Arrant Nonsense

We've been having a really good time watching the birds at our feeders this winter, and now we're going over plans for expanding our operations. At this point, we're attracting:

Lesser goldfinches
American goldfinches
House finches
Purple finches (I have a super hard time telling house and purple finches apart)
Mourning doves (two subspecies, I think, it's weird, we have some that are little)
Ring-necked turtledoves
Rock doves
Chickadees
Oregon juncos
Slate-backed juncos (the juncos hang out on the ground and the willow tree, not the feeders)
House sparrows (of course)

And then there's a few that (apparently) hang around for the ambiance or something:
California quail
Mallards
Robins
Red-shafted flickers
Hairy woodpeckers
American kestrels
Magpies
Crows
Starlings
Hummingbirds

I think we can get more species in the actual window by making a few simple changes. We need a platform feeder that we can scatter different sorts of food (dog food, cracked corn) on for the bigger birds, and maybe fruit spears. We can anchor that in the basement window well. I've looked at suet feeders and tried one without much luck, but I think if I'm willing to buy better suet (or make it) that might change. A mealworm feeder might net us some bluebirds. I need to paint flowers on the hummingbird feeder so the poor little things know where the holes are; we've had some lookers but no partakers. And stuffing some pine cones with seeded peanut butter might get us nuthatches and other birds that like that sort of thing.

Apparently you can use a suet basket to hang nesting material as well. Lord knows we produce enough dryer lint and dog and cat hair in this household. A birdbath might not go amiss, although I still need to look into heater setups and see how that works (solar?). We have the start of a brushpile that we usually just mow down, but I think I've talked the Hubby into leaving it this year to see if we can get the quail to actually nest in it.

Planting berry bushes and fruit trees apparently also attracts them, and having bushes at different levels from the trees seems to be a good thing. Raspberries grow here easily and shouldn't be that hard to get going. If I start with the equipment I need now, such as more window hooks and a couple more feeders that we'd fill with peanuts and such, then we can hit the ground running in the spring.

I'm really looking forward to this--and have started a list.

To my back yard basketball standard. Which is less than 20 feet from my house. I think he might have been after the mice? Which, go, him, because the cat isn't doing her job and the trap remains, sadly, empty.



Isn't he adorable? For those who don't know, that's an American Kestrel, also known as a Sparrow Hawk. They're teeny!

Went birdwatching this morning; going out again this afternoon. Spoonbills and night herons and osprey and ducks and stilts and all kinds of other stuff, oh my.

Highlight so far has been watching a great blue heron attempt to eat an absolutely enormous fish before finally giving up and flying away. And that was right here in the campground. Hee.

Yes, I got pictures. What do you take me for?

And this time I might actually post them.

No way am I catching up with my flist. Seriously, not happening. Sorry. Anything important happening, link me to it...

After I put the new hummingbird feeder out, we had a hummingbird. This makes me happy.

In other news, I wrote twenty-five words today.

And then I erased them. Because they sucked. Yeah, it's been that kind of day.

In other other news, the Hubby and I are arguing over how much of the last three eps of BSG to watch tonight. And this is making me cranky, because he's on crack. Drawing this out for more than a day would be painful, y'all, amirite?

So, we put a thistle sock out a few weeks ago for the finches, right? And we've been getting a boatload of House Finches, with some Pine Siskins (I think) thrown in, earlier in the year. And who knew that House Finches also came in a yellow or orange phase, in addition to the normal pink? I didn't, until we started feeding them. It's pretty cool.

A few days ago, a Goldfinch finally showed up. We were ecstatic, because PRETTY.

Apparently that one is a female Goldfinch.

And I know this because a male Goldfinch just showed up and HOT DAMN what a gorgeous bird. Hopefully he'll show up when it's actually light out tomorrow so I can get some pictures of him.

YAY!

And I'll say it again:

Ben is going to kill me in my sleep one of these days.

Why, yes, I've just been randomly cruel to him once again. Why do you ask? I'm not even sure what purpose this scene serves in the book other than to feed my h/c kink and to actually show one of his flashbacks rather than just telling about it. Whether this is a legitimate function for a scene that goes on for 1500 words, I guess I'll leave up to my alpha readers.

However, having attained my requisite wordcount on the day, I feel I can now dive into the edits on the Cow Story. And the very first lines in the thing are problematic.

Why are they problematic, you ask? Because (a) I'm not sure they actually belong there; and (b) I love them.

They're great lines. They're a great HOOK. Were I to expand this into a novel, they would totally go into the query letter. But. Since the question they ask is answered right there in the very first scene...

Yeah. Kill your darlings. I know.

In other news, I've got the cutest, floofiest little juvenile House Finch on my thistle sock right now. He's so floofy that he looks bigger than the adults. And he's still sort of clumsy and not flying very well. Daawwwwwwwwww.

Oh, hey, speaking of the Cow Story, I'm thinking of posting it up for the usual suspects to pick over. Who wants to see it?

Are apparently Pine Siskins. I've never knowingly seen them before, thus my confuzzlement. And that gets me another bird on my Life List. Yay!

Tell you what, they and the House Finches are really nomming on the thistle sock. Now if we could just get the actual Goldfinches to show up, that'd be great. I know we have them around; I've seen them. Should fill up the Hummingbird feeder as well.

When I'm watching your trailer, and comparing your movie unfavorably to "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"...

This is a problem.

Why, yes, "Observe and Report," I'm looking at you. I'm going to have to invest in a longer pole, because the ten-foot one just isn't long enough.

In other news, I'm thinking of doing the Flashback Scene from not!Harry's POV and throwing it up as a sort of "DVD Extra." Because I'm not too far inside his head as it is and writing (another!) scene from his POV where he's contemplating killing himself is going to be good for me.

Yeah, that was sarcasm. See? I'm channeling him already.

In other other news, I'd like to rip my uterus out with a pitchfork, shoot it, set it on fire, and then bury it under twelve feet of lime in my backyard. The timing was fine this time, but the headache that two naproxen didn't even touch was not appreciated. At least that's gone now. We'll see what it hits me with today.

Oh! And we had a goldfinch on the bird feeder. That makes three species. I'm thinking of putting out a thistle sock.

In the way that's, you know, not.

Why, yes, I'm using LJ to keep track of my monthly cycle. Twenty-one days sucks, and I wish to rip my uterus out with a rusty spork and set it on fire. Can I do that, or would I get arrested?

Yeah, it started last night. Joy.

And I will cease abusing the italics tag now.

However, I'm finding that I (still) dearly love my characters. Not!Tony referred to not!Harmony as not!Harry's "attack angel" in the scene I scribbled last night, which fills me with unseemly glee. And, in the cold light of day, the other words I scribbled last night are still good words and I know what I want to do for my next scene so this, at least, gives me a happy.

Also, I put out a thing of suet a couple of weeks ago, and a red-shafted flicker just landed on it. He didn't eat any, but he knows it's there, and I'm thinking he will thus be back. SCORE.