Journal of a Sabbatical

July 28, 1999

the owner

July 28, 1999
Plum Island
97 semipalmated sandpipers
2 greater yellowlegs
12 semipalmated plovers
3 snowy egrets
1 common tern
1 white-rumped sandpiper
2 eastern kingbird
3 gray catbirds
2 great blue herons
21 Canada geese
4 great egrets
5 sanderlings
10 short-billed dowitchers
4 mourning doves
1 American goldfinch
7 double-crested cormorants
1 least tern
3 black-bellied plovers
3 herring gulls

Official Plover Count:
adults: 16
chicks: 11
fledglings: 4

Today's Starting Pitcher: Pat Rapp

Today's Reading: none

Jaguar, the owner

Somebody called the cat shelter today and wanted to speak to "the owner". That perplexed us. Did they mean the landlady who owns the building? No, they wanted to speak to "the owner or the co-partner". Bonnie told her to call back and leave a message for Stacy, the president, then asked us "who's the owner?" Everybody chorused "Jaguar, of course!" We told Jaguar he had a phone call, but he didn't deem it worth waking up for.

Second Samantha

Tyler has taken to hanging out in the sink. He's not looking for a drink of water, he just likes to be in the sink. I had to shoo him out in order to wash the dishes. He bided his time until I was done, and jumped right back in again as soon as the sink drained.

Jazzpurr was hanging around the sink too, and acting friendly when I came in but quickly got over that and went around harassing Cubby again. There wasn't too much fighting and hissing today in general though. I think the lower humidity helps, but I couldn't explain why.

Fudge

New cats are coming in as fast as others get adopted. Especially kittens. Two new tabby kittens, Zoe and Zanie, are so cute I just want to cuddle them all the time instead of working. 

Zanie	Nappy
Zoe

Roy and I made a great team this morning, getting everything done in record time despite assistance from Tyler and Jazzpurr and despite constantly bumping into the open refrigerator door knocking it closed and messing up the defrosting process. So I had extra time to pet Jaguar and promise him a postcard of Hungarian cats, and time to take pictures of the new kitties for Bonnie. I left her the diskette from the camera and slipped off to grab a sandwich from Teaberries and a large dark roast coffee from Fowle's to consume on one last search for interesting birds before serious packing.

I tried to limit my drive-by birding to an hour but of course once I got started I lost track of time. There are a way wicked lot of semipalmated sandpipers around. Missed the reported little blue heron and Hudsonian godwit, but did spot a white-rumped sandpiper at the salt pannes. Shorebirds are arriving in large numbers to fatten up for their long trips south. Starlings are starting to assemble into huge flocks. It's beastly hot, but the birds clearly know fall is coming.

I managed to extract myself from the teeming bird life and drive to Wal Mart for pre-trip shopping. Much as Wal Mart is overwhelmingly huge and intimidating and not much fun to shop in, it's one place where I can get both underwear and duct tape, not to mention film. I went for the red duct tape so I can identify my suitcase at a glance.

The trip preparation is starting to come together, but ... this just in ... István needs some books that Zsolt took back to Framingham with him, as well as a few thousand yellow Post-its (don't ask). Maybe I'd better buy another suitcase after all :-)