Lately I’ve noticed an increasing number of companies recording my conversation “for quality assurance.” In some cases like calls to my broker this is reasonable, but turnabout’s fair play; and perhaps a really good idea in the face of company’s like Verizon that refuse to honor their agreements without a court order. So here are my questions:
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I’ve been eagerly testing the various betas of Firefox 2.0 to see if it fixes some of my personal pet peeves. So far it looks like I’m going to have to start voting for or opening new bugs on these subjects:
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Prospect Park, 2006-07-22
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Yesterday I joined the Brooklyn Bird Club for a trip to Somerset County, New Jersey led by Peter Dorosh. We left Brooklyn about 6:45 A.M. and arrived at Glenhurst Meadows (a.k.a Warren Green Acres) about 7:35. The birds were hopping (and flying, and jumping, and scuttling, and walking, and everything else). We tallied twenty species just waiting for the rest of our group to arrive. (One car had taken the wrong exit.)
Sparrows were what we had come for, and they didn’t disappoint. Song Sparrow was the first species, but the second was an uncommon Vesper Sparrow. It looks like a Song Sparrow (streaked breast), except the face is totally wrong and shows a prominent white eye ring. I didn’t recognize it at first, but the eye ring jumped out at me; and Peter confirmed it as a Vesper Sparrow. I thought this might be a life bird, but on returning home and checking my records I found I’d seen one once before, 364 days earlier at Caumsett State Park on Long Island. At least this was a New Jersey first for me. Overall the group tallied nine sparrow species at Glenhurst:
Other groups at the site also reported Lincoln’s Sparrow, which is uncommon around here but not as uncommon as White-crowned or Vesper, so we didn’t stay longer just to look for it. We probably should have since we didn’t add a single more sparrow species all day, much to our surprise and consternation. (The goal for the day was ten sparrow species, and we missed by one.)
We walked down one path at the site, and for less than half a mile. The highlight of the day came near the end of the path where Valerie spotted a Wilson’s Snipe in the middle of the road, a life bird for me. I couldn’t find it one the ground, but it promptly took off and flew a long circle around us affording great looks. Sorry, no picture of this one. I didn’t have my camera with me; and couldn’t have gotten a decent shot if I did. Google has lots of pictures though, if you want to see one.
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Maine, 2006-06-22
Maine, 2006-06-22
