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Doing stuff in the cold
Dec. 6th, 2010 09:31 pmSuddenly it's really winter. I guess maybe because it's December, but it seems awfully cold for this month. Down in single digits (F) at night up to teens in the daytime. Dark late, dark early, gloomy in between. Today we had continuous snow flurries.
A bunch of cataloging and some web maintenance at work, all the while glancing occasionally at an IRC screen. (What, chatting at work? No, what made you think so?)
Arranged to take a day off for bird counting, and when I told Gary he handed me my birthday present a week early. It's a large book on North American birds, with watercolor paintings of each species. The information is keyed to a three digit number, and an attached digital device plays back the song or call of that species when you key in the digits. It's a beautiful book, and the sounds are pretty decent too. Much too large to carry around as a guide book, but great for study or for checking up on things later. I have CDs and tapes of bird calls, but this is much more practical for getting right to a particular bird.
We discovered almost immediately that the call of the Cooper's hawk is very similar to that of a pileated woodpecker. I thought we were hearing pileateds last spring, but I know there are Cooper's hawks around. The hawk in that photo I posted last week could have been a Cooper's. I thought it wasn't big enough, but separating the Cooper's from the sharp-shinned hawk at a distance is a job for an expert.
In other news, did I mention that it's cold? It is.
Another crowded week ahead. Heat pump repair guy comes back tomorrow to analyze the underground loop, though it's working OK so far. Wednesday the electric range guy is coming, and probably the farrier in the morning though we may encourage him to cancel if it's still this cold. Thursday we go to Bloomington to meet Red, the dog we hope to adopt. Saturday is spinning guild and then the annual Sagittarius birthday party down in Elgin, assuming that we don't have a new dog who shouldn't be left alone for four hours.
Not much breathing time in there, I say. Hopefully it will slow down, though the Audubon bird count is the next week.
A bunch of cataloging and some web maintenance at work, all the while glancing occasionally at an IRC screen. (What, chatting at work? No, what made you think so?)
Arranged to take a day off for bird counting, and when I told Gary he handed me my birthday present a week early. It's a large book on North American birds, with watercolor paintings of each species. The information is keyed to a three digit number, and an attached digital device plays back the song or call of that species when you key in the digits. It's a beautiful book, and the sounds are pretty decent too. Much too large to carry around as a guide book, but great for study or for checking up on things later. I have CDs and tapes of bird calls, but this is much more practical for getting right to a particular bird.
We discovered almost immediately that the call of the Cooper's hawk is very similar to that of a pileated woodpecker. I thought we were hearing pileateds last spring, but I know there are Cooper's hawks around. The hawk in that photo I posted last week could have been a Cooper's. I thought it wasn't big enough, but separating the Cooper's from the sharp-shinned hawk at a distance is a job for an expert.
In other news, did I mention that it's cold? It is.
Another crowded week ahead. Heat pump repair guy comes back tomorrow to analyze the underground loop, though it's working OK so far. Wednesday the electric range guy is coming, and probably the farrier in the morning though we may encourage him to cancel if it's still this cold. Thursday we go to Bloomington to meet Red, the dog we hope to adopt. Saturday is spinning guild and then the annual Sagittarius birthday party down in Elgin, assuming that we don't have a new dog who shouldn't be left alone for four hours.
Not much breathing time in there, I say. Hopefully it will slow down, though the Audubon bird count is the next week.
