Altivo

I may have decided that winter is over too soon. We're back on a winter storm warning for tomorrow. Snow, ice, more snow, then the customary temperature drop though only into the teens this time.

Most of the snowpack is gone now, though. Roofs are clear. Some snow remains on the ground in sheltered areas and that's it. Flooding in our area has been minimal, mostly just fields along the river, which does seem to happen every spring.

Time to prune apple trees and plan the vegetable garden.

Big event today was Red making a break for it. Not exactly a runaway, just distracted. He is easily distracted. Gary had him in the yard and was about to take him back in when he went through the fence and took off for the neighbors across the road. They have a regular menagerie there, llamas, goats, donkeys, and other stuff. He ran from pen to pen introducing himself while Gary chased after him. Eventually he was captured again with help from the neighbor's son. So both he and Gary got their exercise for the day.

This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count and I've been counting all day. The only notable things are over 300 Canada geese that flew over just before sunset, and a Cooper's hawk we saw in the pasture this morning, being pursued by bluejays and crows. The count continues tomorrow and Monday, so if you're interested in birds and live in the US or Canada, check it out.

Too cold, but at least it was sunny. I decided that most of the birds were hiding somewhere warm and laughing at the "twerps" trying to count them, though of course there are always a few who fly right under our noses shouting "Me! Count me!" and naturally enough we did so. Our fearless group leader says that we spotted 23 species this year, up from only 19 last year. It seemed to me, though, that we found barren ground in many places where usually we see quite a few of the more common birds.

Highlight of the day: two red-tailed hawks. First we spotted one sitting in a tree and mistook it for an owl because it was so large. Examination with binoculars, however, made its identity clear enough. Then, while we were watching, another even larger hawk, same species landed next to it. The two of them nibbled at each other's beaks for a few seconds, and then the first one took off while the second remained on the branch. A mated pair? Seems likely. But I don't think this is nesting season for them.

Got into some closed conservation zones again, with the assistance of an escort. Not that we saw a lot of birds there, but the landscapes were interesting. One could only be approached by driving over a frozen cornfield in a 4WD vehicle. The other was at the end of a chained off road. The first is a relatively undisturbed bit of wetland, the second a prairie restoration in progress.

Claimed my free birthday beverage at Starbucks (Chai Latte) and tested my beta script to get the Zipit connected to a captive portal. The test failed due to an omission in the script. I fixed that later, and also the parallel error in the script for the original "WAVTEK_HOTSPOT" that got me into this mess in the first place. We went and had dinner at Angelo's where I tried that hotspot again and with my revised script it worked. Now I know the trick for connecting to these using iwconfig and links.

Too cold, I still haven't thawed out. Tomorrow, shopping must happen.

We had our meeting but decided not to brave -10°F conditions to run over the actual bird counting territory for Saturday. Weather is supposed to improve somewhat by then. We met at Starbucks on the Square which had been closed for several weeks this summer to "remodel." I don't go in there often, so this was the first time I have seen the "new" version. It seems to have reduced the available seating space in order to add more retail displays. I'm not sure I find it any more inviting than the old place. Of course, if you're going to sit in Starbucks for two hours you probably ought to buy something, eh? I really dislike their coffee and can't imagine what people see in it. So I had chai. I've been carrying a Starbucks plastic gift card around for a year, since my Dentist gave it to me last December. That's how often I go to Starbucks. Of course I couldn't find it in my wallet, so I paid cash. When I got home I looked again and there it was, right where I thought it should be. Evidently it becomes invisible when there is any risk of actually using it. Also in today's mail, after I got back from a once a year visit to Starbucks? A postcard good for a free beverage at Starbucks, of course. To be used in the next two weeks, in honor of my birthday. Maybe I should go back just to use it.

Nicer birthday gift from a merchant: a postcard good for a free steak dinner at a local restaurant we like. So Gary's taking me there tomorrow night. They don't require you to eat steak. You can order anything and they'll deduct up to the price of the promised steak from the check.

Red went to the vet this morning, for a general assessment. She agreed with the findings on the records we have, trimmed his toenails, prescribed an antibiotic for two infected toes, suggested an omega fatty acid food supplement for his dry skin condition, which in turn is probably related to his thyroid issue and getting the medication properly adjusted. She also wanted us to give him heartworm medication for three or four months since the only test he has on record is from November and an infection late in the summer might not have shown up yet. We had some chewable tablets in the right dosage left over from Sarah, so we can use those. On the whole, he's doing well. His age is determined to be six rather than seven, but precise birthday is unknown.

This afternoon the repair tech came and fixed the electric kitchen range for us. It works again, no charge. It was a stuck relay, as I suspected. He confirmed that he was replacing the controller board with relays for the top heating units, also all the controls for those units.

And Gary took Red to obedience class tonight, where he performed quite well. Gary has been working with him since Friday and he already has heel, sit, and down pretty much understood. They added a stand command tonight, and manners at doorways (people go through first, dogs wait to be called.)

Red seems to enjoy the obedience work. In the seventh week of class, the teacher says they will introduce the agility equipment, which is something Gary has wanted to try with a dog for a long time. Red also is the nicest dog to ride with in the car that we have ever had. He never barks or jumps around, and mostly lies on the back seat with his head between us on the front seat armrest. He has become sufficiently comfortable with the house that he is now "on guard" and barks if someone comes in the driveway. Unlike others we have had, though, he stops barking when asked to do so, On the whole, he gets very high marks for his first few days. He has only done one naughty thing, and that was stealing a treat from Simon. I think we can keep that from happening again.

This is too good to wait, so I'm sharing it right now. I was sitting at the dining room table watching the snow fall this morning, and noticed a cardinal looking as if she had frozen solid at a feeder right outside the glass. At first I thought she was sheltering from the wind, but looking around I realized the air was calm and the snow was falling straight down or nearly so. She remained absolutely still, moving only her head and doing that very slowly and slightly. Then I spotted the hawk. No other birds were moving within view, which is unusual for the time and conditions. I believe this is a sharp-shinned hawk, though we also have Cooper's hawks that look very similar but are larger and heavier. The hawk was also frozen and staring right at the feeder from about 40 feet away (see upper left corner of photo.) This tableau remained for nearly 15 minutes, while I pointed it out to Gary and then got my camera and made several quick shots. Resolution isn't the best, but I still think this is very dramatic. Eventually the hawk gave up and flew, with the cardinal leaving almost immediately afterward.



Close-up of the hawk is here.

Saturday, 4 Dec 2010 07:45. About 3 in. of snow on the ground, still falling, temperature 25F.

About another 500 words. Still not to a breaking point where I can post a new segment. Yes, I know, I'm sliding down a sandy slope here, but I'll catch up, I promise.

Felt and looked like it was going to snow, especially as dusk came on, but nothing yet, nor in the forecast. Instead they say rain by Sunday. Thank goodness next week is a short one.

Turkeys appear in the shopping flyers for this week, so I'll probably get a second one. They keep nicely in the freezer and are great for when you plan on visitors.

The word on vacation is "OMG!" I have way too much left. It's going to be near impossible to get that much scheduled before the end of the year. I realize now that I had planned to take a week off last spring but never did because the weather was so bad. I did take a week to prepare stuff for the gallery in September, but that would have been normal for me as well. I need to burn off 76 hours of vacation somehow. Fortunately, the boss is sympathetic and says we'll work it out one way or another. That's not counting the 40 hours I'm officially allowed to carry over into next year...

Interesting bird stuff. Gary and I have both seen Northern Flickers in the yard this week. Today he says he saw a pair of them at the bird bath. These are very large woodpeckers, for those who may not know. Almost as big as crows, with bright yellow patches on the underside of the wings and tail, a black vee shaped collar in front, and heavy spots on the breast area. They like to eat insects, especially large ants, which usually means that you don't see them at feeders, but they've been coming for suet this week. They also seem to like peanuts or peanut butter. We may have a photo, but I'm too lazy to get it out of the camera and crop it tonight. Perhaps tomorrow if it is usable.

And I haven't even been drinking. Much progress on the remaining rug to be finished. With luck, I'll have it off the loom as early as tomorrow evening. It's called "Winter Sunset" and is a largely abstract design in white, beige, gray, and brown with a large irregular red spot near the middle. I'm really pleased with the thickness and the irregular bumpy texture that developed.

Cold enough this morning that the house windows were fogged inside, and we have double pane glass. The reading was about 41°F. It didn't get much above 60 all day, though at least the sun came out.

The crazy cyclamen plant that bloomed for a solid year and more 2008-2009 on my windowsill at work has started up again. When it finally went dormant I brought it home and let it rest, and Gary managed to wake it up again late this summer. It has about 20 red blossoms on it right now with more coming. I wonder if it will go nuts again the way it did before. There were as many as 40 blossoms open at once, and it just continued to produce them for at least 15 months continuously. I think the normally cool temperatures and morning sunlight at my window there were contributing factors. I also watered it with waste water from the aquariums, which I'll have to start doing again. The flowers are crimson, and the foliage is deep green with red veining, so it's altogether very handsome.

We think the hummingbirds are gone for the season now. Last week we were seeing as many as four at once, but it dropped off to singles by Friday and on Saturday we saw only one early in the morning. No sightings since then, at home or at work.

Now to bed, I think.

Another guild newsletter done and released. Time to get serious about the garden, except that the mosquitoes are as big as eagles out there.

Saw a hummingbird in the butterfly garden at work this morning, busy flitting among the penstemon blossoms. Those are white, rather than red, but do have the trumpet shape that these birds seem to like. Catalpas and horse chestnuts are in bloom, and will last only a couple of days unless it cools off. (Or no time at all if we get more hard rain and wind.)

All the patches are now up to date on the two Alpha systems, so at least in theory, I am ready to install Samba. I did finally manage to download the installation kit. Curiously enough, it seems that HP's own web browser for OpenVMS fails to submit the registration form properly, but Firefox on Linux succeeds. So I downloaded it to a Linux box and then transferred to the Alphas via sftp.

Those tasks done, maybe I get to read or something this evening... Maybe.....

And at the library of all places. I've heard Eastern Wood Pewees before. They have a distinctive sound and can often be heard around here in the spring. Like most of the flycatchers, though, they are small, mostly brown and gray birds who tend to stay up in the leaf canopy where they eat insects captured on the wing.

This morning we had a small, mostly gray and brown bird perched above the hummingbird feeder behind the library. We weren't sure what it was until it opened its mouth and demonstrated that it was a Pewee. First time any of us had actually seen one, though most of us knew the sound. This one stuck around for much of the day, returning to the same perch and flycatching from it repeatedly so that we all got to see the behavior.

Oh, and it didn't rain today. (This is news? Seems to be of late.)

More or less, anyway. Saw a bluebird sitting in the crabapple tree outside my little window at work. He appeared to be eating the dried up crabapples from last fall. A year ago there were none of those left because the starlings had eaten all of them during the winter. This year we have a shortage of starlings (I'm NOT complaining, mind.)

Illness left the evening shift short-handed but the newly nominated director offered to cover it, which is nice. Sent out over a hundred items on interlibrary loan this morning, which is high for us. Probably just making up for Friday, which was sparse with less than forty.

In light of the hung Parliament in England, I'm reminded that our founding fathers in the US nearly all opposed partisan politics. They tried to write the Constitution in such a way as to discourage partisanship and make people think for themselves. Washington and Jefferson made many negative remarks about political parties during their lifetimes. In spite of that, by the time of Andrew Jackson the party system was moving into full swing, and has remained so ever since, almost always with just two parties. No wonder US politics has become so polarized.

Well, sorta. Went to the county Audubon society to hear a speaker from the International Crane Foundation talk about cranes and the work the foundation does. Big crowd, delayed presentation due to the usual fumbling with laptops, projectors, and Microsoft's ridiculous "improved" version of Office that writes files no one can read unless they've bought into it, but they finally got it going. Great photos of cranes displaying, being aggressive, doing their mating dance rituals, chicks hatching, etc. They now theorize that one reason for the decline of the whooping cranes may have been the climate change during the 20th century, as the black fly population has been emerging earlier and earlier and the swarming flies attack the incubating adults and the chicks when they hatch. In 1900, the flies weren't emerging until after the chicks had their first feathers, but now they emerge before the eggs hatch. :(

Cranes live much longer than I realized. One Siberian crane is documented to have lived more than 80 years in captivity. Typical lifespans in the wild may reach 20 years or more, but they need that because their mating and child rearing is inefficient (to say the least.) Most species lay only two eggs a year; and if both eggs hatch they typically manage to rear only one of them.

It was all quite interesting, and I was not in the least inclined to doze off (unlike the last time I went to a presentation there.) Consequently, now I need to sleep. Tomorrow is still a work day.

Oh, and it snowed all morning, but all of it melted. Then when I went to pick up my friend Susan to go to the lecture, it was sleeting. C'mon, this is April already. Last week it was 80F.