Udzungwa Mountains National Park: May 28-29, 2011

It’s not a bright idea to visit Udzungwa Mountains National Park as a weekend trip from Dar es Salaam, as it’s a six to eight hour drive depending on traffic and road conditions, but I was eager to bird the region before I left Tanzania. The Udzungwa Range is the second most biodiverse place on the continent, with a remarkably high level of endemism, including over 25% of its plant species. Although the park wasn’t established until 1992, there are still two thousand square kilometers of continuous closed-canopy forest intact, stretching from an elevation of two hundred to over two thousand meters. It’s truly the jewel of the Eastern Arc mountains with many biological discoveries no doubt yet to be made, but it’s also a difficult site to meaningfully explore as access is limited, arduous, and expensive to arrange. With over four hundred recorded bird species, including several that were discovered only recently, such as the unique Udzungwa Partridge and Rufous-Winged Sunbird, the park bears must-see status for birders, even though tracking down these elusive endemics is hardly guaranteed.

Philip Briggs covers the site in his typically excellent way in the Bradt Guide to Tanzania, honestly recommending a visit to the Eastern Usambaras over the Udzungwas due to the superior infrastructure found at Amani Nature Reserve, so my expectations were low from the start. As I awoke early on Saturday morning and stumbled around the grounds of the Udzungwa Forest Camp though, I was in awe of the forested mountains stacked up steeply just behind the boundary of the camp. I could hardly contain my excitement all day as I first visited the Kilombero Floodplains to the southwest of the range in search of another three endemic bird species, the Kilombero Weaver and Cisticola, as well as the White-Tailed Cisticola. On the return trip to camp, I insisted on a quick visit to the park headquarters before dark ($20 per person per 24 hours), despite having to pay the additional ridiculous fee ($10) to have a guide accompany me on a two-hundred meter walk into the forest interior (I had to pay the same fee the following morning). Even on this modest walk, I managed to spot the Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, Yellowbill, and Retz’s Helmet-Shrike.

I walked the same short trails the following morning with the same park guide, Huruma Shao (mobile 0764733674), who knows his birds pretty well and pointed out both Livingstone’s Flycatcher and Black-and-White Shrike-Flycatcher to me while I was focused on other species within mixed flocks. They were terrific finds and I was certainly grateful to have another pair of discerning eyes with me, but these two new lifers couldn’t hold a candle to the group of Livingstone’s Turaco that we encountered shortly afterwards. Since I first laid eyes on this incredible, distinctly African family of birds in the field guide, I have been obsessed with seeing as many of these large, long-tailed, and crested beauties as possible. Hartlaub’s, Fischer’s, and now Livingstone’s Turaco I’ve seen, each one seemingly more stunning than the last, although my photographs hardly do the latter bird justice. From my limited experience, I can say that turacos are often heard but rarely seen well, as they stay high in the canopy and dash squirrel-like along branches into dense cover. We were lucky to linger for ten minutes on this one as it stared us down from its perch high above.

Having arrived at 10pm on Friday night after eight hours of driving, much of it through Mikumi National Park in the dark, where trucks and busses barrel blindly past elephants and giraffes, I thought it would be prudent to return to Dar in the daylight. A more meaningful visit to the Udzungwa Mountains should at least include the half-day hike to Sanje Waterfall, which starts ten kilometers back along the road from park headquarters and climbs to a stunning series of cascades. A true expedition into the Udzungwas would necessitate a multi-day journery up to the park’s montane forest near an elevation of two thousand meters, where the sunbird, various forest robins, and perhaps even the partridge can be seen. As Briggs describes in his guidebook, the best chance for spotting the three localized endemics (I haven’t mentioned the Iringa Alkalat yet) actually involves accessing the park from the remote western side, necessitating at least five days to travel there, arrange a permit, and reach the high-altitude site on foot. It’s no wonder these species weren’t discovered until recently. Perhaps with another year living in the country, I might have worked up the desperation for just such an expedition.

Notable birds seen: Palm-Nut Vulture, Yellowbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Livingstone’s Turaco, Green-Backed Woodpecker, Livingstone’s Flycatcher, Black-and-White Shrike Flycatcher, Grey Cuckoo-Shrike, Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, Olive Sunbird, Retz’s Helmet-Shrike, Fork-Tailed Drongo, Dark-Backed Weaver.

Kilombero Floodplains: May 28, 2011

Despite already having achieved my modest goal of observing four hundred bird species in Tanzania this year, I simply had to visit the Udzungwa National Park before I left this country for good (it’s the continent’s second most biodiverse place in terms of bird species). With less than two weeks remaining in Africa for me, it was now or never, and so I got in the car on Friday afternoon and drove for eight hours until I reached Udzungwa Forest Camp, which would be my base for a final weekend of birding in East Africa. If you’re going to come all this way, though, it’s a shame to skip the Kilombero floodplains, which is a flat, swampy region home to three endemic bird species: the Kilombero Weaver, Kilombero Cisticola, and White-Tailed Cisticola. The site is just a few hour’s drive beyond the eastern entrance gate to the national park, although it’s a rough road depending on the season; in fact, on the return trip Saturday afternoon, we passed a half-a-dozen large trucks stuck in the mud. The weaver is an easy tick at the Kilomero River, but the cisticolas proved more difficult for me to find, especially without the knowledge of an experienced guide.

Having arrived a few hours short of midnight on the previous night, I was rather grumpy the following morning, and the miserable road conditions and cloudy weather further soured the day’s prospects in my mind. Despite driving past long kilometers of gloriously full-grown reed beds and rice and cornfields, all simply littered with stunning bishops, weavers, whydahs, and widowbirds, I couldn’t shake my negative attitude, which worsened as we arrived at the ferry across the river. Here we would board a dugout canoe for a few hours to explore the marsh and search for the weaver and the Kilombero Ciscticola, which inhabits the flooded reedbeds of the region, according to the field guide. Our boatman, Anthony Hermani (mobile 0684 598 907; price Tsh 40,000), looked shaky though, and within minutes it was pouring rain. “Ten hours of driving for this mess,” I muttered miserably. But after an hour or so, the weather cleared and we were soon in hot pursuit of the resurgent birdlife along the river’s many flooded islands and inlets.

The Kilombero Weaver is almost assuredly a guaranteed tick, as every flooded island and reed bed apparently hosts a dense colony of these colorful, vociferous birds. Photographing them proved a bit more challenging, but there’s little suspense to be found in their straightforward identification. The cisticolas proved significantly more difficult, even after I learned from the field guide that the White-Tailed Cisticola prefers the drier habitat surrounding the floodplains. We regularly found the Winding Cisticola, which isn’t an easy identification in itself, but had neither sight nor sound of the relatively distinctive Kilombero Cisticola (it probably would have helped had me or my guide had an audio recording of the bird’s unusual call). There was still plenty of excitement to be had in the dugout though, despite whiffing on two-thirds of the site’s endemic species.

While Lesser Swamp Warbler, White-Crowned Lapwing, and Malachite Kingfisher were all good ticks, the highlight of the excursion was definitely being attacked by a territorial hippopotamus. Approaching a flooded island while standing in the canoe with binoculars raised, we were startled by the roar of an aggressive hippo, or kiboko in Swahili. Within seconds, it was bearing down on us, swimming just under the surface like a shark in attack with an impressively tall bow wave. The boatman violently slapped the water with his pole while my bird guide dove to the back of the boat. Meanwhile I crouched in shock, wondering if I should jump out of the way and into the water. Just before it rammed into the dugout like a torpedo, it ducked under the boat and made a wide circle around us. Needless to say, we got the hell out of there, but I would start shaking later in the morning whenever we heard the hippo reasserting his territory with powerful grunts.

The rest of the morning we spent searching fruitlessly for the Kilomero Cisticola, which neither my guide nor boatman had any knowledge of. I was pleased to find several groups of Zebra Waxbills, but ultimately I was irritated that I failed to procure the necessary resources and information for all three ticks. Visiting birders should thoroughly do their homework on the cisticolas’ habitats and habits, as well as bring their own audio recordings and the services of a verifiably knowledgeable bird guide. If you’re happy with a leisurely canoe ride and a plethora of water birds, then it’s certainly worth the few hours’ drive from Udzungwa National Park and the lodges and camps in the area. The views themselves along the road past the mountain range and into the floodplain are worth it, especially if you’ll only be in country for a short while longer.

Update: I was discussing my observations with some other birders who know the region quite well, and they said that the cisticola I saw from the canoe on several occasions was almost certainly the White-Tailed and not the Winding Cisticola. In fact, no one has recorded the Winding Cisticola in the area. You'll have to look carefully at the tail, then, for the white U-shape around the sides and base.

Notable birds seen: Common Squacco Heron, Striated Heron, Black-Headed Heron, African Open-Billed Stork, African Fish Eagle, Lizard Buzzard, Water Thick-Knee, White-Crowned Lapwing, White-Browed Coucal, Speckled Mousebird, Striped Kingfisher, Pied Kingfisher, Malachite Kingfisher, Little Bee-Eater, White-Fronted Bee-Eater, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Crowned Hornbill, Lesser Swamp Warbler, Winding Cisticola, Grey-Headed Sparrow, Kilombero Weaver, African Golden Weaver, Red-Collared Widowbird, Fan-Tailed Widowbird, Yellow Bishop, White-Winged Widowbird, Black-Winged Bishop, Zanzibar Red Bishop, Zebra Waxbill.

"Livestock Guardians" Book Review

I recently came home with a new puppy. He will hopefully be a guardian to poultry, goats and sheep on our place in the country. I just started socializing him with our laying hens and it is quite an experience for me. I have trained bird dogs and other dogs in obedience but never trained a dog to guard livestock. Not knowing much about the breeds nor training I started searching for resources from which I could glean knowledge from other's experiences. I ran across the following book, ordered and read it over a period of several days and was amazed at all the information embedded in the book.

I have always done pretty well at keeping most predators under control by conventional means. The biggest problem we now have is that we have an explosion of coyote and coyote dog hybrids in parts of the country and they make life for sheep and goats very dangerous indeed. Just one pack can come though and wipe out a year's profit on a small place in one night. The other major problem is for those that free range poultry. Before the mid 1970s raptor populations were not high and in fact some were at dangerously low levels due to pesticides in the Eco-system. The government put a blanket protection in effect on raptors so poultry raisers could no longer take a problem hawk or owl out of the equation. With blanket protection and the outlawing of many poisons the raptor population has rebounded and then some. Quail in many parts of Texas are hammered constantly by Coopers and other hawks. You can no longer find rabbits in certain areas of the State. To run free ranging poultry in our part of the State would be setting up an all you can eat buffet for hawks and owls without some sort of protection. Thus the use of livestock guardian dogs to guard free ranging livestock and poultry in the Old World tradition. All over the State ranchers and farmers are having success in protecting sheep, goats, poultry and other livestock from predators using trained livestock guardian dogs. I recently visited a sustainable farm and livestock operation near us that has almost eliminated livestock and poultry losses with the use of livestock guardian dogs.

This book is a comprehensive how to guide on picking and training a livestock guardian to at best eliminate and for sure reduce predation losses on your livestock. It covers the many predators and methods of control. The breeds of livestock protection dogs are covered along with training. It also covers other options such as llamas and guard donkeys. All in all I was very impressed with the book and can highly recommend it. The best online price I found was at Amazon, you can click on the link below to read the reviews or purchase the book if you like.


Livestock Guardians by Janet Vorwald Dohner





I ended up with a Maremma/Pyrenees cross puppy. At six weeks we started socializing him with the layer hens. At first it was kind of a stand off but now they are feed pan buddies. He gets upset if I go into the chicken run and do not let him come to check on the girls. These Livestock Guardian Dogs are worth checking out,
Wild Ed

Fish Texas Small Waters Close To Home

I false cast a couple of times to let out just a little more fly line and softly laid the chartreuse popper in the shadows under the bridge. It drifted with the current into a sunlit pool where I gave it a couple of short twitches. There was a flash of orange and silver as a Longear sunfish slammed the popper and headed for deeper water. The little fish shook his head as he felt the resistance of my four weight rod. It swam in throbbing circles as I pulled him in for a quick release. The bright iridescence of these little sunfish from the pools of Brushy Creek are just as beautiful to me as some exotic in some hot far away place, besides it is plenty hot right here at home. I repeated this contest over twenty times in the span of an hour and yet I was only twenty minutes from my house. The traffic pounding over the bridge above my head on IH 35 just north of Austin had no idea of the fish I was catching just below them. Brushy Creek runs right through the middle of Round Rock and I was fishing within sight of the famous Rock itself marking the cattle crossing on the old Chisholm Trail.

I had taken several species of sunfish along with a couple of Guadalupe bass and a Rio Grande Perch. All were well under a pound and returned to the water to be caught another day. Even if I caught a giant on Brushy Creek I would return it to the water as along with the population growth, sewer plants and septic tanks have been placed up and down the creek and it is not the same little creek I fished thirty years ago. I can remember when the water was pure and clean. There was none of the icky moss that grows in the creek today. I use to take home sunfish, bass, fresh watercress and wild onions for the table but no more. The fish still survive and are abundant even though we are trying hard to destroy the habitat.

The point of this all is get out and enjoy one of the small waters close to home. You do not have to spend a fortune on gas and lodging but the thrill of the catch is still the same. Carry out some trash and do your part to try and clean up these creeks in Texas so the next generation will also be able to enjoy them.

Get out and try some of the local small waters near you. You might be surprised how great the fishing right under your nose really is, Wild Ed

Remember to click on comments below to leave a comment or read the comments from other readers

Pugu Hills: May 22, 2011

A short Sunday morning trip to Pugu Hills yielded a few new birds, including the Mouse-Colored Sunbird, my four-hundredth bird seen in Tanzania. The highlight of the morning came early on as Tony and I sifted through a mixed species flock that included both Grey-Headed and Sulphur-Breasted Bush-Shrikes. Although I wasn’t able to linger long on either bird, I first glimpsed the Grey-Headed Bush-Shrikes unmistakable profile as it flew up into a tall tree and then watched a pair of Sulphur-Breasted Bush-Shrikes surface occasionally from a dense tangle of vines as they scrambled for prey. The Mouse-Coloured Sunbird was seen and heard well, although the pectoral patches weren’t visible, as it called distinctly in the open from an unobstructed perch. Also new for me was an Ashy Flycatcher, another nice find in this modest forest patch located just outside of Dar es Salaam.

Notable birds seen: African Cuckoo-Hawk, Tambourine Dove, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, Crowned Hornbill, Trumpeter Hornbill, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Yellow-Bellied Greenbul, Terrestrial Brownbul, Grey-Backed Camaroptera, Ashy Flycatcher, African Paradise-Flycatcher, Little Yellow Flycatcher, Olive Sunbird, Mouse-Coloured Sunbird, Black-Backed Puffback, Brown-Crowned Tchagra, Sulphur-Breasted Bush-Shrike, Grey-Headed Bush-Shrike, Fork-Tailed Drongo, Black-Bellied Starling, Dark-Backed Weaver, Peter’s Twinspot, Red-Billed Fire-Finch, Black-and-White Mannikin.

Brazos Boat Works Texas Boat Builder Roundup 2011

This past Saturday a group of small boat builders from all over Texas converged on Inks Lake State Park to be a part of the Brazos Boat Works annual boat builder roundup. Most were members of the Brazos Boats Works Forum/Texas Paddler http://texaspaddler.com/wordpress/

or the Texas Kayak Fisherman's Forum http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/index.php

Many wannabe small boat builders and other visitors were able to look at the hand crafted boats and ask the talented craftsman questions. Boats ranged from first build all the way to the pros and some of the boats were absolute works of art that could be paddled on the water. If you would like to learn more about building your own work of art stop by the forums and talk to some of the builders and you too can become a boat building addict. Good paddling, Wild Ed

Mikumi National Park: May 13-15, 2011

With less than a month left in Tanzania, my trip to Mikumi National Park last weekend will probably be my final safari in East Africa. Considering how traumatic my recent experiences have been in the savanna due to sand flies, ticks, mosquitoes, and tsetse flies, I'm actually relieved to be leaving and to no longer have any prospects for further travel. Similar to my last trip to Tarangire National Park, I suffered a crippling allergic reaction to a tsetse fly bite that rendered my left arm swollen over twice its normal size. The severity of these reactions has increased dramatically over the year, and my doctor advised me to take an EpiPen on safari in addition to regular doses of Claritine, an antihistmaine, and Prednisone, a steroid. As my colleagues like to jokingly point out, if I had been one of the early European explorers in the region, like Stanley or Livingstone, I certainly would have died within days upon arrival.

Typically a safari to a national park during the rainy season is a dodgy prospect, but Mikumi is a reasonably short drive from Dar (it's less than 5 hours on a tarmac road), and the main roads in the park are well constructed and maintained. Plus, this trip was the annual "Mankumi" weekend, a legendary event for male IST faculty, who camp out in the wilderness for two nights sharing space with the lions and elephants. I'm generally wary of large congregations of men unless there are referees involved, but the prospect of camping and birding for an entire weekend seemed too good to pass up. Also being just a few birds short of four hundred on my country list, I simply had to man up and join the rowdy crew.

Despite the ridiculous antics that ensued during the weekend, I managed to do some productive birding, highlighted by a few new birds, including the gorgeous Zanzibar Red Bishop and the odd Woolly Necked Stork. Around camp, I regularly noted a Brown Snake-Eagle perched watchfully in a tree and a number of Flappet Larks displaying in flight over the surrounding grasslands. Other good savanna birds included Black-Bellied Bustard, Grey Kestrel, Brown-Headed Parrot, Beautiful Sunbird, and Broad-Tailed Paradise-Whydah. I expected to take some good-natured ribbing from the guys about wearing my binoculars around camp and scanning constantly on game drives, but everyone seemed appreciative of my identifications and would linger an extra moment on an unusually colorful bird.

Mikumi is a great park for lion sightings, and we eventually found a group of young males in the tall grass near the airstrip on our Saturday morning game drive. One lion had a large, fresh head wound that was probably the result of a defensive hoof to the head during an attack. It stalked the car unabashedly as some of the guys scrambled down from the roof. Later in the afternoon, we found the same lions closer to camp, one of which had climbed five meters high in a tree, perhaps to take shelter from the rainy weather; we found it in a classic feline pose, head resting on one paw as the other swung freely from the branch it was sprawled out on (I guess the tree-climbing lions of Lake Manyara National Park aren't that unique after all). Despite these excellent observations, I'm still hesitant to ever go on a similar type of safari again, and were I to stay another year, I would almost certainly focus solely on birding montane forests of the Eastern Arc Mountains instead of further exploring the classic East African savanna.

Notable birds seen: Hamerkop, Saddle-Billed Stork, Open-Billed Stork, Woolly-Necked Stork, Bateleur, Brown Snake-Eagle, Black-Headed Heron, Grey Heron, Black-Bellied Bustard, Red-Necked Spurfowl, Long-Tailed Fiscal, Southern Cordon-Bleu, Egyptian Goose, White-Faced Whistling Duck, African Grey Hornbill, Southern Ground Hornbill, Grey Kestrel, Grey-Headed Kingfisher, Striped Kingfisher, Crowned Lapwing, Blacksmith Lapwing, Flappet Lark, Yellow-Throated Longclaw, Red-Billed Oxpecker, Yellow-Billed Oxpecker, Brown-Headed Parrot, Three-Banded Plover, Green-Winged Pytilia, Lilac-Breasted Roller, Fischer's Sparrow-Lark, White-Browed Sparrow-Weaver, Greater Blue-Eared Starling, Superb Starling, Marabou Stork, Beautiful Sunbird, Scarlet-Chested Sunbird, Water Thick-Knee, Crimson-Rumped Waxbill, African White-Backed Vulture, Broad-Tailed Paradise-Whydah, Pin-Tailed Whydah, Fan-Tailed Widowbird, Green Wood-Hoopoe, White-Winged Widowbird, Zanzibar Red-Bishop.

Goshawk Flying Through Tiny Spaces

Being a Falconer I am always amazed at the aerial maneuvers of birds of prey. I have seen hawks and falcons catch prey in the thickest of brush and trees. I have seen Red Tailed hawks fly through grapevines and briars to grab a fox squirrel and not mess a feather. Harris hawks make me close my eyes when they fly through barbed wire fences at high speed. The following YouTube video does a great job of showing the ability of a Goshawk as it flies through a hole and a tunnel. I think you will enjoy it, Wild Ed

The Game Camera Addiction Continues

My brother just emailed me some pictures off one of the game cameras up at our place in Lampasas. It has become an addiction to see what has come in for feed or water and what critters we captured a picture of over the last few days. I included a picture my brother’s camera took of my truck as it drove past his feeder to remind you guys that these cameras make great security cameras during the off season or anytime you want to see who or what is coming on your place. I have started putting one in a shrub at the house to take pictures of what goes on when we are away from home. I have even set one to capture a frontal shot of every vehicle that comes in our gate. They make excellent surveillance cameras for the money. We are not seeing any predators except for the masked corn bandits and they will get a reprieve until deer season starts. If you have any game cam pictures you would like us to see be sure and email them to me as I know everyone else likes to see what other’s capture with their cameras. Remember to keep feed and water flowing during this drought as the critters are having a hard time making a living, Wild Ed

Pugu Hills: May 8, 2011

On Sunday morning I tagged along with Neil Baker and the gang to do some birding at Pugu Hills, where there is some remnant forest just outside of Dar es Salaam. Niel has three decades of birding experience in the country and heads the Tanzania Bird Atlas project, which has recorded over a million bird observations to map a detailed distribution of every species. It was a great learning experience to bird with him, however casually, and he injected a lot of enthusiasm into our observations, several of which proved to be extraordinary. Our primary target was to catch a migratory African Pitta or Spotted Ground-Thrush in transition back north, although we were easily satisfied with clear weather and decent bird activity.

Arriving at dawn at a clearing off the main road, we listened to the Pale-Breasted Illadopsis and African Wood Owl begin and end their days, respectively. Working over the clearing with half a dozen pairs of eyes, we soon had Great Sparrowhawk, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Brubru, and Pallid Honeyguide. Wandering off on my own a few times, I found a delightful group of Little Yellow Flycatchers and a good-sized mixed flock with Yellowbill, Black-Headed Apalis, Eastern Green Tinkerbird, and Black-Throated Wattle-Eye, among others. The highlight of the morning was making a rare breeding record of the Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, a pair of which was actively constructing a nest in a tall tree about twenty meters overhead. Neil explained it was almost certainly a first for Tanzania, which gave me a nice sense of accomplishment for an otherwise quiet weekend.

Notable birds seen: Palm-Nut Vulture, Black-Chested Snake-Eagle, African Goshawk, Great Sparrowhawk, Yellowbill, Little Swift, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher, Trumpeter Hornbill, Yellow-Rumped Tinkerbird, Eastern Green Tinkerbird, Lesser Honeyguide, Pallid Honeyguide, Yellow-Bellied Greenbul, Red-Capped Robin-Chat, Yellow-Breasted Apalis, Black-Headed Apalis, Black-Throated Wattle-Eye, African Paradise Flycatcher, Little Yellow Flycatcher, Uluguru Violet-Backed Sunbird, Brubru, Brown-Crowned Tchagra, Dark-Backed Weaver, Black-and-White Manikin.

Our Place in the Texas Countryside

Photo by Jena Thomas

It has been a long time coming and I am sure it will be a while before we are actually there, but we started clearing the pad sites for our barn and home in the country near Lampasas Texas. I will have to get electricity to the site and drill a well in the near future. I took a few pictures for you to see what it is looks like right now. The pictures do not show the real beauty of those big oak trees nor the peaceful, quiet surroundings. I know that some day it will rain again and we will have green grass and trees to enjoy. We are in one of the worst droughts the region has known in a many years. You will have to imagine what the site will look like once it rains and we have planted native grasses and plants where we cleared the cedar, brush and prickly pear. We left all of the oaks and five red bud trees that will be in the front of the house. We only took out the cedar and mesquites with some brush and cactus. I hope to recreate the native landscape around our site but with native grasses and plants that will benefit the wildlife.



Photo by Mike Thomas


We hope to have many of our friends and family come in the future and make it a place that people love to come to watch the wildlife while finding peace and quiet. I sat under a tree there the other day and noticed it was not quiet at all, the wind was blowing and the leaves were rustling quite loudly. I could hear birds chirping, dove cooing and insects buzzing while cattle called in the pasture. I heard a red tailed hawk scream and a bob white' s whistle that is now all too scarce in our part of the world. Through all the wind and noise there was a restful, quiet peace that surrounded me. May each of you find your peaceful place in this world. I know a few who have found theirs,Wild Ed

I always try to pass information on to you guys when I find a product or service that does what it is supposed to do or someone in the service business that does what they say they will do. In this case I used Green Land Service Company owned by Harrell Clary. Take a look at their website http://www.greenlandservice.com/
I have a feeling they will be doing some more work for us in the future.