Judy and I have been on a couple cruises. Cruises are interesting. They offer more ports of call and more forms of entertainment than you can possibly take advantage of in one week or one trip. Turns out what we enjoyed the most though, were “Days at Sea”. Days where nothing happened. No ports of call. No entertainment. Days on the deck watching the sea go by. Strolls around the ship. Today, at the RV park in South Texas, we had a Day at Sea. Nothing happened. No-one entertained us. We watched a boat race on the computer. Took a bike ride around the resort. We sat outside. We had a visit. We grilled some wings. Took a walk. Chatted with neighbors. A little NASCAR. A little Olympics. A happy Valentine’s Day.
America’s Cup
Got up at 5:30 this morning. Checked the race. It was postponed. Went back to sleep. They didn’t start the contest until almost the end of the day in Valencia, so we got to watch the entire thing. They built flying machines for this race. I can’t get over how much different this is than my sailing experience. The boats are massive. On the U.S. entry, the mast is almost as long as a football field. The whole thing is 90 feet long and 90 feet wide. Two of the three hulls fly out of the water the entire time. Only one part of the boat touches. The rest of this sailing machine is in the sky. The crew gathers on the upwind hull as ballast, maybe 50 feet in the air. There are also motors on board to pump water into the windward hull so they can power even harder with the sails. They raced at 30 knots! In a sailboat! This is not wallowing around in the water in a monohull. Still pictures don’t really show it. You have see the video. They’re replaying the second (final) race at the America’s Cup website: http://www.americascup.com/en/regate/regarder-la-course/show.php
Great Kiskadee
A very talkative Great Kiskadee at the Allen Williams yard in Pharr, Tx. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrLse2IQluo
America’s Cup
They got the race off this morning in Valencia; late enough for us to catch some of the web broadcast. The live video was amazing. With so much of the boats out of the water, it looks more like low flying than sailing. Haven’t found a recorded video of the race yet. Next match, Sunday.
The Great Backyard Birdcount
Look out your window. Take a walk. Record the birds you see. Send it in.
They make it really easy.http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/The count goes for 4 days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday.Our list for Friday:Locality: Edinburg, Hidalgo County, TX
Observation Date: FEB 12, 2010
Start Time: 5:00 PM
Total Birding Time: 1 hour
Habitat(s):
scrub
freshwater
Number of Species: 38
All Reported: yes
Checklist:
Gadwall – 12
Blue-winged Teal – 8
Cinnamon Teal – 3
Northern Shoveler – 50
Green-winged Teal – 5
Lesser Scaup – 5
Ruddy Duck – 45
Least Grebe – 6
Neotropic Cormorant – 15
Double-crested Cormorant – 5
Anhinga – 1
Great Blue Heron – 3
Great Egret – 5
Snowy Egret – 10
Little Blue Heron – 2
Cattle Egret – 3
Black-crowned Night-Heron – 3
Turkey Vulture – 4
Red-tailed Hawk – 1
American Kestrel – 3
Merlin – 1
American Coot – 9
Black-necked Stilt – 30
Least Sandpiper – 60
Stilt Sandpiper – 1
Long-billed Dowitcher – 35
Mourning Dove – 1
Greater Roadrunner – 1
Great Kiskadee – 3
Purple Martin – 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – 1
Northern Mockingbird – 4
Long-billed Thrasher – 1
Orange-crowned Warbler – 9
Yellow-rumped Warbler – 15
Red-winged Blackbird – 90
Great-tailed Grackle – 40
House Sparrow – 15