i

Think about the power of the letter "i".

Not capitalized, merely lowercase, "i" has grown in stature since elementary school days when I signed notes "i love you" and the dot over the "i" was a heart.

Later, it was all about capital I - power, money, status, the Me-Decade, Janet Jackson singing "What Have You Done for Me Lately?"

Now the small "i" rules:
Nintendo Wii - two i's entertain and keep us fit.
And the king of i, the world of i - the Apple i courtesy of Steve Jobs. Absolute genius in the world of technology, communications, and entertainment. I heard him speak back in the 1980s. Working for an electronics/networking company, I attended a conference in Mountain View, CA and was thoroughly impressed with this confident man dressed in black who spoke of the future. Alas, not enough to buy Apple stock and hold on to it. (Duh). But Jobs was memorable. The room was electric and you could feel his excitement, his passion, and the energy of Apple.

iTunes - certainly has transformed the music industry

iPhone - impressive piece of machinery and the apps alone entertain. Forget hanging at the water cooler. I gravitate to a co-worker's desk to see and hear iBurp, iFart, iBubblewrap, and to me the most impressive - iLighter. Truly, you can use the phone at a concert to wave a pseudo-lighter. The flame flickers.

and the latest product and buzz - iPad. Will this transform everything? Who's to say? But reading the old fashioned paper newspaper this morning and perusing the comics, I did think of one fun thing that's eliminated. Remember using Silly Putty as a kid? You spread it out over a favorite comic strip, pulled it up, and voila the picture transferred.

Now that's an app I'd like to see duplicated. iPutty??

Small selection of Day 1 RGV birds

Day 1 and we're exhausted. Here's just a hint of all we saw today:

Great Egret with a too-big fish that he would end up dropping

White Ibis

Reddish Egret

Little Blue Heron

Roseate Spoonbill

And that was just a hint, and just day 1--more soon! Today we did the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center and then the Estero Llano World Birding Center.
TOTALS:
25 lifers
73 species
My lifers-in-one-day total might be beaten! My first trip to Cape May, I got 31 lifers in two days; I'm going to say that this day was my biggest day ever!

Tomorrow, it's the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and the Arroyo Colorado Birding Center. It'll probably be Monday or Tuesday before I get up all the pics and the full list, so stick with me, and wish me luck tomorrow. Still hoping to see Green Jay, Green Kingfisher, Altamira Oriole, and more.

THIS POST WAS UPDATED.
Oh my gosh, we're down here on South Padre Island, and it's FREEZING! And WINDY! But we've made one birding stop so far: the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center, a beautiful facility with a long boardwalk with viewing platforms and both fresh and saltwater marshy areas and mudflats.

We saw 34 species, thanks to our intrepid guide Tim Bradshaw.
Mallard--including a hybrid who was HUGE--Tim said he'd probably been parented by a Mallard and a domestic duck.

Blue-winged Teal
Northern Pintail
Redhead (in rafts of like 150 birds!)
Pied-billed Grebe
Brown Pelican
White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tri-colored Heron--LIFER!
Reddish Egret--LIFER!
White Ibis--LIFER!
Roseate Spoonbill--LIFER!
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Common Moorhen--LIFER!
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover--LIFER!
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper--LIFER!
Willet--LIFER!
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher--LIFER!
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern--LIFER!
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Red-winged Blackbird
some kind of pale-colored sparrow--didn't get a good look!

WHEW! Sitting in a coffee shop now, getting ready to leave the Island to go inland where it's warmer and less windy. The sun is out, the beach is beautiful, and my lifelist is growing faster than a little fledgling in the spring!

Pictures coming up tonight!

Visit Your Own Backyard

Nothing like having an out of town visitor to get the creative juices flowing. Where shall we go? What shall we eat? What's next? And let's eat! Anytime a good friend comes to town, we hit the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Gorgeous building, stellar art collection, and through March 21st a special event - Private Collections of Texas. Van Gogh, a Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Cezanne - you name the artist and it's represented on the walls of the Kimbell along with comments from the Texas collector and sometimes a photo of where their art is placed. One humorous comment, "You know a large picture covers cracks in the wall." Yeah, Waterlilies by Monet is the way to go in decorating.

After wandering the galleries, go eat at Lucille's on Camp Bowie Boulevard.

On a rainy Saturday, the Old Red Museum, in downtown Dallas proved interesting. The courthouse is now renovated and houses an excellent museum of Dallas and North Texas history. Films, displays, and plenty of interactive screens keep you moving and involved. I was amazed by how many newspapers and gazettes were in circulation back in the day.

Cool to see the Pegasus sign, a former beacon of the Dallas night sky. It's now on display in the Old Red Museum. Plenty of stories to learn as you explore your own backyard. In turn, it prompts stories to create or embellish.

Dallas good eats - S&D Oyster on McKinney.

Banished Words from 2009

Shovel ready is number one on a list of Banished Words and Phrases for 2010. In honor of over use and general uselessness, Lake Superior State University (Michigan) released their 35th annual list back on January 1st. (Time Magazine, 1/18/10 p. 67) Obviously there are a lot of economic terms and some political jargon. It's amusing to read the list and agree with the most obnoxious offenders

1. Shovel ready

2. Transparent

3. Czar

4. Tweet

5. App

6. Sexting

7. Friend, as a verb

8. Teachable moment

9. In these economic times...

10. Stimulus

11. Toxic assets

12. Too big to fail

13. Bromance

14. Chillaxin'

15. Obama, as a prefix

Do you agree? Please add to the list or start the compilation of 2010 offenders.

Geeked up!

I'm so geeked up and ready to go to the Valley that I can hardly stand it. I feel like Peter Petrelli from season one of Heroes, glowing and about to explode -- the excitement of a roadtrip, new birds, going to my old hometown of Harlingen and my old favorite hangout of South Padre Island, and spending some quality time with ol' Mary, my little sister-pal! It's just almost too much! Almost!

I was just on Mel's Peruvian wonderblog and marvelling at all the amazing southern hemisphere birds she's seeing lately, and I was surprised to find some of the RGV "specialty birds" on her list -- I guess the tip of Texas is the northernmost part of their range. That just got me even more excited to get down there and start looking for birds.

Here's a list of some of the birds I'm hoping to see down there, all of which would be lifers and some of which are only on the USA birdlists because of their presence in the southernmost tip of Texas:

Altamira Oriole, Bolsero Campero, I. gularis

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Pijije, Dendrocyna autumnalis

Black-throated Sparrow, Chiero Gorjinegro, Amphispiza bilineata

Bronzed Cowbird, Tordo Ojirrojo, Molothrus aeneus

Brown-crested Flycatcher, Copetòn Tiranillo, M. tyrannulus

Clapper Rail, Rascòn Picudo, Rallus longirostris

Common Ground-Dove, Tortolita Comùn, C. passerine

Common Moorhen, Gallareta Comùn, Gallinula chloropus

Common Pauraque, Pachacua Pucuya, Nyctidromus albicollis

Couch's Kingbird, Tirano Mexicano, T. couchii

Dunlin, Playerito Lomo Rojo, C. alpine

Great Kiskadee, Luis Bienteveo, Pitangus sulphuratus

Green Jay, Chara Verde, Cyanocorax yncas

Groove-billed Ani, Garrapatero Pijuy, Crotophaga sulcirostris

Harris's Hawk, Aguililla Cinchada, Parabuteo unicinctus

Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Carpinterillo Mexicano, Picoides scalaris

Lark Sparrow, Garriòn Arlequìn, Chondestes grammacus

Lesser Scaup, Pato Bola, A. affinis

Lesser Yellowlegs, Tinguìs Menor, T. flavipes

Lincoln's Sparrow, Gorriòn de Lincoln, M. lincolnii

Marbled Godwit, Agachona Real, L. fedoa

Mottled Duck, Pato Tejano, A. fulvigula

Nashville Warbler, Chipe Gorrigrìs, V. ruficapilla

Olive Sparrow, Gorriòn Olivàceo, Arremonops rufivirgatus

Red Knot, Playero Conuto, Calidris canutus

Reddish Egret, Garza Melenuda, E. rufescens

Ruddy Turnstone, Chorlete Comùn, Arenaria interpres

Sandwich Tern, Charràn de Sandwich, S. sandvicensis

Tennessee Warbler, Chipe Peregrino, V. peregrine

Tricolored Heron, Garza Flaca, E. tricolor

White-tipped Dove, Paloma Perdiz, Leptotila verreauxi

Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Cuclillo Piquiamarillo, C. americanus
It's a pretty amazing list, and these are only the birds that are supposed to be abundant or common down there; I didn't even include anything that was supposed to be uncommon or rare or accidental! You'll note that the list has the common English name, the Spanish name, and then the usual Latin genus and species. This has been a real advantage when Birding Mommy starts talking to me about birds she loved as a child--she only knows the Spanish names, which aren't exactly easy to match up with the English names I know.

Still, there are some bird names she's used that I haven't been able to find the English translation for. Does anyone know what a "calandria" is? (spelling is my approximation based on her pronunciation) I was so happy to find out, for instance, that a gorrion is mostly like a sparrow and a galandrina is probably a swallow, though that isn't always true on that list.

One Spanish name that I really like is that of the Western Wood-Pewee: Tengofrìo Occidental, which, loosely translated, means "I'm cold in the West!" Hee hee!

Anyway, the birds above are probables for the trip, which means my lifelist could grow by at least 32 birds! There are other South Texas specialties I might see; it just will be a little harder to find them at this time of the year. I was really hoping to see a Verdin, a Roseate Spoonbill, a Vermillion Flycatcher, a Pyrrhuloxia, an Aplomado Falcon, and an Anhinga -- but they're all "uncommon" according to this list I found online. They also list Sandhill Cranes as uncommon, which is a real disappointment. I really want to see one!

We were going to camp out when we were down there, but we've ended up booking rooms at (where else?) Motel 6. I almost always stay at Motel 6 wherever I go, because you always know what you're going to get--a clean room, nothing fancy, cheap rates--no matter where you are. So we're staying on the Island Friday and Saturday nights, and we'll come back sometime Sunday afternoon or evening.

It's been ten years since I was in the Valley; I wonder if it's changed at all. It never used to seem to change when I would go down there from college or when I lived in Austin and Fort Worth. Should be interesting!

Finally, I go birding!

Great-tailed Grackles are EVERYWHERE here.

The weather finally cooperated with Birding Mommy and me today, and thanks to having the day off for Dr. King, we were able to go birding in Macallister Park. I've seen some good birds there before; it's where I saw my first Lesser Goldfinch, so in a pinch (for time) we went there before running some other errands.

There was still some leftover mist and drizzle blowing around, but it stopped soon after we arrived. We've had major flooding here in the last few days, and the evidence is clear in these low-lying water collection areas:At the bases of many trees, we saw these little fort-like collections of debris, wood, and trash (in this case a Coke bottle and a car tire). We had between 1.5 and 5.5 inches of rain the other da, and all that water just rushed over the little creek beds that lay dry and dormant for most of the year. One observation: That would be a perfect little wall to crouch behind, were there snow on the ground, for snowball fights!

Little danger of snow here, however. We wandered around the place for a little while, and we saw a lot of great little birds--though we were there kinda late (9:30ish). Here are a few photos of a beautiful Golden-fronted Woodpecker, a Texas specialty:

Backlighting was rough and she was rather fidgety, but I was thrilled to finally get a good long look through the binocs at this beautiful little lady (I'm guessing it's a lady because the males have a red cap, but it might well be a male still wearing fall color). When I saw my life one back in February, it was just a very quick glimpse--just enough for the ID. We watched this girl for a little while. She made a loud checking sound that I thought at first was a squirrel barking, but it turned out to be this bird--a nice surprise!

We also saw this flycatcher, which I think is an Eastern Phoebe--but then I'm terrible with flycatchers--who wouldn't cooperate and come closer OR turn around:

Once I got home with the field guides, I kept trying to make it into something cool like a Texas rarity (Ash-throated Flycatcher, etc.) but I think it's just a fall-yellow-splash-bellied Eastern Phoebe. He was very quiet, so there was no tell-tale song. Note the possessed-laser-beam-o'-death eye in the second pic. Eek.

Next, we headed into a more heavily wooded area. At first I was ready to give it up as a bad job, as we heard very few bird sounds. Then, I heard a little Carolina Wren tea-kettling, so we stopped and I began to pish in earnest: That was when the inundation began! We had a pair of Northern Cardinals, several Carolina Wrens, a couple of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and a pair of these personal favorites: A nice little White-throated Sparrow, something I hadn't seen since leaving Pennsylvania.

And this teeny tiny little wren, which I think is a either a House Wren or a Winter Wren, based on the coloring, the eye stripe, and the tiny tiny size:
When you zoom in on his little face, you can definitely see a whitish stripe over his eye and some barring on his flanks (Winter Wren) but Peterson distinctly states that the Winter Wren is darker than the House Wren, and this little guy was rather light brown. Carolina Wrens are easy to ID with their rusty coloring and white eye-stripe; Bewick's Wrens are very pugnacious and their tails bob up and down more than the other wrens--not to mention the rather distinct songs of each wren. But this little guy... he was just so tiny, like a Ruby-crowned Kinglet; House Wrens are bigger. But now that I listen to the calls one after the other here at home (can you believe I forgot my phone with the BirdJam? groan...!), I'm thinking it was a plain old House Wren. Do you agree? Winter Wrens can be found down in these parts, but other than that eye-stripe, I just don't see it. Dangit.

Let me tell you, wrens go car-ay-zee when you pish them! I just started pishing, and very quickly I had Bewick's Wrens bobbing their tails at me, Carolina Wrens tea-kettling at me, and these sweet little House/Winter? Wrens very interested in who or what was making that noise, and Birding Mommy and I were just surrounded by spastic little birds all a-twitter with excitement. It made my day, my week, my month!

We saw a few other cool sights:


A dash of color on a drab day:

Some neat little moss or lichen:
Also an opportunity to read my palm.

I like this little buck's facial expression:
I'm getting so geeked up about the RGV birding trip at the end of the month. Mary's on a cruise with her husband right now, so there's no one to spend hours on the phone with, psychotically anal-retentive planning and discussing and re-discussing every second of the trip, dangit! But she'll be home soon, and before I know it it'll be time to go. I'm studying my RGV specialty bird list every night before bed, but what I'd really love is to just see some Sandhill Cranes.

Who is a Hero?

"Who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary," said Miep Gies in a 1997 interview. (Associated Press) She considered it her human duty to help hide the Frank family during World War II. Unfortunately, the family was ultimately discovered and sent to concentration camps. But, left behind in their tiny quarters was The Diary of Anne Frank.

Miep Gies found it and returned it to Anne's father, Otto, after the war. Anne died in the camps but thankfully her words were able to survive, be published, translated, and forever remembered. The diary is a tale of dreams, worries, concerns, angst, love, family, and hope. At a time of true despair, it registered hope for the future.

Strong and powerful, The Diary of Anne Frank is a classic and plain and simple - a darn good read for any age at any time.

Miep Gies died at the age of 100 this past week, a quiet unassuming hero.

Day Thirteen

The difference between winning and losing is quitting. Ross Perot -corporate magnate (from Dallas Morning News, Business 1/3/10).

Day Thirteen of 2010. Middle of January. This is the time when resolutions begin to falter, when maybe that daily word goal is deemed ridiculous, and when one's plot line goes kerplooey. Quit? Nah!

Sure, maybe I'm slogging along at the scrabbly base of the terrain. But there's scrub to grab (i.e. a new character to create), there's toeholds (a gripping action sequence to write), and sure, there's tumbling rocks (throw in some humor).

Slowly but surely, the words build, grow cohesive, and suddenly I can see my goal, and the next, and the next. So what if there's a few skinned knees (rejections)? That's what bandaids (rewrites) are for.

Breeding plumage already!?

Saw a Northern Cardinal today, resplendent in his beautiful red breeding suit! No dull winter garb for this boy. At the same time he was chipping and posing and dancing among the branches of a little oak near the door at work, another male was singing his "purdy purdy purdy" song not a hundred yards away. Is it that time again already?




Oh please let it be spring migration time! pleeeeeeeeeeease!

Write the Opposite

Bedford, Texas January 8, 2010. We actually awoke to 13 degrees. By the time we got our act together to take a picture, the temperature was a balmy 16 degrees outside. BRRRR. This is NOT "normal" Texas winter weather.

Our pool is creating its own winter wonderland effect. Blustery winds blew the water around the fountain and on to the bushes creating frozen fingers and our own icy waterfall.

So I sit cocooned at my desk, layered in t-shirt and sweatshirt along with fuzzy slippers and an afghan (thank you Nana Crowther) at the ready. Now do I write a winter tale ... perhaps an icy scene? Or because I am in the land of make believe, shall I head off to a magical island? Harken to a faraway land down under where in January it is summertime and I can enjoy palm trees and a garden in Roroturo, New Zealand.

I'll do both. Perhaps a poem inspired by this frigid weather, and a shorts wearing travel scene. Get out the sunscreen either way.

Cheesier

I want to win a chance to blow up Texas Stadium ... but darn, Kraft requires one to be between the ages of nine and twelve. They kick off a national essay contest today for kids who have made an "explosive difference" in their community. ( See Dallas Morning News - Irving Region 1/7/10) Whoever wins the 300 word contest will get to push the button that triggers the implosion. How cool is that?

It gets cheesier. Kraft is introducing their new Cheddar Explosion this spring - hence the tie-in. Somehow, Texas Stadium, a famous Dallas (well, in Irving) landmark, is combined with America's Team for the sense of community (then again, the new stadium is in Arlington) and this spirit should be embodied in the essay. I assume a few orange mac 'n cheese fingerprints on the paper can't hurt.

On another note, I've tallied my 2009 production. 30 acceptances - hooray.
166 rejections - sigh

Maybe I should get into photography - say "Cheese".

Master the Job

Bask in the glow of the new year, embrace the world, and seek to put your mark on it.

The Dallas Morning News (Sunday, January 3, 2010) business section featured quotes from various community leaders and I was struck by many of their thoughts and inspirations. Today I quote Ms. Adelfa Callejo, attorney, who likes the saying, "Be a master of the job before you. Be a student of the job above you. And be a teacher of the job below you."

I shall heed these words as I work on re-writes today and study other writers.

A Blank Page

Shakespeare's King Henry the Sixth, Part I: "of all base passions, fear is most accurs'd" (V, ii, 18)
I'd say so if I was facing a bobsled run like this in Park Cities, Utah
Olympians shall face the real ski jumps in February 2010 in Vancouver, BC Canada. Here at Park Cities, Utah athletes train. This picture was taken a few summers ago. I can't imagine facing this slope for the first time. Oh, you work your way up to it, but sooner or later, if this is your life dream you are going to shove off and hope for the best.

Then again, it's 2010 and I face a blank page. Or I face my NaNo novel and delve into serious edits and re-writes. A new year brings new fears or raises some old ones. Take a deep breath and let's address those fears, curse those fears, and plunge ahead to conquer those fears.

I just filled a blank page. Whew!