SJ, I'm guessing you can't cry "illegal imprisonment". Is it like a cat on your lap? Is there purring?

Oh, Windsparrow, that's so wonderful! Thanks for sharing that experience! You've really captured how I feel about the condors. Especially with them, it was so controversial when they brought the last one into captivity. But now they're so successfully rebounding, and I feel like human conservation efforts are so worthwhile. I definitely get snuffly about them. And now I can about the bald eagles too!

We saw about six of them, including two juveniles, once perched atop a ponderosa pine snag. Later we discovered a dead elk that was dinnertime for them. But it's an experience I'll likely never get to repeat. They are such gorgeous creatures.

But it's an experience I'll likely never get to repeat. They are such gorgeous creatures.

It sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Hopefully, they will rebound, and it will continue to be once-in-a-lifetime moment for many lifetimes to come.

And can we please knock some sense into the people who think that since we haven't managed to completely eradicate the wolf from this continent they clearly haven't been shot, trapped, or poisoned hard enough?

Also, I was raised on obligation, thinking that any good thing that happened had to be paid for. And by paid for, I mean, suffering paid for. So, having people be good to me, just because they are good people, is a major head twist.

I am SO with you. I could have written this.

wrod. in my case, I believe it is survivor's guilt. And maybe some damage from growing up thinking "What's wrong with you?" is the long form of "Hello. Glad to see you."

I have enrolled on my PhD. Aaaaaand collapse. I forgot my certificates and had to drive home for them (an hour there and back). Then I lost the code to the research office. Then I got so confused over having both a staff and student computer account that I locked myself out of all the computers. Then I gave up and went away and had a lot of coffee for an hour before carrying on. I haven't yet decided whether this is all just typical research student behaviour or I'm losing my mind. Possibly both. It was a good crash course in dyspraxia for my advisor, though. Who is a lovely man. As is the only other research student I met.

No great contributions to make to the altruism discussion, except that I have a compulsion to make other people happy which often backfires.

The eagle center sounds amazing, WindSparrow. I'd love to see the Laura Ingalls Wilder house, too!

Right. Food. Big Bang Theory. Wine. Sleep.

WindSparrow, the eagle center sounds terrific! We have some eagle nesting areas next to a lake one county over from me. I use to see them once in a while when I'd take my roomie's dog over for a swim.

thanks sj & windsparrow! headache is still, but less. I'm moving on.

The eagle center sounds amazing. And someday, we'll go to the Laura Ingalls marker. They're favored reading around these parts.

Windsparrow and Liese, thanks for posting that about the eagles and condors. It made me feel much better today! I went to a place in Florida that rehabilitated injured raptors, and got to see bald eagles and falcons and huge owls. They would swoop over the heads of the visitors and then fly back to their handlers. And blink at us like, "What? Did I scare you, mammal?" They were awesome, in both the true and the pop-culture senses of the word.

bonny, I'm so glad you're on the mend, and that you have so many wonderful people around you! We were very worried about you.

Future Dr. Seska, congrats!

When I was in Alaska for two weeks a couple of years ago working on a cruise ship I saw quite a few bald eagles. They were truly amazing and majestic. One of the nights we were still in a port and I was in one of the ship restaurants eating dinner and a pair of bald eagles just kept soaring back and forth outside the window.