Merlin Bird ID App: Early Birds

     Last night at 3:45 AM, I was awaken when my wife fell, on the way to the bathroom.  Still very groggy from being suddenly awaken, I got up to help her.  I helped her get back on her feet, and supported her as she walked to the bathroom, then back to the bedroom.  

    This middle of the night activity, woke and excited Kona, and so I carried her outside so she could pee.  When I got outside, there was already a bit of light in the sky (we have very long days this time of year.)   What really surprised me when I got out there, was the number of birds that were tweeting and singing their songs.

    I am used to hearing this very early morning bird chorus in June, but it is usually during my half-sleep when I was in the bedroom.  Last night was different because all the songs were louder, since I was outside. 

    Instead of just waiting around for Kona to pee, I went upstairs and got my iPhone.  On the phone I have the Merlin Bird ID App, which, when you turn it on, identifies the different bird sounds going on.  I only had the app on for three minutes, and I was very surprised at how many birds were out their singing their hearts out in the early morning.  Above you see the birds the Merlin app recorded.

    I was especially happy to see the American Redstart and the Western Tanager on the list.  They are such beautiful birds that I hadn’t actually seen for a few years.  I am glad that they are still around.  

    Not being a hardcore birder, there are only a few birds that I can identify by their songs.  The Merlin app is wonderful for doing so, for you.  

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Satellite TV: Doing Everything Yourself

     We live outside a very isolated tiny rural village in the Interior of BC.  Because of our isolation and the small size of the Village, the services that are normally available to people are non-existent.  My wife and I have for decades, depended upon satellite TV for our entertainment.  

    Normally people who have satellite TV, just call and have a technician come to the house to aim and hook up the dish to the satellite.  Living where we do, with no satellite TV technician around, means that I had to set up and aim the dish at the satellite myself.  This was no easy feat.  A technician would have an instrument to make it easy to find the satellite.  I had nothing, I had to use trial and error to aim my dish.

    To do so, I had to get a TV set and the satellite receiver out there beside the dish, so I could hook them up to the dish and as I slowly moved the dish up and down and back and forth, I could tell on the TV, when I found the satellite signal.  The only area where I could place the dish to hit the satellite, was on the far edge of the paddock of my barn.  

    So to find the satellite, I first had to string out a long extension cord from the house out to the paddock to power the TV and my satellite receiver.   I had to put my big bulky TV (this was before flat-screen TVs) into my wheel barrow, and wheel it out to the satellite dish.

    I’m sure that it looked a bit ridiculous to those people driving down our road to see me sitting in the pasture with a big TV set beside me, as I scanned the skies.  

    I have had to go out there and readjust finding the satellite several different times over the years.  One time, after frustrating hours of searching for the satellite and finding nothing, I eventually discovered that the short cable I had used to connect the dish to the satellite receiver, was broken, which was why I never got any signal. 

     I am always amazed and so very relieved, when I have eventually found the signal up in the sky.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Weeding The Garlic

     Because of a soil infection in our garden, we are no longer able to grow garlic or onions.  Fortunately, we have good friends that allow us to grow garlic in a section of their garden.  This of course comes with a moral obligation; we feel obliged to keep our garlic patch looking neat and tidy.

    Last Saturday, while visiting, I took a look at our garlic and was embarrassed to see how weeds had taken over, so yesterday I spent two hours pulling weeds out of our section of their garden.  It was not a very pleasant job, since they seem to have a lot of mosquitoes around their place.  The whole time I was weeding I wore netting over my head and wore gloves, to keep the pesky insects  from getting their blood meal from me.

    Every time I have to do a lot of weeding, I think back to my childhood.  The task of weeding in our family garden often fell to me.  It was a job I hated.   Indiana summers are hot and muggy, and just spending an hour or so out weeding the garden was a miserable job.  The misery was compounded because within sight of our house was a country club swimming pool.   As I sweated pulling weeds in our garden, I could hear the kids at the country club, splashing, yelling, and having a refreshing swim.  

    Fortunately, the hatred towards gardens that I acquired during my childhood, diminished as I became an adult.

Take a look at my paintings"  davidmarchant2.ca

Elk At The "Golden Hour"

     How many Sundays have I shown you photos that I took the previous evening while driving down Hinkelman Road?  Well, here is another one.  

    Every Saturday evening we drive out to visit friends who live on Hinkelman.  Once winter is over and we start getting longer days, the sun is positioned very low at the far end of the Robson Valley.  This creates the “Golden Hour”, when the low positioned sun creates some beautiful and colorful lighting on the things it illuminates.

    I took this photo shortly after 8:00 PM, as we were driving back home.  The male elk was nicely standing in the sunlight with dark shadowed trees behind him.  It was also nice that Beaver Mountain was jutting up in the background.   You can also see some of the male elk’s harem scattered around behind him. 

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Resuscitating A Hummingbird

 This is something that happened in May of 2013:

        One Saturday night, when I returned home after working on the waterline, my wife told me there was a hummingbird trapped in the greenhouse.  It was fairly dark, but I went out to check.  I figured that since it was night, the hummingbird would be roosting on one of the wires or beams of the greenhouse, but I couldn’t see it, so I assumed it must have found a way out.

        The next morning, when I went out to the greenhouse, I noticed what looked like the corpse of a hummer laying on the ground.  I picked up the ruffled little body and it moved a little, so I realized that the tiny hummingbird was still alive.  It’s eyes were closed and I didn’t have much hope that it would survive, but I took it over and held it up to the hummingbird feeder.  I thought that maybe I could get it to drink some of the sugar syrup, and that would give it some strength.

        I tried to put it on the feeder with it’s needle-like beak in the syrup, but it couldn’t even stand.  I just positioned it, lying on the feeder, with its beak in the sugar water.  It was very inanimate, it wasn’t sucking the syrup, so I tried massaging its tiny body, and blowing on it.  It did sort of respond, but still wasn’t eating.

        My wife got a syringe without a needle, and we drew up some of the syrup into it.  I closed my hand around the hummingbird to warm it, and again put the syringe and syrup to its beak.  After about a half an hour of this, I noticed that it was sucking in the syrup.  It began to move more, and its eyes opened for the first time.

        Eventually, as its strength returned, the hummer began to struggle to free itself.  I let it try to fly, but it kept nose-diving to the ground.  I checked to see if one of its wings was broken, and discovered that one of its long wing feathers was, for some reason, stuck to the rear part of its body.  I gently unhooked it, and then the hummingbird tried to fly once again, and this time it was successful.  It buzzed into the air and flew away.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

My Latest Painting: "Hosta Flower"

     After buying a very rectangular canvas (15”  x  30”) I looked around through my photos to find an image that might fit the canvas, to paint.  I came upon a colorful photo showing the leaves and flower of a Hosta plant that I really liked and surprisingly, fit the canvas shape nicely.

    I started the painting at the beginning of February, and finished it this morning.  It took me 81 hours to complete.

    As anyone who has looked through my paintings knows, I really like Hostas with their dramatically textured leaves and their delicately beautiful blooms.  

You can view my  other paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca

A Delayed, But Sweet Revenge

     The night before last I woke up about 3:00 AM.  When I tried to go back to sleep, I was continually hampered by a mosquito in my room.  Every time slumber was just about to come, I would start to hear the mosquito starting to buzz around my head.  Numerous times I swatted it away with my hand, which of course, woke me up more.  This irritating situation continued throughout the night for hours and hours.  

    I hated that mosquito.  I considered turning on the light, and swatting it with my mosquito zapping racket, but I knew if I got up, turned on the light, and started walking around the bedroom looking for it, I would just wake up more, and never go back to sleep, so I just continued snuggling up in my bed, and of course, the persistent mosquito continued to buzz around and land on my head.  Eventually, sometime before dawn, I did fall asleep for a short while.  I did not feel very rested when I awoke.

    The next day after lunch, I went up to the bedroom to take a nap, and when I got in bed, who should appear but that pesky mosquito, looking for another blood feast from me.  As it buzzed around, I slowly reached for my mosquito zapper, and after several attempts:  ZAP, I fried that mosquito, enjoying the crackling spark that it made.

    The revenge I took on that irritating mosquito was sweet indeed.  

    Last night there were several new mosquitos in the bedroom, but I was able to despatch them before I turned out the lights.

    

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca