Sunday, October 29, 2023
Use of zoom to spur writing, and all about my little bit of nature out my window.
Daily Diary, Day 1154:
Brief Check-in: I spent three hours on a creative work thingie yesterday, where I and 3 other creatives were all on zoom. We would do a brief check in at the start of every hour, then go onto mute and work. One person was cleaning up their desk and working on creating buttons for her new website, one person was doing a craft project for a Halloween party that afternoon, and one other person was actually writing. I had to pop in and out to eat lunch, take a short phone call, and do laundry, but I did get 973 words written. It is odd how just knowing I would be telling the group what I accomplished in the hour did make me stay on task better.
Earlier in the day I also worked on this post about all the activity at the bird feeder this week, including the opossum that has taken to coming every night about 9 to clean up whatever seed the birds have left.
Since opossums are nocturnal animals, this means it won’t compete during the day with the birds the way the squirrels and mice (or were they rats?) did. In addition, because they eat rodents, insects, and slugs, we are delighted to have her visiting. Basically, she seems to cleaning out the very ends of the seeds, which includes chaff that the birds don’t seem interested in. I am wondering if she is getting her daily fiber this way? Here is a photo of one, note the feet, very good for scooping out the seed, and the very long tail that looked to be hairless and able to hold on to things which she needs to do to hang down from the fence the feeder is on because she is way too big to sit on the tray in front of the feeder! I am having fun checking to see her every night, she just looks at me with these huge eyes. Evidently they are not aggressive, but they will spit if they feel cornered and have been known to faint when they get too scared, which is where the idea of “playing possum” comes from—that somehow they are pretending to be dead.
Anyway, the birds also seem abundant right now, with the house finches predominating as they have since the last winter when we got the bird feeder as a gift from our daughter. It has been fun watching a couple of rounds of finch babies in their first flights to the feeder, not knowing what to do and begging the adults to feed them as they sit on piles of seeds. Then there was a month or so when the finches of all ages molted, but it was particularly intriguing to watch the process of the male juveniles, which all had the same marking of a female, beginning to get in the orangish-red feathers of a male. They seemed so proud. Here is a picture of male and female.
The next group in terms of frequency are the song sparrows. They are about the same size as the finches (5 ½ inches) and they have similarly striped chests to finches, but there is a black splotch in the middle of their chest and stripes around their eyes.
Then there are the white-crowned sparrows, which I don’t see as often. Again, about the same size as the finches, similar in terms of coloring, but these birds’ chests don’t have the stripes of the finches or the song sparrows. Like the song sparrows they have stripes on the head, but much more visible stripes because they are black and white. Both the females and males of the song sparrows and white-crowned sparrows have the same markings, unlike the house finches.
There is a species that I haven’t seen in some time, the lesser goldfinch. They were smaller than the other three types I mentioned, the males brighter yellow with black cap, females more olive color. They seemed to be in pairs and the house finches seemed more willing to tolerate them eating at the feeder with them at the same time. In contrast, the house finches don’t just chase the sparrows away, but seem to chase each other away unless they are a male/female pair. I wonder if some other yard has a feeder with seeds that the lesser goldfinches now like better?
However, just this week a new species about the same size as the lesser goldfinch showed up for the first time. Definitely in pairs, quite hansome, with uniform brown backs and heads, black chins, and distinctive chests that look like black poke-a-dots against a white background.
They did not show up in the bird book for Southern California I have been using, or on any of the San Diego online lists. However when I put in all the distinctive features into google search, up popped the scaly-breasted munia, more pleasantly named the spice or nutmeg finch. These birds are native to Asia, often as pet birds, and evidently have gotten loose all over the place, the first sightings in the US in 1964 in Florida. Once I had the name, I did find mention that they now could be found in San Diego. The house finches were not pleased when one of the spice finches landed on the feeder with them, although that seems to have calmed down a bit over the week. Anyway, they are a new fun addition to the feeder.
Finally there are the California Towhee. They are significantly larger than the other birds, and can be found in abundance in our back yard. They are a rather dull greyish-brown, with a smudge of rust on head and rump. They only occasionally come to the feeder and tend to scratch at the seeds and scatter them onto the ground.
Somewhere, recently, I read in some tip about aging and eye strain and spending long hours looking at screens, that you should use the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, you should stare at something 20 feet away, for 20 seconds. From where I sit on the couch, working on my laptop during the day, the window in the dining room that looks out into a small fenced area with the bird feeder is about 20 feet away. In addition, when I am being good and disciplined, using what is called the pomedaro method of writing (setting timer for 20 minutes, taking a break, then getting back to writing) the first thing I do is look up to see what the birds are doing. So, all I need to do is try to look out for 20 seconds, which seems an easy task, and I will taking care of my eyes! If there isn’t any activity at the feeder, I can then turn my head to the right, look out the front window at the olive tree in the front yard or past it to a hillside and sky, where I can often spot a crow or a hawk flying by.
So, there you go. My bit of nature and good eye care, multiple times a day. And now I need to set my timer for 20 minutes and start to write!
In case you aren’t sure how you got here, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. This is my newsletter reflecting on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. If you aren’t already subscribed but are interested in doing so, you can subscribe by clicking the little button below. If you enjoyed this post, please do click on the little heart and/or share with your friends, and I always welcome comments!
I wondered what all your ZOOM calls were about! We've safe-caught possems in our yard and taken them to a park a mile or so away. Yesterday on my 6 am walk (still dark, except for the moon) I came across a possem lying in the street. It didn't look injured, but I assumed it was dead. Maybe not......!
Way back in (fall of?) 1994, southern GA had a BIG flood. My mother had been moved to my Apartment a year before after a stroke. The morning after the flood, I had fixed her a bag of Microwave popcorn. My mom did not eat much, so I threw it out onto the metal table in the backyard. A little while later a mother catbird came down and looked at all the popcorn. She called and her newly flying fledgling landed on the table. With a general air of relief she began stuffing the fat teen baby with popcorn. She did not have to search for enough food to feed the kid! A while later they left. I hope he survived.