I went birding!!!

Swami and Swamette took the girls for the night, presumably to give us a break, but Swamette just wants to go shopping for school clothes. Hell hath no fury like Swamette with a credit card.

And look at Swami's new pet:

This is Stanley. He enjoys music and shedding skin.

A cute-burrito...with an extra helping of girliness.

I went to Kelley's Nature Preserve, and I saw more bugs than birds, but I was just happy to be out in 75 degree weather, so it was okay.

I like praying mantis's. Is that right? Mantis's?
This one checked me out while upside down...

And this one was giving me the evil eye right side up.

I jumped up and down with this one: A Viceroy!
The difference between monarchs and viceroys...the black line on the hindwings and smaller size. A life bug for me.

The Little Miami is so low, I was able to walk out to the middle of it. I stood there so long, soaking up the WARM sun and cool breeze and bird song, some neighbors poked their heads up and went about their business:

Some killdeer...

And let me say it now...give me a million ambiguous hawks ID's, but you can keep the sandpipers! I am lost on this one. Fairly clean grayish back, dark eye line, yellow legs and mostly white underparts with just a bit of gray/brown wash on the throat.
I need the Birdchick! She's the expert sandpiperess now!

I think this is a juvenile wood duck. That whitish chin strap is all I can see every time I look at this picture.

It's a bird! It's a plane!




I added a few new caterpillars to our habitat. I found these guys on some milkweed...milkweed caterpillars, soon to grow into milkweed tussock moths!

1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Who goes there?
King Arthur: It is I, Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, from the castle of Camelot. King of the Britons, defeater of the Saxons, Sovereign of all England!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Pull the other one!
King Arthur: I am, and this is my trusty servant Patsy. We have ridden the length and breadth of the land in search of knights who will join me in my court at Camelot. I must speak with your lord and master.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: What? Ridden on a horse?
King Arthur: Yes!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: You're using coconuts!
King Arthur: What?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: You've got two empty halves of coconut and you're bangin' 'em together.
King Arthur: So? We have ridden since the snows of winter covered this land, through the kingdom of Mercia, through...
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Where'd you get the coconuts?
King Arthur: We found them.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Found them? In Mercia? The coconut's tropical!
King Arthur: What do you mean?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Well, this is a temperate zone
King Arthur: The swallow may fly south with the sun or the house martin or the plover may seek warmer climes in winter, yet these are not strangers to our land?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
King Arthur: Not at all. They could be carried.
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: What? A swallow carrying a coconut?
King Arthur: It could grip it by the husk!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.
King Arthur: Well, it doesn't matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Listen. In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
King Arthur: Please!
1st soldier with a keen interest in birds: Am I right?

Here and there and a little bit of everywhere

Lots of things happen to me during the day that make me say to myself, "I totally need to blog about that tonight." Sometimes I remember all the details, sometimes I don't.
Before I get to the photos:
Last night, after Isabelle and Lorelei brushed their teeth, Isabelle made me "check the tooth". She has had a wiggly tooth for what seems like a year. I checked, and I can just begin to see a gap between the tooth and the gums. I said that I needed to make her a "Tooth Fairy" bag to put her tooth in, and asked her what she wanted the TF to leave under her pillow.
She said, "A flute!" Geoff and I glanced at each other, both of us envisioning the ear-splitting sound of a flute in the hands of a five-year old. I told her that a flute might stick out from under her pillow, and the TF rules clearly state that the gift has to fit under her pillow.
Without missing a beat, my girl said, "A fifty-dollar bill!"

Hell, I remember getting a quarter.
(Just for the record, girlfriend is not getting a fifty.)

Lake Isabelle this morning:
With all the avian hormones running amok now, there's a lot of butt-biting going on. But hey, human males are the same way.But instead of butt-biting, there's a lot of posturing and
"He better stop lookin' at you" stuff.
I did have two guys fight over me once. It was pretty cool. But embarrassing.
I was dating *the demon*, and one of his friends (let's call him John) offered to help me with my Senior Thesis since he had done his thesis on the same subject (Censorship in Modern Music). We met at the library, and while it was innocent on my end, he had a thing for me. Well, to make a long story short, *the demon* came bursting into the library just as I was checking out books at the desk, and he punched John in the face so hard he knocked him down.
The librarian reached for the phone to call the cops (whose precinct was right down the block) and I jumped in my car and got the heck out of there.
I digress, but still...it was pretty cool.


A Canada goose flying over head.

Look! A bug!

The magnolia is this close to bursting forth...doesn't this look like a brand-new tube of lipstick?



And some rat pictures. On the left is Shirley (the shyest one) and Penny on the right (the Momma rat)

I love their little paws...like tiny infant hands. With tiny claws.

This is Laverne. She and Shirley are identical, but I can tell them apart by behavior. Shirley doesn't come out to say Hi until Laverne goes first. Laverne is friendly and always ready to run up my sleeve and groom my ears. (Being groomed by a pet rat is a high honor...it means they think of you as a large, benevolent rat)


(This is a sucky scan...click to enlarge it)
I found an old sticker book from my younger days, and there was this strip of National Wildlife Federation stamps.
From left to right: Golden-crowned sparrow, American Badger, Owl-clover, and Palm warbler.
I wonder if they are worth anything? They are from the early eighties. Probably not.
But you can sell anything on eBay, right?
I once saw for sale on eBay, a "haunted kitty litter pan".

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!

Adams County Birding Symposium

I am getting to really dig these bird symposiums (symposia?). Lots of smart people as keynote speakers, and room full of birders who just want to learn more about their passion: BIRDS.

How cool would it be for 300 people (most of them strangers) to sing "Happy Birthday" to you?
Bill of the Birds got that today.

The next three pictures by Kathi (aka katdoc)



The kestrel and Lucy the Peregrine did a great job today, as ambassadors for RAPTOR, Inc.



Lucy really enjoyed the new perch. (Marc, make me some more of these!!!)
At one point, Lucy made a jump toward the perch as I was holding her. I wondered if she could be relaxed in this environment (We were in a shed off the main room and it was a little crowded) but she took to that perch like a duck to water. (Don't you love bird analogies?)

That's Julie up there in the dark. We were in Amish country, and the only electricity was I assume batteries or generators to run the PowerPoint show and the microphone.
While I look forward to these events where I get to see Julie and Bill, it's not like we are all hanging around with nothing to do but socialize. They were there for Julie's talk, and I was there with my birds, so we were two ships passing in the night. Oh, well.

Birding get-togethers are great for finding fun license plates.

I love Amish country. Kevin, my brother-in-law, syndicates a cooking/slice of life column written by an Old World Amish woman, who took the column over for her mother when she died. If you like cookbooks and would like to support members of my family, go here and buy a book from Kevin.
When Geoff and I were just starting our relationship, we got the chance to go visit Elizabeth (the original Amish Cook) and her family. I knew some basic stuff about the Amish, but I was not prepared for them in person. They are not quaint, cutesy people out of the Dark Ages. They are devout, hardworking people who just happen to take parts of the Bible literally. They have a familiar sense of humor that I enjoyed immensely, they cook wonderful food that many of us would be loathe to eat, just because the Amish don't really give a hoot about things like calories and fat grams. That first meeting, my face actually hurt from smiling and laughing with them.
Yes, they eschew technology, from electricity to zippers, they tell stories by candlelight in the evenings, they use horses instead of fume-belching tractors. But they are loyal tax-paying citizens of this country, they love their families, they laugh and cry the same as us. What makes them special, in my humble opinion, is that they have what they want, and want what they have. Simplicity is their way, and by simplicity I do not mean that they are simple. Theirs is a beautiful way of life.
*this ends my public service announcement on the Amish*
A few fun pictures from this week:

Hey, Chet! Looks like this is for you!


Oh. My. Lord.
This is a real sign in a nearby town. This is a doctor, and his last name is Krapp.
Now, just imagine being the receptionist for this office:
"Good afternoon, Dr. Krapp's office."
As my Mom would say...
"I would rather have a number."
That reminds me of some other names that are hilarious, especially considering the professions:
Dr. Youngpeters, pediatrician. TRUE. I kid you not.
Dr. Zitful ( I think that is the spelling), dermatology.

And THAT reminds me of some names that friends and I came across back in high school, that our favorite bands used when they were staying in hotels and wanted to be incognito:
Justin Case
Bill Fold.
Harry Paratestes
Rosie Palmer

Oh, I have gone way beyond the scope of this blog...time to catch up with other blogs.