Robert (gurdonark) wrote,
Robert
gurdonark

waxwings return

Today the morning started out at 8 Celsius. I woke up early. I read a few articles and watched a few videos about the actress Harriet Walter. I liked the simple video of her reading Shakespeare's Sonnet 18. I read up a bit on the Burn Variation of the French Defense in chess. I listened to an episode of the old radio show "Our Miss Brooks" on archive.org.

I ate my Oatfit oatmeal and decided to hit the road. Originally, I intended to go to Farmersville, but I decided to stay closer to home. I went to the city of Frisco's Limestone Quarry Park. I walked there for 100 minutes. Here is what I saw:

Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 1
Carolina Chickadee 3
Carolina Wren 2
Northern Mockingbird 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Field Sparrow
Fox Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 4e
Northern Cardinal 2

Though neither is a rare bird, my ebird.com account tells me that these marked my first Field Sparrow and Fox Sparrow recorded this year. After my walk, I used Google Voice to pull up pictures of each to confirm my identification. wThese brought my local (Collin County, Texas) count up to 100 species. Ebird tells me I have now seen 40 percent of the realistically possible species in our region.
These low-ish stats keep me humble. The top ebirder in the county (I am in 20th place) has over 80 percent of the possible species.

I ate chicken, green beans and a roll at Dickey's BBQ. I went home, where the ultra-small-form factor computer I will use arrived early via priority mail. I answered an eBay message seeking the measurements on the mantle I listed, politely refraining from pointing out that the ad listing already disclosed those.

I took Bea for an afternoon walk. A hot air balloon hovered overhead in the mild haze.

I drove to Kroger to pick up bananas, clementines and Powerade Zero. I stopped by little Green Park, half a mile from my house. Lots of birds were active.

Downy Woodpecker:



Yellow-Rumped Warbler:



Cedar Waxwing:



American Robin:



When I see 25 Cedar Waxwings, I know that holiday berry season has begun.

We met our friends Scott and Donna at the Italian restaurant Aboca for dinner. I had salmon with linguini, broccoli and sourdough bread. Each of our friends just located new jobs. Also, they just went solar. So we had lots to learn. We all expressed our dismay about the election.

This has been a fine holiday weekend, with one day yet to go.
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