Snake Karma

Two snakes have been terrorizing me in the yard and garage this summer. They violated my sense of safety by showing up in well-trodden places and freaking me out. This is after having two previous occurrences of a snake falling out of the overhead garage door folds onto and near my shoulder. I still get the heebie jeebies when opening the rear garage door.

In the spirit of aversion therapy, I warily watched one snake reposition itself on the cinder blocks near the rear of the garage while I cleaned the mower. Eventually, it tucked its body inside the blocks, but laid its head over a fold and watched me. The pose looked just like how Carl used to hold his head on his paws and watch me. Slowly, my fear turned to wistfulness and pity for the poor, frightened snake. After killing all those woodchucks and squirrels and rabbits and birds, and getting aggressive with some dogs, maybe it was him returned in a form befitting karmic justice.

It was a good visit.

Big Bird, Little Bird

The chipping sparrow skipped around the fat, hungry baby bird and then, amazingly, came back and fed the Baby Huey multiple times. The baby was drab gray and 2-3 times larger than the chipping sparrow. I thought it was a house finch, but it was larger than a house finch. Stumped, I tried to photograph this startling behavior through my window, but the images did not do the birds justice. I did get enough of Big Bird to later identify that it was a cowbird! Turns out that cowbirds are brood parasites. The poor chipping sparrow and the baby cowbird were bonded, but the sparrow was working overtime feeding the giant thing.

Roadside treats

For braving the heat and humidity, I was blessed with the sightings of two indigo buntings flashing their brilliant blue into the steamy sky and a paddling turtle bobbing above and below the river surface. The underwater swimming of the turtle transported me to more halcyon times snorkeling with the sea turtles in Kealakekua Bay. Cycling glasses cut the glare, and they were there.

Not so daily

Been on a bit of blog hiatus, so the ephemera is not so daily.

Cycled to St. Hubert's shelter this afternoon to get reacquainted with the staff. Kittens and puppies galore populate the crates and runs. There is a sweet, black female lab that recently had puppies. She has the look of Carlo... Most of the animals are from Puerto Rico. Am trying to get my head around the fact that the facility is the shelter for my town. (If most of the animals are rescues from PR, then what about the NJ homeless?)

I hope to stay as green as possible and use the bike to and fro, although there are some tight spots along the roadway up there. The heat was a factor today, but any RAGBRAI alumna worth her salt can soldier on.

W's Missed and Not Missed

We missed the W's at DePaul and Syracuse, but got a 78-68 gem at Notre Dame last night. B-ray and Piph delivered the goods for RU. The team should get a temporary lift from this performance, that is, until they run smack into scary-good UConn next week.

We won't miss the W who vacated the premises on 1.20.09. Perhaps, Ahmadinejad said it best. Among other statements, the BBC reported that he wished former US President George W Bush on his way: "God willing, he has gone to hell."

Still basking in Obama inaugural afterglow...

Public Flocking: Dead and Alive

I almost had a Tippi Hedren moment this afternoon. Hundreds of grackles landed in our trees and at the bird feeders during a respite from the freezing rain and sleet. They cackled and cawed and pigged out on the seed for awhile. J thought they might be a sign of spring(?)

This flock was alive. Thankfully, this was a much better experience than what the folks around my old haunt in Griggstown had this past weekend when dead European Starlings were found scattered all over yards, cars, roads, and roofs. It was neither a Hitchcock nor X-Files thing, but rather a purposeful poisoning. A local farmer benefited from the culling work done by his chemical allies in the USDA.

Getting the Red Shoulder

The other day, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a raptor land on the power lines at the end of the driveway. After a bit of fluffing and tail wagging, it plunged down into the ditch and under the mailboxes across the road. It then flew up into a nearby tree, clutching an unlucky vole or mouse and then proceeded to devour the critter. Afterwards, it went back to a power line to hang out and digest its meal in the sunshine. I grabbed the camera and clicked away. Wow!

I assumed it was a Cooper's Hawk until I uploaded the shots to my computer. Much to my chagrin, I realized it was probably a beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk! Sibley's even stated that they like to hang out on utility wires! These guys spent the summer gliding and crying above the back field, so it made sense that they stayed local for the winter. I've seen the guy a couple of times since then perched at the top of the old willow, puffing out his fine-streaked orange breast against the winter chill.

A Tale of Two Halves

Still trying to recover from the second half collapse at the RAC.

Rutgers 51 Tennessee 55

Resolution Run

We ran the 2009 Hillsborough Resolution Run yesterday. It's a 5K race on January 1. The temperature felt like 5 degrees! I had a respectable finish by doing a 9:13-minute mile pace. It doesn't compare to last year's under 9-min pace, but I was happy to finish the darned thing.

Baldies in Blackwater

We did the now annual day-after-Christmas trek to Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. It was mid-afternoon. A stranger/fellow birder informed me that the pileated woodpeckers and bluebirds were at the visitor entrance drive early in the day. Dang. I really want to see a pileated someday!

The raptor cams seem to be in place, but there seems to be a gap in the updates. The live feed at the center had a turkey vulture perched on the osprey platform and poking its bare head into the camera. There were a couple dozen or so mature bald eagles around, some of which were perching together and courting. My lens wasn't long enough to get good photos, but I did get some shots of them, as well as some of the ever-picturesque Great Blue Heron and even a Northern Pintail! Some of the shots are on Flickr.

There were tons of snow geese. In fact, there were also quite a few "blue geese" interspersed, which I'm told are dark morphs of the snow goose. Throw in the Canada geese and some tundra swans and it was all an idyllic waterfowl experience.

Foxy fin d'annee 2008

The quick red fox jogged down the path with something big and tasty in its mouth. A rabbit? So went the end of the hike at Otto's Farm yesterday. Miss B was oblivious. Just a couple of weeks ago I spotted the fox basking in the late afternoon sun at the grasses edge. She was all blinking and tawny and content to watch me watching her. We saw kits there early this spring. The many fox -- dead and alive -- seen this past year may explain why the number of the neighbor's chickens seems to be decreasing. Or, at least it may be affecting their egg production.

Sleepless and Jobless

They don't want volunteers at the shelter this week because the ground is all icy and they are afraid we'll fall (translation: fall and hurt ourselves and sue their butts off). So, the doggies continue to suffer from cabin fever. The people stay at home and suffer from cabin fever. I'm finished doing things around the house (except that tricky grout repair). I finished baking cookies and wrapping presents. I don't feel like I can go to the Internet Archive to volunteer either because I'm sitting around watching for signs that the 13-year-old Miss B needs to relieve herself again. We are approaching three sleepless nights of her inexplicable need to escape into the dark, cold, snowy expanse to unload what must be unloaded quickly. This is the job and the joblessness. Joblessness begets blogging.

The RUWBB gals are winning, but it is hard to take pleasure in the W's until their raw talent translates into execution. Everyone is investing hope into Camp Stringer, which happens between Christmas and New Year's.

This is Christmas week. Hanukkah week. Week 20 on NJUI. There is the pending interview in January. Between the recent sleepless nights and the long hours searching for a job that I can even remotely envision that I want, time keeps a ticking. Time for a long winter's nap.

The Week That Was

Rutgers pulled out a W against Temple, but the first half was terrible. Watching Rutgers football against Louisville this past week made up for it. It was gratifying to see Teel nail those TDs in the RU 63-14 rout. I was happy to be watching from the comfort of home despite the ever-frustrating Comcast technical glitches on the digital ESPN channel. It's why I sometimes prefer being a Luddite, even though I'm perfectly comfortable with technology.

So, a great blue heron camouflaged in the reeds in the D&R canal was a nice sighting as well as the unexpected Coop swooping into the bird feeder space again. They say Northern Gannets should be arriving here now.

It was good to get inspired by Phil's digital photography workshop at NJAS and to see all the fabulous shots he has made. I hope someday to get the Canon going again and get some good shots to work with. Stay tuned at Flickr.

Teaming

The Rutgers Women's Basketball team was roughed up out west this past weekend. It was cool to get the webcast from Stanford, but the RUWBB performance was painful to watch. I always find the multidimensional aspect of successful team performance fascinating. You can have outstanding talent, good plans, good chemistry, a leader, and all the right mojo, but not be able to execute. Sometimes the environment (jet lag, whistlin' refs) can stir in toxicity and ruin the broth. Sometimes there are other factors. It simply isn't a rational, formulaic process. In any case, the Fab Five Frosh were brought down to earth over the weekend and need to retool in the CVS mold. In the meantime, they are certainly capable of thrillin' us at the RAC.

What ARE You Doing?

Just as I start blogging, the pack starts microblogging. Those in the vanguard were using Twitter last year. I simply don't want to be that available and that public all the time.

The NYT had an article on microblogging again. In the workplace, with Yahoo IM, I did find it useful to have a short, custom status message that I changed during the day to let remote folks know what was going on. Twitter seems to offer the same idea, with a one-to-many blurb for those who follow.

Digits Do Digitizing

From my hand, some pre-copyright books from the Princeton Theological Seminary are now on their way to immortality in the digital galaxy. The Internet Archive is alive and clicking in Princeton. Somehow my volunteer initiatives have landed me a temporary seat in their local cloister.

Fox on Friday, Mallards on Monday

A beautiful little bushy-tailed fox skittered down the path in front of Ms. B and me. She didn't see it, but she did smell it. There have been lots of fox sightings at Otto's Farm this past year.

Today there were lots of mallards chowing down on the D&R Canal waters. It's beginning to look like the winter holdovers are in place and here to stay. It was fantastic to see a juvenile Red-Tailed hawk perched close and low to the ground on the way out and nice to see a great blue hidden around the bend of the river on the return trip. Glad I had the binocs today.

Coop at the Curve

While taking a road walk this afternoon, I spotted a Cooper's Hawk on the ground at the nasty curve in the road. She was protecting the kill, it seemed. I walked very, very close, and tried not to disturb the fate of what was going on. Very impressive LARGE eyes on that raptor. On the way back, I tried to find any remains, but couldn't. The coop was perched in a nearby tree watching me carefully.

Green-winged Teal ID'd

A couple of days ago I traipsed around the pond at Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association. The pond hardly had anything on it compared to previous weeks. I spotted two Canada geese (compared to approximately 150 the week before), five mallards, a Great Blue, and two pairs of Green-winged Teal! I think I can finally identify the male Teal. The females had the visible green wing. Amazing.

Life Underwater

No, this post is not a reference to the dismal stock market and the sorry state of so many of our investments in this free-falling market. It is about the very interactive aquarium along the shores of the Delaware, across the Ben Franklin bridge, a stones throw from the Philadelphia metropolis, i.e., a special spot on the waterfront in scary Camden, New Jersey. Along with the lovely 2-year-old Layla, today we explored the fishes and critters and plants in the underwater dioramas of the Adventure Aquarium. I even petted the spitting shark, Max, as he trolled the surface to impress the visitors. The African penguins and seals outside were a treat, too, although it was quite cool and blustery outside for the humans. The Delaware had some healthy whitecaps whipped up.