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Year: 2009

Meanwhile on Other Blogs…

January 8, 2009 • • 2 Comments

I’ve found a lot of great stuff lately, and so, a links post.

Heather wrote a very nice review of A Place Without a Postcard.

Jon Swift included a post I wish I never had to write on his compendium of the Best Blog Posts of 2008 (Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves). Okay, so I picked the post, but it was nice to be invited.

I and the Bird #91 is out on From the Faraway, Nearby, very cool travel/nature/photography site that I intend to start following. Also discovered in this month’s installment of I and the Bird, are some really interesting and compelling sites that will likely become regular reads: Nature Remains, a celebration of the natural world by a gifted writer; the unclassifiable Via Negativa, which is definitely worth a detailed exploration, and Teach me about Birdwatching!!! where I hope to learn more about South American birds.

A few weeks ago, I discovered two really good sites: Flint Hills, Tall Grass and Coyote Crossing. And, let’s face it, blogs with coyote in the name are just cool.

Today, I learned from drivelocity how to put a favicon on my site.

Well. That all makes for a good day of reading.

Old Possum’s Post of Practical Greyhounds

January 6, 2009 • • 5 Comments

On the evening of the 23rd of December, I heard some hoarse panting in the backyard, but it was just my dogs (ouch!). I went to investigate and found that Joey and Phoebe had fenced this little guy.

A possum fenced by the dogs
An opossum fenced by the dogs

I went back for the camera while he waited to have his picture snapped.  He kept waiting there for several hours. I know possums aren’t renowned for their quickness, but this guy was really not in any kind of hurry whatsoever.

Many people are repulsed by possums, but I find them quite interesting and even a little bit cute. It’s hard not to like North America’s only marsupial even if we usually use his nickname instead of the full Opossum that separates him from his Australian kin.

One summer while working at Camp Periwinkle, I was walking back to my cabin in the middle of the night. I had my flashlight off to better admire the stars when I bumped into one of the camp cats.

Or so I thought. (Maybe we humans shouldn’t always be so quick to judge the quickness of other species.)

I bent down to pet the cat, but I was surprised by how coarse its fur was. In an instant, I grew suspicious and flicked on my light to find myself face-to-snout with a possum. He regarded me with indifference as I jumped back and into the air. I’m forever grateful the little guy didn’t bite me as I’ve heard rabies shots are not something one willingly signs up for.

Joey and Phoebe, however, being much more practical, knew last month’s possum as an intruder and had they been able to climb the fence, they might have gotten a nice possum stew for their Christmas dinner. As things stood, though, they received their usual bowls of kibble.

Project FeederWatch Week 8

January 5, 2009 • • Leave a comment

The first Project FeederWatch count for 2009 was a pretty good one. Two new birds entered my count, and both of them are also life birds for me.

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet came by on New Year’s Eve. I had seen him the day before, but couldn’t get a good enough look at him for an ID. He came again on Wednesday. I was sitting on the porch when I noticed him at the suet feeder. They’re tiny birds, but I was close enough to see most of the field marks without binoculars.

I went inside and came back with my Sibley guide and some binocs and was able to study him long enough to ID him. Thus, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet became my last life bird for 2008.

He was good enough to come by the feeders again on both of my count days, but he didn’t bring any friends. He did venture over to the pinecone feeders for some peanut buttered seeds.

On Sunday another new bird showed up at the suet feeder and became my first life bird for 2009: the Orange-crowned Warbler.

At first sight I thought he was the kinglet again, but on closer inspection I saw that he had no wing bars and a yellowish breast. When he turned upside down to get at the suet, I got a good look at his rump, which was bright yellow.

He came back a few times and each time, I was able to use my guide books to narrow him down more and more until I was certain he was in fact an Orange-crowned Warbler, which is one of only a small number of warbler species that winters this far north.

Other than those two, the usual suspects all made an appearance, with the Chipping Sparrows hitting a high count and the House Sparrows still unusually low. Perhaps they’re still leery about the hawk we had last week.

Here’s the count:

  • Black-crested Titmouse (1)
  • Carolina Wren (1)
  • White-winged Dove (6)
  • Carolina Chickadee (2)
  • Chipping Sparrow (9)
  • Bewick’s Wren (1)
  • Northern Cardinal (2)
  • House Sparrow (1)
  • Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
  • Northern Mockingbird (1)
  • Orange-crowned Warbler (1)

Wrens at the Pinecone Feeder

January 2, 2009 • • 5 Comments
A Carolina Wren stops by early
A Carolina Wren stops by early

For Christmas our nephew and neice (with some help from their mom, I’m sure) made us some pinecone bird feeders made by using peanut butter to stick birdseed to the pinecone. I hung them from a hanging plant and sure enough, the birds were interested.

The first visitor was a Carolina Wren who seemed to enjoy swinging back and forth on it between bites of seed. A little while later (after the light calmed down and made for better shooting) his smaller cousin, the Bewick’s Wren came by to enjoy some of the peanut buttered seed.

A Bewick's Wren stops by for a snack
A Bewick's Wren stops by for a snack

I love these kinds of simple homemade gifts. So do the birds.

Coyote Mercury’s New Look for 2009

January 1, 2009 • • 1 Comment

For several months I’ve been wanting to change the look of the blog. I searched high and low for a theme that would have a simple, uncluttered look. I wanted compatability with WordPress 2.7’s new features as well as image pages and a larger content area to display larger images.

Then, inspired by Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (see my post about Zen and the Art and its impact on this blog), I decided that it would be of higher Quality to learn CSS and do the theme myself.

I used some pieces of my old Gila theme (which I had heavily modified over the years), but rather than thinking thoughts like “what can I make Gila do?” I tried to focus on making the site look how I want it and then learning how to do it myself.

More than anything, I wanted something that had a clean and simple design, if not exactly minimalist. The home page, my book page, stories & poems page, and the about me page reflect that. The blog page differs because there’s just more that I like on the sidebar there.

Click the photo below for a look at the image page. Most of the photos I’ve posted since mid-November will link to their own pages now.

Some trees near the pond
Some trees near the pond

Additionally, I wanted to minimize sidebar clutter and focus on sidebar info that’s actually used by people who visit this site. Archives and most of the links on the blogroll now have their own page (friends/family/favorite links are staying in the sidebar). I also rewrote the about me page to make it more personal.

I’m pleased with the end result, but I’ll probably tinker with it a bit more as things come to mind.

Please let me know if anything looks wonky in your browser or if there’s something obvious that seems to be missing.