holy hawk!

So, just about to leave for the dentist today with the boy and I look out the back window. What do we see? A flippin' hawk!

taken through a window, i stink at live photography

Totally incredible. He was sitting on the barbecue just looking around. Obviously hunting. He then scooted in to the trees and looked around some more and then headed out.

Pretty sure it was a juvenile Cooper's Hawk. I could be wrong as I am no expert. I used Cornell University's Merlin app on my phone to identify it. It offered the Cooper's Hawk, the Sharp-Shinned Hawk, and the Northern Goshawk.

Pretty sure it was not the Goshawk. The boy and I figured it was the Cooper's. I also think it was a female. Again, I am no expert. If anyone can confirm what it is, that would be great.

turning around to check us out?

I was just so excited to see this magnificent creature. I do know it was hunting and taking advantage of the feeders I put out that attract other birds. Yet, I do also know that it is part of the cycle of nature. It is what it is.

starting to look back around for a snack?

blbbl

dumb job day

So, odd day today.

A dumb job day.

It could never compare walking around with a clipboard, but certainly entertaining in an unusual way.

I had to help repack merchandise...

Moving boxes from pallets to other, different, pallets.

Because the first pallets were the wrong pallets.

And someone else loaded the boxes from completely different pallets, to the others, to the wrong ones in the first place!

Well, you gotta do what you gotta do.

The best part?

I get to do it again tomorrow.

It was, and is, a lot of product.

Joy!

blbbl

the rooster crows again

What?

Do I just think I could waltz back in here and act like I have not been away for seven-and-a-half months?

You bet. It is my blog.

Anyway, it has been very tough to get on here and post. I have spent very little time online since my last post. The job is better, but still soul crushing, in addition to extremely physically demanding and exhausting.

Why am I here today? Of all days?

I have been wanting to post about the birds hanging out at the back of the house. So many new ones since I set up feeders.

So, while getting used to my new Acer One 10 running Windows 10 (which I call a netbook), I am just listing the birds that I have encountered in my yard since moving here a little over twelve years ago. No Latin, no pictures as I cannot take photographs of birds very well.

I used the 1966 edition of "Birds of North America" (a Golden Field Guide), published by Golden Press of the now defunct Western Publishing Company as my main source for identifying birds.The book was republished in 2001 by St. Martin's Press and is still generally available. I like my 1966 edition.

I also used Cornell University's Merlin app on my phone and their website: allaboutbirds.org, for identifying the birds as well. It sucks that I cannot install it on this netbook. Not much app-wise can be installed on Windows devices by the looks of it.


Anyway. So.....


I have definitely seen:

Mourning Dove (there are at least a dozen and still hanging around this winter)
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (generally just passing through spring and autumn)
Pileated Woodpecker (mating pair this year, just passing through - gorgeous!)
Hairy Woodpecker (most recent addition, hopefully a regular)
Downy Woodpecker ( a bunch of regulars)
Eastern Kingbird (not seen them in a while)
Blue Jay (around eight or so, one is a really big bugger, but they leave for the winter)
Common Raven (they come and go)
Common Crow (like the ravens, they come and go)
Black-Capped Chickadee (tons of these guys, year round)
White-Breasted Nuthatch (they have been with me for years, they stay the whole year)
Red-Breasted Nuthatch (joined the group this year, gone for the winter)
Robin (they disappeared this summer actually and have yet to return)
Starling (annoying birds, normally spring and early autumn, did not return this autumn)
Yellow-Throated Vireo (a one-time visitor)
Pine Warbler (showed up a few springs ago)
American Redstart (saw a male for the first time this past spring)
House Sparrow (hung around a few years back)
Red-Winged Blackbird (they come in clusters and will hang out with other birds)
Rusty Blackbird (noticed them for the first time this year)
Brewer's Blackbird (like the Rusty guys, first time this year)
Common Grackle (I hate these guys, greedy bullies, normally around spring and autumn only, they stayed all summer then up and left one day at the end of August this year, I hope they do not come back next year!)
Boat-Tailed Grackle (I know they are not supposed to be in my neck of the woods, but I swear I saw a couple/few this summer, a friend believes the same thing)
Brown-Headed Cowbird (same story as the Brewers and Rusties)
Baltimore Oriole (have seen them every year, they never get too close to the house)
Summer Tanager (not around here officially, but certain I saw one this year)
Cardinal (every year one or two would stop by, last year they stayed, at least two pairs and one had offspring, one juvenile hung around and ground fed mostly)
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak (passed through in the spring)
Evening Grosbeak (showed up one day and hung out with the Goldfinch, then left)
Purple Finch (came and went this year)
House Finch (came and went)
American Goldfinch (went from a few last year, to a bunch, to dozens)
Black-Eyed Junco (formerly called Slate-Coloured Junco, generally spring and autumn)

Sparrows I have definitely identified this past year (they can be tough):

Lark Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
White-Crowned Sparrow
White-Throated Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow


Sparrows that are maybes:

Grasshopper Sparrow
Henslow's Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Tree Sparrow



Other birds that are maybes:

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Golden-Crowned Kinglet
Black-and-White Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthursh
Connecticut Warbler
Pine Grosbeak
Common Redpoll
Pine Siskin
Lark Bunting
Lapland Longspur


And a longshot:

Skylark


Anyway, a simple post. I hope to see and identify more birds this year. Just not the Grackles and Starlings.


Happy New Year!

blbbl

flash update: ride the SOUL train

I have now confirmed, if my life's journey continues on its current path, where my soul will be crushed in to infinitesimally minute particles and scattered by the solar winds throughout the universe, never to be reunited for time immemorial.

It will be like an over-long freight train barrelling through a defunct railyard, scattering debris and flotsam to the farthest reaches its turbulent slipstream can muster. The final bit of my soul will be like a poorly placed penny on the tracks to be shot out like a bullet and lodged in a dark and dank corner to be lost forever; never to be found, never to be retrieved.

The hilarious part though? It will all be in the slowest of motions. Taking no less than a decade. Most likely that and one half as long. Even more hilarious? My personally expected natural life span will continue on for no less than seven more decades after that. Yup, I expect and plan a ridiculously long life.

Of course, there are those with pickaxes and blow-torches and the like, hacking and chipping away at my spirit. That is nothing. I can hear the bell chiming at the crossing. I can hear the whistle of the train blowing. They are painfully loud and drawn out. I even know their names, they start with a consonant and end with a consonant; one is a palindrome. Those are the only clues you get though. #;o[)>

I guess the Grim Reaper will surprised when she finally comes to collect. I will most likely be charged to wander this crumbling orb to the end of the cosmos's days. I might just change my name to Casca (this is a very obscure reference, by the way).

Meh, it could be worse.

Slime and wave!

blbbl

? regret - raw poem

As with the images in this post, the following poem is raw: sudden, unrefined, unedited (somewhat like me currently). I scribbled this thing down on Monday just before the start of the clock job. I have not looked at it again until now. With a snatch of time I am throwing this up here as was scribbled.

sunrise, monday morning

my soul fractures

my soul crumbles

it does not vanish

regret

unfathomable

i have done things

     that embarrass me

i have done things

     that make me proud

i have dome things

     that amaze me

i have done things

     that make me shake my head

i have done things (and do)

     that i hate

resentment

now that's the ticket

to regret

     is to hate who you are

i cannot

to resent

     is to hate what you

          have done

          are doing

          will do

nevertheless

everything one

     has done

     does

     will do

is who you

     were

     are

     will be

how can you not want to be

     who you are

(how can i loathe myself)

     (sometimes it is hard not to)

i do not

i cannot

fogrise #1, thursday morning (today) [my favourite]

fogrise #2

#3

blbbl

away away . i eschew the embrace

the woodland

it calls to me

yet

like a preteen boy

at a school dance

i vacillate

turn away

and

pursue avoidance

why

do i deny myself

that which i love

most dearly

blbbl

taking a break

So, I know I have not posted since the beginning of the month, but it has been a weird and hellacious thirty-one days.

The new clock job has kicked the crap out of me. A Sith, by the name of Darth Numbnuts, has been dogging me for almost a year and matters came to a head this month.

Several disappointments since just before the winter solstice, culminating with the final one I wish to (not) accept on this very day.

Multiple other brooding issues and, somewhat surprising, revelations. An unavoidable (only as I have failed to overcome) isolation from the woodland.

All this, and more, has put me in a space where I need to reflect upon and analyse myself, surroundings, and interactions. There is yet more than I care to confront.

Too bad, as I had/have a few posts brewing, with notes and drafts, that I wish to put out.

Unfortunately, I have convinced myself that I need to step back, take a break, and pause from the rooster.

That is correct, I am not going to post for an indeterminate period of time. I cannot focus on the rooster right now.

My break may be a day, a week, a month, longer? I may drop a comment now and again in the interim, I may not.

I apologise to my handful of dedicated followers, but it would be an injustice to the rooster and yourselves if I force it. You few, committed, fellow travellers will know when the rooster is back to disturb your slumber.

One last parting shot: Darth Numbnuts, take a flying leap off the back of something unmentionable. Oh, and get bent, you self-serving ass. blbbl