Barely Anything

  I haven't done much this summer. Been nursing a sore back since the end of June. Still, if you barely do anything, that is more than doing absolutely nothing. So over the last six weeks I have accumulated a couple of memories despite spending most of my time lying on the couch. 

   By far the most important thing that happened over the last few weeks was seeing my son. After three years of living in Cambodia, he visited home. He was home for about ten days. Obviously, we didn't do a lot because of my back. Add to that, it was ninety five degrees almost the whole time he was home, there was a lot time spent by his mother's pool. We did get out twice. Once we looked for snakes, having a very memorable encounter with a huge Black Racer. The other time we went birding. The highlight was seeing a Peregrine Falcon on the mudflats at Charlestown.

    This weekend Laurie and I went to a skating competition in Norwood, MA. Unlike last year, there were very few former Olympians at this event. The field was not deep and there were a lot of falls. My back was hurting so the quality of the competition was only adding to my agony.  The best two people there were an American named Amber Glenn and a Canadian named Maddy Schizas. Neither performed to their potential. Though Amber bounced back the second day. 

Maddy Schizas

Other than seeing my son, the highlight for the last few weeks was a life bird I saw on Monday. My friend Patrick Felker found a  Red Pharalope in Newport in the morning. All day people were deciding if it was a  Red Pharalope or a Red Necked  Pharalope. Later in the day, my friend Sue Palmer refound the bird and confirmed it was a Red Pharalope. So I ran down at 7 pm and got it. I only know of one other in RI since I got serious about birding.

Today I went for a walk looking for Red Bellied Cooters. I didn't find any. I really didn't see much but I came across a Red Squirrel that did some really cool poses.