For "Winged Wednesday:
Bumper Snicker:
"If you object to logging, try using plastic toilet paper."
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So if you are a Treehugger and object to cutting down the bird's tree abode, see the alternatives of yore:
History
"Before paper was widely available, a variety of materials were employed. The Romans used an L-shaped stick (like a hockey stick) made of wood or precious metal; at public toilets people used sponges on sticks that were kept in saltwater between uses. In arid climates, sand, powdered brick, or earth was used. Until the late nineteenth century, Muslims were advised to use three stones to clean up. One favorite tool was a mussel shell, used for centuries. Until the early twentieth century, corn cobs were used.
In the late fifteenth century, when paper became widely available, it began to replace other traditional materials. Sometimes old correspondence was pressed into service, as were pages from old books, magazines, newspapers, and catalogs. People also used old paper bags, envelopes, and other bits of scrap paper, which were cut into pieces and threaded onto a string that was kept in the privy.
Toilet paper is a fairly modern invention, making its debut around 1880 when it was developed by the British Perforated Paper Company. Made of a coarser paper than its modern incarnation, it was sold in boxes of individual squares. In America, the Scott Paper Company made its Waldorf brand toilet paper in rolls as early as 1890. The first rolls were not perforated, and lavatory dispensers had serrated teeth to cut the paper as needed.
It was a nearly "unmentionable" product for years, and consumers were often embarrassed to ask for it by name or even be seen buying it. Timid shoppers simply asked for "Two, please," and the clerk presumably knew what they wanted. To keep things discreet, toilet paper was packaged and sold in brown paper wrappers."
Read more: How toilet paper is made - manufacture, making, history, used, processing, steps, product, industry, History, Raw Materials, The Manufacturing Process of toilet paper, Quality Control http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Toilet-Paper.html#ixzz1fn7LEzrY
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Blackpoll Warbler
The Blackpoll Warbler, named for the black forehead and crown of the breeding male, has one of the highest pitched songs of any bird – in fact, the sound is so high that many people have difficulty hearing it at all.
Blackpolls have the longest migration of any North American warbler. In the fall, they depart from the northeastern United States and head out over the Atlantic in a grueling, nonstop flight that averages 1,800 miles and can take more than 80 hours.
The Blackpoll’s boreal breeding grounds are at risk from tar sands development, which destroys nesting habitat and releases high volumes of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming – an incipient threat to boreal forests. Collisions with towers and buildings also kill thousands of migrating Blackpoll Warblers each year.
Canada has taken steps to protect large areas of its boreal forest, preserving millions of acres of habitat for the Blackpoll and hundreds of other bird and animal species.
Photo: Blackpoll Warbler; Range Map, NatureServe
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Get ready for winter feeding
Take a look at this short, but exciting video of a winter, bird-feeding frenzy
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New Study Says Threatened Florida Bird Continues to Decline in Numbers.
Florida Scrub-Jay by Peter LaTourrette
More at: http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/stories/111121.html
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Nevada Citizens Asked to Help Prevent Deaths of Thousands, Maybe Millions of Birds
"Hundreds of dead birds collected from inside Nevada mining claim markers. The total toll on birds in the region could be in the millions. Photo: Nevada Department of Wildlife.
(Washington, D.C., November 22, 2011) American Bird Conservancy, the nation's leading bird conservation organization, is asking Nevada citizens to act on a state law that now gives them the ability to prevent thousands, possibly millions of bird deaths at mining claim sites. "
More at: http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/111122.html
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Evolution by Gareth Huw Davies 
"Birds arrived comparatively late on Planet Earth. First came insects, in the unimaginably distant past. For over 100 million years or more they ruled the skies. But these were mere pioneers of the air. Think of them, in aviation terms, as the flimsy open-cockpit planes of the early 20th Century.
Then, several hundred million years ago, huge and often terrifying new life forms, Pterosaurs, or flying dinosaurs, took the ascendancy. These massive creatures had wings of skin, stretched between one enormously elongated finger and their flanks. Around 150 million years ago they were joined by - or, as many scientists say, they began to turn into - a much more aerodynamic, feathered creature. The bird was born.
And so the flimsy biplane ceded aerial mastery to nature's many equivalents of the Boeing 767, Concorde, the B52 bomber, the stealth fighter. A huge variety of ancient bird types have come and gone and evolved to give us the 9000 different species we know today.
Many scientists are convinced that birds evolved from the dinosaurs. Numerous finds in recent years have seemed to support the hypothesis that birds descended from two-legged, running dinosaurs called theropods.
Pterosaurs were among the first vertebrates in the air
This theory was born with the discovery of a 150-million-year-old fossilized creature in a swamp in Germany in the 1860s. Archaeopteryx was possibly the most controversial prehistoric remain ever dug up. It is the oldest known bird fossil. Most biologists accept it as conclusive proof that dinosaurs sired birds."
A lot more at: http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds/evolution/index.html
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On This Day:
"A date which will live in infamy". Dec 7, 1941:
"On this day, in an early-morning sneak attack, Japanese warplanes bomb the U.S. naval base at Oahu Island's Pearl Harbor—and the United States enters World War II.
President Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull knew a Japanese attack was imminent. Having received intelligence reports of intercepted coded messages from Tokyo to the Japanese ambassador in the United States, the president anticipated Japanese reprisals for his government's refusal to reverse economic sanctions and embargoes against Japan. The Roosevelt administration had remained firm in its demand that the Japanese first withdraw from China and French Indochina, which it had invaded in 1937 and July 1941, respectively, and renounce its alliance with fascist Germany and Italy.
But Japan refused, demanding that the United States first end the embargo on oil shipments vital for Tokyo's war machine. Although negotiations between the two nations continued up to the very last minute, Roosevelt was aware of a secret November 25 deadline, established by Tokyo, that confirmed military action on the part of the Japanese should they not received satisfaction from the negotiations. While forewarned, Washington could not pinpoint the time or place of an attack.
Despite initially objecting to war with America, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto believed that if Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was determined to go to war, it was Japan who had to make a preemptive strike. Yamamoto studied the devastating November 1940 British attack against the Italian fleet at Taranto, and planned and led the sneak attack against the United States. Approximately 360 Japanese warplanes were launched from six aircraft carriers, reinforced by battleships, cruisers, and destroyers.
The first dive-bomber was spotted over Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. Hawaii time. It was followed by 200 aircraft, which decimated the American ships anchored there, most of which were only lightly manned because it was Sunday morning. Among the 18 U.S. ships destroyed, sunk, or capsized were the Arizona, Virginia, California, Nevada, and West Virginia. More than 180 planes were destroyed on the ground and another 150 were damaged (leaving but 43 operational). American casualties totaled more than 3,400, with more than 2,400 killed (1,000 on the Arizona alone). The Japanese lost fewer than 100 men.
In the short term, the Japanese goal of crippling U.S. naval strength in the Pacific, and thereby giving Tokyo free reign to gobble up more of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific in its dream of imperial expansion, was successful. But the war had only just begun."
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The First State. Dec 7, 1787:
"In Dover, Delaware, the U.S. Constitution is unanimously ratified by all 30 delegates to the Delaware Constitutional Convention, making Delaware the first state of the modern United States.
Less than four months before, the Constitution was signed by 37 of the original 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia. The Constitution was sent to the states for ratification, and, by the terms of the document, the Constitution would become binding once nine of the former 13 colonies had ratified the document. Delaware led the process, and on June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, making federal democracy the law of the land. Government under the U.S. Constitution took effect on March 4, 1789."
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Yesterday:
Early yesterday morning I was readying the grooming room for some doggie boarders. Mindi was bringing her 3 remaining old poodles, the dachshund, and the Yorkie, also an abandoned puppy they had just found. I set up a little pen for the pup, with water and a comfy non-chewable bed, but the others will be loose in the grooming room. I furnished the two cat cages, which my two foster kittens don't use anymore, with food, water, beds and litter boxes for them to stay in while the dogs are here. That's a 'gaggle' of dogs, and they could get a pack mentality, and maybe hurt the kittens.
I was thinking the dogs were arriving at about 9.30 am, and locked the kittens up for their breakfasts. Pebbles promptly turned over her water dish and litter box, so the cage and her bed were all slurry-ied up in a big gray mess. Precious just looked at me pitifully wondering why she was locked up. Then I remembered that the dogs wouldn't be arriving until about 3.00PM, and were leaving around 9.30AM on Thursday morning, so I let the kittens loose until the dogs arrived.
Even though I had bundled up, I didn't let Misty take such a long walk when went to pick up Jay, as it was cold…for TX that is.
Jay and I battled the cold of 37 deg., trying to work with gloves on. It isn't finished, but at least the full-view storm door is screwed in place. That should keep the north wind out of Ray's utility room, as two of their cats sleep in there.
The cable guy arrived just as we had finished for the day, just after noon.
He had a meter which tells him all sorts of information, so I was fascinated by what he was doing. He checked the cable modem, and the connections to my computer. His company cell phone told him the info remotely from that meter thing, and the phone even had a built-in flashlight.
Then he had to go up in my attic, and was surprised that I went up there too. He said there is no way his wife or sister would go up in an attic because of spiders, webs or bats. Well, there aren't any spiders or bats in my belfry attic, it is a well lit, carpeted, clean, storage area. If a dormer were added to the roof, it could be another bedroom.
Jay really needed to be taken home, but I couldn't leave the guy alone in my house, company rules. Anyway, I have a lot of antiques stored up in the attic, and so Jay just had to wait. The guy installed a new splitter, but when he tried to get my computer online, it still wouldn't. He called his repair dispatcher again, and found out that my cable modem had inadvertently lost it's IP address. They reset that, and voilà!, I had internet again through the cable. I was tired of the slow old dial-up!
The boarders arrived about 4.00PM, and I had asked her to stop at the feed store and pick up a puppy shot, which I gave him upon arrival. Distemper and Parvo are airborne so the other dogs could even bring it in from outdoors. No sense in taking any chances.
When I take the dogs outside, they romp, play and chase each other for a while, while Misty stays out of their way.
Before it got dark, I went around with a crescent wrench (maybe 'water pumps pliers' to you) and took off water hoses and the water timers. Then wrapped the faucets, and turned off the main shut off to the outside faucets which is in the garage.
Then it was dinner time.
Eleven little dishes of cat and dog food prepared.
My foster kittens know why they are safely caged up now.
"Mindi's Five" eating.
Three old poodles, a Dachshund and a Yorkie. She has more at home! The person who tends the horses is caring for them. The pup is eating in the cage on the right.
Yuck, no fixin's in my coffee this morning.
Now I have to hurry up and make 11 breakfasts, and then take the dogs out, as I have to be at the doctor's office early for the 'vampire' today.
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