Slacker Birders

Even though the change to daylight savings time today gave us some excuse, heading out at 10:30 AM for a session of breeding bird atlasing is still quite late. What can we say — we’re slacker birders. For the Yolo County Breeding Bird Atlas project, this year we surveying two 5 by 5 kilometer blocks out by Esparto at the head of the Capay Valley.

On the first block, we didn’t do that well, seeing all of three species. There was a steady 15-knot wind from the northwest, and the supposedly quiet country road we turned off on was in fact quite busy, including the passage of about 15 motorcyclists in a row, off on a Sunday cruise to somewhere. We spent much more time in the block to the west, especially enjoying our session in the Capay Cemetery, a nice birding spot.

In one of those meant-to-turn-right-but-said-left maneuvers, we ended up returning through Esparto, normally a sleepy rural town but we found ourselves in a traffic jam — hundreds of motorcycles, vintage cars, the city park filled with people and stalls, a band playing last century’s rock music — we later learn we had stumbled upon the annual Capay Valley Almond Festival, now in its 95th year. Slackers that we are, we avoided the crowds at the Hog Canyon Deli there, and headed back to Davis for our usual weekend taqueria lunch.

Back From the Desert

I didn’t quite hit the wildflower peak, but wonderful to see blooming heliotropes and verbena. And black-chinned and Costa’s hummers, and a small flock of Lawrence’s goldfinches…. Lots of movies were watched, and much Ulysses was discussed.

A Bit of Spring Training

Earlier in the week we got a note from our friend Susan the hardcore San Francisco Giants fan, excited to be catching on the radio the first spring training game on the radio. Today was my turn. I walked into town for lunch today and brought my handheld radio, just in time to catch the noontime start (actually one minute early) of the Giants playing the Diamondbacks, the play-by-play and commentary by Jon Miller and Duane Kuiper. It was still 0-0 by the time I arrived at Crepeville for lunch, after which I did the bookstore rounds, ending up at Borders where I picked up a copy of the 2010 Baseball Prospectus. (They were out of stock earlier in the week).

The Giants were ahead 9-4 when I started walking home, and I think they ended up winning 12-6.

Of the Giants’ organization these days, Baseball Prospectus leads off by saying:

When is it time to make a change at general manager, even if the GM is the longest-tenured in the game and a respected figure? When do you throw up your hands and admit that the man you have put in charge has no idea how to solve his team’s problems within the boundaries you have set for him? The Giants have reached the point where they need to answer that question, because they have been stuck in a terrible rut.

Sounds about right.

Done (Housework's Next)

Dryer Double

Charlie frequently settles in for his morning repose in the dryer, as he has done for a while. Today Diego decided to join him.

Lost in Socks

Handspun. Trying to knit a pair of twined socks during the winter olympics. Today’s discovery: they are going to be VERY SNUG around the ankle and I don’t know if I can block twined knitting enough to make a difference… Project here on Ravelry. Nearly finished one sock, the second will need the entire foot done before Sunday night…

Counting Habits

It really isn’t that difficult. Last weekend was the Great Backyard Bird Count: I ended up doing three counts on three successive days, nothing fancy, just a set of 15 minute stationary point counts. The GBBC is a citizen science bird monitoring effort that takes place in the middle of February. I also logged my point data into eBird, which is in some ways GBBC’s bigger brother — the site hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology provides an easy way for birders to submit their observations to be part of the readily accessible ornithological record.

I have made very little use of eBird in the past. The most challenging thing though was finding my old password to the site; it’s quite easy to enter data. This morning I did another point count here at the house, seeing 8 species and 25 different birds. This could become a Saturday morning habit — being out in the garden, counting the birds.

Fighting for the Right to Study

Slumber party at Shields Library! Students have occupied the library in protest of cuts that will reduce services. In a very different approach to last fall’s protest in Mrak Hall, this one comes with the full support of the Chancellor and Provost. Library staff have volunteered to work at the library to provide minimal assistance. I wonder if there will be midnight cocoa runs, ghost stories, and strange dreams…

Weather Hound

You know you’ve become a serious weather hound when of the eight bookmarks in your browser toolbar, seven are weather-related. This phase of mine follows on to my aviation tack of the past month or two, meteorology being the first cousin to travel through the air.

We’re getting a nice little storm right now — the rain starting this afternoon and expecting to last until the middle of Saturday. California weather seems pretty simple though; just watch those cyclonic systems come in eastward from the Pacific. I am much more mystified by the weather elsewhere in the country though. My officemate is heading on a big trip to Africa tomorrow, and was quite dismayed to learn that a major snowstorm is on its way to hit Washington D.C. tomorrow, through where he was scheduled to fly. (The flight has already been cancelled; he was working on rerouting the trip as I left this evening). Where did that storm come from? Why is it expected to be an epic one?

Time to get back to the meteorology texts. It’s not so easy though; there’s a dearth of textbooks on what actually goes into making weather forecasts (there are plenty of texts on physical theory, not so many on the actual practice). I’m nosing out some resources, though.

The Year 1282 in Computer Time

“Can I borrow Hermione?”[the ibook]
“Sure.”
…
“Are you done?”
“Not yet. Do you want to borrow this”
[A look of horror at the black thing running Ubuntu]
…
“Okay. Why doesn’t it work?”
“The concept of a three-button mouse is anathema to mac users, I know.”
“Why is it so slow?”
“This is why we need broadband.”
“Microsoft, begone.”
“Apple, begone.” Grrr.