UPDATE: 10-02-04

I really haven't been home too much in the daylight. I work a lot and commute two hours a day. I haven't noticed any birds that are different or migrating yet. I live in an area that was heavily mined over the past 100 years or so. They are so relentless. Money money. Hopefully this last mine will be the end of it. Also the two hundred acres that used to be free of people is now being populated due to public water. I am blessed that I live in a pie-shaped piece of land bordered by two streams. There is a little bit of a wetland. Where I grew up was old forest. It was very different from here. The kind of place you needed to pipe in daylight. They are having an ATV rally there today. 15 miles of trails. 

 

 My birds seem to attract others. I had some pheasants come to visit last year. I do have some sparrows that come eat the scratch that I "spill" outside the coop. They are neat to see as there are about 10 of them all together. I have never seen so many of them at one spot living together. Actually the Jays must have come to see you because I haven't seen or heard the bunch of them in a while that I used to. The European starlings did stay around this year due to no cow birds. Yippee. I saw maybe one or two at the beginning of summer, but then they moved away too.

 

I heard something really different for this area the other night. My husband sometimes will go to bed and forget to close the back door which means my little Chelsey can go out if she wants. I have two dogs outside too. About 3 a.m. Chelsey started to bark and I got up to see why. I stepped outside and could hear this high pitched whiney bark. I  knew that the "dogs" were running deer up on the hill. The more I listened, the more I understood I wasn't hearing dogs, I was hearing coyotes. They have been reintroduced here over the past few years. Only to be trapped by people who are afraid of them. Coyotes are something I think of being in the west and not here. I hope the deer got away from them.

 

I have found that trying to tell a cat that they can't be somewhere is so futile. LOL I usually try to make something they will like better and use a little kitty psychology and hope they go where I want them.

 

Oh I almost forgot..... The chicken butchering went smoothly. I used a turkey fryer full of water to dunk the birds in. I found that 200 degrees was perfect for me. I didn't dunk them for very long and the feathers pulled right out. We did 6 roosters. We didn't do any ducks. I put plastic on our picnic table and put the plucked and gutted birds in a garbage bag to bring in the house to clean and burn the hair off of. I held them over the gas stove to burn off the hair. One funny thing I did was cook the gizzards for the dogs and forgot to clean them out first. I scraped the boiled meat off and added a little garlic for the dogs. I figured I'd give them a bite in the mornings as a little treat. The garlic is very good for them. Anyways I gave them their first taste thinking they are going to love this and it is soo good for them. It no sooner hit their mouths then they spit it out. Both of them. I think they actually puckered. LOL I think I just put in too much garlic. Thanks for all of the info.

 

Take care and have a great weekend.