He rode up on his bicycle. I said “Hey”. He said “Hey; how you doing?” I said “Fine”. He rode on. Fifteen minutes later, maybe twenty, he was dead on the floor of the pool shower. Heart attack. Not a close friend to us; a friendly acquaintance. We saw him every day. Always a kind word. A close friend to many here. Sorry he’s gone.
Superbowl Sunday
48 degrees. Wind. Rain off and on. I should go birding. There has been a Northern-beardless Tyrannulet reported at Roselawn Cemetery in McAllen. I found the pack of chipping sparrows the Tyrannulet has been hanging out with. I found a Blue-headed Vireo, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, a Hermit Thrush, an Orange-crowned Warbler, a Pine Warbler – a new year-bird, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, but no Tyrannulet. A nice walk though. Sunday afternoon. We liked the Hyundai Vampire commercial the best. Eddie doesn’t understand the dog-door at all. Annie and Henry run over to the wall and disappear. Suddenly two dogs that look just like them appear outside on the deck. Eddie can see them through the sliding glass door. He has to growl and bark. Then, from the wall, Annie and Henry are suddenly back inside again. Life is a mystery.
Saturday morning
21 degrees. Still snowing. I don’t know how much more of this Colorado snow we can take. We have our coffee on the deck. Drove 80 miles to Riviera to meet Jeff and Carol at noon. We met them halfway between here and Gulf Waters in Port Aransas. They passed off Eddie (the King Charles Spaniel) to us. He’s going to stay with us for a week while they go on a trip. We’ll have doggie camp at Annie and Henry’s while they’re gone. On our way north to get Eddie, we drove into a weather front headed south. The temperature, *our* temperature this time, dropped 20 degrees in just a few minutes. That’s supposed to be our new weather pattern for the next week. Finally. Cooler weather and some rain. Drove back to Edinburg. Saw a few birds on the way. Fields of Sandhill Cranes. Snow geese. Tomorrow; The Superbowl! Actually, we’re pretty much done with football for the year, but we’ll be sure to tune in to the Superbowl for the commercials.
Snow Day!
Friday. 71 degrees at 7am here. I go to work in the morning, but you have to remember my commute. Sure, it’s a digital commute, but still, think about the other end of it. Judy watches 9 News Denver weather on the iPad while we’re on the deck having coffee. 28 degrees and snowing. Heavy accumulation. Forecast to continue all day. Schools and businesses closed. You wouldn’t want me to go to work in conditions like that would you? It snowed all day. Maybe it will let up tomorrow.
Urban birding
The car needs an oil change. I need a walk. There are birds. Time for some multi-tasking. I drive to the shop in Edinburg and drop off the car. I walk through a mix of commercial, residential, and agricultural property, punctuated by irrigation canals. It is overcast, foggy, misty, with a light rain off and on. It is not cold though. It’s T-shirt weather. I walk for an hour and a half, 4 ½ miles, and see 23 species of birds: Blue-winged Teal 4Northern Shoveler 5Least Grebe 1Pied-billed Grebe 1Neotropic Cormorant 7Great Blue Heron 1Great Egret 4Snowy Egret 1Roseate Spoonbill 2American Kestrel 1American Coot 2Rock Pigeon 8Eurasian Collared-Dove 6Mourning Dove 3Golden-fronted Woodpecker 1Great Kiskadee 3Loggerhead Shrike 1Northern Mockingbird 8Curve-billed Thrasher 2European Starling 6Pyrrhuloxia 2Great-tailed Grackle 35House Sparrow 50 I buy back the car and head home. Missions accomplished. Not an overwhelming amount of birds; like at a wildlife refuge, but it wasn’t all House Sparrows either. Some pretty good birds for a neighborhood.