The Case of the Calendar Kids

Jennifer and Gary came to visit few couple weeks ago, and as we chatted I mentioned that Walker Physics had appeared in the online version of the New York Times.  The article was about students trying to pay back their student loans, and the photo showed a student in his dorm room with a copy of Walker Physics sitting on the desk.

A few days later, Jennifer turned the page on the school calendar at Mariner High School, which is the school where she works.  What a surprise when she saw that one of the photos showed students she knows at the school looking at a copy of the fourth edition of Walker Physics, which is used at Mariner for their AP Physics course.  

Here's the calendar page:

The Adventure of the Holiday Newsletter

I thought I'd try out the idea of a holiday newsletter.  Maybe next year I can do it in hardcopy, but for now I'll try a digital form.

Here goes:

Snow Day!

Well, the predictions of snow came true.  We saw just a light amount of snow coming down last night before going to bed, and awoke this morning to 2-3 inches, with snow still coming down.  It is tapering off now, and is supposed to melt away later today.

Here are some pics from this morning:

Our snowy back yard.  Betsy is tending to one of the hummingbird feeders.

Snow on the beach at the marina, and at Washington Park in the distance.

The view from the front door.  Quite a wintry scene.

One of our resident crows hanging out in the snow.

Christmas Is Coming!

We've started receiving Christmas cards, so I thought it would be a good time to send out greetings of the season from the Happy-face Darner to the readers of "The Adventures of Jim and Betsy" blog.  Happy Holidays!

Sunset Boulevard

We get a lot of nice sunsets here in Anacortes.  Here's one from a few days ago that looked like there was a raging fire behind Burrows Island.  Very interesting effect.

The sun is setting behind Burrow's Island.

With the mist hanging over the summit of Burrow's Island, it makes it look like there's a fire behind the island.

The intense colors in this close-up shot are similar to the way it appeared to the eye.

Sun Mountain Lodge

Last week, Betsy and I went for a couple days to Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop, WA.  We usually go there in the summer for birding and dragonflying, but had never gone in the Fall.  We're glad we did – the weather was beautiful, and such a nice change from the persistent fog in Puget Sound the last couple of weeks.

Here's the lodge as viewed from out room:

Sun Mountain Lodge from our room.

The Fall colors were more than we had hoped for.  Here are some samples from around the grounds of the Lodge:

Betsy at Sun Mountain Lodge.

Admiring the Fall foliage.

Fall colors everywhere.

Colorful leaves were on the ground and in the trees.

Nice views from the mountains …

… to the Moon.

Here's a view from the Lodge down toward Lake Patterson:

Lake Patterson and the road home.

We also saw some nice birds.  Here are a couple:

A Golden-crowned Kinglet.

A female Hairy Woodpecker.

There were lots of dragonflies, too.  In fact, we saw two different species of darners and six species of meadowhawks.  Here's a photo of two species of meadowhawks sitting side-by-side:

Two male meadowhawks.  On the left a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk, and on the right a Band-winged Meadowhawk.

All in all, a wonderful couple days off to enjoy the Fall.

The Adventure of the Bronzed Cowbird

In Washington State we see Brown-headed Cowbirds, which are nest parasites on other birds.  They lay their eggs in the nests of songbirds and warblers, and their young are then raised by the unsuspecting host birds.  One summer we saw a small Yellow Warbler feeding a cowbird baby that was considerably larger than the warbler itself.

Here in Arizona we also see Bronzed Cowbirds, which don't occur up north.  They look similar at first glance, but the Bronzed Cowbird is a bit larger, has a thick neck, and sports bright red eyes.  Here's one that was outside our kitchen window a few days ago.

A male Bronzed Cowbird at our home in Arizona.

Quite a handsome bird.  I wonder what species of bird raised this guy.