Nature Woman

So it’s been pouring rain all day long - until a few minutes ago - the sun came out just before sunset - and made the trees sparkle:

Okay, well the camera didn’t catch the sparkles on the trees. But it did catch this partial rainbow, which was only around long enough for me to capture a couple of photos:

I also took this opportunity to get the mail (I have to walk a little ways to get it) and saw a hawk on my way, but when I got the camera it flew away. Shoot, I wanted to show it and add another to my life list. The air was steaming, and the sunset lit up the sky to a bright orange. A weird day, but a beautiful day.

First I saw this “baby” eating:

I watched him/her eat for a little while, eating leaves off the low branches, and stuff off the ground:

Then he/she started to get nervous so he moved, and here’s the other “baby”

One of the neighbors was being noisy with their vehicle engine:

And here’s a final shot of them both:

It was nice to see my backyard “babies” again!

Update on the Inverted Jenny - I just heard that it could be worth millions of dollars. WOW!

So I went grocery shopping today, and travelling down the highway I saw a double light full of birds with their feathers all puffed out. I couldn’t id them at 60 mph - today is one of those days that the sky has a comforter on itself, so they looked brown to me. As the light fixture gently slopes down to a point in the middle, it reminded me of the little bird movie that I’ve seen a million times on the Monsters, Inc. DVD, and it never fails to crack me up. Do you know the bird movie I’m referring to?

My Mom and Dad bought me some wonderful presents for my birthday. The first book is an excellent and quick read. After reading it, it makes me want to go out and plant trees all over the place.

The second book I’ve been drooling over since I first saw it at Barnes & Noble in Chandler, AZ in March. Last week when Mom and I were in B&N I picked it up because I love looking at the buttress roots. She said yesterday she wanted to yell at me in the store to put the book down!

I simply love looking at trees from around the world, any shape, any size. I could spend the rest of my life in a forest, any forest, just give me a forest

And this last item is a calendar called “Tree” by James Balog, who also has a book by the same title:

This is a large calendar and I’m thinking it will take a prime spot on one of my walls as if it were a piece of art instead of on the side of the fridge where my yearly calendar normally hangs.

If anyone has an Inverted Jenny they’d like to send to me, I’d be more than happy to take it off their hands. Please just put it into an envelope addressed to me, not *on* the envelope.

Why do I bring this up? Because someone used one on their envelope to send in their absentee ballot in Florida. It’s worth? Somewhere around $500,000.

My older brother has always collected stamps, and this was one of a few of the wonderful old stamps that we would have loved to add to the collection. There’s only about 100 known stamps around with this error.

Back to nature soon. In fact, I was going to blog about something cool, but I will have to load the photos into Flickr from my Yahoo!Photos account.

To all Veterans who served in any War, I hope you enjoy your holiday. That includes my Dad, who is a Veteran of the Korean War, and my brother, who is a Veteran of the Gulf War.

I can’t remember where I was reading about peace symbols yesterday, but I had no clue that the forked peace symbol was designed for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Britain. It was designed from the semaphoric signals for “N” and “D,” for Nuclear Disarmament.

And then there is the V-sign you make with your index finger and middle finger. Used to symbolize peace in the 1960’s, it also symbolizes victory.

Sometimes I think we spent too much time in social studies when I was in school studying history rather than current events since I don’t remember learning about these symbols. I think that has changed now, fortunately, based on what I saw and heard as a judge this past March at Central New York History Day (and I’m looking forward to judging again in March 2007). Those students who win at this event go on to the New York State History Day event in Cooperstown, NY. Those who win at Cooperstown go to the National level. It’s quite cool!

I didn’t get in trouble with Susan for not posting. I’m sorry, I’m a bit under the weather. On Wednesday I worked in the OHA research center editing photos. They have a nice new boiler, it’s very nice and warm on the 2nd floor (actually too warm for me), but the fifth floor has *no* heat in the research center - none at all. So I was shivering by the time I was done, my hands were frozen, and I turned the heat up in my vehicle the whole way home. Now, I don’t like too much heat, but a little bit is necessary not to freeze to death. Anyways, with the two extremes, now I have the chills and I’m flirtin with a sore throat and a cough. Fortunately I have some *good* herbs that help get rid of this stuff quick for me. I may have to volunteer for them from home until it warms up again. Or work in another part of the building.

I’ll get back to posting about nature when I can handle not being under a huge pile of clothes and blankets.

with *all* of the fungus photos, I found another cool fungus on my Silver Maple tree.

It looks like there’s two different types of fungus. This tree is going to have to go sometime soon. I’m trying to make it last as long as I can because it will leave a major gap in my front yard.
There are tons of cones on the Norway Spruces.

And my Tansy is still blossoming!

These photos were taken on Monday when it was warm and sunny. Today was dark and stormy and I spent it over in Syracuse volunteering at OHA - editing photos to put on their website - some really cool old photos.

So what’s so special about November 7th? Besides the fact it is election day, anyone I know who was born on November 7th thinks this day is a National Holiday. And I’m one of them. So everyone gets the day off to celebrate my birthday. See, isn’t that cool? Must be a Scorpio thing. It just makes my Mother’s eyes roll. I’m just kidding, really. I guess. I went searching for stuff that happened today in history on the Internet in case you’re interested.

Today in History from LOC

This Day in History Yowsa, I didn’t realize this was the day that the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State collapsed.

If you ever get a chance to see the short movie on this bridge, it is amazing. People actually drove over this bridge while it was a rockin’ and a rollin’ in the wind. I mean actually twisting. They show the cars driving over it. Definitely an engineering faux pas. I watched this movie in amazement in one of my mechanical engineering courses - to show what not to do. If you’re interested, you may want to look at the photos at the link, scroll down towards the bottom.

November 7 - Wikipedia Hmmm, they don’t have me or my birthday buddies listed here. We’ll have to fix this. I always thought it was cool I shared Marie Curie’s birthday since I was always interested in chemistry, physics and biology and have taken my share of these courses in college.

To everyone born on this day - Happy Birthday To You!

P.S.  I’m up to 28 on my life list!  Woo Hoo!

Okay, thanks to Susan’s help, I am now officially a casual birder. I know what bins are, and I am now a lister. Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier, I subscribe to Bird Watcher’s Digest and Backyard Birder. And I love Julie Zickefoose’s artwork.

What state (or country) do you live in? NY
How long have you been birding? Since I was born, but I’ve been documenting somewhat since April, 2006 via this blog.
Are you a “lister”? Yup, I am now!
ABA Life List: 25 - I know I have a ways to go here!!
Overall Life List: 25
3 Favorite Birding Spots: My backyard, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, Desert Botanical Garden
Favorite birding spot outside your home country: None
Farthest you’ve traveled to chase a rare bird: I haven’t
Nemesis bird: None yet
“Best” bird sighting: Baltimore Oriel - I know woop-ti-do, but they’re hard to see here
Most wanted trip: Brazil with Rosa to see birds and plants
Most wanted bird: Eagle - I’ve seen them, now I need to document it.
What model and brand of bins do you use?: Bushnell with a National Audobon Society label on the side. I use my camera more than my “bins.”
What model and brand of scope do you use?: None
What was the last lifer you added to your list?: American Kestrel (only because I was going back in time to list the birds I’ve seen).
Where did you see your last lifer?: Boyce Thompson Arboretum
What’s the last bird you saw today?: Red-headed Woodpecker
Best bird song you’ve heard ever: Baltimore Oriel
Favorite birding moment: A male Gambel’s Quail at Desert Botanical Garden protecting his family.
Least favorite thing about birding: The peep. I got it in my eye once.
Favorite thing about birding: Umm, seeing someone new.
Favorite field guide for the US: None yet - I use three different ones and they all irritate me, I’m checking out the latest National Geographic bird field guide.
Favorite non-field guide bird book: First Flight by Noriko and Don Carroll
Who is your birder icon: I’d have to think about it
Do you have a bird feeder(s)? No, I grow lots of stuff birds like to eat.
Favorite feeder bird? None