Critters

I have always been an animal lover. Growing up I loved cats and dogs.. normal pet animals. Then we had a sort of farm with horses and a couple of chickens even a few ducks and pigs. I loved the babies of everything. It didn't matter if that baby was a slimy little frog if it was tiny it was cute. The last place I lived with my parents was in the woods 88 acres of woods.. and beyond those 88 acres was more wood. But this is where we had our tiny little sort of farm. I watched the deer with their fawns and the coyote pups..tho wasn't often I got to see the young ones. But growing up in that setting you would think I would come to know the names of all the animals I was watching. I knew an opossum when I seen one or a raccoon. But I couldn't name a bird, or a muskrat or a hedgehog. I often would look at a bird and wonder what kind it was or hear a pretty song and wonder who was singing it. I grew up and moved out and into my own home which happened to be out in the woods.. only nearer the mountains. I became immersed in the wildlife of Africa because of Africam. I can name many many birds, mammals, etc. from South Africa and can even spout off some pretty cool facts that I have learned over several years. But I still kept looking at birds out my window wondering 'What are you?' and hearing songs and thinking 'Who is singing to me?'. I was so pleased when Critter (his nickname) of CritterWindow found a room I was chatting in (of course it was about African wildlife) and told me about his wildlife cameras in Indiana at http://www.thecritterwindow.com/cams.htm. I have been visiting his channel nearly every day since and have learned many of the most common visitors there and starting to learn the songs too. Everyone at The Critter Window are great to help and are fun to chat with, Indy one of the moderators of the chat has even put up a bird cam in her back yard so The Critter Window has a total of 5 cams to view. Tho he keeps his mostly on the bird feeder and creek. Which is my personal favorite. In summer he puts a whole roasting chicken in the water for the fish and the turtles.. I only got to see this once and it was pretty neat. I have found an excellent website to help me learn the birds and even their songs; I go to http://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=1189&ac=ac and put in the birds name if I know it and learn all about the bird and it even has a sound byte of the birds song. It's a really great tool to use. I still watch my Africam and am still learning birds etc  for SA animals but now I watch and chat at Critters channel too so I know what I'm hearing when I go outside. I will be outside listening to the birds singing and actually knowing who some of them are not.. so until next time....