While walking the dogs this morning, the Riverway was a riot of birdsong, especially the unfamiliar buzzing and twittering of migratory warblers. Bird watching while dogwalking is not very effective, so we brought the dogs home, and came back out with our binoculars and cameras.


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Warm day today, nearly 80 in the Boston area. On our evening dog walk it had cooled down a bit, and the Riverway was thick with birds. We saw a half dozen catbirds, three groups of Canada geese with goslings, and a few unidentifiable warblers. And then on the way back I heard my favorite bird song. It was right by the path, so we stopped for a while until we could see him. He sang for a few times more, and at the moment when Alexis pulled her camera out, he flew off.

Charlie and I went to Ward's Pond yesterday. Still too cold for me to go in, but he liked it.
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wood ducks are supposed to be in trees--that's where they nest. this female mallard seems out of place, but nonetheless content.

Now that I see it closer, I think it's a painted turtle.

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The weather forecast for today has been gloriously incorrect. After some pre-dawn thundershowers, the day has cleared up, and by eleven the sun was out and it was jacket-carrying weather. Alexis and I took the dogs on the 'long loop' of The Riverway.

We saw a basking turtle--unfortunately a probably nonnative pond slider--but it was great to see our first turtles of the year. We also saw a black-crowned night-heron, and a huge flock of cedar waxwings. On our way back to the house we saw a kingfisher flying up the river. We also saw some carp activity, which we've noticed a few times over the past week or so. At home a downy woodpecker has finally found our suet cage.

A few minutes ago, just as I turned the corner onto my block I saw a wild turkey standing on a neighbor's stoop! I didn't crash the car, nor could I park it legally, so I completed the circuit of the block, parked in my spot, and ran to where I saw the turkey. It wasn't there, so I quickly scanned the area: the street (full of afternoon rush hour traffic), the roof (a four story apartment building; not likely, but possible), and all around. There, across the street, on the part of the Riverway we call the "hot springs" because of a probably illegal sewerage outflow we discovered, were two turkeys. They were casually strolling on the paved walkway. I had to wait until a break in traffic to cross the street, and once I got there they had descended the hill toward the river. I took a couple pictures, which I'll post a little later.

I've now been sick officially a full week. I feel like I haven't been sick this long since childhood. Who else has the time to be sick this long, other than children? I'm pretty sure I've got bronchitis, and that I'm not going to get better without antibiotics. I'm stubborn, though, so we'll see how long it takes me to go to the doctor.

Today is the anniversary of my check engine light troubles! That's right, one year ago today my check engine light came on, instilling dread and worry and starting a journey of auto repair that shows no sign of ending. I've had all my oxygen sensors replaced, replaced the engine pipe twice, and some other stuff's been done to it too. On my way back from a roller derby game, in a white-out snowstorm, the check engine light started blinking. I was in heavy traffic on a major road (93S) so pulling over was out of the question. Fortunately, it stopped blinking, and just stayed on steady. When I brought it in, the guy told me (in difficult English) that sometimes the sensor gets wet and the light goes on, but there's nothing wrong with the engine. Okay, sure, I can live with that. So now, for the past month the light goes on when it rains, then after a couple dry days it goes out. Just so long as it's dry the next time I have to bring it in for inspection.

Last year around this time, I asked you guys to recommend some new music for me. Several of you recommended Pandora.com, a site where you enter a song or songs or an artist or artists and it generates a radio station that plays music based on that. 11 months later I've tried it, and it's interesting. It notices things about my music that I didn't notice, creating playlists based only on how the music sounds. It has a hard time recognizing context and irony. It has forced me to accept that I listen to music for reasons other than the way it sounds, at least on paper. Music is too wrapped up in memory and time and culture to be described only by key, tempo, and instrumentation.

Charlie and Jim, on the "Island" I keep talking about.

I really like this picture that Alexis took, not just because of the cute dog in it. She took the picture standing in the Riverway, and is facing the block we live on. It makes me realize that 95% of the pictures I take within 100 feet of that spot are taken facing the other way. This really shows what my neighborhood looks like.

( looking both ways )

Yesterday was perfect weather for tracking: a small amount of snow overnight, just below freezing during the day so that the tracks didn't melt and distort, and overcast so that photos of the snow didn't white out. Maggie is noticing something. What is it?

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Herons aren't especially nervous birds, if they know they can't be seen.

This week should have felt like a short one, what with The Holiday in the middle of it, but damn if it didn't feel like at least ten days. This graffiti is on a park bench in the Riverway. Someone is trying to combat their short-term memory loss, but if they don't watch out, they're going to attract unwanted attention from the police.

On this day in 365 Urban Species: English ivy.

Alexis gets ready to go out.

( The muddy river, snow, and ducks. )
On this day in 365 Urban Species: Japanese barberry.

Today was a cold gray day.

( But I got some nice pictures )

I seem to remember Thanksgivings from my childhood as cold days, autumn on the calendar but decidedly wintry in character. This year it was almost 60 degrees, and the little park near our house still looks like fall.

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I took this picture 4 days ago:



I took this one a year ago yesterday:



In the more recent one (at top), I got closer to the river, so they aren't identically set up, but they're very close. It confirms what I suspected: we have more leaves on the trees, later in the year, this year.

Cat in the kitchen.

( a couple other things I saw today )

I had the day off today, and at 3:00 Alexis had just come home for lunch. (In case you are wondering, my t-shirt is Fancy Froglin, supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.)

( The earlier part of my day in picures )
On this day in 365 Urban Species, a bit of an oddity: devil's walkingstick.