Off Week

"I disapprove of Chet Baker being sick. I demand he get better."

Between the strange activities of last week and worrying about Chet Baker and a few other things, I am feeling off. I have a huge surge to do something creative, like I have something inside that is bursting to get out.

Hints of autumn and of change are in the air. I get the most excited right now, it's like Christmas Eve for me, right on the edge of fall migration--I love fall migration. It's weird but sometimes I feel a pull too. I remember in college when I was walking home from one of my theater classes, I heard Canada geese fly in the distance and watched them fly over. I wanted to go with them, I felt this need to travel. I remember having a fleeting feeling that I was on the wrong path. Theater, the wrong path?

Yesterday we were at Mr. Neil's replacing all his bear ravaged feeders. Mr. Neil asked that I help him harvest some of his pears. I wasn't much help, flocks of migrating nighthawks were moving overhead. I just held the bowl while Mr. Neil filled it, which was the best plan anyway, I'm too short to get pears anyway. When I check email that night, the people were reporting lots of nighthawk movement on the bird listservs in Minnesota.

I did get some creative juices going. I really enjoyed getting the feeders all back up and running. I set up a finch area and an all purpose area, raccoon proofed it (no, I didn't bear proof it but there is evidence that the bear that attacked the original set up was hit and killed by a car). We were able to salvage some of the feeders, and there were some spares that we used to replace the feeders that were annihilated. The hummingbird feeder is not my first choice, as a matter of fact I had squirreled it away in favor of a Hummzinger long ago:

Here's a shot of the old Hummzinger but it was nowhere to be found so I had to make do with that hour glass shaped one--hummer migration is underway and they were buzzing about impatiently.

We picked up the raccoon resistant poles system from Ed at the Wild Birds Unlimited in Hudson, WI. Ed such a sweet guy, and when I stopped in, the guys from NovaBird happened to be there. Poor Non Birding Bill was out numbered (foolish man should know better by now than to accompany me to a bird specialty store). I had good news for the guys from NovaBird, I had an unplanned test with some pigeons and learned that they're motion sensitive camera can survive a two story fall from an apartment window ledge! I love that camera, where would my blog be without it? As a matter of fact, my NovaBird Camera took the above photo ruby-throat at the feeder.

Ed mentioned that he's doing a day trip up to Hawk Ridge with Kim Risen. The motorcoach goes up Saturday, September 16 at 6am with hot coffee and donuts. They will bird at Park Point and then head to the Ridge for all day hawk watching with an "incredible sandwich" for lunch. Should be a good time if you are a first timer and want to see what hawk migration is all about.