A Little About Birds

#NatureTwinning Part 47: Puffy vests, and tall boots, and quilted vests, oh my

It feels so strange to see these cold weather outfits. Apparently winter decided to stay a couple weeks late this year, then spring was picked up in progress, which meant we bypassed the lightweight jacket stage of spring pretty much entirely.

(Being picked up in progress reminds me of how I came to hate the Atlanta Braves in my childhood.  If one of their games didn't replace the TV show I wanted to watch entirely, a game ran long so the show was picked up in progress.  It's not fun to miss the first 15 minutes of a program.)

Today my office was over 80 F.  When I got home to my 78 F apartment, it felt markedly cool, which it really should not have done.  But 15 minutes with the A/C on and all was well.

Japanese Giant Spider Crab--Saturday, 3/24/18

It felt so bold at the time to wear shoes without socks, but as long as I didn't go outside, this was bearable.  It was March and I was just ready to wear purple ballet flats, weather be damned.

Outfit cost per wear (OCPW): $9.19

With a name like that, you know it's going to be creepy.  But man.

Henry Doorly Zoo

Lettuce Bed--Monday, 3/26/18

Wearing this light-colored floral scarf was the day's nod to spring in an outfit that otherwise looks like it emerged from the depths of winter.

OCPW: $8.11

Robert pointed out this feature of the demonstration garden--a lettuce bed with a lid to keep the bunnies out.  Smart.

Missouri Botanical Garden

Resting Cheetah--Tuesday, 3/27/18

I didn't feel like wearing this infinity scarf double looped around my neck because that seemed too short for such a long expanse of white t-shirt (a color that isn't even picked up anywhere else in the outfit).  But when I wore it single looped (i.e. just hanging around my neck), it looked goofy to me when I saw how it photographed--this is a method that's hit or miss for me, and I haven't figured out why it sometimes looks fine and sometimes not.  Is it the scarf itself?  The shirt it's worn with?  The alignment of the planets?

So in a last minute act of desperation, I tried tying a knot in the single loop to restrain some of the volume and voila!  I think it looked great this way.  No doubt this is on some list of 37 ways to tie a scarf, and I probably read that list and forgot about it, but whatever the inspiration, I was glad to stumble upon an alternative way to wear an infinity scarf.

By preference, I purchase long scarves instead of infinity scarves because they're so much more versatile, but when you see an animal print scarf in a color combination that is missing from your scarf collection for $8 at the thrift store, whaddaya gonna do?

OCPW: $13.80

By contrast to my various attempts to reach sartorial adequacy, this cheetah looks effortlessly wonderful every single day.  (To be fair, most anyone would in that coat.)

Indianapolis Zoo

In other news...The turkey vultures are back in force at work, enjoying the warmer temperatures and the thermals coming off the bluff across from our building.  It's funny--when I started working there, people in my department were vaguely aware of these huge birds swooping outside our windows, but aside from one person*, no one knew what they were.  But this past week I heard multiple people noting the turkey vultures' presence.

My office mate said that last week she and her husband were driving in the neighborhood and her husband was like, Whoa, those are some big birds!  She replied, Oh yes, they're turkey vultures.  He said, Turkey vultures...what?

She said that it was very enjoyable to be, for a moment, a person who knew something about birds.

Really, if you know even a little about birds, in most company, you are the (one-eyed) Bird King.

The other side of that coin for me is how enjoyable it can be to be around expert birders and to feel like I know nothing and am just ready to be taken to ornithology school.

*Incidentally, this person--who retired and then came back part-time working on a grant but who is in a different office building now so I don't see her all the time--Skyped me today to talk about seeing an osprey diving for fish at a local lake on Sunday.  It just so happened that Robert and I had been to the same lake (playing Pokemon Go) on Saturday, so we were able to compare notes on the birds we'd seen, and I was able to identify the "black duck with a white bill" (American coot) that she'd seen. 

I think I might not be exaggerating when I say that this is perhaps the 3rd Skype conversation of any length I've had since it was installed several months ago.  Hah.

And because it's the first of the month...

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit!

The Market Trio, playing a state fair near you