Day 17.312: Weekend birds

We had another good Project FeederWatch weekend. Here's a Carolina wren and an eastern bluebird looking gorgeous.

Day 17.311: Door; bell

After the football game, while we were waiting for E5N1 to emerge from the band room, we witnessed the ringing of the victory bell - something we had heard on previous occasions but never been in position to see. 

The cheerleaders arranged themselves near and in front of the doors to greet the players as they arrived. Once all the team had assembled, I assumed that the cheerleaders were actually preventing them from going inside as some kind of ritual but - as we were informed by a more experienced parent - it was just that, as usual, no one had arranged to unlock the door for them. 

Day 17.310: Exile #2’s Sunday Column #500

Exile #2 writes...

It has been an expensive week car-wise. With some inevitability, having spent a fair amount fixing up our little car, multiple warning lights came on immediately in our van. So it was with some trepidation that we waited for the technician’s verdict today. We even got to the point of looking up some replacement cars, should the news be particularly dire. It was not too bad, however, and so she lives to drive another day.

Day 17.309: Re: percussion

E5N1 is currently recovering from having his wisdom teeth removed on Thursday. Slightly surprisingly, he had three.  He was doing well enough to want to attend the Regional Final football game today to join the pep band but not well enough to attempt to play his trumpet. This meant that he was temporarily conscripted into the percussion section - specifically to play snare drum.

A majority of the percussion section were stand-ins today but they did great. 

As for the game, this would be the final game of the season for the losers, with the winners going on to the state championship game next weekend. The traditional banner that the team run through on entering the stadium goaded their opponents with the suggestion that they would be free next Saturday - and so it will be as the home team brought it - well - home 57 to 29. 

Banner held by the cheerleaders reads: Noble - tell your girlfriends you’re free next Saturday…

A bit of the action on the field

Day 17.308: Not a coyote

This picture does not show a coyote walking through our backyard. 

…but had I managed to take this same shot approximately 24 hours earlier it might have done. 

Yesterday we heard a howl and rushed to turn off the inside lights and turn on the outside light just in time for me to spot the visitor walking past this spot and over into our neighbors’ yard. It’s at least the second sighting in the last few days but there was no return visit this evening as far as we can tell. 

Day 17.307: High tide and lofty birds

Some photos from the chilly morning visit to cemetery today where we saw the tidal river higher than any of us recalled. The jetty was almost completely submerged. The line of it runs right past the small island with the trees.

For almost-certainly unrelated reasons, many of the birds we saw were also high - in the branches of trees. 

Bluebirds eating oriental bittersweet fruit:

Red-bellied woodpecker catching the early morning sun:

A mourning dove in the same tree:

A mystery blackbird perched between us and the sun making identification impossible. 

But then obligingly moved and was revealed to be a young red-winged blackbird:

Three blue jays in a row;

An unidentified duck - low down, but higher than normal given the tide (incidentally it was still an hour before high tide when we were there). 

As usual, we suspect the hawk saw us before we saw it. 

A dark-eyed junci:

And a tufted titmouse:

Day 17.306: Feeder watching

Some photos from our watching of the feeders - some from our Project FeederWatch counting days and some from the rest of the week.

We were slightly surprised to see this Carolina wren on the ground

Less surprised to see this (same?) one on the suet block

Goldfinch sidling away from one of the big bully bluebirds

House finch looking like he's been caught in the act

This starling stayed in this position hogging this side of the feeder for quite a while - the bluebirds and even the red-bellied woodpecker made no attempt to displace him