Mokka mit Schlag

Sunday I joined the New York chapter of the Linnaean Society for a trip to “Eastern Long Island for 9 Sparrows”. It was close, but we did get all 9 sparrows (saw 8, heard 1) as well as about 50 other interesting species including 3 personal life birds. It’s been a long time since I got three life birds in one day in New York. Heck, it’s getting hard to add three life birds in one day in California these days. I think the last time I did this well in New York was the February 2006 pelagic.

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I almost never watch ESPN, but tonight they’re venturing into new territory with a miniseries entitled the Bronx is Burning. They’ve been hyping it heavily, and I’m actually interested in New York in the 70s, so I was all geared up to watch it. Then I turn it on at the advertised time of 10:00 P.M. and what do I see? The National Home Run Derby.

I have no idea what this is, nor do I much care. If it were an actual baseball game I could almost see the point; but some silly, made-up event that does little but fill dead air? For this they preempted their new flagship show?

Screw it. If the miniseries is any good, I’ll watch it on DVD in a few months, but I probably won’t bother with ESPN again for another ten years.

Spangled Skimmer, Libellula cyanea – Male
2007-07-08, Suffolk County, Peconic River

Fowler’s Toad, Bufo woodhousii fowleri
Robert Moses State Park, 2007-07-07

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Clouded Sulphur, Colias philodice
Liberty State Park, 2007-07-05
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Yesterday I finally got around to filing the paperwork to officially transfer my account from the TD Ameritrade spammers to Scotttrade. I should have done this months ago when I first realized the problem, but I’m not an active trader and it always seems like there’s more interesting things to do than filling out forms.

I had considered various online brokers, but there weren’t as many choices as I expected. Scotttrade seemed to have the best combination of low fees and decent user interface. Internet gossip about them was relatively positive compared to what was said about other online brokerages. The kicker was the local offices where I could drop off paperwork and get immediate feedback instead of having to mail forms back and forth for a few weeks. USAA was a close second. If Scotttrade doesn’t work out, I may switch to them.

The transfer itself is supposed to take 7-10 business days. I’ll let you know how it goes. I’ll need to make a test trade to make sure it all works once the money and equities are shifted over. There’s nothing in my portfolio I want to sell right now. I guess I’ll have to buy something. Anyone have a hot tip?