Wednesday, May 18, 2011 Kingston

5:10 am

The temperature is +11 C, with a high predicted of +19 C.

From the Environment Canada website:

Today Cloudy with 40 percent chance of showers this morning and early this afternoon. A few showers beginning this afternoon. Risk of a thunderstorm this afternoon. Wind becoming east 20 km/h this afternoon. High 19. UV index 5 or moderate. Tonight Showers. Risk of a thunderstorm this evening. Wind east 20 km/h becoming light this evening. Low 14. Normals Max: 19°C Min: 9°C

It is warming up but the overcst skies promise more showers.

11:00 am Literature

I made a visit to the Queen's University bookstore where I bought a bag that I will try using while geocaching/birding. I also bought 2 introductory books on research methods.

• Qualitative Research: Studying How Things Work. (2010) by Robert Stake.
• The Craft of Research. 3rd edition. (2008) by Wayne Booth, Gregory Colomb & Joseph Williams.

I was surprised to see that Stake was still writing and am looking forward to it. The other book simply looked interesting. I want to try creating some cognitive maps for both books.

4:00 PM Birding

We finally managed to fit in an hour (2:30 - 3:30) of birding between rain showers. We did a walk along the beginning of the Rideau Trail and saw a few birds. These included about 6 American Robins, 2 Black-capped Chickadees, 1 House Wren, 1 Field Sparrow, 1 Grackle, and 3 American Crows. We heard a number of others, many of which our friends identified by their song, but we were not able to see them. The Field Sparrow was a new lifer for us.