i wish.

via

i wish that i could say "no" and stand up for myself instead of getting roped into doing things when i don't want to.

i wish my parents lived closer...or i lived closer to them.

i wish gummy bears were an acceptable breakfast food.

i wish the los cabos trip was approaching soon. it's not. not until next year.

i wish i lived in a city sometimes. i think city life would be fun. i'm sure i would get tired of it though.

i wish david didn't work so much. even though i understand.

i wish i would take a minute to relax instead of running around all the time.

i wish david wasn't such a tight wad about money.

i wish work would speed by quickly and fun times would last forever.

i wish peyton would behave better. he can be so bad sometimes. but so darn cute.

what do you wish?

Red, White and Blue

the 4th of July is my 2nd fav holiday.

i think it is because it combines many of my fav. things.

fireworks

bbq

summer

parades

happy 4th!

oh, and Peyton will be having a continuous growl fest as the night commences because he hates fireworks.

Roseate Terns

Adult Roseate Tern on Eastern Egg Rock, Maine, in June 2011.

From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kenn writes: Terns may be the ultimate summer birds. They are related to gulls, but gulls thrive in cold weather, some even spending the winter north of the Arctic Circle. Terns, by contrast, love warm climates. In much of North America, they are most prevalent during the summer.

About ten days ago, thanks to the generosity of Dr. Steve Kress and his highly successful Project Puffin, Kimberly and I were able to visit Eastern Egg Rock, in the Gulf of Maine. We did see puffins there, and many other birds as well; maybe Kim will blog about the puffins (hint, hint). But I was most pleased by the opportunity to look closely at Roseate Terns.


Some treatments of tern identification focus on bill color. The mostly-blackish bill of Roseate Tern can be useful for quick ID, but it’s tricky, too: other terns have blackish bills for part of the year, and in transitional stages they can show color patterns much like that of the Roseate’s bill. The SHAPE of the bill is a better confirming point. It’s relatively long, thick at the base and tapered to a fine tip, with the gonydeal angle on the lower mandible located fairly close to the base of the bill.

Wing pattern is one of the best ID points.  Summer adults typically have dark outer vanes on only the outer three primaries.  When the wing is folded, this shows up as a limited dark area on the wingtip.

Here’s a closeup of the wingtip from the previous photo.  Looking at the top of the near wing (the one on this side of the bird!), we can see dark gray on the three longest feathers, while the rest of the primaries (stacked up toward the left) are paler silvery gray.

The wing pattern can be even more obvious when the wings are spread.  In this photo, on the far wing, the dark gray is clearly limited to only the three longest primaries.  On the nearer wing, we can see that there is no dark trailing edge to the wing at all.

Compare that underwing pattern to the one shown by this Common Tern, photographed at the same place and date.  The black trailing edge to the outer primaries is obvious at a glance.



Adult Common Tern in flight, Eastern Egg Rock, Maine, in June 2011.

Roseate Tern also has a noticeably long tail, and lacks any black or gray on the tail (Common and Arctic terns both have narrow black outer vanes on the outer tail feathers, and Forster’s Tern shows some gray on the inner vanes).   The faint rosy blush on the breast feathers, the source of the bird’s name, is a fleeting phenomenon of spring, and barely a hint of it shows in our photos from late June.  Regardless, Roseate Tern is still a beautiful bird, and well worth the effort to find and identify!  For those with a keen interest in the subject, more information on identifying terns can be found in two chapters of my new Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding. 

Roseate Tern is a widespread species, found from the North Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, but it is not abundant anywhere.  Its North American populations have declined seriously, so it is now listed as Endangered in the northeastern USA and eastern Canada, and as Threatened in the southeastern USA.   The nesting Roseates on Eastern Egg Rock (along with about equal numbers of Arctic Terns, and many more Common Terns) are closely monitored and protected by Project Puffin, a great program that deserves the support of birders everywhere.

guess what?

big brother premiers on thursday july 7th!! whoooo-hooooo

i absolutley cannot wait.

anyone else watch?

i need to know, because i will need to chat with someone about it!!!

Summer Luvin' Saturday!

link up with Marie!

dear mr. weatherman or lady,

please feel free to report an accurate forecast.

i am kind of sick and tired of your cruel weather jokes.

saying it will be sunny and nice, then it being raining like crazy.
that is just mean.

i just want it to be 80 and sunny.

so does my pup.
so if you could arrange that...i would be forever greatful.

sincerely,

elizabeth

p.s.- i haven't seen the pool in almost a month. i really really really miss it. a lot.

and just bc i love him. and this song.



Iceland

In Iceland, when the days are dark, the night sky comes alive with the northern lights. Then there are those volcanoes and hot springs

The mercury has dipped to way below zero. The cold is gnawing at my hands through my gloves. And the wind is roaring at Mount Skalafell, outraged that anyone should take to its 1,800-foot summit in such weather. I barely notice. Because above, the sky is moving. Splattered against the stars, a hazy patch of white is swirling like milk poured into black coffee.

A few hours earlier, my guide Ragnar Lovdal, had predicted this, almost sniffing the air as he declared that the cloudless skies would hold their clarity into the evening. He was right. And there they are: the northern lights.

In theory, I should be disappointed. I've listened to the dry science, to the explanation that, far from being supernatural, this iridescent display occurs when particles emitted by the Sun hit the magnetic fields above the Earth's poles.

And this is by no means the most dazzling example of aurora borealis, a phenomenon that can dance through a half-rainbow of yellows, greens and reds, depending on the conditions and the viewer's proximity to the top of the globe.

Yet I'm elated. After three nights under a shrouded firmament, we are finally in the presence of something that seems otherworldly.

Not only are the northern lights utterly at home here — visible from October to early March — but Iceland is a country that defines the word "otherworldly".

Dramatic views

A day before my date with the northern lights, I join Ragnar on the Golden Circle — a 306-kilometre route that links the key sights in the south and centre of the island.

This charred volcanic panorama is all the more dramatic for being seen in the darkest season.

The Sun rises sluggishly over Iceland in winter, scraping its belly on the horizon at about 10am, then hanging low. The effect is an almost lunar, wan light ebbing over cooled lava and basalt.

Hekla, the 4,882-foot volcano, has erupted four times in 30 years. In medieval times, the locals regarded its caldera as the mouth of destruction. But something about the scene binds it more to the 9th century, when Norse settlers first came ashore. This is a realm of the pagan deities, of Thor, Odin and Freyja.

This impression stays with me as we tour the Golden Circle — not least at Gullfoss, a three-step waterfall, where the Hvita River churns and spits through a steep canyon. Geysir, meanwhile, is a geyser of such fame that its name has become a byword but, nowadays, its thunder has been stolen by Strokkur nearby, which fires loud jets of water from its crater every five minutes.

As I approach the Blue Lagoon, 48 kilometres southwest of Reykjavik, the Sun is compressed to a flat disc behind the steam belching from the lava-heated bathing area. As I dig my toes into the soft ooze, I ponder that Iceland is not so hard after all.