FALL BIRD MIGRATION

     Fall bird migration can be a very active time for birders let alone the birds. We are at 52 degrees latitude so there's a lot of territory north of us. We have one of the largest boreal forests north of us. The Arctic tundra and islands are also north of us, so with our local birds and those passing through, fall migration can be interesting if you're watching.

     What this post is about is the migrating birds in my yard and those in the neighborhood.

      This morning was a busy morning. Robins are in rough flocks. They are crazy. They chase one another at break neck speed. Once in a while one hits my window. Most of these are birds of the year and the red breast is frosted as we say. The red is quite dull and and more gray.

      Also this morning the Brewer's blackbirds were around in abundance. There are large flocks of mixed Brewers, rustys and grackles. This morning they helped themselves to the feeder and bird bath. Blackbirds seem to spend only a few days and then they are gone.

      There were a few chipping sparrows.

      Now I was so busy I didn't notice crows. There are very large flocks of crows...in the 1000's.

      There were smaller birds flying higher...above tree tops and I couldn't recognize them. They may have been vesper sparrows.

      Just when all this activity ended a flock of 11 geese flew over. Migrating geese can go through until Christmas. They just keep coming from the north.

      Now there are resident birds in the yard too. Chickadees, nuthatches woodpeckers, flickers and blue jays also visited this morning. 

     Since I was in the house I didn't take any photos. To be honest, I was so busy I didn't even think of a camera. Here are some photos from other years.

SCHOOL'S IN

      As most of you know I was a teacher  for 37 years all at the middle school level. I retired in 1997...21 years ago.

      Today public schools opened for business and welcomed all the customers.

      Do I feel a pang of excitement or loss at this time? Not really. The first year it seemed funny to be not going back.

      However , I do have memories of school opening time. As a student the first day of school was always exciting. We got to go back and play with kids. I'm not sure where the education part came in. I don't remember my first day of school. I had been to the school many times as  preschoolers  were invited for different days. Church and Sunday School were held in the school.

    My kids on a school starting day

One of my new gr 7 classes.

      Now the first day of school was much different when you were a teacher. I went back to the school for the last ten days of August to get ready for the year. You know...get the room set up, find the text books, make up unit plans, make up a yearly plan plan with other staff. This took time out of my summer but I always thought it was well worth it to be ready at the first day of school opening.

 I told you getting textbooks sorted out

     Now the first day of school was always exciting as the kids came back and they were swinging from the lights. I don't think it was excitement about seeing me or getting an education. They were excited about seeing each other and comparing all the classes they were in to see who they were with. Then they started to scheme and go to the office to get classes changed so they could be with their friends.

      The complete home home.

     Well another school opening has come and gone and I'm not really missing it.

     We live on a street that leads directly to the school. Usually there is a lot of traffic in the morning and afternoon when kids go to school. This morning there wasn't much for traffic. I wondered why? Later it hit me. There's road construction and the parents had to take a detour so they couldn't drive down my street.

VISITING WHILE CYCLING

       As many of you know I'm an avid cyclist. I've ridden about 45000 km since I started keeping track of the mileage.

      The crazy cyclist in 2008!

       When I first started riding, I put the pedal to the metal and rode as fast and far as I could. I did not stop on any of my rides. I didn't need to stop for a breather. I do remember one time when I had to stop. I ran over somebody's dog in an off leash park that the bike trail passed through.. I thought I'm in big trouble...angry dog owner and more. The dog owners just laughed and apologized  and said they had a very energetic untrained dog and that he got what he deserved.

      I have always said hi to people on the trail.

      The last few years I have slowed down and stopped at a bench for a breather. What I found is that some of the local residents stopped at the same bench so I got to know some people: a retired air force guy, retired RCMP, a lady who's had a major stroke and a lady with three dogs and a stroller for them. 

      This summer I met a woman who is going into a masters program. She worked for thirty years, retired and went back to school. She's an interesting character.

     Then there's my friend John. I taught with John and I knew he was an avid cyclist but when he retired he really surprised me. John has ridden to the tip of South America, through Greece and Italy, Israel, and India. He's done all these trips solo! 

      We have a young librarian who is super friendly and helps seniors with computers. She's taught me a lot. Yesterday she told me,"You know that I've known you all my life." She said , " My folks live in your subdivision and all the time I was growing up we saw this cyclist with the yellow helmet go by our house. We commented that the guy with the yellow helmet must be very dedicated. " She said , "The other day I discovered the dedicated cyclist with the yellow helmet was you!" As you can imagine we had a good laugh.

     So the social contact from cycling has been great and sometimes surprising.

MYSTERY PLANT.

     Garden to me is a vegetable garden. I love growing vegetables. I like to see the plants grow and develop. Best of all I like eating fresh produce.

     Gardens here get planted about mid May. 

     By the end of June most plants are well on the way . However, this year around the end of June I began noticing a plant that I thought I hadn't seeded. I knew it wasn't a weed. It looked like a cucumber plant but I didn't seed cucumbers. I didn't think it was a zucchini. 

     Fruit formed. It looked like cantaloupe but I didn't seed cantaloupe. As the fruit developed it became obvious that it was a cantaloupe. I was disappointed that the melons split and would not mature. I was surprised that they did as well as they did.

     So how did cantaloupe seeds get in my garden.  When we do a cantaloupe we throw the seeds in the compost. On one cantaloupe the seeds must have been mature enough the germinate. This has never happened before and we eat about one cantaloupe per month.

BIRD WATCHING SEASON STARTS AGAIN

      I lead a local bird watching group. What it means is that I make up a schedule, publicize it and show up to take people around. I usually have a good idea what birds we might see in an area and then the challenge is to find the little critters. 

      I have about 25 people who attend some of the sessions. I get from 10 - 15 each time. I also have some very avid birders and some who are highly skilled. 

     Most of the sites we visit are in the city. They tend to be parks with some good native habitat. We spend about 2 hours at each site. 

    Last spring we were getting very good and would find 20 - 30 species in the two hours.

    Yesterday was the start of our fall bird watching schedule. We went to an area we had never visited. This summer someone told me of a new bike trail. The trail is made up of an old road allowance and part of it has been destroyed. Some artificial wetlands have been created. Houses are built up to the old road and the other side of the road is country. I thought this would be a good place for one of our birding outings. When I was riding birds kept flying up out of the grass.  Most nights I would see a merlin. There were geese and riding through goose poop wasn't a lot of fun.

    So did we have a good time yesterday morning ? You bet we did. The area is junky as it's being developed . Along with the trees and grass there's a good supply of weeds.

     We were happy to find 15 species of birds. It was dull and hard to see. Many of the species were sparrows and they are hard to see in the best of light.

     I've been complaining all summer about my glasses being filmy. I say it's better without my glasses. The Micro manager says I have to wash my glasses. Yesterday it was hard to get a good look at the birds. I wasn't seeing much color. Things were dull. Somebody said get new binoculars with better light.

    I've thought things over. It sounds like my cataracts have changed this summer. I will have to get in and get things checked.

     My apologies for no photos. I don't like carrying both the camera and binoculars.

SMOKE!

       I live in the province of Alberta , Canada. The province to my west is British Columbia (B.C). BC is mostly a mountainous forested area. This summer they have had many wild fires...about 600. These fires are very difficult to control for a number of reasons. First , it's been very dry so the bush and under growth are dry. Second, the bush here is classified as having a high amount of fuel. That is material that burns easily and hard. Many more people are actually living in the forest so there are more people to start fires.

       The fires are difficult to fight because there is so much smoke. Airplanes and helicopters can not get in to fire areas. The terrain is mountainous.  In the summer they tend to get thunderstorms which start many of the fires. Steady rains occur in the winter. Even in the winter some areas remain dry. 

     So you can see the reason for my topic. In July we could call it haze. As the fires continued and got larger we go smoke and at times dense smoke. We've had air quality from 7 to 10. People who may have issues are advised to stay in.

      We've just finished a fifteen day period of smoke. We did not see blue sky or clouds. The sun was very orange and sometimes difficult to see. 

       To complicate matters, there have been wildfires in Alaska, Washington , Oregon and California.

      Now we did cheer for three days as the wind changed and the smoke ended up in western BC, Bellingham, Seattle and area. 

     I've been able to keep active. My biggest problem is with the heat. 

NOW TELL ME SOMETHING...

       Most bloggers have something in their sidebar that tells them who their followers are.

      Now it used to be that you could click your clicker on the follower's face and you would get information on the follower and you would be taken to their blog. 

     Now all I get is a few blogs they follow. Sometimes the name of their blog. Are some of the followers not bloggers?

     So did I click on something to turn these functions off?  Am I supposed to click my clicker on something else. Am I to right click in some mysterious place. 

      I have tried a number of things and nothing works. 

       Can someone tell me what I have to do to get the extra information that I want?  Does anyone else have the same problem?

      I would like to be able to check on my followers and then decide if I want to follow them. Usually if someone follows me I follow them unless their topic is far from my interests.

      Now that I've got this off my chest I can go outside and enjoy the smoke from the forest fires in British Columbia.

😧