ithilwen | Reading

Our final Least Tern Watch shift was much less exciting than last week's, many fewer Terns although still several hundred including chicks of all sizes. Happily the only flyovers were Turkey Vultures and Osprey, neither a danger to the colony. So at the end of our three hours we said good-bye and good luck to the Least Terns and went looking for Elegant Terns out at Antenna Pier. We could see them, but not well enough for U's County list, but before we continued on to Elsie Roemer I took a picture for

wellinghall. ( USS Hornet and an Alameda-San Francisco ferry )

At Elsie Roemer we found Elegant Terns and a number of other species, more than I expected in July, including a few Least Terns.:) ( A short list: )

The Black-bellied Plovers were in beautiul breeding plumage. Last stop of Arrowhead Marsh in hopes of the Cackling Goose that had been reported. No luck, but again there were more birds than I feared there would be. ( Another short list: )

Most surprising were the two aechmophorous Grebes floating out in San Leandro Bay. Most fun was hearing the racket from the Barn Swallow nests under the boardwalk.

james_davis_nicoll

What do cheetahs and genetic bottlenecks have to do with interstellar colonization? Glad you asked...

The Fermi Paradox, Percolation, and Inbreeding

james_davis_nicoll

A con artist is teamed up with the ex they abandoned for a heist they cannot turn down... although perhaps they should.

The Feywild Job by C. L. Polk

satismagic

My father is in hospital since Tuesday, and I'm beyond exhausted.

Today is my first day staying home since Tuesday and being able to get some work done.

Thankfully he's not in critical condition or anything. He's suffering from pretty bad stasis dermatitis (skin suffering due to extremely swollen feet). On Tuesday I accompanied him to a dermatologist appointment at the university hospital, and his dermatologist suggested to keep him at the hospital that very day. He said that the condition of my Dad's feet was too bad to clear up with home nursing care and that a hospital stay would hopefully improve his condition to the point that a nursing service could successfully take over.

I'm a bad daughter and backed up the doctor instead of my father, so now my Dad is in hospital, and they are trying to reduce the swelling and to figure out where it's coming from. It turns out he has a heart valve stenosis, but they think that is not the cause of his issues. Rather, they suspect cardiac arrythmias as the culprit. Which they should be able to stabilise with meds. Hopefully.

There's so much to do. I've arranged for a nursing service. I'm in the process of getting an extra spare key. I have booked an appointment for getting my Dad a device for home emergency calls. I've got him an appointment for a reading device that might enable him to read again even with only 10% and 15% vision remaining. I'm getting internet installed for him so he can use Alexas as alarm clocks and radios. I'm working on getting him a new toilet and other accomodations for old people installed in the bathroom. Every time I can strike something off the to-do-list, I add threw new items.

And because that's not enough to deal with, my mother-in-law is getting a new heart valve installed via open heart surgery in two weeks.

That's the week I'm away on vacation, and my husband needs to look after my father for me.

Sometimes I feel as if I'm watching myself from far away. As if I'm gazing down on a LEGO figure. It's surreal.

Garden neighbour J.'s mother's health is deteriorating, too. After another fall she's now unable to walk and needs to move to a care home. To organise that in a hurry is a bloody mess. Poor J and sisters... Oh, and the seventeen years old daughter of a good friend was diagnosed with two Hodgkins Lymphoma with bone marrow involvement. Just no, 2026. No.

Current Mood: exhausted

ysabetwordsmith posting in

science

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Current Mood: busy

yourlibrarian posting in

common_nature

Another sunset which caught our attention, not just because of the developing color, but because of the speed at which the small clouds were moving. The 2 strands of clouds over to the right hardly seemed to move at all. But we could see the small puffs speeding by.

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james_davis_nicoll

Ragle Gumm lives in an unremarkable backwater. He is about to learn for himself the truth of Lovecraft's adage "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents."

Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick

mrkinch

The forecast was for CLEAR, and not hot immediately, so I went up quite early, but it was really only worth it for the weather. This morning I heard Canada Geese for the first time in a while, and four Wild Turkey hens followed me down the trail. A Caspian Tern flying West was fun although not a surprise, but hearing a Belted Kingfisher was! ( The list: )

At the North end of the Trail I heard and saw the usual pair of California Scrub-jays, but I also heard the unmistakable sounds of juveniles being fed.:)

james_davis_nicoll

Beat the heat with this all-new Thrones & Bones Bundle featuring Norrøngard, the tabletop fantasy roleplaying campaign setting from novelist and designer Lou Anders at Lazy Wolf Studios.

Bundle of Holding: Thrones & Bones

james_davis_nicoll

Be it a supernatural curse or ennui-driven insomnia, messing with someone's ability to sleep can have dire consequences...

Five SFF Works Based Around Sleep or Sleeplessness

james_davis_nicoll

A young woman and her possessed, hatchet-wielding teddy bear pursue great justice.

Teddy Bears Never Die By Cho Yeeun (Translated by Sung Ryu)

mrkinch

The Swainson's Thrushes are still here, still singing, and I heard a few Warbling Vireos and a Wilson's Warbler, but it's definitely That Time of Year, when we look forward to the return of the shorebirds and Fall migration. There were still two Mallards on the Lake and happily only a couple of bullfrogs. Perhaps the Great Blue Heron came by again. When we compared lists neither of us had heard a Blackheaded Grosbeak, but just then we heard pic calls from across the Lake.:) ( The list: )

We always look into the creek by the parking lot, apparently good, riparian habitat but there's rarely anyone there. Today, however, we saw a pair of California Quail and then noticed many tiny chicks in the grass!

james_davis_nicoll

16-year-old Nancy Drew resolves to find a missing will in a bid to deny the distastefully nouveau riche Tophams the elevated status to which they aspire.

The Secret Of The Old Clock (Nancy Drew, volume 1) by Mildred Wirt Benson

james_davis_nicoll

First of two Orbital Blues offers, this is a repeat of the June 2024 Orbital Blues Bundle featuring Orbital Blues, the lo-fi space Western tabletop roleplaying game from SoulMuppet Publishing (Best Left Buried).

Bundle of Holding: Orbital Blues (from 2024)

The second of two Orbital Blues offers, this all-new bundle focuses on recent supplements: mini-scenarios, a solo adventure, and the game's first major sourcebook.

Bundle of Holding: Orbital Blues Afterburn

mrkinch

I try to go up to Inspiration Trail on Wednesdays and Sundays, but it had been two weeks. There was that Wednesday when the fog and wind were too much for me and I went home, and the next Sunday I jammed my hand so badly that it swelled up, turning interesting colors, and I didn't drive for a week. Today my hand doesn't look normal but driving was fine and it was a great relief to be up there. I didn't go at dawn, there's little point these days, and although there was high overcast there was very little wind; I even left my jacket behind. It was even quieter than two weeks ago and I heard no warblers at all, but the first bird I saw was a Great Blue Heron standing in the trail. ( The list: )

So no breeding migrant passeriformes, just three migrant flycatchers, and most of the locals.

james_davis_nicoll

I am watching a YT video of people rolling up Warhammer the Old World characters and one of the players just held his phone up to his face. People read ttrpg manuals on their phones? People read double-columned ttrpg manuals on their phones?

james_davis_nicoll

What glorious destiny awaits the man whose luck, if not always good, is always extreme?

The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

mrkinch

This was the third of our four Least Tern Watch shifts. We last went two weeks ago, which I somehow did not post about. There was a great deal less activity then than there was the first week, and even less today. SE, who runs the site, told us that some terns had already left to fly south til next season; they will all be gone by about mid-August, although it's not known exactly where they go, off the coast of Central or South America, presumably. Adult birds were standing around with fish in their beaks and chicks of all sizes were still being fed, but the density of events was much lower. We did have some predator excitement, first a Red-tailed Hawk flew by, over the shoreline rather than over the colony. I'm sure they'd take a tern but they'd rather have a ground squirrel. But toward the end of our shift a Peregrine Falcon materialized right over the colony, seemingly out of nowhere. U got on the radio and alerted SE and the Wildlife Services person sitting in a pickup on the other side of the colony, who went after the bird and fired two noise grenades (dunno the real name), which scared them off. We didn't see them take anyone, which is good. Also good is that U got a Peregrine Falcon for her Alameda County year list.:) ( To that end I submitted a list: )

We saw these while inside the restricted area. When we were leaving we drove out to Antenna Pier, as the map calls it, across from the Hornet. The Great Blue Herons have departed their poor, dead nest trees but there were lots of Caspian Terns in their breeding colony and a few Barn Swallows zipping around. We'd wondered at there being no Canada Geese on the old runways around the Least Tern field office, but we found them in the much more pleasant habitat of some nearby playing fields.:) One more shift next week.

ysabetwordsmith posting in

gardening

Recently I attended a permaculture club meeting at Douglas-Hart Nature Center.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: busy

yourlibrarian posting in

common_nature

We spotted a second set of ducklings on the lake! This was somewhat distressing at first because the babies were following mama to the retaining wall, which she flew up onto and they were stuck below.

( Read more... )

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Ithilwen

October 2024

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Page Summary

mrkinch - 7/16/2026 Least Tern Watch / Elsie Roemer / Arrowhead Marsh
james_davis_nicoll - The Fermi Paradox, Percolation, and Inbreeding
james_davis_nicoll - The Feywild Job by C. L. Polk
satismagic - Beyond exhausted.
ysabetwordsmith in science - Wildlife
yourlibrarian in common_nature - Fast Moving Clouds and Lake Rise
james_davis_nicoll - Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick
mrkinch - 7/15/2026 Inspiration Trail
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Thrones & Bones
james_davis_nicoll - Five SFF Works Based Around Sleep or Sleeplessness
james_davis_nicoll - Teddy Bears Never Die By Cho Yeeun (Translated by Sung Ryu)
mrkinch - 7/13/2026 Lower Packrat Trail
james_davis_nicoll - The Secret Of The Old Clock (Nancy Drew, volume 1) by Mildred Wirt Benson
james_davis_nicoll - Bundle of Holding: Orbital Blues (from 2024) & Orbital Blues Afterburn
mrkinch - 7/12/2026 Inspiration Trail
james_davis_nicoll - Egad
james_davis_nicoll - The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
mrkinch - 7/9/2026 Least Tern Watch
ysabetwordsmith in gardening - Permaculture
yourlibrarian in common_nature - 2026 2nd Set of Ducklings

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