Friends!

    This has been a day of friends, which is half of the reason I return to the OFH with some regularity, family the other half. First it was breakfast with a friend. Eating in the OFH dining room gave us a full menu of breakfast choices. Besides the total convenience of the dining room is the plus that it's quiet. That's huge for someone as hearing impaired as I. 

    Early afternoon it was coffee with friends from the condo building in which I lived downtown. Both are authors and avid readers so books are often a significant part of the conversation. His quest to read all the Noble Prize and Pulitzer Prize books, is complete. He reports that many of them do not pass the test of time.

   Then there was dinner with friends who winter in AZ. Consequently our last in person visit was in November. Words were had! Friends make me glad and grateful.

Takk for alt,

Al 

No cattle so I don't need a big stick!

 

One of those days!

     There are days with little novelty. This is one of those days. Infrequent occupant that I am in the OFH, newer inmates sometimes ask "Are you new here?" New, doesn't very well apply in anyway to me. Actually, I'm one of the earlier occupants nabbing the last apartment available in the first go around. That was 4.5 years ago, since moving in. Many have come and gone during those years, quite a few of whom I've known.

   Perhaps I'll just post a random picture and call it good.

Takk for alt,

Al

The stairway of the Budapest Opera House where we heard a Puccini Opera in 2008.

Complete the process!

      The other reader didn't comment about my failure to post yesterday. While writing that missive the Lynx were on TV. That's my excuse for failure to post, and they beat the leading team in the league and now they lead. This even though their starter had surgery on both ankles and hasn't returned to the floor yet. Go Lynx!

Takk for alt,

Al

Where are you?

     "Where are you?" "Here!" "Where's here?"  "The OFH."  It's true, Kaia and I just arrived and she's sound asleep by the desk. With the family back in town it was time for a little turn in the OFH spa. We'll spend a few days at this 'here' and return to that 'here' known as The Little House.

Takk for alt,

al

Berger and Ellen photographed on my last trip to Norway, 2018.

Grassland Birds!

       When I left The Little House for the OFH last fall I gave KK permission to hunt on my land. In thanks for being allowed to hunt she's been trapping pocket gophers there. Perhaps that's why I didn't find any today. which is good news.

      Pausing to take in the view 

I was serenaded by many birds. Can you guess what came next? Yup, I activated the Merlin Bird App recorder and in 20 minutes recorded 20 varieties of birds. 

    This is what I heard: Goldfinch, Northern Yellow Warbler, Vesper Sparrow, Crow, Marsh Wren, Brown-headed Cowbird, Grasshopper Sparrow, Canada Goose, Eastern Kingbird, Barn Swallow, Mallard, Common Yellowthroat, Dickcissel, Sora, Red-winged Blackbird, Western Meadowlark, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Bobolink, Song Sparrow and Pheasant.  It was an ideal spot to find grassland birds with over 600 acres of contiguous grass. Squared off it would be a mile on each side.  600 is very conservative estimate of its reach. 

Takk for alt,

Al

When I was a boy we called Bobolinks 'skunk birds' because of their color.

 

• The Bobolink is one of the world’s most impressive songbird migrants, traveling some 12,500 miles (20,000 kilometers) to and from southern South America every year. Throughout its lifetime, it may travel the equivalent of 4 or 5 times around the circumference of the earth.
• The species name of the Bobolink, oryzivorus means “rice eating” and refers to this bird’s appetite for rice and other grains, especially during migration and in winter.

• It may not seem like it, because seeing a Sora takes some effort, but the Sora is the most abundant and widespread rail in North America.

Furnace to A/C

       While enjoying some nice hot weather sitting on the front steps the rooster  across the street serenaded. That made me wonder what the Merlin Bird App would do with a chicken. Nothing, as it turns out because it kept crowing while I recorded and the App didn't register it. There was a number of birds calling so I kept the App open for six minutes.

     These are the birds recorded: Pheasant, Eastern Warbling Vireo, Baltimore Oriole, House Sparrow, Chimney Swift, Song Sparrow, Grackle, Eurasian Collard-Dove, American Goldfinch, Red-winged Blackbird, and Common Yellowthroat. A nice feature of the App is that it plays back the bird songs. Press on American Goldfinch, e.g., and it plays the Goldfinch recording, while showing a file video of the bird.

Takk for alt,

Al

A bird best identified by silhouette, the smudge-gray Chimney Swift nimbly maneuvers over rooftops, fields, and rivers to catch insects. Its tiny body, curving wings, and stiff, shallow wingbeats give it a flight style as distinctive as its fluid, chattering call. This enigmatic little bird spends almost its entire life airborne. When it lands, it can’t perch—it clings to vertical walls inside chimneys or in hollow trees or caves. This species has suffered sharp declines as chimneys fall into disuse across the continent.