Another Bunting--Indigo

This bunting is not unusual like the Lazuli, but it is just as strikingly beautiful!

What Would Jesus Do on Earth Day?

Today is Good Friday, and we have a day off work. I got a phone call this morning asking me what I planned to do today. I said I was planning on fixing Rachel's toilet. My caller laughed and said, "I guess that is something Jesus would do today."

I'm notorious for making things worse before they get better, and this repair job was no exception. The repairs went so badly I soon realized that replacing the entire toilet was going to be easier than fixing it, and the side benefit would be many gallons of saved water (and thus lower water bills for Rachel) since the old toilet was high-volume, original equipment, some 30 years old. Making a change to save water seemed like a good thing to do on Earth Day.

When the rusted bolts refused my hacksaw, the hammer was the next logical choice. It didn't take long and the old toilet was out, if in a hundred pieces. I sliced my thumb open while removing ceramic shards out of the old wax ring, shedding probably less than a teaspoon of blood, but enough to make Rachel nearly pass out!

The job was completed within 12 hours, but that included four trips to Home Depot, one trip to Lowe's, and a Good Friday service. Oh, and there will be a fifth trip to Home Depot tomorrow since the toilet seat that came in the kit was broken out of the box.

I finished the toilet with just enough time to clean up the mess before we went back to church to take our turn at the prayer vigil. The hour passed quickly in prayer and meditation about Jesus shedding his blood on behalf of his created Earth.

Lazuli Bunting Photos

OK, they aren't the world's best photos, but they prove that a lazuli bunting was on the feeder in my backyard here in Dallas! Yay!

New Bird!! Lazuli Bunting

Image borrowed from the internet--not my photo.

I saw a new bird on the backyard feeder today. I got a good look at it, and if I hadn't been on the phone, I could have taken a photo. I'm sure it was a Lazuli Bunting, even though only one out of two of my bird ID books allows that bird in Dallas. It is listed as rarely seen, but I'm sure I saw it!

That is plus one for my life list!

A New Park

I had a couple spare hours yesterday, so I found a park that I'd never been to called Mountain Creek Lake Park. It was opposite the lake from DBU. At first glance it looked more like a golf course, because large sections were mowed and there were long stretches of sidewalks for walking. But the edges were a bit wilder and had some nice wildflowers too.

The Blue-eye grass and Blue bonnets are fading, but the Indian Paintbrush is coming on.

With Sympathy

I started out the day needing to make one sympathy card, and by evening needed to make two. Life, and death, continue on.

Everybody's Thirsty

W're having a drought in north Texas, and every one is thirsty:

Wildflowers at Cedar Hill State Park

I think north Texas is in the midst of a considerable drought,

but there are still some lovely wildflowers showing their colors. Click on the photos for a closer view.

And the bluebonnets are especially nice:

The Backyard in a Dry Spring

It is early spring, so there should be some rain falling, but I guess it all went to the east coast this year. We don't want our "Isabella Tree" to die, so Gary wheeled out some water. This elm was planted when she was born, and it is growing very well, just like she is.

There are violets in the back yard again this year, but not very many and they aren't very big.

If you want to see the picnic we had, click over to my family blog.

Monk Parakeet

(photo stolen from the internet)

I almost got clobbered by the giant JAARS truck yesterday when, halfway across the street, I involuntarily looked up in response to a loud and unfamiliar sound. I managed to force myself to finish crossing the street before pulling my binoculars out of my work bag--four Monk Parakeets on the electric wires.

Slow Start to the Wildflower Season

False Garlic

Violet sp.

Bladderpod sp.

Basket Anemone

The earth on our nearby hiking paths is very dry, so it seems we might not have a good wildflower season. It also seems like I need a new book:

Critical

One of my work duties is to find other people's mistakes: an editor of documents; a tester of beta software; a checker of websites. I'm good at what I do.

But the problem with being good at finding fault is that it can be hard to do otherwise.

Sunday Dinner Traditions

I grew up hearing on Sunday mornings the pow-pow-pow of my mom beating a round steak into submission on its way to becoming Swiss steak. Well, not every Sunday morning, because some times it was Shake'nBake chicken she was fixing. Into the oven, then off to church. Yes, a long-winded preacher received our scorn while eating an overcooked meal.

When I got married, my husband told me that his family's tradition was to go out for lunch after church. Hmm, it didn't take me long to decided that I liked his family's plan better than what I had grown up with! So we've always gone out after church, and more often to Taco Bueno or McDonald's than anywhere else, as fits our station in life. :-)

I was recently talking about the topic of Sunday dinner with someone and later I mentioned it to my husband. At that point he told me "the rest of the story." Turns out that his dad started the eating out tradition in direct response to what he had grown up with--his mother always said she couldn't go to church because she needed to stay home and cook Sunday dinner. He never wanted that to be the case in his own family.

Someone's actions from more than half a century ago are still influencing me. In a good way.

Birding Before Breakfast

Well, I can't really call it birding since I was just sitting on my deck this warmish morning. The end of backyard birding is coming soon because the trees are rushing to open their leaves--and then I can't see the birds anymore.

So far this morning I've seen:
mourning doves
white-winged doves
chipping sparrows
field sparrow
cardinals
juncos
brown-headed cowbirds
myrtle warbler
red-bellied woodpecker
house finches
and a yellow-bellied sapsucker

Death and Life

As we in the choir stood, faced the congregation and began to sing "I Will Rise," my eyes fell upon Mrs. Cowand, widowed just six days earlier, holding her great-grandson.

God is good, all the time.
All the time, God is good.

Great Backyard Bird Count--Day 4

Last day. Good thing, too, so I can get back to work on the rest of life.

Here's my list for today. I went to our local city park which has a yucky little lake, but it did have a bunch of ducks on it today. I don't feel 100% on the IDs of the ring-necked ducks, but I'm going to claim them anyway. Also, I saw a Common Yellowthroat, but I wished I could have gotten another look. The Brown Creeper was only the second one I've ever seen.

Gadwall - 4
American Wigeon - 6
Mallard - 8
Ring-necked Duck - 4
Lesser Scaup - 6
Turkey Vulture - 1
Mourning Dove - 2
Blue Jay - 1
American Crow - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 2
Brown Creeper - 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 1
European Starling - 1
Common Yellowthroat - 1
Northern Cardinal - 1
Great-tailed Grackle - 30

Great Backyard Bird Count--Day 3

Here's the list for today:

White-winged Dove - 3
Mourning Dove - 7
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Hairy Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 3
American Crow - 2
Carolina Chickadee - 1
Tufted Titmouse - 1
Carolina Wren - 1
Northern Mockingbird - 1
European Starling - 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 1
Chipping Sparrow - 6
Field Sparrow - 1
Dark-eyed Junco - 5
Northern Cardinal - 3
Brown-headed Cowbird - 1
House Finch - 2
American Goldfinch - 5

Great Backyard Bird Count--Day 2

'Tis the Season

On this day we took a lovely picnic at Joe Pool Lake, so I did my "backyard" there. Here is the scoop:

Record ID: S7651823
Email: linda.simons@gmail.com
Email: 75236, Dallas, Dallas County, TX
Observation Date : FEB 19, 2011
Total Birding Time: 2 hours
Party Size: 1
Skill: excellent
Weather: good
Habitat(s):
deciduous woods
suburban
freshwater
Number of Species: 16
All Reported: no
Checklist:
Mallard - 10
Pied-billed Grebe - 1
Turkey Vulture - 2
American Coot - 20
Ring-billed Gull - 10
Forster's Tern - 2
Belted Kingfisher - 1
American Crow - 20
Carolina Chickadee - 1
Bewick's Wren - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 1
Northern Cardinal - 1
Red-winged Blackbird - 2
House Finch - 2
American Goldfinch - 2

Great Backyard Bird Count--Day 1

I participated in this citizen science effort and got this email:

Thank you for entering your observation in this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. Below is a report summarizing the bird checklist you submitted.

Here is the information you gave for this observation.

Record ID: S7634345
Email: @gmail.com
Email: 75236, Dallas, Dallas County, TX
Observation Date : FEB 18, 2011
Start Time: 7:15 AM
Total Birding Time: 1 hour
Party Size: 1
Skill: excellent
Weather: excellent
Habitat(s):
deciduous woods
suburban
Number of Species: 19
All Reported: yes
Checklist:
White-winged Dove - 5
Mourning Dove - 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 2
American Crow - 1
Carolina Chickadee - 1
Tufted Titmouse - 1
American Robin - 2
Northern Mockingbird - 2
European Starling - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
Chipping Sparrow - 2
Dark-eyed Junco - 4
Northern Cardinal - 3
House Finch - 2
American Goldfinch - 5
House Sparrow - 2


Information submitted through February 21, 2011 will be included in online reports within 60 minutes. Information submitted after February 21, 2011 will be included in online reports within 2 hours. To see how your results fit into the big picture, go to the Great Backyard Bird Count home page http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/ and click on "Explore the Results." If your bird checklist included unusual species or high numbers of individuals, you may receive an email from a regional editor requesting more details.

Thanks for participating in the 2011 Great Backyard Bird Count. Please join us again for next year's count. Mark your calendars for February 17-20, 2012.

If you enjoyed the Great Backyard Bird Count, check out eBird at http://www.ebird.org, where you can report the birds you see every day of the year. eBird helps you keep track of your lists--and archives your sightings so they're accessible to everyone, including other bird watchers and scientists. It's easy and fun to use--and it's absolutely free!

The Great Backyard Bird Count and eBird are joint projects of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society, and Bird Studies Canada. Please help support these and other efforts on behalf of birds by becoming a member. Visit http://birds.cornell.edu/join for membership in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, http://www.audubon.org/gbbc/index.shtml for membership in the National Audubon Society, or http://www.birdscanada.org for membership in Bird Studies Canada. Thank you for your support!

Winter Vacation Birdcount

I finished adding my recent bird list to Birdstack while watching a really dumb movie last night, so here are the final totals: I identified 62 different species (click here to see the list) and of that 62, these 27 were all lifers for me:

Bufflehead
Black-necked Grebe
Bridled Titmouse
Green-tailed Towhee
Crissal Thrasher
Lesser Goldfinch
Red-naped Sapsucker
Black-throated Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Pyrrhuloxia
Evening Grosbeak
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Scaled Quail
Vesper Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Chihuahuan Raven
Northern Harrier
Audubon's Warbler
American Yellow Warbler
Cinnamon Teal
Black Phoebe
Green-winged Teal
Eurasian Collared Dove
Sandhill Crane
Ruddy Duck
Northern Shoveler

I have to also say that there were probably 3-4 different species of sparrows that I couldn't manage to identify, and probably a hawk or two like that also.

My life list is now up to 288.

If you want to see photos of some of the birds we saw on this trip, click here.