Getting Started With Birding

When I got my first Field Guide Thanks to Frank Clawson my brother in law and began keeping my Life List, I started with Waterfowl. The main reason is they are very easy to ID, they also come in several species and and assorted sizes and colors so they are pretty to look at. Waterfowl include Ducks, Geese and Swans. The most common Geese in Utah are Canada Geese, we also get Snow Geese, Ross's Geese and several variations of Canada Geese like the much smaller Cackling Goose. Ducks are the fun ones, most common are Northern Pintails, Northern Shovlers, Gadwalls, and of course Mallards. Swans we get Tundra Swans, a few Trumpeter Swans and occasionally a sub species of the Tundra called a Bewick's Swan. In the hopes that I might spark some interest in some of you to take up birding I have posted a new album on our Picasa Web Albums of Waterfowl. I hope you will take a look and see the beautiful variety of Waterfowl we have in our own back yard. Of course if your interest is piqued you can set up a tour with me, I will be happy to take you out and get you started on your life list.

Enjoy

Steve

Some new things

I have added some pictures to our Web Albums, including some old family pictures of Nery's mom, brother Jun jun and Nery. I have also added some pictures to some of the other albums so if you haven't looked at them for a while take a peek. I have also added a new item, some of my favorite web links.
I will be posting again soon,
Steve

Remember I said I am not so dumb, well here is proof

Occasionally I just need to get something off my chest, such was the case the other day with my rant about people's occasional stupidity around automobiles. I will try to keep my rants to a minimum.

On a happier note Thursday November 13th was my birthday. Featured in the pictures above is part of my birthday present from my son in law Dave. He gave me not one but two Ball Pythons. I am so excited, not only did he give me these two which are a breeding pair but he got a male Het. Lavender Albino male and a female is on the way that he will eventually breed. What that means is that not only did I get my Ball python but we will have 4 Ball Pythons, two breeding pairs and we will be breeding them.
I know that there are those of you shaking your heads asking why, why would anyone want a snake? And I know that no matter what good Dave or I could say about snakes and how beautiful they are it would never change your minds, so you will just have to accept that to us they are beautiful and you can continue to wonder why.
Snakes are misunderstood and maligned, it probably started with Lucifer being described in the bible as a serpent, and another reason is that several species of snakes are venomous so people are scared that any snake they see could be venomous. The other thing is that they don't have arms or legs and they slither, whatever the reason they are unfairly misjudged. Snakes are so important to the ecosystem by removing rodents that spread disease and ruin food supplies. I often hear people talk of seeing a snake in their yard and how they killed it. Very stupid thing to do, if there are snakes present it must be because there is a food source such at rats or mice. Snakes are not likely to enter your home in fact they would rather never be seen by humans. The rats and mice on the other hand will enter our homes, garages, sheds and other buildings and either destroy things or spread disease. Snakes don't spread disease they won't get into our food supplies or destroy things they just eat the rodents and then hide. We should all learn to respect snakes even if you can't learn to like them.

Thanks Dave and thanks to everyone for making my birthday so nice. In addition To the snakes, Thursday I got a wonderful call from Kristan and Gerhard in Germany, it was so good to hear from them, then Nery and I went out to dinner with my mom and then Friday Spencer and Rachel, Dave and Catie and Nery and I went to the temple then back to our house for dinner. It has been a great birthday I enjoyed spending time with my family both in person and on the phone. I love you all. Thank you!!!

A couple of pet peeves

I have a few pet peeves that really get on my nerves, one is people who are too lazy to return grocery carts to the store or at least to the cart stalls provided. It always seems to be the people who I would think that would get the most upset if a runaway cart hit their car that commit this offence. People who drive BMW's , Lexus, Suburbans etc. So to those who are too lazy or just discourteous please return the cart to the cart stall show a little consideration for others.

Well that off my chest I want to comment on one that hit close to home several times this last week. Why do people turn their brains off when they get in or around automobiles. The etiquette on the road for drivers, bicyclers, and pedestrians seems to be getting worse all the time. Last week Nery and I were coming west on 2600 so in Woods Cross and the light just before you go under the overpass turned green when we were still a good 30 yards from the intersection. I was keeping my eye on the car sitting in the left turn lane (a habit I have developed since I started riding my motorcycle) and could tell the lady in the "Suburban" was going to do something stupid. She was yakking on her cell phone and just as we entered the intersection she decided to run the red light. Fortunately I was going slow and like I said felt like she would do something stupid, I hit my breaks and horn at the same time. She looked at me like I was crazy but she did stop. This crazy soccer mom in addition to talking on the phone had several children in the car with her. I mouthed to her "get off your stupid phone and drive your car". Well that was the first incident. Later that afternoon we were driving on Orchard Drive and I saw a lady walking down the side walk, without even looking up she stepped off the curb and into the busy traffic on orchard drive. Again I had to hit my brakes to avoid hitting her. I honked and she still didn't even look up. What is the matter with people? The best one thought happened Wednesday morning as Nery and I were pulling into work. We were in the left turn lane on North Temple waiting for the light to change so we could turn onto 1950 west and into work. As the light changed this guy on a bicycle decided to cross North Temple against the light, for those of you not familiar with this road it is very busy and the speed limit is 40 mph which means most people probably drive 50 mph. The cyclist made it across the eastbound lanes because we all saw it coming. the guy in the left westbound lane had to hit his brakes not to hit the cyclist but the guy driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee was about 50 yards up the street when the light changed and was going full blast and since there was a car in the left lane, could not see the idiot on the bike. As the cyclist passed the guy in the left lane and gave him a smart alack wave the Cherokee plowed through the intersection and right into the cyclist. The bike flew down the street and the cyclist flew in the air, smashed into the windshield and up over the jeep a good 10 to 12 feet in the air and smashed down on the asphalt. It was a surreal experience all of us waiting at the intersection could see what was about to happen but none of us could do anything about it. The good news is that he survived with several broken bones and a concussion but will be ok. This was 110% the cyclist fault but I'm sure that doesn't make the driver of the car that hit him feel much better.

People we need to use our heads. Cars can kill, every time we get behind the wheel we need to keep that foremost in our minds. When we are walking across a street remember stop, look and listen then when it is all clear go. Even if you have the right of way don't step in front of a moving car that is not a fight you are going to win. Bicyclist have gotten too cocky you are required to follow the same laws that apply to cars you need to stop at stop signs and red lights but more and more I see bikes plow through intersection without even slowing down.

There I got it off my chest I don't know if it will do any good but I feel better. Now a word to my fellow motorcyclists. Most motorcycles I see abide the traffic laws, there are a few though mostly those who ride bullet bikes that feel more of a need to show off, please knock it off, you make drivers hate us all. Again a fight between a car and a motorcycle the motorcycle's going to loose.

Drive safe everybody

New Album on our Web Albums, Pictures from the Philippines

I have added a new album to our web album, Pictures from when we lived in the Philippines. I will continue to add to this album. http://picasaweb.google.com/stevecoleman1155

Steve's Birdn' Blog

I have created a new blog to report bird sightings and shows my life list. I will post bird sightings and pictures. the address is http://stevesbirdnblog.blogspot.com

I have been tagged

1. I read the entire World Book Encyclopedia in the bathroom. It took a couple of years, I started out looking up something about animals for one of the kids when you guys were in elementary school and ended up reading the entire A volume. I next took out the B volume to read about birds and read all of the B volume and it went from there.

2. When we were kids my brother Ken and I used to come up with all kinds of ways to play fight. We started with hanger fights, they were painful and then we heard about a kid that got hit with a hanger in the corner of his eye and tore it so we stopped fighting with hangers and kept a bowl of pennies in our room and got in some crazy penny fights. We also used to play chicken in our front yard with ski poles. We would start out with our legs spread as far apart as we could get them and then throw the ski poles between each others legs until our feet were almost together (what were we thinking). Ken was once in our backyard and shot an arrow in the air, I was laying on the grass in the front yard and it came down ans hit me in the leg, I still have the scar. He also through a pair of scissors at me while I was running across the room and stuck them in my foot, I have that scar too. This was all in fun, it's a good thing we got along.

3. I like Durian, most of you probably have not even heard of it, well google it for additional info. It is known by some as the king of fruits and others as the fruit that smells like hell and tastes like heaven. It is illegal to take a Durian on an airplane and in some countries they are banned from hotels. The the smell is like dirty diapers the taste is like a mix of carmel and garlic which doesn't sound all that good but oddly it is. It could also be used as a weapon since it is a large fruit about the size of a coconut with the husk and just as hard but it also has large spikes all over it. Fear Factor used to have Durian and and another Filipino delicacy balut on the show as something that was supposed to be gross and disgusting. Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel who will eat the most disgusting things you can imagine like bugs, spiders and any internal organ from any animal, cannot handle Durian "what a wimp". Imagine a fruit about the size of a coconut just as hard and with inch long spikes all over it the smell when you open it could clear a room, in fact it is recommended that Durian should always be opened outside, the meat is a yellowish goo the consistency of custard. But all that said it is quite good. I especially like Durian ice cream. Don't knock it till you try it.

4. As far as I know I am the only American to drive a Tricycle for fare in the Philippines. It was one of the funnest jobs I ever had.

5. My favorite James Bond movie is Live and Let Die. It came out when I was in high school and I fell in love with Jane Seymour, up to that time I thought was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Of course that was before I met Nery

6. Probably one of the worst things I have ever done was; while we were staying with friends in California for a couple of days on our way to the Philippines we were waiting for Sunday dinner. Our host was taking forever to get dinner cooked and she was making "Chop Suey" that had ground beef in it "yuck". Spencer was about six and came up to me and said he was hungry and wanted to know when we could eat. I asked him if he wanted to go for a walk so he and I walked about a half mile down the road to a McDonald's and and ate Big Macs. This started a tradition that went on the entire time we lived in the Philippines. Every Sunday after church Spencer and I would sneak off to a hamburger joint in Butuan and and have a hamburger.

7. I decided to add this a bit late. When I was on my mission in the Philippines I used to eat a Balut every Monday morning before playing basketball. There is a series of pictures above showing a Balut. It is a Duck egg that is cooked and eaten just about 3 days before it would hatch. They are quite disgusting but a delicacy in the Philippines. I have tried several times since my mission to get one down but I can no longer eat them. I guess I don't have anyone to impress anymore.

Not nearly as comical or interesting as yours Catie but there you go.