Christmas Pics!

This is Christmas morning breakfast. :) Not much else to narrate. Christmas morning is a lot of fun with kids around :) The first picture is of Cole and Abby exchanging presents on Christmas eve (cute, no?).





I in no way coached Abby to lovingly hug the doll that I gave her. Nope, not a bit.
Abby's present of galoshes and an umbrella. You'll see this again.
Christine's going to kill me for posting this, but it's so cute! Michael got her the coolest crafting table ever for Christmas.
The kids decided that the Christmas Day rainfall was the perfect excuse to try out their galoshes.

And the night after, sitting down to an intimate dinner :)

Izzieness

Snobby Izzie
Addict Izzie (she has an addiction to smelly shoes)

Cats-in-Sinks Izzie (there's a whole website devoted to the topic: http://www.catsinsinks.com/)

Starving Izzie or Dramatic Izzie, take your pick

And, finally, I felt that I should document the only two known pictures of Izzie's lower 2 canine teeth because they are no more.

She had a dental last Tuesday that went very well up until the point where they found resorptive lesions on her two bottom canine teeth. Resorptive lesions are unique to cats and are when the gums essentially absorb the roots of their teeth, and the only thing to do is to extract the teeth. Both of her bottom canine teeth's roots had been almost entirely absorbed, so they took off the tops and stitched up the holes. She was pretty pathetic for the first couple days (and so was I). She had a fentanyl patch and she refused to lick anything, including drinking because she didn't like the feel of her tongue on the stitches. Her pain patch came off on Sunday and she's gotten almost back to normal since then. It's less noticeable than I first thought. I think when I picked her up, her jaw was swollen which made her look different in her face and that killed me. But now that I look at her, I don't think you can tell much at all. Except when she opens her mouth :( The picture of her w/ the shoes is post-surgery. She's gotten back to her old self for the most part, including the kissiness, although not as much as she used to. The stitches should dissolve by next week and she has a checkup next Wednesday. So everyone can feel bad for poor Izzie and mourn her bottom teeth now :)

I would also like to take this moment to thank my sister for listening to me freak out about this for a couple weeks on end (first about the cost, then the risk of anesthesia, and finally completely losing my **** when they pulled her teeth). Just take my word for it, she is a very, very, verrrry good sister (and vet). :)

Florida Birds

When I visited Michael & Christine in Florida in October, I subtly hinted to them ahead of time that I might like to go birding when I was there. I swear, it was like, barely noticeable that I wanted to go :)

So we didn't have any wildly successful outings, but the overall trip was pretty darn cool. As I was waiting for Christine to pick me up from the airport (like literally the minute I stepped outside) I saw an Osprey above. While I was there, we went down to the beach twice (Christine and I) and saw some shorebirds each time. They have different gulls down there. Up here the predominant gull is the Ring-Billed Gull. Down there are the Laughing Gulls. Difference being the black bill and black legs (and probably 8 dozen other things, but a gull expert I am not). There was a Sanderling hanging out with him too. There was a Cormorant that flew over a few times too - probably Neotropic. Both times we went we also saw a Willet. He was not shy at all and frankly kind of stupid. He kept trying to eat a fish tail that had washed up on the beach, and I was pretty sure he was going to choke to death on it. He kept getting it stuck in his mouth and then having to kick it out with his legs. On our way back to the car I identified a Eurasian Collared Dove sitting on the electricity wires, but got no pictures.

Laughing Gull accompanied by his pal the Sanderling:

Stupid, but very cool, Willet:

Don't worry. He eventually left the tail alone.

Michael and I went out to a State Park down there one day, and they'll loan you some binoculars if you hand over your driver's license. So I'm pretty sure he had a nicer pair than me :) We didn't have a ton of luck, but saw a Black and White Warbler, a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, and some Brown Pelicans over the water. And a lizard. And some really cool spiders.

Edited 12/23: Ok, so I thought I'd research and see if I could identify the lizard. I had it narrowed down to two in about a minute, but after tons of research I think that it's the Southern Fence Lizard. That is because of the blue on his throat and sides and his spiny appearance. There is another very closely related lizard called the Florida Scrub Lizard that ONLY lives and appears in a type of habitat called scrub. So I thought I'd eliminate him by researching and seeing what kind of habitat we saw him in. Turns out that Rocky Bayou State Park, and in particular where we were hiking is one of the rare places that is a "scrub" habitat. Sigh. So then I couldn't let it go that we saw him in "scrub", but apparently the scrub lizard has a lateral brown stripe down both side of his body and there just isn't one on this guy, so he must be the more normal fence lizard. Tada!

Afterwards we were on our way to get something to eat and I saw what I thought were vultures in the sky. You have to understand there are Turkey Vultures EVERYWHERE down there. But when I looked up I realized that they had some white markings underneath which meant they weren't vultures (all brown). So, given the size and the shape of the wing, they had to be...Bald Eagles. Juveniles, to be exact. I made Michael pull into a parking lot and we watched them for quite a while. They were waaaaay up there, so this is the best shot I can give you. A better birder than I could tell you exactly how old this guy was, but he's probably a 2nd or 3rd year because he's got some of the white tail and head and they become the typical bald eagle w/ the white head and tail in their 4th year.

I don't have any other pictures, but did see some more birds. They live near a retention pond that had a lot of birds. There were a zillion Blue Jays, Mockingbirds (which is the state bird of Florida for a reason), Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina Chickadees, Brown Thrasher, Cardinals, and a hawk of some kind lived there around the pond because I flushed him 3 times. I think he could've been a Broad-Winged Hawk based on his size and underwing pattern, but I really couldn't tell. I also saw Black Vultures and they are really, really cool if you see them perched. There were some Great Egrets in a marshy area along the highway and Great Blue Herons as well. I know I'm missing some because I waited too long to write it up and didn't write down what I saw. In particular, Michael and I went down the road about a mile to a spot that was on the map for the Great Florida Birding Trail and saw almost nothing, but I know we saw one stupid bird fly up into the trees and watched him for a while, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. It might have been a pair of Mourning Doves, but I can't be sure. I also feel like I saw more birds with Christine on our walk to the retention pond, but can't remember all of those either.

So, adding to my lifelist for that trip were:

Carolina Chickadee

Black Vulture

Brown Pelican

Willet

Laughing Gull

Eurasian Collared Dove

Thanksgiving pics

Not much narration is needed for these. They're just the pictures from Thanksgiving. I can't tell you why we put Cole in this, but I think it looks kind of like a toga.
I should really consider doing my hair and putting on my makeup before I take pictures with the kids.

Say whaaaa?

Tada!!

Quick Post

This one is new to me: Red-shouldered Hawk. We had just turned out of Mom's apartment complex on our way up to Kokomo for Thanksgiving and we see this guy on the side of the road. I make Michael turn around so I could take a picture. Here's a hint. You can't get a good picture unless you let the car come to a complete stop. Let me rephrase. I can't get a good picture and will scream at you to stop the car. Sorry Michael.

Also, Juvenile Cooper's Hawk. You can tell because of the fine brown streaking on his chest and, y'know, the fact that he looks like a Cooper.

I also saw a female Northern Harrier on the way home (this was all Thanksgiving weekend). It was along I-65 and she was on the side of the road, eating something and I thought it was a Red-Tailed Hawk, but Harriers have a bright white rump, so they're easy to identify if you can see that when they're flying. Obviously no picture since I was driving :)

Montrose 10/16

I had a super fun morning at Montrose today. For no apparent reason I woke up wide awake at 6:30am just as the sun was coming up, so went down to Montrose to check out the birds. I got there about 7am and there were some other birders there (maybe 7 or so on the beach), but not a ton. As I walked into the park a Cooper's Hawk flew right over my head, so that was a good sign. There are always tons of Golden Crowned Kinglets around (for the last couple of weekends) and I THINK Ruby-Crowned Kinglets as well, but in the fall, the Ruby-Crowned isn't Ruby-crowned - they just have a plain head so I'm a little uncertain.

So I made it out to the beach and as I'm walking out to go check out the shorebirds, all the seagulls go up in the air. That caught my attention and I noticed that one of them didn't look like a seagull. It was gorgeous and huge and flew really oddly (really fluid). It was...a Short-Eared Owl! Drop Dead Gorgeous. It looks almost exactly like the Long-Eared Owl I saw last year (in its face and size), but it just doesn't have the big long ears that that one did. I imagine you were all smart enough to figure that out for yourself. I have one slightly blurry picture of him (or her) in flight. As I was watching the owl fly over the lake with my binoculars, I realized that there was a Peregrine Falcon on the tower on the pier. I took about a zillion pictures of him. He was chowing down on breakfast and after he was done, he let the head of his prey fall down onto the concrete (with a nice "thunk") and another birder checked it out and saw that it was a Woodcock. They are apparently very slow flyers :( One of the other birders said "Why don't they ever eat the Pigeons?" and I wholeheartedly concur.

When I went back into the Hedge, my day had already been made, but I actually got to see a lot of birds that I don't see that often (plus one I'd never seen). A PAIR of Coopers Hawks flew right over my head (again) and went to roost in one of the protected areas. Right before I left the park ANOTHER Coopers Hawk flew over my head yet again. Each time they were about 10 feet over my head. Also on the way home I think I saw a Sharp-Shinned Hawk overhead as well. It is Hawk season apparently.

Peregrine:
Short-Eared Owl:

Cedar Waxwing:

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
And my other newbie, a Winter Wren. He's about 4 inches and very twitchy, so I wasn't able to get a picture of him. Here's one I poached off the internet for reference.

So here's the total list:

Coopers Hawk

Short-Eared Owl

Ring-Billed Gulls

Herring Gull

Peregrine Falcon

Brown Creeper

Downy Woodpecker

Black-Bellied Plovers

Savannah Sparrow

Hermit Thrush

Dark-Eyed Junco

Winter Wren

Golden-Crowned Kinglets

Ruby-Crowned Kinglets

Cardinals, Robins, Goldfinches, a Starling, Mallards,

A flock of American Coots in the Harbor

I also went on Thursday and saw a Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk, Blue Jay, Sanderlings, Horned Larks, Orange Bishop (he's an escapee that's been living at the hedge all summer), and I saw the Coots for the first time this fall.

Florida!!

Just got back from visiting Michael and Christine in Florida. We did all kinds of stuff, but I didn't take too many pictures unfortunately. Here are a few of them:
Cole chillin' Me and Cole and Abby

Me and Abby relaxing on the beach

I also did a bit of bird-watching. I have a few pictures, but not too many. Here's the exhaustive list of birds. I'll post pictures and any good stories later.

Northern Mockingbird (State Bird of Florida for good reason - they're everywhere!)

Blue Jay

Eastern Bluebird

Brown Thrasher

Turkey Vulture

Black Vulture

Eurasian Collared Dove

Willet

Laughing Gull

Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Carolina Chickadee

Black and White Warbler

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Bald Eagle

Red-Shouldered Hawk

American Crow

Great Egret

Brown Pelican

The Princess and the Pea

Birding

I really haven't been birding very much lately and what I have been doing has been very abbreviated. That's why it's kind of ridiculous that I just added 3 birds (pretty much the only 3 birds I've seen in the last month) to my life list :)

Tonight I went to the harbor in the morning but I barely had any time so I saw a Goldfinch and a female American redstart (not a bad find), but that's all. So I went back this evening and on a whim stopped towards the front of the park where there's a gate to the back of the golfcourse and there's a little pond that I've seen things in before. I walk about 2 feet into the gate (where I am NOT supposed to be - the gate's usually locked) and see something, bring up my binoculars and there is a Green Heron. SO COOL. There were actually two. The first one shown is the juvenile and the rest of the pictures are of the adult. I don't think I've ever mentioned this, but just FYI what I can see through my binoculars is much closer and clearer than what I photograph. So, the pictures are a little grainy because I zoomed in digitally on them (and it was dusk, so not really enough light for pictures), but you can see him pretty well. The first pic was taken through the gate and I'm actually waaaaay closer to the juvenile than I was to the adult, but it looks the same distance because I digitally zoomed the adult pics and not the juvenile.

If you look closely, he is looking down his nose at me. They have very odd eyes.

As I'm watching the Green Heron, I look back at the path behind the gate (it's a very wide path) and there's a Chicago Police Car parked there. Ruh roh. I was disappointed because I knew he was going to tell me to get out of the golf course. So I stepped out of the gate and he rolled down the window and asked me what I was looking at. I told him that it was a Green Heron, and he's like "Cool - I've seen some Night Herons in there sometimes". Oh yeah. The cop was a bird enthusiast :) We sat and talked for about ten minutes, I showed him some pictures, and then he let me go back in. Not a bad idea, making friends with the cop that patrols the park, eh? I also made another friend, Maryanne, who is an amateur like me. I let her look through my binoculars and we talked all about the herons and the hedge and stuff. She told me about a spot quite a bit further south where I might see some Yellow or White-Crowned Night Herons, and I walked all the way down there, but they weren't there (although there were some Wood Ducks and some other ducks that I didn't identify). Still working on those.

Part II: I was down in Fishers a few weeks ago and I convinced Mom to go birdwatching with me. Before that little trip, however, we had dinner one night out on her balcony and what do we see up in a nearby tree but a Cedar Waxwing. It was very dark so the picture's kind of terrible, but he was very pretty ;)

So for our trip we went up to Morse Reservoir to a spot where we used to go fishing. At the dam are a TON of Great Blue Herons (around 15), Canadian Geese, and one Least Sandpiper. When we were pulling up I mentioned that I really wanted to see a Belted Kingfisher. I think I thought of it at that moment because the dam spillover is the type of habitat that it would fish in. So, because the Bird Gods apparently grant my every wish...

I saw him fly from the trees and saw his white underwing stripes which looks a lot like a Mockingbird's wings, but I could just tell from his disproportionately large head that it wasn't a Mockingbird. I knew what he was pretty quickly. He caught a fish and sat on the fence trying (for probably 10 minutes) to get it positioned so he could eat it.

Love this shot

I have some really ridiculously good shots of a Least Sandpiper, Sanderling, and Semipalmated Sandpiper from Montrose a few weeks ago too, but I'll post them later.