Okay

 

 

It’s gnarly trees again.

 

 

 

We looked at blackbirds

 

 

First, we found a place with plenty of them.  The grain silos around Progresso are a good place to start.

 

 

A lot of them were red-winged blackbirds.

 

 

There were brown-headed cowbirds.

 

Bronzed cowbirds.

 

And our target for the day, the yellow-headed blackbird, in the center of this frame, to the right of the pole.

 

He was being reclusive.

 

Follow-up on Sal del Rey

 

 

 

It’s a lake with no outflow and an underground, 4-million-ton, salt dome right beneath it.  The salt is from the Jurassic period.  This area was part of the Gulf of Mexico back then; that’s where the original salt came from.  This is not the only salt dome around here, it’s just the one that geological conditions exposed.  Salinity in the lake is 10 times that of the ocean.  Seasonal rainfall determines how wet or dry the lake is.  It’s pretty white right now.  We haven’t had a rain lately.

 

I could write more about the Tesla

 

 

But then I might be sounding too much like the guy who just bought an iPhone instead of an Android…

 

 

 

Morning Light

 

 

 

I’ve known her since I was 16

 

 

She was 15.  Judy’s older sister, Sue.

 

In their family, Sue filled the role of parent, so when I picked up Judy to go out on a date, we sat at their dining room table with Susie while she set the rules.  We acknowledged even then, with a smile, that it was a little odd having someone younger than me being the parent, but the rules weren’t too tough.  Home at a decent time and don’t get in any trouble.  We never did.

 

Judy and Susie were so close.  As children, they protected and comforted each other, as much as they could, through some difficult times.  And all of our adult lives, the three of us, Sue, Judy, and me, were good friends.  We enjoyed, respected, and supported each other.

 

Sue passed away peacefully in her sleep today.  It was a several-year fade as her memory left her.  Another contemporary we love and will miss.

 

 

 

FW: GBBC Final Results Are In with More Broken Records. 🎉 🙌

 

 

The Great Backyard Bird Count.  (The backyard now being every place on the planet.)

 

8,257 species reported.  That’s out of about 10,000 known species.  Pretty good percentage for a four-day effort.

 

e World Once Again Showed-up for the Birds...and Each other.

A World United by Birds is a Wonder Worth Celebrating 🎉 Wow! What a spectacular year for the Great Backyard Bird Count. People were out in every corner of the world watching, listening, photographing, recording, and enjoying birds. Thank you for being a part of another record breaking year.   Here is a quick snapshot of results: 8,257 species of birds identified 216 countries or eBird subregions 467,696 eBird checklists 1,239,329 Saved Merlin Bird IDs (step-by-step, sound, or photo) 246,225 photos, videos, and sounds added to Macaulay Library 1,146,284 estimated global participants 435 reported community events Dive deeper into our final results and feel pride knowing you were a part of greatness.   In gratitude, The GBBC Team   "Dive In" to GBBC 2026 Final Results   This is one of many incredible captures from GBBC 2026. This Red-breasted Merganser is also diving in and Holden Van Dyke / Macaulay Library, was able to snap a spectacular shot! To see more beautiful bird photos, see our collection from GBBC 2026. Black-capped Chickadee on the roof. Photo by Janet Pawlowski / GBBC Participant. Congratulations Binocular winner! Our proud winner enjoyed seeing Black-capped Chickadees visiting her home and feeders during the GBBC weekend. We appreciate being able to share in the joy of observing birds with people all over the world.   Next year is our 30th Year for the Great Backyard Bird Count. Mark your calendars, February 12-15, 2027. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a membership institution dedicated to interpreting and conserving the earth’s biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds.   You received this email because you are subscribed to Lab Project Participation, Discounts, and Promotions from Cornell Lab of Ornithology.   Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd.,  Ithaca,NY,14850, Unsubscribe or Manage Email Preferences

Charming

 

 

I was having a conversation with a person on the phone and needed to upload a document to her while we were talking.  I had already previously uploaded several.  At the conclusion, she apologized for my having to go through that.

 

Problem?  Uploading documents?

 

“Well,” she answered, “people… (slight pause) of your generation sometimes have trouble with computers.”  She never called me old.  She didn’t use terms like elderly, senior, or geriatric; she just politely referred to “my generation.”  I thought that was sweet.

 

 

I’ve been thinking

 

 

…about prison inmates.  …and babies.

 

Prison inmates; the worst of the worst, right?  They’ve all done bad things, some of them terrible, unthinkable things.  That’s who I’m thinking about, the incorrigible that have to be locked away.  How did they get like that?

 

We all started out as babies, the most innocent of innocents.  We’re not born with evil stares and bad intent.  We’re born helpless and dependent, with giggles and smiles as we stumble about.  Everybody starts out like that.  How do some of us get from giggles and smiles and innocence to doing terrible things?

 

Sure, nature versus nurture, but is that all there is?  And none of us are just one thing.  We’re not entirely the worst thing we’ve ever done, nor the best.  But these complicated human beings.  We all turn out so different, and maybe we all, no matter how we turn out, wonder why everyone else is so different.

 

 

Tesla Update

 

 

 

(Never mind the gold car in the driveway.  Temporary car shuffle with a neighbor.)

 

When we got the Tesla on Wednesday, it didn’t come with the correct charging cable.  Carvana agreed that wasn’t right and put one in the mail to us from San Antonio.  It should get here Monday.  In the meantime, we bought an adapter and used the cable that came with the car to charge it up some at home.  That’s okay.  We needed a couple days to study up on what we can control and how to do it.  We’re very comfortable driving it; starting, stopping, turning and such.  Just figured out the adaptive cruise control yesterday.  Once we set it while we’re driving it does everything until we touch the brake or turn it off, even to a full stop in traffic at a light, then back up to speed when the light turns green and traffic moves again.

 

Today’s adventure was to drive to a supercharger in McAllen to confirm we know how that works, in case we ever need to stop at a supercharger.  The closest one to our house is 20 miles away.  The car navigated us there.  We backed into an open spot, plugged in the cord, and the car and the charger talked to each other.  After 20 minutes, when they were done, our credit card was automatically charged, it’s in our Tesla account, and we had 200 miles of range.  (We only requested to be charged up from 20% battery to 80%.  It cost us $9.  It would have cost less than that for the same amount of charge at home.)  Unplug and drive away.  Seamless.  The standard household outlet at home will add about 60 miles a day to our range.  That’s more than we need for errands around town and driveabouts, so we keep it plugged in when we’re not driving it and over the course of a few days we’ll be topped off at 100%.  That should be about 270 miles in the tank.  The older Teslas were advised to only charge to 80% for normal usage around town, and then charge to 100% before a trip.  Our newer model recommends we just let it go to 100% any time we have the opportunity.

 

Tomorrow’s challenge will be operating the lane control feature, autosteer, which along with adaptive cruise control will do almost all the highway driving we need.  The adaptive cruise puts us at the appropriate speed for each road while keeping a safe distance from any vehicles around us.  The autosteer will keep us well centered in the lane for as long as we’re on that road.  Not fully self-driving, that costs extra, but impressive driver assist as-is.

 

This is a very smooth car and very different from anything we’ve ever had before.  And strange but true, this wasn’t spendy.  Buying a 3 year old Tesla (with 17,000 miles) didn’t cost us any more than buying the Maza did 13 years ago!

 

 

The Texas Firebush

 

 

It grows this big.

 

I give it a good whack back each year so it can have a fresh start each spring.  I thought I’d give it a break this year and only cut it back to waist high.

 

It didn’t appreciate the consideration.  It only wants to grow back right from the ground.

 

I had to get out the loppers and remove more dead stuff.  Now it won’t take long for the rest of the old stalks to disappear inside the new growth.

 

The Esperanza is looking happy with these warm days and cool nights.

 

Even Mighty Mouse is going for it.

 

But he still needs a tomato tower around him to make sure no lawn mowers accidentally mistake him for a weed.

 

A disagreeable point of view

 

 

A law school student in Florida wrote a paper espousing an unpopular belief; that our original constitution, when it said “We the people…”, only meant white people.  From there, the paper went on to describe how everything should be now, based on that interpretation.  Apparently, the paper won an award, not because it was right, but because it was well written.  There is outrage that a paper with that premise could win an award, even if it got a good grade.  An interesting debate: Should a person be recognized for writing something disagreeable if they do a good job writing it?  So many threads to pull on there.

 

 

Darn that Mazda

 

 

 

All these years, and it still won’t break so we can replace it.  Well, after 13 years we finally gave up and traded it in for a newer used car.

 

We found what we wanted on Carvana, and they offered us a fair trade on the Mazda, so we took it.

 

A 2023 Model 3.

 

It looks good in our driveway.