended up with a wonderful, beautiful woman, who is mad enough to like me. She is a Mudcatter, which explains alot...

I know it's a common ambition, but a good one.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 12:30 AM

Bunnahabhain, have you heard Jesse Winchester's 'Bless Your Foolish Heart'?

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: greg stephens
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 06:55 AM

Shows how old we're getting. that our collective lifetime ambition seems to boil down to seeing a lesser spotted tree warbler at the feeding table. I can just about remember when I wanted to be an engine-driver, land on Mars, and shag Brigitte Bardot. Well, I suppose we've got to learn to itch where we can scratch.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: John Hardly
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 06:57 AM

Gentleman of Leisure has become my favorite CD of the last decade.

I regularly run on the ten miles of mountain bike trails in a nearby woods. Two Springs ago, as I was running along a ridge, no fewer than four squirrels ran along the trail in front of me for about ten yards before finally darting off into the woods.

As I ran downhill and off the ridge I was thinking how tame the squirrels were becoming. Because my mind was on the squirrels, I almost overlooked the sight that only registered after I'd run about ten yards past it.

I walked back along the trail to find, a mere three feet off the trail, two fox kits wrestling with each other. They were so into their play that they remained oblivious to my presence. They remained that way and I was able to stand there and watch them playing for five minutes or more, even though I was standing right over them.

My feeder is lousy with woodpeckers -- but the one elusive one (for this region) is the pileated. I finally saw a pair of those in the same woods where the fox incident occurred.

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: gnu
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 08:45 AM

Metch & Ebbie... ever see (one of) the mating ritual(s) of ravens? The female sits on the ground or in the top of a tree. The male dives from thirty or so feet above her, swoops very close and climbs again as fast as possible. This is repeated many times until she accepts. I assume it's meant to show physical prowess, perhaps in defense of the nest, perhaps in hunting (yes, for those who think they are only scavengers, they do hunt mice, snakes, etc).

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: heric
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 02:31 PM

This thread has destroyed one but rekindled a new one. Twenty years ago I photographed an apapane, a type of Hawaiian Honeycreeper, high up on Maui. An expert had me convinced this was a rare and exciting event, the bird having been only recently believed extinct. Now, in researching to get my facts straight, I see that the darn thing is downright common! I suppose I shouldn't let that affect what I had, but sheesh. Maybe it was a subspecies or something, or the island in question, but it sure doesn't appear to be that way from what I've been reading. (I know where to track that guy down. It could be that he was talking about it being rediscovered on a different island, and I got my facts muddled.)

The ambition I have always owned is to swim with a whale shark (and a manta ray.) I thought this had to be done only on the Ningaloo Reef in western Australia, so as to be an economically impossible dream. But looking into it today, I see that the same thing can be done in Belize in the spring. The impossible dream becomes tantalizingly, well, not impossible.. . .

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: catspaw49
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 03:17 PM

Hey Bee-Dub!!! My Mom was a stickler for detail and made me call them vultures as she did but I gave up swimming upstream. And then I realized they really ARE buzzards!! I did the math and used the logic and I must tell you that you're wrong!!! Ya' see...........

Up in Hinckley every year they have this buzzard fest and it's no small thing. They have all kinds of events and exhibits and parades and I don't know what all. And sure enough, right on time, thousands of birds show up. Hinckley calls it a buzzard festival therefore the birds must be buzzards! I mean, if I go to the popcorn fest they have popcorn. If I go to the clay fest, they have things made of clay. These birds aren't stupid so when they go to the buzzard fest, they expect to meet other buzzards. If not, they'd be in the wrong place. Simple as that!! Now continue your discussion.

Carrion.....

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 05:52 PM

The vultures are going to a vulture festival. If Hinkley decides to call it a Buzzard festival, then what can the birds do to correct it?

Subject: RE: Lifetime Ambition Achieved
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 09 Mar 05 - 06:50 PM

Okay, Spaw, you can call 'em whatever ya want. They can call themselves whatever they want. No skin off my ass. As long as ya unnerstand that what Liz saw was one of these, not one of these.

And if there aren't enough vultures/buzzards in Hinckley to suit ya, visit any landfill in south Florida during the winter. I was driving to Miami once and saw what looked like a big flock of crows ahead hovering over a landfill. I thought they were crows because there's a huge flock of crows that feeds at Pensacola's landfill in the winter. But the closer I got, the bigger the "crows" got until I finally realized they were vultures. Thousands of 'em.