Birding tips from those who know

Good Birders Don't Wear White
edited by Lisa White

It was exceedingly fun to read essays from the legendary birders, people whose books I've read or field guides I've purchased. That experience alone is worth the price of the book. They weren't all so very enlightening, or even amusing--I'd expected a lot of humor, but didn't get it. A couple were funny. But mostly they were too darn serious--why to clean your optics; don't forget to listen; play fair when sharing a scope; why bird names seldom describe the bird; how to take notes....

But I guess the point of the book wasn't to be amusing, but to share tips. And they were good tips, almost universally. The ones near the end, on the subject of sharing your birding obsession, were the most thoughtful. And even if you only get a few useful tips out of it, 250 pages of people writing about birdwatching is worth the reading. So I enjoyed, and I recommend, but I have to admit I'm probably not going to treasure it or re-read any of the essays. So if you want to read it, visit the Plano Public Library's next book sale and you can have my copy.

Not exactly worthless but I wish I had my ten dollars back

Explorer's Guide to Wildlife Adventures
Hunt, J.Z. *

Purely a reference book--not something you'd read for fun. As a reference, I'm not sure how good it is because I haven't tried to go to any of the places it describes. Bear in mind that Eastern U.S. in this book doesn't include a lot of places I think of as "eastern U.S," -- it only means eight states along the eastern seaboard. Which isn't even all of them--what about Virginia? Is there no wildlife in Virginia?

At only 120 or so pages, with such short descriptions and very little details, I'd be inclined to call it worthless. Or at the most, okay but not worth the money. If you can pick it up at the library it might be worth a quick skim.

Did not finish but maybe will sometime

After the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America
by E.C. Pielou

I'm making note of this book because I think it's probably a great book. But I couldn't finish it. Maybe in the winter or the hottest part of summer, when there's nothing to do outside or inside, I can tackle it again. It seems to be well written, but due to the highly technical nature of the subject matter, it takes some serious reading effort.

I don't think so

Melancholy Baby
A Sunny Randall Novel
by Robert B Parker

If I had years of my life and hours of dead time needing to be filled, i could read another of these.  Several more. It read quickly--under two hours--and didn't get boring. The author, a man, did a decent job at exposing his girlish side and inventing a conflicted female with both guts and common sense. She has no illusions about her relative fighting ability, a 125 pound woman against a 185 pound man, and is perfectly okay with pulling in a big guy for backup.

So, technically, it was fine. But while I liked her a lot, I just didn't love her. Certainly not enough to spend any more hours of my few remaining reading hours with.

Formula but still good

Hunting Hour
by Margaret Mizushima

I could pretty much carbon copy the review from the previous one. Except that young people today don't know what a carbon copy is. Gosh, I'm feeling old!

The mystery and the new characters--call them suspects--were good, but not stellar. About what I'm come to expect from her...I can't help wondering what could happen if she made a little extra effort and came up with something unusual. Her detective, Mattie, is having to deal with some long-repressed memories from her childhood, and this case is hitting all the wrong buttons. I think the author did that part well, but I kept wanting her supervisor to hit her on the head and tell her to lay off--she was wearing herself and her dog out by searching things that a cooler head would say didn't need to be searched. But that's all part of the story.

Mammoth Waits

24 May 2020

From April 7 until June 18, Mammoth will sit unmoving. It's not what we planned, hoped, or dreamed, but that's what it is. Many people have it worse than us, but that's little consolation. We're stuck and it sucks.




The June trip to Palo Duro Canyon and the side trip to Great Plains State Park are canceled. The unscheduled trips, most likely  short fishing jaunts, that would have occurred during May, are on hiatus. And although I'm not having to suffer the twice-daily rush hour drive to work, I'm working. Five days a week; eight hours a day. (Sometimes seven hours, but who's counting?)

When the Corp. of Engineers parks finally started to allow reservations again last week, I hurried to make one for July, to see Edward. I knew the weather would suck royally, but at least it would suck royally in a place that's not here. That trip is for a Monday through Friday.  Then later, hearing Ed suggest he'd like to go fish Lake of the Pines again, I reserved a site for the third week of June even though it means I'll have to squander precious vacation pay for three days. (In this one case, time is money. If I didn't take vacation time, I could cash it out at the end of June. But money seems a little meaningless right now--I want my time!)

While we wait, I work and watch birds. See?


While we wait, Ed works on Mammoth. He did the leaking roof repairs and took another stab at the gray water pipe. It's down to a very slow drip, but that's still not acceptable. He did a more thorough cleaning on the inside than we've ever done, and it's freakishly clean in there.

Look at the beauty he's created on the entry steps!













Now he's washing and waxing the outside, from roof to wheels. It's so clean I almost don't want to get it out again and get bugs on it.




Almost.

High hopes, good execution, but not my cuppa

Murder in Rat Alley
Mark De Castrique

I enjoyed this a good bit, but it somehow lacked that little extra spark that would have made me rave about it. The detection was right on target--the detective (private) was smart, human, and even a little amusing. The only whoppingly huge coincidence occurred near the end and helped the book propel to an exciting finish. I don't blame the author for introducing it, but I couldn't help roll my eyes and say, oh, right.

The cover makes a point of mentioning the detective and his partner's interracial partnership, but I don't remember it coming up in the book. Which is fine. The detective's prosthetic leg does come up, and it gave the character a welcome bit of humanity. I would say comic relief, but it's not polite to laugh at disability.

Liking these better as I go along

Stalking Ground

by Margaret Mizushima

My ratings of the third and fourth books of this series (Timber Creek K-9 Mystery) were high but not stellar. I'd just finished up a couple of very well-written action/thriller mysteries, and these just weren't as good.. I liked a lot of things about them, but the action wasn't up to par, the romantic relationship was soppy, and the author had a weird habit of repeating certain phrases that annoyed me. In particular, every time she takes her dog into action, she "revs up his prey drive with pitter-patter." If it's so absolutely necessary that she does this, despite the fact that he's a magic dog who appears to read minds, can't she vary the wording a little?

I've complained about other things, too. But don't let those grievances keep you from trying out this series--there's a lot to like. She puts some effort into making her co-stars realistic and consistent in their behavior; the plot and action is decently original; at times--like last night right before bedtime--they're hard to put down.