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Week Forty-four, January 14-20, 2002

Sunday, January 20, 2002

What better way to illustrate a positively rainy day than with a rain-streaked photo taken through the front window of our livingroom? I have been glad today that we did our birding for the weekend yesterday. This has been a cold and miserable day outside...

Saturday, January 19, 2002

The weekend-long birding trip that was planned for this weekend was postponed due to bad weather in the mountain passes between here and Eastern Washington, but we still joined members of the Tahoma Audubon Society today for a birdwatching trip. Instead of going east, we went south to find a couple of rare Washington birds - a clay-colored sparrow that we found in fields and hedges alongside the Columbia River near Woodland, and a black phoebe that is normally not seen any farther north than southern Oregon. We found the phoebe that has been hanging out for a few weeks at the Julia Butler Hansen Wildlife Refuge near Cathalamet, further west along the Columbia River.

Amidst falling rain, mixed the snow, and breezy conditions by the time we reached the wildlife refuge in the afternoon, we managed to see more than 50 species of birds today in Southwest Washington. And while we didn't have the chance to gather all of the same kinds of information that we normally would for our upcoming book on this trip, I did snap a few photos and have a good time hanging out with the other birders.

My photo today was taken looking east across a farmer's field near Woodland. The Columbia River rolls by about half a mile behind me while hundreds of gulls feed and then take off from the wet soils between my lens and the barn in the distance. And the sun, a little out of place on this day, tries to reach through the gray clouds to touch the ground...

Friday, January 18, 2002

Funny how, even now as the days grow longer, this feels like the dark season. As has been a theme in my photography over the last month or so, I keep looking away from that darkness. And so today I noticed that the yellow climbing rose at the back of the house is, against the odds, in full bloom. A testament to the warm winter weather we are having this year, this rose is blooming at a time that it should be dormant and waiting for a decent February pruning.

Impatient...

Thursday, January 17, 2002

I don't know what it is that draws our cats to the bird cage in our living room, but ever since we moved the cage to another part of the room, both Loki and Maya have been too curious about the cage for their own good. And so tonight I took a photo of Maya sitting inside the cage...doing time.

Wednesday, January 16, 2002

On such a dark day, nothing outside drew my eye like these tiny white blooms on a houseplant in our breakfast nook.

Tuesday, January 15, 2002

Late this afternoon I returned to the banks of Puget Creek to take a look at what is changing in the little park and along the edges of Puget Gulch. There are more and more signs of new life returning to the gulch. Alongside the creek near one of the small ponds a cherry tree is in full bloom, apparently oblivious to the fact that it is still winter.

Monday, January 14, 2002

Cars are a necessity sometimes, but that doesn't mean I have to like them. I was thinking that a lot today as I walked back and forth from the auto repair shop and forked out too much money for yet another car repair. It appears that the car is fixed now, and I sure hope so since we have a birding trip to Eastern Washington on the schedule for the coming weekend. Fingers crossed...

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