Hunting egret at sunset:
So, tomorrow we gotta make the obligatory green bean casserole, roasted asparagus, and cranberry sauce as our contributions to the family feast. We’re getting off easy this year.
How about you?
by Betty Cracker| 205 Comments
This post is in: Birdwatching, Domestic Politics, Open Threads
Hunting egret at sunset:
So, tomorrow we gotta make the obligatory green bean casserole, roasted asparagus, and cranberry sauce as our contributions to the family feast. We’re getting off easy this year.
How about you?
by Betty Cracker| 176 Comments
This post is in: Birdwatching, Domestic Politics, Open Threads
Here is what I believe may be a juvenile Great Blue Heron wading near the riverbank. It is approximately the size of an ibis. If I’m wrong on this bird ID, please set me straight in comments.
The mister and I both have the day off, and rather than doing responsible things like painting or caulking, we’re going to have fun. First, we’ll have breakfast at a delightful mom-and-pop diner we recently discovered. Who knows, maybe some NYT reporter on a post-election Deploraville safari will buttonhole us for our views on Trump — and boy, will he or she get a goddamned earful if so!
Then, we’re going shopping for Thanksgiving side dish supplies, hardware odds and ends, etc. Shopping together is an activity that strains the bonds of our partnership since we have radically different philosophies on how to approach it. (This isn’t the fun part, BTW.) We’ve mostly avoided joint shopping trips during our two decades-plus marriage. But since we now live in a literal howling wilderness, trips to town for supplies require time and planning, so we’re learning to reconcile our shopping styles perforce.
Then, we’re going to come home, pack a picnic lunch in a cooler, and go explore the river in a jon boat. That’s the fun part. I hope to return with more waterfowl and wildlife photos, which I may share if y’all behave.
Open thread!
by Betty Cracker| 128 Comments
This post is in: Birdwatching, Election 2018, Open Threads
Was just reading more about the three- or four-hour wait times and broken-ass equipment at polling places in Georgia, Texas and elsewhere. It’s an outrage, and the people responsible should be fired for incompetence and/or prosecuted for election fraud. It’s not like Election Day creeps up on corrupt, cheating fuck-sticks like Brian Kemp; they know exactly what they’re doing.
New rule: state secretaries of state receive a year in jail for each hour a constituent at their slowest polling place has to stand in line. I bet they’d make sure poll workers plugged the goddamned voting machines in then, wouldn’t they?
Oh wait, yeah, deep breaths and calming thoughts — here’s a beautiful limpkin that landed on my dock this morning:
Limpkins have a serene look, but for my money, they have the most blood-curdling call on the river. So, no sound — just the bird photo.
Open thread!
Deep Breaths and Calming Thoughts Open ThreadPost + Comments (128)
by Betty Cracker| 101 Comments
This post is in: Birdwatching, Dog Blogging, Open Threads
How about some uncontroversial birds to look at? Here’s a gorgeous Little Blue Heron, who was stalking fish by the riverbank yesterday:
That slate-blue color just knocks me out!
And here’s an Anhinga drying his extra-fancy wings:
And here’s a glimpse of the elusive Black-and-White Banded Bra-Snatcher:
Sorry about the poor quality of that last shot; it’s hard to get feral creatures like that to pose. Fortunately, this species only steals undergarments from laundry baskets rather than heisting them from one’s person.
That’s all I got. Open thread!
This post is in: Birdwatching, Open Threads
Here are a couple of shots of a gorgeous belted kingfisher that’s perched on a navigation marker about 50 yards off my porch:
Here it is with a fish:
I hope to see a lot of this little bird; it’s still there right now, and I see it flying down to try to catch a fish occasionally and then returning to the marker.
by Betty Cracker| 220 Comments
This post is in: Birdwatching, Open Threads
Here’s a European starling basking in the morning sun while perched in our bamboo stand earlier today:
According to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (whose officers my father derisively calls “bunny sheriffs”), these starlings are a “nuisance species” that are a “serious competitor with native species for tree cavities, often aggressively evicting other species…”
Sucks for our local woodpeckers, but I think the starlings are beautiful too.
Anyhoo, everything is terrible, so please feel free to discuss whatever since this is an open thread.
This post is in: Birdwatching, Open Threads
Here’s a squawking common gallinule:
I’ve decided to focus on waterfowl today and ignore all the other shit going on in the world. I feel better already.