Thanksgiving

I celebrated Thanksgiving by myself this year. I harvested kohlrabi, kale, turnip, broccoli greens, and a purple carrot.

sapsucker today

Rusty Blackbirds yesterday

Osprey today

at Lake Arcadia

birthday birds

For my birthday I had the treat this morning of watching two Red-shouldered Hawks swooping around outside my back door. Last night a male American Redstart was in my back thicket.

This Common Moorhen was photographed by Karen Bays at Hackberry Flat on 16 August 2009.

swan and goose

This domestic goose and mute swan live at Lake Hefner and are best pals!

Lake Hefner

Yesterday evening Karen and I visited Lake Hefner as the herons were flying in to roost. We saw Great Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Great Blue Herons, and Black-crowned Night-Herons. There were also a pair of Spotted Sandpipers and an Eastern Kingbird. The Mute Swan and Domestic Goose who are best pals were also there.

anurans

With yesterday's rain the gray tree frogs and Fowler's toads have been singing. There's more rain coming in tonight!

rain

Lots of rain today, and for the foreseeable future!

passport

By popular demand, I am posting my review of the Western Digital My Passport Essential Portable Hard Drive (250 GB model).

I've had a 60 GB WD Passport for a year or two now. Since I work a lot on two different computers (one with two operating systems) and I'm obsessive about backing everything up, this Passport has been very handy. I use it as the master filesystem and make sure that every file is backed up on at least one computer. I carry it with me wherever I go.

Since I need to reinstall Fedora 11 on both computers (material, I suppose, for another review), I thought it might make it easier to pick up a new external hard drive. The storage technology has improved so rapidly; now I can back several different computer filesystems up on the same USB drive and still have plenty of space for maintaining the master filesystem. That way, if something goes wrong during the installation, I haven't lost anything.

So I cycled up to Staples yesterday and purchased the 250 GB model. The extra gigage is handy, but the annoying thing is that the root directory is called "My Passport". Everything these days is "My, My, My...", "My Documents", "My Pictures", "My Friends". The worst thing about it is that we don't own any of it! It's all proprietary. The space in between "My" and "Passport" makes it more difficult to compose commands in Bash, but perhaps there are work-arounds.

hose

I did hook up a couple of old garden hoses to the rainwater reservoir. There's not a lot of water pressure by the time it gets down to the garden, but it's easier than refilling my little watering can multiple times each morning.

rain

There was a thunderstorm before dawn this morning. Now my rainwater reservoir is almost full to the brim. I'm working on getting the right connection to hook up a hose and water my garden!

harvest

I harvested mustard seeds today. The rabbit harvested lettuce.

cooler

Very pleasant temperatures today after yesterday's brief rain. I saw a harrier soar over the airport yesterday.

heat

My outside thermometer said 108 degrees Fahrenheit today.

Roserock

Back in Oklahoma. It's too hot here!

Indy

I'm in Indianapolis. The cool temperatures are welcome!

plum

Last night I ate a plum from my broken plum tree. I don't know how it gets water up to the leaves and fruit, but it blossoms and produces each year.

water elm?

We finished tree and bird surveys today. The last tree we measured appeared to be a water elm, although it was at a relatively upland location.

trees and birds

Today we surveyed trees and birds at Rachel's Woods. We wasted a lot of time looking for points we did not adequately mark on Friday. We heard a Barred Owl at the first point and found chinquapin oak at the last one.

water?

Here the Earth cries for rain. My father's garden, in Indiana, is flooded.

radishes

I pulled some late radishes today. Not prime, but they weren't going to get any better.

cross timbers

Today we measured trees in old-growth cross timbers and encountered many ticks.

Rachel's Woods

Today I took the field class to Rachel's Woods. Dan showed us around and shared his natural history insights.

heat

Back in Shawnee, it's very hot!

Lincoln

I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska, reading AP exams. I read 150 essays today.

green breakfast

This morning for breakfast I had mustard, dandelion, asparagus, kale, sorrel, and turnip greens.

laundry weather

What a beautiful day--clear skies, mild temperature, gentle breeze...

A Common Yellowthroat has been singing in my yard today to accompany the Warbling Vireo.

bunting

Today we had a nice view of a male Painted Bunting at the feeder at Whitetail Glen.

water

My yard's a marsh. There was a skunk in my garage last night.

Roserock

Everything's very wet. Turnips are growing well, but I have to keep my kitchen clean to use the greens.

Today we saw a Spotted Towhee and a Catharus thrush outside the kitchen window. A Lincoln's Sparrow has been coming to the feeders.

Whitetail Glen

Chuck-will's Widow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Nashville Warbler
Summer Tanager
Indigo Bunting
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Orange-crowned Warbler
etc

Shawnee

Orioles are back! The cantaloupe's up.
One more week of classes.

FOY

Whitetail Glen:

Orange-crowned Warbler
Broad-winged Hawk

Roserock:
Western Kingbird

Swainson's Thrushes

swifts

Chimney swifts are back, ahead of the front.

water

We finally got some rain. I planted cabbage this morning.

wind and fire

It's extremely windy tonight. I rode my bike home from school and was almost airborne. There are lots of fires north and west of here; perhaps they'll be blown here soon.

Donald at Roserock.

warm again

I covered my corn seedlings last night. They mostly look pretty good now. Just about everything's up now.

Yesterday a Lincoln's Sparrow visited my deck.

North Wind

It's very windy and cloudy today. My plants survived the last frost, although I neglected to cover them, so perhaps I won't bother tonight.

sun

A couple of nights ago there was a frost, but it's quite warm now. Today Daniel and I planted cantaloupe, broccoli, and kohlrabi.

Spring Snow

I was sorry to hear yesterday that my cousin Mark has passed on.

In Shawnee, Oklahoma, the snow is accumulating. I have my crops covered.

black and white

A Black-and-white Warbler has been singing at Whitetail Glen for a few days now.

Vernal Equinox

Yes, I'm on the porch again. It's a little chillier tonight.

In Pottawatomie County this morning there was a very brief rain and more grassfires.

I attended the Oklahoma Sustainability Network meeting in Edmond. On the way in I watched a Cooper's Hawk take a Cedar Waxwing.

clouds

There are thicks clouds as far as one can see, but they have relinquished only a few drops of rain. There have been lots of Common Grackles on my deck today.

Roserock

Yesterday Daniel and I planted cylindra beets, Choctaw-Chickasha eight-row corn (only two rows), spinach and purple carrots from Baker Farms in Missouri, shogoin turnips, and dwarf blue scotch kale.

I'm still here.

I'm still at Whitetail Glen. Someone left a light on in my car. It sat for two days and two nights and now it won't start. Now, there are worse places to be stuck. There's a nice porch here, with lots of birds flying around. The weather is perfect. I drank my only beer and I have no food, but I do have water. And, you may observe, I have an internet connection. My phone also ran out of electricity, but not before I made a few phone calls. I entered midterm grades and paid my electric bill. Bird species I have observed today include Carolina Wren, Carolina Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, Blue Jay, American Crow, American Goldfinch, Fish Crow, Eastern Phoebe, Pine Siskin, Bewick's Wren, Northern Flicker, Downy Woodpecker, Field Sparrow, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Mourning Dove, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and American Robin.

Whitetail Glen

The Fish Crows were moving today.

Half Moon

It's windy and warm today. I need to get out and pick asparagus, but I have papers to grade.

Today I took the zoology class out to the lakes. It was very windy. At Shawnee Twin Lakes we saw two Bald Eagles enjoying the gale. Down below the dam (past the sign that says "restricted area") we saw a nice diversity of duck species.

The temperature dropped very sharply this morning. The daffodils are still blooming nicely.