Rabbitspotting

"Time Traveler"--Saturday, 5/7/16

I suppose I'm not surprised that the sartorial echo of today's outfit was a bit weak.  Even if a person wanted to wear a tie-dye top and pink sweater vest, it's not an easy combination.  But this Reverse Inspiration player did get into the spirit of bold colors with her mixing pink and red and she's got the jeans and bright pink vest part down.

From shealennon.com

For once I am  not wearing my bright pink puffy vest, though!  The warmer temps called for an open weave cardigan vest.  I'm not sure which era my outfit is channeling.  60s tie-dye, 70s crochet-style vest, 80s jeans.  The ballet flats and druzy necklace appear to be from this century though, right?

Oops, I just read that druzy crystals are used to balance all chakras--I guess I'm stuck in the past after all.  (Good thing mine is fake druzy made from plastic!  Wouldn't want to get all balanced unintentionally!)

And the ballet flat was popularized by Brigitte Bardot and Audrey Hepburn in the 1950s.

So, yep, this is a whacked-out, time-traveling outfit all right.

Blue/bright pink/green tie-dye top (thrifted, Kohls), $1.33/wear
*Bright pink sleeveless cardigan vest (Kohls), $11.04/wear
Bootcut jeans (thrifted, Target), $0.22/wear
Bright blue flats (Payless), $2.67/wear
Green gumdrop necklace (Target), $5.20/wear

Outfit total: $20.46/wear

In other news...Robert and I went birding this morning at a state park about 30 miles minutes from our apartment.  We hadn't been there before--it is about an hour from our old apartment in Snow City.  It is clearly a very popular destination.  By about 11 a.m., the better part of 6 good-sized parking lots were full.

When we arrived a little before 8, we weren't the only people there but the trails we used were mostly empty, which is an important consideration for birding.  Unless the other trail users are also birding, people--especially people with kids and/or dogs--tend to be too loud and scare the birds away or send them skulking under cover.

Arguably the highlight of the morning for me was a bunny I spotted sitting on the grassy verge leading up to the park.  But we also saw a good number/variety of birds, if fewer warblers than we'd hoped for.  We saw a black-throated green warbler (the bird everywhere but the Hill Country has instead of the golden-cheeked warbler) and heard an ovenbird.  Nevertheless, it was a satisfying first outing of the season.

I also had the opportunity to test out my new BosStrap Side Slide--a crossbody strap that lets you carry a camera at your side, resting at hip level, so that it doesn't interfere with your binoculars (or another camera).  I saw it advertised in the latest Birdwatching magazine and hoped it was an answer to a dilemma I hadn't fully faced yet, not having ventured on a hike of any distance with both camera and binoculars.  Verdict?  It works so well!  I am beyond happy with it.

I only tried to photograph one bird, and I thought it probably wouldn't turn out at all because it was a windy day and a bit tough to keep my camera steady plus the lighting was unfavorable.  But while this one won't be gracing the cover of any bird magazines, you can at least tell it's a bird (an Eastern bluebird).
 

My photography skills have a long way to go, but I am pleased with the performance of my camera anyway.  The zoom capability is going to be very nice for capturing small birds in somewhat distant trees.

Now if I can only manage to see a wild rabbit when I have my camera and we aren't driving down the highway at 60+ mph...

P.S.  It was nice to have my Fitbit tell me that we walked 3.3 miles this morning.  When we take a meandering birding route, it's pretty much impossible to estimate the distance with any accuracy, even with a trail map with distances on it or an online tool that lets you "draw" your route and then spits out the distance.  We have too many zig-zags and double-backs and cross-overs and other non-standard hyphenated windy, circuitous movements along our way.  And elapsed time is not a reliable indicator--though I would say that on average, we go about 1 mile per hour of birding, there's a lot of variability around that.