I have never seen a bluebird

[redbird]

In one of Edgar Pangborn's stories about a post-disaster northeastern US, the narrator observes that "I have never seen a bluebird", as an indicator of loss (due to nuclear and biological warfare) and climate change. I read that in my late teens and realized that neither had I: starlings have driven them out.

A couple of days ago, cattitude found in an online bird report a sighting of an Eastern bluebird in Inwood Hill Park, so we had to go look for it. This wasn't a very good morning for birding--gray enough that few birds were singing, and that it was hard to see more than silhouettes. We saw a fine woodpecker on a downed tree-trunk, plenty of chickadees, a bluejay or two (scarce now because of West Nile virus), cardinals, and eventually a flock of robins. Any other day, robins in late December would have been a pleasure; today we inspected them to make sure they weren't bluebirds (the species are related, and both have the orange breast), and went on. I realized that it had been too long since the two of us had gone up into the hills for birds--we've been alternately ill and recovering for enough of this Fall that we weren't going up there.

I have never seen a bluebird, but if the weather looks promising I may try again tomorrow morning, even knowing that the bird could easily be in Central Park, or New Jersey, by now.

Having not seen a bluebird, I went to the gym. My branch was open for four hours today, and the weight room was a lot more crowded than I'm used to seeing it in the mornings. Time being short, I settled for ten minutes of cardio for warm-up, instead of my usual half hour, and am now wondering if that's part of why I didn't do as well on the weights as last time. (Having looked at my records, I see that I did more on some machines, and less on others, than I did Tuesday.)

Cardio, 10 minutes, top heart rate 151

Assisted chin-up, 10, 4 and a half
Calf machine, 50 pounds, 3 sets of 15
Bench press, 60 pounds, 11, 8; 55 pounds, 6
Seated leg curl, 85 pounds, 2 sets of 15; 75 pounds, 15
Adjustable row, 90 pounds, 3 sets of 15

Crunches, 4 sets of 20
Back arches, 3 sets of 16
Yoga tree, 4 sets of (2 on each foot)

Tricep pulldown, 45 pounds, 2 sets of 15; 40 pounds, 15
Wrist curl, 25 pounds, 3 sets of 15
Leg press, 225 pounds, 3 sets of 13
Bicep curl, 35 pounds, 2 sets of 15
Lateral raise, 5 pounds in each hand, 2 sets of 15

Stretches
That'll be the last gym workout of 2003.

I had lunch afterwards at Excellent Dumpling. As she was seating me, the waitress asked if I wanted "the same" and I said yes. I was inordinately pleased, not just at being remembered but at being remembered despite the change in hair color.

Then I went to the Virgin Megastore and bought a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Unsurprisingly, when I called to activate it, I got a busy signal after pressing "2", and the Website doesn't respond. I'd like to get my number switched to the new phone before I leave for Montreal.

Comments

[mintogrubb.livejournal.com]

By "bluebirds", do you mean swallows? we get them in this country, but not over the cliffs of Dover!
I take it that you are into ornithology. My favourite birdwatching story is an incident that happened when my wife and I were on honeymoon. We had taken a little cabin cruiser into the wilds of Norfolk, and it was quite early after breakfast that we found ourselves chugging along at 3 knots on a quiet, deserted stretch of river. "This would be an ideal place to see kingfishers" I told Mandy, my wife. " they sit on low, overhanging branches to catch fish..."
"Like that one there..?" she said, pointing over to the right. Sure enough, just a few feet away, there was a kingfisher, who watched us drift past. It was the firt time she had ever seen one, she told me.

[redbird]

No, the American bluebird is a species of thrush--blue above, rusty red-orange breast.

That's remarkably calm and patient for a kingfisher. The ones here swoop and dive over the inlet (a sort of backwater off the Hudson River), but will fly away if we come close to the branch they're sitting on.