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Parking Lot Birds
sun 2 oct 2016 |
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2016/20161002.html |
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Years ago, a crow family raised their babies in a Douglas fir in the south west corner of our lot. It was exciting to watch the family build the nest in the spring... usually 3 adults: mom and dad and last year's child, who helps to raise their baby sibling! And then, in the summer I got to watch baby's first few flights, and their first few crash landings! ha! They came back year after year. But one spring, late in the season, they lost their babies. The mother was inconsolable, though the father tried to comfort her. It was terribly sad. But even sadder, they never came back to nest in their tree again. Since then, we've only had birds passing through. No one has wanted to stay. But this summer, a Eurasian Collared Dove moved in. He's an invasive species, but that's not something I blame on him. Listening to a dove's voice is usually soothing and peaceful. But this guy cooed as fast as he could! His "Coo-COOO-co" was more like CoCOOcoCoCOOcoCoCOOco! ha, I don't know why he was so frantic. He was hanging out in the south east corner of the lot. There's a sweet gum, a couple oaks and a blue spruce there. I looked for him but never figured out which tree he was in. The weather started cooling down in September, and I eventually turned off the fan in my window. And in the middle of the night, I heard someone ... singing? I never really woke up, but the sound came into my dreams. It had to be an owl? Who else is talking at 1 o'clock in the morning? but not "hoot, hoot". This was something different! The very first owl that popped up on my search engine was a Western Screech Owl. Well, that's impossible! My owl song was soft and dream-like, not screeching! but then I heard their voice... Western Screech Owl "Bouncing Ball Song"! ha! That may be it. But why in the world are they called Screech??! I don't have any photos of doves or owls in the wild. So I shall leave you with some pretty autumn Asters...
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New and Different
sun 30 oct 2016 | ||
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Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2016/20161030.html | ||
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But in the meantime, I would like to take on some new challenges and maybe change the tone of my life...
November is National Novel Writing Month, which I celebrate, not by writing but by making art! I'll be aiming to sketch a little something every day, on a 4x6 index card or other paper. This year I think I want to focus on drawing human faces... which means I might not upload the drawings because they will be terrible! haha! I am back to sending mail every day, at about 130 postcards and notecards per month. I would like to continue that trend, however if I get stressed about it, the drawing every day will take precedence.
And I happened to sign up for a class at edX... The Rights of Refugees presented by Amnesty International. I have no idea what to expect, but I hope it will be interesting and informative and get me thinking different thoughts.
With the autumn rain, comes mushrooms. I've not taken the mushroom class yet, and I have no idea what these are called. Very delicate and pretty, tho! |
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