Sitting Around

I am not much at creating art.  I took a photo today of a dove landing in a dead tree through the branches of young pine trees.  This photo is one a person good with photoshop could probably make into art.  Here is my attempt at being artistic.

Update on the two love birds.  It appears that the female is now sitting on an egg or eggs.  Since Saturday she is spending a large amount of time sitting in the nest.  When she is not sitting in the nest her mate is watching the nest.  Interesting enough, I never see him sit on the eggs.  He just sits on his favorite branch above the nest.  All this week, I have not seen the birds leave the nest alone.

Going to other sites they say this would be late in the season for incubation.  The birds may be getting a late start for some reason.  Incubation is about 35 days.  If she laid eggs about Saturday the eaglets should be born right around Easter.  I am so ready to see the young, I had hoped it would be earlier.

Here is a photo of mom sitting on the nest with dad behind her sitting around and watching the bird version of TV.

Gone Fishing!

Just sharing this photo.  If you are a fisherman or just a lover of wildlife, I thought you may appreciate this photo.  Feel free to download it to your smartphone, or computer if you can use it.

Went and watched the eagles on their nest again today.  One of the birds was acting like it was feeding young ones.  It would tilt its head back and act like it was regurgitating food for its young.  Then it would repeatedly bow its head down into the nest.

I took several pictures of the eagle when it bowed down.  I was hoping to be able to see an eaglet later when I examined the photos on my computer.  I must report I found no evidence to confirm there is a chick in the nest.  This one photo shows several pine cones right near the eagle so one can compare it to the bird.  I will try to find a pine cone like one of these to measure its size.  The typical pine cone around here is 6 or so inches. 

Pine Cones close to Eagle Look Small

Three new bird photos

Today I went to the local bird's nest and saw quite a lot of activity.  It is hard to tell if there are chicks in the nest, but I believe it is probable.  The parents are not acting like they are incubating eggs to me.  Today was in the 40F's and I would think they would sit on the eggs more if they were in the incubation stage.  One of them was doing quite a lot when it first arrived at the nest.  When it was flying up, it had something in its talons.  It looked like a snake but could have simply been a stick to add to the nest.  I took a photo of it flying up but it was bad because of the lack of light.  I had the camera set to Aperture Priority and the low speed it selected made the photo very blurry.  The first bird spent quite a bit of time down in the nest doing something, moving around quite a bit.

One of the parents is in the nest.  Look closely you can see its head.

Here everything looks nice and peaceful.

OK, Is this a squabble going on?

These photos were taken sitting in my car.  I could have gotten closer, but the closer you get the less you see because of the angle you see them from.  I also try to stay back far enough not to spook them.

There are web-cams that have been placed near Eagle's nests in other states to watch the young when they are in the nest.  Being so close to businesses, this site would make a good place for a web-cam.  You could hardwire it with a CAT5 cable if someone climbed up the tree next to this one and installed one.  It would be close enough for a Wifi connection if they wanted to use a Wifi enabled webcam.  You could not do it now but Eagle's use the same nest year after year, so it could probably be done for next year.  Maybe a wildlife agency could coordinate with one of the nearby businesses to put a solar powered wireless webcam up with the birds.  If they did the birds would probably decide to use it for a perch.

One of the parents either feeding young or else fixing the nest.

Took one decent photo today of a local hawk with another bird flying in the other direction.  I believe the hawk is a Red Tailed Hawk.  Where I shot this photo, a pair of these hawks can been seen almost daily.

Long Road to Finding Cure to Neuromuscular Problems

I am currently disabled by some neuromuscular disorder.  I have found out that the first thing doctors should tell a person who has these type of problems is that it takes years to diagnose most patients.

The first doctor I went to just tried to say it was temporary.  She checked for Arthritis That was about it. I knew what I had was something a little more than that.

I got referred to a neurologist about six months later.  At that time, they knew something was wrong.  They checked me for Limb Girdle, MS. They gave me many tests at that time including a EMG. This sounds innocent enough, but let me tell you something, feels like being hooked up to an electric fence. As a kid, we used to grab electric fences and then touch a friend. If you knew how to do it, it barely shocked you, but would shock the fool out of your friends. I know what an electric fence feels like, and it is just like an EMG.

They checked me for the common stuff like MS, ALS, and many things I had never heard of. One of these stiff man syndrome is what I just knew I had. It described my symptoms to the "Tee." My warped sense of humor loved the name. I knew every guy would have to tell a joke about the name. They checked me for GAD65. Completely negative.

Last thing they checked for was a serious birth defect Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome. My cholesterol is always low and babies who have SLOS have very low cholesterol and too much 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase. They thought this may be what was going on with me, but the test came back normal on this also.

They are calling what I have Spastic Paraplegia. Bilateral adrenal nodules with a light case of Cushing's. I also have common old boring Diabetes Type 2.

I became quite disabled last fall, but am recovering lately. I don't know if what I have has run it course, or if it is in remission? Soon I hope to be able to do more in life. Being disabled sure had its disadvantages.

Bird Photographs

Large bird flying directly overhead.

This is a photo I believe someone may be interested in. These two birds build a nest right in town. Where they are is open country on one side but on the other side is right next to a road that probably handles 20-25 thousand cars a day.