Wednesday, May 9
5:30 am
It is +8 °C, with a high forecast of +24 °C.
From the Environment Canada website:
Today Sunny. Becoming a mix of sun and cloud this morning. Wind west 20 km/h increasing to 50 gusting to 70 near noon. High 24. UV index 7 or high.
Tonight A few clouds. Increasing cloudiness after midnight then rain showers and flurries. Wind west 50 km/h gusting to 70 diminishing to 20 near midnight then becoming light overnight. Low plus 2.
5:50 am Life
At the moment I don't feel much like musing, but I do want to set out a few activities for the day.
- Geocaching: I have a Travel Bug that I brought back from Australia. I will place it today and at the same time get credit for a find on May 9.
- Birding: I want to go over to Henderson Lake and try using the new 400mm telephoto lens.
- Fitness: today is the day for a coulee walk
Reviewing this list, I notice that all three are outdoor activities.
I have identified my next book for reading - "All My Enemies" by Barry Maitland. It is a murder mystery that I learned about while in Australia. This will be a change from "The Song of Achilles" where I knew how it ended before I began.
10:00 am Geocaching
I made a quick trip over to a nearby cache on the west side of Lethbridge in order to exchange Travel Bugs (and finally moving a TB that I brought back from Australia). I also filled in another square for this date on a grid for all the days of the year.
- GC3J94R - Stonecrest Treasure Chest
This brings my 2012 totals to 46, and the number of unique days with at least one cache to 264. The next date that needs a find is May 13.
11:30 am Birding
I went over to Henderson Lake to see if there were any birds and to try out my new telephoto lens. The birding was both interesting and disappointing. The disappointment was that there were almost no waterfowl on the lake. The interest was that there was a group of about 100 Franklin's Gulls at the east end of the lake.
The camera worked well, but some of the photos were not as sharp as I was hoping. Actually the photos are quite good, but when I digitally zoom them on the computer I can see the fuzziness. I am really going to have to work at keeping the lens as steady as possible.
I then accessed the eBird web site and entered my report: 100 Franklin's Gulls, 10 Ring-billed Gulls, 6 Mallards, and 1 American Crow. I checked my ranking for Alberta and learned that I am ranked #103 with only 10 species and 8 lists to my credit (all done in January). I added 3 species today - the two gulls and the crow. I want to get back into this routine.
Franklin's Gull
3:30 PM Technology
Problems! I downloaded the latest version of Sandvox earlier this afternoon. That seemed to work okay. But later when I tried publishing this website it failed. At the moment I have no idea why. This has never happened before.
8:30 PM Literature
I am making good progress with "All My Enemies" by Barry Maitland. There is a body and a prime suspect. But we need more information.
