Happy Friday. No grand adventures today. Well, except for the house wrens. Nothing like a pack of house wrens to get the adrenaline flowing…
Counting down to the end of the year
415 year-birds. I was talking to Jon in Corpus about which birds I still needed; there are only a couple within fifty miles of us here in the valley and those are sporadic sightings, nothing dependable. He offered that if I wanted to drive up there for a day, we could go out together and pick up a few more. Well that sounded like fun; kind of like a Big Day where we see how many species we can find in one day, except we’re only looking for a few birds I haven’t seen yet this year. Like a Big Day, but more leisurely. By the time the day came though, Jon had an itinerary all scheduled out. I left the house at five am. We started at Pollywog Ponds. There is a small flock of scaly-breasted munias there. Not only would that be a year-bird, it would be a lifer! I’ve never see one of those before. I’ve looked for them in Houston where there are resident flocks of these little exotics; they don’t really belong here, but without success. It took two laps around the ponds, but we found them in the brush between ponds one and two! Year-bird #416!
Off to the beach on Mustang Island. Jon has a lesser black-backed gull staked out.
Got it. #417. Tried the birding center. Got both alligators.
And a wilson’s snipe.
A pied-billed grebe.
And a tri-colored heron.
But missed on any year birds. A ferry ride, a drive, and looking out across the bay at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge with a scope, we added horned grebe. #418. Did I mention this was casual? We had a little time to kill before dusk, so next thing I know, Jon is spotting every snake we pass on the road, dead or alive, and we’re stopping so he can take a picture of it.
He identifies and records everything he sees! He was getting little green snakes and ribbon snakes on and next to the road. Later at night, I took a snake picture too when we found this cottonmouth!
We finished the day at Guadalupe River Delta, watching the sunset over a grass marsh.
Listening to a winter wren, #419, snow geese and greater white-fronted geese #420 passing overhead, watching for a short-eared owl to fly over the field foraging for a meal, it didn’t, and just as it was getting too dark to see, the American woodcock flew out from the forest, zig-zagged erratically, and disappeared into the grass. #421! A fine way to end the day, with a bird I’ve only ever seen once before in my life. Six birds added to the year list, and one lifer!
Off to the beach on Mustang Island. Jon has a lesser black-backed gull staked out. Got it. #417. Tried the birding center. Got both alligators. And a wilson’s snipe. A pied-billed grebe. And a tri-colored heron. But missed on any year birds. A ferry ride, a drive, and looking out across the bay at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge with a scope, we added horned grebe. #418. Did I mention this was casual? We had a little time to kill before dusk, so next thing I know, Jon is spotting every snake we pass on the road, dead or alive, and we’re stopping so he can take a picture of it. He identifies and records everything he sees! He was getting little green snakes and ribbon snakes on and next to the road. Later at night, I took a snake picture too when we found this cottonmouth! We finished the day at Guadalupe River Delta, watching the sunset over a grass marsh. Listening to a winter wren, #419, snow geese and greater white-fronted geese #420 passing overhead, watching for a short-eared owl to fly over the field foraging for a meal, it didn’t, and just as it was getting too dark to see, the American woodcock flew out from the forest, zig-zagged erratically, and disappeared into the grass. #421! A fine way to end the day, with a bird I’ve only ever seen once before in my life. Six birds added to the year list, and one lifer! First-world problems
You know first-world problems. They look like this:
But a cookie that’s too big to fit into the glass of milk; that’s not our problem. We don’t need internet first-world problems. We have our own. We wanted a new refrigerator. Our first difficult decision; do we buy the one with the icemaker in the door…
or the one without?
The ice maker in the door is cool, but the one without has more storage space in the door. We agonized for weeks. We settled on the one with the ice maker in the door. But then, just when we thought our world was in order, the second problem rears its first-world head. The new refrigerator won’t fit in the same space as the old refrigerator! The old refrigerator fits fine. Room to spare.
But the new refrigerator is just slightly wider. The space in the cabinetry is wide enough for the new fridge; we measured it. It’s 33 ½ inches wide. The new refrigerator is 32.8 inches wide. The problem is though, the cabinetry isn’t plumb. The opening in the top cabinets doesn’t line up exactly with the opening in the counter-top, so that reduces the usable width of the opening. It makes the opening measure slightly less than the width of the refrigerator.
This is serious! Get a smaller refrigerator? Nah; we really like this one. New cabinets? Pretty big project. Just tilt the refrigerator to the right? Nope; too far off level. Cut out an entire cabinet and try to make the trim look like we didn’t just cut out an entire cabinet? Iffy. We told the young guys who were installing the refrigerator to just leave it like that sticking out into the hall; we’d figure it out. There are lots of resources in the park; people who have done all kinds of things for a living, and have all kinds of tools. Then we told anyone who would listen. We all looked at it and talked about it. We pushed the refrigerator around and looked. It all came down to trim. Judy said taking off enough trim would do it. 1/8 inch increments. A little bit here. A little bit there. Trim removed from the cabinet, from the countertop, and even one corner piece from the rear of the refrigerator,
It all added up to this much.
Just enough. It squeezes in! Tight against the counter-top on the right.
Tight on the top left.
And the small counter-top cabinet on the left is gone to another room. Before we started, the old refrigerator fit just fine.
Now that we’re finished, the new refrigerator fits just fine too.
If we pull the refrigerator back out, there may be scuff marks on the side, but we don’t plan on pulling it back out. First-world problem solved!
But a cookie that’s too big to fit into the glass of milk; that’s not our problem. We don’t need internet first-world problems. We have our own. We wanted a new refrigerator. Our first difficult decision; do we buy the one with the icemaker in the door… or the one without? The ice maker in the door is cool, but the one without has more storage space in the door. We agonized for weeks. We settled on the one with the ice maker in the door. But then, just when we thought our world was in order, the second problem rears its first-world head. The new refrigerator won’t fit in the same space as the old refrigerator! The old refrigerator fits fine. Room to spare.But the new refrigerator is just slightly wider. The space in the cabinetry is wide enough for the new fridge; we measured it. It’s 33 ½ inches wide. The new refrigerator is 32.8 inches wide. The problem is though, the cabinetry isn’t plumb. The opening in the top cabinets doesn’t line up exactly with the opening in the counter-top, so that reduces the usable width of the opening. It makes the opening measure slightly less than the width of the refrigerator. This is serious! Get a smaller refrigerator? Nah; we really like this one. New cabinets? Pretty big project. Just tilt the refrigerator to the right? Nope; too far off level. Cut out an entire cabinet and try to make the trim look like we didn’t just cut out an entire cabinet? Iffy. We told the young guys who were installing the refrigerator to just leave it like that sticking out into the hall; we’d figure it out. There are lots of resources in the park; people who have done all kinds of things for a living, and have all kinds of tools. Then we told anyone who would listen. We all looked at it and talked about it. We pushed the refrigerator around and looked. It all came down to trim. Judy said taking off enough trim would do it. 1/8 inch increments. A little bit here. A little bit there. Trim removed from the cabinet, from the countertop, and even one corner piece from the rear of the refrigerator, It all added up to this much. Just enough. It squeezes in! Tight against the counter-top on the right. Tight on the top left. And the small counter-top cabinet on the left is gone to another room. Before we started, the old refrigerator fit just fine. Now that we’re finished, the new refrigerator fits just fine too. If we pull the refrigerator back out, there may be scuff marks on the side, but we don’t plan on pulling it back out. First-world problem solved! Quail
I love quail!
This one is a scaled quail.
They like dryer weather than we have here in South Texas. We saw this one out in the Arizona Desert.
This one is a scaled quail. They like dryer weather than we have here in South Texas. We saw this one out in the Arizona Desert.Along the way
White winged dove.
Who else do you know that would think to send out a picture of a white-winged dove?
Who else do you know that would think to send out a picture of a white-winged dove?