Birds and Birding
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Animal Encounters
Wensleydale has had a rough time this winter. His arthritis is acting up. He had some teeth pulled. And once the snow came he started peeing in a corner of the kitchen rather than asking to go out in the cold. He’ll be 16 years old in March, which for Yorkshire terriers (the internet tells me), is the equivalent of 80 human years. The site only went up to 17 which made my heart stutter. I had to google “oldest Yorkie” to get some sense of what I could hope for. I found this article about a 26 year old Yorkie who died in a dog attack, which was helpful…
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Dark Wings, Dark Words
Things that have been getting me down, in order of least importance to most importance: 1.) It has been raining a lot. Like, A LOT. 2.) Game of Thrones is over. 3.) I haven’t seen Owlbertson in weeks and I’m starting to accept that something has happened to him. Yes, I know. We need the rain. Shows come to an end. And it is never a good idea to name a wild animal. One must accept these physical laws or face certain heartbreak. But… still. I have one of those constitutions that is susceptible to influence of dark weather. The winter ended some time ago and tomorrow is the first…
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Sharp-shinned Hawk
I just got a new computer for work. It is the first update I have had in many years, so I’m working my way through my files to make sure I remove any personal stuff before I surrender it to the Smithsonian. Mostly I’m just deleting notes for blog posts that I never finished (and don’t intend to). Then I found this great video that I almost forgot about. Matt and I went hiking last fall. He suggested a trail that I hadn’t done in a small mountain range that is just over the Nevada border. He told me that Hawkwatch International, an organization dedicated to preserving birds (raptors in…
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Flickers are F^ckers
Matt and Ethan were out of town last week. As I’ve mentioned, I work from home, so when I’m alone I’m truly on my own. I made do by carrying my camera with me on my walks and spending a little extra attention on my wild neighbors. I got a cute shot of one of the Northern (Red-shafted) Flickers in my area. I hear them a lot but it hasn’t been easy to spot them. Last week, I figured out why. They have built a nest inside one of the sycamore trees. I was walking past and I could hear pounding coming from inside the tree trunk. Here is the…