A Weekend Quest

After numerous post-ponements due to snow, this past weekend, Don and I searched, yet again, for the magical, mystery bird of our dreams - the Pinyon Jay.


Needless to say, the Pinyon Jays of Markleeville once again skunked us, by remaining hidden, leading us to ponder whether the things exist in the first place - we have our doubts.

We did however see some other cooperative, lovely, much sweeter birds than any nasty old Pinyon Jays.

Cooperative, Ever Friendly & Approachable Band-tailed Pigeons

Funny, Sweet and Loud Clark's Nutcracker

After futile searching around the Markleeville area, we headed back for Fair Oaks, as the storm clouds rolled in. On our way, Don gave the birder's secret code for stopping the car: "STOP THE EFFING CAR!"
I pulled over to the road shoulder, seeing only a polkadot on a snowy bank by a small creek.

Note: See dark spot on snowy bank - close-up below

I eventually noticed, the little speck was feasting on a fish - a beautiful Bald Eagle!

Proud, Stoic National Symbol that Allows Sighting by All,
Regardless of Birding Life List Status: The American Bald Eagle
The chocolate brown and white eagle stood on it's sushi dinner, a freshly caught fish, eagerly eviserating its supper. We watched it for quite a while until snagging up it's prey by the talon, the eagle sailed off into the nearby forest. Wow. Am always thrilled to see a Bald Eagle in my home state. Viewing an Eagle on a white snowy slope was a wonderful treat. Who needs to see stinky Pinyon Jays when there are noble eagles to gawk at?
After we got back to my house, we were still in birding mode so at sunset we drove along Meiss Road, not far from my house. On the primative dirt road we spotted loads of bright wildflowers and a PoorWill that flitted up in front of the car. The following pair of photos are not mine - I couldn't photograph the Poorwill or Owl in the dark.


Poorwill [Photo nicked off internet]
Later we saw a cute little Burrowing Owl that flitted about, hunting moths and other night time insects. I wish I had photos of them, but these will have to do.


The only time I have ever seen a Burrowing Owl after dark
[Photo nicked off internet]
At one point Don called out for me to stop the car, and I didn't exactly stop on a dime - he got out and told me I ran over something. I actually thought he was joking. I got out for look-see and there was a eensy. partially flattened, baby gopher. I felt bad running over the poor thing - even though squished, it was still kind of cute.

On Sunday morning the weather had changed from 'iffy' to ' impending rain'. We headed to the Keiffer landfill area where Rough-legged hawks and Tri-colored blackbirds did not show up on demand, apparently being in cahoots with Pinyon Jays. Undaunted, we drove to the Vic Fazio Wildlife Area which was flush with numerous waterfowl and shorebirds.


White-faced Ibis

Yellow-headed Blackbirds
The greatest treat was a massive flight of Yellow-headed Blackbirds in a flock that also contained Red-winged and Tri-color Winged Blackbirds.

So all in all, it was a good weekend's birding, even though we didn't catch even a glimpse of those Pinyon Jays, which we don't really care about seeing anyway. I'm going to my room now, to pout.

Mystery Solved

OK, I admit; I spoil my chickens. I have fed them pricy mealworms since they were eensie chicks. They are so freakn' cute when in a feeding frensy. A month ago I went to the fridge to fetch the girls a nice wormy treat. Mealworms are stored in the cold to slow down their growth and keep them 'fresh', because that's what you want - 'fresh vermin. Anyhow, I dug around the fridge - no worms! I checked all the kitchen cabinets - no worms. Tore my car up one side, down the other - no flippin' worms!

Where was that tub-o-worms? Did they crawl away? I tore the house up and did that annoying thing where you re-visit and dig through the same place over and over. I kept getting the same damned results - no flippin' worms! Decided I must have left them on the counter at the Wild Bird store where I bought the nasty little creepies. Oh well; color me bummed.

Flash forward to today. Got home from work, paused at the back door. What did my eyes lit upon on a pile of garage clutter? A plastic wrapped BIG TUB O' WORMS! A month old big ole tub o worms... eeep...

I have dealt with meal worms since I was a po' chile in the Bronx, feeding my pet anole lizards and slider turtles. But enough with the history lessons, I now recall putting the worm tub down - just for a second - when unlocking the door into the house, only in the second, I forgot to pick the tub back up again. DUH! Enough browbeating myself. After finding the tub, my first thought: what the HELL happens to a tub o' worms, left for a month in a garage of wildly fluctuating temperatures? On opening the lid, would super-sized cycloptic black beetles leap up and EAT MY FACE. *shudders*

Went into the back yard and 'released the girls' from their chicken run. Screwing up my courage, I held my breath and opened the tub o' worms to find...

EFFING-GREAT, HUMONGOUS, FAT-ARSE
MEAL WORMS, all alive, alive-o
Worms, wriggling and writhing and looking in no way stressed - I'm talking mellow worms! As one might expect, the tub had loads of creepy shed skins. I poured out some of the 'survivors' for the girls - who having each laid an egg today deserved goodies. The hens went bonkers, predatory as feathery tigers, wolfing down the gigantic worms. Last I looked out the window, my poor little hens were lying around on their backs like lions after a kill (OK, maybe they weren't but I know they would have liked to lie on their backs if their tails didn't get in the way).

This unfortunate worm incident is not so unfortunate really. Now I know that 'Jumbo' mealworms are only ensie mealworms that sat around for a month. I decided quite a while back to stop buying worms and to just grow them for myself, and I guess now I have a shite-load of HUMONGOUS worms, now is as good a time as any, wouldn't you say?

Normal sized ensie mealworms

Management is Thrilled

Oh joy of joys! The evil 'new' blog editor was finally removed and replaced with the dear, sweet, on-the-money so-called 'old' blog editor. No longer do photo captions fly to the bottom of the post, causing Ms. Miller to pull out what is left of her hair. The temporarily deleted posts may now be posted as Miss Miller finds the time. Indeed, even the mysterious North Carolina trip will be back-posted in the on-coming fortnight. Management could just pee from the excitement.

Stay tuned.