Bald Cardinal

This unusual-looking bird arrived early this morning. I understand, that it's an ordinary male cardinal with mites. Apparently that's fairly common in hot and humid weather, and usually the bird just picks out the mites while grooming his feathers with his beak. Of course he can't reach his own head with his beak, and the feathers eventually fall out. Who knew a cardinal was so dark under his feathers? Makes you think about how unimportant a skin color really is.

Jennifer and Winston in Town

Jennifer and Winston arrived yesterday evening, and will be attending various festivities for the 10th Reunion of Jennifer's Leon High School Class of 1999. They joined us (above) for dinner at Ray's Steele City Saloon not far from our house.

Name That Bird

This pair of birds showed up at our feeder this afternoon. I'm assuming they are a male and female of the same species, as they arrived together, ate together, and left together. Looking at a variety of ID pictures, I can see only two that even resemble these: pyrrhuloxia and pine grosbeak, and neither should be anywhere near Tallahassee. Any suggestions?

Update on August 5: It's almost certainly a House Finch pair...the male is the red one. (Thanks to Jim Cox.)

Wildlife Photos on My Web Page

I've added a new section to my web page:
http://www.gordonrmorgan.com/Events/Wildlife/Wildlife.htm.

This page has a few pictures I've taken around our house, and I'll be adding both old and new photos to it.

Each small picture (thumbnail) is a link to a larger version of the picture. Just click on the small photo to get the large one, and then use your browser's BACK button to return to the original page.

So far I've posted yesterday's bird pictures and some new ones about a squirrel feeder that the squirrels have yet to discover.

Bird Pictures

Here are some pictures of recent visitors to our deck.

First: a Carolina Chickadee


...and a Carolina Wren.


Next: a Tufted Titmouse (I think). He's tilting his head away, so it's hard to see the crest on top of his head.


And, finally, a Tufted Titmouse and a Carolina Wren on the feeder at the same time. They do NOT like to share.

The Afternoon of a Fawn

This afternoon we saw not only the adult deer again, but a fawn as well. The prelude to this afternoon was several days before the 4th of July, when we first saw the spotted little fawn. I'm assuming it's the same one, but it's hard for me to tell one from another. This one definitely was bigger, but it could have grown. Both times the fawn has been too distant and too small (compared to the weeds) to get a decent picture. I'll keep trying.

Hungry Deer Video Clip

This deer is doing its best to keep the weeds next to our house under control.

Hummingbird at the New Feeder

Our old hummingbird feeder was a beautiful red globe, but the hummingbirds didn't like it as much as we did. Today we put up a more traditional model, and we've already had several visits.

Deer Are Back

The night of the 4th of July, some of our neighbors put on a long, loud, and illegal fireworks show. We didn't see any deer for a couple of days after that, and were a little afraid they had been scared far away. Not to worry. On Tuesday the 7th at least one of them happened by. I took this picture on Wednesday the 9th.

Austin Trip Highlights on the Web

I've compiled a little PDF booklet on my recent trip to Austin, with more text and photos than I posted on this blog a few days ago. It's on my web site at http://gordonRmorgan.com/, in the Chronicles section of the Events page.

Monica's Montessori Meanderings

Monica has her own blog, in which she is posting about her experiences at a summer training session for Montessori teachers. Her blog, Montessori Meanderings, also has an occasional item about other fun aspects of being in the New York City area for much of the summer. The blog address is http://montessorimonica.blogspot.com/ . You can also capitalize her name, to make it easier to remember and type: http://montessoriMonica.blogspot.com/ .

Back from Austin

I've been in Austin for a meeting of the Mobility Measurement in Urban Transportation working group. I also got to spend some time with Toby, who picked me up at the airport Sunday afternoon and treated me to a delicious homemade meal that he made from scratch. For lunch Monday, since we were on the University of Texas campus he suggested the Sao Paulo restaurant. I had never been to a Brazilian restaurant before, and the chicken in Brazilian cream sauce was delicious.

Monday morning I toured the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. Monica had recommended it when we were in Austin in March, but we didn't have time for it then. The museum has three floors of exhibits and dozens of small areas where short films are shown to illustrate critical episodes in Texas history. It also has a 200-seat "Texas Spirit" theater in which the 15-minute film Star of Destiny is shown. The audience sees the images and also feels rain from above, smoke and wind from the sides, and vibrations from the seats. This star in front of the museum is a large sculpture, not just pasted onto the snapshot.

Our meeting hotel had this early evening view of downtown Austin from the 17th floor, facing west.

The weather was mostly hot, but not as humid as Tallahassee. The flights were uneventful, except for one strange thing: on the second leg coming home, from Charlotte to Tallahassee, there was an empty seat next to me! First time that's happened in a long time.