This has been my longest Mellowcat hiatus since I started up about eight years ago. So what the hell happened? Got real busy at work, that’s what. I’m usually pretty busy (or trying to look busy), but this time was different. I was involved in this big project over the last year and a half, […]
Read more "Now. Where were we?"
The free time allotted to us on the weekend was utilized for an early Saturday morning Songbird Stakeout. I have been hearing an unfamiliar bird, always between 6 and 6:30 am, these past few days, but I’m usually getting ready for work at that time so investigation was postponed until the weekend. When your wake […]
Read more "Songs without words"
It would be nice if every bird was seen in his or her natural setting, but that is rarely going to be the case when you inhabit a world that has been radically altered by you-know-who (Man). Nevertheless, there are birds to be seen in parking lots, high voltage power lines, and highway overpasses. Herewith are two case […]
Read more "Urban Birding"There’s been some shenanigans going on in our backyard. First it was the Chestnut-backed Chickadees, settling in to the nest box and eventually fledging some fresh new CBC’s. Then it was the Dark-eyed Juncos, with three new little Juncos in tow, showing them the ropes at the bird feeder. Then the Nuttall’s Woodpeckers, a mating […]
Read more "Locals Only"We day hiked out to Camp and Bear Lakes, in the Emigrant Wilderness section of the Stanislaus National Forest, on a car camping trip earlier this summer. The trails looked really doable for the low velocity, reduced distance backpacker, which is pretty much what we are. You’re starting at a fairly high elevation (8K+), but […]
Read more "Trip Report: Emigrant Wilderness"Over the past few months I’ve been preparing for Nature’s winter onslaught by sealing the deck and front fence, cleaning the gutters, stowing away the outdoor furniture cushions, and caulking and painting the window frames. My plan was to get all this done by the end of October, but I just did the windows today. […]
Read more "Winterizing"Possibly. Unless he was Francis Bacon, then probably not. But in Macbeth he says this: “The labor we delight in physics pain.” Sounds like something a runner would say.
Read more "Was Shakespeare a runner?"I saw two guys use a cool secret handshake at the gas station this morning, and figured we could add that to our tribal customs. The Resident Expert and I are always on the lookout for a new secret handshake. I told her how cool this one was, and she said it would stop being […]
Read more "Cool new handshake"