Thanks guys. I think the third one, the one with the white and then maroon streaks is called "Centerfold". It was a Walmart's special, so you know.... The yellow one is pale yellow with a little more of a lemon color in the center. Its package, I think, said "Tiger lilium Yellow." Earthlydelights, your's are just gorgeous. Now I'm gonna hafta start trying to find "name" ones as pretty as yours. Ignorance was bliss, and cheaper! :)

I had to laugh out loud at the instructions your Wildlife Department gave you, and I had mental visions of your husband in his trapping gear. It's prolly an everyday occurrence to them and they think nothing of it. I have been clawed and bitten sufficiently by my gentle little hens to take beaks and talons with anything but the greatest respect. Like Lilo says, I have a great deal of empathy with birds of prey. Life isn't easy for that kind of predator. I get daily performances from our turkey vultures (who are carion eaters and not likely to kill anything) and it's amazing to watch them. Over the years, I see that they do their hunting with a precision routine, and it's not at all random. They plot out zones and soar up high, and circle down low and then move over to the next zone and do it again if they don't find food. Sometimes there'll be a dozen of them doing this in tandem. When they light, I know that somewhere in the fields or pastures below, an animal lays there dead or dying. In the wintertime, I watch the routine of one particular female Cooper's Hawk. She is magnificent and for the last couple of years, I have watched her make her daily rounds. Our property is part of it, although she roosts in a grove of trees between some pastures up and across the road. After she checks out our feedings stations, she heads up to our spring grotto for awhile before moving on. Last winter, one of her progeny (I'd presume), a young male followed her same route almost daily. It was so funny, yet sad, to watch him as he first started learning to hunt. He tried to fly into the vines after the smaller birds, and got entangled. He sat there in full view under the feeders for long periods of time, like the birds would going to fly down and into his mouth. He caught on, eventually.

I can tell you right now, no one will know what you mean by pine bark fines. Most retail personnel barely know what they have in stock, and you'll get a lot of blank stares at the mention of pine bark fines, or turface... it's not what they're used to selling as medium ingredients. I actually found the pine bark in the pet section of Meijer's, which is kind of like WalMart or Target. It's labeled ReptiBark reptile bedding. It's roughly $5 for 4 dry quarts. An alternative is soil conditioner, which it turns out is pine bark, though it may need to be screened for dust and size... I've heard they sell it at Lowe's, but haven't found it there. The granite chips were located at Rural King, which is kind of like Blain's Farm & Fleet, a large farm oriented store. It's actually labeled Manna Pro Poultry Grit, granite chips, and it's in a blue and yellow bag. Perlite is available almost everywhere garden stuff is sold. There's some really great information on where to locate all the ingredients to make this medium over at the Container Gardening Forum. If you can't find posts about what you're looking for, just ask... those guys are great, and they definitely have the knowledge.

These may have seemed harder, but you guys are actually doing pretty well. And without any clues! The only one nobody's mentioned yet is the second half of #3. Yes, Kerry, one point for genus and one for species, I hadn't figured cv. names into the equation. Perhaps I should have had a 3 point system, but it doesn't seem to be an issue with any of these. Keeping score has gotten a bit harder now with all of the changes and multiple answers, but I'll do my best. Japie, are you sure it's #2 you want to change? So far that's about the only one that everybody seems to agree on! I have a feeling your answer was meant for #4, as a couple of the others had. Assuming that to be the case, your current score is 14, otherwise it drops to 10. It's not always wise to go with the majority. ;-) Kerry has moved into the lead with 16.... or 15, depending on how I score #8. Glad you caught the boat, Yong, you have 13 points. Andrew, you changed a couple of your answers mid-post. If I count everything mentioned you get 12 points, but if I go with your final answers, it's 11. BTW, your suspicions are correct. ;-) So, I'll let you math/logic wizards figure it all out while I sleep, and I'll give the full list in the morning. In the meantime, for #3..... think small.