Month of April 2022 (Nat’l Avg $4.252)

Today , 50 deg F in Lombard , 47 in Elk Grove.
Wind NE8
16.2 miles , fcd = 74.0 x .943 = 69.8 MPG.
Could be worse. This is a great time of year , every tank gets better !

 

Excellent!

 

Thanks , Bill. No highway plus not traffic plus little wind makes for some okay numbers.

 

Yesterday, I was disappointed, without my pass. Thought about it for a couple hours, & went back to the Wildlife area….this time with the Pass & same set of binoculars. Saw some Mallards & the Green-winged Teal. It was really sweet seeing them with the 20 power Pentax’s again. I tell ya. 20 power is a lot bigger than 7 or 8 power! Over on the slough were more Mallards, but no birds on the lake. Walking slow through the Woods, I thought I saw small birds flitting through the maples. Not too excited, thinking they were sparrows. With the 20power optic in my hand tho, I was completely surprised to see Audubon Warblers! Welcome back to Washington, Audubons. It was sweet to see these tiny birds, with their patches of blue, white, black & yellow, so much bigger in the 20 power…..AND one day earlier than I have seen Audubon’s in other years!

 

Really?! You keep track?!

 

I’m not like other birders who note every day, date, time & weather conditions of the day they see each of their sightings. But, my bird book did have the date note on the Audubon’s Warbler…..& now the book has 2 date notes!

That shouldn’t surprise you, considering I’m carrying a 20power binocular. Yeah, my advice….get high power binoculars & quit pretending you are seeing birds.

 

Today , 59 deg F in Naperville and 52 in Elk Grove. Wind SE8

33.3 miles , fcd = 63.8 x .943 = 60.2 MPG.

 

Oh….I was re-reading a post I made about Audubon Warblers on another website & I added that to my bird book….. now 3 date notes….
/////
PS…..Oh today, saw a Yellow Throat at the Wildlife area. I marked that in my bird book, now.

 

Yesterday, after my successful use of narrow field of view Pentax 20power to see the Audubon warblers, I was lucky. The warblers kept at a distance in the higher trees & they weren’t as actively moving, as is their normal hopping-about-pace. So, the 20power worked well.
Today I had zoom Lucky binocular & saw another Audubon Warbler. Not a wide-angle, close-focusing optic, I got several good views at Lucky’s minimum focus and was lucky again.
Temporarily during this Spring small, fast-moving bird migration time, I’ll use lower power, wider-angle, closer-focusing binoculars & hope to see small birds at closer ranges.

 

Today , 50 deg F in Naperville , 49 in Elk Grove. Wind WSW6.
33.3 miles , fcd = 66.9 x .943 = 63.1 MPG.

 

Edwin…..I never had a Hybrid. Hybrid is rated for 50+MPG? So when you report well over 60MPG, you’re doing your part to get your Hybrid to do MORE THAN its DUTY, even at sub-50degF temperatures!

 

Yes, this car is rated at 51 city , 48 highway , 50 combined.

Today , 39 deg F in Naperville , 38 in Elk Grove , wind WNW 10.
33.3 miles , fcd = 64.9 x .943 = 61.2 MPG.

 

So…..now what can small power binoculars do, that high power can’t do better? Elantra took me back to the Wildlife area again, this time with the small B&L Legacy 7X35mm binocular. A creature of high power tho, I also had the 12X50mm binocular. First up:a duck whirls past me & the B&L smoothly picks up the passing Cinnamon-Teal with its patch of blue on its wings. Hurriedly switching to the 12X50mm, the optic does indeed give the impact of a larger image of the fading bird. But I cannot say I saw more detail than the B&L gave of the Teal at its closest pass. Therefore, the small 7X35mm gets the prize for elegantly getting the first look & for giving enough time that the 12X50mm got a look, too. Further along, the 7X35mm got an unflustered view of a Golden-Crowned Sparrow buried in a thicket. Following up,the 12X50mm got to see the sparrow too. If I only had the 12X50mm it might NOT have found the bird in the branches. Into the Woods the 7X35mm found a Yellow Throat. Yes, yes, yes, the 12X50mm gave a better enlarged view. But it is again problematical, if the 12X50mm would have found the Yellow Throat in the first place.

So there you have it.The small optic wins. Another winner is the knowledge that 2 optics are better than one, which has been what I used for many decades. Of course, reliable Elantra took me & binoculars home.

 

Driven as Edwin drives them, pretty much any car can "do more than its duty" by at least 25%, assuming "its duty" is the EPA highway rating.

Yesterday's commute to and from the most frequent place I go to bike with friends resulted in 74.3 indicated mpg (70.2 actual). I wonder what that would be if it were farther than 14½ miles, and didn't require so many stops.

 

Yeah, both of you are getting what I used to get on my 1980 motorcycle! Way to go! But then, I geared the bike up, & was getting mid-70’s mpg.

 

In 2018 . my commute was different. 15.4-16.2 miles , no highway , leaving work at 3:30. In the summertime , I had three consecutive 75+ tanks.
The good old days.

 

Yeah, but I can carry a lot more stuff than you did, and can be more comfortable in adverse weather.

 

comfort……COMFORT…..We tough & rough-shod bikers….& our mamas……don’t need no stinkin’ comfort…..
We ride ta Sturgis, pick up Covid & cast it off…….cast it off….cast it off……or die……

 

Today , 34 deg F in Naperville , 33 in Elk Grove. Wind N3.
33.3 miles , fcd = 60.7 x .973 = 57.2 MPG.

Hello , winter.