Today's
Bird Sightings:
Plum Island
redwinged blackbird (5)
eastern kingbird (8)
brown thrasher (2)
mourning dove (3)
purple martin (11)
tree swallow (2)
willet (12)
snowy egret (2)
gadwall (15)
northern mockingbird (2)
yellow warbler (4)
brown headed cowbird (2)
gray catbird (7)
bobolink (4)
American robin (2)
blue jay (1)
American crow (2) -- under attack by kingbirds
double crested cormorant (3)
mallard (12)
herring gull (12)
great egret (1)
Canada goose (10)
American goldfinch (3)
killdeer (2)
common tern (1)
common grackle (1)
house sparrow (1)
Today's
Reading: Tibetan Trek by Ronald
Kaulback
2001
Book List
Plum
Island Bird List
for 2001
Plum
Island Life List
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It's
a bright sunshiny day after all the rain. Pajama Woman is
sunning herself on a chaise lounge in her tiny back yard
(tinier than mine but jam-packed with patio furniture). It's
Bunker Hill Day so she's got the day off. I of course am
still trying to get a tab key for the Hungarian G4. To each
her own. Oh, and she doesn't wear flannel pajamas for
sunbathing - she's actually got a swimsuit, which I suppose
is good because flannel pajamas would be kind of difficult
to swim in.
My
bad luck with ATMs continues. Today I managed to deposit the
check I couldn't deposit on Friday. However, on my next
transaction - cash withdrawal so I can ransom my laundry -
it told me it was temporarily unable to dispense cash. Uh,
the machine is empty? At least that's better than Friday's
temporarily unavailable and sorry for the inconvenience
message. What's even weirder and causes me to doubt my adult
competencies even more than I already do is that when I told
my therapist about the ATM frustration I experienced on
Friday she thought I was telling her my card didn't work -
nope, nobody's card worked - and then when she finally
understood that the ATM itself didn't work she said she had
never experienced that nor known anyone else who had. This
is like the Post Office only running out of customs forms
when I'm trying to mail something to Europe. It never
happens to anyone else. And now today here we go again with
the dysfunctional ATM. Luckily, there are two of them in
this particular place and the other one was able to dispense
cash and I was able to redeem my laundry.
Given
that this may one of the last nice days before I become
gainfully employed in a real office during real daylight
hours, I blew off struggling with all the frustrating chores
(maybe I'll hire someone to make the bittersweet and sumac
go away as well as fixing the fence) and drove up to Plum
Island to look for birds. Mostly it was the usual suspects,
the only new addition to this year's year list is the blue
jay - hardly a "good bird" but one I don't see on the refuge
much and certainly the first one I've seen there this year.
A gang of kingbirds were giving a crow a very hard time. The
crow couldn't seem to get away from them. Willets were all
over the place making lots and lots of noise. They were even
louder than the killdeer. Mosquitoes of at least two species
were very active, plus those tiny no see 'ums kept flying up
my nose, so I skipped walking on the Hellcat dike.
Lots of things are in bloom this week.
I couldn't begin to photograph them all. There's way more of
that birds foot trefoil this year than I remember from past
years. Yellow flowers are starting to nudge out pink ones,
blue ones, and white ones as the jillion different species
of goldenrod are just starting to bloom. I've had no luck in
getting hold of the refuge plant checklist, which was
alleged to exist at some time in the past. The staff at
headquarters says there isn't a current one, so I have no
guidance as to what to look for that I haven't already
photographed. I started going through A Flora of Essex
County and noting which species had been collected from
Plum Island but that method of compiling a list could take
awhile. Another project for when I don't have enough to do
for the cats, piping plovers, and Hungarian dendrologists...
not to mention the opportunity
that's knocking my door down ... Now about that tab
key...
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