Apologies.

Sunday I saw a male cardinalis cardinalis on a wire. Some dope wrote in this very blog that Northern Cardinals do not perch on wires. Obviously, they do.

There was a red tail on a wire east of Oak Hill Schools, one that I have seen several times. He might very well be the cemetery red tail. Perched on the wire just above and slightly to (my) left was a redwinged blackbird. When the red tail flew, the blackbird immediately mobbed him.

Okay, I haven't a guess why smaller birds do this, except they can. No matter the size of either bird, the most efficient hunters in the world have absolutely no answer for mobbing.

I have straps for my two "larger" pair of binoculars which, through foam padding and a shock absorber, reduce the weight on the neck to practically nothing. One of the straps came off quite some time ago and today I spent twenty minutes getting everything perfectly aligned. And when I went to leave, I noted that one of the loops was backwards.

I threw the glass on the table and left, being ill-inclined to dick with it further.

Walking along the roads at Pearson's Mill SRA, I heard songs from about fifteen different birds, with one unifying phrase: somewhere, in each song, came the distinct sound dumb ass.

Driving home, there was a small hawk on a wire I couldn't get a good look at, as some dumbass left the binoculars on the table in a snit.

This may be the wrong post to make a guess like this, but I'm thinking Coopers Hawk, as sharp-shins prefer some greenery about them. Purely Speculation 101.

Last spring and earliest summer I watched a sharp-shinned in a dead tree for several weeks before his mate showed and identified a nearby nest. Poor health kept me from finding the nest.

This year they didn't come back, and the area is posted as a Wildlife Resting Area, No Trespassing.

At the intersection of Slocum Trail and Red Bridge road, there is a nest box nailed to a light pole.

Several years ago I stopped for the road and noticed some birds working around and in the box. It was incredible. The birds darted about, and flipped the bit of string or twig in the air and caught it. Or another bird would swoop in and grab it, which never bothered the first bird. Like they knew. These were tree swallows, subtly beautiful, and this was surely pure play. Sometimes we assume animals are having "fun", like when a polar bear in a fucking zoo in Memphis when it's 105 degrees is fetching carmelcorn bags out of the pool. Yeah, some fun. Except, you know, the temperature is about eighty degrees past their comfort zone.

These birds had no need to preform these amazing aerial acrobatics to get this job done.

Saw a couple goldfinches - one in the woods, one in my yard (why travel?) But no swarms or gaggles or herds or flocks. One reason could be the newbies have fledged, this spring's mate has flown the coop, and this is an Indiana summer bred in hell. So, if I could fly, I'd head due north until it cooled down a good bit.

Then again, I may not be looking hard enough.

The most frustrating thing in BirdWorld is to see a "new" bird with an obviously defining characteristic. Except, you get home and it isn't. Even. Close.

I saw a bird on a wire with several others, and the tail was completely forked, something I have never seen before. Three trips through Sibley's turned up nothing of the sort. Wish somebody had brought the binoculars.

A red tail came off a wire and flew along, and I was turning back, watching,and the pup started barking and the hawk wheeled away

Okay, I haven't won a computer chess game in over 5 days. There are 10 levels. The first three are for pre-schoolers, one for "Special Needs" or otherwise "challenged" children; the second is for so-called normal kids, aged 3 - 5; the third, for "advanced" tots.

I play at Level 2.