Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Ah, the different things are different argument.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

We still have time to mess this up!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

“woke” is the new caravan.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Cole is on a roll !

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Accountability, motherfuckers.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

Saturday Afternoon Open Thread

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Here’s an Eastern phoebe that landed on my dock:

And here’s a nearby spring that can only be reached by canoe or kayak:

The water temp at the spring is 71 F year round, according to a neighbor. I might work up the nerve to swim in it someday — if I have a gator lookout.

Open thread!

ETA: Sorry about the sideways photo earlier. The WP mobile app interface sucks for managing images.

Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    Cermet

    Gators! Wow – no way I’d do that. I don’t do well with gators. Had one far too close once while I was on land at the waters edge and it was laying parallel to the edge (it could care less about me – fortuitously for me.) You are one brave person to swim there! I saw your gator photo.

  2. 2.

    oldgold

    Sometimes I think that the point of birdwatching is not the actual seeing of the birds, but the cultivation of patience. Of course, each time we set out, there’s a certain amount of expectation we’ll see something, maybe even a species we’ve never seen before, and that it will fill us with light. But even if we don’t see anything remarkable – and sometimes that happens – we come home filled with light anyway.

    Lynn Thomson, Birding with Yeats: A Mother’s Memoir

  4. 4.

    cope

    Fresh water spring, abundant wildlife, limited access to secluded property, I get it now…you’re creating your prepper bunker.

  5. 5.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    Those springs are nice for a dip in the hot weather, can confirm. Maybe you scream for a second when you jump in, but then it feels nice.

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    Beautiful little bird. I love meeting Betty’s new associates. We are due for a chickens photo soon, though.

  11. 11.

    oldster

    Betty, there’s no way to get that thing gator-free.

    It’s a *spring*: the gators bubble up from underground.

    The entire peninsula is just a giant sponge of underwater conduits leading from lake to swamp to blue hole to sinkholes.

    It’s all connected. And the gators have the map.

    Nope; don’t do it! Just stand and look. Very pretty!

  12. 12.

    Damned at Random

    I was staring out the window waiting for my coffee to heat up and saw motion on the hillside. Spotted towhee – I still prefer rufous-sided towhee as ours don’t have many spots. He was doing his little towhee dance. Today is gray and gloomy, but that little guy made me happy

  13. 13.

    donnah

    I know it’s silly, but when I see a bird like red-tailed hawk or great blue heron while I’m out driving, I feel oddly grateful. It’s like getting a special gift.

  14. 14.

    Jharp

    Just curious.

    What good does a “gator lookout” do?

    Seems to me the gator would still easily drown you whether anyone was watching or not.

  15. 15.

    Damned at Random

    @Cermet: I imagine Betty jumping in the spring with a big knife in her teeth and a “Go ahead, fuck with me” attitude

  18. 18.

    Doug R

    Wouldn’t 71 degrees F be a little cold for gators to be active? Isn’t 71C hot enough to cook meat? Gator sous vide.

  19. 19.

    opiejeanne

    @Elizabelle: I don’t think I’ve seen a picture of Betty’s chickens, so yes, please.

    Good to see that pile-on didn’t chase you away. The pie filter is a wonderful thing, and to think I’d just taken it off of one of them but he’s back to dominating every damned thread with his “clever” comments and gloom. :-)

  21. 21.

    opiejeanne

    @Damned at Random: We had a towhee on our back deck this morning. I love them doing their chicken-scratch dances in the garden. This one was after the seed in the feeder on the French doors. The cat was very annoyed.

  22. 22.

    opiejeanne

    Betty, I love your wildlife photos. I love your doggie photos. I’d like to love your chicken photos.

  24. 24.

    Betty Cracker

    @cope: That wasn’t the intent, but it has crossed my mind that this is a good place to ride out an apocalypse. ?

  25. 25.

    Corner Stone

    @Jharp:

    What good does a “gator lookout” do?

    They tell the Fish & Wildlife Officials where the body is most likely stashed.

  26. 26.

    Elizabelle

    @opiejeanne: I noticed you sticking up for me, and I appreciated that tremendously. Thank you.

    And yes, re the rest of your comment. Frenetically, one could say.

  29. 29.

    Yarrow

    Love these photos at your new place, Betty. What a wonderful retreat to call home.

    @Elizabelle: I’m wondering how she’s keeping the chickens away from the gators. Seems like a chicken would be a nice snack for a gator.

  34. 34.

    Elizabelle

    @Yarrow: Guessing they have an enclosed space. I wonder if you could have chickens out briefly under supervision too, but would worry if they wandered too close to the water. Maybe they have a little aviary or CrackerChickenCompound.

    And where’s the tiki bar?

  35. 35.

    Yarrow

    @Elizabelle: It probably needs a roof otherwise the predator birds may swoop in and grab a chicken.

    Tiki bar may be in progress. Sounds like they’re doing a ton of work on the house.

  37. 37.

    Van Buren

    @Corner Stone: After watching Anderson Cooper swim with Crocs in Africa, I learned the trick: dive down to the bottom of the pond/river/whatever. Seemed perfectly safe….to watch from my couch.

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @cope:

    you’re creating your prepper bunker

    I was thinking she was soliciting bids for a hotel and spa. Or maybe a bottled-water plant. Terrible seeing a natural resource like that go to waste.

  42. 42.

    Ken

    The last line of my comment at 38 was meant to be sarcastic. Unfortunately this is one of those days where the edit button has gone walkabout. (Even when it shows up, it’s usually attached to someone else’s comments.)

  45. 45.

    Ken

    @Van Buren:

    I learned the trick: dive down to the bottom of the pond/river/whatever

    Is that to make it easier for the croc to drown you and stick the corpse under a submerged log?

  46. 46.

    Elizabelle

    @opiejeanne: I just cannot abide the doom and gloom and nothing will ever happen. In stereo in that thread. You have to be on the lookout for opportunities to turn a situation to your advantage, and be ready, and it’s so important to maintain some level of optimism. Kent put up an excellent comment very late in the thread on how you get legislation past the recalcitrant; it was very instructive.

    One problem with the pie filter is that it occludes all responses to the pied person, and you sometimes miss too many comments so it makes the threads seriously incomplete. In some cases. Mostly, I think the pie substitutions are hilarious.

    Many thanks to cleek and Alain, I would guess.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodingers_cat: Back atcha on that sentiment.

    Got to go out for a bit. In the meantime, here is the link to Bill Clinton’s op ed piece in the WaPost today: Bill Clinton: George H.W. Bush’s Oval Office note to me revealed the heart of who he was

    Here’s a good Mother Jones article. (no paywall!)

    World Leaders Mourn George H.W. Bush—and His Republican Party

    “It’s easy to sigh and say George H.W. Bush belonged to an era that is gone and never coming back.”

    I am hoping we can get some level of civility and cooperation and shared interest back. We must. The Republican party: not so much. It should just plain fail and be split into some other entities.

  48. 48.

    Dan B

    It’s a quiet day of remembering for the Mike’ster and me – World AIDS Day. We lost several dozen friends and boyfriends. Reagan and then Bush 1 did nothing or actively resisted helping, even entertained letting the christianists have a forum to promote quarantine and/or camps.

    The comments on the gay blogs about the passing of GHWB are full of reminders of Panama, Iran Contra, abandoning the Iraqi resistance, and more. No love lost. The height of the plague years was heightened by all of his other cruelties.

    Time to contemplate beautiful birds and calm springs and remember the lives of so many wonderful young guys.

  49. 49.

    germy

    Poor Kid Rock has been booted from the Nashville Christmas Parade (he was supposed to be Grand Marshal).

    The new Grand Marshal will be James Shaw Jr., the Waffle House hero.

    Meanwhile, the sound you hear is Joy Behar’s laughter.

  50. 50.

    tobie

    Beautiful bird and beautiful retreat, but please don’t tread in the water. I was just at Myakka Lake and couldn’t believe that people where happily kayaking and fishing on the lake. That place is loaded with gators!

  51. 51.

    JPL

    Within the last month I discovered two leaks in my roof. The roof is over seventeen years so it might be time to replace rather than repair, and I already have quotes after research on the best companies. I’d like to wait until after the holidays, but unfortunately it has been raining all f.king day. ugh

  52. 52.

    Corner Stone

    @Van Buren:

    After watching Anderson Cooper swim with Crocs in Africa, I learned the trick: dive down to the bottom of the pond/river/whatever.

    Similarly, I learned from the documentary series Lake Placid that crocs do not attack under water.

  53. 53.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    So we said goodbye to an old friend today, a 70-year-old oak that was the only remaining old tree in our yard, one of the last on our street. Neighbors on either side cut down their big old guys years ago.

    I didn’t mind his acorns, and his leaves were my main source of brown matter for the composted. I did kind of mind the big limbs that have been falling in high winds. Replacing the windshield twice on the same car in two years, plus our tree guys advice that death was inevitable, kind of decided us.

  55. 55.

    Corner Stone

    @trollhattan: “Sure thing, Game Warden. You see this pretty little thing was swimming *right over there* when outta nowares come this big toothed ass gator. It chomped down on her legs a bit, started rolling and then took her right under. I’m pretty sure you’ll find her remains just about there. Glad I could help.”

  57. 57.

    jl

    Thanks for pics. Glad that is some magic creatures and enchanted swamp action at the new place, not just vicious critters dismembering and eating each other.

  59. 59.

    Steeplejack

    @Yarrow:

    I’m wondering how she’s keeping the chickens away from the gators.

    Betty has said that the yard is fenced. I presume that includes the chicken area. But pictures would be nice, in any case.

  60. 60.

    JPL

    @trollhattan: After an overseas fundraising trip, Clinton insisted that H.W. Bush sleep in the only bed on the plane, and Clinton slept on the floor. The week after they returned Clinton had his heart attack, and Bush often spoke about that moment. I think he felt a tad guilty, but also aware that President Clinton was a caring man.

  61. 61.

    HeleninEire

    So my landlord says I have to move out on the 25th (Friday) because even though the lease is until Jan 27 (Sunday) they don’t work on weekends. I asked for a 2 day credit and they went “What?”

  62. 62.

    Patrick King

    @Corner Stone: I was told in Australia that this is not true.
    http://www.crocodile-attack.info/about/safety-information:
    “some people believe they are safe as long as the crocodile or alligator remains underwater, but this is absolutely not true. Crocodilians have a special valve at the back of their throat (a palatal valve) which stops water from entering the throat. This means that any crocodilian species can open its mouth and bite even when submerged, and the majority of crocodilian attacks occur this way.”

  65. 65.

    JPL

    @pluky: That is so true. When my sons were small, we visited with a cousin in MA who had a pool. Since we were lived in Dallas at the time, the temp of the pool was shocking to them. Anyway imagine a five year old agape when they all talked about how warm the water was. Later on he asked if something was wrong the MA cousins.

  66. 66.

    Br'er Gator

    The water temp at the spring is 71 F year round, according to a neighbor. I might work up the nerve to swim in it someday — if I have a gator lookout.

    Come on in. The water is fine.

  67. 67.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @JPL: The limbs it was dropping in storms were diseased. We’d had the tree guy trim it a couple times in the last few years but he said that you really couldn’t stop it and we had at most a couple more years. And meanwhile it would keep dropping these logs and breaking windshields or worse.

  69. 69.

    germy

    Always unsure whether to use 'Sincerely' or 'I beg to remain, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant' when closing an email to my cat.

    — Seasonal Mancino-Williams (@Manda_like_wine) December 1, 2018

  75. 75.

    poleaxedbyboatwork

    Betty:

    The water temp at the spring is 71 F year round, according to a neighbor. I might work up the nerve to swim in it someday — if I have a gator lookout.

    Betty, you prolly know ’bout alla impressive freshwater springs in Fla. already, but case anyone else is innerested, there’s a guy who I usedta buy pics from (coupla differnt lifetimes ago) who has a useful, purty resource book callt (rather prosaically) The Springs of Fla. by Doug Stamm.

    Will say that swimming is ’bout the only time a clumsy fuck like me feels graceful, and (as I otter!), I revel innit. And freshwater springs, to me, are some-like swimming inna delightful dream. Invigorating, refreshing, clear vis, vibrant with color and life. Mask, snorkel and fins enhance the experience immensely.

    Far’s gators goes: have swum and fisht around gators for many years. Concerns are valid, but … it’s purty hard to deny oneself a peak experience when the odds of disaster (while admittedly present) are so low. But to each they’s own; for many, better safe than sorry prevails.

    Usedtawas a rope-swing cinched onna gravity-defying parallel-to-ground live-oak limb on the Withlacootchee (might still be there, been awhile) that, with max pre-launch riverbankside elevation, would getta airborne cosmonaut ’bout 25 to 30 feet a altitude above the river upon release, with a magical frozen moment a Wile E. Coyote delirious suspension, then the inevitable glorious sploosh-drop into the drink. Gators langorously swimming past were a small but undeniable part a the backdrop. Our practice: gators in passage is allus got the right a way (same way humpback whales does for me now). We are visitors, they live there. Make way for ducklings, as the childrens’ book sez.

    Arguing on the what-if side, tho, will sez was tromping about on the Econoloxahatchee one sunny spring day n heard what sounded like a small but obnoxiously loud outboard groaning like it were futilely stuck in the mud n tryn’ta run free but couldn’t. Breasted the next white-sand bend in search a the mystery n perched on the opposite 6-foot-slopin’ bank overtoppen a windfall-jammed blackwater pool (we’re talkin max breadth a 10-15 yards across) is a 14-foot gator who were lookin’ to get busy n sure-as-shit weren’t expectin’ me. Now, from the instant that gator espied me situated as it was ’bout 3 foot up the bank till it disappeared (and I mean gone w/o a trace) was a nomore’n a flash. If you hadn’ta seen it and knowed it were there, you’da never known there was a very, very large gator hiding out like Trump atta G20 conference in that peaceful stretch a dark placid water.

    Incidental anecdote, just for lagniappe: Usedta jump into LakeMich on May 1st ever year growin up. Temps was usually in high-30s/low-40s in them times, and young me n friends dove offa what we callt the Open Space into water so cold it felt like it arrested yer heart for a minnit. But then got acclimated n was able to remain in water for a coupla minnits. Have found to my regret, as I creep into my dotage, that hadda say goodbye to alla that. Hadda dive on my boat this summer after limping back to dock to free some line wrangled in the prop n figgered oughtta check the zincs n bottom paint whilst there. Twere June n ocean temps were in mere 50s n found myself huffing n constricted n gasping for breath. During my brief interval in water, Blondie (one of a coupla sea lions who make Sitka harbor home) come gliding past like an underwater zeppelin n looked with idle curiosity at the queerness a me. Had the great good fortune (amidst my surprise and startled shock) of seeing sumpin from an underwater perspective that had heretofore only had the privilege a seein from topside: the luminous magnified-by-water fulsome eyes of a truly immense graceful exasperating (personally, cuz they steal your most valuable fish ever fucking time) magnificent creatures.

    And then, like Brave, Brave Sir Robin, I wasted no time in bravely scrambling outta the water. Kee-fucking-rist 6hunnerd-plus pounds a extraordinary is even more impressive from a underwater vantage.

    And last: Wanted to say thank you, Betty. Ever’one loves your epic rants, course, cuz they’s a unique blend a the wamth of humanity n imaginative invective n the righteous, incisive withering scorn of the justly affronted. But yer pics posts are a welcome soother. If I may be so bold, keep ’em coming. They are a tonic.

  76. 76.

    Emma

    @Steeplejack: I think what amuses me, in a vicious sort of way, is that Trump will never be part of that small fraternity of men that bond over knowing what it is like to make decisions every day that could make or break the world. Neither his personality nor his actions will allow it. (huh? I think this linked to the wrong comment!)

  77. 77.

    JPL

    @Emma: Nothing amuses me when I think about the man with little hands. Now that could change if he is charged with crimes that keep him in jail for the rest of his life.

  78. 78.

    JanieM

    @JPL: I live in Maine, across the road from a small lake. Some years, brave (or crazy?) teenagers go into the water at the edge before the ice is even out of the rest of the lake. On the other hand, I have friends in Arizona who shut down their outdoor pool in the fall when the water temp gets consistently below 80 degrees F. I just roll my eyes….it takes all kinds.

  79. 79.

    hueyplong

    I remain more hopeful of a stroke than an indictment or a Senate conviction after impeachment.

    Chances of that stroke are getting better.

  80. 80.

    dww44

    @opiejeanne: We have resident towhees who talk to each other and have even started having conversations with hubby as he can mimic them quite well. Love towhees. About my favorite year round resident bird.

  81. 81.

    Mandalay

    @JPL:

    Nothing amuses me when I think about the man with little hands.

    Well this might amuse you (or make you cringe)….

    Over the past couple of years several posters here have insisted that Trump is simply not right in the head, and I am finally starting to think that they are right: he gets lost and confused in public far too often. Early Alzheimer’s?

  82. 82.

    Van Buren

    @Ken: apparently if you are not on the surface, they don’t think of you so good. Don’t know if gators got the memo. Will let others research.

  84. 84.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mandalay:

    His history seems to indicate that he probably has a fairly severe case of untreated ADHD, which frequently gets worse with age, especially with people who are in denial about it.

    That doesn’t mean that there’s not something new going on with him, but his combination of ADHD and Narcissistic Personality Disorder would make getting a proper diagnosis tough because the ADHD symptoms include problems with working memory/executive brain functions and the narcissism means that he’s accustomed to lying about any weaknesses and/or blaming them on other people.

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Well my totally non medical opinion, which of course is worth exactly what you paid for it, is still that he has alzheimers. I have personal experience with people with just dementia and with alzheimers. More with alzheimers actually. There is a range of responses to either, with alzheimers seemingly being the one with more anger involved. And families do often attempt to hide/cover up/obfuscate the bad or the unthinkable.

  88. 88.

    Mary Ellen Sandahl

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:
    If 70 years wasn’t’ a typo, and if large limbs were falling from your tree, it was way ‘llder than 70. Oaks are built to grow for centuries. A 70-yr-old is an adolescent. So sorry you lost it.

  89. 89.

    Carol

    Can’t help but think of gators and pythons when viewing your habitat, BC. In addition to birds, of course. Are your pups safe there?

  90. 90.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    Like I said, having ADHD and NPD doesn’t mean that he doesn’t also have Alzheimer’s or another dementia issue. There is some recent research that seemed to show that people with ADHD are at higher risk of being diagnosed with dementia later in life, but no one knows what the association really is.

    The fact that his father died of Alzheimer’s makes it much more likely that Trump will end up with it, too, since there is a genetic component to it. But trying to diagnose a compulsive liar with an actual cognitive disease is not an easy task.

  91. 91.

    Gin & Tonic

    @JanieM: Here in RI, by the end of the summer the ocean temperature may (may!) get up to 68 or 69. Seems fine to me, and everybody else who’s swimming.

  92. 92.

    Bill Arnold

    Dead thread. The NPD confuses matters a lot.
    Recent Trump interview comment:

    “They’re making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”

    His brain is old and he’s not taking care of it. And the reliance on intuition has costs including accuracy, especially when his routines get disrupted by e.g. travel. Also he feeds his mind garbage (Fox etc). But yeah, something is obviously wrong; comparisons of video over the last couple of decades makes it starkly obvious. (Not drinking is probably helpful for his brain health.)
    In this case, could be just that his puppet strings got tangled or cut. :-)

    An aside: summer 2016 (I had thought 2014 but apparently not), there was a rumor (made up, forged 2014 medical document, as far as I can tell) circulating in the right wing meme swamps that Hillary Clinton was suffering from “sub-cortical vascular dementia” and had only a year or two to live. Perhaps it was projection by a proxy.

  94. 94.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:

    The fact that his father died of Alzheimer’s makes it much more likely that Trump will end up with it, too, since there is a genetic component to it.

    Always fun to know that something you watched someone live with for 20 yrs could be your future. It ain’t fun. So far I’m good to go.

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