Is it time for me to retire yet?

I have four presentations this week, one right after the next. One yesterday, one today, one tomorrow, and one on Saturday. I remember this feeling...from when I used to work full time.
Someone who is very familiar with gulls needs to help me with this:

At Armleder Park, yesterday.
I have to assume they are Bonaparte's, since that is the most common black-headed gull around here...but when I looked at the picture of them in flight, I see red legs. Franklin's?
I wasn't close enough to see their eye rings or lack thereof.
I would really like them to be Franklin's.

"Check out these lores, huh?"
I will be sorry to see our white-throated sparrows go. Such spunky little cuties.

Some of our squirrels are showing the battle scars of the dating game. Squirrels will give chase to each other, and they do quite a lot of tail-snatching.

Anyone wanna bet that Cinnamon with find something to disapprove of here?



Heck, I disapprove of this one. It's the cross street in front of our local high school. Think maybe those teenagers DON'T make big fun of this?

Death at Armleder Park

Word of the Day:
triskaidekaphobia \tris-ky-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh\, noun:

A morbid fear of the number 13 or the date Friday the 13th.

As planned, I went back to Armleder today by myself. And I swear, everything I saw was DEAD.

Male Cardinal pieces...

Robin pieces... (The merlin must be doing well!)
This stopped me in my tracks...a life mammal:

A meadow vole. But I stared and stared at it, and it wasn't moving. It was just sitting in it's tunnel whose roof had melted. I watched it's sides and realized that it was dead.

So of course, I had to pull it out and look at it.
I thought about getting a picture of me snuggling with it, just to freak out my mother-in-law. But I resisted.

As far as I can tell, the little guy just up and died in his tunnel. I couldn't find any blood or trauma. (the dark stains on the snow are tracks from someone's dog) He was a cute little thing. Very soft, like cat fur.
***
And speaking of cats: I have contacted another rescue (this time, a Boston rescue) and they are trying to find a foster home for him. They are full now, but the woman keeps sending emails telling me that she is trying. I wonder if she is afraid that I am about to cart him back to the shelter? If that was the case, it would have been done a long time ago. We love Boomer; I don't think that has ever been in question. But I get vibes from some people who think that I am not committed to him. I beg your pardon. Yes, I made a commitment to him, but I also made a commitment to my 5 cats to care for them and protect them from harm. And Boomer is harmful. Let's move on.
***

And then, finally, some life. And a life bird!

A common goldeneye. I thought that I had seen one, once, but it turned out to be a female bufflehead, I think. Oh well. I got one now!

And he has a girlfriend!

My car saga goes on. It needs a starter, but cash flow is always a problem for us, with Geoff being self employed. It's not like he gets a regular paycheck every two weeks. It's feast or famine, most of the time. Sigh. We will have to wait for a few days at the least to send it to the mechanic. I have a program tomorrow afternoon and a board meeting in the evening and while it's nice to have Geoff's car to fall back on, I miss my Chrysler. Geoff's is a 1998 Saturn and it's just too small. I am limited in which birds I can take to a presentation. The back seat will hold Lucy the Peregrine, and maybe one of the big owls, and I can put either the kestrel or a screech owl in the front with me. The larger hawk carriers are possible to fit into the back, but by putting them in, it tears the molding around the doors. So that won't work.
Speaking of Geoff:
He has been obsessively checking Amazon regarding his book and someone actually has it on their Wish List! And it's not even printed yet! That's one down, a few million to go!