Flammulated Owl

 Last night the Winona bird club had a lecture about flammulated owls. The lecturer is a professor at the U of W in LaCrosse. He spends his time here and in the valleys of northern Idaho. There are no flammulated owls in Minnesota. Occasionally one might get off track and be seen in the black hills of South Dakota but they are a western and southwestern raptor. They are easier to study because they tend to nest in colonies. In a mile long stretch a half mile wide there could be twenty nests if researchers put up nest boxes. They are called flammulated because there is a pattern on their wings that meets on the lower back that looks like flames. Years of research have shown that there are two main factors that point to success in raising young. One is arrival to the breeding area. If you come a week early your brood won't hatch as successfully as if you came a week later. The other factor is the snow pack. Compared to rain, a good snow pack will release the water gradually which leads to more herbs and forbs which in turn leads to more insects in the area. The main food of flammulated owls is insects but they have been known to eat mice or other small birds such as sparrows. I enjoyed hearing about flammulated owls but I also enjoyed hearing about this man's passion and excitement and enthusiasm for his work with them.

 

 

Sunburn

 Laura Lippman is the author of Sunburn, a mystery psychological thriller. Polly comes into a bar with a sunburn. She is a wife and mother who just abandoned her husband and young daughter and took a bus to Delaware. Adam comes into the bar and notices her. He eventually gets a job at the bar as a cook. Polly gets a job as a waitress. Adam's real job is a private investigator and he is investigating Polly. What follows next is a summer of lies and deceit, revenge and blackmail. I liked the beginning of the story but by the end there was so much manipulation I couldn't keep it straight.

 

 

About A Boy

About A Boy is a comedic fiction novel written by Nick Hornby. This story was also made into a movie which is available on YouTube (with ads) starring Hugh Grant as Will. The story is about two guys. One is 34, unemployed, living in London, living off the royalties of a holiday song his father wrote 30 years ago. His name is Will. The other is Marcus. Marcus is 11 and now living in London with his mother after his parents split up. His mother is a hippie who loves Joni Mitchell music, cuts Marcus' hair and picks out his clothes. Although Marcus had friends at his previous school he is being relentlessly bullied here in London. Marcus is funny because he takes things literally. Marcus turns to Will for help. Will is greatly reluctant but they form a mutual friendship that helps them both. This book is very charming.

 

 

The Compound

The Compound is a fiction novel with some mystery and some science fiction. Written by Aisling Rawle, an author living in Dublin, the story is set in a rural desert in Arizona. The story is about a reality show. Twenty young people are sent to live in a house in the wilds of Arizona. The women arrive first. They are drugged and placed in various rooms of the house and/or yard. The ten men arrive on foot after walking through the desert for a couple of days. One of the men is missing. The men and women are forced to sleep together on beds. Any man or woman who sleeps alone is banished. The fame and fortune come to those who last the longest. People are voted out of the compound regularly. The contestants are given challenges to complete to earn things such as a door for the house or food or water or coffee or champagne. Contestants can complete individual challenges to earn things that start with basics like a comb to diamond earrings at the end. This story is told by Lily who is 20 years old and bored with her life as a cosmetics sales person in a department store. Being a contestant has given her the ability to own cosmetics she could never afford before. Lily is a material girl. Besides being a book about a reality show this book is about consumerism. 

 

 

A Marriage At Sea

Sophie Elmhirst is the author of A Marriage At Sea: A True Story About Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck. This is based on a true story about Maurice and Maralyn. They were a British couple who didn't want to live a normal life. They wanted an adventurous life. They saved money to buy a boat. They left Britain, sailed to Portugal and across the Atlantic to the Caribbean. They sailed through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific.  They were on their way to New Zealand. A whale struck their boat. When they couldn't patch the hole below the water line they took food, containers of water, their sextant, a camera and their passports. They also brought some rain coats and pants. They were adrift for 117 days. They survived by drinking rain water and eating fish and turtles. Madalyn's positive attitude is what kept them alive until they were picked up by a South Korean fishing boat. I thought this was a great story but to be honest, I could not put up with a man like Maurice.  

 

 

Intermezzo

 Sally Rooney is the author of Intermezzo. Set in Dublin, Ireland, the story follows two brothers in the year after their father's death. Peter is 30 and he is ten years older than his brother, Ivan. Peter is a lawyer and a college professor. He has a long term relationship with Sylvia who is like a sister to Ivan. He also has a college aged girlfriend who is all about having a good time. Ivan finished college and is now working as an IT consultant while keeping up with his chess games. Ivan is a competitive chess player. He meets an older woman at a community arts building where he gave a chess playing clinic. Peter is vocally critical of Ivan's relationship. He does not see how his friendship with a younger woman is exactly the same thing. The relationship between Peter and Ivan is very complicated. They cannot speak of their grief over their father's death. This is an interesting book with an abundance of dialog.

 

 

Seed Collection Day

Usually a group volunteers to collect seeds once a month. There was an event in early September that I missed because I was animal sitting two hound dogs and an elderly cat. But I made it today. We had two men, four women, and four children under 7 years of age. My goal today was to collect hairy gramma  and thimbleweed. Hairy gramma doesn't look like much. The grass and the seeds are just a few inches off the ground. After 90 minutes of picking hairy gramma I wished I had picked a taller plant. The grass is indistinguishable from the other grasses. What makes it different is the seeds. The two seeds in this picture are a little to the left of center. The bottom one is half way up. The top one is above it. They both look tan in color.

The seeds look like eyebrows. Isn't that cool?

With just a half hour left in our three hour tour of duty I got distracted by this grove on red pines.

Here is a shot of the red pines looking straight up into the sky. We had great weather today. The sky was overcast and the temperature was in the 60's.

On my way back to the meeting place I found some ground cherry husks. The cherries were gone but the seeds were still inside the husks.