Birds

I haven't been quite as busy with school this semester as last, and have been doing some work around the house to attract more birds to our yard. We get a decent variety of native species around here, and this year has started off pretty nicely as well.

A goal I really had this year was to try and get our Eastern Bluebird to nest again and raise a few broods of fledglings. Our first and second year here, we had a bluebird pair that nested and raised two sets of fledglings each year, then abandoned the site the following two years. In large part I believe this was due to the nestbox we had used initially to attract them. It was given to us as a gift, and was not really constructed properly for long term use. It was inadequately ventilated, unable to be opened for monitoring or cleaning, and after those first two years, I think it just became a bit too uncomfortable for any of the native cavity nesters we have in this area to use.

So I went to our local Wild Birds Unlimited store (a fantastic resource for anyone interested in birds around their area, they have stores nationwide you can find here), spoke with the staff and ended up getting a very basic but nice bluebird house to replace the old house we had. That same afternoon we had a pair that seemed to be fairly interested in the house, and we were excited that it looked like our plan was unfolding nicely!

Of course, it appears now as if things have turned a bit in another direction. The past several days we've had a pair of Carolina Chickadees that have been taking an interest in the nestbox as well. They are native, and quite lovely. I've been monitoring the box and each day the Chickadees place the fur and hair of their nesting material on the nest the bluebird has already built, and at some point, the bluebird removes the nesting material. There have been a few loud squabbles, and, honestly, I would like to see the bluebirds win out, but the other day I figured that what would be ideal was if I could get both the Bluebirds and the Chickadees to nest in our yard by giving the Chickadees an alternative.

So...I got a house specifically sized for the Chickadee and put that up, but it looks like this is to no avail. I think the Chickadees (surprisingly) are going to be the ones to nest in the bluebird box, now I'm just worried that should this happen, the bluebirds may attempt to kill the Chickadee fledglings, assuming they end up laying any eggs.

At this point, I'm waiting to see if the Chickadee pair do lay any eggs and if they will hatch to see if I need to put up a hole reducer to protect them from the bluebirds. I think the Carolina Chickadee only raises one brood of chicks, in which case I will remove the reducer as soon as the fledglings leave the nest and clean it out in the hopes that our Bluebirds return and use it the rest of the season. Hopefully we can get this to work out and the Chickadees will switch over to the actual Chickadee house next breeding season and we will end up having both in our yard next time around.

In the meantime, here are a few photos of the Eastern Bluebirds and Carolina Chickadees.













Female and Male Eastern Bluebird checking out the new birdhouse within an hour of it going up!













Male and Female Eastern Bluebird as dusk approaches













Male and Female Eastern Bluebirds



















Male Eastern Bluebird and American Goldfinch (coming into its summer plumage)













Carolina Chickadee

Halloween 2010

The semester is winding down and getting more insane with exams, projects, labwork. But we found the time to join in a little Halloween fun! My wife actually bought her costume from Target this year, but I for one, was pretty happy with the results. I spent way too much time building my costume, a bioluminescent jellyfish, but I'm glad I did it. Still photos don't really do it justice, but here you go:

And our lovely pumpkins:

Not sure how comfortable she'd be with me plastering the others all over the intertubes, so this is all I'll post for now:

Another attempt to start posting more regularly. Again.

I've been back in school and swamped with the amount of work I have. All of my classes are science and math and it's both exhilarating and overwhelming jumping back in full time after being out of a classroom environment for 15 years. It's been 18 years since I took any mathematics, and unlike a great many subjects, that has been a use it or lose it subject for me. Other than basic math skills and some algebra and geometry, I haven't used any trig or calculus since the early or mid 90's. Let me just say, it isn't all coming back to me either.

Life has required some adjustments. I am definitely more stressed and I'm certain it makes me a less enjoyable person to be around for my wife. We have been working on our own version of the modern relationship. Less time together than before, but we communicate and it helps that my wife really is my best friend. I tend to forget about things like human contact and she really keeps me grounded. It isn't always an easy or pleasant job for her, I know, and I'm always a bit dumbstruck at how she really does make me a better person in concrete ways. I'm fortunate to have found a great woman who's intelligent, super hot and interested in genuine nerds. I still find myself humming that opening stanza to Once In A Lifetime,

You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
You may find yourself in another part of the world
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself: well... how did I get here?

I honestly don't know.

Awesome

So I'm washing the dishes when my wife says to me, "Hey, what's this?". I walk over to the computer and there are little thumbnails of young Asian girls on the screen with strictly Asian script on the screen as well. Apparently, somebody had commented on my last blog post and went through the trouble of registering a google account and then going through the word verification process so they could spam my blog with porn (I think--I can't read any Asian script but the photos seemed to point in that general direction).

Now, I'm not opposed to porn, but it seems weird and a bit misguided to post that here. The internet is so wide open and seems to funnel people into previously unattainable niche markets, why go through the trouble and probable waste of time to post in a place where there is an exceedingly low probability of finding an interested party?

This is really just a curiosity question. I deleted the comment, like I said, not because of disapproval or disgust, but because it has no place here. Just curious about how, when a person only has so much time available to him (or her), that person wouldn't try and maximize the positive outcome from the effort by being more discerning about where they post.

Anyway.

And, oh yeah, Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife! ;)

From Just Another Blog

Get me a cup o' this joe!

Thanks to Bad Astronomy for this little bit of outstanding!

Loose ends

My wife had to go back up North for the week, to see family and attend a benefit of her childhood friend's father who was diagnosed with aggressive pancreatic cancer. Not exactly a fun filled trip but hopefully cathartic.

So I'm kicking it at home with the dog bachelor style, which basically just means I'm not getting much sleep, there's little structure to my days and nights, and I keep putting off mowing the lawn even though I know it needs to be done fairly soon.

I need to go to bed and wake up with a new attitude.