Shamed into Blogging

Excuse failed - must blog!

First, the required bird report: Quiet times at the feeder. No crossbills, siskins or creepers. Red wing blackbirds and robins have started to arrive. Mostly chicadees, flickers magpies and juncos this winter. The following birds were photofraphed in Puerto Rico-

Hmm... can't download pictures to blog. Later, I'll try putting them into my Picasa album - check it in a day or two.

The Puerto Rico trip (with Ed and Joanne Johnson) included a land-bound week plus a week-long cruise to the Southern Caribbean. We went to the El Yunque rainforest (got wet), Guanica State Park dryland forest (got dry), Old San Juan, several beaches, and generally drove around trying to survive narrow streets and aggressive drivers. To make things more interesting, our Garmin GPS navigator kept routing us onto one-way streets - THE WRONG WAY! The cruise corrected our driving impressions - driving a rental in St. Thomas, Dominica, or Grenada would be nothing less than suicidal. We found impromptu tour guides (taxi drivers) and cowered while they risked their cars and our lives. Traffic was survivable in Bonaire (where we rented a car) and Aruba (impromptu guide again - excellent tour). Wildlife and scenery were best in the less-domesticated islands (St. T, Dominica and Grenada) but life seemed more normal (and prosperous) in Bonaire and Aruba. A couple of months ago I scores a close-out Ikelite waterproof case for my old Olympus digital camera. It (and the camera) works much better than Nancy's Exlim in its waterproof case - all pictures were in focus. So check my album for some fish pictures also.

That's it for now - check back in a few months for the next post.

Dad is lazy

This is Emily posing as her father. He claims he can't post but I think he's just lazy.

May Update (or I May not update...)

I May change my ID to "LazyBlogger" as I May be living up to it. May featured Nancy's continued recovery from knee replacement (which continues to go well). Soon she May be able to negotiate stairs and invade the computer room/pool hall/man cave, whereupon I May be in big trouble and May face several days of serious cleanup. But I May not need to worry about that quite yet, Maybe...

Stay tuned for June's return of last year's "Juneau" puns.....

The early May birding/road trip was to Tucson to visit Dave and Janet Monroe and walk around some of the famous S.E. AZ bird hotspots - Ramsey and Madera Canyons and the Sonora Desert Museum were visited - well worth the visit even for those with no interest in birds. But most of the new species seen (about 30 total) were observed while sitting by the Monroe's pool, binoculars in one hand, Corona in the other (no lime!). A few pictures have been added to the gallery. A most pleasant visit to an area I had spent no time at in the past. On the way down I stopped off in Phoenix and had lunch with army (Ft. McClellan, Alabama) roommate Tom Kjos (last visit/lunch with Tom - almost 42 years ago!). A couple of hours of burgers, brew, and war stories.

A couple of weeks later, Bonnie, I, and grandkids invaded Yellowstone for a day. Saw about all the critters the park offers except wolves. We did see 6 bears and almost had some car door paint scraped off by passing bison. 15 month old Bella displayed her brilliance - when Bonnie pointed at some bison and said "animals", Bella improved on the classification with a clearly-stated, "mammals".

The continuing unusual May/June phenomenon is the local weather - daily rain for almost a month now. Turned off the sprinklers in mid-May and haven't used them since. Looks like the reservoirs will be full and good stream flow (meaning good fishing) throughout summer and fall - gotta set up the raft and get ready for the clear-water-float-fishing-season which should start in early July. We still run a river guide service, complete with poorly-tied flies and full beer coolers, so stop by for some over-the water mayhem if you're in the neighborhood.

Check back in 2 or 3 months for another exciting chapter of the wanderings...

More crossbills

Turns out the little jokers aren't just freeloading - they're munching on the pine cones in the trees in our front yard. Thus, opportunities for crossbill pictures IN THEIR NATIVE HABITAT! Aren't you as excited as I am? Oh well, just read on anyway - it won't take much more of your time. Here's one in our second-pine-from-the-north-end tree.

In another startling new crossbill development, it turns out that one of our resident flock is a white winged crossbill, somewhat unusual, as they generally winter north of here. Here SHE is, gleaning dropout seeds underneath the sunflower seed feeder (Male red crossbill also shown).

That's all for now - go tell your mommy that you learned lots about crossbills today!

Crossbill correction

Well, the male WOULD BE on the right..... if you turned your monitor upside down. Red male, yellow female. One in back looks like a juvenile.

Yet another new bird

Spring is approaching, chirping is incessant, and another species of freeloader showed up - a flock of about 9 red crossbills have been dining here for the last week. Here are three munching on sunflower seeds (male on right, female on left). As their name suggests, they have asymmetric bills that, indeed, cross near the tips - designed for opening pine cones and extracting seeds. They work wonders on sunflower seeds, too. Cute birds, but they're bigger than finches and really tear through the seeds.

Big day at the feeder

Uhh, that means the birds had a big day, not me (no Blue Room today!). Herds of robins, starlings, and house finches, plus american goldfinches, pine siskins, dark-eyed juncos, nothern flickers, black capped chicadees, and a pair of downy woodpeckers. The flicker and a male house finch were the brightest-colored I can recall seeing No picture of the flicker, but the house finch is shown below.

I'll also toss in a robin eating a russian olive berry (emergency rations when worms are unavailable) and a pine siskin - no feeder in picture this time.

ERROR! ERROR! Blogger kaput - can't add pictures! Continually saving page! We'll see if this puppy publishes and maybe add pictures to album later. Wish me luck - I'm pushing the publish button. May the Force be with me!