Birding at Biola

Hey everybody, I just got back from a little lunch time meander through the olive grove. This was a pre-planned excursion with the goal of identifying a species that I thought I had seen yesterday (and about a month ago) in the creek.

Yesterday morning I was on my way back from the dumpsters behind the baseball field, when I noticed a group of small brown finches flitting about in the tall reeds that populate the creek. I couldn't tell for sure what they were, but it looked to me as if they were an exotic finch called Nutmeg Mannikins, which is fairly common here in Southern California. But I didn't know for sure, since I had never seen one before, and the only field mark I remembered was that they were light brown and had a scalloped pattern on their belly.

Anyway, I brought my binoculars with me today, and took a walk on the olive grove side of the creek to check it out. At first all I saw was a shy female mallard and a lot (like 20+) yellow-rumped warblers. As I was starting to walk back, however, I saw some movement in the reeds. It took another 5 minutes or so, but I finally got a good look at the bird. It is a Nutmeg Mannikin: a small skinny finch from Asia with a nutmeg colored back and a patterned belly. These birds' bellies aren't very distinctly patterned, but one individual showed clear marks.

Here's a picture.

The species originally comes from southeast Asia.

I was also happy to see a Song Sparrow, Western Bluebirds, House Finches, House Sparrows, and Anna's Hummingbirds along the creek. Their cutting all the reeds right now, so it will be interesting to see if the Mannikins lose their little colony.

Jonathan and I have been married for 100 days now. Counting up is better than counting down, I say.

It's really cold all over the country right now, it says in the news. Thus, it is not surprising that this morning Sutherland Hall's roof looked as if it was wearing a coat of new snow, I had to scrape ice off my car, and the roofs and lawns in my neighborhood were white.

But because I live in beautiful Southern California, it is also not surprising that the frost almost instantly disappeared when the sun hit it, and that it was about 90 degrees only about a week ago.

So, there's this website full of songs that some guy writes based on requests from other people.

Check out song #0257.

Really.

It's been a while since my last post. I'm now in my third week of student teaching. I've taken over the Phonemic Awareness and Math lessons each day. Next week I add Reading. It's going well. I enjoy thinking and planning out the activities. Math is especially fun right now, I think, since we're learning coins. It can be very hands-on, and the kids really like that.

Valentine's Day is really a big deal in elementary school. Kids who don't ever turn in any homework came to school on Tuesday with a shoe box completely decorated and ready to receive goodies. And the stuff they bring! The amount of candy that was exchanged between the kids was comparable to Holloween. I got quite a bit of candy as well, since they all wanted to give me one of their valentines. One little boy even gave me a Starbucks gift card!

Jonathan and I also had a very nice Valentine's Day. He's the best!

Busy!

That's what I am, and that's why the posting is slow. The reason that I can't post when I'm busy isn't just a lack of time: it's a lack of something to say. As a rule, I don't post about work (though I'm really tempted to right now), and I worked both Saturday and Sunday this last weekend.



The other thing I've been busy with is Valentine's Day, which is a lot of fun, but I don't know that people would really appreciate me posting about that, either. So, in all, there's a lot to say, but not much to say here.

I just posted the Vermillion flycatcher pictures because it's such a pretty bird. I took these pictures on the 21st of January, so it's been awhile. Plus, it's red, which is the color of Valentine's Day! So, happy Valentine's Day, everybody.

Read the Scottish Pairlament's wabsite in Scots! I'm nae sae siccar that's really a leid: nor are linguists (studioors o leids).

Read the Scottish Parliament's webpage in Gaelic! Now I am sure that is a different language.

This Islam/ Comic controversy is boiling on and doesn't seem to be calming down, but here's something that caught my eye in the meantime. Chesterton's "On Reading" is a fun little work that I found over on a Torrey chum's blog. Ryan's a nice guy I had the priviledge of sharing class with one semester in Torrey.

The article is Chesterton arguing for the sake of reading. His argument is that by continuing to read we will continue to tap into the great store of thought left us from the past, and that this will prevent heresies: ideas that are taken out of their context and clung to at the expense of the Whole Truth (and nothing but). Here's the witty cite:

In case this point is not clear, I will take two examples,
both in reference to notions fashionable among some of the more
fanciful and younger theorists. Nietzsche, as every one knows,
preached a doctrine which he and his followers regard apparently as
very revolutionary; he held that ordinary altruistic morality had been
the invention of a slave class to prevent the emergence of superior
types to fight and rule them. Now, modern people, whether they agree
with this or not, always talk of it as a new and unheard-of idea.
It is calmly and persistently supposed that the great writers of the past,
say Shakespeare for instance, did not hold this view, because they
had never imagined it; because it had never come into their heads.
Turn up the last act of Shakespeare's Richard III and you will
find not only all that Nietzsche had to say put into two lines,
but you will find it put in the very words of Nietzsche.
Richard Crookback says to his nobles:

Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
Devised at first to keep the strong in awe.

As I have said, the fact is plain. Shakespeare had thought of Nietzsche
and the Master Morality; but he weighed it at its proper value
and put it in its proper place. Its proper place is the mouth of a
half-insane hunchback on the eve of defeat. This rage against the weak
is only possible in a man morbidly brave but fundamentally sick;
a man like Richard, a man like Nietzsche. This case alone ought
to destroy the absurd fancy that these modern philosophies are modern
in the sense that the great men of the past did not think of them.
They thought of them; only they did not think much of them.
It was not that Shakespeare did not see the Nietzsche idea;
he saw it, and he saw through it.

Reading Nietzche senior year, and then in Richard III in the same semester had me wondering that Shakespeare could have written about Nietzche before Nietzche ever arose, but of course, Chesterton has hit the nail on the head here, and resolved for me this mystery.

Thank you, Chesterton, thank you very much.

So, what do people think about this free speech/ respect of religion controversy that's flaring up over in Europe?

I am still sorting out my thoughts. On the one hand, there are some positions that I find very untenable. The most significant of these is the position of Islamic governments that have been pressing the Danish government to punish the offending newspaper. That, in my opinion, is a really terrible thing to ask, and a real infringement on the important right of free speech. The Danish prime minister's position, therefore, seems highly rational:

"A Danish government can never apologise on behalf of a free and independent newspaper. This is basically a dispute between some Muslims and a newspaper."

Another, largely most likely marginal, reaction that troubles me is that of those Muslims who take to the streets at any kind of argument to proclaim that those whom they find offensive must die. CNN reports on Palestinian responses:

Early Friday, Palestinian militants threw a bomb at a French cultural center in Gaza City, and many Palestinians began boycotting European goods, especially those from Denmark.

"Whoever defames our prophet should be executed," said Ismail Hassan, 37, a tailor who marched through the pouring rain along with hundreds of others in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"Bin Laden our beloved, Denmark must be blown up," protesters in Ramallah chanted.

An imam at the Omari Mosque in Gaza City told 9,000 worshippers that those behind them should have their heads cut off.

"If they want a war of religions, we are ready," Hassan Sharaf, an imam in Nablus, said in his sermon.

Don't worry, Hassan Sharaf, we do not want a war of religions. Look, BBC points out to us the reaction of the Vatican. "Vatican cardinal Achille Silvestrini condemned the cartoons, saying Western culture had to know its limits."

There is a myriad of reaction arising from within Europe, handily summarized by a German website here: signandsight I got to that link from ALDaily, which is linked on my side bar.

As to whether it is proper to publish this kind of article, I find myself looking to my own faith. I would, and do, find offensive irreverant representations of Jesus. Sometimes I can take them with a grain of salt and they are funny, other times they are mean spirited and blasphemous, and these are more difficult to take lightly. Acting conscientiously, I would treat all other religions with the degree of charity that I myself desire, and so I would disagree with publishing some of these cartoons. You can find a link to the cartoons at AL Daily if you want to see them, but I won't link to them directly.

Another part of me, perhaps the unruly part, could see myself rashly making a sarcastic cartoon about pagan gods or religious figures that I do not believe exist or find overrated, like Muhammad. There is ironic truth in the cartoon wherein Muhammad urges his suicide bombers to slow down, as he is running out of virgins. (How many virgins are there? Where are they coming from?) The cartoon is confronting a clear falsehood in an uncharitable way. I can find some value in this kind of presentation, in that its confrontational nature can cause some people to think. Obviously that was not the intention of this newspaper, though, so I wish they'd never published it.

I started Student Teaching today. I ended up being placed in a first grade class at a school that's basically across the street from Biola. This means Jonathan and I can commute together. And that's happy. (Though today Jonathan stayed home sick. And that's not happy.) This first week, all I do is observe and work with small groups every now and then. It's a chance to get to know the Master Teacher and the students a little bit, and see how the classroom runs. The teacher seems really nice and good with her students; I expect to learn a lot from working with her. And the kids were almost angelic. They worked quietly and diligently on individual activities and participated in the whole-group stuff really well. She told me that they're not always like this, though. They were just trying to impress me. :-) Well, it worked.

Oh, and during lunch my Master Teacher explained that she'll be gone for a few days during my 8 weeks in her class, and that I should get on the sub list for La Mirada so that I can take over on those days. In La Mirada, teachers get to request the subs they want to take their classes, not like in La Habra where the district office decides who to call. So, my Master Teacher would just request me for those days, and I'd get paid for days I would have had to be there anyway. That doesn't sound like a bad deal at all.

I'll keep you updated on all the exciting stuff that Student Teaching will involve.

Here ends my post.

Hmm..

Disney is buying Pixar. Here's hoping they don't screw a really good company up!

Picture Post!

Instead of editing yesterday's absolutely enormous entry to include pictures at the moment, I'll post some of the goings on in our life in a separate post. This also frees me up to post pictures that aren't from Saturday.

Here's Libby at the Mudpots, Wister Unit Imperial Wildlife Area. You can see that this part of the area is barren. I guess that's because of the mud pots. There's quite a few more than the one she's above (you can see the hole in the lower left). Isn't Libby cute?


This is me at the same mud pots, but I'm at the other side of the little deck here. I'm pointing excitedly at a pot of mud. "Look at this awesome smelly devil's cauldron!" I exclaim ecstatically.

Note we are well equipped with our binoculars for any awesome bird that might happen to pop out of these mud pots. Behind me you can see the thick vegatation bordering the ponds of Wister. That's where you can take the heavily vegetated trails.


This ancient mud-flow to which Libby is directing our attention is found at the intersection of Davis and Schrimpf roads, near Niland, CA. This is a different place than the previous pictures. Here the mud formed volcanoes that are like 6 feet high. This is a baby one, but it's got big plans, we can tell. We're very proud of its efforts.


This is the actual active crater of one of our mud volcanoes. I took this standing on the volcano, so imagine a pile of dried mud about 4 feet high. This was one of the biggest. I wish I had actually taken a picture of one of the volcanoes, instead I focused on the bubbling mud. I got some cool videos, but the bubbling mud just doesn't come out as bubbling in still photography.

Maybe Lem can explain that for us.

Note the viscous character of the mud. Looks like melted chocolate ice cream to me.


Ok, now here are some pictures from our trip to Big Bear the last week of December. Remember when we saw the Bald Eagles?


This is Libby looking at the Eagles (George and Gracie were their names, since they hung out on the Burns property: no we did not name them).

Our spotting scope is a Brunton. It zooms from 18-36, and is pretty much awesome for its price. It's filled with an inert gas, and has a color correcting lense. It's nothing, of course, compared to the 3,000 dollar models, but then we weren't willing to pay 3,000 dollars.

Not that we really have 3,000 dollars to pay, of course. Even birders can be gear heads when it comes to optics.


Here's what Libby's looking at.

This is Gracie. Above her head is George's foot and some of his other feathers.

Also, this is what happens when you take a picture with a digital camera through your spotting scope. It's not perfect, of course, and this is my first try. There's actually quite an art to it, and they call it "digiscoping." Since birders already have these little telescopes, there's no sense in spending a lot of money to buy a giant telephoto for your camera. You can just buy a cheap digital camera, and do the same thing with your old gear. There's a bit of an art to it, and I look forward to attempting more digiscopes in the future. We actually didn't know that this turned out until we put it on the computer. Libby and I both were excited to see the bird.

It's time for a belated Monday Birding post.

This last Saturday Libby and I made the grand old trek to the Salton Sea NWR, Imperial County California. It was a long trip, but we found it well worth it! It was a ton of fun, with interesting scenery, geological bizarrities, and lots and lots of birds.

Our day started unpleasantly at 4:45. As the alarm shook us awake, we groaned and I have to admit that I wondered it if it was worth it. Thankfully, we thought ahead enough to get everything ready the morning before. In less than half an hour, we were out of the door into the dark, and primed for travel. Here's the route we took from Google Maps.

I guess our first bird of the day was seen in North Palm Springs, where we got gas: a bunch of House Sparrows lived there.

The first birding stop was along the North-Eastern half of the Salton Sea. In the Salton Sea Recreation Area, there are several beaches that you can stop at, most of which are just barren campgrounds. The one we stopped at was just a strip of desert sand, rocks, and then the water next to the freeway. But we saw several neat birds! One was a pair of Horned Larks, which we saw from a distince on Catalina but really close up here. We also decided to practice identifying gulls (you may have noticed that all gulls look the same: that does not mean they are the same species!). We got our first successful identification of a Herring Gull, there were some Ring-Billed Gulls (very common at the Salton Sea), and as we approached the car to get in I noticed on gull was smaller with a black ear-spot. It was a Bonaparte Gull! This was our second lifer of the day! It took off as we neared the car, and we got to see its distinctive wing pattern: grey, white and then just a black fringe along the edge of the primaries and secondary wing feathers. I think that's when we realized this could be a very cool day. In breeding plumage, the Bonaparte's gull has a black head, which would be neat to see.

Our next stop was the Wister Unit of the Imperial Wildlife Area. It was hunting season, and this was not a refuge. In the parking lot, we saw our first Eurasian Collared Doves, and our first Abert's Towhees. I got my first Orange-Crowned Warbler (Libby's seen one before). This being our first time here, we didn't really know where to go, and let ourselves be directed by a mysterious sign that promised mud pots.

As I researched our trip, I'd learned that around the Southern part of the Salton Sea, there are vents in the ground that let up carbon dioxide. These vents are filled with viscous mud, that bubbles. Mud pots are where the sand has dropped away around the vents, and you can hear the mud bubbling way down deep inside of them. You can't really go near them, because the ground's falling away, and so we didn't get the best look. They also smell sort of sulfurish. That's strange because they're not volcanic. The mud is, in fact, only a little warmer than the surrounding air.

Anyway, we found the mud pots of the Wister Unit, and picked up a Verdin (a beautiful little bird with a bright yellow head)and some Peregrine Falcons. We also heard what were probably Least Bitterns making all kinds of bizarre noises from within the rushes. There were White-Faced Ibises, a bird we haven't seen since the summer at Crowley Lake, which was fun. It was hard to see many ducks, though, because the hunters made them very, very skittish. This was a bizarre place, lots of ponds and reeds made movement and visibility limited. Added to the difficult passage, we were surrounded by the constant sound of gunfire. This is a little unnerving, to say the least, and I hoped that the hunters had good aim.

Oh yeah, we found a Marsh Wren there (a lifer for me) and we spooked a Peregrine Falcon that was only a couple of feet in front of us on a thickly vegetated trail. It burst out and was gone in a second, but we saw clearly the slate gray back. The falcon was a lifer, also. This is the great thing about beginning birding, there are a lot of lifers that are totally new to you that are fairly common birds.

We then split from the Wister Unit to go to our original destination, the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Preserve. This is where we had a great chance of seeing the birds I was most excited about: the Snow and Ross's Geese.

Every winter, thousands upon thousands of these geese migrate from the tundra of the far north to the warmer lands of the south. And the Salton Sea is one of their main destinations. We saw a few of them at Wister, far away in the sky, wheeling this way or that with a lot of clatter, but the problem was to identify them. The Ross's goose is white, with black on the wing. So is the Snow Goose. But the Snow Goose is larger, and its bill is distinctive. It has a grey prominent grin patch, and the feathers make a curved line at the base of the bill. The Ross's goose is smaller, its bill is shorter and less curved at the top (the culmen) and the feathers form a straight line. So if you see a big flock of white and black geese whirling around in the sky, it's impressive and beautiful, but you can't identify anything.

The Wildlife Refuge (and Wister, but not accessibly) provide fields for the geese to forage on, to spare the crops of the surrounding farms. That was our best bet. Unfortunately, we got a bit lost on the way to the refuge, and we had a hard time finding it. But, on the way, we got to see some Cattle Egrets (lifer!), a Prairie Falcon (sandy bird, a bit smaller than the Peregrine, with more mechanical wing-beats: a lifer!), a wire covered in Barn Swallows, and some Wood Ducks in an agricultural pond. We found our way to the right track, and also found the mud volcanoes. When I get a chance, I'll post some pictures of those. They're really cool! Here, the CO2 is pushing the mud up into 7 foot high piles of dirt, with real mud lava flows and everything. These were definitely a highlight of the trip.

Soon we made our way to the Wildlife Refuge, and at the feeders were were happy to see Gambel's Quail. The California Quail is very similar (there are some morphological differences but not pronounced), but their ranges don't really overlap. That was an easy lifer to find! Here we ate lunch, which consisted of the marvelous smoked salmon our Uncle Jim (Rowley) sent us for Christmas. Yum!

Then we set off on a walk around the short trail they had there. We were treated to a bunch more Verdin, a Belted Kingfisher, Black and Say's Pheobes, Yellow Rumped Warblers, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Long-Billed Dowitchers, a Long-Billed Curlew, a bunch o' Willets, and at the end of the trail there was a pond filled with far more waterfowl than we had ever before seen in our life. The water was black with them, like brine flies on the banks of Mono Lake. As we were watching these ducks (a few Ruddy Ducks, the rest being Northern Pintail, American Wigeons and Northern Shovelers), the air filled with a honking white mass. Something had disturbed the feeding geese in the fields. It was an incredible sight. We probably saw more birds, numerically on Saturday than we ever have before. All those geese in the air reminded me of what they say the Passenger Pigeons used to be like. I've read they used to make the day into night when they flew over. These geese couldn't do that, but there were enough of them to hint at the possiiblity. Probably the biggest flocks I've seen before this are of California Gulls at Mono Lake, but that is nothing compared to these flocks of geese. We found, on our way back to our car, that they had moved to a field near the trail, and we found in the flock easily identifiable Snow and Ross's Geese. We also found a pair of Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers (lifer!).

Next we decided to go to Salt Creek Beach, which was on the way home, to see some rare birds somebody had spotted there: a Barrow's Goldeneye, White-Winged Scoter, and a Tri-Colored Heron. Shoot, Libby and I had never seen a Common Goldeneye, and we were excited at the opportunity.

On the way back, we drove right by the Wister Unit, again, and there was a group of birders we had seen earlier in the day (like 4 hours earlier) standing around there. We had talked to them earlier, and found they were looking for a Rufous-Backed Robin. That would be a cool bird to see, but we knew that if you're waiting around for a rare bird, that's going to take some time, and we had a lot of other things to see. As we pulled up alongside them on the way home, I rolled down the window, and was instantly assured that they hadn't been waiting there that whole time. Ironically, someone burst from the bushes at that moment, and declared that they had seen it. So I pulled over the car, Libby and I grabbed our binoculars and ran over to get a look.

Unfortunately, the bird was not to be found. As we got into the bushes on a small trail, we saw it flit through the underbrush, but not identifiably. We waited for a little while to see if it would come out again, but nothing was much doing. A lot of other birds were in those bushes though, and one moved in my peripheral vision. I glanced over my shoulder to be staring directly at an American Redstart. This was a lifer for Libby and I, and I just sort of incredulously asked, "Hey, isn't that a Redstart?" The other birders looked up and shrugged, "Yep." This is a rare bird, though not nearly so rare as the Robin was, and I guess they had all seen it before. It's really a pretty bird, with bright red spots on its shoulders and tail. This was a male, so we got to see it in its full brilliance.

After that we left, and went straight to Salt Creek. Some of the birders who had been watching for the Robin were there, and helped us find the Barrow's Goldeneye (a female: only distinguished from the Common Goldeneye by its completely yellow bill), and the White-Winged Scoter (Brown with white patches near the tail, as well as a funky shaped Bill). We were excited to see several Common Goldeneye with the Barrow's. The Tri-Colored Heron was nowhere to be found, but we took a nice little walk along the beach anyway, before heading home.

As we walked along the beach, the cold breeze blew over the water, creating small breakers that rolled gently to the shore in series. On the other side of the Sea, storm clouds billowed over the mountains, and the sun was setting into them. It turned the furthest clouds a furious orangey-pink, and it looked like the gods were stoking their hearth-fires. The wild plants, tall reeds and short grasses, turned grayer as the light dimmed, and they rustled calmly. I was very happy at that moment: my wife and I surrounded by a very wild, beautiful place.

It was a good trip, and we had a whole lot of fun. Now Libby's sick, though, and I'm back at work. Such is life! This is an incredibly long post. If you read it all, good for you. I'll probably edit it down and add pictures tomorrow.

Hey, look, I'm posting! Is that amazing or what? You can all clap now.

Every once in a while, I get to sub in a classroom with internet access and a free period. Such is the case today. So here I am.

Today was 8th grade science. Hour and 20 minute block periods. Lab day. They only broke 3 graduated cylinders. I survived; they all survived. All things considered, I think it went pretty well. I'll be back here doing the same lab tomorrow for the even periods. Hopefully we won't have any more broken glass.

In other news, today is January 12...we're exactly two months into marriage, and loving it.

We're almost to the end of our current book, The Wizard of Oz. It's a good story, well written, funny, and has great characters; we really like it!

Also, Jonathan's birthday is in just 10 days! Think of something nice to do for him. :-)

Ok, that's all; bye.

Libby sure hasn't posted here in awhile. That's because we don't have internet at the aparment. The problem is that we can't get DSL, and there is only one phone jack in the room. So we've been using the internet provided by the closest Diedrich's to us, and that's about 15 minutes away.

Here's a news-post to update you on all of our happenings.

First, we are very happy. We love each other very, very much and are finding that getting married was a perfect decision. Our love has been able to grow so much deeper, and our bond is tighter than ever. Commitment really is the food of love.

Second, last week we got to spend almost all of our time together because we both had the week off. So, what did we do? Well, we spent time with family, birded, and hung around the apartment. We bought ourselves a spotting scope for Christmas, and on Wednesay we took it up to Big Bear to see the Bald Eagles that live there. We were lucky enough to see three of them: two mature eagles and one juvenile. The juvenile got attacked by one of the adults, which was great fun to watch. Anytime birds with a seven + foot wingspan start an aerial dogfight it's something pretty wild and wooly. The juvenile actually turned over on its back mid-flight to meet the mature eagle's talons, and they tumbled through the treetops until they broke apart and flew off in different directions. It all happened very fast. After that, we were able to find the mature pair's snag, and spent an hour or so watching them.

Thirdly, we've been reading books together. The Phantom of the Opera is an interesting novel. Its prose is pretty intensely written, with a lot of very dramatic descriptions. And sometimes things will happen really fast and then everybody will start crying (in the book). It was pretty thrilling, sort of a pre-cursor to movies or books like The Silence of the Lambs. There's an evil, ugly psycho genius and he just wants to be loved! My review: 3 stars out of five. It's not a great book, but it does give you a thrill. It's effective insofar it is what it is, and the end is obviously heavily Christian. But I'm still up in the air with how comfortable with it I am. Tonight Libby and I are planning on watching the movie again.

Fifthly, our first Christmas was very nice. :-)

An interesting read from the Wall Street Journal:

Goodbye, West

I think that he underestimates the power of education and the ideas of Western civilization. Therefore, I find this closing paragraph especially interesting, because it's the closest he comes to addressing it.

Since the president unveiled the so-called Bush Doctrine--the plan to promote liberty throughout the Arab world--innumerable "progressives" have routinely asserted that there's no evidence Muslims want liberty and, indeed, that Islam is incompatible with democracy. If that's true, it's a problem not for the Middle East today but for Europe the day after tomorrow. According to a poll taken in 2004, over 60% of British Muslims want to live under Shariah--in the United Kingdom. If a population "at odds with the modern world" is the fastest-breeding group on the planet--if there are more Muslim nations, more fundamentalist Muslims within those nations, more and more Muslims within non-Muslim nations, and more and more Muslims represented in more and more transnational institutions--how safe a bet is the survival of the "modern world"?

I wouldn't have guessed that so many Muslims would have wanted to live in Shariah after enjoying the liberties of the United Kingdom.

Arguments such as the one above can be used to support very caloused and unloving policies toward the poor. What is the role of the Church in balancing this potential short-falling?

Merry Christmas!

I learned I am illiterate in regard to California history today.

The creators of West Wing gave California's past a nod by naming the president in their show "Jed Bartlet." Puzzled? So would I be! I mean, I watched the show and I learned California history in elementary school, but I still didn't get it. It's kind of embarrassing.

Perhaps you didn't know that California's flag was supposed to have a pear on it?

Check this out!"

Historiography via Jack Chick:

There are only two ways in which world history can be explained:

1. The accidental theory. All events, such as those world depressions, revolutions, wars and political plots are the results of pure chance. Such a view is as ridiculous as belief in evolution!

2. The conspiratorial theory. World events such as mentioned above, take place because some influential people want them to happen and make them happen. People with power meet behind closed doors and work out plans to achieve their aims. The most precise way to describe such conduct is - conspiracy.

To us, the conspiratorial theory makes far more sense than the accidental theory. The conspiracy claims Rivera has made are by no means extreme and paranoid. Indeed, many respected and thorough researchers have, after many years of painstaking research, come to the conclusion that there is a conspiracy at work which desires to control the world by controlling the banks, commerce and the media.

And I need not mention to students of the Bible, the accidental theory contradicts the entire theme of the Bible, not to mention large portions of Bible prophecy.

Wow... See what you can do with exhaustive dilemmas? You can find truth!

Monday Birding Post:

So, there've been two bald eagles (it appears) sighted in Orange County in recent days. Since Libby and I love to look at cool/rare birds, and this is a very cool/rare bird, we took a track to where one's been seen the most: Yorba Park in Anaheim. Yorba Park is right along the Santa Ana River, where it runs along the 91. It's near where Imperial hits the 91.

Anyway, we dropped by Saturday morning, but we didn't see it. That's unfortunate, as it had been seen Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday mornings. Gee whiz, you would think it was wild!

We did see some cool birds, though. And then we went to the Newport Back Bay and saw more cool birds.

Highlights?

Yorba Park:

1. The river and lakes in the park are full of fun birds. Coots, Cinnamon Teal, Blue-winged Teals, Canada Geese, Wood Ducks (second most colorful duck in the world), American Wigeons, etc...

2. Among the ducks we saw Redheads, which were lifers. Redheads are ducks with red heads. They're diving ducks, and seemed to like sleeping or diving best. "Hey, is that a redhead?"
"I can't tell, it's got its head shoved under its wing!"
"Oh, is that a redhead?"
"Where?"
"I don't know, it was there a second ago."

3. A mountain chickadee was chilling with a flock of bushtits. That's a rarity!

4. Juncos and blue-birds also resided in the park, which is fun.

Newport:

Newport's a bit of a drive, but it was serene and beautiful as always. I really like the back bay. This trip brought us to the preserve at low tide, which is both good and bad. The mud flats smelled pretty bad, and it was impossible to identify the peeps that were feeding out on the fringes of the mud without a spotting scope.

Highlights of that trip:

1. Green-winged teals, which were new to us. For some reason we had never seen them before, although they were very common this trip. They're very pretty ducks, with the cinnamon and green contrasting interestingly. I suppose their face is almost Christmasy. The colors are much richer than this picture can show, when you see them in the wild.

2. There was a flock of black skimmers sitting on a mud flat, along with a couple of Caspian Terns. The terns black masks are shrinking, which is an interesting point of variety from normal.

3. Last, but certainly not least, we were peering into some wigeons near the parking lot on Back Bay Drive, when we noticed that among them was a bird with a red head. Was it a Redhead? No. Was it a Green-winged Teal? No. It was a wigeon. Which makes it either a Eurasian Wigeon or a Eurasian Wigeon/American Wigeon hybrid. And that was the bird of the day!


Here's a Eurasian Wigeon (front) with an American Wigeon (back). American wigeons are very common. Eurasian Wigeons not so much. We kept clear of him, since, as an Asian stray, he probably has bird flu.

This was our first trip birding since the honeymoon, and it was fun to see the diversity of God's creation so brilliantly displayed. Especially, since all of the new birds we saw were ducks. And ducks are really exciting!

After birding we saw The Chronicles of Narnia. It was a good movie.