Tuesday, September 27, 2022
It's Official and Other Stuff
Monday, September 19, 2022
Birds of Prey and Such
Last week I saw an advertisement for something called a Hawk Fest that was being held at Lake Erie Metropark about 45 minutes away from us.
I thought it sounded interesting so on Saturday, I packed us a picnic lunch and we headed off.
It was being sponsored by the Michigan Hawking Club. Who knew there was a Hawking Club? Here's what I took from their website:
The Michigan Hawking Club is a non-political, non-profit organization whose purpose is preservation of the sport of falconry and conservation of birds of prey.
The goals of the MHC are…
- To promote recognition of falconry as a legal field sport and support the practice of falconry to the highest standards.
- To provide communication among, and to disseminate relevant information to, club members.
- To promote scientific study of raptorial species, their care, welfare, and training.
- To promote conservation of birds of prey and an appreciation for their value in nature and in wildlife conservation programs.
- To establish traditions which will aid, perpetuate, and further the welfare of falconry, and the raptors it employs.
Here is a description of the sport of falconry.
Falconry is the sport of hunting wild game in its natural state with a trained bird of prey (raptor).
Falconry in various forms has existed for thousands of years and has been practiced by many cultures around the world. It is believed to have started somewhere in Central Asia and has spread from there.
The care, training, and hunting with a raptor cannot be considered the same as keeping a pet or any other domestic animal. This sport is extremely demanding, time consuming, and could even be described as a lifestyle. It requires A great deal of knowledge, skill, and commitment in order to be successful.
So, think what you may about this sport. I suppose you could be against trapping them to use for something like this and I'm not sure exactly what I think about it. From seeing these birds and listening to the owners though I can see they are well taken care of.
We just went there to see some of them up close!
This is a red tail hawk. We see enough of those flying around here and sitting in trees but to see one up close was pretty cool! You can tell how big he is, too, and look at his fierce looking face! The keeper said his diet consists of mostly squirrels and when they dive, they only get their prey 20% of the time. However, I can personally attest to them loving doves, too, considering the pile of dove feathers we occasionally find on our lawn!
The biggest bird there was this Great horned owl. He was magnificent! The keeper said their diet mainly consists of rabbits and they catch their prey 90% of the time! One time we heard one hooting in the pine tree outside our front door, but by the time Rich got a flashlight he had gone to a tree across the street!
Levi was able to start Pre-K a little early instead of waiting until he turns 4 on the 27th. Shauna has time for herself now Monday-Thursday from 12-3!
Sunday, September 11, 2022
School Time and Misc
Maxwells first week of school went as good as expected! He cried the night before and a little in the morning but went right in and had good days! Tuesday through Thursday were half days and Friday was his first whole day, 8:50 to 4:00! At least he was excited to take his lunch to school! Things sure are different nowadays. My kids only did half days for the whole kindergarten!
Before the first day of school his teacher sent this cute poem and a small bag of little foil stars.
So cute!
We had a chance to do some metal detecting last week.
We always find a lot of coins when we go to a park that has a stage or has concerts in it. And occasionally we find toys, too!
Stopping at a traffic light and this guy landed on my windshield! He hung on for a mile until the next light, so I was able to get his picture! He was still there when I parked to go into the store and gone when I came back out. This picture looks like a giant grasshopper is getting ready to attack the cars below!
I stopped at an Estate Sale yesterday. I was kind of in a hurry so I didn't take a lot of pictures, but I thought there was some interesting stuff.
The garage was full of these duck decoys! This was just one of several piles. I'm curious as to what their purpose was. Maybe the person was a avid duck hunter but that's a awful lot of decoys!
There was this table with three benches that tucked underneath that I thought was interesting.
And these pheasants on display!
I thought the kitchen was pretty. I have always loved white cabinets.
Saturday, September 3, 2022
Summer Winding Down
Even though we are still getting hot and humid weather (yay!) the air feels different. Fall is in the air now. You can understand what I mean if you live in an area that gets all the seasons like we do.
Maxwell is starting kindergarten next Tuesday and they went to the open house at his school few days ago.
He looks so excited! I hope he is still excited when he has to go by himself! He's so shy and he struggled for quite a while when he went to Pre-K last year! My Nonnies heart can't take it when one of my grandbabies cries!
Levi starts Pre-K this year but not until September 27th when he turns 4 years old.
He did get to go to Maxwell's open house with them though!
In other news: Look how close this hummingbird let me get to him the other day!
This is a still shot of a movie I took. This was not zoomed I was able to hold my phone that close to him! I love watching our hummingbird feeder!
That's it for me for now. I have been working extra days because of vacations so I haven't been doing much else.
Until the next time stay safe and well my friends!
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