Waiting To See What The Maker Has In Mind

Down in the mines of BB&B, my laborers have been working night and day to bring you another free-standing page on The Human Birdwatcher Project, with links to all relevant posts.

If you are not familiar with HBP, it is on the jagged, rusty, artery-slicing cutting-edge of birder research. We are practically alone in this field. Bizarrely, it should interest both the non-birder and birder alike, kind of like Winged Migration or March Of The Penguins, but much better. With some of the implications that we are coming up with...things will never be the same.

Some of the posts are recent, some are from the depths of the murky past.....please go educate yourself on.....er....yourself. It will be updated on a regular basis.

The days are rapidly counting down until I'm off to Eastern Mexico for a bit. Frankly, the wall of new birds I will encounter scares me. It is more like a wailing wall. When that female sabrewing goes whizzing by and Im unable to identify it, I will have no recourse but to break down in tears. Sad, I know, but birds south of the border have always seemed distant and unattainable to me, and I don't know what they might do to me. I'm much more acclimated to things like Northern Pintails (above), which work well within the Economy Of Style.

Hooded Merganser, known simply as HOME in some circles. San Francisco, CA.

But, birds like motmots, euphonias and grosbeaks have nothing to do with that economy. They are decadent in their blues, greens, yellows, reds, and the infinite number of indescribable shades that lie between. True eye-candy for the birder. Particularly exciting is the possibility of seeing a suite of new hawks, eagles and falcons...aside from the holy Gyrfalcon, I'm about tapped out for those in the United states. But what am I talking about? If I can avoid food poisoning, robbery or running into any of those cartel folk ya'll hear so much about, its all going to one big facemelt.

A drake Gadwall reminds us what one can do within the boundaries of The Economy Of Style. Martinez, CA.

Ring-necked Duck. When are they going to change the name to Ring-billed Duck? Sheesh. San Francisco, CA.

Right....better stop talking about myself....don't want to come off too narcissistic. Theme of the day? Ducks. That's one thing the bay area has a lot of this time of year. So for all you snowbound, landlocked birders who are trying to get by on Mallards, here's some extra color. Happy Friday to all you working folk, and to my unemployed brothers and sisters, her's to another day of The Good Life.

Green-winged Teal. Frakking adorable. Redwood Shores, CA.