A Birthday

Yesterday, Diane and I had our planned outing. We headed over to the Lindsay Wildlife Museum, where we met up with Glenn Branch, his wife, Sujatha, and son, Vikram. Mark Isaak, John Harshman, Alan Gishlick and his s.o. Alanna were also there. We watched the raptor room and talked about their birds and our birds. One of the docents pressed us to demonstrate our raptor recognition abilities by naming the species of birds being taken out for a feeding session. Diane gave her the correct species for each and genders for some.

We went to the Left Bank restaurant afterwards, a place with good food and nice ambience. While most of the table had a rollicking discussion of cladistics, Diane, Sujatha, and Vikram had a talk about dolphins, whales, sharks, and Harris’s hawks. I had some 4×6″ prints with me to start discussion.

I ducked out to the van for a brief nap while the crew had dessert. Mark Isaak came out to say goodbye, and he got an introduction to Rusty, our female Harris’s hawk. Diane and I went off to a ravine where Farli and Ritka, our Vizslas, could run while Rusty and Glamdring flew around. While some quail and jackrabbits were sighted and chased, nothing was caught.

I did more standing and walking during the day than I had tried in a while. So today that caught up with me. I had a couple of short naps in between phone calls wishing me a happy birthday. My parents, Diane’s parents, JoAnn Griffin, Greta Kaplan, and Lissa Davis were among the callers. I also received birthday emails from John Wilkins and Troy Britain. Thanks to all of you. It was nice weekend. I’m glad to be here to see it.