Have you read this book yet?

Are you a Birdwatcher's Digest subscriber? If so, perhaps you read Julie Zickefoose's recent review of the book "Life List" by Olivia Gentile. After reading Julie's review, I was able to borrow this book from my local public library.

This is an amazing story about Phoebe Snetsinger, a phenomonal birder with a life list obsession. It's an extremely well-written story and captured my attention from start to finish. Without giving away any details, I believe this story may be especially appealing to any woman who is a birder, a mother, a wife, or has any particular hobby or interest that you've ever become even marginally obsessive about.

After finishing the book I couldn't decide whether I was glad that I don't have any obsessions like this (bordering on mental illness, in my opinion) or whether I am a lazy underachiever for not pursuing anything in my life with more single-mindedness!

If you get a chance to read the book, let me know what you think about it.

What I'm Reading

Since I've had a little extra time on my hands lately, I've been able to do some recreational reading. Here are some reviews of three books that I've enjoyed.

Knitting the Threads of Time by Nora Murphy

Here's an excerpt from an e-mail I received a few weeks ago from the Publicity Director for New World Library (who published this book): "As a fellow knitter, I am thrilled to be publicizing Nora Murphy's new book, KNITTING THE THREADS OF TIME: Casting Back to the Heart of Our Craft. I am wondering if you would be interested in receiving a review copy of this new book. I'd love to send you one in the hopes you will share it with your online knitting community."

Interested? You Bet!! I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who's a knitter, and especially a new knitter or a old-time knitter like me. I learned so much history about knitting, but more importantly, Nora Murphy's words really helped me realize why knitting is so special to me (and so many other people). I have this phrase highlighted in her Prologue chapter:

"Inside a stitch, just a single knitted stitch, lies the paradox of the ordinary, everyday textile hero. Her simple stitch helps keep the story of humanity alive; her work casts on stitches for the next generation."

Wow! Even though this book tells the story of Nora as a beginning knitter making a sweater for her son, it helped me relive the joy (and anguish) of knitting my first sweater so many years ago. In addition to giving me a greater appreciation of my knitting craft, this book made me proud to know that I am a part of the sisterhood of knitters from ancient times to the present -- and beyond, because who knows how many years all those things that I've knitted will continue to keep people warm?

And as long as I've got you here reading this, let me tell you a quick story of what happened to me in the Salt Lake City airport on my way to California last week. I was seated at the departure gate and knitting on sock (4 double-point bamboo needles, size 1). I noticed a woman walk over and stand in front of me, so I looked up at her and asked if she was a knitter. She immediately sat down in the empty chair next to me and told me her knitting story. She was from India (Kashmir region) and learned to knit when she was a little girl. She told me that she was part of an extended family of about 50 that all lived together in the same house (a large house!). She said every year starting in September, all of the women in the family would get together and beginning knitting socks, gloves, hats, etc. to keep the family warm during the cold Kashmir winter. She said she never learned to read a pattern as all of the patterns were just passed down verbally from the older women in the family. She was fascinated with my tiny bamboo needles and I think amazed to see that someone was actually knitting socks. For me that's a really cool thing about knitting--we all have stories we can share and the knitting needles and yarn are the things that bind us all together.

Brother Wolf by Jim Brandenburg

This book was recommended to my by a friend who knew that I was interested in wolves. I'm about halfway through this book, but it's a neat story of wolves, from prehistoric days to the present. The present day story is drawn from Jim's own experiences with wolves around his Ravenwood home near Ely, Minnesota and also his trips to Ellesmere Island. And even if you don't want to read the story, you should check out this book from your library just to see the amazing photographs Jim has in this book (like this one shown below).

Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchy

Any Maeve Binchy fans out there? I love her books and have read every single one. I saw in my book club notice that Heart and Soul was a new one coming out, so I immediately went to the library website to see if I could reserve a spot in the queue for these enormously popular books. I was happy to find out in a phone call last week that they had the book for me (#1 in the queue). This is a great book, I love reading about all the characters and situations they're involved in. Also, some of the characters from Maeve's previous books make cameo appearances in this one, so you may remember some of them as you're reading along. Every time I read one of her books, I wish I could plan a trip to Dublin. It would be interesting to find out if that city and its people are anything like a Maeve Binchy novel!

That's all for now!

This and That

A good year for cardinals at my backyard birdfeeders! I have seen at least 6 pairs recently.

Well, we survived the coldest week this area's seen since the last century (1996 to be exact). On our way to work yesterday morning, the truck thermometer registered -30 degrees! But yesterday's "official" low was -26. This morning when we left the house to do our weekly grocery shopping and errands, the temperature was almost 20 degrees (above zero!) -- it's amazing what a difference 50 degrees makes!

We're all surviving the Manpower "work reduction" at work with everyone pitching in all over the place. Mr. Johnson's "official" request to use me as additional help in his extremely short-handed work area was denied--the PO that pays me is not the same PO that pays his Manpower employees. Well, I'm sorry, but that's a load of BS as far as I'm concerned.....and I'm not going to stand my and watch my husband stress out when I can do something about it! So my solution has been to get as much work done in my area in the mornings and then I go down and help him out for a couple of hours after lunch. The job was fairly quick and easy to learn ("so easy a monkey could do it" according to the always complimentary Mr. Johnson!). I'm happy that I'm able to help out and he's relieved that they're keeping up with the workload pretty well. (His manager showed up unexpectedly the other day while I was down there working, but when Mr. Johnson called to admit what was going on, the manager's response was "I don't know what you're talking about, because I didn't see a thing." Whew, what a relief!)

The biggest problem with this whole process is that we're going in to work later and therefore getting home almost an hour later than what I'm used to, so I'm having a really hard time getting stuff done anymore. It seems like I've barely gotten home and it's 5:00 and time to start supper. And because I'm really not used to working quite so hard, I'm generally asleep on the couch by 8:30 (or maybe I can blame it on the cold weather?) Anyway, my blogging activities have suffered, so this is going to be an extra long post, just in case I don't have a chance to get another one ready in the next week.

Does anybody out there have some good pellet ID skillz? I found these two in one of my ground feeder trays this afternoon. The biggest one is about as big around as my index finger and they appear to be made up of mainly seeds and seed shells. I'm pretty sure the possums are not responsible for these because it's been too cold lately for them to venture out. I sometimes see the crows sitting and picking seeds from this tray. Does anyone know whether crows will cough up a pellet?
Here's a look at the bigger pellet broken in half. There's a whole sunflower heart in there along with all the other partial stuff. I always associate pellets with owls, but owls don't eat seeds, do they? Another backyard mystery......
Here's a fun picture. I bought this big mineral block for the deer that visit my backyard. Of course, the deer have shown no interest in it whatsoever, but the birds really seem to like it. It's not unusual to see sparrows and juncos perched on top picking at it, but I was surpised to see this Red-Bellied Woodpecker clinging to the side and pecking at it also. (See all those sticks in the background? I started trimming my apple trees a couple weeks ago and just threw the trimmings on the ground until the snow melts. The bunnies are really enjoying chewing on these as you can see from the lighter colored portions where they've nibbled all the bark off.)
I got a nice e-mail from Julie (October Eves blog) yesterday wondering if I had any good book recommendations and here are a couple I've enjoyed lately. If you're interested in reading another good book about life in Alaska, check out Heather Lende's "If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name," about daily life and residents in Haines, Alaska. If you were a fan of the "Northern Exposure" TV series a few years back, then you will definitely enjoy this book.
I'm currently reading "In Beauty May She Walk" by Leslie Mass. This is Leslie's story about hiking the Appalachian Trail at age 60. I'm really enjoying this book. Hiking the entire AT is not for sissies or slackers and it's interesting to read about her experiences during this hike. I'm not sure I could do it--her descriptions of the trail sound very similar to some of the trails I hike getting to my deer hunting stands and imagining myself hiking those trails with a 45-pound backpack all day long seems pretty overwhelming. But I truly admire the fact that she's an older woman and taking on the physical and mental challenge of this hike and sharing it with the rest of us.
As soon as I'm finished with "In Beauty May She Walk," the story of "Dewey, The Small-Town Library Cat" is waiting for me. This was another recommendation from Amazon and I can't wait to start it! (Cute cover, don't you think?)
My birdJam software was delivered a couple weeks ago. I also ordered a little external speaker with a rechargable battery that I can just plug my iPod into if I want to play the birdsongs for someone else or to try attracting birds in the field. Unfortunately, everything's still sitting in the box on my desk until I find some time to sit down and read the instructions for loading everything onto my iPod.
Here's a fun picture of Sophie enjoying some afternoon sun on the couch. I think she was half asleep and didn't even realize I was taking a picture of her.
I'm about half done knitting Sophie's sweater -- I got some dirty looks this past week when it was so cold and she was wishing she could wear it! I'm not going to have enough yarn to finish it, so I'll have to check sometime this week and see if I can buy another skein that's close to matching this dye lot.
I've finished a couple of other projects in the last couple weeks also (one of my New Year's resolutions was to finish at least 2 "old" projects every month). Here's that stupid scarf I've been working on for 4 years! I do not like this scarf and forced myself to finally finish it. I hope the person I was knitting it for still wants it! After I got it washed and hung up to dry, I noticed an "irregularity" in the pattern that made me dislike this scarf even more. (If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you may be able to notice the irregularity also, but if you don't, then that makes me feel better!)
I finished this afghan too. It's huge and very warm and I hope to donate it to an elderly couple in Rochester whose home burned to the ground last Thursday.

I also want to send special congratulations along to two of my blogging friends: Troutbirder and Richard (At the Water). In the January/February issue of Minnesota Birding that just arrived in my mailbox today, I was pleasantly surprised to see that both of them had bird photos published. Way to go, guys!

Well, that's pretty much all that's been going on in my life for the last week. I hope you're all staying warm and for all you folks in the eastern U.S. who are still shivering, I want to assure you that warmer weather IS on the way!

Adventures Through Reading

Do many of you use Amazon to find and/or order books? I've ordered some field guides and an occasional pattern book from them, but a few weeks ago, I finally clicked on the tab that said they had some "recommendations" for me (based on previous orders, I guess). Holy cow in a canoe! They had almost 200 books (and even some birdhouses) on their recommendation list! It took me a while to go through it and I even added some to my wish list and then I had a brainstorm......why not see if I could get any of these books through my local public library and read them to see if I like them before spending $$ to purchase a book I might not really like.

Our public library participates in a SE Minnesota cooperative, so I can go to their on-line link and search based on title and/or author (which I can easily find from my Amazon recommendations). This is such a cool thing! So in the last 3 weeks, I've gotten the chance to check out and read the 4 books shown below:

Woodswoman by Anne LaBastille This is a pretty cool story and I was amazed by what Anne accomplished and how she survived on her own in the Adirondack Mountains of New York back in the early 1970's (especially without a cell phone, computer or any of our current "modern" conveniences).

Going Alone - a collection of essays by women adventurersEven though I'm more of an "armchair adventurer" I'm really enjoying this book. These women are brave, smart, some young and some older (like me), and it's neat to share their adventures through the pages of this book.

Arctic Homestead by Norma Cobb Norma Cobb was the last women to file for a pioneer homestead in the United States and she did it in Alaska. I could not put this book down. It's an amazing story about how she and her family (husband and 5 children) built their own log cabin and learned to survive north of Fairbanks, near the Arctic Circle.

Arctic Lace by Donna Druchunuas

This is a knitting book featuring "projects and stories inspired by Alaska's Native Knitters." I don't like to buy pattern books unless I look at them first--they're pretty expensive and sometimes there's only one or two patterns I like and I end up never using the book at all. However that's not the case with this Arctic Lace book and I know I will be purchasing this book soon to add to my pattern collection. There's lots of information--especially about Alaska history and native peoples and also the musk oxen who provide the qiviut fiber that these patterns call for. Are you starting to see an adventure/Alaska theme here? Me too!

I'm really thankful for my local public library and the resources and help they provide for me--all free of charge! I don't even pay a fee for my library card. I have donated some of the knitting pattern books I don't use anymore to the library and also those books I get from the book club that everyone always wants to read and I don't want to wait for them (like the latest Janet Evanovich or Mary Higgins Clark). I figure that's the least I can do for all the library has done for me.

Field Guide Review

A few weeks ago, I received a nice e-mail from Anne Staszalek, Marketing Coordinator for The Book Report Network. She was writing "on behalf of Collins to see if you would like to receive a copy of SMITHSONIAN FIELD GUIDE TO THE BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA to review on your website." Well, I don't mind telling you that I was a little flabbergasted at first and had all kinds of questions: what's this all about? Is there some sort of catch? Why does she think anything I have to say would be beneficial to this publisher? Would they just send me this really nice book and all I have to do to keep it is write a review? (you see......I'm such a skeptic!)

So I finally sent her a note back saying I would be willing to do this, but also asked how she came up with me as a reviewer and here's her response: "Basically the publisher and author asked if I could find people who might be interested in the book. I know asking people I do not know can be considered intrusive. I hate spam myself, so when I get a new title, I try to find active blogs where the author seems really into the topic they post about, and if I can find contact information, I send as short, yet descriptive an email as I can. I figure that if I was sent an email that offered me a book about something I like to read, it would annoy me a bit less. I really hope you didn’t mind getting the email, by the way."

Well, gosh, how nice is that? So I sent Anne my home address and a few days later this great book arrived in my mailbox and I've been using it here at home for several weeks in preparation for my review.

Now as the proud owner of at least 23 field guides (13 of them just for birds!), I definitely already have a good selection. So will the "Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America" become a useful field guide in my collection? You Bet! And here's why........

First of all, the picture of birds are photographs and I'm one of those people who just prefers photos over an artist's rendering. The Smithsonian Field Guide has excellent photographs of the birds with many of them showing both adult and juvenile plumage; also photos of hawks flying (as seen from below) and many other birds in flight.

There's a lot of good general information about birds in the "Introduction" section of this book including parts of the different birds, habitat, plumage (with seasonal & age differences), and even tips on identifying birds.

The birds are presented in a taxonomic order (as are many field guides) beginning with waterfowl and ending finally with finches.

Each bird listing gives you the length, weight and wingspan (even on songbirds--not just raptors). When there is a size difference between male and female, that's also noted. Each listing also includes information on molt & plumage differences plus variations in size of plumage related to its range. The general description of each bird also indicates the habitat where you would most likely find the bird, what kind of foods it prefers, nesting habitat, a seasonal range map and a description of the bird's call or vocalization.

The book also includes a DVD with downloadable bird songs for your MP3 player. I don't have an MP3 player, but the disk works just fine on my computer. These bird songs are nice because there are several different variations of bird sounds you might hear in addition to the typical calls (alarm calls, courtship calls, & woodpecker drumming sounds).

I like this book because it includes both eastern and western birds--that way if my brother calls from California needing help in a bird ID, I can grab this one field guide for reference and also find out if it's a bird I might be able to see here in the eastern region.

This field guide lists a price of $24.95 on the back cover. I think that's pretty reasonable for all the information contained inside plus the birdsong DVD.

For me, about the only disadvantage of this field guide is the size.Although it's not as large as my Sibley Guide to Birds, it's definitely larger and heavier than the Kaufman field guide I usually carry along on birding trips. However, I see this Smithsonian Field Guide as a good book to have out on my desk or dining room table for everyday use and I think it would be a really great book to take to work or any other gatherings where people might have questions for me about birds or bird calls they need help identifying.

One more note: Ted Floyd (the author of this field guide) and Lang Elliott (who recorded the bird songs on the DVD) are two of "North America's Top Birders" as I found it in the "Good Birders Don't Wear White" book I'm currently reading, so you know you're getting good information from the "experts!"

Thanks Anne for allowing me to review this book and I hope the information I've presented here will be helpful for other birders who are interested in adding another great field guide to their collection.......it's never too early to start dropping hints for Christmas!

Sunday in the Turkey Blind

The wind died down overnight and there were clear skies and a half-moon as we hiked to our turkey blind at 5 AM today. It was still cold (around 30 degrees) but I had my blanket to wrap up in and we knew once the sun was up the day would be warmer.

We heard at least 3 turkeys gobbling right across the ridge from us, but were unable to call them over, so it was another long day of waiting for turkeys that never showed up. However, I had plenty of time for reading. Yesterday I finished "The Friday Night Knitting Club" and today I read "Tell Me Where It Hurts."

I still managed to work in a couple naps and by afternoon the sun had warmed up our blind enough that I was able to finally take off my gloves and knit a few rows.

For most of the day, we heard a woodpecker "sounding off" on the trees near our blind. I finally located who was making all the racket--it was a Hairy Woodpecker. I was able to capture this short video from the front window of our blind.

Before we left to come home, I walked over to the edge of the bluff to photograph the eagle's nest across the valley. The nest is in the top of a big white pine. I bet that nest was blowing at least 15 feet back and forth in yesterday's high winds.

When the adult eagle is not in the nest I can see something white sticking up that I think might be a chick, but I can't tell with just binoculars.

I'm so glad I finally found the location of this nest and have been able to get some photos and the chance to watch the eagles come and go.

Tomorrow's weather report sounds similar to what we had on Saturday (snow/rain mix, windy and cold) so I'm going back to work and will take Wednesday off instead when the weather is supposed to be warmer.

P.S. I just checked my stats and this is Blog Post #300!! Another reason for a celebration cake!