minutiae

Thanksgiving break: the lull between non-final-exam exams and final exams, busy with completing the little projects I've started and restraining myself from starting new ones. 2 weeks until a horrific weekend of traveling and packing, 2.5 weeks until I'm back in London for a month.

I do, however, allow myself to play with the microscope. I'm trying a little harder to figure out the difference between, say, a desmid and a diatom, and I'm learning that weird ciliated blobs all look alike in textbooks.


desmid


Also, it's hard to tell what something is if it doesn't have nicely packaged organs and limbs. These seem to be eggs, but I really can't tell - especially since I left the slide out overnight and they turned into weird desiccated aliens.

I managed to film a feeding rotifer:

I'm in love with those little guys.

another lino

Since I had my baby press out & all set up, it seemed a shame to waste it. Some simple linocuts have resulted.

Jacana

I spent all Sunday on a trip to/from Choke Canyon State Park in south Texas, where a Northern Jacana has been hanging around for a week or two. TEXBIRDS has been all in a tizzy over it, so when Steve said he might head down there, I asked to tag along.

I've never been so far south before and a lot of life birds resulted, including my long-awaited Grasshopper sparrow, Ladder-backed & Golden-fronted woodpeckers, Caracaras aplenty, and, of course, the Jacana. Who was lounging on the far side of a lake and only seen courtesy of another birding group's scope. Fine by me, though, as I was more excited about the local songbirds.


Caracara pair

My favorite lifer of the trip was the flamboyant Green Jay, though they persisted in hiding from me and I only managed a fuzzy photo:


A Long-billed thrasher kindly sang for me to compensate:


In all, an outing well worth the 10+ hour drive (though my exhaustion claims otherwise).

chick a dee dee dee

Chickadee cards!



That is all.

Success!

Finally, a Le Conte's sparrow. I haven't seen one since my first-ever Christmas Bird Count in Kansas in 2006. I didn't even know what I was looking at, but just pointed it out to a fellow in my group. He got all excited about it and I felt rather proud for having spotted it.



It was in a fairly sparrowy field in Arlington. I'll have to go back.

Grapevine Lake

This morning I had a bird outing at Grapevine Lake, a place I've never been before. The goal was a Le Conte's sparrow, which never materialized, but I did see 2 FOS Harris's sparrows, my first Texas Golden-crowned kinglet since February, more Field sparrows than I knew what to do with, and about 300 Sandhill cranes flying south.
Many thanks to Steve, a freshly transplanted Californian, for acting as guide. Tomorrow: Le Conte's attempt #2.

and more

I may have to consider renaming this blog "The Sparrows I See and How I Get Really Excited About Them."
We finally got to band at the Heard Sanctuary this morning. We've been rained out the last 3 weeks or so, and I've been antsy to see what we'd catch now that the wintering species are starting to show up.

It was a sparrow party!
Banded: White-crowned sparrow, White-throated sparrow, Field sparrow, Slate-colored junco, Song sparrow, Fox sparrow
Seen but not banded: Spotted towhee, Savannah sparrow, Swamp sparrow (several! exciting!), Lincoln's sparrow

And I must mention the Blue-headed vireo I saw on the way back to my car. Lovely bird.

Postscript: The scaups are back at the neighborhood pond. As of yet there's only a handful; a hundred or so will show up by mid-winter.