“Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father keeps feeding them. Are you not worth much more than they?”

Matthew 6: 26

“A Lesson From Our Feathered Friends”

“I heard a bird at break of day

Sing from the autumn trees

A song so musical and calm,

So full of certainties,

No man, I think, could listen long

Except upon his knees.

Yet this was but a simple bird

Alone among dead trees.”

Author Unknown

What lessons have I learned in my life as I have witnessed creatures in nature?

What problems in my life do I need to turn over to my heavenly Father?

“Take courage, and turn your troubles, which are without remedy, into material for spiritual progress. Often turn to our Lord, who is watching you, poor frail little being as you are, amid your labors and distractions.”

Francis de Sales

Transformation Garden

national geographic – June 2011 by Eric Friar McDermott

As the forages of their colony’s cste system (see rank and file), media leafcutter ants start out with mandibles as sharp as surgical scalpels.  But over the course of their lives, the repetitive slicing of leaves into small disks dulls their V-shaped blades. Rather than retire, the ants shift their role tojust caryying sheared-off vegetation to the nest, where food production begins.

Observing Panama’s Atta cephalotes, University of Oregon’s Robert Scholfield and his team found that ants with dulled blades used about twice as much energy and time to carve a leave as their still sharp colleagues, triggering the job switch.  “It’s an advantage of social living that we’re familiar with”, says Schoflied.  “Humans who can no longer do certain tasks canstill make  worthwhile contributions to society.  – Erin Friar McDermott

Rank and File

Majors Clear trails and defend colony

Medias Cut out and transport pieces of leaves

Minors Chew leaf bits into a pulpy mass

Minims Cultivate food and nurse the young

Black bears typically have two cubs; rarely, one or three. In 2007, in northern New Hampshire , a black bear sow gave birth to five healthy young. There were two or three reports of sows with as many as 4 cubs, but five was, and is, very extraordinary. The photographer learned of them shortly after they emerged from their den and set a goal of photographing all five cubs with their mom – no matter how much time and effort was involved. He knew the trail they followed on a fairly regular basis, usually shortly before dark. After spending nearly four hours a day, seven days a week, for more than six weeks, he had that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and photographed them. He used the equivalent of a very fast film speed on his digital camera. The print is properly focused and well exposed, with all six bears posing as if they were in a studio for a family portrait.

The photographer stayed in touch with other people who saw the bears during the summer and into the fall hunting season. All six bears continued to thrive. As time for hibernation approached, he found still more folks who had seen them, and everything remained OK. The photographer stayed away from the bears because he was concerned that they might become habituated to him, or to people in general, and treat them as approachable friends. This could easily become dangerous for both man and animal.

After Halloween, no further reports and could only hope the bears survived until they hibernated. This spring, just before the snow disappeared, all six bears came out of their den and wandered all over the same familiar territory they trekked in the spring of 2007.

The photographer saw them before mid-April and dreamed nightly of taking another family portrait, a highly improbable second once-in-a-lifetime photograph.

On 25 April 2008, he achieved his dream.

There will soon be seven billion humans on Earth, but how does that number compare to other species on the planet?  We are certainly outnumbered by ants.  Harvard biologist and ant expert Erward O. Wilson has estimated that there are a thousan trillion to ten thousand trillion ants at any one time. That would be about a million ants for every one of us. And does it not seemlike that when they invade our kitchens?

Estimating animal populations, especially wild ones, is hard, but here is a look at one category of animals we can count:  the ones we eat

Number of animals killed for food worldwide – 2009

1.7 million camels, 24 million water buffalo, 293 million cows, 398 million goats, 518 million sheep, 633 million turkeys, 1.1 billion rabbits, 1.3 billion pigs, 2.6 billion ducks, 52 billion chickens.

By Nigel Holmes : National Geographic Magazine

**Ants – they are edible. Ants are a good source of protein and are considered a delicacy in many parts of the world

Whimsical Watches hand-crafts these unique novelty watches for animal lovers of a variety of animals. If you have a love for Cows, Bunny Rabbits, or Pigs, you may want to look through our selection of Barnyard Watches. Our selection of dog watches includes a wide breed of dogs such as: Beagle, Bichon, Chihuahua, German Shepard, Maltese, Poodle, and more. We have watches suitable for every animal lover: Barnyard Animals, Cat, Dog, Sealife Animals, Zoo Animals, and Horses.

The mystery continues

Mystery of mass animal death epidemic deepens after 8,000 turtle doves fall dead in Italy with strange blue stain on their beaks

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344913/Animal-death-mystery-Two-MILLION-dead-fish-wash-Maryland-bay.html

Blue stain believed to be sign of poisoning or hypoxia – lack of oxygen that is precursor to altitude sickness
Cold weather and overbreeding blamed for deaths of two 2million fish in Chesapeake Bay
Disease behind deaths of 100,000 fish in Arkansas River
At least nine incidents of mass animal deaths across the globe
Hundreds of confused birds plummeted to their deaths in multiple locations in the U.S.
Rapid movement of Magnetic North Pole towards Russia may have caused bird deaths

Thousands of dead turtle doves rained down on roofs and cars in an Italian town in the latest in a growing spate of mass animal deaths across the globe.
Residents in Faenza described the birds falling to the ground like ‘little Christmas balls’ with strange blue stains on their beaks.
Initial tests on up to 8,000 of the doves indicated that the blue stain could have been caused by poisoning or hypoxia.

A witness told www.examiner.com: ‘We have no idea why this happened all of a sudden.
‘The doves just started falling one-by-one then in groups of 10s and 20s.’
Hypoxia, a lack of oxygen, is known to cause confusion and illness in animals. It is also a common precursor to altitude sickness.

Read full article – with pictures

Related articles

• More than 1,000 turtle doves fall from the sky in Italy in latest mass bird death case (telegraph.co.uk)
• Thousands Of Birds Found Dead In Italy (huffingtonpost.com)
• Mass Bird And Animal Deaths Occurring Worldwide, Aflockalypse Real? [Video] (realestateradiousa.com)

Found a disturbing site this morning…

LABARRE — Hundreds of dead and dying birds littered a quarter-mile stretch of highway in Pointe Coupee Parish on Monday as motorists drove over and around them.

Read full article

Map of similar happenings:  click here

Victoria River turns bright Green

“For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.”
~Rudyard Kipling

What exactly did Kipling mean when he said this? What can we humans learn from these beautiful creatures of the wild?  Author, Twyman Towery, spent many years in research, seeking the answers to this question. The result is an amazing book and movie that will make you think, what could human organizations accomplish if they lived by these principles?

Wolf Credo
Respect the elders
Teach the young
Cooperate with the pack

Play when you can
Hunt when you must
Rest in between

Share your affections
Voice your feelings
Leave your mark
–Del Goetz

In the movie, Wisdom of Wolves, teamwork, patience, communication and loyalty are at the core of the wolf pack’s survival.  Each member has a crucial role to play.  Watch the movie to see how these vital qualities are intertwined with the daily life of the wolf.

Related articles

• Tibetan Wolf (beontheroad.com)

Received this through email and had to share with my readers

Today I feel ….

Too old to play with my Barbiedoll

Too young to go on pension

Too lazy to work and too tired for an affair

Hope it goes better on your side

Rita