Obligatory end of / start of year post

[emmarytz]

Hmmmmm. So I'm not sure how much I want to continue an online presence in 2015 since, let's face it, I'm pretty minimally online as it is and goodness knows it's not exactly like a lot of people read anything I post anywhere. So, after reading a Lyanda Lynn Haupt blog about keeping a regular old notebook journal, I'm thinking about actually writing

Comments

Quality Schmality, I had fun!

[alexfandra]

What, you didn't carefully peruse the list of books read that I posted? One of the first ones on it was a little fluffy entertainment called "Persuasion" by some old biddy named Jane. It was a bit slow to get going but overall not bad

Re: Quality Schmality, I had fun!

[emmarytz]

Sorry! I didn't mean to denigrate the books on your list. As it happens, I'm not a big fan of Persuasion, but I'm in a minority there.

Maturally I don't have photos of the redshouldered hawk and I don't find that I saved a photo of the wandering tattler. They were yes, in Oregon and goodness knows I may have misidentified one or both of them. I'll have to ransack my iPhoto files (which I really need to clear through).

-em.

Re: Quality Schmality, I had fun!

[alexfandra]

Either bird would have been a rarity there any time of year. Red-shouldered Hawks turn up in the oddest places, though. I seem to recall one was in Kent last summer, causing a minor Tweeter twitch.

Surfbirds are more common and often mistaken for tattlers. They are hard to tell apart even by experts. Tattlers do turn up there from time to time. They like to hang about on big rock embankments. But then again, so do Surfbirds!

We've had Baird's Sandpipers at the Fill - nice bird.

I found Persuasion to be rather slow moving (not that one expects a rip-roaring tale from Ms. Austen), and a bit obvious throughout as to how things would turn out. I liked Anne, though, on the whole.

Fun, schmun ...

[emmarytz]

Okay, as it turns out I *don't* have a photo of the putative wandering tattler but I *do* have a (not brilliant) snap of the bird I called a red-shouldered hawk. Would you have a look here--http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y227/emmarytz/emmarytz011/redshoulderedhawk_zps4e9d40b0.jpg--and let me know if I should have declared it a harrier?

In support of my ID I find that the Lincoln County Birding group reported "1-3 RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS were flying and calling at Yachats on 5 days during 9/2-14." They don't seem to have made note of the wandering tattler however. (My suspicion is that a couple of birders we ran into told me there was a wandering tattler in the area as I don't think I'd have made such an ID without a photo otherwise. But that still doesn't really offer any sort of proof.) -em.

[gattagrigia]

I for one would miss your posts, and your pictures, and Madame Gradka.

[emmarytz]

Thank you kindly!