Yep, rare. They breed in Canada, live year round in the US, except along the Gulf coast, Florida (per Cornell's free Merlin bird Sound ID app). And not year round in Southern Arizona.
I wonder if it's because a. Too hot, or competition from the 100s of species that migrated through our backyard!
I lived on St. John for a year while working on the new hospital in the late 70's. Got to a few of the other islands...Dominica, Tortola, Virgin Gorda...before the Love Boats, the Hyatts, and the tourist explosion. There were still hippies living in Coral Bay in the jungle because no one cared.
It was more like rudderless youngster wallowing deep in the recession imagining that if I could do what I do, why not do it in "paradise"? I learned there's very hard times living the good life and that life on an island is great if you go there with money, but not great if you think you're going to make it there. St. John is the playground for a few super high net worth weirdos. I did some side jobs for a guy whose family owns the dirt under the New Orleans Superdome and a few other similar richer than Croesus (who's Croesus?) dweebs. I learned that yes, the super rich aren't like you and me. For one thing, since they know you're poor, they're not, and you got no other options, they stiff you on payment, or beat you up so bad it works out to about 3¢ and hour.
The locals are super nice for about a month or so because they think you're a tourist, then they start getting suspicious, then they figure out you're just another white kid looking to get a slice of their teeny tiny pie and the hazing starts that graduates to active torment. I've been slapped around by cops, driven off the road on my scooter in a near death event, and froze out of social settings because it's the teeniest of teeny little towns, not to mention alcoholism is the default position of way too many people. It ain't what it's cracked up to be. But, I'm glad I did it. I don't have to wonder about it.
That was the Trump developer model for paying contractors. It was also used a lot by our former governor, now senator Jim Justice. Why on earth either one of them would turn into idols for tradesmen and contractors will never cease baffling me. If any one of those sorts of MAGA fans had ever worked for their heroes, they’d have been stiffed on payments and then tortured with frivolous lawsuits to prevent them ever resorting to the law for enforcing their contractual rights.
Cool animals Cynthia...and of course, the Oceleot was my favorite, though I also liked those second colored birds
It was 70 yesterday, and today ( Happy first day of Spring everyone) it is in the mid-'50s right now, but temps are supposed to drop, there will be rain after noon, and possible snow showers ( GAH) on the way home
My life of crises continues apace...lol....one of the reasons I haven't been by....though for the moment it seems there is at least a brief pause....I need a vacation...
As far as my sister goes, she is back home ( where she isn't supposed to be, there is a TRO on her, but that means her husband would have to call the cops to report it and he didn't...this is pretty typical of them...they have been married for over 40 years, and are pretty co-dependent, and I don't think either want to live alone...my sister is supposed to report to the Nord Center, we shall see if she does...I and my other siblings have stayed out of this...( her daughter is pretty mad at her dad too).
Everything else seems to be quiet for now or resolved, just waiting for the other shoe to drop...lol
I'm finally 'roided up so that maybe my family *can* take the spring-break road trip we've been planning!
It was possible, after all – as it should have been – to retrieve the prednisone prescription that hadn't been transferred along with my profile from Pharmacy A to Pharmacy B.
I've reached the point where I'm *surprised* when some mundane thing works as it should.
We had some snow last night into this morning. Stuck to the trees, very pretty. It started in the middle of the night, right around the official time of the spring equinox. This is typical around here.
Noah Smith reviews the emerging new blueprint for us Lefties - Abundance. It is a great strategy I agree with. It's a merge of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompsons thinking.
My Noah liked approval and comment is near the top in his comment section. Essentially, focus on results, outcomes. Get out of the road with Nimby, bad regulations. Stop feeding the losing self centered narcissistic minor interest groups. Stop wiping tears, and Focus. Focus on getting clearly defined simple results is a fundamental to strategic success in many domains.
Those guys are regurgitating what lots of people have been saying for a couple decades and they finally noticed something was wrong and did the easiest thing imaginable...talk about it.
I know you like Noah, but he's so late to the game and playing catch up on this one, it almost makes me mad. I've gotten to where I can't stand the guy.
HA! I'm pretty sure he's not ever read a single word of mine, let alone heard any of us ranting about this stuff while being actively shut down by Zoning Boards of Appeal and similar inane municipal regulatory bodies for trying to build stuff people desperately need.
Writing about this stuff is easy. Doing it about 20 years too late so they can copy what everyone else has been saying and writing is even easier.
I read a lot. What I've learned about bloggers and journalists of their ilk is they steal most of their ideas from others. It's fair, I'm not saying they're bad, but they're just creeps jumping on a bandwagon. They got no skin in the game and wouldn't know what to do even if they did.
As an academic, I read, and look for ideas that can be tested. When companies began rolling back DEI, I wondered about market reactions. I think I am the first to liken it to "paying the Danegeld", but don't be surprised if some blogger I've never read said it first.
I figure it just takes time for most news to percolate from those affected to those with the clout to do something about it.
It's probably not a coincidence, for example, that a few years after I met someone in nursing who told me I should get checked out for EDS (and it turns out she was right – it's the thing that, besides the asthma stuff, makes my body kinda lemony), having EDS is now a social-media trend. The diagnosis itself is over a 100 years old, but the realization that medical gatekeepers can reasonably expect to encounter patients with it is incredibly recent, partly driven by those annoying patient-activists pissed off at having been dismissed for so long. And now that the message is finally sinking in... well, influencers.
Maybe it's just the life-cycle of getting problems addressed.
Self arrogant me! Says almost nothing is new over my 55 years of deep science and technology living. The foundation of everything except DNA, is 120 years old. The foundation for everything else, 400 years old.
Some guy made a name for himself saying, similarly, We stand on the shoulders of giants.
Eventually, as we continue to read and be curious into our later (ie 70s) years, we've seen so much and experienced so much!
The JFK assassination nutters are real. I posted a joke at WSJ, got plenty of likes, but one person posted a lengthy diatribe about some expert on the autopsy, and how it had to have been a miracle bullet, etc. I didn't think conspiracy theorists would read the WSJ. It's for people who like business news.
Well, I answered emails this morning, so I am off to walk for an hour.
Perhaps there is a nearby indoor water park where you could slide down the Tobagon slide?We had an outdoor one in Northern Indiana for winter sliding. Pokagon State Park.
Saw the French article last night. Thanks for the George Will piece. My WaPo subscription ends in 2 days. Bezos' caving was the most embarassing of all the cavers.
Pretty much all I know about Trinidad comes from having read V. S. Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas, a brilliant and often hilarious novel that is surely one of the best novels of the twentieth century. Enthusiastically recommended. To get a flavor of the island's gorgeous birds and beasts, though, one still needs Cynthia's overview.
Apparently Tobago is the better island for tourists according to Rona. I met Rona in the BVI as she was the chef/lover to Captain Jack on a sailing trip we took when our girls were 6 and 8. Oh the stories I could tell about that trip. A few years later Jack died and I flew Rona to WI and took her to his memorial service in the town where we eventually would buy our lake house. I knew of another “Trini” who lived in our small town so I hooked the two women up and we had a swell time at her house one evening. We have since drifted apart but the memories are vivid.
Good morning. 49 degrees now, rising to the 60s today. it rained last night.
The mothership is reporting on the impending constitutional crisis of the Trump administration sidestepping (if not denying) court orders to halt certain deportations carried out under a 1798 law. The FP is healing an article about the “cult” of the United Healthcare CEO killer (whose name I refuse to type).
My youngest did a high adventure camp sailing in the Bahamas. He had a wonderful time.
D's troop will do sailing at Florida Seabase in July.
I would not have believed those hummers are in the same family as my Anna’s.
And a bonus video about the islands! Thanks
You're welcome.
The ocelot is definitely a cat!
Audience capture.
Aww...
Awww...
Yep, rare. They breed in Canada, live year round in the US, except along the Gulf coast, Florida (per Cornell's free Merlin bird Sound ID app). And not year round in Southern Arizona.
I wonder if it's because a. Too hot, or competition from the 100s of species that migrated through our backyard!
Great TSAF today...beautiful birds, and the ocelot...marvelous.
Thank you. Have you been to Caribbean islands?
I have been to The Bahamas and The Dominican Republic...both cool places
I lived on St. John for a year while working on the new hospital in the late 70's. Got to a few of the other islands...Dominica, Tortola, Virgin Gorda...before the Love Boats, the Hyatts, and the tourist explosion. There were still hippies living in Coral Bay in the jungle because no one cared.
Cool. Sounds very Jimmy Buffett.
It was more like rudderless youngster wallowing deep in the recession imagining that if I could do what I do, why not do it in "paradise"? I learned there's very hard times living the good life and that life on an island is great if you go there with money, but not great if you think you're going to make it there. St. John is the playground for a few super high net worth weirdos. I did some side jobs for a guy whose family owns the dirt under the New Orleans Superdome and a few other similar richer than Croesus (who's Croesus?) dweebs. I learned that yes, the super rich aren't like you and me. For one thing, since they know you're poor, they're not, and you got no other options, they stiff you on payment, or beat you up so bad it works out to about 3¢ and hour.
The locals are super nice for about a month or so because they think you're a tourist, then they start getting suspicious, then they figure out you're just another white kid looking to get a slice of their teeny tiny pie and the hazing starts that graduates to active torment. I've been slapped around by cops, driven off the road on my scooter in a near death event, and froze out of social settings because it's the teeniest of teeny little towns, not to mention alcoholism is the default position of way too many people. It ain't what it's cracked up to be. But, I'm glad I did it. I don't have to wonder about it.
That was the Trump developer model for paying contractors. It was also used a lot by our former governor, now senator Jim Justice. Why on earth either one of them would turn into idols for tradesmen and contractors will never cease baffling me. If any one of those sorts of MAGA fans had ever worked for their heroes, they’d have been stiffed on payments and then tortured with frivolous lawsuits to prevent them ever resorting to the law for enforcing their contractual rights.
Yup.
Fascinating.
Only in retrospect.
A good scar forgets pain....Chinese proverb.
I got a lot of scars that became much more interesting after several decades.
Cool animals Cynthia...and of course, the Oceleot was my favorite, though I also liked those second colored birds
It was 70 yesterday, and today ( Happy first day of Spring everyone) it is in the mid-'50s right now, but temps are supposed to drop, there will be rain after noon, and possible snow showers ( GAH) on the way home
My life of crises continues apace...lol....one of the reasons I haven't been by....though for the moment it seems there is at least a brief pause....I need a vacation...
Just know that there are many of us praying for you. Any news you're up to sharing?
Thanks, Jay
As far as my sister goes, she is back home ( where she isn't supposed to be, there is a TRO on her, but that means her husband would have to call the cops to report it and he didn't...this is pretty typical of them...they have been married for over 40 years, and are pretty co-dependent, and I don't think either want to live alone...my sister is supposed to report to the Nord Center, we shall see if she does...I and my other siblings have stayed out of this...( her daughter is pretty mad at her dad too).
Everything else seems to be quiet for now or resolved, just waiting for the other shoe to drop...lol
I'm finally 'roided up so that maybe my family *can* take the spring-break road trip we've been planning!
It was possible, after all – as it should have been – to retrieve the prednisone prescription that hadn't been transferred along with my profile from Pharmacy A to Pharmacy B.
I've reached the point where I'm *surprised* when some mundane thing works as it should.
Yea!
Rain moving through right now. Twenties to follow on the backend.
We had some snow last night into this morning. Stuck to the trees, very pretty. It started in the middle of the night, right around the official time of the spring equinox. This is typical around here.
Ah, so it's your fault?...lol
Ocelots are certainly cute. Good luck with your stuff.
Thanks, the most recent one ( my sisters issue) seems to have solved itself...
Are they named after the little brother of King Arthur's friend, Lancelot?
Lancelots have pointy markings.
Do spamalots make a sound like two coconut shells being clapped together?
More like the sound of two pieces of ham being slapped together. But I think 'Hamilot" might have confused fans of Lin Miranda's work.
Noah Smith reviews the emerging new blueprint for us Lefties - Abundance. It is a great strategy I agree with. It's a merge of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompsons thinking.
My Noah liked approval and comment is near the top in his comment section. Essentially, focus on results, outcomes. Get out of the road with Nimby, bad regulations. Stop feeding the losing self centered narcissistic minor interest groups. Stop wiping tears, and Focus. Focus on getting clearly defined simple results is a fundamental to strategic success in many domains.
https://open.substack.com/pub/noahpinion/p/book-review-abundance
Derek Thompsons essay at The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/03/abundance-americas-next-political-order/682069/
Those guys are regurgitating what lots of people have been saying for a couple decades and they finally noticed something was wrong and did the easiest thing imaginable...talk about it.
I know you like Noah, but he's so late to the game and playing catch up on this one, it almost makes me mad. I've gotten to where I can't stand the guy.
I know you don't. He's like a jumping cholla needle in your foot.🤣🤣🍒
I’m just jealous that he makes a bunch of money writing about the stuff some of us have been saying for 20 years.
Imitation is a form of flattery my friend!!
HA! I'm pretty sure he's not ever read a single word of mine, let alone heard any of us ranting about this stuff while being actively shut down by Zoning Boards of Appeal and similar inane municipal regulatory bodies for trying to build stuff people desperately need.
Writing about this stuff is easy. Doing it about 20 years too late so they can copy what everyone else has been saying and writing is even easier.
I read a lot. What I've learned about bloggers and journalists of their ilk is they steal most of their ideas from others. It's fair, I'm not saying they're bad, but they're just creeps jumping on a bandwagon. They got no skin in the game and wouldn't know what to do even if they did.
Academics call that research! 😏
As an academic, I read, and look for ideas that can be tested. When companies began rolling back DEI, I wondered about market reactions. I think I am the first to liken it to "paying the Danegeld", but don't be surprised if some blogger I've never read said it first.
I figure it just takes time for most news to percolate from those affected to those with the clout to do something about it.
It's probably not a coincidence, for example, that a few years after I met someone in nursing who told me I should get checked out for EDS (and it turns out she was right – it's the thing that, besides the asthma stuff, makes my body kinda lemony), having EDS is now a social-media trend. The diagnosis itself is over a 100 years old, but the realization that medical gatekeepers can reasonably expect to encounter patients with it is incredibly recent, partly driven by those annoying patient-activists pissed off at having been dismissed for so long. And now that the message is finally sinking in... well, influencers.
Maybe it's just the life-cycle of getting problems addressed.
He actually does read the comments. He's liked about a dozen or 2 of mine. I'm sure he'd read yours.
Self arrogant me! Says almost nothing is new over my 55 years of deep science and technology living. The foundation of everything except DNA, is 120 years old. The foundation for everything else, 400 years old.
Some guy made a name for himself saying, similarly, We stand on the shoulders of giants.
Eventually, as we continue to read and be curious into our later (ie 70s) years, we've seen so much and experienced so much!
I read in a piece, I think on The Dispatch, that they talked about this years ago
https://open.substack.com/pub/noahpinion/p/book-review-abundance?utm_source=direct&r=2st43&utm_campaign=comment-list-share-cta&utm_medium=web&comments=true&commentId=101610086
My longer comment on the Noah Smith article.
I learned something today.
The JFK assassination nutters are real. I posted a joke at WSJ, got plenty of likes, but one person posted a lengthy diatribe about some expert on the autopsy, and how it had to have been a miracle bullet, etc. I didn't think conspiracy theorists would read the WSJ. It's for people who like business news.
Well, I answered emails this morning, so I am off to walk for an hour.
I agree: JFK assassination nutters are real.
Good morning!
42F. New lifer bird, Cristal Thrasher. Toxostoma Cristal.
Gambel's Quail, Gila woodpecker, others including for here, the rare and elusive American Robin!
Hi Doug...robins are rare where you are ?
Congratulations!
Our robins are thick right now—and chirpy!
Our robins are friskily eyeing our front porch lamp again.
Oughtta foil it today, I suppose. (They won't nest on the foil.)
Thursday already - but with sunshine!!! And jacket-not-required temperatures!
Which makes getting back to sorting through my mom's house easier.
Good luck!
The Trinidad offering was wonderful. Thanks, Cynthia. Wish you were tagging along with Cherisse.
Thank you, John M. I wish I could go to Trinidad, too, but life turns out the way it does!
Perhaps there is a nearby indoor water park where you could slide down the Tobagon slide?We had an outdoor one in Northern Indiana for winter sliding. Pokagon State Park.
Good effort.
Beautiful birds. The ibis down in Florida are bright white. The Trinidad ones are way cooler.
From occasional visitor JohnM:
Worth Your Time II: 'The Last Thing Democrats Need Is Their Own Tea Party' -' David French
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/opinion/democrats-tea-party-trump.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5U4.axwU.hCwN5cd73n_y&smid=url-share
'A Dismal Scorecard After Two Months of the Musk-Trump Administration ' --George Will
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/03/19/trump-musk-government-borrowing-spending/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzQyMzU2ODAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzQzNzM5MTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NDIzNTY4MDAsImp0aSI6Ijc0ZWI2YWZjLWVlOTItNGQ4My1hN2ZmLWMzZThkZjQxMzcyYSIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9vcGluaW9ucy8yMDI1LzAzLzE5L3RydW1wLW11c2stZ292ZXJubWVudC1ib3Jyb3dpbmctc3BlbmRpbmcvIn0.UCh6zCBBnp6ciPmYoH3UmfBuBdfeXh3cqgpVZKpFUdc&itid=gfta
Just read the French piece. Very astute analysis. It tallies with what I remember.
Thanks Phil
Saw the French article last night. Thanks for the George Will piece. My WaPo subscription ends in 2 days. Bezos' caving was the most embarassing of all the cavers.
My WAPO ends in a few weeks as well
Mine was over a month ago.
Pretty much all I know about Trinidad comes from having read V. S. Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas, a brilliant and often hilarious novel that is surely one of the best novels of the twentieth century. Enthusiastically recommended. To get a flavor of the island's gorgeous birds and beasts, though, one still needs Cynthia's overview.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8wCHKi7Po&t=608s
Tobago is also scenic.
Apparently Tobago is the better island for tourists according to Rona. I met Rona in the BVI as she was the chef/lover to Captain Jack on a sailing trip we took when our girls were 6 and 8. Oh the stories I could tell about that trip. A few years later Jack died and I flew Rona to WI and took her to his memorial service in the town where we eventually would buy our lake house. I knew of another “Trini” who lived in our small town so I hooked the two women up and we had a swell time at her house one evening. We have since drifted apart but the memories are vivid.
Maybe I'll see them someday. If not, TV.
Wow! That sounds like quite the exotic adventure.
Good morning. 49 degrees now, rising to the 60s today. it rained last night.
The mothership is reporting on the impending constitutional crisis of the Trump administration sidestepping (if not denying) court orders to halt certain deportations carried out under a 1798 law. The FP is healing an article about the “cult” of the United Healthcare CEO killer (whose name I refuse to type).
We started and will finish Eli Lake’s “Breaking History” podcast on that murderer and his apparent “appeal.”