The first day of spring and it has been a beautiful day! With the temp pushing 70 degrees and a wonderful blue sky with just a few fluffy white clouds it has been just perfect. Went on a little trip today, up to see the Sandhill crane that is still hanging around and then down to the Jordan Lake area.
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UPDATED!
Most birders maintain a list of birds they have seen (or heard) throughout their lives. Mine is a little differerent in that it is a list of birds I have photographed. Some photos via a spotting scope (digiscoping) and others using just a regular camera. And I’m going to show you photos of each different bird.
The big question is how to organize them … I’m going to keep it simple with just 2 divisions. Those birds you see around water (ducks, waders, sea birds etc.) and everything else (song birds, game birds, raptors). There will be a lot of photos in each group but at least they will be easier to find.
Well it turns out even months after a visit to Jiffy Lube they can still screw up your car. On a trip out of town the other day, smoke started coming out from under the car. LOTS of smoke. No fire or anything. It appeared there was an oil leak around the transmission area and that was getting onto the exhaust system causing the smoke.
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After reports of a Sandhill Crane hanging out in a corn field we decided to go out and enjoy the warm weather. The bird was reported to be in Guiliford county which is about an hour drive from Raleigh. So off we go on Sunday morning … but after driving around the area for a couple of hours and then visiting nearby Greensboro and returning to look once more … NO BIRD! But it was lovely countryside and a really nice day. We returned to Raleigh the long way via Jordan Lake.
But I don’t take failure well. I went back to the site of the bird this morning and this time he was there! He was hanging out at the edge of the road and in the several hours I was there, never ventured more than 40 feet from the roadside. He really didn’t care if someone was there or not, for the most part he seemed to ignore everything and everyone except for whatever food he was after. This allowed for some great photos!
Yesterday I found myself needing to modify some text files so I could import the info into a database. I started doing it by hand but then I caught myself. This was a file I was going to want to import more than once considering changes that would be made to it over time. So I started searching the web for a free compiler of some sort to write a program with.
I haven’t written a program in anything other than dBase III, PHP or Java in years and even so only a few. I found a free download from Microsoft of their C++ but after dloading 200+ Meg I couldn’t get it to work! So I searched some more and ran across an old friend – Borland’s Turbo Pascal V 3.0
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It seems that one of the most popular photos on the site is that of me!
So I’m going to give you more of what you want. Me!
Here I am at 17 months in Pensacola, Florida.
I really am getting sick of it. Our rights are being eroded away in the name of national security. It really is getting out of control. These laws are just too broad in their coverage and don’t have enough controls in place to prevent abuse.
The latest I’ve noticed is the “Real ID Act” that was recently passed by the House. (more…)
