A SURPRISE BIRD IN MY BIRD COUNT

   Most of you know that I am a birder. I do Christmas and spring bird counts. I've done the Christmas count over 40 times and all in the same area.

    Yesterday was a very good count day for me. I saw more than 18 species. Well, how do you know that? At this time of year there are many warblers here. They are hard to spot among all the fresh green foliage. I can recognize one warbler species by sound. There were several warbler calls that I could not recognize nor find them. There were also some sparrows that fly up quickly from a patch of brush and just as quickly settle in another patch of brush. So there were probably 5 or 6 more species that I couldn't identify. So I consider that I had a very good count.

    The count started off well before I ever left my yard, I heard a flock of Canada geese. They were quite high up and flying directly north. So that was easy. 

    On my way home in the afternoon I stopped on my favorite walking bridge to rest and also watch for birds.

     Here I am on the bridge watching for birds , but the photo is at least 20 years ago.

    A woman came along with a very attractive spaniel. We got talking about dogs birds and other things. We had been talking about 15 minutes when in one part of the conversation she said she was brought up in one of the nearby houses. Since I've lived in the same area for 50 years I would probably know her family so I asked who her family was. Yes, I knew them well. So she told me she was J. Now , I said you know me. Do you know who I am? Of course, she didn't have a clue since she hadn't seen me for about 40 years. So I introduced myself. 

    I had taught J and her brother and sisters.

   So now the conversation really got started. It was great to meet J and recall old times.

   Did I also tell you that I like meeting old students.?

WHAT'S NEXT?

    Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Covid 19 isn't over yet and may never be over.

    But I can't help thinking about what people are going to say once this is over.

    They are still writing about the flu from 1919. Research is still being done on that epidemic. 

   After this catastrophe , if there is an after, what will people be saying?

   Will they ever come up with an answer as to where and why the virus started?Right now we are flooded with conspiracy theories that usually come with a fair amount of racism. Science will have its work cut out for many years and they may not come up with a precise answer. I hope they learn many other things as they're trying to chase down an answer.

   Commentators and writers will find work for themselves for a long, long time dealing with how the virus was handled.

    Was quarantine effective? Did quarantine start too late? Should there have been a much tighter shut down? Were masks effective? Was the two meter space effective? Did santitizers do any good? What simple routine did we miss that would have been very helpful? We will be reading books about this issue for a long time.

    How have our governments handled this as far as the economy is concerned? Was it the right thing to close down business?  Did the government propping up the economy help us to come out of the situation? Did economists get it right in forecasting the future? I'm sure comparisons will be made between the different approaches to support the economy. 

    Politics? Politicians? What will be said of their actions. 

   Blame? Who will be blamed for so many things.?

   So even though we're not there yet , I'm sure that some books are well under way and we will probably have some books to read before the end of the summer. Somebody will want to be the first with a book to come out. 

   Some of this will no doubt bring much benefit to the situation and other things will only muddy the waters. 

COVID DECISIONS

     The prominent  news lately is "opening up " concerning Covid 19. The opinions are sharply divided. Opening up means having to live by a strict set of rules. However, watching things on the weekend shows that many people are not willing to live by any guidelines. The news showed parks and beaches that were crowded on the weekend.

    I'm of the opinion that we should wait for  things to begin to open up. If we fail in opening up, I think the cost will be tremendous. We will have to close down for a long period of time again. Costs would be added to what we have already spent to fight the virus. 

   So here's my situation. I lead a bird watching group. Spring is an excellent time for birdwatchers with migration and breeding season. We've been missing this excellent time for bird watching.

    So what should I do? Our small city of 100000 has had 37 covid cases. One is still active and no one has died. It's easy to think that there is little risk out there. But we don't know how many cases are out there that we don't know about.

We are allowed groups up to 50 if spaced by 2 meters.

    We decided to not open up our bird watching season. We decided that we couldn't maintain a constant 2 meter distance. Also half of our birders are in the senior classification and one in the eighties (me) . Many times there are six heads close together looking at photos or bird apps. Try getting birders to not have their heads together. Good luck.

    It was a hard decision to make as the activity is outside . However , I would find it tough to take if one if the birders caught the virus from being out birding.

Time for a group photo

Where are all the other birders?

See , heads together

Chickadees come to the hand

Otis the owl who is used for educational purposes.

YOU TUBE CAN TAKE YOU TO SURPRISING PLACES.

     I discovered YouTube three or four years ago. I still haven't really discovered how it works but I've found many very interesting things. Some of the things I've blundered into have been a complete surprise and I sometimes say, "How did Youtube know I liked or wanted that."

     Okay, here's what happened. I like to look for things in music that I haven't heard before. So I do some searching. Something comes up and that leads to something else and suddenly there's a whole lot of surprising sites just waiting for you.

    Some of the bands I've listened to lately have an accordion.  So I checked out accordion and found a few sites and listened to them.

    All of a sudden I was surrounded by music that I had seldom heard. The sites youtube gave me were Austrian folk music videos. So there were many videos featuring people doing Austrian folk music. The singers and dancers were in traditional costume. Settings were mostly in the Alps with some concert halls and street scenes. Bands were quite different but feature several instruments. So the most common instrument was the accordion. I didn't know that there were so many types of accordions. Then other instruments were guitar, violin, the odd percussion, harp, a few horns. There were a few instruments that I had never seen before. These were put together for many different sounds. It looked like a few people got together as friends. If there were three accordions well that's fine. Most of it included singing. It appeared that most of these performances were amateurs.

     Many of these groups were kids.

    It was all very lively and joyous.

    So I'm listening to music that I've rarely listened to and it's most enjoyable.

    Find some of these sites and give a listen.

MAY LONG WEEK END IN CANADA.

      This weekend is a long weekend in Canada, At one time it was called Victoria Day weekend where it was meant to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday.  Now Queen Victoria died long before I was born so that makes it a long time ago. Now we simply call it the May long weekend. 

      It's the first long weekend in Canada when we can actually get outside and enjoy activities. So it's the first weekend of camping.

     At one time in my life, the May long weekend was one that we made sure we were out. Now many times there is very inclement weather for this weekend. When I was younger we tented. With my little kids we had a small holiday trailer. I have camped in the snow on a May long weekend...more than once! Camping became a little loonier than I wanted to experience...much alcohol and partying. So the May Long Weekend camping experience in campgrounds ended.

     We then latched on to a piece of recreational property and spent some pleasant  May weekends weekends in our patch of trees by the lake. There were some good times but when the kids grew up and left , we gave up the camping.

    Now there are two unforgettable May long weekends for me. First, I got married on May 21, 1966 which that year was a long weekend. Second, the next year, 1967,  May weekend , we had to go camping. So we took our tent and camping gear and headed to a northern lake and campground. We'd never been to Grieg  lake before. When we got there we were impressed by the beauty and quietness. In fact, it was so quiet that we were the only campers. The weather was perfect for a long weekend. The lake was about 2 mi long and half a mile wide. We rented a canoe and had a great time on the lake. For the whole weekend we were the only campers. 

   That was the best long May weekend camping that I ever had.

    

LITTLE RICHARD

      It's time to comment on Little Richard before much more time goes by.

      I was aware of Little Richard when he was very popular. I wasn't a fan but who could avoid Little Richard when he was at the top of his game. 

     I was always aware if the influence Little Richard had on music. He not only influenced rock but other genres like blues, folk , jazz...  Little Richard was very much outside the box and those people influence. They make you listen and see other ways of performing.

    What I didn't know was how unstable Little Richard's private life was. His home and family were somewhat bazare with inconsistencies. His father did not treat Little Richard nicely.

    Little Richard's life had its ups and downs and then some great changes.

    Little Richard liked singing in churches when he was young. He went back and forth in his life from church to church and at one time he was a minister. I'm sure you wouldn't have gone to sleep in his church. In between bouts of religion he found time to involve himself with too much booze and drugs. After about 10 years he was able to clean himself up. Oh yes , throw in a marriage and a few relationships.

    Little Richard lived a long and active life. He was influential. Love him or hate him he changed things.

WELL, ANOTHER RANT!

    So "Don't You Hate it When" brought another product issue to my mind. So I thought let's get this one out in the open.

    Now , I'm 80 years old and I'm in good shape as far as the age is concerned. My eyes are not like they were when I was 18 but they're still good enough to get by. Small print is another rant but that will have to wait.

    What I really dislike is the pattern of putting the front of many products in black. They do it in cars. The dashboard is completely black! When I bought my car there was only one color that didn't have a black dashboard. So as well as having  a black dashboard , the writing is small and it seems like the dash is down by your feet.

     Now I have an Asus computer and the front of it is black. It is down at the level of my feet as that's where the shelf is on my computer desk. So I have to back my chair up a bit and bend down to find a USB port. At night , I have my handy flashlight to find things. I also use my flashlight in the car.

   So you can see that it's hard to see anything on my computer.

   Another one? Do they make stereos any color but black. Again the flashlight comes in handy to find stuff on the stereo. 

    So here's my old stereo..  all black.

    So other things that are black: toaster oven, radios, boom box!

    I'll bet none of you have thess problems!