I launched from North Sands, Salcombe in a steaming strop because the parking ticket machine had just eaten four pounds and eighty pence. Because this sort of thing happens to me all the time, I had carefully counted out the EXACT fee into my hand before I fed it painstakingly into the stupid little slot. All went well until my last 20 p bit which was inexplicably rejected. By the time I had legged it back to the car and returned with a gleaming new coin the wretched beast had deleted my credit. What on earth for? Some blooming fat cat at South Hams District council clearly thinks people are just going to say ‘oh well, its a lovely day and a lovely place lets just shove some more dosh into the smug little machine and not let it wreck our day’. Well not me sunshine, my claim will be on your doorstep before you have managed to lard down your front steps and squeezed onto the pre-heated seats of your Lexus Leganza tomorrow morning.

Anyway I was armed with only one rod and trolled a new terror weapon, a Tempest holographic rubber sandeel. As soon as it had hit the water it was being plucked at by something and I soon had a small pollack on board.

A minute or two later the line buzzed out and there were some really satisfactory slow powerful tugs. BASS ON!

Spiky Armour-plated Salcombe Bass

This was quite a decent fish (about 3lbs) so I was going to keep it but I had forgotten to bring my bass-bludgeon and there is no tank well in my Paddleyak swift so the lucky fish was returned to the brine.

I paddled out to Bolt Tail and hooke another bass, approx 2lbs, as the sun rose.

Bass number two

The open sea was quite lumpy and the SE wind was increasing, as forecast, so I about turned and headed past Salcombe for a circumnavigation of the entire Kingsbridge estuary, leaving no gulch or creek unexplored (as usual).

Sunrise over Prawle. Lumpy sea. Avoid.

I caught another bass, this one small, and therafter only one more all day. OK I only fished a bit of the time as for hours I was paddling up muddy creeks.

But it all came flooding back to me-in previous years a significant proportion of bass I have caught were hooked before the sun came up.And sunny,sharp calm days are hopeless for trolling for fish. In poor light I suppose they can’t see my untidy,oafish-looking,hurriedly tied knots and the bits of fingernail (and finger) still attached to the hook.

I had a very pleasant 26 mile tour of the rim of the Kingsbridge estuary. I paddled over to a clamour of gulls at the surface where a seal was struggling with a very big creamy coloured fish…a salmon? However when it saw me it ditched its dinner and preferred to follow me around for a few miles.

Cosy sheltered creek

Excellent birdlife: the rattle of Cirl Buntings from hedgetops; five or six kingfishers, two sparrowhawks; two kestrels; a very chunky female Peregrine up Frogmore creek; loads of wigeon,teal,shelduck and a few Brent Geese; two Pintail; redshank and a single snipe; greenshank (my favourite) including a group of about ten.

It was getting dark as I returned past Salcombe into a fizzing headwind and surprisingly big swell at North Sands. I was surprised to catch a garfish so late in the season.

Salcombe November Garfish

Was it the wind or did I hear the ticket machine snigger as I trolleyed my kayak back to the car?

Temperature, Atmospheric Pressure, and Altitude — all these things can and do affect bullet ballistics. Moreover, temperature changes can alter powder performance and chamber pressures. The smart reloader takes the predicted ambient temperature into account. And when calculating your come-ups and windage click values, you need to factor in Temperature, Air Pressure, AND Altitude.

How do you keep track of these important variables when you’re shooting? The Kestrel 4000 Pocket Weather Tracker®, is compact and provides a wealth of information: atmospheric pressure, altitude, density altitude, temperature, humidity, wind speed, wind chill, dew point, and heat index. We like the Kestrels and recommend them. But at $279.00, a Kestrel 4000 is too expensive for many shooters.

Timex now offers a solution. Selling for about $60.00-$75.00 (street price), the Timex Expedition® Adventure Tech™ watch (item T41501EA) displays Altitude, Barometric Pressure, and Temperature (ABT). The thermometer function records temps from 14° F to 140° F. The Altimeter reads from -2,296 feet to +29,520 feet with 10-foot resolution. The Barometer tracks current and sea level pressure, and provides a graph of pressure changes over time.

Encased in a stainless housing with a resin band, the Timex watch is water resistant to 50 meters, and offers many other nice features, including dual time zones, countdown timer, alarm, and backlit nightlight (very handy). The countdown timer is very easy to set and activate; and yes the timer can be used effectively in a shooting match.

There are other quality watches, such as the Suunto Core, that provide Altitude, Atmospheric Pressure, and Temperature read-outs. But, at under $70.00, the Timex is one-fourth the price of the Suunto. Amazon.com is currently offering the Timex Temp/Altitude/Barometer watch for $62.88. It is offered with a silver band as well as the black shown above.

Useful Tool or Just Another Gadget?
Is this watch really useful or just another piece of male jewelry? Well just last week a friend was developing loads and he wanted to input the ambient temperature, and current air pressure. The Timex gave us the desired data. (Note: it’s best to take the watch off your arm when gauging air temp). For this editor, the Timex ABT watch is a useful tool. I bought one and use it during load development and when shooting competitively. Negatives? Well the Timex IS big and thick, really thick, but then it’s much handier than carrying BOTH a digital thermometer/altimeter AND a separate count-down timer.

Here’s an owner’s review: “I have been through a Nike ABT, a Swiss Army ABT, and a High Gear ABT watch this year alone. None of them, which cost quite a bit more, have been as accurate and durable as this Timex. It has a better fit, was easy to use and read and just plain ‘on the money’ as far as forecasting weather and altitude. Also, I have not had to take it off my arm for 10-15 mins to get a decent temperature rating. It has always been within 1-3 degrees of actual temp. And I live in the Carribean in a tropical climate… so, for it to be this accurate is a statement in itself.”

I got a chance to do some birding  with the owner of Greensprings Inn today.  He is Diarmuid McGuire.   Turns out we knew each other in an earlier life. 

We met at Emigrant Lake.  There was a line of a few dozen White-fronted Geese and three Cackling Geese on the shoreline of the south end of the lake.  And Western Bluebirds were all over the oaks at the northwest side of the lake, inside the recreation area.
Also onb the shrivelled lake: a few Bufflehead and Western Grebes. 

At the entranbce to the recreationarea we watched a Kestrel swoop down on a Red-tailed Hawk hunting in a hay field.  No harm, no foul.

White-breasted Nuthatch in white oak at Emigrant Lake.  You could have a three nuthatch day while staying at Greensprings.  The red-breasted would be right outside your door.  White-breasted at abundant at Emigrant Lake and Pygmy can be seen on the road from Hwy 140 to Eale Ridge on the west side of Klamath Lake.

GREENSPRINGS INN

The Greensprings In sits on over 100 acres of woodland at the intersection of Hwy 66 and the Hyatt Lake Road.  It’s 17 miles from I-5 and Hwy 66 in Ashland.  The resort has a restaurant where I had a great breakfast burrito.  There are motel-style rooms and five new cabins, each with great mountain views and woodsy privacy.  On the grounds we found Purple Finches, Mountain Chickadees, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Ravens and Steller’s Jays.  The latter were making lots of angry noises high in a Ponderosa but we could not see what they were loudly despising.  Likely an owl or accipiter.

In the spring there will be Hermit Warblers, Cassin’s Vireo, Juncos, Chipping Sparrows, Dusky Flycatchers, Barn Swallows and Rufous Hummingbirds.

McGuire and I will put together information on some birding excursions from the Inn that may be of interest to visitors there.  It is on the north edge of the extensive Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.  There are numerous great hiking trails, fine widlfowers and butterflies in spring and summer.  The birding areas are all around.  It’s 45 minutes eastward to the Klamath Basin.  Within a few minutes are Hyatt Lake and then further north Howard Prairie: Osprey, Bald Eagle, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Cassin’s Finch, Sandhill Cranes, White Pelican, Northern Goshawk, Vesper Sparrow, Mountain Bluebird, Wilson’s Snipe.  Just west of the Inn at Greensprings Summit (El. 4551′) you can turn north on a road that goes past Little Hyatt reservoir: Dipper at the dam, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Lazuli Bunting, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Cassin’s Vireo, Chipping Sparrow.  About 1.5 miles west of the Inn is Keene Creek reservoir.  Today there were Hooded and Common Merganser, and Bufflehead on the lake.  In late summer I’ve seen both Common and the elusive Barrow’s Goldeneye here.

Hwy 66 between the Inn (4500′) and Emigrant lake down at 2500′ is good territory for Lewis’s Woodpecker in winter.  I saw one from the car.  Also: Acorn Woodpecker, possible Sooty and Ruffed Grouse, Western Meadowlark, Lesser Goldfinch, Lazuli Buting, Green-tailed Towhee, Northern Goshawk.

This weekend offered two contrasting days; Saturdays halcyon calm and Sundays raging storm.

Thankfully I went to the RSPB reserve at Saltholme on Saturday and enjoyed clear skies, still winds; no hint of the wrath to come the next day with that deep low pressure crossing Scotland.

Leaving the centre to go to the hides, I saw some Greenfinches, taking advantage of the feeders.

Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris)

And flitting in the long grass, a Wren.

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)

Ensconced in various hides throughout the day, there were plenty of birds on view. First, one of many Coots on the waters.

Coot (Fulica atra)

And some fine views of Mute Swans, on the water and taking off into the air.

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)

In the air and and framed by the industrial backdrop of electricity pylons, I saw a Curlew glide silently by.

Curlew (Numenius arquata)

Later, I saw one settle on the water’s edge.

Something now to test all budding augurs. A flight of Greylag Geese came across the sky…

with a few passing close enough to offer fine views; beating wings, orange bills, sunlight glinting in their eyes, a passing moment before they settled on the water.

Greylag Goose (Anser anser)

The skies were also filled with a desert of Lapwings and a congregation of Golden Plover, mixed together in a cloud of birds which filled the sky as they escaped a passing (but unseen by me) predator.

The rounded wings of the Lapwings contrast well with the pointed wings of the Plover. They flew around before settling nervously on the ground. Something else triggered their self preservation instinct, and both species took to the air again, eventually filling the sky.

Finally, they settle on the ground.

Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus)

Golden Plover (Pluvialis apricaria)

A Snipe, up to his knees in the mudflats could be seen from Saltholme hide.

Snipe (Gallinago gallinago)

Black-tailed Godwits were seen from every hide. Here’s the best photographs of them, showing off their elegence.

Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa limosa)

This next sequence shows a Godwit preening itself.

A Moorhen passed behind the Godwit.

Moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

There were plenty of Shoveller Ducks on the waters.

Shoveler Duck (Anas clypeata)

And a fine display from a Male Pintail.

Pintail (Anas acuta)

There were also plenty of Wigeon in their winter plumage, yellow forehead prominently displayed.

Wigeon (Anas penelope)

Ever present in the UK waterways are Mallards, with the males distinctive green head and both sexes purple-blue speculum, along the wing.

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

In the setting sun, Teal showed their wonderful green head band and yellow stripes off.

And their bottoms…

Back to their heads.

Teal (Anas crecca)

Sulking in the long grass were a pair of Little Egrets, one of which played peek a boo enough to be photographed.

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)

Across a kilometre of open water, in the shadow of the Transporter Bridge, a Cormorant rested on a post.

Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

Finally, in the distant skies with a setting sun (red sky at night) a Kestrel patrolled.

Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus)

Surely red skies at sunset don’t signal storms? Apparently they can do, sometimes…

Dennis Vroman was leading today’s Rogue Valley Audubon field trip at Whetstone Prairie.  This is a piece of Nature Conservancy land north of Medford.  It is covered by low grass, white oak and buckbrush.  Still blooming are the yellow-blossomed showy tarweed.  So named for their sticky seeds that will follow you home.  The oaks on Whetstone Prairie are not too dense but the buckbrush is, and there are patches of dense blackberry tangle.

Our most abundant bird on the walk: Savannah Sparrow.

We also good looks at a couple Lark Sparrows that have not migrated away…yet.  A few linger for the Christmas Count.  The Meadowlarks were also visible and tuneful.  They sang from wires, they sang from buckbrush clumps:

And the Lewis’s Woodpeckers fluttered over the oaks like giant, dark moths.  They would play chase, fly-catch and generally make themselves visible in flight.  Getting close enough to a Lewis percher was another story.

Below: view of Lower Table Rock to the north.  Ele. 2029′  Then view of Mt. McLoughlin in the cascades to the east.  Ele. 9495′

We puzzled over thebig falcon until we all got to see his facial markings, young Peregrine.  The Cooper’s Hawk came by and drove off our two lark Sparrows, then politely sat in the open so everybody got a good look and finally a confirmed ID. Large female Coop.

Filling out the eBird form can be enlightening.  Their algorithm has very clear ideas about what birds you should see.  California Towhee doesn’t even show up on the common birds list for Jackson County, so you have to click on “rare birds.”  Then when I said we’d seen over a dozen Mockingbirds, eBird politely asked what I’d been drinking so I had to re-confirm.  Yet Whetstone is one of the spots in Jackson Countywhere Mockingbirds are doing quite well and are numerous.

One Kestrel male caught something to eat as we watched, and two other Kestrels were attracted to the spectable, flying in and out of the dining tree.  Later this trio spotted the (or one of two) Peregrine and gave chase.  The Peregrine eaisly out-flew his tiny cousins.  Peregrines annually nest on nearby Lower Table Rock.  I’ve been told by a Peregrine census-taker there are at least ten known nesting sites in Jackson County now.

Location:     Whetstone Prairie–located south of Newlands Road which parallels Whetstone Creek as it frows westward to join the Rogue River between Touvelle State Park and the mouth of Bear Creek which is just upstream from Gold-Ray Dam.
Observation date:     10/24/09
Notes:     Dennis Vroman’s field trip for Rogue Valley Audubon Society.
Number of species:     35

Canada Goose     16
Great Egret     1
White-tailed Kite     2
Northern Harrier     1
Cooper’s Hawk     1
Red-tailed Hawk     1
American Kestrel     5
Peregrine Falcon     1
Anna’s Hummingbird     1
Lewis’s Woodpecker     30
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     2
Say’s Phoebe     2
Western Scrub-Jay     25
Common Raven     3
Black-capped Chickadee     2
Bushtit     15
White-breasted Nuthatch     1
Bewick’s Wren     6
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     4
Western Bluebird     35
American Robin     20
Northern Mockingbird     15
European Starling     6
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s)     12,     Spotted Towhee     10
California Towhee     3
Lark Sparrow     2
Savannah Sparrow     120
White-crowned Sparrow     8
Golden-crowned Sparrow     5
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)     5
Western Meadowlark     40
Brewer’s Blackbird     30
House Finch     6
Lesser Goldfinch     16

“There are 85,000 apps that can do almost anything.”

I have two questions: Wasn’t it just 75,000 a week ago? And … what the heck is an “app”? Or is it ap? Appy? Appaloosa? OK, now we’re talking my language. (If “almost anything” will select and cull my photos, download them, pick ones for the blog and tweak ‘em and upload ‘em … just tell me how to get one.)

Nope, no appys in this post, but I think it gets me up to just a week behind (it’ll widen again in a couple of days, no worries).

L&K beat me to the basin that morning. They know the ponies like nobody’s business, and it’s awesome having them out to visit. We were both optimistic and worried when we didn’t find Mr. Duke where they had seen him the day before. Unfortunately, none of us have seen him since.

Our first visit was with Steeldust’s band, who were drinking at the catchment. The three misters (Aspen, Hook and Twister) were there, too, drinking from the smaller trough.

Big band at the big tank; misters at the little tank.

We stood at the road and took pictures … and after drinking, the horses wandered up to say hello!

Alpha, Butch, Ember and Hannah

Look at that big little guy! I don’t know whether he’s getting anything … but he’s still nursing – and mama Alpha is still letting him! Steeldust at left; Hannah at right.

Then he goes over and pokes at Mr. Twister, who is hanging out with the big boys now. Twister’s getting his licks in now …

Storm chases Twister …

Twister flashes his heels (which I was too late to catch), and Storm-chaser backs off. Works every time.

And then they were friends. There’s Comanche on the left, Mouse on the right, Aspen at far back right and Hook behind him.

Sisters Ember (near) and Kestrel. Notice Storm (and Hannah) coming up behind them and young Pinon, also looking at something in the background.

What are they looking at?

Right to left: Ember, Kestrel, Luna, Butch and Hannah. Could be five generations there if Butch is, indeed, one of Luna’s brood.

L&K saw Cinch and Bruiser later when they drove to Flat Top to check the pond, so in hind sight, I wonder whether the ponies were checking out those boys out yonder.

After Storm got his fill of boy time, he remembered his gentlemanly manners by escorting mistress Hannah back to the band … which she clearly didn’t appreciate – look at those ears! And big sisters Ember and Kestrel are posing prettily for the camera.

As the horses moved closer and closer to the road, we decided we might be blocking their route, so off we went.

On the way down the hill, I saw Mahogany and Sable looking down from the ridge, so I stopped the Jeep and grabbed a shot.

While L&K went to check the pond, I went on to check the Wildcat boulders.

Fabulous!!

While I was going clockwise around the loop, L&K were going counter-clockwise. Not a single pony was in view for me. Both the pond right by the road in the east and the east-pocket pond still have water. I was looking hard for Poco and Roach – and L&K saw them right before they saw me – but I never saw the boys. In fact, when I spied the wandering elusive-ites, L&K were already watching them … and worried about the one they didn’t see.

Seven’s were down on the southwest side of the roller-coaster ridge, out away from the pond, which also still has water. Seven, check. Roja and Ze, check. Liberty … all alone … where’s Molly? Liberty was by herself a short distance from the other horses, and while we watched, she turned and walked away. Seven and Roja and Ze followed, and they all dropped down into a wash out of sight. Every once in a while, we could see somebody’s back, but none of those backs were Molly’s. There were a few dead junipers out there and one alive. Knowing Molly-girl’s penchant for napping under trees, I thought she might have hung back while the other horses moseyed on, grazing. My theory was that when Liberty got out away from her, she decided she wasn’t going any farther and went back to Mama. Given Molly’s known condition – even though we also knew she had been seen recently by J&K – not seeing her worried us.

There was nothing for it but to walk out to get the scoop, for better or for worse. When I got to the edge of the wash and saw Liberty nursing from Molly, I was able to flash L&K the thumbs-up!

It is what it is.

Roja, little chow-hound that she is, never even looked up at me, and that in itself was a surprise. She’s usually the first to “alert.” Maybe I’m growing on her.

Silent sentinel. He also was very relaxed with me there.

I took just a few photos and left them – no worries from me, ponies.

Bounce and his band were on the other side of the ridge.

Whisper, Bounce, Gaia and Alegre. They like this bend of the arroyo (and not just them – Poco and Roach, Hollywood’s … ), which is weird (?) because there’s no water in that section, but there is water farther west.

On the way back to the west-side loop road, we spotted Grey/Traveler’s way – WAY – off yonder under some trees sort of eastish of Round Top – between RT and the weird guzzler. I figure sometime between then and Sunday was when Chrome “acquired” Jif and Hayden.

Hollywood had his band out on the east-west hill; that’s him at right. Then Piedra, Sage and Baylee.

Am I right, or was it warm?

Out on the flats east of the catchment were the misters and Steeldust’s band. (Keep that in mind.)

We got back to Filly Peak, and I hiked out “behind” the hill to check for Duke, and L&K went on down to the trap-road pond to look for him. We all came up unlucky. But guess who I did see from back yonder?

And that jogs the memory – on our way into the basin, they were out on the corral hill. So when I saw Kreacher’s band – traitors included – they were heading north toward – I thought – the catchment. I reunited with L&K and gave them the report, and sure enough, the band popped up and went to the big catchment trough. They drank, then headed back the way they had come and dropped back over the edge. We drove back over and were able to see them down on the flats south of the catchment.

L&K had a drive back to their home away from home, and I had a “date,” so we headed toward the entrance.

But the ponies had other ideas (don’t they always?). I guess they weren’t quite ready to say good-by to these fans-of-theirs … Remember I said Steeldust’s band had been out on the flats east of the catchment? By the time we got back around to just past Filly Peak … they were blocking the road!

Mama Alpha and big-baby Storm (he had just finished nursing – again).

Muddy brother Pinon, Sable and Mahogany. You can see the road above/behind them.

Lovely Kestrel and Sable and Mahogany

Must have been that time of day. Hannah and Luna (road again behind them).

So pony time intervened, and there was nothing to do but watch and admire and take pictures and smile and smile and smile. A minute after I figured I had to be leaving, the ponies were across and off the road, and we were on our way.

Can’t have a much better fare-thee-well than that!

(click to enlarge)

I’m exhausted and cold, but will try and write a quick entry before bed.  It’s supposed to go down to several degrees below freezing tonight and we don’t have any heat going in the house.  Our heat comes from a wood stove and my roommate and I each got home late tonight, and decided that a heavy sweater, hot shower and early to bed was easier than firing up the woodstove just for an hour’s worth of heat.  That of course will change as the temperature steadily drops over winter.  I am going to have to learn how to light this thing and keep it going strong during the days I sit at home and write.  I actually think it will be quite pleasant as the dining room table is next to the stove and a lovely place to work.  But I digress…

On the way home from my parents’ house yesterday, I stopped once again to train the dogs at my friend’s farm.  The three of us who trained together on Friday got together again yesterday and worked our dogs.  The weather was much more cooperative, and while cold, was at least dry.  The leaves are all turning and quite frankly, it was a beautiful day despite the chill.  I do love fall weather, as long as I’m dressed for it.

One friend had an idea of how I can work with Hannah to get better pace. She explained a technique to me that was taught to her by the big-hat handler who trained one of her dogs.  The idea is simple: when the dog doesn’t behave, she loses her sheep.  To make this happen, you call the dog off as soon as it starts to go wrong.  I wasn’t really sure about this method, but I tried with Hannah with surprisingly good results.

To start, it was important to set things up correctly so that everything would stay in control, and also so it was really easy to read what is going on.  We had to set the sheep somewhere that Hannah could fetch them from without strange draws pulling them sideways, or a swamp to push them through.  Such obstacles would cause the sheep to move crookedly and then it would be a guessing game as to whether or not what Hannah was doing was correct.  As I’ve written before, Hannah starts to flank back and forth a lot when fetching sheep to me.  This might actually be ok if the sheep are zig zagging on their own, or if she needs to push them through a swampy area and they are refusing, but if they are coming nice and straight, she should be calmly walking behind them.

So we found a couple of spots where the sheep would walk nice and straight.  I kept the distance relatively short, and sent Hannah.  She did a beautiful outrun, a nice, quiet lift, and started bring the sheep.  She obviously knew something was up because she was being very calm and quiet at first.  But then she couldn’t resist and bumped the sheep.  They zigged, and she went to zag, but I was faster and hollered sternly “That’ll do!!”  Shocked, she came to me with an expression of amazement and wonder on her face. “What did I do wrong?” she clearly was asking!  Getting her to figure that out is exactly the point.  I can correct her and mechanically control her with hollering and jumping up and down and whatnot, but what I really want is a dog who knows what she’s supposed to do and who does it right without me having to say a word.

I sent her a second time.  Again a nice outrun, and gentle lift.  Then the fetch.  It was slow.  Painfully slow.  Obviously she knew what she had done wrong and was swinging the other way.  I could almost sense her sticking her tongue out at me, as if to say “so you want them slow, do you? I’ll show you slow!”  She would gently nudge the sheep until they moved, then lie down and wait until they drifted to a stop.  Then she’d get up and nudge them again.  Repeat.  It was like watching pain dry.  But it was better than the rodeo she usually makes happen.  And clearly she was thinking.

I told her she was a good girl, we reset the sheep, and I sent her again.  This time she was a little faster, but very controlled and gentle.  The sheep came straight and stopped about 5 feet in front of me, with Hannah lying down quietly about 30 feet behind them. And all the time I said nothing.  Is this my dog?  Who knew she was capable of this!

I made a big fuss over her, told her how fabulous she was, and then put her back in the car and pulled out Mira.

I started to work Mira and she was just full of beans.  She raced about and dove in at sheep.  I worked at trying to send her around without her busting them up, then doing a little wearing in figure eights and so on.  At one point I turned and she went around to the away or right side (her weak side) and she dove in and gripped one of the lambs.  It was totally uncalled for, or so I thought.  But just as I was about to yell at my dog (I hate yelling at my dogs), one of my friends laughed loudly and said “that was YOUR fault!”

It was?  Hurray!!  Because if it’s my fault, then I can easily fix it and we can start to move forward with our training. Someone finally actually saw what I’ve been struggling with all these months, and knew how to fix it.  Oh happy day.

I discussed earlier about how I need to project my pressure off in a different direction with Mira in order to get her to widen out.  In other words, pushing towards her actually pulls her in, even though intuitively you’d think that should push her out.  So when I send her ‘away’ (counter-clockwise, or to the right) around the sheep, instead of running towards her, I need to then walk straight off to my left, or perhaps at a bit of an angle to my left, aiming towards 9 o’clock.  In other words, I need to move almost in the opposite direction to my dog, and instead of her pulling in close and tight, she will actually kick out nice and wide.  I did this over and over, and every time Mira was nice and wide.  It was amazing.  She is a very stylish little dog, with very square flanks and a bit of eye.  I was very pleased with her.

Next we worked a little on getting her to stop. This is a big problem with her.  Recently I read in Vergil Holland’s book Progressive Training about dogs that are extremely pressure sensitive.  These dogs, he writes, are so sensitive to any movement or any pressure that they simply MUST react.  So if the dog is in a down and a ewe twitches an ear, the dog feels compelled to get up.  Such dogs are apparently the hardest kind of dogs to train (no kidding).  He offers some good training exercises that I am going to review and try with her.  I know I followed some the first time I read the book and they definitely helped.  Now that we are more advanced, I am re-reading and learning new things to do.  Every time I look at this book I learn something new; as I learn more myself, things he said that previously meant little to me, or seemed of no interest, suddenly take on new meaning and importance.

Back to Mira and her stopping problem.  My friends encouraged me to really get after her when she won’t lie down.  I told them that if I do that, she will lie down and not get up.  Mira has actually been getting better about this with time, lying down more readily, and also getting up more readily as well.  I have not been too hard on her or pushed her too much with the lie down, and tried to get her to stop on her feet.  That would be fine, but she really doesn’t like to stop.  At least I think I now understand why.

First one friend, and then the other, tried to work Mira for me to demonstrate putting a stop on her.  I let them, hoping they’d have better success than I did.  The first friend got her working, and then when she didn’t take his lie-down, he stepped at her and waved his stock stick.  She dodged around him so he stepped at her a bit more sternly.  That was too much for her and she ran back to me and hid behind my legs.  I tried stepping away so he could get her back, but she was having none of it.  My other friend stepped in, thinking perhaps that Mira would work for her, being female.  She tried to call Mira to sheep, but my dog was firmly attached to the back of my knees.  My friend came over and took Mira by the collar and started to lead her to sheep.  Pull her, actually, then drag her.  Mira had all four feet out in front of her, digging into the ground and looking very pathetic about the whole thing.  I was very glad to see she made no effort to bite, snap or otherwise ward off my friend with any aggression.  She just sank her butt on the ground and dug in like a mule.

This was obviously too much pressure for Mira so we let things go at that point and I started working her again myself.  She seemed so relieved to be working with me again, that she took every lie-down I gave, and nicely popped out of them too.  She kept her flanks wide, and her gathers honest.  I was very pleased with her and called it a day.

Kess was Kess – keen, pushy and talented.  And totally not keeping me in the picture unless I was within 20 feet of the sheep.  At one point I stepped back to see if she’d bring the sheep to me, and she just pushed them past and drove them (beautifully) about 100 yards in an arrow straight line to the back fence.  I’m sure I’ll be really happy about this when it’s time to get her driving, but for the moment I’d like her to hold the sheep to me!  I really must get her going in agility to work on our relationship.

Finally I brought Hannah out again and did a couple of more short outruns and fetches to make sure she had learned her lesson.  She had and I was mighty pleased.  I am going to keep working on this, gradually stretching out her outruns until she can bring sheep to me at a nice pace from a distance.  As I mentioned before, she can easily do an open length outrun, but then blasts the sheep all the way down the field until she’s within 50 or so feet of me.  Clearly she’s learned that she only has to listen within a certain distance of me, and that’s what I need to change.  I’m going to push that distance out 10 feet at a time if necessary, and gradually we’ll get there.  Given how quickly she changed her behaviour yesterday, I don’t expect it will take too long.

The sky is twisting, turning
Or my head is turned around
The North is speeding fast towards us
Adjuvant is the roaring ground
I hear the call and look up high
She’s there, I knew she would be
Eyes me with her eldritch eyes
Piercing to the core of me
Riding on the thermals high
She reigns, a feathered Queen and I
She knows will follow her home
In roaming spirit and in grace

Here’s a new product we found on SWFA.com. Minox, famed maker of miniature cameras, has released the new Minox Weatherstation to compete with the Kestrel weather meters. The Minox is very compact and very light. It measures 4.68″ H x 2.28″ W and is just 3/4 of an inch thick. And it weighs just 2.36 ounces (67 grams)! This is definitely light and small enough to be carried in a shirt pocket.

The Minox Weatherstation has all the functions you’d expect, plus a few more: Wind speed, Barometer, Altimeter, Thermometer, Hygrometer (Humidity), Windchill, Dewpoint, Clock, Stop-Watch, Alarm, Timer, Race Timer. Of course it can display both °Celsius and °Fahrenheit, and the Hygrometer reads from 1% Relative Humidity through 100% Relative Humidity. The barometer function uses five graphically arranged columns on the LC display to show not just the current air pressure hPa, but also changes which have occurred in the last 24 hours.

We like the fact that the Minox offers timing functions as well as weather data. This way the Minox can do double-duty as a match timer. That’s one less piece of kit to bring to the range.

With a “street price” of $249.00, the Minox Weatherstation is priced on a par with the Kestrel 4000 and is about fifty bucks cheaper than Kestrels’ top-of-the-line 4500 model. How does the Minox stack up against the Kestrels? Well, the Kestrel 4000 outputs Density Altitude, while the Minox (apparently) does not. The Kestrel 4000 can also record data points and download these to a computer. The Minox doesn’t offer a PC interface. The more expensive Kestrel 4500 has a digital compass so it can plot wind directions (crosswind, headwind, tailwind). It seems then, that the main advantages of the Minox are compact size and light weight (2.4 oz. for Minox vs. 3.6 oz. for Kestrel 4000).

Sri Lanka's wildlife takes some beating

A couple of nights ago Jack and I were watching a video of our last trip to Sri Lanka (sad I know, but until you’ve lived with Spanish TV for 6 years, don’t knock it) and we were reminded of the incredible variety of birds and animals that you find on that island paradise. Kingfishers, cormorants, weaver birds, parakeets, fireflies, monitor lizards, elephants – and that was just in the space of one trip down the Mahweli River in Kandy.

By comparison, the island of Tenerife is rather thin on the ground when it comes to wildlife – Whiskas being the exception of course.
We once had a bizarre conversation with a Brit ‘swallow’ on his last winter sojourn when he casually informed us that wild deer roamed the pine forests around the edge of Teide National Park. When pressed, he had to admit that his information was based solely on the existence of several traffic warning signs which clearly showed the outline of a deer within the red triangular framework. We assured him that there had undoubtedly been a cheap job lot of deer warning signs for sale and the Tinerfeños were using them to advise drivers to watch out for ‘mouflon’, in their typically mas o menos way (which incidentally is the reason why bends only ever occur at 3 kilometre intervals on Tenerife…there was a sale of ‘bends for 3 kilometres’ signs – okay that’s completely unsubstantiated, but I reckon it’s true).

Mouflon are in fact wild sheep with incredibly impressive long, curled horns like some sort of mythological creature. Which is quite appropriate really as we’ve never, ever seen one. Jack thought he saw some on a ridge in the Anaga Mountains once but they were too far away to be sure and to be honest, I thought they looked more like goats. The mouflon allegedly inhabit parts of the Teide National Park and graze on rare species of plant life so they’re considered pests and apparently are killed if spotted by rangers.
Still, the point is that in six years of travelling the island and never having seen one, it seems highly unlikely that they should warrant the use of warning signs to alert drivers to their presence.

He may not be monitor sized, but he's a handsome chap neverthless - Lagarto Tizon, native to Tenerife

Other than the illusive mouflon, we’re pretty much restricted to lizards or run-of-the-mill rabbits, rats, bats and assorted domestic animals. Even the birds, although some are clearly spectacular, pale into insignificance alongside Sri Lanka’s 400 plus species.

But then yesterday afternoon, just as I was leaving the car park to drive to a meeting in the south west of the island, I had to brake hard to avoid hitting a kestrel which swooped down right in front of the car, grabbed a large lizard in both claws and then struggled to achieve height with the weight, flying low in front of the bonnet until it adjusted its carrion and finally flew over the banana plantation wall.

The wildlife might not come up to Sri Lanka standards, but it can still put on a show for you when you least expect it.

Great Blue Heron

A Great Blue Heron takes flight over Duck Lake.

Ring-necked Pheasant

A Ring-necked Pheasant captured in flight near Duck Lake.

Chipmunk

A Chipmunk near St. Mary’s Lake.

Magpie

A Magpie in flight near Duck Lake.

Kestrel

A Kestrel in flight near Duck Lake.

Praying Mantis

A Praying Mantis in Lister, B.C.

Young Pied-billed Grebe

A young Pied-billed Grebe on Duck Lake.

Pied-billed Grebe

A slightly older Pied-billed Grebe on Duck Lake.

Western Grebe

A Western Grebe on Duck Lake.

Turkey Vultures

Turkey Vultures perched along Kootenay River near Creston, B.C.

Young Red-tailed Hawk

A young Red-tailed Hawk perched on a hay bale near Creston, B.C.

Red-tailed Hawk

A Red-tailed Hawk perched near Duck Lake.

Wood Duck

A Wood Duck near Duck Lake.

]]> http://inthehudz.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/busy-afternooon/ Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:45:44 +0000 inthehudz http://inthehudz.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/busy-afternooon/

We got to Vegas at about 1.00 local time. Quick stop at the Sands to pick up passes and then off to Boulder City to the OutDoor Demo. We were there for about 4 hours putting Hüdz on bikes and making friends. Here’s a quick gallery of a couple cool Hüdz-equipped bikes…

That's a lot of Cannondales. In fact that's about 1/3 to 1/4 of just the Super Sixes that they brought. The folks at C'dale weren't foolin' with a UniMog, a Semi Trailer, and more bikes than most good-sized shops carry. 30-40 sets of DA7900 Hüdz installed...

Sweet new top-end road bike from the guys at Fuji. Gotta love it even more with some red Hüdz...

Couple sets of white DA7900 Hüdz on the new HSL version of Kestrel's top end road machine.

An ever-fastidious Bob Parlee watches over his size-able demo fleet. Z4 replete with White Sram compatible Hüdz. They're some of the brand-new version that just started coming out of the mold on Friday. Available to the public in October...

The new Z5s were getting some incredibly sexy new carbon brakes from the guys at The Hive when we were installing the new Sram-compatible Hüdz. This is almost certainly the lightest fleet of demo bikes in Vegas, they probably rate highly on the sexy scale too...

Tomorrow I’ll try to get pics of the BMCs, Williers, Rocky Mountain ‘cross bikes, Raleighs, and others…

On September 11 and 12, Kestrel, Fairmont State University’s literature and art journal, will celebrate the publication of Issue 22 with readings by contributors.

Poets Marion Brown, Rob Merritt and Ellen McGrath Smith and fiction writers Roger Pincus and Marie Manilla will read from their work from 6-8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11, in the Brooks Gallery of Wallman Hall. Refreshments will be served.

Kestrel has been publishing poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, translations and visual art since 1993. Last spring the Anniversary Anthology issue featured more than 70 writers from Issues 13 to 19, including Gail Galloway Adams, Dave Smith, Eamon Grennan, Irene McKinney, Maxine Kumin, Stephen Dunn, Lucille Clifton and James Harms. Chuck Wyrostock, Janet McKenzie and Louise Lamar-Fuller are among the artists and photographers included in the Anthology.

Issue 22, also published in spring 2009, features the work of more than 20 writers and photography by Timothy Berg. For information, contact Donna Long, Associate Professor of English and Kestrel Editor, at dlong@fairmontstate.edu or (304) 367-4180.

This post, from a visit to the basin two weeks ago, has been a long time coming, but before I get to my horses, I’d like to offer a little prayer for the Pryor Mountain mustangs and all those who love and cherish those horses in particular.

Two weeks ago, our Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners were anticipating a visit with Dan Elkins and Karen Herman from New Mexico. Dan has been doing a technique of gathering wild horses called bait trapping for the past six years. Recently in the Carson National Forest in New Mexico, they implemented that state’s first PZP program. By using his unique mineral and salt mix, Dan is able to bring horses to a trap site by band, calmly. He can then corral an entire group of horses by family band or single out particular horses for removal. Since I visited the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse Range in September 2007 and learned about this alternative to helicopter-driven roundups, and realized documentation of a band could help, I’ve been working toward this goal for our next gather.

Dan and Karen also are certified to administer PZP, a fertility control drug that can reduce birth rates and thus the need for frequent gathers. With Dan and Karen offering both a humane option for gathering and removing horses (with just 22,000 acres of less-than-ideal habitat, it has to be done) AND the ability to implement a program designed to remove horses less often (which incidentally means the horses now in the basin may have the opportunity to live free and wild longer (forever?) on their home range), it seems to be a win-win project for us! Our fingers are collectively crossed that the BLM sees the logic here as well!

I went out early to scout the horses and spend some extra time with them alone. It was the first time I’d been out for an overnight trip since the almost-end of foaling season. And we come to the reason for such a long wait between horse stories: I saw every band but Seven’s, and I was able to spend some time with each of them – a nice change from the never-long-enough day trips. But it made for a LOT of photos, which just took a long time to go through. I do have a day job, ya know!

It was another one of those weekends that make it to the “amazing visit” category. The horses were pretty calm for the most part. Traveler’s band was the most unsettled, with both Chrome and Aspen swirling around them. And no, Jif still has not foaled, which you saw in the previous post.

Kreacher’s band was out past the Spring Creek canyon area when I first drove into the basin.

Hollywood’s band was first up at a close distance. Poco and Roach are still with the band, and they seem to have a relationship that works for all involved.

Mama, Daddy, baby

Piedra, Hollywood and Sage.

Baylee and Hollywood

Oh, that Hollywood; such a lover.

Perfect scratching post

Sage was very solid while Mama satisfied an itch.

Like begets like

Couldn’t tell these two are related, eh …??

Sage

 I dare you to look at this pic and not burst into a spontaneous chuckle!

Poco

Being the lieutenant has its perks. Poco has clearly been a visitor to the Wildcat Spring and Day Spa!

Roach

Isn’t he in great shape?

Hollywood

Thanks for a terrific visit, pal!

Steeldust’s band was lounging up the hill in the shade east of Wildcat. The usual cast of characters were in attendance, including these two misters:

Twister and Hook

I was glad to see these boys still together. I don’t know that you can say Hook is really taking care of 2-year-old Twister, but at least they’re staying together.

Mahogany and Sable

While I was watching Twister and Hook, who were on a hill across a little drainage from where Steeldust’s band was, Mahogany came walking behind me, followed by baby Sable and yearling Pinon … followed by Lt. Mouse. Hmm. What’s this? I wondered whether Mouse had sort of selected them out … but they went a little farther down the hill past me, then around some trees and back to the band. Like that’s what they had intended to do all along.

Mouse

Sable

A closer look at Mahogany’s little girl.

Alpha and Luna

The queens of Steeldust’s heart, err, band.

Shady boys

Storm and Steeldust and Alpha and others hanging out under the trees. It was warm – up to 92 degrees – but not unbearable.

Had just a short visit with them that time because I got a late start to the basin, and I hadn’t yet seen Grey/Traveler and his band, which meant I hadn’t seen Jif. I got a wonderful surprise when I got around to the formerly (!) dry pond right beside the road …

Water in a dry land

Yay! We’re unfortunately still waiting for just two of the five originally identified ponds to be dug out in the hopes that they will hold water when it rains enough. I’ll say here that my idea of quality and quantity of water don’t match the BLM’s idea for what the horses need, but I’ll also say that we’re working on that issue.

Next, I had the most amazing visit with Bounce’s band.

Gaia, Whisper and Alegre

Beautiful mama with her gorgeous babies. That little Whisper is so cute I can hardly stand it! And Gaia, who has been such a mama’s girl (and step-daddy’s, too), is finding her courage to indulge her curiosity.

Bounce and family

Alegre and Whisper

Whisper

Isn’t he just handsome? Clearly going grey.

Family backyard

Bounce

Coming to say hello.

It was an amazing visit I can’t do justice to with pictures.

Then Grey/Traveler’s band was back in the east pocket beyond the pond – Chrome and Aspen both with the band. And another great surprise! That pond was full, too! Among other things, this might tell you where the rain is falling in the basin.

Little Miss Friendly

I wonder whether Daddy knows his baby girl (Terra) is fraternizing with the enemy (Chrome).

Aspen in the lead

As you can see, Traveler had other concerns. That’s Jif behind him.

Speaking of Jif, let’s show off the belly again:

Jif

She’s in good condition.

Iya and Two Boots

So … Iya, front/left, is a yearling, and Two Boots (named with a nod to Pryor stallion Two Boots, by the way) is her 2-year-old “big” sister. They don’t look much alike, besides the size comparison, do they? But as far as I know (???), they have the same sire, a grey stallion I called Junior who was gathered and removed in 2007.

Cuatro

Little man following Mama. You can see his grey-ness, too.

Terra

Big, beautiful sister! No sign of a limp.

Grandma and grandbaby

Houdini and her baby Two Boots’ baby Cuatro!

Traveler

Chrome

He is persistent …

Git

Traveler going after Aspen.

Leaving it to the lieutenant

Here, he’s letting Chrome take care of Aspen …

Airs above ground

Quite a show, but they didn’t come to blows (sorry).

Traveler had to keep Chrome away, too, and at one point, they came around the band to where I was.

One grey

Chrome

Chrome was surprised enough to find himself close to me that he was distracted, and Traveler went confidently back to his band. Sorry, pal.

As if that wasn’t enough, Bounce came trotting over to get the low-down.

Wind in his mane

Defiant

Bounce and Aspen. My goodness, check out that kick!

Dominance

There was a great deal of sniffing and posturing, but in the end, neither Aspen nor Chrome really challenged elder Bounce.

Belly view

Another view of our girl.

Jif and Iya and band

The band was remarkably calm, given what was going on, but they didn’t stay in one place very long.

So I left them to their evening and decided to try to find Duke’s merry little band. They proved not very hard to find, right by the road near the northwestern entrance.

Duke

Maybe you know my penchant for dark bay horses, but don’t tell me he doesn’t just glow in that lovely light! The sun was very low, and the shadow from the hill on the boundary was creeping steadily toward the horses.

Corona and Raven

Love these lovely girls! Corona seems another “old-soul” girl, a lot like Ember. She doesn’t emote much, but she watches everything.

Overtaken by shade

Duke, Corona and Raven

To end the day, I headed back into the sunshine, looking for horses glowing in the light.

On the move

Alpha leads boys Storm, Butch and Sundance through a shallow little draw to a meadow right by the road back near Wildcat Spring.

Year mates

Yearlings Pinon and Ember, followed by 2-year-old Kestrel.

Comanche

Bringing up the rear.

Three girls

Ember, right, grazes with “aunt” Mahogany and Sable.

Satellites

First Sgt. Comanche, right/foreground, and Lt. Mouse grazing toward the band.

Last light

It was a simply gorgeous evening. That’s Comanche.

End o the day

At some point, you just have to put down the camera and enjoy the scenery … and the company.

A beautiful, beautiful, wonderful day.

I work at the Wildlife Center where I’ve been at since early July. I worked there previously from 8/06-5/07, and decided recently that I needed to come back. I missed the birds, and my life lacked purpose, and I had too much time on my hands and wanted to do good, and be closer to nature.

I work with two supervisors. One of them was there last time I was, and lets me do more interesting things than the other one does. The other supervisor is fairly new and doesn’t know all that I can do yet. They each have their own style, and both are good to work with thus far, but I have more interesting days with the one who has been there longer.

The wildlife center where I work provides care and rehabilitation for wild animals that live in this area, and we also occasionally take in exotic animals that have been found, and find people who want to adopt them.

There are also birds and other animals, that, due to injury or other reason, are non-releaseable animals. These are our educational animals, also referred to as residents. They are taken to schools and locations to be shown and talked about. They are our animal ambassadors.

Since I cannot afford the preventive rabies vaccines, which cost almost $700.00, I do not work with mammals ordinarily. I work with birds. We get in on average 1,700 animals per year – mostly birds. I work with the raptors – hawks, owls and falcons. We mostly have wild birds which will be released, and a few residents – some of which are mostly tame. My favorite resident is a Barn Owl.

Today I went to work, and before I could gear up and get started on the walk-in raptor enclosures (various size rooms – from the size of a small bedroom to much longer flight cages), we took in a badly mangled jack rabbit that needed to be euthanized. Some animals we just can’t save, so we put them down as humanely as possible.

I had never put an animal to sleep before, but really wanted to end the poor rabbit’s suffering, and also learn an important task, so I asked my supervisor if I could. She showed me how, and I put the rabbit to sleep.

I am not a hunter or a fisherman, and not in the habit of killing animals, although I do eat them. Yes, this is hypocritical. I went vegetarian for several months, but it was quite stressful (lots of things were stressful during that time) so I stopped.

The only animals I have killed in the past 20 years or so have been a few birds that cats had left injured. This was the first time I had killed a rabbit. It is an unusual thing to take a life, even if it is the best thing for the animal.  I did not feel very sad, because I have been reading books on Buddhism, and working on accepting life as it is. So, I accepted that I was brought a rabbit with terrible injuries who needed the only help that could be given it. I felt good that I could end its pain and send it on to its next life, if there is one.

I am not a Buddhist, but may someday become one, or maybe not. It is one thing to read and study Buddhism, quite another to actually practice meditation. I am studying, and applying a teaching. It helped today, when dealing with the rabbit.

There are two small enclosures, each with two red tail hawks, and one hawk in each has attacked me – the hawk in one of the cages has attacked me repeatedly. They don’t attack other workers. Strange. I chose not to go into those cages, and asked another person on staff – a tall and attractive blonde with a mellow personality who, surprisingly, does not seem full of herself at all – if she would mind going in those cages, since the birds have not bothered her at all in the past. She obliged, and was fine.

I am uninjured at this point in time – I was able to shove the birds away. The woman who helped me today has not been attacked by any raptors, as far as I know.

After she and I worked in the various cages – power-hosing the gravel on the ground to clean it of droppings, picking up feathers and the dead mice which the birds had been fed, but which they had not eaten,  we went into another building so I could fetch our resident Raven, and she could help me.

The raven does not like to be held, even though he loves company. He lives in a fairly large enclosure, and she and I had to chase him around some before I could grab onto his jesses (leather straps attached to anklets – you’ve seen these on falcons in movies and on tv).

I sat him up on my gloved hand – large leather gloves that protect both the hand and part of the arm and have kevlar woven in – and attached a leash to the jesses, which I wound around my hand, and slowly took the bird inside the main building.

In the main building, we have a critical care room where the animals are worked on, a hospital cage room – very small cages used for injured birds and other animals that have not yet healed enough to be moved to larger quarters, two rooms for songbirds too young or injured to be moved to songbird flight cages, a kitchen, bathroom and lobby with desk and computer for intake – people come in with songbirds, raptors, racoons, skunks, possums, coyotes, foxes, etc.

In the main building, a perch was set up on a scale, and the scale zeroed out. I put the raven on the perch very briefly to weigh him, then took him into the treatment room where he received an injection from the main supervisor, then I took him back to his room.

Later, I cleaned up in the main owl flight cage where we have 15 Great Horned Owls – some of them dangerous, and the main hawk cage, where we currently have 14 hawks – mostly red tail hawks, but also a few red shoulder hawks and one Swainson’s hawk. Certain types of hawks can be housed together safely – what I mean is they will get along fine and not kill each other. We do not mix types of owls.

I also cleaned up the enclosure of more barn owls, great horned owls, our resident kestrel, our resident merlin, our resident barn owl, and a marsh hawk – also called a nothern harrier. Yes, I know these names of birds should be capitalized, but it is just past 2 AM and I’m tired and my eyes hurt.. so I’ll wrap this up pretty soon.

I got over a hundred dead mice from the fridge to feed the raptors – the wild ones don’t get live food until we are ready to test them before release, and the resident birds are incapable of killing live prey.

It took over 3 hours to get this all done, and then I took a break, ate, drank lots of water and gatorade. I sweat a LOT today -  quite humid for this part of California and just under 100 degrees. It was overcast though, for a change, and I liked that.

After my break, I took out the barn owl on my glove (with leash of course), then held the kestrel in his cage – he is a fairly new resident, and not tame yet, and then took out the merlin -  also a small falcon. The kestrel is the smallest species of falcon in North America, and merlins are just a litle bigger, and a lot LOUDER. The merlin quieted down some after a little while though and was mostly good while sitting on my hand.

Before I had gotten in to work, a woman had brought in a gecko inside a ten gallon tank, and I was offered the gecko to adopt, so I said yes. I am not sure if I want this gecko – some supplies need to be bought and I have little cash, but just before I left work, I took the lizard tank into my car, strapped a seat belt around the tank, and headed home.

Tmw. I go to a pet store and get the needed supplies. I’m not even a lizard fan, I like snakes, but maybe I will keep the lizard, or else find him (or her?) another good home.

That’s all I’ll write about today.

A few days ago we showcased the omni-directional Windtronic 2 Wind Meter in our Daily Bulletin. We proposed a group buy (at $85.00) if there was enough interest. Well readers were interested, but we’ve called off the group buy.

Windtronic 2 at $59.90 Beats Group Buy Deal
Don’t be disappointed — the group buy was nixed because Forum Member FClassRon found a source that is selling the Windtronic 2 for a lot less money. Ron searched the web and found that Hobby-Lobby.com is selling Windtronic 2 units for just $59.90 plus shipping. That’s lower than our wholesale price… by a lot.

CLICK HERE to order Windtronic 2 for $59.90.

Click the above link to get your Windtronic 2 for just $59.90, or visit hobby-lobby.com and search for product #KE421. That’s an awesome deal — this unit sells for $99.00 almost everywhere else.

We don’t know how many units Hobby-Lobby.com has available at this price, so don’t delay. We’re sorry there won’t be a group buy, but this deal gets you a Windtronic 2 for nearly $40.00 off retail. Can’t argue with that!

8/20 UPDATE: The link to the Hobby-Lobby.com page with the Windtronic Deal isn’t working anymore, but you can still search for product #KE421 and put it in your shopping cart. We assume Hobby-Lobby has run out, but it appears you can back-order by searching for #KE421 on the Hobby-Lobby.com web site, and then clicking the “Buy Now” button.

I’ve been away from the Blog for a while, thanks to my holidays in Aveyron, south central France.

Buzzard

As it’s the harvesting season over there (and here, for that matter), I was afforded a really great chance to witness Buzzards over there in all their glory. To see these wonderful birds soaring over the fields where the grain is being harvested is a really impressive sight. Buzzards grow to ca. 55cm long, with a wingspan of around 120 cm when adult.

On one day, I watched 11 Buzzards over a field, twisting and turning in search of food, uncovered fleeing from the machinery in the field. They are incredibly flexible and able to turn and dive quickly. Thanks to a friend’s 7x to 21x zoom binoculars, I got really good views. In the good French light, I could really appreciate the colouration of both the underside and back of the birds. Beautiful!

Interestingly, on another day, I saw one solitary Kestrel hovering over the same field at the same time as 7 or 8 Buzzards. The Kestrel caught something; the Buzzards did not.

After such magnificent sights, I’ve resolved to getting a proper camera and lens for wildlife photography. Any suggestions and recommendations gladly received.

My buddy Steve tells me often, “peaks & valleys,” “gutters & strikes.”  In the course of a day there can be so many emotional moments- part of the day is wonderful… part, not so much. 

Today, was one of those days.  I got up early to feed the horses, so that I could go to “Beach Church” with the McCloud family.  I started going to “Beach Church” or “Boat Church” the day after John’s funeral.  Before that, I can’t even remember the last time I went to church.  I just feel like my soul has a lot of healing to do and maybe church can help.  The McClouds are truly wonderful people and “beach church” is pretty informal, so it’s a good way to get my foot wet, so to speak. 

I got out the door to feed at 6AM.  As soon as I opened the door the first sound I heard was a mourning dove.  A misty fog covered the back field and began to lift.  The horses were glad to see me.  The hay had a sweet smell.  Things were off to a good start.

The McClouds showed up & we left for “beach church.”  Nathaniel was his usual charmer and behaved pretty well… or as well as a “yearling” can behave.  During the sermon the pastor talked about a conversation that he had had with some friends about if you had a tattoo what would it say and where would you put it.  Of course that got me thinking.  I know I’d never have a tattoo because I’m not that type, but I knew where I would put it & more or less what it would say or be a picture of.  The location would be over my heart & it would have something to do with John… probably something along the lines of “Forever in my heart” or “Love Always.”  It was all I could do to not start crying, but I held it together.  Of course, it’s not to difficult to get re-focused when you child is pointing out birds or getting wiggly.  During church, a Bald Eagle flew over the water several times.  After I noticed a blue heron standing silently.  “Beach church” is just a neat experience.  I enjoy the songs, Nathaniel likes the guitar & has fun. 

Afterwards, Pastor Mark came over and again expressed his condolences & offered to listen anytime I want to talk.  I think I might take him up on the offer.

Then we went to breakfast with the McClouds at Buck’s.  It was DELICIOUS!!!  The waffles were delicious & I enjoyed more creamed chipped beef than I probably should have eaten.  But it was good & it was a buffet, so you’re supposed to make sure you get your money’s worth, right?  Of course my physique shows that I’ve gotten my money’s worth at quite a few buffets over the years… oh well…

My heart also goes out to an online friend who lost her husband yesterday after a three month illness.  I was saddened to see her post this AM.  My heart hurts for her… only those of us who have lost a spouse that you truly love can understand the feelings and emotions that go along with it.  She is a very relious person and I know that her religion will help her through her tough times. 

I went home & put Nathaniel down for a nap & I took a nap as well.  I had friends who were supposed to come over in the afternoon, so I figured I’d take a nice nap first.  Then I got a phone call saying they wouldn’t be able to make it.  I got a little down.  I’d been looking forward to seeing them & I felt lonely.

I got on facebook for a little while.  Got myself cheered back up after a nice chat with another friend. 

I had an urge to go on a walk, but my footsies were still pretty sore from my long walk yesterday (at least 4 miles, probably closer to 5 at the Conowingo Dam).   With the Philly LiveStrong Challenge coming up, I didn’t want to risk blistering my feet, since they’d been pretty close yesterday.  I think I wanted to walk to see if I could find myself or just escape & enjoy the sights…. two different things… doesn’t really make sense, but then a lot of things don’t make sense lately.  I guess it would have depended where I went walking as to which emotion I felt.   

Anyway, I opted to take kiddo outside.  It was HOT & almost 6 pm.  But, we found a shady spot in the backyard.  Nathaniel happily plucked grass.  Rascal & Punkin came & joined us.  The mares kept us entertained.  In the distance we could hear cows from down the road & mourning doves.  Nathaniel enjoyed bird watching.  We even got a rare treat when a kestrel flew & landed on the electric fence, not too far from us.  It only stayed for a few brief seconds.  I love the kestrels, but boy they are hard to spot & don’t stick around very long!  In the years that we’ve had the property I probably haven’t seen kestrels more than a dozen or so times. 

As darkness began to came, I thought I’d better get Nathaniel inside before the mosquitos came out.  I fed him & put him to bed.  I fed the horses. 

Now, here I am, in the dark… feeling a little lonely and missing John.  Nights are always the hardest… after Nathaniel is in bed… after things have quieted down. 

Honestly, I’m hoping to go back to night shift when I return to work.  I want to see familiar faces and go back to a job that I know… and I don’t want to lay alone in the dark missing John & crying.  Very few people seem to understand that.  Of course, right now I have a bigger issue– finding care for my child.  The arrangements fell through and now I’m back to square one.  One more thing to have to worry about on an already full plate.  I’ll figure something out…  don’t know how… but I will…

If you want to win shooting matches you’ll need to gauge wind speed and direction. While many shooters use the excellent Kestrel line of pocket Weather Trackers, many top shooters are turning to the Windtronic 2, a German-made unit that measures wind speeds from any direction.

The Windtronic features rotating cups mounted on a vertical axis. With this design you don’t have to align the unit with the wind, unlike the Kestrel WindMeter or SpeedTech WindMate™ devices. Many users feel the Windtronic’s unique design allows it to read wind speeds more accurately; it certainly can respond to shifting winds more easily. The omni-directional functionality of the Windtronic allows it to be mounted on a stand or tripod and continuously display current wind speed, max wind speed, and average velocity.

The Windtronic 2 doesn’t guage temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, or density altitude, unlike the more advanced (and expensive) Kestrel 4000/4500 model pocket weather trackers. The Windtronic only records wind speeds, but it does that one task exceptionally well.

Made in Germany by Kaindl Electronics, the Windtronic 2 comes with a 2-year manufacturers warranty and normally retails for $99.00. Dealers include Windtronic.us and Windpowersports.com.

NOTE: If there is sufficient interest, AccurateShooter.com may be able to organize a group buy with the price to our readers of $85.00 for the Windtronic 2 by itself (no flex tripod). Please comment here if you are definitely interested. This would be a one-time offer on a pre-order basis.

You may be curious about the blog title- Rainbows & Mourning Doves. 

Let me take a step back.  John was a career firefighter with Annapolis Fire Department and a volunteer with Community Fire Company of Rising Sun.  He was a firefighter since way before I met John and I was so proud when he got hired at Annapolis.  He finally had his dream job. 

John was more than just a firefighter.  John was extremely active in the fire company & rose to the rank of Captain.  Often John had bigger accomplishements behind the seens in the innerworkings of the fire company.  He was awarded national grants to purchase equipment.  He was on multiple comittees for purchasing equipment… and much more…

Going back to purchasing equipment… John was on the committe to purchase the Ladder Truck… the truck was John’s baby.  It had been said by several people that “the Truck was “John’s Truck” he just let everybody else  use it.”

John had a firefighter’s funeral.  On the day of his viewing, a huge thunderstorm came through.  It even hailed.  My friend, Charlie, came thru and pulled me out of line to go outside.  Overtop of “John’s Ladder Truck” was a huge rainbow.  I think that was John’s way of telling me that everything was okay.  Apparently when the rainbow started it was a double rainbow!  Rainbows will never mean the same thing to me again. 

The rainbow helped a lot, but I still miss John terribly.

Now for the Mourning Doves. 

We live on a small farm that to me is my little slice of Heaven.  John never was a horse person, but he wanted me to be happy.  It was his idea to look for property large enough so I could have my dream of having my horses at home.  I was skeptical that we could afford it.  On a bike ride, John found the sign for the property and we scheduled an appointment.  Long story short, we purchased the property , became “official dirt owners” (as we liked to say), and saved our pennies and were finally able to build in 2004.  John picked the house… it was his dream house.  We were so proud to watch the house being built.  I love that I can look out the window & see my horses.  I love the deer.  I love the many birds that live there.  I love all of the peace & beauty of nature that I can see and feel around me.  I love the rare sighting of a kestrel or of a heron taking off from the distant pond.  I love the creek and the woods.  The skies over Leaky Creek are filled with beautiful clouds and lovely sunrises & sunsets.  I feel at peace on our farm.  It’s the place that John & I picked together for our dream and we were going to live there and grow old together. 

Nathaniel loves watching the birds, too.  One of his first words was “bird!”  He does an elaborate gesture & point & shows you where the bird is while loudly proclaiming “bird!” 

Three mourning doves lived in the area, but I don’t think that any specifically lived on our property.  After John’s passing, I frequently see the single mourning dove.  It often sits on the house or the run in shed while I’m out feeding.  Often the first sound I hear in the mourning is the mourning dove’s coo.   Once when somebody stopped to visit the dove flew away… as if it is just to be seen by Nathaniel & myself. 

John was somebody who was pretty much black & white… not a lot of grey areas with him.  In some ways, I think very few people REALLY knew John.  But, if you were part of that inner circle then you knew exactly how he felt about people and things.  He had very high standards for the people around him, and he had those same high standards for himself.    You knew how he felt & if you asked for an opinion, he’d give you his opinion even if he knew you wouldn’t like it. 

So… a mourning dove makes perfect sense… Nathaniel loves watching birds.  John loved Nathaniel with all his heart.  Wikipedia describes mouning doves not in several ways- their sad coo that gives them their name; “The Mourning Dove is monogamous and forms strong pair bonds”, “Mourning Doves are devoted parents; nests are very rarely left unattended by the adults.^“ 

^{John & I were absolutely devoted to each other.  On trips away from their wives or girlfiends, not many men would pass up the opportunity to visit a strip club and to instead return to their hotel room & call their loved one.  John did.  He also told me that the real reason for summer trips downtown weren’t for ice cream or gelatos, but  rather that certain people liked to watch the girls in their skimpy outfits.  lol…  Heck, when asked who I thought was the sexiest actor, I’d quip, why do I need to look at other men, I have all that I want here.  John on the other hand found Helen Hunt & Sandra (Sandy) Bullock to be pretty hot.  Although, Sandy lost some points for marrying Jessee James.  Neither of us could quite see that attraction}  

^{John was the best father that a child could ask for and a wife could want.  In many respects, I think John was a better father than I am a mother.  From the beginning, John could pinpoint what Nathaniel needed and he was such a caring & loving father.  I could get frustrated.  Not, John, strong and steady… that was the way John always was.} 

^{John was a strong believer that the best person to raise a child is his/her parents.  We fought so hard to keep Nathaniel out of childcare.  My work was very generous and allowed us to work opposite schedules for 2008.  When 2009 came along, I used vacation days to stretch the time that we could care for Nathaniel ourselves.  We had a way figured to make it work thru May, sadly, John’s melanoma turned stage IV in February.} 

^{So, the mourning dove makes perfect sense…}

^{& now you see why the blog is titled…”Rainbows & Mourning Doves”}

9.00am and He’s got into Her seat, pulled me forward a few feet on the drive and then got out again. What’s he up to now? Call that a test drive?! Ah! – making enough room to get his pudgy tummy between me and the hedge while He fills my water tank – must mean we’re away and I’ll have to say a fond farewell to the dogs and my holiday home. About 30 minutes later, She’s in the driving seat and we are, indeed, off.

After about 40 minutes we pull into a grassy, sloping car park at Lulworth Cove and He’s getting all excited, bouncing up and down and saying that He can’t believe He’s finally gotten here. Turns out He’d wanted to come here since He was knee-high to a leek (well He is Welsh!!). Btw, the pic at the very top is what happens when you combine the two just above, along with a few more, using some clever stitching software and shows the entire cove.

On their return, He arrived back first and stood next to me until She arrived and they then put their bags on board and then went off for food and mucky beer in the pub, before we set off again.

There was hardly a bird to be heard as we gathered at the Safari Britain campsite on a lovely August morning. The previous day had been hot, but this morning was warm with a welcome breeze and a little light cloud cover.

Moving down from the campsite towards the Coach Road, the beech trees started to give up some signs of life: first, a Great Spotted Woodpecker exclaiming ‘tchick!’ in typical style, somewhere unseen in the canopy; and, soon after, the first of two Green Woodpeckers, issuing the laughing ‘yaffle‘ that gives them their colloquial name.

Meanwhile a Robin ‘ticked’ from some scrub and over the fields there sailed a number of Woodpigeons that had avoided ending up on the campfire the previous day; at least one gave its five-syllable cooing from the hedgerow. A young Chiffchaff – our only warbler of the day – dropped into a bush close to the group and called plaintively, as they will be doing a lot all over the South Downs between now and October, when most depart.

Striking out from the treeline and through the meadow towards Tilton, we wandered into the first of the morning’s butterflies: Common Bues, Painted Ladies and Small Tortoiseshells, animating the flower-filled grassland in every direction. And then too the first surprise of the day: a great Raven, seen as it flew up from the ground, into the hedge and then back out, before disappearing over the hill. Though no longer a rare bird on the Downs, this was the first time we’ve seen one on a SB walk – in this case a good omen rather than a gothic warning.

Following the curves of the lower escarpment east, meadow flowers and butterflies continued to hold the attention until a show of five Kestrels lifted chins towards the sky. One boldly-coloured adult male with a missing central tail feather seemed totally unfazed by us and hunted around the group for several minutes.

Dropping down into one of the dry coombes, we had another bit of luck, when a Little Owl was flushed from a patch of thistles on the escarpment and dropped into the hedgerow next to the arable fields. Initially it seemed that this fleeting view would be it, but then an obliging squadron of Chaffinches from the nearby copse decided to take action, flying out into the hedge en masse and ‘chinking’ loudly at the spot where the owl was trying to remain incognito. With a little human intervention, the owl and its attendant flock were persuaded to head back to the wood, giving everyone in the group a view at they skimmed across the maize: another Safari Britain first.

Resuming the walk to Tilton Bostal, Meadow Pipits flew up from around us, and Kestrels continued to hunt all the hillside, often hanging  in the air amid a steady stream of Herring Gulls moving East. Then, as we neared the top, a big raptor blew in from the West, not far above our heads: a Red Kite. Not the brightest, but magnificent nevertheless, it showed off its wonderfully forked tail and angular wings before sailing quickly over and out toward Berwick: our third ‘first’ of the morning, and a long-awaited sighting after so many in the spring nearby at Glynde and thereabouts.

To the sound of the usual Yellowhammer singing ‘little bit of bread and no cheese’, and a few Linnets bouncing around, we headed up onto the top and joined the South Downs Way. In the grass here, there were several Wall butterflies, and  tantalising glimpse of what may have been a Dark Green Fritillary, and then, looking back North, some saw a distant Common Buzzard to add to our tally of raptors.

With lunchtime beckoning, we headed back towards Firle well pleased with the morning’s catch and not expecting anything more. But dropping back down into the campsite, the kite – or another – drifted over eastwards again, this time directly over the tents – as if to say: “In case you didn’t believe it the first time….”

Pretty much a perfect morning.