August sucks so bad, it can suck a softball through 25 feet of garden hose

It was around 100 degrees today. Or 96. Or whatever. When the temp gets in the nineties, it all becomes academic anyhow. But I did make it rain. How? I washed the car. Murphy's Law.

While I did my RAPTOR thing last night, Swami was taking photos:

Elvis. The Evil One.

Poor Rufous.
You know, it's not that his feathers are coming in too slow...you can see pin feathers all around his eyes and head. It's that he is dropped the old ones too fast. But the public loves him anyway. They can't believe this is Ohio's most common owl. When I do outside programs, and there are trees nearby, I walk over and put up next to the bark (the gray SO is even better with this) and tell people to imagine him about 20 feet up in the tree, sitting perfectly still. That's why you don't see screech owls. Or any owl, very often.
Now, to educator mode:
Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio, formerly Otus asio)
Eastern screech owls have a pretty rapid flight pattern, about 5 beats per second. They are an "edge" bird, hunting along open fields and wetlands, using what I call the "Perch and Pounce" method. They will swallow small prey (like deer mice) whole, but take larger prey to a perch to rip it to pieces. Some song-and-woodland birds that SO's eat are Northern Bobwhite,
Rock Dove, and Ruffed Grouse. (!)
Other prey include: small fish, small snakes, lizards, and soft-shelled turtles, small frogs, toads, and salamanders, and invertebrates such as crayfish, snails, spiders, earthworms, scorpions, and centipedes.

Breeding season for Eastern Screech Owls is generally around mid April, but may range from mid March to mid May. They have an elaborate courtship ritual: Males approach females, calling from different branches until they are close. The male then bobs and swivels his head, bobs his entire body, and even slowly winks one eye at the female. If she ignores him, bobbing and swiveling motions intensify. If she accepts him, she moves close and they touch bills and preen each other. Pairs mate for life but will accept a new mate if the previous mate disappears. Gray and red color phases will mate together. They nest almost exclusively in natural tree cavities, but can be enticed to use large nest boxes.
They aren't quite the top of the food chain... they can be preyed upon by great horned owls, barred owls, long-eared owls, great gray owls, short-eared owls, snowy owls, mink, weasels, raccoons, skunks, snakes, crows, and blue jays.

Okay, onto other stuff:

One of the lovely event coordinators brought over a fan for the birds, so I kept spritzing Lucy and she would spread her wings and revel in the breeze.
(That fan was farther away than it looks, by the way)

And a pic from Sunday lunch:

Swami takes a picture of me taking a picture of a ground hog.
Fascinating stuff.

The Will-Yum of the day:
Isabelle said to me today, "Oh, Mommy...you are the best Mommy we have ever had."
***
Please, in the name of all that is good and holy, make it cooler so I can go birding and not fall over when my bones dissolve into a large puddle of goo.

August still sucks out loud, but I survived.

I may very well have lost 10 pounds today.

First program, great. The woman who scheduled it with me and assisted me with carrying the birds in, etc, hugged me no less than four times and told me that she had a great feeling about me and what RAPTOR does. And she scheduled another program for November.

I had about an hour of down time in between programs, so I came home, cooled off the birds and lay on the couch, trying to soak up as much cold air as I could.

The four hour program was very cool. A "Cop's Night Out", with helicopter demonstrations, K-9 demonstrations, dog adoptions, Marines, fire fighters, a hot dog eating contest, music, face painting, Outreach for Animals (snakes, alligators) and of course, me and my birds. Even though it was hot enough to boil my eyeballs, it was FUN.

My in-laws (Swami and Swamette) and Rachel, my sorta-sister-in-law, her friends, her Mom...all came to see the show, which was very nice of them. And Swami brought me ice and pop.
Go and check out the link above for Outreach for Animals. Tim Harrison, the guy in charge of this awesome organization, is a good friend of RAPTOR, Inc, and is mucho passionate about his mission. From their website:
Since 1995 when "reality" TV began airing wildlife programs showing the hosts casually handling dangerous animals and mistreating them, playing with them as if they were toys, children have died and been injured at an alarming rate. These children act out the part of these television actors and are bit by venomous snakes and lose limbs after jumping on alligators. Parents are encouraging this by bringing large predators into their urban and suburban homes. These situations are very bad for the people and equally bad for the animals.

Our non-profit organization is taking the lead in an effort to save the children and prevent cruelty to animals by the misinformed public. Our educational programs provide information about wildlife and how the wildlife deserves to be left in the wild.

Very cool organization.

So, I made it. But I really don't want to ever go outside again.

August sucks out loud

I told myself that I wouldn't bitch and moan about how hot it is. We are all feeling it, unless you are lucky enough to be Dave or Trixie in Alaska, or Lynne in Minnesooooooota, or Ruth in Ontario. The rest of us are probably moist-browed right now, and may not smell very good.
Here in lovely southwest Ohio, it may get to 100 tomorrow. On any other day, I would just yank the curtains closed against the brutal sun and spend the day with the girls making homemade ice cream. But I have two different programs so I will have to venture forth into the ickiness. The first one is indoors, thankfully. But the second one is outside. For 4 hours.

If you live in the area:
Cops Night Out
Sunset Park, Middletown Ohio
5 pm-9 pm

Please stop by and meet our birds. And bring me ice water. Or maybe a few Popsicles.

I took the girls for a sleepover at Mom's, and she was proud to show me her new baby wrens, freshly hatched in the previously ill-fated bluebird box:

Four wrenlets, and one unhatched egg...see it under the baby on the left?

I may not have had a bumper crop of baby birds this year, but the monarchs are happy with our milkweed. My dream for the future includes many nature-related things:
A "green" house...recycled materials, energy efficient, etc.
Lots of mature trees
Enough space to take nature walks on our own property (a la Zick)
And...a huge field of milkweed and any other host plant I can find.
***
But for now....it's sloppy hot. And I come from icy German stock and I'm not a happy camper about this damn weather. Anyone remember the scene in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood when they sneak out the car and take a drive with their tops off? I wanna do that right now.