In the Spirit of ... well.. spirits

Though I promised a follow-up to my previous post, I am deviating (no comments from the peanut gallery). Since the QOE feels an affinity for the Raven and Kate is partial to the Magpie (and wombat, although this is a bird post), I have one to add to the list. I feel connected to the Northern Mockingbird. I've blogged about this before but I heard one sing in Los Angeles both summers I was there. It's amazing to me that I can pick out the same bird by song and location. That can't really be done with any other species, unless the creature builds the same nest outside your door year after year. Even then, might be some other relative or nest builder.

But what gets me, is not necessarily the song -- though it's unique and lovely and singing on full moon nights for no good reason is pretty cool. What moves me is that in the middle of the medley, also for no good reason, the bird will leap up and flash its wings, revealing broad, white bands on its wings. Then it will land and keep singing.


I want to go birdwatching soon...

In La-La Land

Alaska will have to be on hold for a bit (I'm gearing up for the big "kayaking" drama to entertain you all). I've just arrived to my teaching gig in LA. It is with disappointment that we are not staying in our fabulous apartments that we had last year. In fact, these dwellings are, well, underwhelming but they will be serviceable. At least I was able to connect to the wireless (when will Kalamazoo do that??). I did walk over to the area we lived last year to look at birds. What did I find but the same mockingbird in the same tree, singing its little heart out. Makes me very happy though a little sad that I won't hear him outside my bedroom window on those full moon nights.

That reminds me that one of the interesting birds I saw in Anchorage was a Black-billed Magpie which is a beautiful bird with a very long tail and flashy white patches on its wings. Picture is from All About Birds website.
Impressive, yes? Although not as impressive as Chris spotting Scissor-tailed Flycatchers outside his new digs in Kansas.

Anyhoo, enough about the feathered creatures. Orientation starts tomorrow and I'll have to think about teaching. Nothing much else happened today. My flight was uneventful (which is always good).

Kazoo

I'm sitting in the lobby of Valley I which is where Kate and I are sharing a room and the lobby is the only place I can get internet reception. It would be such a godsend if we could get it in the room. The trip here was pretty uneventful -- some rain as I was driving us in. We took it easy for the most part and had pizza at Bilbo's (mostly because we figured that the medieval hotspot would be intolerable during the other evenings of the conference). Then I worked on editing an article and looked at my paper. I present it in thirty minutes. I'll be glad to get it over with. I wish I had a better attitude toward this conference. I suppose the upside is that in the bare bones dorm room, I am focused on my work.

I didn't sleep well last night because I was probably thinking of all the work I had to do. Then again, I never sleep well in an unfamiliar place. This morning was particularly noisy -- with garbage trucks, people walking outside, and a few birds having territory or mating battle through songs. You would think they would get tired of the same tune? But I heard the same one echoing far and near. I wonder who won?

In other bird news, the swan is nesting by the lake. A swan's nest is pretty spectacular to see although it would have been nice to see the babies. Okay, more on this later. Must look over the paper one more time. No more coffee though or else I will read my paper in five minutes, not twenty.

Bali Hai! Tiki-ness

I guess I should have been quicker on the draw because she who blogs first often blogs best. Both Cranky and the Queen have outscooped me just because I wanted to write about birds!

Actually speaking of birds, Sandy has two little birdies that were very cute at the party. The girl was in a cranky mood and since it was past her bedtime and she didn't have HER swing to sleep on, she knocked the boy off his. It wasn't even like she wanted the swing -- she didn't even get on it -- she just didn't want him to have a good time.

No, I wasn't such a dork that I stood by while watching everybody tiki drink and tiki drunk. I had my fair share at the awesome spread our host and hostess laid out for us. I drank some blue stuff with fruit and some red stuff with fruit then I turned to juice. Not literally, of course, although I felt very healthy with all this citrus. I just wanted to make it home without making a tiki spectacle of myself.

It was so good to talk to Perilous Cheryl and the Joey Zone (and Cheryl! Was I such a jerk to you? No! I was trying to cheer you up! I must be getting bad at this cheering-up business. Did I ever tell you that there is an anime where all the characters have names based on American rock stars? The bad guy's name is DIO! I would imagine that he would like that?).

So, I mingled and talked to people I knew and people I didn't know. It was a fantastic party -- kudos to Sandy and Mike!

See how I lie to you?

You were expecting to hear more about San Francisco and about the Tiki party, but instead you are getting some stuff about birds (which is kinda related to San Fran).

On the Sunday of my trip to the West Coast, after Kate and Gene had packed up and were already at the airport, I had brunch with an old friend of mine and his girlfriend. Great greasy breakfast and fun conversation. It was a beautiful day, but all they could suggest to do was go somewhere and have a drink (ugh, why did you think I needed a greasy breakfast in the first place??). So, instead, we went to a natural preserve around one of the small bays. There was fantastic birdwatching there. If only I had my binoculors! Or my book! I could have identified a lot more winged critters. The flocks of seabirds mocked us by settling on the far shore where we could only see black and white blobs. Despite the fact that my friend, Dan, had promised me we would see herons, we saw no herons. What a liar!

Eventually, because the birds were so distinct, I was able to identify two of them when I got back home. (I'm such a bad birdwatcher that it took me days last summer to ID the pack of kestrels on the fence behind the dorm. I kept thinking "what a weird bird? And such unusual markings?" and then I saw it fly and I was "duh!" Kestrels are one of the easiest birds to figure out. Nothing looks like it! Nothing!) So, one of the bay birds was the Western Grebe, whom we affectionately had named "snake bird" because of how the neck was so long. The other was a hyper-active long-legged pair of birds that were Black-Necked Stilts. From the link, the writers say that it makes a lot of noise when it is disturbed. So, all of our "what the heck is that thing? You circle around that way and I'll go this way?" and "Can we get closer?" and "do you think it's a sandpiper?" and "what is it trying to say with all that yip yip yip?" were clues that the creature was telling us to "back off, man, or I will cut you!"

Not the most exciting post, but you better get used to it. Spring is freakin' here and the birds are a-twittering. Maybe I'll fall into the mud again for your amusement?

Backyard Birdcount 08/a New England Anomaly

Today, I decided instead of working my fingers to the bone like I have been doing for months now, I would brave the great outdoors. My neighbor who hooked me on birdwatching asked if I wanted to participate in the Great Backyard Birdcount which means you go out and count the species and numbers that you see. (My mother knew about it because Martha Stewart had mentioned she was doing it this weekend -- my mother watches MS??). We went to the Mansfield Hollow Dam and saw a few birdies. You can see our toll here. We also went to Jillson square and counted 140 ring-billed gulls (that's a lot of seabirds!). It was a lot of fun -- Sunny and not too cold unless the wind blew. There was only one mishap when I fell into the mud. I'm not much of country girl, hopping over fences. Fortunately the ground was very soft and I sat there for moment, marvelling over the fact that I was unharmed (though muddy). My neighbor didn't even see me take the fall, it was so quiet. Yes, slapstick is funny.

To the next part of my story -- the New England Anomaly (a shout-out to Cranky Yankee). Okay, so I'm a transplanted Southerner and am familiar with the weird predilection for strangers to come up and talk to me in these warmer states. Now, hardcore yankees assure me that this is strange. People should mind their own business. Okay, that's fine (although sometimes in the grocery store when someone bumps into and me and doesn't even acknowledge my existence is just plain weird and very annoying -- all right, this is not meant to be a slam on the stoic NE). Anyway, I was in Super Freakin' Big Y, at the deli counter, waiting for my turn when an older man came up to me (I shouldn't be surprised because old people always talk to me. Them and museum guards, I have no idea why). At first he freaked me out because he told me without any introduction "My cat swallowed some yarn" and those of you who have such animals in their life know that yarn + cats = intestinal distress and death.

Then the most marvellous thing happened. He said "I took her to the vet and he said that [pause] she's going to have mittens."

I laughed as he walked away.