Yes my fellow birders....welcome to the dog days of August, as they say in baseball. Think now, as there is a reason why they call it the 'dog days' of baseball in August, or in the Phillies case...the entire summer. It is hot, humid and while there are no green-heads at Citizen Bank Park, it is none-the-less, a bit difficult to play baseball, nor watch it.

The other day, Deb and I were at a game and sat on the third deck right behind home plate. Some major 'brain' in baseball decided to start the game at 6pm as opposed to a more customary (and one where the sun is lower in the sky) at 7pm. So, humid....sultry with little wind. The game started and I think it ended prior to us passing out. Dog days of August.

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Take a look at the above video...hopefully it shows. Could you hit that ball coming in at 90mph? Now perhaps in my younger days when I was an average second baseman for my HS team I could almost hit it. But not so sure now. 

Let's zoom ahead a bit and transfer our thoughts. Baseball akin to Birding you say? Yes....now listen my fellow birders and retired ball players. While it is difficult to bird with the Green Heads about, nor transfer your birding skills to another locale here in the states such as Florida (good luck with that humidity) nor go out west with the heat and the snakes......it still can be found. 

A month or so, roughly...there-abouts and in that 'ballpark' (I told you birding was akin to baseball), Deb and I found THE PLACE to bird with no Green Heads and no humidity and at this time of the year, no high heat in place and from what I could tell from my advantage point, no snakes. 

Where is this.....it is between Gardiner, Montana and Medora, North Dakota. Look it up. I am talking about along the Interstate as well. Birds...birds.....birds....and more birds. They are all escaping the nasty heat or humidity of the lower, central, eastern, southern 90% locales of the United States. Birds abound. They have found their sanctuary and love it. Meadowlarks, ibis, sparrows of all types, cowbirds, grebes, owls, raptors, yellow-headed blackbirds, more sparrows you can guess at, more herons and waterbirds and and and and and more ands. Birds.......

This is how it played out..... I drove from North Yellowstone into Montana as we were heading to North Dakota, I got tired....so Deb drove. As she drove I pulled out my 'un-trusty' 10 x 42 Chinese Vortex that have more 'play' in the focus than wet noodles left on a stove for an hour. Pulling up the bins I could just about see a bird as we sped past at Montana's going rate for a speed limit which is 80. Being a pure northwestern and loving my share of Rainier Beer I want you to view this little ad from the 1970's:
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As the cycle passes, so too do the birds as I attempt to view them from my 10x42 cheap Chinese bins from the car, going at 80mph. One just can't do it. In fact....I imagine if I was attempting to hit a baseball at 90mph, I might have more luck. (See previous video in blog) .

So....there I was. I was left with this dilemma of 'birds' but 'what are they"? ....I could make out the larger Ross Goose or a cattle egret sitting on top of a steer, as the Steer was In. I had time to ponder as we had a few hundred miles to go. The roadside was littered with water as small clumps of drainage pools were abound. I suppose that might have attributed to the numbers of birds I was viewing. 

Hmmmm....how to view from the car with some hairy 10x42 bins and create a self-sick situation? When I used to work in Ecuador from Whaleboats, and part of what I did was view whales from a boat in the swales of an ocean, I do know a thing or two about getting sick at sea. I really didn't want to get sick off-water and in a car using binoculars. But there is a trick I figured out.

Look ahead...go west young man, go west....or in this case, let's reverse that and say, go east old man, go east.  Which I did. I focused ahead instead of to the side and not directly out the passenger window. I looked forward out of the front window and that way the binoculars had a chance of focusing in 'somewhatly) on a bird as we approached, as opposed to looking at birds as we were there. It made a huge difference. Sure the front window had a bit of a curve to it, which wasn't too bad since there wasn't any curved-billed thrashers in these parts to perhaps double down on me and become a non-curved thrasher due to the opposing front window which might have distorted it to become a non-curved thrasher instead of a curved thrasher. Does that make sense? Anyhow, no reason to bring that up as that wasn't an issue.

But....I looked ahead....I went east. I saw birds with the cheapo Chinese car binocular. I found birds where there were none to be found elsewhere in the states. Yeah....I won a prize I suppose. 

Now the funny thing was, that around Medora North Dakota, the birding on the road stopped. Just stopped... One would think that heading into the land of lakes and water and pools and mosquitoes of all sizes of the great state of Minnesota, that birding would be fantastic. But no....no birds. Just between Gardiner, Montana and Medora, North Dakota. Go figure....

One goes to the dentist and it seems they come out just a bit different. This 'phenom' has been with me since I was a kid. Of course, as a kid....I would be directed, without real knowledge or aim nor want or whatever....to just go to the dentist. My mom would plunk us all in the car, or most likely myself since my brothers and sisters never had any cavities. I was the "D" student in the inward thinkings of dental employees I have a feeling.

"Oh, here he comes....the "D" student and then often wonder if they were going to see their "A" student's (my brothers and sisters' once more)...."

So this past week, and as an adult...as we do seem to grow up....I found myself in the dental office. A professional dentist if I have seen one....no Doc Holliday thing going on here. Just a very educated dentist who has just about every instrument she needs. I think she can tell fortunes, or misfortunes in my case...from the start. 

'Let's see....see that black small dot embedded between those two teeth? I think in a few years your tooth will need a crown ($$$) or an implant ($$$$$$$)..... "

So, here in the chair I was...a very familiar place for me....just a different chair. But lay prone....feet stretched out....these oversized dark glasses on.....body tilted slightly back....mouth gaped open like a dead man. Slurred speech....hands shoved in and out of mouth with minor pressure (so she says), ....close mouth and pretend it is a straw as the other one sucks up matter and liquid.....   This was supposed to be a minor issue as a bridge needed replacing. I have no issue with that as I feel half my retirement is saved for the dentist so I just accommodate where needed (credit card). 

"But wait....what's this....is this an abscess ? Oh jim....you have an abscess...nasty....I thought we could save that tooth and just overlay the bridge over it but no, ...oh jim....needless to say I must perform an extraction here. Of course you can have an implant moving forward."

90 minutes later as the extraction ended....as of course the tooth decided to play 'split the atom' on me and broke into 'atomized parts'.... Pieces here and there and luckily it was already on a root-canaled tooth. Yet, for some reason it didn't stop the pain....da pain...da pain...da pain. You sure you gave me some novocaene,.....as she gave me more topical. 

"Now....I am giving you some pain meds' for this plus an anti-biotic for the abscess you will take over this coming week. You will need both....  here is a LONG list of what not to do or drink or act or say or stretch your mouth or sleep or eat or generally behave in the next week, as yes, you will need to know this. "

So, I return to my abode...swollen face....numb....feeling a bit shattered ..... the next day or two is okay. Wow....I tell myself....I skirted around that. Pain....the doctor knows nothing about as I have no pain. 

Go ahead....think ahead...two days. Yes, that would do it....da pain, da pain...da pain....   Where is that 600mg of Tylenol Deb? How many did she give me? Just 10? And I have like 10 days of anti-biotic to take. Collectively that combination messes up just about the entire bodily functions and systems and constitution. I know I am in for 10 days of relatively minor "don't talk to me much please as I am in no mood to respond'.....

Yesterday...what was that....a Tuesday? .... Garbage day and normally that is an event that I look forward to for rarely can I screw that up in Deb's eye. Mainly because she doesn't want to take the garbage out but even then, I do a pretty good job of getting both the garage and recycling material not only out to the cans, but the cans out to the street. I somewhat excel at that I must say. 

But as I was still in the 'don't talk to me mood' and wasn't really up to speed in my mental capacity and thinking, ....I forgot about the garbage. Yes, I forgot....a job I excel in and even then, the dental excursion I had mixed me up to the point that I forget....it just 'got away from me'..... Deb understood as I lay on the couch.

She went out to push the cans out....pull them perhaps. Push or pull, it makes no difference as I have found that I; being an expert in garbage/recycling can hauling...can do both. Sometimes I push, sometimes I pull. "THAT" is how much of an expert I am in that arena. Yet from the depths of my somewhat deaden ears....I hear a scream come from somewhere outside.... Oh no.... I must venture out and up and be a functioning adult. I leave the house in daylight.. and turn the corner to see Deb running back out at me....."snake...snake....snake.... Under the can......"

I see..... A snake....a rattlesnake....under the garbage can (not recycling can). And yes, it is a rattlesnake under my garbage can. As the can is already pulled (not pushed back in this case) by Deb, the snake is just curled up ....hidden within the patterns of the rocks. I take my place and guard the snake so it doesn't escape while Deb calls the Fire Department to haul it away (one of their more popular functions of their occupation). Now, I am guarding it....but not sure exactly what I will do if it decides to uncoil and head towards me. I have no plan and my brain wasn't functioning enough (due to the dentist) as to what I might do. I wasn't thinking that far ahead. 

To continue and to shorten this.....the snake was taken away....a 3' one....  but in retrospect I am thinking that the dentist actually saved me. She saved me, unknowingly and one I will remind her of. If this was my normal day and normal functioning brain patterns (without dental pre-amble) ....I would have done what I normally do. I go to the garbage can and pull it out and then, now get this as this is important....I then walk to where I just pulled the garbage can from, ....and push (not pull) the recycling can forward. This involves a two-step of sorts and a twist. I enter where one garbage can just was ( and where the snake happened to be coiled) and with a turn/twist motion combined into one....I immediate push the recycling can. Is that verbiage enough for you to visualize? In either case, that action would have taken my sandal-clad feet to the point where I pushed or pulled or stepped on ........ the snake. I can only imagine the outcome. Thankfully, the dentist, with all of her foresight apparently was thinking way ahead of me and made sure to prescribe the drug induced medication that make me loopy. Thus preventing me to push, pull...slide or step on a rattlesnake that was just minding it's own business. 

Deb and I travel across country and now find ourselves in our Arizona home as I write..... Not so different than New Jersey. But no, perhaps a bit; yes a bit.....

But for the past 90 minutes, since 6pm; I was just hanging loose outside enjoying nature with no technology, no phone....the gentle curse of our lives; my phone...not to be seen. Freedom. I have this old strap chair, you know the type that was common just a few years back. It has some nylon webbing running criss-cross. I like that chair. I have had that chair for awhile and actually picked it up in a garage sale years back. Webbing....I love the feel. Although in this case the webbing is dangling off a bit so not sure if this means the end is in sight for I am no sure you can't buy 'webbing' much anymore. And I am not going thru Amazon....no way. I am 'off' Amazon. I am doing my part to save humanity. Either way, I slightly feel the brush of dangled webbing against my calf. 

So, sitting in my chair....binoculars in hand, was how I was. Directly in front of me there was a kettle of 49 turkey vultures...swirling around, as I counted them. One by one. Then, they morfed into a funnel cloud...slowly making a spiral to the east of me. One slow funnel cloud in constant swirl. Out of site they went and about a minute later, here they were, back once more in reverse direction. But this time they were widely dispersed across the sky, following each other towards the west like a band on parade stretched over the course of a half block. Easy to pick off...easy to ID....easy to count. They just kept going west, with no sure purpose I am sure. A kettle, innocently following their next of kin in a line.

A pair of bunnies skipped around like a pair of kittens next door. One would dig itself into the ground while the other looked slightly amused, or perhaps annoyed. Regardless of or not the one 'dug in'...would just pop up, like a kitten and chase the other. They circled the yard and dove in and out of a bush...but pretty much staying out in the yard not afraid of much I suppose. I haven't seen the neighborhood bully in a few days although have heard the Great Horned Owl, throughout the nights.

Many doves....just flying back and forth as on a mission. Eurasian Collard doves on the roof...bold and big and watching over the flock of all others. Quite a gang of Mourning Doves constantly in motion from one tree to the next...landing, then off...then chasing each other and off to rest once more. The doves would go from tree to tree and scatter the house finches. I know there were at least 7-8 finches in the tree next to me they landed in. Orange, bright orange spots flew out all around.

A white truck comes in.....past my house. Humans I would guess.

My feeders all topped off and three Anna Hummeringbirds buzz in.... buzz out. Land and dip. One of them took a huge gulp and then on the way out just spit it all out. What? I just filled that. Fresh stuff man. How dare you spit it out and it was free. Come on.... Drink up.

A giant raven flies past from east to west....all hunched shouldered and on call to attend a black-tie event someplace. Oh....look...a cormorant, solo.....flying up from a local watering hole. Why fly this way....you are leaving the water? And only one of you? It just continues on sailing north, that too dressed in black. Must be some fancy event for all of these black-tied birds to be making an appearance.

Oh the sun begins to settle ....a mockingbird takes up his call of the night. Brash it is...at this time. All the other birds are starting to nestle down and you my friend are just starting? The white truck returns, this time the opposite direction..... gone it went. 

My shoes are off....I am grounded. I do a lot of grounding....I love to sit on the brick patio which is great for grounding and just feel the warmth beneath my feet. No shoes....I take them off and if I had them on they are these awesome leather shoes with a grounded copper nail in them. Nefes, ...handmade from Turkey. Go ahead...look em up. Nice shoes....I ground myself with these often. Of course when Deb is around I have to pretend I am not wearing them outside as she would 'mention' something to me. Yes, mention. Deb is real good about 'mentioning' things to me. But hey...I am grounded...I feel good...I am relaxed....I am peace with nature. Nothing around to bother me so I can handle her 'mentioning'. But the point is....I am free. No technology ....no sounds. Nothing but nature and myself. That is so needed for our souls. 

Deb pokes her way out now....opens the door....and begins to 'mention' things to me. The neighbor next door just had a rattlesnake in their backyard, hence the white truck, as I put 1+1 together and get 'fireman'... Down here, the fire department frequents these parts with white trucks as they do free snake removal. Around now, they are doing 15=20 calls a day, so this is where Jersey might differ. 

There I was sitting....in the early dust of a new night...in the front....open to the ranges and whatever elects to come in. Not barefoot but no shoes. I wasn't even looking around me to see what might have been under my feet. But the image below shows what I might have seen, just a door down. 

​It is roughly 1:00 in the afternoon and I have been observing without binoculars or without a camera . Just my eyes.....my ears.... I wait and nature comes to me. As I sit here in the outside patio on my oversized cushion (why do they make these so large?)....hummingbirds  flutter around me making that 'hummingbird' buzz..... they continually chase after our garden of pollen. A quick trip from one open flower to another... no rush, no worries....just a dab of pollen for their effort. I read once that the color of pollen, whether it was just 'used up' or rejuvenated after re-establishing itself actually changes to the hummingbirds eye. That is how they know to partake of or not.....the color.... some university made a study on. Couldn't tell you which one though. 

Bopping all around me are several wrens chatting away as the recent spring addition to the clan is in place and demanding food. I find it amazing how I can putter around in my garden and hardly come up with a respectable insect/worm but these birds can use their beaks and just about with every dig into the soil, they find a mortice to feed the young. Never fails....what instinct do they possess that I have no knowledge of? What sense, ....hidden. 

Oh, I saw an oriole.....just poking out of a black olive tree. The orange of spring decked out in with a solid black....yet the oriole springs back into the cover of foliage to be lost once more. I pick myself up and grab a few oranges we have scattered around our house in various collections of table plates. Taking two, I slice in half with my goal to entice that oriole back. 

I grab the top and bottom half's or is that bottom and top half's...? not sure, ....don't think it makes a difference. Going outside I pick up my favorite hammer  (I only have one) and a few good nails and find an unused portion of an empty wooden ladder rung. Carefully with the nails successfully impaling each bottom / half combo.....I tap them in. There they sit now, in anticipation of being on the bottom of the pecking order in nature. 

I have tried this before, in various houses and spots. No success though for myself although I have visited enough places around the world none-the-less where this works. Perhaps I have mixed up the bottom and top half or plain slice it wrongly down the middle. When sliced and when viewed, they look rich and juicy and enticing but will see how it might go this round. 

I turn Merlin on and being a human, I 'allow' this 'AI' generated piece of whatever, to connect to the sounds around me. One by one a name pops up...the list grows. A bird is highlighted by having a repeat performance while others never seem to stop as they continuously speak to me. In a short few minutes my list grows to over a dozen.... I imagine if I wake up at dawn my list would be 20-30 quite easily, but now, in the mid afternoon.....I am limited to a dirty dozen, no make that a bakers dozen. 

I grab a pair of binoculars from inside and replace myself on the oversized cushion. I bring the bins up and view my impaled oranges. All there....no change, no movement....oh, perhaps an insect I see but not my intended game. A few 'fly-by's' overhead, most likely doves of sorts. Natures fodder. Against the wall I witness the wrens busy at it. Oh the poor parent or is that just the mom. In human years I wonder how old the young wren is as the mom has to take care of once more, twice....well, it seems to be a non-stop occupation. Is the young a teen yet? Can and when will it fend for itself? A cardinal clasps on to a branch right above me....a female. I know we have several pair who own our property. I slap a mosquito, .....missed. But I gave it a good scare as I know it won't be back. No, they won't....I know that. 

Oranges still in place...coming on 2:05. Might be time for a nap. That would be a sure way to lure the orioles. Maybe work on the crossword from the May issue of The Atlantic as it is difficult and if my mind wanders I would alleviate the pressure that might build up, my hidden aura of an expectation within my universe. With the pressure of my Aura off, the Orioles would certainly take up on the orange invitation as all birds do sense what we do not. But dang-it-all....those oranges are there and I just bet you Mr Oriole that you still are hanging around, staring at me thru the leaves, waiting for my eyes to close so you know it is safe. As I am going to do anything to you, surely you jest. 

Well from previous blogs you know the 'stages' of prevention that have been taken on WOODY as we attempt to 'draw back' his mental behavior.... yes, perhaps normal as it is part of mating behavior according to Penn State Extension but none-the-less...a bit disturbing living in the house with thumping going on all day. Our mystery thump for visitors entering our house.

So after somewhat successfully preventing WOODY from attacking one of our windows by stages 1 and 2 measures, the end result was just chasing him to another window in our house, as evident by this new video. It is 'called' as it is....so voice-over being what it is in the state of the moment. 

We left to go birding yesterday for the day so not sure the extent of this 'attack'....an all day one or just in the morning wee hours. This morning  Sunday we awoke to the bird doing a bit of both....finding a corner in the one window where the packing paper is not covering the entire window to attack, and then when chased away by us, it immediately started on the back window. 

Luckily,....we are going again today. So WOODY, have your fill of glass. 

​Tomorrow I will get some suet to attract a female bird.... 

Saturday...Saturday....the state of our window from the outside, as Woody persists in its male dominated attack upon our glass. A continued Saga from previous blog. To start....don't be confused about the bird your eye immediately is drawn to in this image. For that bird, the big one in the middle of window and dangling by a string is not the bird I am talking about. That bird is fake. Fake news.... That also happens to be stage 2 or preventative measures

Stage 1 is the packing material. Yesterday Deb had a marvelous idea as only Billy Crystal might be able to point out, that covering the window with packing material (stage 1) would be enough to persuade WOODY to move on. But stage 1 was a nice attempt, but futile in the end.

Thus stage 2....the giant hummingbird feeder dangling from a nail would compliment stage 1. Together they would work in close unison, or so went the plan.

It was real windy yesterday here and the fake bird was in constant disarray as it swayed back and forth across the window. In fact....something to note, the fake bird supplanted the real bird in the noise it made as the fake bird was banging against the window making the exact same noise we were trying to prevent with the real bird. So our efforts paid off yesterday only with identical noise. 

Last night, as we watched the Phillies whallop the Padres (did you get a chance to see the uniforms of the Padres? Oh my....yes, oh my. See below, as you can't miss it. 

Deb got quite tired of the thumping created by the fake bird so she decided to remove the fake bird from the arsenal of real bird protective measures, thus we were back to just stage 1 (see above in blog for a rehash of stages). All was fine....all worked but of course it was night and not much of a reflection in the window. 

This morning....Saturday, as the day was addressed earlier in the blog.....WOODY returned as only stage 1 protective devices were in place. It is beginning to shape up that with No Fake Bird = Real Bird. So up again went the fake hummingbird to thwart off the attacks. We just had breakfast and so far, no real bird. I am sure this is to be continued..... 

A long time ago....as I seem to recall.....there was a senator from the state of Washington (as opposed to Washington State, where the S is in capitals; per formal APA writing)....  well anyways, his name was Scoop. Scoop Jackson. I am not sure of his real first name, nor do I really give it much thought, even as I write this blog. I suppose, yes I do....that I could look it up or no..strike that: google it...as really, who looks up anything anymore? We just google it. But his name was Scoop or so he was called.

Scoop Jackson...for what it is worth.

Now...the other day I was driving to Ikea in Philadelphia and more specifically down Christopher Columbus BLVD or N Delaware Avenue. You see, yes you would if you had Mapquest on, that they are essentially the same road. It is just that one Christopher Columbus BLVD runs to IKEA and the road coming back (on the same road mind you but going the other way) is called N. Delaware Avenue. City planners...oh yes, you have to appreciate the job they do. 

Well, I was either North or West of Ben Franklin Bridge going to Ikea, so I must have been on Christopher Columbus BLVD. But whether North or West, or for that matter even East, is somewhat impossible to tell at times when traveling in Philadelphia as everything is at an 'angle'. Come to think of it, so is South Jersey, or is that just south Jersey (minus the capital S on south). Have you noticed that? 

So, as I was traveling North, West, maybe East but surely not South of the Ben Franklin Bridge.....I came up to a stop light. Now as my lot in life has chosen itself to be.....I most always 'stop' at stoplights' as the red light just always appears. How rarely am I chosen to have a green light to freely pass to heaven's gate on the other side of the intersection. So I stopped, as I do. Stopped....

I wait...Sometimes I see a car go by but in very many cases as I wait, I just wait for the sake of waiting. It is almost like there is a little person (could be a woman as well as a man) that must have a button that they press when my car approaches. There they lie, someplace...off in the distance having a chuckle at my  expense as I patiently just wait, for the sake of waiting.

This time as I waited....I saw really nothing. My mind in a daze. Most likely I was trying to think how I could navigate IKEA without having to go in at the ground level and work my way "up' and spend a few hours around winding bends in the road....only to then go down and spend a few hours attempting to find my way out of the store. I think about things such as that.

As I waited....and my mind just wandered.....to IKEA and back and whatever...  I saw out of the corner of my eye this huge bird swoop down in front of me and 'scoop' up a mouse that was on the road. Not road kill mouse-like, but most likely a live mouse on the run. This bird, a hawk....maybe a falcon...but I couldn't tell even though it was down on the road on the drivers side of my car. Hey listen, I wasn't expecting this...I wasn't looking for it...it just occurred. This bird swooped and scooped. And then off it went. Just like that. No warning to begin with and certainly no 'adios'. Quick...like lightening this event occurred. No one was around me to back me up and chime in and give me a 'wow' in blank fashion or pen words with their mouth I couldn't hear as both of us would have experienced the same 'wow' moment. Just a Scoop....a take...a fly out...and be done. What was that? A peregrine falcon? A Coopers? A Sharp-shinned? I didn't know...nor did I care....

But a quick scoop...     (no Image to compliment this blog....How could I? I suppose I can make one up and pretend that 'that image' is what I saw but I can't do that to myself. You, you my friends would never be the wiser in this day in age of fake news or images or whatever. But me? No...I can't fake myself out. Not worth it. Thus, no image of that....but perhaps one of 'Scoop'

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Just this morning no less.... yes, this morning.....Deb and I were awaken in bed at pre-dawn. Dark; yet  a hint of light. The first Cardinal of the day started to spout off, followed by the doves. Oh the endless doves. I suppose they are peaceful, they do have that going for them. Otherwise, simply 'breakfast' for the Coopers. 

But that is not the topic of this blog...About an hour after that first cardinal started their thing, we heard this noise. Hard to explain but the accompanying You Tube connection (https://youtube.com/shorts/3bEC5yfoeWk?si=ySD8hoJFXTkBm9-M)  will fill you in. I got up and started poking around thinking it is something on the roof, the chimney.....who knows. While not prancing, as I simply don't prance....I did walk faster than normal, as my ears honed in on the noise. To the front....the front...the front of the house I went. And there it was. This woodpecker attacking the window. Not an accidental fly-by with a surprise 'whang' at the end, but an out-and-out attack that has persisted the entire day. This behavior has been going on close for hours now. Same bird, same window....same behavior, same thump. In fact here I am writing this blog and the 'windo attack' persists. The bird has left marks on the window as you might be able to tell from the image. 

​It never stops.....it is a perfectly healthy looking bird with no gross manifestations of nodes or infections or oozing growths etc.... Just a bird. In fact it is most likely the same woodpecker I see most every day as it attempts to balance itself on the hummingbird feeder and steal a drop or two.

So I pondered.....as I do. I like to ponder. If pondering could be a job; I would excel at it. I ponder all the time.....so pondering about a bird doing some sort of behavior is not unusual.  Within my pondering routine I thought of lots of things like perhaps a dinged bird brain by previously and unknowingly flying into our window or that of another house. Or, I thought as this behavior started in the morning hours that maybe insects were warming themselves on the glass from the inner heat and the woody was grabbing a quick and easy bite. But hey, it has been hours past this time and I don't see any insects here; then or now. Was the woodpecker in some mating ritual as after all, it is a male...and maybe some kinky female is enjoying the show. But I am going to nix that theory too for no. reason other than, just because. Is the bird seeing it's reflection? Maybe....but there wasn't any light on when the bird started this behavior hours ago and I don't know why all of a sudden this reflection has become such a big issue.  Come on man oh yellow, get over it....mellow out.

But wait....I googled this behavior by typing in 'odd birding behavior and bird smacking into window on a continuous basis' and I take note. I sit up....  Penn State Extension might have an answer. Not from just one of my theories but a combination of them. According to Penn State....(And I will just quote their web site)...

"This is a problem that is most common in spring as male birds are establishing and defending territories. The male sees his reflection in the window and thinks it is a rival trying to usurp his territory. He flies at the window to try and make the rival leave."

And apparently it won't help to just close the window shades as the woodpecker in question would just find another window. The only known cure is to get an actual female and to pair them up. Once paired, his mind is on other things, after all....he is a male. Of course, who is to say the same thoughts are not within the female? 

So there you go....not some alien bird or a bird in special need at the moment, unless that need is female related, and yes, it is spring....and yes it is a window and most likely a reflection. Answer to the 'why' now  is logged in and noted. And...I pulled the blinds down. Problem solved it would appear. I will try to open them later on as perhaps the bird just needed a reboot. 

Second day...morning and going on 10am. Been a few hours and even with the shade pulled down to cut back on reflection, the bird continues to 'thump the window'. Admittedly a reflection still shows from the outside, with the shade down but hey, I tried. It is not up to the bird to figure this thing out. I can provide some assistance such as attempting to block this behavior by pulling the shade down, or by sitting outside to inhibit his window thrashing....But I am not going to sit out there all day, just to sit. Unless of course I have a glass of wine. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/3bEC5yfoeWk?si=ySD8hoJFXTkBm9-M
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I have a dilemma.....Do I bird the west coast or the east coast? That is a struggle I have. You see....to bird I feel I need to bring along my bins. My binoculars become an extension of who I am. A birder....  
Wow….interesting dilemma. But how about this one.....I feel guilty as well, as here I sit in my country and listen to what is going on in Ukraine, or let’s not forget Afghanistan or the majority of Africa…In perspective, my worries are nothing as compared to that of life itself, as defined by attempting to live in other parts of the world. But sadly, as one is aside, far away….not connected to the suffering existing by someone else, be it in Ukraine or just down the street from me, as humans you see….we have really no capacity to do. We can appreciate and we can understand…we can object or cry out or give money or or or or, but bottom line is that here, it does little good for the results. Life just moves one.
What can I do is to continue to live my life knowing that life is so ever fleeting. I can live my life in the disguise of pretending that nothing is going on someplace else. I can live my life knowing that I walk the street while others cannot. I live my life simply by being aware of how others are forced to live and cope with their lives. I don’t have the political power or money or ability to change as history unfolds. That is where the guilt lies. How to live a life knowing that others have no choice in their suffering.
Yet is today any different from yesterday? Is today’s ‘self-guilt’ and inabilty to act any different from what happened in some country or down the street; 5 years ago, or 20 or? No, it doesn’t work that way. But I managed to live and make it thru life so far and again, what actions have I taken to ‘save the world’? Must I turn a blind eye to what occurs knowing that I can’t do anything about it anyhow? Or, do I ‘do something about it, knowing that it really doesn’t do any good, but I ‘act’ …I put forth some action, just because morally I know I should? Wow….quite the dilemma.
I simply don’t know…..I do know that how I live my life and what I do to help those around me, where I might have some influence or sphere of control, is what I should, can, must do. I can’t help what is being conducted in Ukraine today, but I can help my family as opposed to not thinking about helping them. I can help a neighbor as opposed to only thinking of my side of the fence. I can help my community. I can help where my ‘zone’ matches up to the zone in need of help. And that is what I do. No, as stated, it doesn’t help Ukraine or the like, but my actions do help myself cope with myself.

It has been awhile....a great while. Pete Dunne still remembers Sept 1st, 1976....as he stood alone on a table he constructed. There he was....24 years old, a pair of Leitz Binoculars ...cutoffs and a tee. Life was simple back then and so was the Cape May Hawk Watch. It has grown; since. That article always reminds me of how things begun, every time I visit Cape May and stand on that lovely platform now. 

Now, here I lie, or walk....or more appropriately 'sit' in my old webbed-back chair I got from Deb's former mother-in-law. A hand-me-down none-the less,  but better than a rickety table. I share my time between the east and west coast and right now, Here Lies Tubac Hawk Watch, in southeast Arizona......I am going to lay out the scene for you here, so you get an idea. 

There are two tents in a large field, with a table under one of the tents. Stretched across one tent, towards the rear...is a banner showing the main hawk species found here. The highlight, is the Common Black Hawk, or perhaps the Zone Tailed. On the chain link fence is a board strapped with a tie-down and electric tape, is the board with a count from Yesterday and a Season total. The hawk watch season here is the entire month of March. 

The counter is "Pete"....How odd is that, another Pete, but a different Pete.  If you look at the video he is the one with a hat, pony tail, white tee, and jeans. His green Tacoma truck is in back and many times he counts from being perched on the tail of the truck. Pete is not a young buck ....not like the hawk counters at Cape May but a seasoned birder who just happens to love doing this kind of thing. He has been doing this since 2013 but the Hawk Watch has stayed about the same, just a western....low-keyed thing. Not going to change much and shouldn't ....for if it works, why change it?

Today, Wednesday the 3rd of March, had us warm to the low 80's with no wind in the morning. The sky, as you can see was blue with scattered clouds. Us, who all participate in this count.... scan the skies. When facing south, as the hawks approach.....we first catch a 'speck' of a glimpse with our binoculars, with that speck being miles away. The 'see-er' will yell out....got one. And then point out where along the horizon in comparison to the to tree line is the approach hawk. Early in the season it is just a 'one or two' thing. The hawks soar in the thermals and head 'north' for the summer. Pete will ramble on with some odd statement or two....pull up his bins and put the official stamp of ID on the hawk)s). He will keep track on his clip-board while another lady will enter into her phone. Sometimes the two do not mesh, as was the case this morning. I was chatting with a few others and staring at the board and I initially asked' ..."Any Black Hawks yet"...with a reply that yes, ...Tuesday there were two, and yet the board showed NONE for Tuesday. Thus, we found the discrepancy and the lady fixed. Apparently her program has Black Hawk and Zone-tailed all the way below all others, including the Unknown category, so something got screwed up in the official transfer. But the paper clip board ruled, and the board was updated to show 2. 

But how about today.....? Nothing so far....one red-tail I believe. We talked....    

Then a lady started to point out towards the west hills. A few miles away. Way up in the sky were a pair of hawks riding the thermals. They rode and rode....and north they went. Pete Id'd them as Common Black Hawks by the tail, body shape and what he said was a slight 'white' in the tail representing the tail band. .....Hmmmm..."Right, I told myself, from that far off?' I could almost see the black let alone the white they were so far away but hey, Pete has been doing this for a few years now as he spends every day in March....every day....every single day....for FREE (Hear that Cape May)....from 9-4, counting Hawks. So when Pete saids. Common Black hawk, yeah...I believe him. Actually they did look like Black Hawks as the next group of 4 played out.

Further south, approaching us....were a group of 4. "I" actually spotted these and if you look at the video, the trees way far back was the point of first sight. But the Hawks were much further away and couldn't be seen with the naked eye.... My 10x bins came in handy. Two were soaring above two others. The differences were obvious between the two on top (Red-Tails) and the two on the bottom (Black Hawks), so yes, Pete was right.

The day progressed....a couple of Coopers who breed around this parts (more than that do but these two just managed to show themselves) flew into the bushes on the east nearer the Santa Cruz River. Then a Red-Tailed came right near us and perched on a pole as if saying 'count me, count me'... But no, sadly....no count. The Hawk Watch only counts migrants coming from the south, up to the northern summer homes. A local yocal like the Red-tail gets no respect around here. 

About a half hour more ....much closer and just in the open field came a low soaring Common Black Hawk. No ID really needed on this as it is very obvious it is a black hawk. 

The 'black under' and the 'white band' at the tail is just a natural give-away. .....beautiful view. I was talking to a lady afterwards as I ran into her later on that day in another birding locale and was talking about it. She was there, but nature called her prior to that sighting and she, well.....she missed 'that target'... But I saw it....fantastic. 

Like Cape May, there are two Pete's. Unlike Cape May, Tubac offers no 'super platform' stocked like a trout farm, tithering with scopes and binoculars. No young naturalists there to guide people the novice and no paid staff. Being here in Tubac..... you have a small community of birders, much like we find in the Forsythe Saturday Bird Walks. A group of people who embrace birding and yet, don't need the hype to bird, or to Hawk Watch in this case. Now, I must admit...when I first came to Jersey and ventured to the Cape May Platform, it was like a kid going into a baseball stadium for the first time. Utter Awe, simply utter awe. Yes, the platform at Cape May is simply inspiring to know that you made it to the 'big leagues', sort of speaking. But likewise if one ventures to Hawk Watch in PA. No platform other than what Mother Nature provides as one perches on the rocks. So Tubac, ....well, just another version of 'the' platform. Below is Hawk Count / Tubac and notice the column representing the species are not nearly that of what we find in Jersey.  Yes, Jersey itself, be it Cape May or our own area in AAS, has a nice number of species to keep at eye out for. Again, each their own.