Mokka mit Schlag

We woke up early this Friday morning to get to the first walk of the Adirondacks Birding Festival. The destination is Ferd’s Bog, a site I’ve heard about and wanted to visit for years. But when we got to the meeting location at a school it soon became apparent that the festival organizers had vastly underestimated the number of people who would show up on Friday. We had almost 50 people, way too many for a birdwalk, and frankly too many to bring to the site at one time, not that that stopped them.

We combined cars to some extent. I already had three passengers in my vehicle–Sandi, Monica, and Janet–so we added a fifth and headed down the dirt road. Luckily I was either the first or the second car so I got a clear view of a really weird looking chicken strutting down the road. Funny, this doesn’t look a farm road where people keep chickens, and that really is a strange looking chicken, and wait a minute, wasn’t one of the target birds a grouse? Shit! That is a Ruffed Grouse! #843 and one of the birds I was hoping for but really didn’t expect to see.
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Anyone recognize this bird? There were two of them at the Mcllellan Ranch feeders (in Cupertino, CA) this morning and I didn’t bring a field guide with me on this trip:

Maybe a Lincoln’s Sparrow? a Juvenile Swamp Sparrow? a hybrid? unfamiliar subspecies of Song Sparrow? Nothing seems to quite fit.
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I’m glad I don’t rely on JetBlue to book my hotels:

Do you see the mistake? Hint: Bermuda is not known for its tulip fields. :-)
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Sometime over the last couple of weeks while I was in Cuba, MySQL corrupted the wp_posts table in my WordPress database. At first I thought I was hacked, but it looks like the database was just corrupted:

mysql> check table wp_posts;
+---------------------------+-------+----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Table                     | Op    | Msg_type | Msg_text                                                                         |
+---------------------------+-------+----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| elharo_wordpress.wp_posts | check | warning  | Table is marked as crashed                                                       | 
| elharo_wordpress.wp_posts | check | warning  | Size of indexfile is: 1148225      Should be: 467968                             | 
| elharo_wordpress.wp_posts | check | error    | Can't read indexpage from filepos: 56320                                         | 
| elharo_wordpress.wp_posts | check | Error    | Incorrect key file for table './elharo_wordpress/wp_posts.MYI'; try to repair it | 
| elharo_wordpress.wp_posts | check | error    | Corrupt                                                                          | 
+---------------------------+-------+----------+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> repair table wp_posts;
+---------------------------+--------+----------+----------+
| Table                     | Op     | Msg_type | Msg_text |
+---------------------------+--------+----------+----------+
| elharo_wordpress.wp_posts | repair | status   | OK       | 
+---------------------------+--------+----------+----------+
1 row in set (0.34 sec)

mysql> check table wp_posts;
+---------------------------+-------+----------+----------+
| Table                     | Op    | Msg_type | Msg_text |
+---------------------------+-------+----------+----------+
| elharo_wordpress.wp_posts | check | status   | OK       | 
+---------------------------+-------+----------+----------+
1 row in set (0.08 sec)

I think I’ve fixed this now, but do let me know if you see any lingering problems. Hmm, it does look like the categories may be borked too. I’ll look at that next.
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Last full day of birding today. The hotel buffet doesn’t open until 7:30 AM and we’re leaving at 7:00, so they provide a few sandwiches and coffee. We start with a 40 minute or so drive to Cayo Paradon Grande. Almost as soon as we get off the bus, we pick up #840 Thick-billed Vireo. My field guide says it isn’t supposed to be here at this time of year, but our local guides know better and these photos prove it:

Not a few meters later, we add #841 Cuban Gnatcatcher, which is supposed to be here:

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Today I get a wake up call at 5:45. For one of the few times this trip I actually need it. I’m in the middle of a strange dream in which Doc Martin has just learned that Louisa has died in childbirth, but the baby lived. (Must take place after Season 3 in an alternate Season 4.) But I have no idea what happens after that because for once the wakeup call is on time.

We have a plausible buffet breakfast with enough eggs and chorizo to fortify me for the drive to Cayo Coco, about three hours and 180km or so. At the rest stop I give in and buy an ice cream bar. I tell myself it’s just to get change for the restroom, but I could have bought the $0.25 razor instead, or just remembered to bring change from my backpack on the bus. I also amuse myself by investigating all the brand knock-offs in the Oro Negro (Shell colors).

Just before we enter the causeway to Cayo Coco, we are stopped at the first real checkpoint we’ve seen since clearing customs. The car in front of us has to unload all its baggage to be sniffed by a Springer Spaniel, but eventually we get waved through without incident. (This may be a Communist nation, but overall I’ve seen way fewer police than in the U.S. and probably half of the police I did see were just waiting to get on a public bus like everyone else. Cuba certainly doesn’t feel like a police state.)

We arrive at the Sol Cayo Coco around 11:00 AM. It’s a typical Caribbean all-inclusive resort, much fancier than where we have been staying. (The Hotel Plaza in Camaguey looked like it had once been very grand, but had clearly passed its prime.) We can’t check in yet, but we get yellow armbands so we can eat and drink all we want. I want coffee, which I had abstained from prior to the long drive.

We’re too early to get rooms, and lunch isn’t till 12:30 so I bird the grounds some. Nothing too interesting but I do get some nice Royal Tern shots:

After lunch we meet the local guide about 1:00, who promptly walks us around the corner to a site for not one but two! Oriente Warblers, #838, so named because they only occur in the eastern half of Cuba.

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