If you know me, or have been a reader for awhile, you'll know I'm an animal lover. A keeper of my very own Zoo of felines, canine, aquatic and reptilian species. I also encounter quite a few wild creatures I've been blessed to share my little piece of the world with: bunnies, geese, large birds, heck even a huge snapping turtle (this last one was posted on my old, old blog in 2006).

Previous run-ins exploits with Mother Nature can be found HERE or under the Category "Wildlife" under Diversions on the sidebar.

You should know I am also a terrible hypocrite. Although I could never be a vegetarian, my heart breaks when "Nature takes it's course". Heck, I hated having to put a beautiful dragonfly out of it's misery when I found it half-squashed, but still alive on the concrete the other day.

So tonight's experience is a mixture of joy and sadness.

As we relaxed in my favorite chair after dinner, both Sheba and I were startled by the cacophony of birds outside my living room window. (Of course I had a cat in my lap; there always is one or more within touching distance - as a matter of fact Dakotah is supervising this very blog entry right now). Sheba began her weird cat-chirping at them while I got up to take a closer look at the rustling pine boughs. Sure enough, two Robins were trying to attack something else in the branches of our Blue Cedar....

... and then I realized what it was.

A Falcon!

And then I realized what it was DOING.

Tear. Claw. Chomp. Gulp!

Yep. Dinnertime for the Falcon was at the table of the Robin's nest I do believe.

My heart broke for the youngster that had become a meal; but then I marveled at the majestic Falcon. Running to dig my camera out of my purse (I performed, perfectly, I might add, the old "Frantically-Turn-It-UpsideDown-And-Dump-The-Contents-Onto-The-Floor" maneuver you only see in the movies) and got back in time to take a few photos through our not-too-clean (okay, erm "filthy") window. Precariously perched atop the arm of my rocker recliner, balancing and propping myself ON the previously-stated filthy window, I zoomed in and snapped this:

Once it's meal was done, the Falcon swept out of the tree and was chased, all too late though, by the two adult Robins. I jumped off my own tenuous position and went to the laptop, Googling Peregrine and discovered the Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project here in Winnipeg.

I wrote to them and they confirmed this is in fact a Merlin Falcon - a cousin of the Peregrine which was once an endangered species in North America caused by pesticide use which was halted in the 1970s, it's now on the road to recovery thanks to organizations like the PFRP. To read more about the Project, please visit the their website too:

Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project


Even though I have a hard time accepting the "Circle Of Life", I will admit it WAS incredible to witness it in my own front yard.

Our city has been all-a-twitter (and ON Twitter, natch) about the recent purchase of the Atanta's Thrashers hockey team; and being a Good Canuck, I too am way-too-excited about having the NHL in our fine city once more.

Yep, I grew up watching our beloved Jets from the 70's to the 90's... and attended, with 35,000 other fans, the "Save the Jets" Rally back in 1996 in a vain attempt to prevent their sale to Phoenix. I even have a photo of daughter on hubby's shoulders that appeared on the front page of the newspaper the next day. Sure, we were not much more than a dot in a long shot amongst thousands, but I FOUND us!

Since that fateful day I like many others on too many occasions, got my hopes up just to be dashed again with rumours of our team returning, then not returning to Canada.

Then this year it really looked like it was going to finally happen. Hubby, the pessimist, wasn't so sure. Me, the optimist, followed TSN's Jets Meter online for months, watching the dial inch it's way up and up and up... until the wonderful day it was announced that Atlanta's team was sold to our Great White North (er, "True North"). Well, wonderful for us, not so much for Atlanta - with whom I could entirely empathize; we went through the exact same heart-breaking situation 15 years ago.

But  now the team was bought.

The MTS Centre was sold out (13,000 multi-season packages in TWO minutes.... I sadly, was not one of the lucky purchasers... rats).

All that's left is naming the team.

Should it be the Jets to pay homage to their history? At first I agreed with a resounding OF COURSE!

But then.... I thought about it. It really wasn't the "return" of the same team, so why not start fresh?

And then I thought more about it (yes, I have WAY TOO MUCH FREE TIME). We used to be known for our famous "White Outs" at games; a tradition started here of wearing all white at special games. Wouldn't it be so cool (er, pardon the pun...) of calling the new team

THE MANITOBA BLIZZARD

Aw PERFECT!!! I am so smart!

It's a winter game. We relish the fact that we survive the extreme cold and punishing blizzards. And the best part; we could have a POLAR BEAR NAMED BLIZZARD as our mascot. Manitoba is known the world over for our Polar Bears. We even had the oldest polar bear in captivity - until Debby passed on at the ripe age of 42 in 2008.

I could just see it now; a fierce Polar Bear on the front of white and blue jerseys, with a sweep of blue like a blizzard wind behind the Manitoba name. His huge paw could even be swiping at a puck!

And think of the merchandise! Cute, cuddly little polar bears for the little fans.

Awesome furry hats for the adults.

White jerseys for the BLIZZARD WHITEOUTS!!!!

I need to contact True North, because obviously this delay means they ARE going with a new name and are just waiting for all the promotional stuff to be done to present to a waiting city....

The Manitoba Blizzard. Awesome.

Until I finally listened to that little voice in my head that whispered "it sounds familiar...."

So I Googled. And found that our Women's Junior Hockey team is named the Blizzard. So is a soccer team. A soccer team??? That's not a winter sport!

AW CRAP.

And here I thought I was soooo smart. I guess I'd better scrap my doodle of the new logo then...

Too bad -- it looked soooo cool!