Not so Imperfect

When I first opened this picture of Longwood Gardens (from my sister), inwardly I gasped. Greens so luscious. I appreciated the intensity of spring and how sometimes we look but don't see. That's true of reading. I read a lot and enjoy a variety of styles and authors. However, sometimes you read a book and gasp. The words on the page, the imagery, the sheer "Wow, I wish I'd written this" factor is all imbued in Imperfect Birds by Anne Lamott.

The novel is a story of a family that's not so perfect. Rosie seems like a great teenage. She makes good grades, has friends, is super with little kids, and she's a total stoner alcoholic. Her life is a facade of cheating time to get high. Her mother, Elizabeth, and stepfather, James, are parents who try, but are frustrated, at times clueless, and must confront the lies and deceptions. It's an enthralling read.

Here are some writing samples that captured me:

p. 7 "You are the sun," he told Elizabeth over the phone. "The child is merely a moon. She has no light of her own, no income, no car. She is a satellite. Her judgement is frequently poor, and she is mean. She is South Africa before the revolution, cruel and crazy. Divest!"

p.96 In regards to the devil inside and whether we're wired for it: "I think it's tiny and insidious. Like hairline cracks that let in the water that shatters rocks."

p.144 In regards to writing: "It's like Gertrude Stein said, that she could always write good sentences, but she never quite understood paragraphs."

p.157 Rosie's vowing to change: "She got to the scrap of paper ... Thelonious Monk ...'Make the drummer sound good'. She was going to do just that, make both her parents sound good by doing well."

Teensy gems build and build into a wonderful book. I'm going to return it to the library. Go check it out now.

Flashback to Texas Sparrow School for an eBird request

So I got in late tonight after a hard day pounding the pavement in my sales job, and I'd received an email from an eBird volunteer -- how exciting!

First, a little backstory: Back in late January/early February, my sister Mary and I went to the Rio Grande Valley and birded at Estero Llano Grande State Park near Weslaco. What a beautiful place! If you're ever down there, don't miss this amazing place! Anyway, I had seen many sparrows (and non-sparrows which I mistook for sparrows), so I put together a post subtitled "Sparrow School" and posted a bunch of photos of sparrow-like birds I couldn't ID for sure.

If you read the comments on that post, you'll find that the second bird was ID'd as a Song Sparrow by a birder I highly respect, John from A DC Birding Blog. Another birder whose ID skills are top-notch is Hap in New Hope (who doesn't have a blog, dangit!), and he thought the bird was a Lincoln's Sparrow. Here again are the photos, for reference:


So--John argued mightily for Song Sparrow, and though it looked awfully gray and didn't seem to have a hatpin spot on the breast, I figured, hey, what the hell do I know?!

Now, as you know, I recently started entering my birding trip lists into eBird, and I thought it would be a good idea to go back and enter all my lists from 2010. When I entered my Estero Llano list, however, I had to add Song Sparrow as a "rare species." Turns out that the Rio Grande Valley is a bit farther south than the Songies like to go, even in winter.

So a volunteer, Mary Gustafson, requested that I send her the photos (I made a note regarding the "rare species" that I'd taken photos and that John had confirmed Song.

I'll let you know what happens. In the meantime, it's kinda funny to me that a Song Sparrow, such a freakin' common bird up here in PA, is causing a bit of a kerfuffle down south.

Old-school birding (kinda) and a lifer!

I am still without camera and binoculars, so I went birding old-school style today, using mostly my plain old eyes and ears as well as my spotting scope. I've determined it's tough to bird with just a spotting scope unless you're looking at water birds.

I'd been seeing local listserv reports of Vesper Sparrows out in the fields and farms south of State College, so I drove out there despite an on-and-off drizzle. A Vesper Sparrow would be a lifer for me, so I was really anxious to see one. There were also reports of American Pipits, but as I rolled along Nixon Road I heard only Northern Cardinals, American Crows, Bluejays, Killdeers, and... wait -- yes, indeed! I heard that crazy "two slurs, then a warble" (as described on the Stokes CDs)! I knew I was in the right place!

It took a while, but I was finally able to find one in the scope. This guy came right up to me, giving me gorgeous views; they're really beautiful little birds. Here's an online image I found at a beautiful site by South Dakota photographer Terry Sohl:That's lifer #265!

Here's a list of birds I saw:
Mallard
Turkey Vulture
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted)
Blue Jay
American Crow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Vesper Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
American Goldfinch
This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

It was frustrating trying to find birds without binocs; one of my good birding friends Hillel went without binoculars for a long time, and I really don't know how he did it! Like I said, when you're checking out shorebirds or marsh birds, who stay relatively still for long periods, it's great having the scope to really zoom in. But try finding a warbler or a sparrow in a tree with a big old scope? Boy howdy, it's tough. Maybe with practice it gets easier. But I miss my Leupolds! And if I'd had my camera, I'd have gotten a great photo of that little Vesper Sparrow, posing for me and singing his little song.