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The Good News Thread: I'm So Excited! And I Just Can't Hide It!


traceria

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Just now, A Budgie said:

Hm.
I'd compile you a list of diverse fiction I've enjoyed, but I have to go to bed now (it's getting rather late). I could send you a list of books another time, however, if you'd like.

If its not too much work, Id like that. Good night, sleep tight, don't let the cremlings bite!

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10 hours ago, Sunbird said:

I found a cool bird on Sunday--a small falcon called a Merlin. She (I think it's a female--hard to tell with this species) was sitting on top of a telephone pole having dinner when I found her. None of these photos show any blood, but I've separated them into two groups: photos where the prey is visible and photos where it isn't. (@Mestiv Please let me know if any of the images I've posted go too far.)

@Kestrel Maybe you know how to tell male and female Merlins apart better than I do?

Merlin WITHOUT prey visible (2 photos):

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Merlin WITH prey visible, but no blood (2 photos):

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The bird she's caught is a House Sparrow, a species that was introduced to North America from Europe and is now very common.

IMG_6675_Merlin_Crop.thumb.jpg.be2105eaf3efc58ed3c39d16f2630ec5.jpg

 

What a cutie! Honestly, I don't work with Merlins as they aren't common in Texas, but a quick google image search and I think its a female? but they're close to identical. It could also be a young bird, or passage, which would have a different plumage color than an adult. I really don't know, though.

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A little while back I created a simple in character storytelling/rp & drinking game for D&D and played it with a couple of groups I run. (I don't drink, but characters in the world do and I've found the game can lead to some fun roleplaying.) In universe it uses a set of stones with dwarvish runic letters carved onto a flat side, but in practice I just used numbers or a set of very simple cards.

Some of my players made a proper set and gave them to me as a Christmas present 0_o.

Spoiler

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Edited by Claincy
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Some moar bird photos from last week :D

Brown Creeper and Red-tailed Hawk (2 photos):

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This Brown Creeper didn't want to hold still, but he didn't seem to mind my proximity either. Cute little guy!

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Red-tailed Hawk soaring waaaaaay high:

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Particularly photogenic ducks at the park (2 photos):

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Male Mallard:

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Domestic duck mid-quack: "AFLAC!"

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Cooper's Hawk (2 photos):

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I took this photo standing almost directly underneath the hawk. Almost directly underneath because I was SO not interested in getting pooped on if he suddenly needed a bathroom break. :lol:

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Back view of the same Cooper's Hawk:

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22 hours ago, Briar King said:

Standing outside in the snow. IN THE SNOW! In the 3rd snow to hit LOUISIANA in just over a months time...

AMAZEBALLS!!

We just got some snow in Lafayette, too. And then the roads ICED OVER last night. Everything has just shut down, school's out, and I nearly took an unplanned ice-skating trip down my driveway. 

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1 hour ago, SilverTiger said:

Update: school is closed today, too. Yesterday, the sun melted just enough ice to make a layer of (cold) water on top of the ice, which then froze again last night. Now everything is slippery. And I have yet to go to school this week.

My kids had to go back today, and I was quite surprised with that as I saw refrozen layers of ice in numerous places when I went to get food last night.

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I've got a game of "Where's Waldo?" for you guys. There is an owl hiding somewhere in this photo; see if you can spot it! @RippleGylf @Taliax

IMG_6885_Western_Screech-owl_Crop.thumb.jpg.dd557a0978ceb1126504b7b5f461b1d2.jpg

Zoomed in a bit on the same scene...

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Zoomed in all the way:

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IMG_6878_Western_Screech-owl_Crop.thumb.jpg.19943543b2380aadc6a17e30bb8e9762.jpg

Do you see it? It's a Western Screech-owl, and it's only about as big as a 12-oz soda can. It was snowing while I took these photos, and an hour later the poor little guy was completely buried in snow.

In case you're still having trouble, I've circled the owl:

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Edited by Sunbird
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4 hours ago, Sunbird said:

I've got a game of "Where's Waldo?" for you guys. There is an owl hiding somewhere in this photo; see if you can spot it! @RippleGylf @Taliax

IMG_6885_Western_Screech-owl_Crop.thumb.jpg.dd557a0978ceb1126504b7b5f461b1d2.jpg

Zoomed in a bit on the same scene...

  Hide contents

IMG_6882_Western_Screech-owl_Crop.thumb.jpg.c360608442f79fbbf69655312d4de22d.jpg

Zoomed in all the way:

  Hide contents

IMG_6878_Western_Screech-owl_Crop.thumb.jpg.19943543b2380aadc6a17e30bb8e9762.jpg

Do you see it? It's a Western Screech-owl, and it's only about as big as a 12-oz soda can. It was snowing while I took these photos, and an hour later the poor little guy was completely buried in snow.

In case you're still having trouble, I've circled the owl:

5a63f7157e0e3_IMG_6878_Western_Screech-owl_Crop_Circled.thumb.jpg.245c8794c838f2de113ee24242c3e4a7.jpg

 

D’aww he’s so cute!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok I know I'm double posting (my apologies to the mods), but it's been more than a week since the last activity in this thread and I have more good news!

My internship with the publishing company is going AWESOME. This week I got to do some design work on a couple of book covers, which was a lot of fun.

I also got some more bird photos since my last post! The day after I saw the little snowed-in owl in the photos above, I heard from a local birder friend that there was a neat woodpecker at his church building and went over to see it. The bird was super cooperative for photos, and it made me really happy.

Barn Owl and Red-naped Sapsucker (3 photos):

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This Barn Owl was asleep high in a pine tree at the same cemetery on the same day as the napping Western Screech-owl I posted previously.

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Here's the woodpecker my friend told me about, a male Red-naped Sapsucker. He's basically the western cousin of the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers I've posted pictures of before. You can see a bunch of the holes he's drilled into the tree trunk to drink the sap.

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And here you can see the red back of the neck he is named for:

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This past Saturday I went out birding again and just about froze my fingers off. It's a wonder I could work the camera at all! :lol: Didn't find anything super exciting, but I did get some nice pictures of a stray cat and a Northern Flicker (a type of woodpecker), plus a crowd of seagulls standing around on the ice of a frozen lake.

Stray cat, Northern Flicker, and Ring-billed Gulls (3 photos):

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Northern Flicker, female. A male would have a red "mustache" on his cheek.

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A few hundred Ring-billed Gulls standing around on a frozen lake.

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Mountain scenery from Saturday (3 photos):

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I also had some chance encounters with birds on campus this week. :) Cedar Waxwing, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Dark-eyed Junco, and Black-capped Chickadee (4 photos):

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Cedar Waxwing, a bird I affectionately like to call a "berry bandit" because of the black mask and the fact that its favorite food is berries.

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Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a very tiny, very hyperactive bird that is very hard to photograph because it never sits still! This the first salvageable shot I've ever gotten of one.

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Dark-eyed Junco, a type of sparrow that is common in people's yards in winter. They come in several different color variations or subspecies depending on region. This one is part of the Oregon subspecies, the most common color variant in my part of Utah.

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Black-capped Chickadee, one of North America's most familiar "bird feeder" birds. This one held still for a few minutes--an unusually long time for a chickadee--while I took pictures.

IMG_7038_Black-capped_Chickadee_Crop.thumb.jpg.9046cdb4d06a1dbc72ed604f69acaada.jpg

 

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I wrote a story today. Then I emailed it to my English teacher and the school librarians, to submit it to school's literary magazine. They said it was really good. This is important to me, because I had been having trouble (for years) coming up with stories and such. And then I wrote a really good one in one day. I am happy. 

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