A Bird Blog! (Surprise...)

That's right, my horizons are broadening and what have a found to stare at now? Creatures of the avian variety of course!
While I was at the farm, I saw all kinds of fancy birds. I spent quite some time freezing my tush off while stalking some kites. Now that may sound foolish, but not if they're white tailed kites catching voles!

 They're pretty good at it. Watching them hover and hover and hover is a lesson in patience.

But there were other birds to tail (har har har) like this northern Mockingbird

I co-wrote a project proposal last year about doing research on mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos), without having ever really seen one and consciously recognizing it at as a mockingbird.


We learned some cool things which I have since completely forgotten, but you have to be amused by a bird that tries to mimic a hawk, or will harry much larger birds for territory.

I spotted a few yellow billed magpies too. It's funny how your perspective on things change as you age. I found them so obnoxious as a kid, but now they seem intiguing. The fact that they're endemic to the Central Valley also increases their cool factor. (Pica nuttalli)

Some of the birds I haven't been able to identify, being new to this bird thing and all. The Sibley guide is excellent, but its a bit difficult when you don't know where to start. So... I don't know what the one to the right is.         Or even the one below.

 According to Orlando, these are Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum).

After seeing the kites, I started seeing these critters too. To myself, I called them baby hawks. They were much smaller and more difficult to pursue because of that. And being baby hawks, they obviously would have excellent vision and so notice me sneaking up on them... Long story short I believe them to be American Kestrels (Falco sparverius). 

 White crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys), everywhere!!!! Hanging out in the berry vines...

 Preening and scratching...


 Congregating and agitating and flitting around...
Want to play the how-many-can-you-see game?

 

I count four. Nope, there are five. Ok so I looked again. There are 6. I thought I was being clever, but now I feel foolish....

Here's a male trying to look imposing and daunting.

Looking alert, and posing for the digital soul capturing device.

My sparrow fun was abruptly interrupted when this fine lady swooped in and settled in on the rose hip bush. Maybe a Cooper's hawk or a Sharp-shinned hawk, according to my birdy sister.                                                                              She sat there for several minutes surveying her surroundings, possibly looking for all the little sparrows she scared away. Then she looked directly at me (hiding  like a bird paparazza in the living room frenetically snapping pictures) snapped out her wings, and laboriously flapped up, up, and away.

Today, Leonie spotted a varied thrush (Ixoreus naevius) in the yard. I squealed with glee. I searched through my Sibley to verify my ID, slammed it shut in triumph... and oh hey. The cover drawing is a varied thrush! Ha. Silly Phoebe.

Otherwise, life progresses. There's a not-too-new bad bug on the farm. Some sort of leaf legged (true) bug (order Hemiptera, family Coreidae)

I think they are rather  captivating, but that doesn't stop them (or anything) from being a dratted farm pest. Apparently they drill into almonds and gum them up, turning them from delicious nuts to sappy inedible non-almonds. From what I understood.

This one sort of escaped shortly after this picture. The next one was not quite so lucky...

But look at that proboscis, its easy to imagine how they can get into all sorts of places. It runs about 2/3 of the body length.

 As luck would have it, I made it back to Washington. It snowed, and we lost power for New Years. But, through some MacGyvering Brandon's stepdad hooked up a running car battery to something else and Lo, there was light. Well, two lamps and the Christmas tree. This is Sadie, the ferocious Pomeranian. Her joys include peeing on the floor when visitors arrive, fighting with her food, and looking mildly frightened 50% of the time...

Then... Brandon's car decided it was the optimal time to throw a terrific hissy fit. A leak in the head gasket, failing alternator hissy fit. But after some more stepdad MacGyvering, the car worked and we made it to Bellingham. And I made it back to work. The ferry ride was blinding, especially considering I usually do that journey in the dark. 

And here I am, back in Port Angeles. For the time being.

Christmas Trees and The Holiday Season

I thought it prudent to split the past two weeks into two posts. You'll see why...

While staying at Brandon's place of origin, I got to experience something new and wildly exciting.

CHRISTMAS TREE FARMS! Like many mainstream families, his goes to a tree farm and there find a perfectly shaped tree to later decorate and admire in the comfort of their living room.

So we wandered around the lot, I got distracted by mushrooms, and they picked a tree while I was staring at fungus.

Our Christmas trees being such as they are, I thought ALL the trees on the lot looked marvelous. But then I clearly don't possess the discerning eye of a seasoned Christmas tree expert.

See how alluring and distracting these basidiomycetes are with their rain slicked caps and gritty stipes... We all know I could ponder on them much longer than you'd like to listen.

So they got the tree down, and carried it in.

Had the bottom trimmed, the tree baled in twine, and attached it to the top of the van. And off we went with a real official Christmas tree.

That night it got it's decorative layer added and it looked so... normal. Do most Americans have trees like this? Anyway, at some point it snowed a little too.

At some point I made it to California, got lost in the Sacramento airport, got found, and made it to Martha and Orlando's. Orlando made duck for dinner, which apparently wasn't up to his standards although I found it quite palatable.

Martha and Orlando's tree (note the use of lures)           

And then... I went back to the place of my origin... Backwater Hickville California.

There was a splendid sunrise the first morning I was home.

Being home is like being at work....

My mother offered for me to wash pots. I didn't even know that they had pots that needed washing. I gently declined (Ahhh HELL NO). So instead, I cleaned some seeds...

And then spent a dozen or so hours cleaning and organizing data (Farmer's market signs, there must be a thousand)

But otherwise, it was a pretty typical visit. I spent a lot of time harassing the family dog. She was very (un)perturbed by the extra attention and love.

Spent some more time watching her dig holes, and be snippy and jealous of her much larger cousin. 

He likes to walk really close to you, often about three feet ahead and then stop. Then he looks up at you quizzically as you trip over him, as if to ask "Why are we here, what are we doing, where are we going?" and most of all I think he wonders "Do you know where my papa is?" He belongs to Orlando, and only Orlando.

Considering dogs are supposed to reflect their owner's personalities, I can only conclude that we, as a family, are loving but jealous, attention seeking, excellent gopher hunters, love grapes, and possibly a little blind.

There was some photogenic fruit around,especially with expansion of the Tyson Hill Farm citrus empire.  Josh has been trying to grow papayas for the last few years, this year the tree still had three on it that it hadn't aborted.


Nothing like some Meyer lemons, or little insects.

Its likely that I spent an hour slowly circling this loquat tree a-buzz with bees. Of the roughly 75 pictures I took, there were about 5 really good ones. So this is my offering to the critical eye of the internet. 

One of the lemon trees was already getting its bloom on.



Oh and guess what! I found you some more mushrooms to look at! Fancy that.


Well, holiday season was upon us all, so while others cleaned, I holidayed. I made a wreath, it was about 30% larger than I meant it to be. With a little help from the real certified Rachel baker I made a Buche de Noel, mushrooms and all. The meringue in pre-mushroom form were a little... unappetizing. Just ask Orlando what he thought of them.

As you may know, being mainstream has never been our forte, so you might imagine our Christmas tree story is a bit different. There are two trees our dad must have transplanted (and nurtured or something) from which we have been cutting oddly shaped Christmas 'trees' from for several years. I thought I was going to go out with a bow saw and you know, cut myself a real nice 2D branch and haul it in. This year, we sort of needed a chain saw.

The result was a fairly typical (for us) never-to-be-recreated bizarrely shaped tree... with all the old ornaments and tied up, as ever, with a couple neon green shoelaces.

Mom decided this year's was either dancing, or Superstorm Sandy themed. 

I've mentioned before that our family doesn't mess around in the food department. I offer you evidence in the form of butter.


Mom got some tulips that lasted well over a week, and grew and grew.... They are phototrophic (light seeking) and can grow an inch per day if they feel like it. They were interesting  to watch. 

Oh and here is Rachel being a Hobbit-witch or something. I'm not sure. 

Nibbles and bits. Family silver. Christmas was a long event this year. We had stockings after breakfast, presents a while later. Then the rest of the family appeared, we had nibbles, stockings, dinner, presents, then dessert. Yep.

In case you aren't nauseated by the doggy pictures yet, here's another.

Happy Holidays from me, and Torch (the mutt) says, LEMME GO!