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Birds

The osprey found a nice quiet place to eat his fish (except for our brief intrusion). We managed to get our shot without disturbing him too much. We stayed in our mobile bird blind (the jeep).
It’s surprising how birds don’t react to a vehicle nearly as much as they react to the form of a person. Approaching on foot will scatter them from twice as far away as approaching in a vehicle. Even the motorhome is a good bird blind, especially if it has been parked for awhile. Sometimes it’s a little hard to get the motorhome in to exactly where the birds are, though. Parking in a state park helps.



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Weather

Contrasting weather reports. First, this one from upstate New York. Another storm blew through. Added another 20 inches. Not to worry, my neighbor has a tractor with a front end loader – plows don’t work well out here. And any place you can’t plow will soon get wind packed to a condensed size. Got the driveway opened for a few hours yesterday, long enough to get the propane truck and the oil truck in – the propane delivery had already tried earlier, but couldn’t get up the driveway and the 150 feet of hose was too short. Dan got in both days, though we both noted he had to rest the horse 3 times coming up our hill, and the snow by the barn was up to the buggy wheel hubs. How’s it with you flatlanders? 😉

Steve Taylor wrote:

The weather worsened. I had to put long pants on.

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Weather

Then this one from the California desert. Not much to report. Still in Oasis. 87 degrees yesterday. Cooling trend. Supposed to only make it to 85. Then about 80 tomorrow. (Don’t say it! I know, I know!!)

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The rescue

Judy got to save a pelican. From a distance, she saw a pelican dive down into the water but it didn’t look just right so she stopped to check it out. Fisherman walk out into the surf, cast their line out as far as they can, then walk back to shore and plant their fishing pole in a rod-holder. That leaves a line above the water stretching way out into the ocean. Poor bird was flying along, skimming the waves, minding his own pelican business, when he plowed into a surf fisherman’s line. Got all wrapped up in it and ended up with a hook in his foot as well. By the time Judy got there to help, the fisherman had waded out to get the tangled up bird, but the only tool he had was an old pair of pliers. No wire cutters or good clippers. Judy showed the fisherman how to squeeze the barb down so the hook could be backed out of the pelican’s foot (our catch-and-release barbless-hooks fly-fishing experience helped). Together, they got the monofilament unwrapped from the bird. Judy has held pelicans before while she was with the pelican project she worked with in Mexico, so it felt familiar to secure the wings and hold the bill shut while they worked with him. She pointed the pelican into the wind and released him. He did a long slow takeoff and flew away. A satisfying moment for Judy.