Month of September 2023 (Nat’l Avg $3.818)

Yesterday's single walk to the bottomland, didn't scare up too many sightings. Of course no deer, as stated, the Does & Fawns have moved up to the hills with the bucks. I did see one Turkey Vulture sitting quietly across the river with a few crows. TVs really do make crows look like small blackbirds, when the 2 animals are near each other. Moving out of the bottomland, I decided to go to the Senior Center, via my unaccustomed route thru the suburbs. That's when I saw three (possibly a fourth?) immature Bald Eagles flying thru the bottomland between some trees. Funny, I had to get OUT of the bottomland to see birds IN the bottomland. Approaching the Senior Center, I saw a Mourning Dove, birds that are trying to increase in our area.
The SC good lunch was fish & chips, coleslaw, muffin & peaches. The SC staff even served a margarita & later small cupcakes.

PS....Today, the bottomland walk to the Senior Center was uneventful. At the library, I re-read an article in October's Consumer Reports about food safety. Of course, rice, which I have recently re-discovered & started feasting on, now has a warning to limit its consumption! So much for reading. I'll continue to eat rice, but now I'll be worried! CRs gave advice on reducing the problems with rice.
The SC lunch was excellent, comprising Swedish meat balls in creamy egg noodles, carrots, dinner roll, apple sauce & I got 5 orange slices.

 

Today , 50 deg F in Naperville , 51 in Elk Grove

Wind WNW 2

33.3 miles, fcd = 54.3 MPG

 

Could you detect the MPG difference from the 2MPH wind speed?

 

Sometimes I think I can.

Today , 51 deg F in Naperville , 53 in Elk Grove.

Wind SE 2

33.3 miles, fcd = 55.1 MPG.

 

That’s counting your drops of gasoline pretty close!

 

Perhaps Edwin feels it in his foot and in the seat of his pants. I know when there are cross winds versus none, I can feel it. But no, one or two miles per hour I cannot feel.

 

Tooo....much information! Eeeuuuwww! Sorry you feel it, Edwin. Does it hurt?

 

Down to the bottomland today. Pretty quiet at the river, to begin.....some crows on a rocky river island. But, lots of fish from the release were jumping. Yes, about as many as I've seen, jumping clean out of the water. Even saw a fish out of the water with the 10 power binoculars! Nice. While glassing for fish, a Blue Heron crossed my binocular view & landed near the crows. Needless to say, the crows didn't leave out a welcome mat for the Blue. Then, I saw something skidaddling on the river waters. The binoculars showed it to be one of many female Mergansers going along on the water, like a little hydroplane! Other Mergansers followed suit. It was like watching a hydroplane race from a long distance! But, unlike hydroplane races, the Mergansers slipped underwater at times.....Well, maybe hydroplanes "slip underwater" at times, too! I was so busy watching the Mergansers, I didn't notice the Blue Heron had flown away & later the crows flew away, too. The sun was poking through the clouds, heating things, & I took off my long sleeved sweatshirt. Eventually, the Mergansers flew away. A bit later, since the birds all left, I decided to leave, too. Getting up & climbing the little rise of the river shore & into the tree shadows, I moved into a surprisingly strong breeze. Between the shadows & the abrupt breeze.....yes, you guessed it....it was cool again & I had to put the sweatshirt back on.

Walking along the river, I saw another Blue Heron in the water(might have been the first one I saw). Went back to the apt, via the dusty access road, hoping not to encounter any vehicles stirring up the dust. Yes, I avoided lots of dust maker trucks.....except for one. You guessed it. He passed me going one way, dusting me down. Then he made sure & passed me a second time, going the other direction.....dusting me down a second time. He didn't floor his throttle both ways, but I knew he wanted to.

 

Yesterday (Monday), oh.....my arthritis is kicking up. Fortunately, I planned to drive my automatic Elantra with the over-sized tires to the Senior Center, to show someone the over-sized tires. Fortunately also, I had both 15inch & 17inch wheels on the car, to show you can easily mix & match wheel & tire sizes with no problems occurring. The person I demonstrated the tires to, is poor & needs a spare wheel & tire. I wanted to show them that you can buy excellent wheels & tires from Craigslist & save a bunch of money. I don't think they were convinced, & I suspect the person will buy a new spare wheel & tire, when they get the money. I had talked to the person just a little bit about Craigslist, 2 months previously, but they still bought new tires "to be the safest".

Its quite amazing how expensive advertising traps the poor into thinking they need the best expensive products to survive.....& thus they continue in their cage of poorness.

 

Didn't check the temperature when I drove in today. I overslept.
Instead of driving between 4:05 and 4:55 AM , it was 5:05 to 5:55.
Traffic is a LOT different. I actually went 60 instead of my usual 55.
I even had enough time to fill up with gas in Elk Grove.
33.4 miles, fcd = 56.4 ( nice tailwind )
Fuel was $3.799 . 454 miles, fcd = 53.8 x.944 = 50.9 MPG
8.939 gallons

 

I slept well last night, also. As I said, my arthritis is kicking up, so I took some aspirin with a sleep aid. Yes, that pill does give me good sleep, if I've lacked sleep in the last few days. Hopefully, the arthritis is gentling down, & I'll be able to walk to the Senior Center today.

PS……On my walk-about now, after taking another pill without sleep aid. Walked to my mechanic to talk about WW II airplanes. Am at the Senior Center now. The arthritis isn’t interfering with my walk, altho my fingers are stiff & a bit achy. Will be good to walk the bottomland.

PS I…. The tree tops are turning yellow. The millions of falling leaves will soon be billions of falling leaves. I know, I know, there are 3(+?) trillion leaves. It's amazing how the bio-mass seasons affect the Carbon Dioxide levels in the Earth's total atmosphere.

 

A bit of rain outside the apt, which will increase the numbers of falling leaves. Autumn starts 2 days from now, late in the day.
Looks like I have a one in seven chance to be rained on, in the bottomland walk today. I'll take an umbrella to keep possible rain away.

PS....Took the umbrella & it kept away any rain. No animals in the bottomland today, tho. Even the fish weren't showing. On my walk later this afternoon, maybe I'll see some interesting animals.

 

Today , very nice weather. 63 deg F in Naperville , 66 in Elk Grove.

Wind W 2

33.3 miles , fcd = 58.3 MPG

 

All cloudy & high fog right now(9am), but immediately its supposed to clear up for a sunny day. We'll see. Our area likes to hold on to its fog.....& weather.....& lack of sun.

Looking down the street, the high fog isn't high at all. Weather report says partly sunny now.......it isn't. Weather report says its 52degF....my car says 48degF. The fog appears to be thickening. Yes, there is a thickening fog moving on to us from the north.

Hmm....this 3rd floor apt, which I had said doesn't face the maple trees, but looks out on the apt parking lot, I thought I wouldn't like. But, it has a sliding full length glass door, which allows me to see for miles to a 600 foot ridge. Beginning now till March, it should give some sweet sunsets.....already it has provided nice sunsets....over the parking lot. But with all my binoculars I can pick & chose what part of the sunset to see. Yes, already I've gotten some excellent optical views, even seen hot air balloons on evening outings, & some of the Boeing aircraft flying around the Snohomish County Airport, which was the old Air Force Paine Field, now with the Boeing Aircraft plant next to it.

Still foggy, 50 minutes after the prediction of clearing skies. Gosh, is that brightening occurring? Yes, a little brighter, but still cloudy & foggy.

1.5 hours late, the sun is now out. I had a good walk in the bottomland, looking at points of brightening foliage. Not only were the fog & clouds lifting, but the leaves are brightening because of the near Autumn. At the Senior Center now, looking forward to a good lunch.

The lunch was good & I proceeded to the apt.

Later, I went for a second bottomland walk. At the river, I lifted the Unitron 8power binoculars & just saw a Turkey Vulture upriver, passing around the bend. Also, in the view I could see some fish moving up a shallow riffle. When you have a wide-angle binocular, sometimes you get 2 views for the price of 1. It was fun trying to catch binocular views of the fish jumping out of the water. Later, I saw a TV (same one?) moving down river but 200 feet in the air & later still, another TV. I also saw a Blue Heron hoping to catch a fish along the river. But he was out in the open with no tree shadows to mask him. I think the fish could see him & decided to ascend the river away from the BH. Later, I got another view of the BH & within the extreme angle of the wide-angle, I could also see a TV in the view. So twice, I got to see 2 for the price of 1!

Tomorrow, maybe I'll sacrifice my higher power optics & carry 7x35mm wide-angles. I should be able to more easily catch fish jumping out of the water with the wide-angles. & maybe I'll get more 2 for 1 views!

 

From the July 2023 Daily Grind thread:

From July 24, 2023:
Walked thru the bottomland today.....Saw a Blue Heron with the monocular......
..... in a creek on which ecologists made a short dam to semi-kind-of look like beavers built it.....

PS....Now, I've heard that the dam was actually made by Beavers. Right now, maybe a thousand humpy salmon are at the base of the beaver dam, trying to figure a way over the dam so they can go higher to upper waters. So far, fish are trying to find a way thru the dam, & not jumping. The dam is about 2 feet high (shorter?), but is about 7 feet in downstream depth, that fish have to maneuver around sticks to reach the actual blocking dam portion. Plus there isn't a lot of depth to the water, which may be hindering the fish from attempting to leap. Another problem is that much of the beaver dam was constructed with invasive bamboo. The bamboo was easily harvested by the beavers, & the large leaf bamboo stems maybe most readily blocking stream flow, that hadn't occurred previously.
Among the many Salmon of not remarkable length, ARE some fish that are as much as a foot+ longer than normal. If these longer, larger salmon can get a successful run between sticks, I think if they are vigorous, could leap over the dam to deeper pond waters upstream. In the trees tho, I saw 2 Blue Heron, who probably looking for fish to dine on. If they could get past the BHs, the fish could make their way half a mile up the stream, where an ecology haven for fish has been constructed.
Could be interesting. I'm going back pretty soon to see if there are any further developments.
///////////////
PS I.....Went back towards the beaver dam. Before tho, I worked my way to the creek above the dam to see if any fish were visible. But, the high north bank & many overhanging trees made for dark waters & I couldn't see any fish....not even any fish splashing. Went further down stream....still no fish seen. Down stream further, at one point the creek was running fairly slow & deeper, as it got into the pond behind the beaver dam. Still couldn't see fish for the shadows. Looking at the dam a hundred yards away, then I saw sunlit water drops in the air as fish vigorously topped the beaver dam! Alright!

Working my way to the beaver dam, someone must have waded into the stream & lowered the mid-portion of the dam. Then, fish near the dam base could power up the slightly lower flow between sticks & enter the pond! At times I could see clusters of as much as 20 fish, moving upstream. Retracing upstream, I could occasionally see fish in areas of the stream exposed to light. At one point, half a mile upstream I saw a cluster of 10+ fish.