Today I saw

So, today was not a fantastic birding day, too windy and overcast :(         But I did get to see and hear some cool stuff.

I saw a Golden-crowned Kinglet for the first time, they are tiny cute little birds. I also saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet,

Black crested titmouse,













Cedar Waxwing


















wild turkey,













Black and white warbler, they are a beautiful LOUD little bird its in the same family as the Golden-cheeked warbler and their chipping sound they make to their fledglings is the same as the Golden-cheek, so I have spent a lot of time chasing the wrong bird!!!!













and heard a pack of coyotes!!!!! The coyotes in  Texas are huge!!!!!

I didn't take these pictures but I figured pictures make everything more interesting!!!!

Texas Update

So, I am trying to out the blog thing. Mom wants us to keep everyone updated and in touch so here's my update from the rather large state of Texas, or country of Texas (depending on who you ask). I saw my first Golden-cheeked Warblers (one of the birds I'm working on) of the season on Monday! I was so thrilled--- they are such cute brave little birds who have no problem with you hanging around. Tuesday was a rain day. I hate rain days, we don't get to go out into the field, stuck inside in Gatesville (Absolutely Nothing to do)! Yesterday was one of those fantastic day-after-a-rain-storm day's where if you don't get stuck in the mud (which we almost did) then as soon as you get into the trees you are as wet as if you just jumped into a pool fully clothed! But those days are nice and cool which is their biggest positive!!! On the way out of our research site I was checking the mud and ended up sinking above my ankles in my brand new boots! It was one of those cartoon moments when you try and move but can't and then finally you move, but your shoes stay put. And today (Thursday) woke up to a change of plans the site we were going to this morning was "hot" (military lingo for shooting live ammo) so we ended up going to a different one and with all the scrambling I got left to cover an area that three people normally cover-- with only one of the new girls to help me-- needless to say my legs are a little beat. Jogging in hiking boots is less than fun but I did cover a little over 8km in pretty good time! Plus it was a beautiful day! The hell of summer has not hit and I keep wishing it further and further away!
Anyhoo TTFN (Tah Tah For Now)
Oh yeah let me know if this is a little too much of an update!

Texas

Hey, I am out in Texas again. It's spring outside right now so its quite nice but will soon be summer and horribly hot!!! But I wanted to post some of my pictures from our very brief winter out here.

There is something about a tree with no leaves that I find beautiful. Then add a layer of snow and it becomes magical!
The snow man on the left is about 6inches tall he was my first try but the snow was getting thicker and thicker so I ended up making my first big snow man. His name is Mr. Anderson and he was about 4.5 feet tall! I had to give him a little Florida touch so I gave him some sun glasses!

Well- hope the last post wasn't too linguistically crude for my audience?

But, changing the subject. Rosie is currently in Venice, Italy, with Lili. I am hoping they will post some pictures soon and update us!
This is one of the things I am studying right now; Medievals were pretty wacked, huh?
This is from a miscelllany, a devotional book circa 1500, owned by the British Library and attributed to Carthusian monks (they were a very ascetic group-- no talking, or very liitle-- can you imagine?) So, in their spare time when not flagelllating themselves they drew stuff like this to help them relate to Christ, especially his bloody wounds. What gets me about this one is the chicken-pox effect. The little book is called  just " BL MS Additional 37049", not a proper name at all, if you ask me.