Marty May 11th, 2008
Yesterday was a LONG day of birding - perhaps the longest day I’ve ever had. My buddy Joe is a naturalist and signed on to do a bird count that was happening throughout the day in Delaware. He had a fairly sizable chunk of real estate to cover and asked if I wanted to come along to count the birds in the Dover area, including the shore. I’ve never done something like this, so I figured why the heck not. I hadn’t quite figured on the dedicated effort he was going to put in, but found out quickly when we started making plans for getting together. He had said early - he had meant he wanted to be on-site by 3:30 a.m., which meant a 2:30 departure from his house - which mean a 1 a.m. wake-up for me. Gulp. Continue Reading »
Marty May 8th, 2008
Well, we played our 4th softball game of the year (my third), and I finally had a satisfying game. I haven’t been playing badly, just not connecting with the ball or making the plays that I thought I could/should be making. The box score:
Hitting: 4-4, 1 double, 3 runs (3AB had no one on base when I came up - so no rbi)
Fielding: 6 chances, 5 putouts
So far for the year, I’m 7-10, 1 double, 4 runs and 1 rbi. Batting .700 isn’t exactly screaming ‘I’m awesome!’ in a slow-pitch league, but at least I’m not flying out - and I finally started getting the ball out of the infield (I was topping every ball last game). So, even though the weather wasn’t the greatest, it was still a fun game - made better by the fact that our other team also won in a 9-inning come-from-behind stunner.
Marty May 7th, 2008
Gray Catbird
Dumetella carolinensis
After working almost 30 days in a row, I desperately needed some ‘me’ time - and with the weather we had yesterday, I took the morning off to go birding at Palmyra Cove. There were some nice warblers about but it was often hard to hear them over the yellow warblers and the 1,000,001 catbirds about. Lucky for them that they are so darn photogenic. Continue Reading »
Marty May 4th, 2008
I was getting ready to mow the lawn when I heard a call that I knew wasn’t normal for my yard. I quickly figured out it was a pine warbler, but then heard another call that I recognized but couldn’t ID. A quick listen to some songs revealed it to be a prairie warbler. I went out with binoculars and found both birds - and dozens more. Continue Reading »
Marty May 1st, 2008
For part 3 of my ID series, I’m going to look at what are arguably the most well-known butterflies in the U.S. - the Monarch (Danaus plexippus) and related species. I call them the ‘royal butterflies’ - Monarch, Queen (Danaus gilippus), Soldier (Danaus eresimus) and, although technically they are in a completely different genus, Viceroy (Limenitis archippus). Continue Reading »
Marty May 1st, 2008
I’ve had a good run of music over the last 2 months - I’ve found some really cool new stuff and enjoyed some old favorites once again. I usually won’t listen to the same stuff repeatedly, but lately Grace Potter & the Nocturnals’ latest album, “This is Somewhere” has been really a stalwart on my iTunes playlist. Definitely worth a listen if not a buy if you like strong blues-influenced rock. Continue Reading »
Marty April 30th, 2008
Well, I got one of my 2008 goals completed last night - I sold a picture. It’s not a good picture - in fact, it’s being used in an article on noise in digital photography - but it counts. It should be in the June issue of Popular Photography, which I’ll scan when it comes out. I was torn when I got the request for the image - they wanted my picture, but only because it was so bad … so bad, in fact, that I used it in my example of noise reduction software about a year ago Continue Reading »
Marty April 28th, 2008
I went out looking for migrant birds Saturday - because I just needed to get out of the house and away from work, although the weather wasn’t helping much (overcast and spritzing). But I did get to see some cool birds at Palmyra Cove, including a lifelist worm-eating warbler. Continue Reading »
Marty April 25th, 2008
The other day, my boss Dante and I got into a discussion about the first albums we had ever bought. I can’t remember how it started but I said that my first 5 albums were Kiss - “Love Gun” and “Hotter than Hell”, Styx “Kilroy was Here”, Journey “Escape” and Def Leppard “Pyromania”, to which he replied his first album was The Who “Live at Leeds”, which he said he thought was still one of the best live albums ever done. I wasn’t sure but it spurred a debate about what was the best live album out there. So, here are my choices: Continue Reading »
Marty April 22nd, 2008
The Phillies line-up is amazingly agonizing. One one hand you have the hottest player in baseball, Chase Utley (.364, 9 HR, 18RBI, homers in 5 straight games) and the surprising Pat Burrell (.354, 7HR, 19RBI). On the other hand, you have one of the saddest hitting line-ups out there: the Phillies’ starting line-up has 2 players hitting .250 or under and THREE PLAYERS HITTING UNDER .200 (Bruntlett - .174, Howard - .193, Ruiz - .196). That’s just unforgiveable. Continue Reading »
Yesterday was a LONG day of birding - perhaps the longest day I’ve ever had. My buddy Joe is a naturalist and signed on to do a bird count that was happening throughout the day in Delaware. He had a fairly sizable chunk of real estate to cover and asked if I wanted to come along to count the birds in the Dover area, including the shore. I’ve never done something like this, so I figured why the heck not. I hadn’t quite figured on the dedicated effort he was going to put in, but found out quickly when we started making plans for getting together. He had said early - he had meant he wanted to be on-site by 3:30 a.m., which meant a 2:30 departure from his house - which mean a 1 a.m. wake-up for me. Gulp. Continue Reading »
