Marymoor birding expedition

My knee continues its slow healing journey and is now capable of short walks unaided. Since both my doctor and my PT said I needed to be sure and continue my exercises this month, I decided to reward myself with a bird walk. I went to Marymoor Park with the hopes of seeing some swallows, one of my favorite seasonal birds. Alas, that was not to be but I did get some great shots of other birds.

I stopped first at the rowing club pond where I was greeted by a Steller's Jay intent on posing for as many pictures as I wanted to take. Another favorite bird and one I needed a picture of for an art piece I'm doing about my son's joining the Air Force and leaving the nest. So I was pleased to get such great shots. Here's one of them.


Then I got to the pond where I was dismayed at the number of trees that have been cut down for the construction they are doing. I had hoped for wood ducks here but had to settle for this lovely couple. And I am once again reminded that I have to relearn my ducks every year. *sigh*


After taking some pictures of the turtles, I proceeded to the main area of the park, and the marshy part of the slough which is often an excellent spot to see swallows. Alas, no swallows, but I did get over a hundred shots of two different herons hunting in the marshy area. One caught something while I was watching but I only got shots before and after the strike, so nothing dramatic there.

It was about 3:30pm so the light was angled and I think the heron shots came out well.


I plan to reward myself for doing my 3x a day exercises by taking short local bird walks and carrying my camera along. So expect to see more pictures in the future on a regular basis.

Electric cars and their benefits

This should be interesting as my iPad won't bring up the composer that I normally use for blogging, so I'm typing in the HTML editor without any reference material for formatting commands. I apologize in advance for whatever visual Mess results.

here's a link from today's email that discusses exactly how much benefit an electric car will be and in which ways that can be increased. I must admit, I'm impressed by the numbers: 80% of gasoline burned in a car engine is waste heat, while 80% of electrical power goes to moving the vehicle. I still prefer the idea of a hybrid at least until the electrical cars can go further before charging but we're a one car family. (and I promise to go look up asap the commands for hotlinks. That or figure out how to get the composer working...)

http://www.mercurynews.com/cars/ci_17767977?source=rss&nclick_check=1