The Scavenger Hunt

Can you believe it? I never participated in a Scavenger Hunt ... until recently. Cyndi put together a winning team, and yes, we really did win! We had to find some things and bring them back physically, and others we needed to photograph to document some activity. All with a time limit. We had a huge list with things to bring back like a raisin, a valentine, a parking ticket and much more.

We also had to find and photograph things like a rotary telephone, a small car, and an engraved brick.

And, we had to have photos of ourselves in certain places, positions, or situations. Like on the Idaho State Capitol steps and at a bus stop, or with a bride or groom, or behind the wheel of a taxi. As you can imagine, we briefly met many strangers (who often thought us stranger).

You get the idea. A good time was had by all. In this photo we are "wading in a fountain" as required. Part of the fun is dissing the other teams' efforts, and I'll just state here and for the record ... I never saw their feet in the water.

Nevermind, they can have the point for photographing their faces in front of a fountain ... they still didn't match our results!

And, since from this photo it might look like I'm not taking my online schooling seriously, I have to give an update. I just finished my second semester one month early, and instead of the required 12 credits I earned 21 credit units moving my graduation date a bit earlier.

Christmas Bird Count

Though I enjoy birding, I had never participated in a Christmas bird count. That is when Audubon and birding groups all across the nation do an annual one-day survey of as many birds and bird species as can be located in specific areas. This allows comparison, year after year, of exactly the same area to monitor population changes.

On Saturday Cyndi and I participated in the count in Nampa and on Sunday we did the same for Boise. This meant getting up very early in the morning and beginning to bird at daybreak ... then covering as much of our assigned portion of the area as possible as long as there was daylight.

The Boise area is a circle with a radius of 7.5 miles, centered on the capitol building. It was divided into about 14 areas and we scoured one of those smaller areas, first with three very experienced birders in the morning, then by ourselves in the afternoon. We carefully documented what we saw and counted the birds as accurately as possible.

Here is the spot we went to first in Boise, on Sunday morning. The sunrise was beautiful and the birds on this partially-frozen pond were just waking up. A Bald Eagle flew into the tree against the sunrise colors and a Merlin was seen there as well.

There were 832 Canada Geese out there, along with about 70 Northern Shovelers, a Ring-necked Duck, Common Merganser, and a couple of Coots. There were some Cackling Geese, too.

I took this photo on Saturday, on the Nampa count. Though birds are the objective, this old barn with the horses was a nice bit of local color I couldn't ignore.

One unexpected bird my group of four located in Nampa was this Great Egret. They usually leave when the weather gets cold, so it was neat to document this straggler.

Idaho has a lot of raptors (birds of prey) of all types. Cyndi and I located this Cooper's Hawk.

We saw quite a few Bald Eagles over the course of the day. This adult flew down the Boise River, then perched in this tree in the early dawn light.

I'm not sure, but I think this is a birdhouse. Hear what I'm saying, squirrel, *bird*house.

Some birds can be tough to identify. Here Cyndi is using her binoculars on an unusual, large pink bird seen near a feeder on somebody's lawn.