Dolphins

Remember hearing of all those pictures I’ve taken of what it looks like just before or just after a dolphin leaps out of the bow wake of a big ship? Hard to get the timing of the shutter snap just right.


Finally



I got one.

Snow Day!

 

Here I am working.  I call the office and know what?  Those criminals in Denver declared a Snow Day and sent everyone home…….and didn’t tell me!

 

Well, as soon as I found out…..Snow Day for me too!  I jumped in the car and went to Paradise Pond to look at birds.  It was good.  Here we are, at the end of December, and I got three warbler species:  Yellow-rumped, Orange-crowned, and Wilson’s.  And a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  Paradise Pond was swarming with Yellow-rumps.  I saw at least twenty.  Not bad for a Snow Day.

 

This afternoon, a fish fry outside at Jeff and Carol’s.  It got cool after dark though.  We’re packing up to leave.  We’re going south for the winter.

 

 

A walk in Charlie's Pasture

 

..is often accompanied by passing ships.  They appear to float through the mud flats and dunes.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRlhO08vWDg

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNte8KstGVY

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCH6ezOGg8Q&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

 

Charlie’s Pasture is right on the Ship Channel.

 

 

For you doubters

Who thought a sheet couldn’t pull that whole mess together:

Our bed keeps getting taller

And taller.

First, we got a new mattress


But it slept too hot, so we added a pure natural latex foam mattress topper. That’s the most breathable foam there is.


But that slept too hot too. So tonight, Voila:

A featherbed with pure down fill on top.

Tough as Henry is

 

He’s no match for Miss Cleo!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DHD6tDDkzg&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

 

And:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmFjd1bGLnQ&feature=BF&list=ULsQxQF8Tz7Wk&index=23

 

 

Merry Christmas all

 

A nice neighborhood get-together on Christmas Eve day.  Sunny and seventies.  A sunset walk on the beach.  A thunderstorm at night for our first rain in months; a front blew through.  An entire Christmas morning with kids and grandkids on Skype.  A cold wind here today to make sure we know that it really is winter and Christmas.  Santa was good to us.

 

Merry Christmas all.

 

 

Conner's News - Christmas Eve edition

 

ConnER'S news" " " 12/24/10

ChrisTmas is in 1 Day.

a baby was born in a car.

School starts again on January 3 rd.

there was a lunar eclipse two nights ago

 

The first attachment says:

 

Some trees in Denver parks got cut down.

Buford Wyoming is the smallest town in the country with 1 person.

 

The second attachment is an advertisement a neighbor made and paid Conner $5 to include.

 

Conner stapled a mini-snickers to the back of each paper before he rolled it up and delivered it for Christmas.

 

I think his circulation is 6.

 

 

Conner's News is back!

 

This time with a more professional touch.

 

He typed it all on the computer himself.  Mom helped with some of the spelling.  The capitalization is all his.

 

From a week ago:

 

ConnERʼS news" " " 12/16/10

There is A new Dinosaur in Utah.

it is 9 Days until Christmas.

1 OF MY Teachers is Going to Help Her DAD Because He HAS Alzheimerʼs.

TONY WAS in the ERIE newspaper just like this 1 because He helped give Toys

to needy kids

 

 

Henry and Eddie

 

When Eddie comes to Henry’s house to play.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8m6tMVH1as

 

It’s a fearsome thing.

 

 

How cool

 

The Lunar Eclipse.

 

We stayed up late.  Got the lawn chair recliners ready.  Had to cover them with beach towels because they were wet with dew.  Sat back, covered up with blankets, and watched the eclipse with our binoculars.  The partial eclipse started at 12:30.  It lasted an hour.  We dozed a bit.  As the moon got darker, it looked different from usual.  So much depth.  A shaded sphere, not so much like just a disk,

 

The eclipse watching weather was fine: about sixty degrees, almost calm, a few wispy clouds blowing past for effect.  Once the moon went to total eclipse, it didn’t seem like there was anything more to see, except the moon going back to normal an hour later.  We were off to bed by 2:15.

 

 

Christmas lights

At our house.

Staying up late. Got an eclipse to check out.

Goose Island

And a day-trip to Goose Island State Park

And an American Oystercatcher in his natural habitat; on an oyster reef.

National Seashore

A drive down the seashore…

Caspian Tern

Caspian Terns, Royal Terns, Ring-billed Gulls, Willet

Piping Plover

Snowy Plover

Digging crabs

Annie is a determined crab digger. She digs and digs, stops and sniffs to determine the direction of the crab, then goes back to digging. It looks like this:


..and this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALAlSS7C_s4


Henry watches everything.

He’s a total mimic. He picks a spot in the sand and digs. He stops and puts his chin down. He bites the sand. He digs again. He has no idea what he’s doing.

Full-contact

 

Competitive birding.

 

Fourteen days left.  The scramble for position is on.

 

I found a couple more birds to put in.  I’m number 100!  For the day anyway.

 

 

Birding results

 

I’ve put all my 2010 sightings into eBird.  390 species.  I checked how I’ve come out on the Top 100 list.  Today, for the country, I’m most prolific ebirder number 101.  That means that, for today, I’m the first person to not get their name listed.

 

I’ve got to go find another bird………

 

 

Update

 

I’ve been running this imaginary race in my head.  Grandson Tony ran a 6:53 mile.  My original goal was to run a mile in less than twice the time it took him.  I managed that a while back.  Now I’ve run an 8:31 mile.  If we were running on a quarter mile track (and I was barefoot on the hard sand at sea level) I would have been on the same lap as Tony when he finished!

 

 

Another

Burrowing Owl

Miss Cleo

A recent addition to the neighborhood. Glenna’s Cavashon: Cavalier King Charles Spaniel crossed with a Bichon Frise.

Hard to get a picture of her; a perpetual motion machine.

How much have we spent on puppy toys

And what does Henry play with the most?

The empty Dasani water bottle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjYuzR6ikQk

Sometimes

Annie goes to bed before we do.

Can you spot the puppy in this picture?

Like I was saying

About the snipe. They’re always hiding. Like this one.

Can you spot the snipe in this picture?

Okay

 

Time to talk about something besides birds….

 

Okay.

 

…

 

Hey.  Check out these videos.  That Dunlin I took pictures of next to our pond.  Here he is feeding his way along the edge.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/steveandjudystravels#p/u/7/YYDoHimvlF0

 

 

Compare him to the Wilson’s Snipe.  I swear; the snipe must feed by osmosis.  When you see them, they’re always hiding so you won’t see them.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/steveandjudystravels#p/u/6/KPqAzE8FizY

 

 

Oops.  Lost my concentration.

 

Maybe next time.

A Redhead Duck

Adopted our pond for a few days.

Sometimes

Sometimes the sky is filled with ducks.


Sometimes it’s filled with pelicans.

Peeps

There are a bunch of little shorebirds that are known collectively as Peeps: Sanderlings, Dunlin, Semi-palmated Sandpipers, Western Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers, White-rumped Sandpipers, Baird’s Sandpipers. They’re hard to tell apart.

Here is a Dunlin working the pond edge in front of our site.

He has a long bill that droops at the end, which is not definitive, but is one of the identifying characteristics.

eBird

eBird keeps a top 100 list, not for life-lists, but for current year lists. I want to make the top 100. If you’re in the top 100, they list your name. I’m not there for my U.S. list. So far I’m at 667. But there is still hope. They have more specific lists. I’m not there for my Texas list either though. I’m number 109. Nueces County. That’s the county we live in. I’m there. I’m in the top 100! I’m number 18 in the county so far. Yeaa!

I’ve got more sightings to put in.


Today, Judy and I drove to the Valley to get a bird that’s named like it’s from a George Carlin routine. An Oxymoron. We got the bird.

A Greater Pewee.

Henry

Dressed for inclement weather


Of course, we haven’t had any inclement weather. Mostly, it looks like this:

He’s just trying on his slicker to make sure he’s ready.