Things that are AWESOME...

[FogBat]

Nothing is sweeter than seeing a T-shirt that says “Do not disturb me on these days”. It had the Dallas Cowboys regular season schedule on it.

 I wanted to go up him and ask, “Including when they hosted the Bills this past Thanksgiving?”, but I used better judgment and passed on it.

BTW, I was wearing my Bills baseball cap ATST.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Crosschecking

[Weave]

Eating at a quiet outdoor restaurant is awesome.  
 

Did a drive by to see if they were busy.  Only a handful of patrons so........ it feels like home.

[Taro T]

3 hours ago, Weave said:

Eating at a quiet outdoor restaurant is awesome.  
 

Did a drive by to see if they were busy.  Only a handful of patrons so........ it feels like home.

Might have to hit a restaurant that will likely have patio seating on Sunday.  (They've been doing takeout, so their patio is likely open.  Need to figure out if we'll need a reservation or not.)

[Tondas]

Having nowhere to go and all day to get there.  Pardon the STYX reference.

[SwampD]

Went to see my mom for the first time since my sister passed away in April. Still no hugs. Sux, that's a bigger sacrifice than you might think, with my family.

After 2 plus years of her caring for my dad and sister, their cabin near Attica had really fallen into some pretty rough shape. My brother and I went there this weekend and attacked it to get it into some kind of shape where she could enjoy it this summer (she just lost her husband and daughter, we weren't going to say that she had to get rid of her cabin, too,… maybe next year.)

I only went in the cabin a handful of times to fix a few things, and slept in the bed of my truck.

After a hard day's working and an even harder evening's drinking, we took a walk up to the pond. Pretty surreal.

Caught a bass in that pond the next morning on my second cast, then stopped fishing.

Perfect weekend.

[Stoner]

Swamp, I've probably written a million words on here, so maybe I'm just out. But I can't find the right one for that video. Let's go with awesome! The musicians were out last night.

[SwampD]

2 hours ago, PASabreFan said:

Swamp, I've probably written a million words on here, so maybe I'm just out. But I can't find the right one for that video. Let's go with awesome! The musicians were out last night.

Magical. It’s the only word I keep coming back to.

Forgot to mention, the next night, right before [truck]bed, we heard the coyotes celebrating after a kill. So effin cool.

[shrader]

There’s a new form of protest in my neighborhood:

 

 

[SwampD]

Is that a squirrel?

[shrader]

4 minutes ago, SwampD said:

Is that a squirrel?

Sorry, crappy quality.  It's a duck and there's no water anywhere close to us.  The little guy was persistent.  I had to walk right up to within a foot before it finally waddled away.

Edit: The wife was texting me from the car asking for help.  The duck wasn't bothered by the horn at all.

Edited June 9, 2020 by shrader

[shrader]

And now the duck’s wife has shown her face:

 

Edited June 9, 2020 by shrader

[Indabuff]

2 hours ago, shrader said:

There’s a new form of protest in my neighborhood:

 

 

This quacked me up.

[Indabuff]

2 hours ago, shrader said:

And now the duck’s wife has shown her face:

 

Looks like they're just winging it.

[Stoner]

If you're oat and aboat give a honk for the duck! Doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

[shrader]

36 minutes ago, Indabuff said:

Looks like they're just winging it.

Actually, it's looking like we have a nest in the front shrubs.  We had a guy here for a bug treatment and the female fled out of those bushes as he was treating that area.  There's always a couple ducks in another neighbor's backyard in afternoon soaking in some shade, but this is the first time I've seen them in my yard.  I did hear something moving around in those bushes over the weekend, assumed it was a rabbit, but then a much smaller bird walked out with a stick in it's beak.  Now I'm wondering if it stole part of the duck nest.

I'm pretty sure there's a nest in there though.  I watched the female for a while after the bug guy left.  She kept slowly working her way back towards that corner, but got spooked by just about any motion.  I hope they're able to stick around and don't have to abandon their nest after the little interruption today.

[Indabuff]

No harm, no fowl.

[Taro T]

2 hours ago, shrader said:

Actually, it's looking like we have a nest in the front shrubs.  We had a guy here for a bug treatment and the female fled out of those bushes as he was treating that area.  There's always a couple ducks in another neighbor's backyard in afternoon soaking in some shade, but this is the first time I've seen them in my yard.  I did hear something moving around in those bushes over the weekend, assumed it was a rabbit, but then a much smaller bird walked out with a stick in it's beak.  Now I'm wondering if it stole part of the duck nest.

I'm pretty sure there's a nest in there though.  I watched the female for a while after the bug guy left.  She kept slowly working her way back towards that corner, but got spooked by just about any motion.  I hope they're able to stick around and don't have to abandon their nest after the little interruption today.

Seems 'bout perfect.  2 duck dinners & even some duck egg omelets to go with it.  (They're in your yard, right?)

 

You a lucky ducky man.

[nfreeman]

OK, serious question:  is there a simple way to tell whether a given bird one comes across on a pond or lawn near a pond in a big park is a duck as opposed to a goose?

[SwampD]

4 minutes ago, nfreeman said:

OK, serious question:  is there a simple way to tell whether a given bird one comes across on a pond or lawn near a pond in a big park is a duck as opposed to a goose?

Yes. One's a goose. The other is a duck.

[Stoner]

Every third one is a goose.

[ubkev]

Freshman year at UB, a bunch of us were walking from Ellicott to the Spine. Kareem looks over on the hill in front of lake LaSalle and he comments "those are some big ass ducks!" I says "they're geese." He says "what's a geese?"

I paused ".....they're big ass ducks"

[shrader]

3 hours ago, nfreeman said:

OK, serious question:  is there a simple way to tell whether a given bird one comes across on a pond or lawn near a pond in a big park is a duck as opposed to a goose?

Two main differences come to mind immediately. Geese are bigger and the two make very different sounds. The quack vs the honking is very distinct. 

[Stoner]

Canada geese are pretty much unmistakably geese. As for all the rest, I might only be one step ahead of nfreeman.

Ospreys vs. eagles can be a little tricky too.

[Indabuff]

4 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

Canada geese are pretty much unmistakably geese. As for all the rest, I might only be one step ahead of nfreeman.

Ospreys vs. eagles can be a little tricky too.

Props for using Canada geese instead of Canadian geese.

[Indabuff]

6 minutes ago, PASabreFan said:

 

Ospreys vs. eagles can be a little tricky too.

Eagles are cool but they're opportunists.  They'll scavenge when necessary.  Ospreys on the other hand don't ***** around, they're strictly carnivorous, primarily piscivorous.  Truly bad ass?  Peregrine falcons.