Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Dropped off a kid, gained a lifer

Isabelle is having a sleep over with my Mom tonight, and on the way to drop her off, we stopped at the Oxbow. What is usually a paradise of water birds was oddly, weirdly silent today. One lone kingfisher, and one lone great blue heron...
I was ready to leave in disgust when I saw "ducks" far off, beyond a chained-off section of the road (most of the Oxbow is flooded right now, due to all of our Christmas rain).
As soon as I saw the profile, I knew they were Northern Shovelers. (check out that link...my photos are not great)


Long bill, with a sloping forehead, told me what they were. Life bird number 111.
And at Mom's later, her wild turkeys were out and about. We used to see 4 or 5 hens with 13 or so poults, but now, the poults that have survived are at adult size and the flock is at about 10.
Their favorite past time, it seems, is to take years off our lives by crossing the road in front of speeding cars.

There they are, in the distance, ready to scare the hell out of us.
Pretty blue truck: My brother's. And he got it on eBay for a steal...just had to fly to Pennsylvania, pick it up and drive it home. I want one.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the new lifer!! Woo Hoo! Ugh, don't you hate it when wildlife and vehicles are too close to one another.
Can't your brother find another truck *just* for you? I love trucks too (and have had one in some form or fashion since 1989).
Man, I almost had to type in the whole alphabet just to get this to post!

Mary said...

Susan, you must be so content right now - having one little girl out of the house and snapping away at Northern Shovelers and a turkey, all in one day! Wahoo! Keep up the pace, girl!

Trucks are useful but I'd rather not drive one anymore. Michael drives an F-150 - I prefer a smoother, luxury-filled ride :)

LauraHinNJ said...

I'm with Mary - trucks are awfully bumpy!

The Swami said...

Swami has to disagree with Mary and Laura. Trucks are awesome.

What else, other than a yak, can give you poor gas mileage, and a bumpy, noisy ride.

There is one big difference though. If it is a diesel truck, then it definitely smells better if you are behind a yak.

The Swami said...

Susan,
Sorry, but Swami believes that you have badly misidentified the birds in the lake.

Closer examination indicates that they are most likely rare "Lapin Loons." This rare breed of loon loves to feast upon wild rabbits, especially ones that disapprove of yaks.

This little known fact was brought to you courtesy of The Swami Information Service, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yak Herder Central.

Anonymous said...

Cool life bird! Have to love those turkeys too. Isn't it amazing what you can get on ebay?

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the lifer! What was life bird #100?

I don't know how may life birds I've seen. Currently entering data to ebird to find out. 7 months down 9 years to go.