SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Flag Day is today!


The United States has had a flag since June 14, 1777, when the Second Continental Congress adopted the first unified version with 13 stars.

Americans didn't pay much attention to it, however, until after the Civil War, when the conflict and improved communications increased national awareness of the "United" part of United States of America.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued one of those presidential proclamations making June 14 a day to honor the nation's flag.

Thirty-three years later, Congress got around to making the observance day official with a law that President Harry Truman signed.

But how to observe Flag Day? Well, the easiest way is to fly it. And fly it properly. No tattered flags. Burn them respectfully or give them to the Boy Scouts, who can do that.

U.S. flags may be flown 24 hours a day. But according to the unenforced rules, if the national standard stays up at night, it should be illuminated. No leaving it alone in the dark.

Here's one we didn't remember: If you're hanging the flag vertically in a window or on a wall, the blue star field should always be on the viewer's left.

The U.S. flag is also always on the viewer's left if arrayed with others. (Watch for common misplacement during the upcoming presidential campaign season, as advance event teams setting the stage confuse whose left it is.)