The Great Backyard Bird Count. Four days; starting today. It’s as easy as going outside for a few minutes, note the birds you see, and send it in. The entire country mobilized for a long weekend to provide data on bird populations. Anyone can do it. I worked all day today, but we took a walk at lunch and sent in a report for the birds we saw. Number of species: 15. Tomorrow is supposed to be stormy, but we’re planning on going to a wildlife refuge on Sunday. We’ll keep track of the birds we see there and send it in. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ Check it out.
Problem
Solution: I bought a $15 9-range battery tester from Radio Shack. I tested all the rechargeable batteries not currently in use and found four bad AAs. The battery charger holds four at a time. Perfect. I’ll charge them overnight. Anybody doesn’t cut it after that; they’re gone.
The big tree
Still thinking about the thousand year old tree. That tree was five hundred years old when Columbus stumbled into America. Twenty-five generations. It’s like it was always there already, and now it’s been there for another five hundred years after that. What was even here a thousand years ago? Home to the Karankawa Indians. A small but thriving population. The first Europeans (Spaniards) landed here in the fifteen hundreds. Human populations came and went. The tree was just always there. How many hurricanes didn’t blow the tree down? How many fires missed it? I wonder how many big old trees had already been there for five hundred years when this one sprouted and now the trees that were old then are gone.
Our pond
Lesser scaup.
Lamar Peninsula
The Big Tree; a thousand-year old coastal oak.