Here’s a Tri-Colored Heron looking for a snack:
Easy to ID thanks to their bright white underpants!
Unexpectedly nice weather today. I don’t think it even hit 90 degrees where I am. Perfect opportunity to watch the wading birds.
Open thread!
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SiubhanDuinne
HAHAHA thread title!
Lovely birb. Lovely photo c
dww44
Nice here too but we’re heating up to what appears to be a week of brutal heat for the next 7 days or so. Low humidity though.
Raven
Good tilt in Dublin.
Raven
@dww44: So you live in Macon?
KatKapCC
No way to talk about Central Coast weather without sounding like I’m boasting, so…never mind :p
That bird looks like someone stretched its neck like a taffy pull!
frosty
Nice pic BC! And yes, that’s what those guys do, just stand there and wait for some unlucky fish to become dinner.
We’re a week away from home, returning from a 3-month trip to the Canadian Rockies and the Pacific Northwest where I saw 20 new lifers. I’m checking eBird to see what’s going on at home … and it’s the same old birbs in MD and PA, nothing really exciting. Pout.
West of the Rockies
I’ve been thinking about the political trajectory of our nation. If you say modern American politics started in 1980 (with the first Republican celebrity politician–Reagan), you’ve got a shrinking white majority. You also have two historically terrible Republican president’s (GWB & Trump) and three historically well-regarded Democratic presidents (BC, BHO, JRB).
Republicans are resorting to shitty tactics to try to win (gerrymandering, election fraud, denying voting rights, stacking SCOTUS). These are unpopular tactics. They work for a time but not forever.
I am so happy to be on Team Blue.
Nukular Biskits
Taking a lunch break.
It’s been nice here all week: 70s in the early morning, low 90s and dry in the afternoons.
azlib
Only 104 today in Scottsdale, but it got down to the upper 70s last night. A virtual cool wave here in AZ!
frosty
@Nukular Biskits: That sounds great for the Gulf Coast!
Many years ago I was driving east on I-10 in a Triumph with no A/C aiming for Florida. After Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi I gave up and hung a left at Mobile heading for the mountains. Florida had to wait.
Nukular Biskits
@frosty:
LOL!
IMHO, this last week or so has been downright SoCalish. I know it won’t last but I don’t ever remember a “faux fall” like this … and it’s not even September. This is supposed to be the dog days of summer.
Leto
@Nukular Biskits: knowing where you are, dry is probably only 70% humidity 😜
Leto
@frosty: we used to make the drive from MS to SC once or twice a year to visit my parents. It was a 12 car ride, and like at least 8 was just the FL panhandle. It was similar when my base soccer team would make the trip from Biloxi to San Antonio to play at the tournament at Lackland, and as soon as we hit the TX border we knew we had like an 8 hour drive. Ugh!
japa21
Perhaps unnoted, but Chicago not only hosted a great convention but also provided very unAugust like weather. Highs were in the 70’s and low 80’s, no rain and relatively low dew point. This upcoming Tuesday it will be 98 with a dew point in the mid-70’s. Ugh.
MagdaInBlack
@japa21: It really was Chicago weather at its best, wasn’t it? Just lovely.
p.a.
Presidents’ favorite movies. Warning: TFG included.
I don’t know if the host was joking about Wilson, but, yeah, makes sense.
https://youtu.be/4ISLgZ8CnGs?si=Z3aohfyb27xhYLTN
Doc Sardonic
@Leto: Sometimes people don’t realize just how big Florida is. I recall a number of years ago relatives coming in to go to Disney/Universal and one of the ideas was a day trip to Key West. They were shocked when I told them to plug the trip into the mapping program and it came back with 7 hours.That was assuming no traffic on 95 through West Palm/Miami
opiejeanne
Just outside Seattle I have the heat running, because it’s 56 right now and the house was cold. It’s been raining since yesterday. The cat is not amused.
Next Friday the sun will return and it will be in the 80s again, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde weather.
Sister Golden Bear
Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula are doing their best October weather—by which I mean gray and wet. <sigh>
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
@MagdaInBlack:
the good weather proved they are on a mission from God
opiejeanne
@Doc Sardonic: Wow! I didn’t realize it was that far to the Keys.
MagdaInBlack
@David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch: 😊😊
MazeDancer
Love that Betty mentions sub 90 as nice weather. Nukular Biscuits is happy for low 90s in MS.
Sounds like misery to this Upstate NYer.
We have been having early fallish weather, too. 70s by day, 50s by night, most of August. Not complaining. Quite grateful.
frosty
@Leto: I think that was the trip where I crossed Texas from El Paso to Lafayette LA. It took me three days.
opiejeanne
@MazeDancer: We used to live in a place where 90 was considered nice in the summer. Now we live in the PNW, and we’re not going back.
citizen dave
@p.a.: Maybe I’ll watch this later, but I have to wonder if TFG has ever watched any movie, or consumed any art, book, music, etc. Was thinking about how there are thousands of snippets of Kamala being a genuine, authentic regular person, and almost zero (or actually zero?) of TFG.
Related, I remember when I read that Ohio governor and his wife had to turn off the movie Fargo because they couldn’t handle it. That’s when I knew he was a dick and wrote him off. I think he said it in an interview.
cope
There isn’t a lot about Florida I miss since heading west but the birds are near the top of that short list.
Thanks.
KatKapCC
@Doc Sardonic: Same as in CA, even more so. It’s about 900 miles from the Oregon border to the Mexican border. Add in the fact that, if you’re heading south and you’re not driving overnight, once you hit the Bay Area you’re going to be dealing with massive traffic on and off through the rest of the trip if you don’t head out to I-5.
karen marie
@opiejeanne: It has long been my theory that people in the PNW complain about the weather to discourage people moving there. I lived in Tacoma for three years and loved it. Leaving is one of my life’s regrets.
KatKapCC
@citizen dave: I mean…Silence of the Lambs, apparently.
Doc Sardonic
@opiejeanne: If you drive non stop from the state line just above Jacksonville to Key West it is about 8-8.5 hours assuming you get through Broward/Dade county without 95 being a used car lot.
RaflW
Was at a friend’s family cabin Mo-Thu this week, up pretty far in NE Wisconsin, where Minocqua Brewing (the very liberal brewer of things like Tammy Shandy for Tammy Baldwin, and ‘La stout) was founded. Lows a couple mornings were around 42-45 degrees. I love it, though it does signal the approaching turn. We did get a bit of swimming in. It was perfection for cocktail hour pontoon cruises — 72-75 degrees, mild warm sun, no humidity.
Fwd a couple days, and we’re back in Minneapolis and the NWS has issued an excessive heat warning for a heat index of 102 tomorrow. Classic MN State Fair weather! Classic, but no thank you. The smell of corn dog fryers when it’s that goopy is just gross.
WaterGirl
Betty, are you sure that’s not a Tri-Colored Pencil-Neck Heron?
lowtechcyclist
We returned to southern Maryland from central Florida on Tuesday, and it’s been September weather ever since we got back. No complaints! I think today it finally hit 80° this afternoon, but only just barely. It’s comfortable out here on the deck, breezy and with mixed sun and shade.
And I’ve spent a lot of time in central Florida in the past 35 years since that’s where my wife grew up and she’s still got family there. But haven’t yet made it to Key West because it’s just not a day trip. Plenty of other stuff to see locally, from WDW (of course) to the Dali Museum. I highly recommend the latter to anyone who finds themselves within a couple hours’ drive of St. Petersburg.
Fleeting Expletive
Years ago, my dad had a travelin’ job: in one cafe on some 2-lane TX highway, he got a postcard with a cartoon that said “The sun is riz,
The sun is set,
And here I is,
In Texas yet.”
I was a little kid so I thought it was the funniest thing I’d ever seen, but as Joe says, not a joke.
coin operated
@opiejeanne:
@karen marie:
July, August, and September are the best for PNW weather. The other nine months…not a fan.
After a decade in Vegas and a change to a fully remote job, mrs coin and I get to escape the heat and camp out on the Oregon coast for those three fantastic months.
lollipopguild
@Raven: The Ramblin wreck might have wrecked Fla st’s season.
RaflW
@lowtechcyclist: BF’s family organized Thanksgiving at Marathon Key last year. We ended up liking it a lot! Less driving from the mainland, way less crowded, and easy to day-trip to Key West for a look for most of the family (BF and I stayed in Key West two nights as it was a sort of bucket list item for greying gays. Meh. We missed the heyday by a looong time.)
Marathon even has a sand beach or two, something I think is required for any saltwater vacay, and mostly missing on Key West
All that said, we have very mixed feelings about spending money in DeSantis land. If FL can become more of a swing state*, we’ll be back!
*Not a gay Key West heyday joke.
TBone
Mom and I used to battle over the length of my hemline when I was 4 y.o. because underpants! She was a 60s short skirt aficionado, and I was in absolute dread of any possible wardrobe malfunction! Pants were just somehow overlooked until I graduated to second or third grade, I wore dresses. I gave her a really hard time 😂
prostratedragon
@citizen dave: Think he has said Citizen Kane is his favorite. Makes one wonder how much of it he actually processed and underdyood.
Leto
@Doc Sardonic: yeah, I didn’t realize how big the panhandle was but quickly found out. I also chose that northern route just break up the monotony.
@frosty: absolutely believe it. I’d like to do a road trip from here out west, but I also think about all that time trapped behind the wheel and just go…. Meeehhh
BR
I’ve been thinking about it — Kenan Thompson might have been one of the most effective communicators at the DNC, because he had such a simple and funny way of explaining Project 2025. We’re lucky to have such talent supporting Harris.
JPL
@Raven: DIL is happy!
Villago Delenda Est
Here’s a Tri-Colored Heron looking for a snack
Here, froggy froggy!
Salty Sam
I vividly remember that postcard. I used to see it here all the time when I was a kid.
Harrison Wesley
Tri-colored? Y’mean, like rainbow flag? Like woke? I have a bad feeling the White Boot Brown Shirts may be paying a visit to Chez Cracker.
p.a
@prostratedragon: The youtube host noted that and had good comments on it.
Geminid
I would like to see a picture of a Tri-Colored Heron wearing a tricorn hat.
CaseyL
Echoing @Sister Golden Bear and @opiejeanne, Seattle is overcast and downright chilly. I’m wearing snuggly PJS! And have the heat turned on!
From the sounds of things, some Canada geese have decided to head south early.
But me? I’m very happy with this weather, though it does worry me some because our summers in the PNW are becoming more extreme in the temperature swings than they used to be.
In 2021, we had a heat wave that sent temps in Seattle over 110 degrees in late June, which killed people, plants, and many birds. This year we’re getting an early autumn (temporarily, at least).
satby
@japa21: @MagdaInBlack: yep, beautiful perfect weather. Now 88° ans humid here an hour east, and 90s and humid until Wednesday. Ick, ick, ick.
satby
@MazeDancer: @opiejeanne: agree. I’m considering being a sunbird and renting a place north of the Arctic circle summers from now on.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: I console myself with the fact that it is the wind-down, not the start. And try not to think of winter. 😉🌻
HumboldtBlue
@KatKapCC:
In the first few years after I moved up here I would drive to LA, 12 hours, 660 miles.
Scout211
I agree.
What I don’t agree with are several opinion pieces I read after the convention warning the Dems that using celebrities “could backfire” against the Dems. I thought that was ridiculous. The celebrities were great at the DNC. I particularly liked Kerry Washington. Most of the celebs had simple messages, communicated extremely well.
I guess those opinion writers think all voters read their opinion pieces and ignore all celebrity endorsements. LOL.
I wonder how they explain Trump’s first election win.
MagdaInBlack
@Scout211: I have an opinion on what most of those “opinion” writers can do with their opinions. I bet you agree with me =-)
satby
@MagdaInBlack: I like the colder weather. The only thing I don’t like is driving on ice, but in the city with mass transit, salt trucks and plows it’s not that big of a problem. I realize this makes me a bit odd.
Baud
@Scout211:
Republicana are always sneering at liberal Hollywood so the media adopts their world view that celebrities are a bad look for Dems. I don’t think it’s anything more than that.
MagdaInBlack
@satby: I like the colder weather too. It is entirely the commuting that I despise. I’ve one more winter of that tho, so I’ll survive.
Chet Murthy
@opiejeanne: Haha, I know how you feel! I’m in SF, and some nights it gets down to the low 50s, and my house (1BR apt) seems to be built with holes in the walls so big the wind just blows right thru! I’ve huddled under the sheets/blankets more this summer than any other (and I’ve lived in this same apt for 17yr). -So- wanna turn on the heat, -so- wanna. But I’m resisting … resisting …..
Maxim
@MazeDancer: That’s perfect weather.
Here in the desert, after weeks of brutal heat, the high today is expected to be 82. I have the front and back doors open and am enjoying this blissful day before it heats up again.
CaseyL
@Scout211:
Wingnuts boast about their “star power” – has-beens and never-weres – and then get all bent out of shape when the best, most talented, and most popular entertainers do PSAs and appearances for Democrats. Suddenly they’re all “stay in your lane!”
And of course the MSM dutifully echoes the GOP, just like they do with everything else.
rebelsdad (aka texasboyshaun)
So I’m in Florida now. I like the weather this week better than I expected. It’s good getting reacquainted with family. My dad does nothing but watch NCIS all day. He’s given up the computer, gaming, everything else that he enjoyed just a year ago. It’s really disheartening to see him decline.
delphinium
Lovely looking bird Betty!
@MazeDancer: Yes, I have been enjoying our cooler NY temps too. Usually this time of year is miserably hot and humid.
Anoniminous
Be prepared for weather to get ever-wonkier as time goes by. Arctic is now releasing Nitrous Oxide which has 300 times the global warming affect of carbon dioxide and is broken down over 100 years.
Matt McIrvin
@West of the Rockies: Their rhetoric is getting increasingly eliminationist though, and maybe at some point they realize they actually can hang onto power by simply exterminating whole groups of people. So they start doing that.
That’s what I’m afraid of, more than anything else.
Matt McIrvin
@prostratedragon: Citizen Kane? That movie about the awesome life of the rich guy that everybody loved and thought was great, only at one point he lost an election because of fraud at the polls?
lowtechcyclist
I like all the seasons (it’s been years since we’ve had a decent winter here, and that’s kind of a bummer AFAIAC), but summer is my favorite season. Here in the greater DC area (grew up on the VA side and lived there until I was 28; lived in southern MD since I was 44) I’d much rather be outside than inside on most summer days. It can get hot enough sometimes to chase me indoors, but four days out of five I’d rather be either doing something active outdoors, or sitting on my deck like I am now.
I’ve got my own personal definition of summer, btw. I wear cutoffs and t-shirts in the summer, jeans and flannel shirts in the cold months, and usually jeans and t-shirts in between. Summer is the part of the year when I get up and pull on cutoffs without even thinking about it. Around here, that usually starts sometime in early June, and generally comes to an abrupt halt a few days after Labor Day.
Anthony
My daughter got me into identifying birds with the Merlin app, and this week in Germany we’ve added 26 to our life lists, including some Asian birds like the bar-headed goose.
satby
@Baud: it’s pure jealousy. The Republicans have Kevin Sorbo, Kid Rick, and Roseanne Barr as “their” celebrities. So of course it’s “bad” for Democrats to corner the market on celebrities that people like. Unfair.
satby
@Anoniminous: but at least we’ll all be laughing while we alternate between roasting and freezing.
Geminid
@Chet Murthy: A suggestion: wear sweatpants underneath your regular pants. I am a wimp when it comes to cold and I wear two layers of pants just about every day between October and April.
frosty
@Leto: Do it! We’re wrapping up our fourth cross-country trip in five (post-retirement) years. Three months this time. 5, 4, and 4 for the others. If you drive a little farther than we do every day (250 miles) then you can get a good tour in two months.
It’s worth seeing the country!
West of the Rockies
@Scout211:
Funny how it’s totes cool for Repubs to elect celebrities (Reagan, Arnold, Jesse, Trump) and have celebs at their convention (Baio, Eastwood, Amber-something), but Dems get scolded.
JiveTurkin
@Doc Sardonic: Is it possible to have less than 0% chance of something occurring? Because that is the chance of no traffic on I-95 on the West Palm Beach – Miami corridor. I live in Deerfield Beach and you can get stuck in traffic at 11 PM on that stretch of road.
JiveTurkin
@satby: You are leaving out Scott Baio, Rob Schneider and Dean Cain. Unless you only meant higher than D-list.
JiveTurkin
@lowtechcyclist: Dali museum was excellent, tempered only by the fact that Dali appeared to dabble in admiration of fascism.
prostratedragon
@p.a: Going to watch it now.
West of the Rockies
@Anthony:
My favorite bird name: red-bellied nut pincher. (Not to be confused with the dreaded red-nutted belly pincher.)
Betty Cracker
@Doc Sardonic: Pensacola is closer to Indianapolis than Key West.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Pensacola has Fort Pickens right across Pensacola Bay. It’s part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and is the best place I have ever camped.
Andrya
I love the title of this thread!
Bg
Out in the yard this morning with the dog and heard what sounded like pterodactyls from a movie. Looked up and it was a pair of sandhill cranes. I was too slow to get a picture but the sandhill crane is proof birds are feathered dinosaurs
sab
I am giving our old house to my oldest stepchild. We have a twenty-five year history of bird and tree rats in our neighborhood, and I suddenly realized all of our squirrels and birds might starve!
And today my daughter in law asked me: “which food goes in which fèeder?” So she is an board with feeding them.
dww44
@Raven: Yes, again back to this late. I did answer your first query in the other post a day ago. We’ve lived here for many many years.
mrmoshpotato
Nom nom nom! Or should that be gulp gulp gulp for these birds?
Either way, I hope the humidity is decent too.