Key to the symbols                                                                       Dec. 16, 2010

Written by Eva. approved by Herman

                                                   

eva@theworld.com herman@theworld.com  http://theworld.com/~eva

 

Herman’s birding buddy Oakes was unavailable for a few weeks this Fall, so Herman found time to start a new project:  he’s putting  his 45 years of paper birding records onto the computer.! He calls me at work with Excel questions.

 

Yes, I started work at ITA Software in Cambridge July 11. I like the job. I bicycle or walk to work.   In  my copious free time (not really!) in the first half of the year I took  up two new hobbies: Seeing how many birds I could photograph in MA in 2010, and  drawing specimens at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.  I put up a web page on each. My 2010 book and movie lists are on my website as well. I photographed non-avian wildlife too, including muskrat, woodchuck, fox, and cottontail, all of which I drew at the museum as well.  I photographed the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at Alewife, the Black-crowned Night Heron in Somerville, and the Great Horned Owl at Halibut Point State Park, and I found all those myself. 

 

In June Herman, Oakes, and I went to Maine to see the Puffins at Eastern Egg Rock.    

We had two other alcids there too. Even though I had never seen a Black Guillemot before I was thrilled to recognize the species, with its white wing patches and red legs, because I had drawn one at the museum. Common Murre was new for me too.

 

We went to Southeastern Arizona in August, peak Hummingbird season. The nine species of that group I photographed there are on my Arizona web page.  My personal target bird was a Roadrunner. We got it  behind the La Quinta Inn across the street from the Tucson airport.  The statuary was in the courtyard of St. Mary of the Mountains in Sierra Vista, AZ. The Sunday noon Spanish Mass there is lively!

 

Thanksgiving was spent in Rochester NY. . Ezra rode back to Somerville with us. 

 

We had house guests: Peter Wynn (January), Ellie and Stauffer (August), and George Keilbach (September), and a few dinner parties. I participated in seven Go tournaments and went to a Guo Juan workshop in the Catskills, always a pleasure. 

 

So far, Herman has 299 MA species in 2010, and I have 139 photographed in MA. Both lists include Boreal Chickadee.  I chose a Cedar Waxwing for the other label to mark a visit this year  that handsome specie paid the pine tree in front of our house.

May your Christmas bepeaceful and your personal relationships warm,

Eva and Herman