#AtoZChallenge - Birdwatching

My theme this year is basically things that I’m interested in.  This could be things that I’m currently involved in and would maybe like to increase my knowledge… or things that I’m not involved in but still fascinate me in some degree anyway. 

Today it's birds.   I like to watch them! 

I snagged these photos off the "Birds of Michigan" wiki page because it's tough to get decent pics thru the windows/screens in my house.  

Of course, there are many other kinds of birds in Michigan, but these are the ones I see most often on / under the feeder in my backyard.  I'm very sad that I've never seen an owl!  Other than the one at the nearby nature center and at the zoo, that is.   There's a nature preserve a mile or two up the road from us that's been designated a Blue Heron Rookery - they're neat to watch.  And a couple years ago, an eagle pair built their nest there, too.  Weird that they're so close and I've never seen them flying around!  

Blue Jay

Cedar Waxwing - these guys are the sole purpose we replanted a cherry tree in our yard after the old one died! 

Some years I'll actually get a cherry or two before they clean them out. 

Chicadee

Mourning Doves

I love watching these guys toodle around. 

Woodpecker

Grackle

Sparrow

Mallard ducks 

we're not conveniently close to water, so I was really surprised to see these guys one day!

They're so pretty!

I'm always happy to see the first robins of the year!

Starling

Going in a different direction - on YouTube I like to watch @geckoemmy and @greenbirdbrigade who both talk about bird/parrot care and have large personal flocks that are very interesting & entertaining.  You might have seen GBB on Facebook with her little blue bird who sings & dances to a "bacon pancakes" song.  So fun! 

I also have an app on my phone called BirdNET that you can record a birdcall and it tells you what is making that sound. 

 

#AtoZChallenge - Amateur Radio

My theme this year is basically things that I’m interested in. This could be things that I’m currently involved in and would (maybe / maybe not) like to increase my knowledge or things that just fascinate me to some degree.  

This sums my brain up pretty well! 

So yeah - I'm an amateur radio operator (ham). My callsign is the url of this blog!  I've been licensed since 2009.  

So this is going to fall into the category of something I'm involved in but would like to have more knowledge.  There's no way I can explain everything in a single brief post, so I won't try.  Besides definitely not knowing as much as I'd like, there's a LOT of info out there.  It's sort of overwhelming.  And the acronyms are enough to make anyone crazy.   

If you're a knowledgeable ham, don't come at me! 

There are 3 classes of operators (you have to be licensed thru the FCC).  This higher you go, the more radio frequencies and "modes" you can use.  

So there's a Technician class - or entry level operator.  

General class - sort of mid-level operator.  This is what I am.  

Amateur Extra - these operators can operate on all radio frequencies & modes. 

There are all sorts of cool things you can do with radio...

Contests of all sorts, emergency communications, you can contact the International Space Station, contact people using signals that are bounced off the moon, go to conventions.  You can chat with random people "on the air" or with Morse Code or digitally on the computer, etc, etc, etc.

I should toss this out there that the Spouse has been an active ham since the mid 80s so there's not much that he doesn't know.  And I couldn't even begin to guess how many radios he owns.  And worse yet - he's crazy smart so it's hard for him to explain things in a manner that an average person can understand. 

 

Currently - I personally only have a pair of handheld radios.  The search & rescue team that I volunteer on requires that everyone have at least a technician license.  The main reason for that is that we're based out of a county that is mostly rural and sometimes we might be called out onto a search where there's no phone signals.  With radio, we can set up relay points and get communications set up with Incident Command.  It's pretty useful.  I'm pretty proficient with comms, so that's often my assignment for drills and training.  

But give me a radio otherwise and tell me make a random contact?  I suddenly forget how to speak, I can't remember my name, let alone my callsign, and I just sound like a dork.  I need to get over that fear! 

It's almost April!!

Which means the A to Z Blogging Challenge begins tomorrow!  I better make sure my posts are good to go - at least I've kept them saved as drafts this time instead of pre-scheduled so if I don't actually have the post done, it won't go live!  That's happened to me before.  It's pretty embarrassing.  

Oh crap - Did I actually go sign up at the AtoZ April Challenge page???   BRB.....  

OK.  Done!

My theme this year is basically topics I'm interested in and may / may not want to increase my knowledge about said topic. 

Anyhooo.  

OMG - I occasionally get texts for someone named Vijaya and I can't resist messing with them....

If the pic is hard to see, it's a tent up underneath a highway overpass.....

I've also gotten offers from a realtor to sell my house, so I replied back with a pic of a pile of cardboard boxes under a huge "for sale" sign and I told them that I wasn't having any luck with my current realtor and hoped they could do better.

I've also been asked if my house at X address was still for sale - first of all, it wasn't my house or even in the city where I live (although it was a very nice house in a nice neighborhood), and 2, it wasn't for sale!  So I replied back & told them no, I traded it to the guy next door to turn into a house "of ill repute" in return for a few grams of Coke but I got gypped since he only gave me a single red can (as in Coca Cola).....

I've also been asked who I was voting for and sent them a picture of my googly-eyed skeleton Chuck and told them I was voting for Nunya Bizness.  AND THEY PROCEEDED TO ASK QUESTIONS about his views on different subjects!!   I was at dinner with Mom & Sis1 and we were falling over laughing.   

Rusty is confused about how a pillow works...

So last weekend I road-tripped down to Ohio with Mom & the sisters to visit the brother.  Much less eventful than the last time when Mom (who is 91 years old) slipped in the hotel bathroom and fell, ending up with a lot of bruises & a goose-egg on her forehead.  We took her to the ER to make sure she was OK.  She's now getting around pretty good, holding onto someone's arm but she's a lot quicker using a walker for extra support. 

We went a different way so we could stop in this town called Berlin and visit a year-round Christmas store called 'Tis the Season" and wouldn't you know be got stopped by a slow train?  And Berlin is also in the middle of Amish / Mennonite country so we also got stuck behind a couple different horse/carriages.  It's very hilly & twisty (very pretty, too) in that part of Ohio so we couldn't safely pass them, either! 

We're already making plans to go back, since the town had all sorts of antique stores and interesting looking shops & places to eat.  And there were tons of people walking around, so it's definitely not a hidden treasure! 

The hotel we always try to stay at is across the street from a Pilot truck plaza - my Mom will happily sit in front of the window for hours and watch semi trucks pull in & out.  So she was overjoyed to discover that there was a Love's truck stop getting ready to open right next door to the hotel.  You can't see anything from the hotel itself, but she'll be able to see them going in & out of the driveway, so she should be twice as happy the next time we go down there! 

Thought this was pretty entertaining! 

I had a couple hours to myself Sunday morning before we came home.  Of course I found a couple nearby cemeteries to explore.  I realized that I hadn't told anyone where I was going to be and my GPS was taking me literally miles from nowhere, onto a dirt road, then a smaller dirt road, etc.  I texted the Spouse, back here in Michigan, and let him know I was running APRS on my phone so at least *someone* knew where I was! 

As I pulled up to the first cemetery, I saw this bird - at first I wasn't sure what it was, but it was really pretty!  So I rolled my window down and talked to it and wouldn't you know, this Ruffed Grouse followed me all over the cemetery?  I got out to change my shoes into hiking boots and it came around the back of the car and got within 4-5 feet of me.  I was tempted to give it some potato chips.  I have a couple videos and it was making a soft clucking sound that sounded similar to a chicken!    

 

OMG - ya'll! 

The grandkids had school pics last week!  

And in early June, the grandson will have his graduation from Pre-K!!!  

I am so not ready to see him in a cap & gown - the thought of him starting kindergarten in the fall at a real elementary school is bad enough!

We won't get into the fact that they're having the graduation ceremony at an event hall!  An actual fancy place where people have weddings & stuff!   Crazy.

What's up with the weather lately??  There were horrendous ice storms up in northern Michigan, but it was close to 70 down here closer to Detroit.  It's actually cooled off today, it was in the upper 40s when I left for work this morning and now at 3pm, it's 40.  We had a wave of nasty storms come thru last night - thankfully we'd already gotten home.  But the time it got to my house, we heard one rumble of thunder, had a brief 5-minute downpour and I don't even know if we had any serious wind or not.   The next county over set off their outdoor warning sirens because of the wind, we could hear them.  

I have a few things I need to finish here at work (I'm so busy, as you can tell!!) then I have a planning meeting at the VFW tonight, the post's 80th anniversary is in November, so we'll be having a celebration for that.  Then I need to upload all the cemetery pics I took this weekend to my home PC.  I'll eventually post them over on my other blog.  I like to do some research on the cemeteries I post about.  Which in turn leads me down various rabbit-holes, etc. 

Later!