hello i am cold

Hello!

Once upon a time thre was a little country pony who was Rainbow Dash's sister and her name was Rainbow Light. Rainbow Light was looking for an extra new color for her rainbow, and she picked black! So that was the color she wanted, but she couldn't see the rainbow. So she thinked about another color and it was another blue. And she counted and she said the colors: red, orange, yellow, blue, green, blue, purple.

Then she decided she loved to pick black, a big color that was fluffier than her. And she wanted also to think about some good news to be kindful. So she decided and I was being rude to her. Then she heard a sound -- BOOM! That was thunder crashing her. And all of a sudden she heard BOOM BANG BOOM that was thunder and lighting crashing her. It was Rainbow Dash!

And then nothing. And then poo poo bears camed and scared Rainbow Light and Rainbow Dash. Then Fluttershy and all the ponies came and swept down from a tree and tried to say, "What are you doing -- I am no poo poo bear!"

The end

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Here is a list of the 88 new life birds I saw in Costa Rica, including some pictures. Possibly one or two are yet to be ID'd but this shuld be pretty close to the final list. Behind a cut for length.

( The birds....Collapse )

Record shots of all these birds (except Brown Jay) can be found on my Flickr stream here. Probably all out of order because Flickr is the devil. Enjoy!

When we moved in a few years back, I told our neighbors I wanted to plant an apricot tree, and they bought us one! For the past year or so I've been taking pictures to see how it's growing. This slideshow is not as thrilling as I once dreamed it would be. But if you pay attention to the relative size of the garage, you can see it really sprouted up this year! It went from producing three apricots in 2012 to 15 apricots in 2013 to 60+ apricots in 2014.

[Livejournal won't let me embed, so you have to go here to see the slideshow.]

Anyway it makes me happy.

Here is my end-of-the-year post last year, and as predicted, I look at that picture and think, "What happened to my tiny baby?"



It's been a good year for us overall, although a difficult one for many friends and loved ones, which did cast a bit of a cloud over the year. Two of my friends were diagnosed with cancer, one had serious health issues and almost died of sepsis, and my best friend's father died. My heart goes out to those of you who had difficult times this year as well. I hope 2014 is better for everyone.

It was a comparatively light travel year (probably because of our big Singapore trip at the end of last year) but I did go to Chicago to visit Wendy and Chris, to Vegas for Michelle's bachelorette and to Los Angeles a bunch of times: for a Disneyland trip, for David's dad's funeral, for Michelle's wedding, and for Christmas. In local travel, the birding pelagic trip stands out, as well as the Las Gallinas hike and the Christmas Bird Count. In fact, I traveled all over the Bay Area looking for birds, and had a wonderful time doing so. We also spent a weekend in Tahoe with our parent friends, and a weekend in Monterey with Shannon and Jen and their families. Of course, we also went to the railroad park resort in Dunsmuir and I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time. So still lots of awesome trips!

For next year I'm doing Weetacon in March, and we're talking about Alaska in the summer. Even though I've been wanting to go for years, I'll probably appreciate it a lot more now that I'm a birder! So I guess it's good that I've had to wait. Also on the table: visiting Lisa in her new post in Surinam, going to visit my family in Holland, and taking a birding trip to Texas or Ohio in the spring. We'll see what materializes.

This year was a big year for me work-wise. I was having major anxiety issues about work at the beginning of the year, and ended up starting therapy in the spring to help deal with it. At the same time, I got laid off, which ended up as a huge blessing in disguise, since it actually alleviated a lot of my work stress. My therapist was great too, and taught me a lot of coping mechanisms for anxiety. When I saw her a few weeks ago, she said she no longer thought therapy was necessary for me, and so I "graduated." I can go back if I need to, though! From her, I learned that it's okay to do things solely for the joy of it, to let go of caring so much what other people think about me, how to reframe problems, and how to "speak my truth" and "do the thing I fear" and "live in the now" and other hippie-sounding stuff like that. Good stuff.

Then I had a delightful (seriously) period of unemployment, which I really made the most of, followed by the horrible stint at Chemico and the craziness that is my current job at Dataco. Overall, I'm so happy to have a flexible job that lets me work from home, to not be micromanaged anymore (thank fucking god), and to be building awesome new project management and community management skills. My bank account has largely recovered too, which is another relief.

Mina, of course, continues to be a joy. She started preschool this year and has just exploded with language and learning. She is the best.

In 2011 I scored 40% on my resolutions, and in 2012 I scored 67%. Let's see how I did in 2013!

Resolutions for 2013

1. Finish the Time reading list. Yes, I did this! My writeup is here.

2. Learn to cook at least two healthful, easy meals. I did this too! I need to make my crockpot pork again for that one to really count, but my parmesan-crusted chicken is a hit, crudite veggies are easy and delicious, and I can do quesadillas like nobody's business. I also went through a banana-cinnamon pancake phase that was quite successful.

3. Continue with Flickr weekend assignment, flossing, and the monthly wrap-up posts. Yes, I did this, and in fact I took over the moderation of the Flickr weekend assignment. By the end of next year I may be ready to hand it off to someone else though; who knows. I'm not reiterating these as goals because I think now they are pretty ingrained.

4. Finish young adult novel. Hell yes, I did this! Another huge one! I still have a couple of agents to hear back from who requested the full manuscript, but my eyes are kind of on the sequel at the moment. I feel like as one agent suggested, the sequel might be where the real meat of the story is. We shall see.

5. Be doing some consistent cardiovascular exercise by the end of the year. Yep. This year I went through physical therapy for my knee, found a gym to rival the One True Gym in Green Bay, and have been steadily increasing time on the elliptical as well as weight on the machines. As for consistency, I've been going to the gym 1-2 times per week for the past two months. I would have gone today but I have a chest cold. I will work out when sick except when I have a chest cold, per the advice of Dr. Internet.

6. Get my California ABA California bird list to 200 species. Yes! This one really benefited from my unemployment, when I went birding almost every day. My California list is at 200 or 203, depending on how you're counting.

7. Make an earthquake kit for the house. Half credit for this one. I made one, and currently there's a radio, some food, and some water, but I think I need to add a first aid kit and some other stuff.

8. Make a will. I signed up for the legal services through my ex-employer, and when I got laid off, I had 90 days to use them. So we were able to get our will and trust set up for free using that benefit. As a bonus, our lawyer said that people who do this hardly ever get divorced! So hopefully we'll be on the right side of those odds.

9. Contact one of my biological relatives. I have met my half-sister once and my half-brother four times. My biological mother now also knows I exist and that I'm in touch with her kids. This situation is still evolving but we'll see what happens this year.

10. Do at least two major house list items. We had bookshelves and a window seat and a laundry cabinet and shelf built. We are really happy with the house. It feels like a real house! Here are some before and afters:





Bonus 11. Do something each month to make the world a better place. I didn't really do this one as much, sad to say. I think the goal was not concrete enough and it really was an afterthought for the most part. I did find some cool charities to give to like Rolling Jubilee, but I probably did this fewer than half the months of the year.

This is a 9.5/11, or 86%! I went from an F to a D+ to a B+, thanks to the monthly check-ins, good goal-setting, a period of unemployed free time, and my own dogged persistence. Go team me!


Resolutions for 2014

1. Finish first draft of my YA sequel. As I said, I'm turning my focus this year to writing the sequel, and I'm currently revising my idea so it works as a standalone. This will be a lot of work, but I'm excited about it.

2. Organize my bedroom closet. It's currently a mess, and I know there's stuff I can purge and way more organization that can happen. Having a linen closet now is very inspirational also, since it helps avoid the "giant piles of blankets and pillows" that were taking up way too much room in the closet.

3. Work out 75 times this year. This is more than once but less than twice per week, which I think is a reasonable goal to set. I'm going to aim for twice a week, but with my work schedule, travel, and birding hikes, I know there will be weeks where I go only once. I'm currently doing a modest workout, but I expect to ramp that up slowly over the course of the year as well.

4. Get my ABA list up to 250 birds, and go on a birding trip outside of California. Birding in Chicago last year was so awesome, I can't even imagine doing a birding-focused trip during spring migration. I hope that I'll be able to do that this year, so I'm making it a goal. As for the target number of 250, I will reserve the right to adjust this goal upward if it seems too easy. It depends on whether I get to take that trip or not!

5. My reading goal. I have a working list of 10 books to read and 10 to re-read. I'm also planning to try and read as many of the Tournament of Books finalists as I can, since it was so fun to follow the contest this year. Rather than diving into the next booklist, I'm kind of focusing on savoring and enjoying reading this year.

6. Learn how to soft-boil an egg. Another extremely modest cooking goal, but I love soft-boiled eggs.

7. Finish my earthquake kit. Come on, Mo! You can do it!

8. Do one house project. I really want this to be getting the house painted in the spring, but we also have a big electrical project we need to prioritize.

9. Challenge anxiety. This goal is a little ephemeral, but I think it's going to be helpful for me to check in with this one at the end of each month. Am I still working on my mental health? Am I trying new ways to challenge anxious thoughts? I'm going to try meditating this month and see how that is, but as long as I am actively working on this throughout the year, it will count.

10. Rebuild savings account. Is it three months living expenses that is suggested? I'll try for that.

11. Every month, either donate to charity or shop locally rather than from a conglomerate, or both. This is only slightly less ephemeral than last year, but I will try. I will kick it off with my first dollar spent in the new year. I think I'll start with Charity: Water.

12. Organize and back up my pictures in a way that makes sense, ideally to the cloud. This is a huge one, but I need to do this. I guess I could upload everything to Flickr, but I hate Flickr. Anyone know of any good cloud storage options for one zillion pictures?

That's it for me. Pretty ambitious, but I'm feeling cocky after last year's success, so fingers crossed. Happy new year, everyone! As Michael Scott once said, catch you on the flippity flip.

A few days behind the times, and a little abbreviated, but here we are!

Books:

23. The Stranger Beside Me (by Ann Rule)
24. The Rosie Project (by Graeme Simsion)
25. Sushi for Beginners (by Marian Keyes)
26. Lit (by Mary Karr)
27. The Other Side of the Story (by Marian Keyes)

Reviews at the book blog, as always.

Movies:

None!

TV:

Masterchef Australia wrapped up with a mediocre top three and a horrible winner. I gather that most everyone is pretty unhappy with the result, at least going by TWoP and the Facebook page. It was still fun to watch, though.

We also watched Broadchurch, which had some issues, but overall was enjoyable. I do have to say that I picked out the murderer in the first episode, totally based on gut instinct, and I was right!

Other Pop Culture and Internet and Stuff:

I highly recommend the series Learn Guitar with David Brent. [Insert standard disclaimer here about how Ricky Gervais is kind of an asshole but David Brent is so brilliant and perfectly played that I can't hold it against him even though I have tried.] I've had "Ooh La La" stuck in my head for days.

I also yet again have to complain about Flickr. I JUST WANT TO FIND THE MOST RECENT PICTURES IN MY MINA SET. I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO WAIT FOREVER FOR 1200 PICTURES TO LOAD AND SCROLL ALL THE WAY TO THE END BECAUSE THEY'RE ARRANGED FROM OLDEST TO NEWEST AND PRESENTED FULL SIZE FOR SOME IDIOTIC REASON AND THERE IS NO THUMBNAIL VIEW. I HATE YOU FLICKR. Anyone have an alternative? I'm tired of being so annoyed all the time. I would go to Picasa but that's Google's, and I'm still pissed at Google about Reader. Plus, Picasa does some annoying stuff too. Grr.

Birds:

None. Sigh. I did go out a few times despite how busy I was, but I didn't manage to see anything new.

Socializing/Travel:

Busy! I stopped by Annie and Eric's gorgeous studio, had dim sum with Jette who is here from Texas for a few weeks, and Ian's parents were here for a few days so we saw them. On top of that, I spent a weekend in Las Vegas for Michelle's penis-straw-themed bachelorette party, and the holiday weekend in Los Angeles for Michelle's wedding. Combine all of this with my work schedule (see below) and I honestly can't believe I managed it all!

The bachelorette party was a blast; we ate at the Caesar's Palace Buffet, had a couple of hot craps rolls (my really long one was only stopped when some bro put his hands on the table and bumped the dice, resulting in a seven), visited the Neon Museum, and drank through the aforementioned penis straws. And we laughed a lot. It was me, Caroline, Tiffany, Michelle, and our honorary bachelorette Steve. (He was also a Bridesman at the wedding.)

The wedding was also fun, although it was incredibly hot, and they planned Mina's part very poorly. (As in, she spent three hours waiting around in a flower girl dress and they didn't do pictures until after the wedding when she was dirty, tired, and over it. If it had been planned better we could have given her a nap, and she might have walked down the aisle instead of me having to carry her. But anyway, she looked cute, so whatever.

I also can't believe I got no good pictures of the three of us at the wedding, or any pictures of her with my parents, or any pictures of her with my sister and Tiff. I feel like it was too hot to think straight. (The temps were in the high 90s, and the wedding was outdoors.) Sigh.

Work:

I worked three different jobs this month: school started again on the 19th, I finished up my last couple of weeks at Chemico, and I spent two weeks freelancing at my old workplace while Annie was on vacation. All of this was prelude to my new job at DataCo, working with my friend srb. That job is what's going to make September nuts! I have also had to turn down two different other jobs, and I have one more freelance job that I have to squeeze in around my DataCo and Dollar College commitments. I feel so in demand!

Toddler:

The big development this month was that Mina started preschool. We are really happy with the decision to send her there; there are days when she doesn't want to leave when we come to pick her up. There are 17 kids in her class right now, and three very nice teachers. The first few days we had some lip trembling "putting on a brave face," asking us if we were coming back for her at the end of the day. But she adjusted and is doing great there overall, knock wood!

Here are some of her bon mots:

“You will not do that! That’s bad.”

(of a plastic pirate) “Who’s this little guy?”

(holding a remote control to her ear): “Hello, how can I help you?”

(cupping my face in her hands): “I love you. You’re the cutest bean!”

Resolutions:

Basically the same as last month, so no updates.

Some more August pictures:

I slightly regret not starting a birding blog last year when I started birding, but do I really have time for another blog? One full of blurry pictures of barely identifiable birds? Probably not.

I had a good day, though. One of my 2013 goals is to get my birding list up to 200, which is an average of 10 birds per month over the course of the year. This is only going to get more difficult as the year goes on and I see most of the area's common birds. However, I am now underemployed, which means that I have more time to bird. I have been going birding nearly every day. My dream goal for March is to see a new bird every day so I can end the month with 30 new birds. (This would be ideal but so far I am at 9 birds for March, so I'm behind already.)

Today I went on not one but two bird hikes. I had lots of other things to do, but it's hard to beat myself up for going on two gorgeous and relaxing hikes in 70-degree weather. It's good exercise, it's great to get outside, it's really fun. As far as hobbies go, there are worse ones! (Plus, I actually got a lot done today otherwise, so maybe the hikes were energizing.)

I subscribe to two very important lists: one is East Bay Birding, where local birders post reports from around the area, and one is eBird Alerts, which is reports of rare birds around the area. (I actually have alerts set up for three different counties.) This helps me with rule number one, which is, have a target bird. I don't know birds well enough to just aimlessly go someplace and look around. I need to identify a target bird and then look it up so I know what it looks like, what it sounds like*, and what its preferred habitat is.

(*I am terrible with bird songs. It would be a really useful skill to have, because you hear birds long before you see them, and it would be good to at least be able to say "yeah, that's yet another Yellow-Rumped Warbler and I've already seen thirty of those today, so maybe I won't stare at this tree for another half an hour hoping for views of this bird" but I am not musically inclined and I don't really have an ear for it, so it's difficult.)

Ideally I will have more than one target bird, because sometimes you "dip" on the bird you are looking for (i.e., you don't see it). Both today and yesterday I went to the MLK, Jr. Regional Shoreline to look for a Tropical Kingbird that has been reported there. This is because of rule number two, which is go for the rarities right away. I missed out on an Indigo Bunting last year because I was under the mistaken impression that it would stick around for longer, and despite like half a dozen recent trips to see the Emeryville Gray-Throated Black Warbler, I was too late on that one too. So I jumped on this Kingbird report.

That being said, I dipped anyway. Yesterday there was a birder there who said it had been on the reported telephone wire "an hour ago," but I didn't find it. Today there were four birders with big scopes and cameras, and they hadn't seen it either. On top of that, yesterday when I went specifically for the Kingbird, I got there and realized there were hundreds of birds there that I didn't recognize! I kicked myself for not checking eBird to see what I could target. Today when I went back, I had researched some backup target birds. I saw four "lifers" (new birds for my list): Cinnamon Teal and Black-Necked Stilt yesterday, Short-Billed Dowitcher and Green-Winged Teal today. Here are some pics from that location.

Dark-Necked Stilt:



Got to see lots of singing Song Sparrows; not a new bird but I have seen a ton of them this week and have gotten better at identifying them, and even their song somewhat:



This Green-Winged Teal kept sticking its head in the water:



My other hike for today happened slightly by accident. Usually, in the morning after I drop Mina off at daycare is a good time to go see birds: I'm already out of the house, and it's fairly early in the morning so the birds tend to be active. I was going to immediately go try for the Kingbird again, but the traffic report said there was a huge accident on the freeway where a truck crashed and spilled a bunch of wine bottles on the road. So I remembered an email from the other birding list, where someone wrote that he had seen 30-40 Varied Thrushes at Jewel Lake. That's a nice little hike that I'm familiar with, I don't have to take the freeway, and I didn't have a Varied Thrush on my list! So I went there instead. (My day went: Jewel Lake hike, home to do some grading and writing work, do some housework, and then be unable to stand it and go look for the Kingbird again.)

This would have made for a lovely morning except there were not one, but two school groups hiking around the lake. One of them was fairly well-behaved, the other one was incredibly loud and annoying, even when their guide repeatedly was like "YOU LITTLE ASSHOLES, SHUT UP SO YOU STOP SCARING AWAY ALL THE BIRDS." So I missed out on some peacefulness. It wasn't until the very end of the hike when the kids were finally all gone that I spent a nice few minutes watching a Black Phoebe hunt insects on the lake and enjoyed some blessed silence.



That being said, I did see some good birds! The very first bird I saw was my target Varied Thrush. Despite the reports of 30-40, I only saw this one. It held still for a long time and I took a good look with my binoculars. (My third rule is picture first, binoculars second.)



I also saw a Song Sparrow, some chickadees, juncos, and vireos, turtles and ducks on the lake, a wild turkey (!) foraging in the leaves...



...and the most gorgeous Stellar's Jay I've ever seen.



If I had the fancy zoom lens, this would have been an amazing picture. That bird was gorgeous.

Tomorrow night I'm teaching, and I have two appointments and a lunch date in the afternoon, so no birds for me. (Except last week I left late and I heard owls right outside the classroom, so I might just take a tiny peek for owls.) (According to ABA rules, you can count a bird if you hear it but don't see it. That really seems like cheating to me, though.)

Wow, this kind of turned long. BUT I DON'T CARE BECAUSE I LOVE BIRDING OKAY THERE I SAID IT. As if you hadn't already figured that out.

Books:

43. The Charm Bracelet (by Melissa Hill)
44. Beautiful Ruins (by Jess Walter)

Reviews (and yet another year-end wrapup) up at the book blog. It was kind of a weird year for books!

Movies:

Brave--Loved the main character and the idea but the plot was pretty boring--felt thin.

Silver Linings Playbook--Really enjoyable. That dance routine was my favorite thing ever. (I do think Bradley Cooper’s character is slightly problematic at points, but his performance sold me.)

Lincoln--Daniel Day-Lewis was as amazing as expected, and the acting and writing were both great. Honestly I just wished it were shorter. (I watched it late at night on a screener and I was tired. Plus there are a lot of speechy scenes.)

Les Miserables--I could talk about this all day. I will just say Anne Hathaway made me weep and weep and weep, and Russell Crowe sucked as my favorite character, Javert. (Also this "Les Miz Geek Out" is great, thanks Eliza! and “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” was amazing, Marius was awesome for like the first time ever, and “I will stay with you til you are sleeping” made me weep. Imagine if there had been an awesome Javert! Norbert Leo Butz could have been Javert! Oh, What could have been!)

I finished the year with 44 books read and 45 movies watched. Almost equal! I have no idea what this means.

TV:

The usual, no new discoveries or obsessions in December.

Birds:

Song Sparrow
Western Meadowlark
Painted Redstart
Orange-Crowned Warbler
Cedar Waxwing

I'm actually kind of disappointed in my birding December. My first birding trip to Landfill Loop could have been great, except that I forgot my long lens and didn't get any identifiable bird pictures. (A very cool raptor flew right past me, but the one picture I got was just a blur. No idea what it was.) I thought I would see a whole bunch of new birds in L.A. but I really didn't. We went to one birding hotspot and I guess we were just in the wrong place, because I saw only two birds and they were super common (Black Phoebe and Yellow-Rumped Warbler). We did also follow one rare bird alert and see the Painted Redstart (a rarity) right away, which was cool. My sister also had some Cedar Waxwings in her trees, which was a new bird for me. I would have liked to do more L.A. birding and see more birds!



Of course, the highlight of December (especially photograph-wise) was the "pinecone."

Socializing/Travel:

We had a gift exchange at our house for our parents' group, which was very successful. Originally I had ambitions to make it a larger party, but then everyone in our group RSVPd yes, and I then realized we would have seven toddlers, which was ambitious enough! Other people in the group regularly host game nights, Halloween parties, and other get-togethers, so I think we will make the gift exchange an annual event. (I was about to say that we needed to schedule something in the summer, and then I realized that spring and summer are birthday party season--next May through July, all the babies will be turning two at roughly the same time.)



I also got together one night with David and Tyler to go see the stage production of Hedwig, which was terrific. It was a very small theater with kind of an interactive feel (one of the Hedwigs took a sip of David's beer and then spit it at us, which was less gross than it sounds). There were eight different actors playing Hedwig, of many different shapes, sizes, ages, and genders. We have such great local theater in the Bay Area, hopefully I will see even more productions next year.

And then of course was the big holiday trip to L.A.! I ended up having a cold through much of it, so was not at my best or most energetic. I made plans to meet up with friends but most of them fell through, probably because with this trip coming right on the heels of Singapore and the end of the semester, I just didn't plan all that well. But my parents loved seeing Mina, and I got to spend lots of time with my family, and I guess that's the important part.



Toddler:

She changes so fast, I can't keep up; I hope Ian is keeping daily notes. She loved her Christmas presents, especially this giant animal encyclopedia we gave her. She likes looking at the "el-fweet," "ow-ull," "hippo," "zebra," and most of all the "gaway gaway gaway!" (iguana). I've been trying to take more videos of her regular repertoire, but it's difficult to capture all of those moments. I keep trying though.



The big thing is really her speech, since she can repeat basically anything (including Dutch words) and does things like sing "Wheels on the Bus" to herself spontaneously. It's amazing how much she remembers. (We told her that one of the elephants in her encyclopedia was the daddy elephant, and now when she gets to that page she points out el-fweet, baby el-fweet, and daddy el-fweet.) (There is also a picture of zebras on their hind legs sparring with each other and out of nowhere she pointed at it and said "zebra hug." SHE THINKS THEY ARE HUGGING OMG CUTE.) She's really on the brink of speaking in sentences. Right now it's a string of nouns that basically makes a thought, but sentences are just around the corner.

Oh, she also has been doing one super cute thing, which is that when she sees a picture of us, she points at us in the picture, "Mina! Mama! Daddoo!" and then points at us in real life and is so pleased with herself. And she is walking everywhere, totally done with scooting. She also loves her Christmas presents, especially the encyclopedia, a singing mouse my parents gave her, two pretend laptops, and a light-up moon.

We have to order her a potty and some potty books, because she is now starting to identify when she has pooped. I don't think potty training is immanent, but we should start laying the groundwork for it. And we also have kept giving her bottles since the Singapore trip, which we need to now get her off of. We tried to skip it last night at bedtime but it did not go well, she basically sobbed herself hoarse until I gave her a bottle with water in it. Any suggestions? My heart can't take the sobbing, especially now that she sobs words like "Mama mama water water mama."

Resolutions:</s>

See previous entry!

Some more December pictures:

(This story is mostly for aych, but maybe someone else cares about my awesome old lady hobby of birdwatching.) So, today I stopped by Miller/Knox Park to grade finals and look at birds. I figured I'd reward myself after reading a few papers by walking around to look at the birds.

Lots of my favorite local birds were around, including Yellow-Rumped Warblers, a Black Phoebe, and plenty of Western Bluebirds.



I didn't see anything new on the pond (the Brant that had been reported there recently wasn't hanging around) but it was still a nice stroll. At Ferry Point I even added a new bird to my list, the Western Meadowlark.



At one point, I came across one tree that was (by the sounds of it) full of birds. There was a pair of hummingbirds flying around, and a bunch of other small warblers hiding behind some leaves. I stood there for a while searching the tree, hoping the hummingbirds would come out long enough for me to get them in my binocular or camera sights, but had no luck,

I was getting cold and had more papers to grade, so I turned around to head back to the car. Then I turned around to take one last look at the tree for those tiny little hummingbirds. Wait, I thought to myself, seeing an enormous lump on one branch. Is that a... pinecone? The pinecone moved its head.

( not a pineconeCollapse )

Amazing, right? (I got four shots off, and in two of them, all that's visible is the tip of a wing. And then these two are perfect.) And as a bonus, while I still had my camera in my hand, the hummingbird even came back.