Weekend activities

Here's Mort on sunny Saturday afternoon, watching me trim the hedges, trying to stay awake...

Originally uploaded by splaestro

And here he is this morning at Cope, after a long, rather muddy walk.

Originally uploaded by splaestro

Very proud of his accomplishments...

Originally uploaded by splaestro

Birding highlights included:

• A nice long look at a Veery;


• A few fleeting glimpses of a Scarlet Tanager;


• First-of-year observations of Common Yellowthroat & Eastern Kingbird;


• White-eyed Vireo (a lifer!)

Had two looks at the vireo, the first one quite close and several minutes long. Unmistakable gray-colored eye and yellow forehead markings. Something about the shape didn't say vireo, however, so it took me a long while to find it in Sibley's. Its song is somewhat catbird-like, in that it has a mewing note in the middle, but it's much more regular than a catbird's.

Packing Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Am agonizing over shoes and jewelry. HOW CAN I POSSIBLY CHOOSE?


Here's a sampling of things I've already packed:


My fabulous new 4.5 pound Dell XPS M1210 laptop with nifty carrying case,








Some screener DVD's of films I've never heard of (other titles I'm taking - mostly gleaned from the bargain bins at Hastings Video - include Elmer Gantry, The (original) Italian Job, and Winchester 73),









The extremely cool "Birds of Southeast Asia" book that Brian gave me for my trip, and a couple of books I picked up at the used bookstore that are really thick and can be left behind if I actually finish one of them (must have room to pack gifts on the return trip!). I also have a lot of reading material about each of the countries I'll be visiting.