Bird Murder aka Liza's Absolution

We have arrived home on several occasions to find the above pictured 'bird murder' scene in our front yard. For whatever reason, Aimee decided that Liza had acquired a taste for quail and was sneaking out of the back yard to pounce on unsuspecting quail.
A couple problems with this theory are that quail are very suspicious little birds and Liza's stalking skills are something like a giraffe practicing yoga. Just not likely, but still the accusation stood. Until recently.

Avyrlie and I came home the other day just in time to see a hawk swoop into the front yard atop a herd of quail, land on its chosen victim, and squeeze it until it quit moving. Ian arrived home shortly after and saw the hawk take off with its meal to find a quiet place for dinner.
Sadly for Liza, Aimee witnessed none of this and still harbors some suspicions ;)

Help and Hinder

Avyrlie loves to help me in the kitchen. Her favorite thing to help with is anything involving chocolate ;)

The guy below does not help me much.

Unless you count helping me eat strawberries. As Avyrlie was decorating the peanut butter cookies with chocolate, Mr. Quail and I were having a stare-down.

He slowly worked up the courage to hop down to my potted strawberry plant that sits right below the herb box. I finally shooed him before me managed to make off with the good, but I'm certain that scratching sound last night was he and his buddies triumphant return.

Considering that his buddies are a flock of tiny baby quail, I can't bring myself to be too upset :)
I actually picked a spot and waited for about 20 minutes to snag a good pic of the babies. Only when they finally moved in position and I pressed the shutter to snap the long awaited perfect pic, did I realize I had forgot to put a memory card in :(

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast, originally uploaded by eouio.

Avyrlie loves having sunglasses and takes them everywhere. Saturday we went to the zoo hoping to see the new crocodiles and Madagascar exhibit.

The exhibit was not too lively with most of the animals hiding out or not present and the crocodiles have yet to return to their regular pen. We did catch the bird show which I love and got to see a rare Steller's Sea Eagle. They are found in Russia and are huge. Wingspan over 6 feet!

(Kiss me Baby!)