Over the Wild Wide Open Field in Everyday Ramblings

On our third and final Beginning Bird II class yesterday we staged here at this mighty oak. You can tell it was a beautiful spring day just by the quality and quantity of the light. :) That made me a very happy person. We had lunch under it and a huge gorgeous blue gray male Harrier flew near and tipped his wings at us.

After much complicated logistical arranging our teacher managed to get us all to go together in the big van provided for the trip. She came and picked me up 2 blocks away from my place and brought me back. It was such a treat and I deeply appreciate the extra effort. It was positively luxurious.

Our big excitement of the day was this guy, a Lewis’s Woodpecker. It is very rare to see one in Western Oregon. Just down the road we saw a small colony of Acorn Woodpeckers. I’d never seen one of them before. These are all oak dependent birds.

We saw lots and lots of birds in our six hours out and about. Everybody was commenting on what a good group we were. We all got along and every darn one of us was interesting and bright and contributed. We had a couple of really good active recreational birders and yesterday our teacher brought her husband. And at one of the lookouts we talked to an expert birder who had lots of info on who had been seen there recently. He pointed out the Eared Grebe in transition, a beautiful graceful bird with bright red eyes.

Next Sunday is my last in the Yoga for Hormone Therapy class series and I am looking forward to having a break in the ongoing extracurricular activities. I have to go back up on campus today to get my volunteer badge and t-shirt and if that all goes well I will teach my first caregiver class tomorrow night. I still will have to get my booster MMR vaccine in a month but I am finally finally done with all the prep for this incredible volunteer opportunity.

I would like to get grounded in this routine and then hopefully do some more effective marketing for my studio classes.

And tomorrow afternoon I am also doing the third training for my forms project. This is work. I get paid for this. I did one to a full house in the new training room this last Tuesday and it went well but was exhausting.

Speaking of work, my cable Internet carrier did something last week that made it so my work phone doesn’t work at home. They are sending out a new modem this week but it is a big technical hassle. Two other folks that were affected got all geeky over the weekend on their own time and figured out solutions. I didn’t have that luxury. Though Most Honorable was very helpful and I at least now understand the rough outlines of the problem. And have talked to customer service in India a few times this morning. Grrr.

I have Women’s Circle tonight too. Hope I am able to get my second wind sometime soon and can glide through the rest of the day like that Harrier over the big wild open field.

Oh yeah. We saw an Emu too. It was protecting the chickens on the farm across the road. I kid you not. Handsome fellow. Tall as a fence.