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Random Post Is Quite Random
Jan. 3rd, 2011 01:53 amI clicked on "post an entry" without any thought in mind as to what to say. I do that sometimes just to force myself to say something.
Um, I've seen a lot of "what I've done that you haven't" posts, and I must say, I don't approve, there's an air of "neener, neener, I'm awesome, you suck" about them. I'm probably just jealous cuz I don't have anything awesome or name-droppy to mention. Or that anything awesome and unique to me wouldn't mean anything to anyone else.
2010 sucked, and we're glad it's over. I know of very few people who say they had a good year.
New Year's Eve, Luke and I went downtown in the afternoon, just for the heck of it. Had lunch, did the market. It was way more packed than we were expecting. I went into "too many people, must escape" mode pretty quickly. But it was a nice sunny day, and the mood was upbeat. Later, we curled up on the couch and re-watched Attenborough's Life of Birds. I had a bottle of chanpagne, but we didn't bother opening it.
New Year's day, we set the alarm for 7am, and we went over to Greenlake for a dawn birdwalk. OMG cold! In the 20's (Fahrenheit) and clear. We start at the Aquatheater, and go clockwise. When we got there, the sun was just coming over the horizon. Despite the cold there were plenty of people walking dogs and jogging last night's indulgences away.
Birds seen, in the waterfowl department:
*Canada geese
*Mallards
*Gadwalls, males were displaying to the females. When they quack, they sound a bit like Harpo Marx's horn.
*Northern Shovelers, last time we were at Greenlake, we only saw females, but today there were also males about.
*American Widgeons, pretty little ducks with a three-tone whistle. Whenever we see them, one of us starts singing "American Woman" by the Guess Who. "American Widgeon, swimmin in the sea-ee, American Widgeon, nommin that sea wee-eed." Yeah, Luke and I are weird that way...
*Buffle-heads
*Common Mergansers
*Hooded Mergansers, beautiful, beautiful little ducks.
For non-ducks, we had:
*Seagulls
*Coots
*Double Crested Cormorants
*Grebes, most likely Pied.
*Belted Kingfishers
*Crows
*Chickadees
*Golden Crowned Kinglets, tiny little birds, so cute we could hardly stand it. A flock took over a tree, and we asked someone who was also birdwatching what they were. It's possible we've seen them around before, but now we'll know what they are when we spot them again. As we continued our walk, they were everywhere.
*Cooper's Hawk, sitting still and patient in a tree. There were songbirds in a nearby tree, and they knew he was there, they were very, very quiet.
The last time we went to Greenlake, in November, we saw two Bald Eagles. We would have walked right under the eagle in the tree, and never seen it, but two ladies were watching it, and pointed it out. Then it flew to the small island on the west side of the lake, and joined another eagle who was in the water taking a bath. Very cool.
Luke and I were home by 11am, and made French toast. By noon, the exertions of the morning, and a massive food stupor hit us both and we went back to bed. I slept till 4pm and had very strange dreams...
Um, I've seen a lot of "what I've done that you haven't" posts, and I must say, I don't approve, there's an air of "neener, neener, I'm awesome, you suck" about them. I'm probably just jealous cuz I don't have anything awesome or name-droppy to mention. Or that anything awesome and unique to me wouldn't mean anything to anyone else.
2010 sucked, and we're glad it's over. I know of very few people who say they had a good year.
New Year's Eve, Luke and I went downtown in the afternoon, just for the heck of it. Had lunch, did the market. It was way more packed than we were expecting. I went into "too many people, must escape" mode pretty quickly. But it was a nice sunny day, and the mood was upbeat. Later, we curled up on the couch and re-watched Attenborough's Life of Birds. I had a bottle of chanpagne, but we didn't bother opening it.
New Year's day, we set the alarm for 7am, and we went over to Greenlake for a dawn birdwalk. OMG cold! In the 20's (Fahrenheit) and clear. We start at the Aquatheater, and go clockwise. When we got there, the sun was just coming over the horizon. Despite the cold there were plenty of people walking dogs and jogging last night's indulgences away.
Birds seen, in the waterfowl department:
*Canada geese
*Mallards
*Gadwalls, males were displaying to the females. When they quack, they sound a bit like Harpo Marx's horn.
*Northern Shovelers, last time we were at Greenlake, we only saw females, but today there were also males about.
*American Widgeons, pretty little ducks with a three-tone whistle. Whenever we see them, one of us starts singing "American Woman" by the Guess Who. "American Widgeon, swimmin in the sea-ee, American Widgeon, nommin that sea wee-eed." Yeah, Luke and I are weird that way...
*Buffle-heads
*Common Mergansers
*Hooded Mergansers, beautiful, beautiful little ducks.
For non-ducks, we had:
*Seagulls
*Coots
*Double Crested Cormorants
*Grebes, most likely Pied.
*Belted Kingfishers
*Crows
*Chickadees
*Golden Crowned Kinglets, tiny little birds, so cute we could hardly stand it. A flock took over a tree, and we asked someone who was also birdwatching what they were. It's possible we've seen them around before, but now we'll know what they are when we spot them again. As we continued our walk, they were everywhere.
*Cooper's Hawk, sitting still and patient in a tree. There were songbirds in a nearby tree, and they knew he was there, they were very, very quiet.
The last time we went to Greenlake, in November, we saw two Bald Eagles. We would have walked right under the eagle in the tree, and never seen it, but two ladies were watching it, and pointed it out. Then it flew to the small island on the west side of the lake, and joined another eagle who was in the water taking a bath. Very cool.
Luke and I were home by 11am, and made French toast. By noon, the exertions of the morning, and a massive food stupor hit us both and we went back to bed. I slept till 4pm and had very strange dreams...
