DDO/BH

This post is called Dumb Dog Owners/Bird Harassers, or DDO/BH for short.

Since rain has been scarce, the upside is that shorebird habitat is blooming everywhere. Marbled godwits have been sighted, little blue and tricolored herons, dowitchers, Western sandpipers....Ohio is hopping with shorebird migration.
I wasn't interested in driving hours to see the marbled godwit, but Armleder Park (about 20 minutes away) has a river.
I was hoping to see a nicely shrunken river and a nicely swollen shore.
Lorelei and I got that, but the birds were a bit lacking.

The river was nice and shallow. Lorelei occupied herself by looking for toads and fish, while I tried to slowly make my way towards a kingfisher perched downriver.
It was a precious moment...a kingfisher, just sitting there.


I was walking quietly along the shore, getting closer and closer....
The kingfisher bursting from its perch and a huge splash behind me made me jump about 3 feet out of my skin. Did Lorelei fall into the river?????

Nope. A big goofy yellow lab was in the water, fetching a ball.

CRAP. Does anyone read freakin' signs?????
I have had run-ins with lawless dog owners at Armleder before. And I don't just let it go.

I watched with my jaw dropped as this TWIT strolled along, letting her dog get closer and closer to a great blue heron upstream. Now, this great blue heron had watched Lorelei and me slide down the river bank and was not concerned with us.




Ms. TWIT strolled closer and closer... Look at that body language. Unconcerned. She knew the heron was there. She knew her dog was off-leash. But she didn't care.

And when the heron couldn't handle it anymore:

Off it went, with the dog on it's heels.


My hands clenched and I started muttering to myself (quietly, since Lorelei was there). And Lorelei was so precious...worried about the bird. (Mommy? That lady let her dog scare off the great blue heron!)

I saw the TWIT double back and I called to Lorelei to come on. We were going to meet up with this dum-dum on the trail.

As we topped the bank, we saw the dog, and as it saw us, started bounding toward us in that way that only Labs can. He was wet and muddy, and proceeded to jump all over me and smear said wetness and mud all over me. I pushed him off and blocked him from knocking Lorelei down.

The TWIT owner came along and I said in icy tones, "Do you know that you are supposed to have your dog leashed at all times in this park?"
She grimaced and said, "Oh! I am SO sorry! SO sorry!"
Continuing to push the messy dog away from Lorelei, I said, "You know, I don't care about a little mud. I do care that your dog spooked that heron."
And I let my hand fall to my camera and let the camera swing a bit.

(Unspoken in my head, "And I will humiliate you and your irresponsibility on my BLOG.")

The dog got tired of being pushed away and bounded off into the woods, to go jump on something that wouldn't put up as much of a fight.
I sighed, took Lorelei's hand and continued on. I could hear the woman yelling for her dog, and the dog giving that bark that they do when they aren't going to do anything you say.

A few minutes later, I saw the woman emerge from the woods, with her dog on a leash.

TWIT.

Now, if you maybe have known me for, well, any length of time, you are aware that I am a bit of a rule-breaker. But I would like to add that I have mellowed to the point that I don't have to break a rule just for the sake of hearing it snap anymore. And being a BONE-afied nature lover, I care a GREAT DEAL when rules pertain to nature and birds. So if you think I am being just a bit too mean, or a stickler, well tough. That's how I am.
Anyone think I was too in-your-face (yet another one of my charming traits)?

If Stupid printed money, my face would be on it

Birding isn't supposed to be a dangerous activity. Poison ivy, maybe a skinned knee from chasing a rare bird down a hill. But it's not supposed to get you suspected of terrorism.
Today, Lorelei and I headed west to Shawnee Lookout Park, and near the park is a power plant where some peregrine falcons have been nesting for the past few years. (A nesting ledge was added to one of the towers)
Although the breeding season is over, I wondered if the pair or any of the young were still hanging around (I don't have PFs on my life list yet). At what I assumed was the the main entrance, I pulled off the road and got out. I had seen what looked like a large bird perched up on a platform mid-way up one of the towers. I looked through the binoculars and saw ear tufts. Okay, that's not a peregrine. But a great horned owl? Out in the open, during the day? It looked real, not like one of those fake owls put up to discourage birds from perching and pooping everywhere. I was very, very far away, and my bins are not as high-powered as I would like. I took two pictures of it and got back in my car. As I was about to pull into the road, I saw a woman walking up the driveway, waving at me. I stopped and got out.

(Lorelei is sitting in the car during all this, totally oblivious)

Woman: Can I help you?
Me: Oh, I was just looking for the peregrines. I was hoping they would still be hanging around.
Woman: Well, you can't take pictures of the plant.
Me: I can't?
Woman: This is a chemical plant. We have to enforce our rules about people
taking pictures because of the threat of terrorism.
Me: (In my head...Holy sh*t.)



I started apologizing profusely, and then two more workers came up the driveway to talk to me. I gave them ID, and the plant manager said that he figured that I was looking for the peregrines, because of my bumper stickers. He said that since 9/11, they have cracked down on things.
Jesus. I hadn't thought of that.
He also said that if I wanted to come by to see the peregrines, to come to the front office and ask for him and he would let me stand out by the road to look for them.
He asked what I was looking at, and I told him about the "owl".
He said, "I think that's fake."
Sigh.
I was duped by a hunk of plastic. And suspected of being a terrorist because of the damn thing. Since it caused me so much trouble, here's the picture (No identifying items in this pic, so I think it's safe to show to the public):




DUH.

Nothing is sadder than a true effort to be funny that totally bombs

I like to think that I have a healthy sense of humor. I get innuendo. I appreciate irony.
I even like to push the boundaries a little.
But some people shoot for funny, and completely miss the tree.


Seen on the back of a car today:

I had to take a picture of it, because I don't think anyone would have believed me. And you know, it might have actually been funny, if they had omitted the graphic. And no, she was not speeding. I guess she was empty.

I have another quiz for y'all. These are tracks I saw today. The only hint I will give is that the animal is aquatic. My aim here is to stump even the Chimp.

*****
When I found the "Proposal" picture, I also found a few of our wedding pictures. Here's my favorite, just me and my handsome groomsmen:

From left to right:
Rich Welch, longtime friend of Geoff's
Kevin, Younger Son of Swami
Steve, my long-haired freak of a brother
Brian Kiefer, college friend of Geoff's (Possibly the sweetest guy ever...and he's single, ladies!)
Mike Johnson, lifelong friend of Geoff's

Check out my bouquet! Isn't that just awesome? It was comprised of yellow spider mums, hot pink gerber daisies, pink, peach and bluebell roses, tiny blue and purple irises, and hardly any greenery. (And it weighed a freakin' ton)
My Dad took some great close-up pictures of the "practice" bouquet (yes, the florist made me one so I could decide, then made me a whole new one for the wedding)...I guess that will be the next set of pictures I go hunting for. I had gone to the florist thinking that I wanted a bouquet made entirely of vivid blue Hydrangeas or something, but he showed me such lovely combinations that I changed my mind. His idea was to create jewel tones. And boy, did he deliver. When you want flowers done right, you gotta go to the 'mo. I loves me some 'mo.

An eye-opening post about the Staff of Life and things that we can live without

Word of the Day:

malapropism \mal-uh-PROP-iz-uhm\, noun:

The usually unintentionally humorous misuse of a word, especially by confusion with one of similar sound; also, an example of such misuse.

(Hey, I do that all the time. Does that make me a "Malapropic"?)

Oh, you are all in for a treat. I made bread today.

This is a picture of it mixing.

And here's the finished product.

I have a bread machine, and though I am quite capable of making a loaf with my own two hands, it is so much easier to just throw all the stuff in the bread machine and let it worry about making the thing. I was low on regular white bread flour, so I put in half white bread flour and half wheat. I have found that a loaf of bread made with nothing but whole wheat flour takes on the consistency and weight of a large brick.

And here's a picture that just pissed me off:

I pulled into Walgreens to pick up a prescription, and saw this big Hummer parked next to me.
Oh, yeah. THIS is necessary, right? Because you never know when you may have to engage in guerrilla warfare while buying a pack of Tums.

Could we all just get a freakin' clue here? If it gets 10 miles to a gallon of gas, maybe, JUST MAYBE, it might not be the appropriate vehicle to buy?

Tomorrow, we will be back with our regular standard programing.
A RAPTORite and the girls and I will be out nest-hunting. Pictures will be taken!