Where I've been

I've been picnicking with my family.

(photo by Isabelle)

I've been marveling at my children marveling at nature.


I've been rescuing invalid black swallowtails from our street.


I've been staring down stained-glass leaf hoppers.


I've been making jewelry I can be proud of.


I've been playing with a new toy.

(I asked for the ability to do Powerpoint presentations during my programs, and RAPTOR got me a new lap top and digital projector. I do tend to get what I want....but then, I am quite charming.) :^)



I've been watching a barn owl perch in the sun for the first time.


I've been watching a turkey vulture molt.

My computer has PMS. Does anyone have any Midol?

My PC is still running slow, so I upload these with Flogger...I mean Blogger.

How about a really bad picture of a life bird today?

I'm starting to doubt that this was the bird I saw.
Sitting at Lake Isabella, on the river side of the park, I heard a really unique bird call.
It was a rising, zeeeeeeeeee zeep!
All I knew was that I hadn't heard it before, and I was betting it was a warbler.
I caught a flash of yellow on the throat, and some blue-gray on the back, so I thumbed through my trusty Birds of Ohio and found the Northern Parula. It fit perfectly to what I was seeing and hearing. A small warbler, high in the treetops (hence the really bad pictures I got) and a very unique, rising zeeeeeeee zeep! Lifer #123.
So this is one of less than a handful of times I got a life bird by sound!
(One of the other times was a bittern...I "felt" the sound in my chest.)

I got out of the car to stretch and saw this thing swimming in the river. This is another really bad shot...a little head poking up from the surface, and it was treading water, and then disappearing. Weird. A turtle? A salamander? Who knows. Right before seeing this little guy, I had crested the hill and a large splash and something large swimming away under the surface. The river was too muddy to see anything clearly.

And now, a cautionary tale:
Rule #1 when mowing a lawn...

Don't run over a pick axe.

Last fall, Geoff was getting ready to mow for the last time (Remember how November was? We were still cutting the grass!) and I told him to walk through the yard and pick up all the toys, dog chewies, etc. But he missed something.
And to be fair and share the blame for this, I was the one who left the pick axe out in the grass.
Basically, the quickly-spinning blades of a lawn mower cannot cut through a steel pick axe. One or the other will have to give, and the pick axe is going to win every time.
Mower blades are supposed to be straight... like this:

My brother Steve came over tonight to put on new blades. I could have done it myself, but he's the guy with all the socket wrenches. We are still building our tool collection.
Thanks, Uncle Teeb! (That's what the girls call him)

A quiz...and you won't win anything, but I would love to hear some guesses on this one.
What is this?
(Hint: It's not a bird.)