Today was a pretty good day.

My stepfather sent me my own little matrix for printing and some good quality paper and linoleum to play around with. I got a dozen grumpy chicken prints pulled, half a Digger done, and did the first pass of oils on this piece I’m toying with–gonna working in very very thin layers and doing a lot of fade-outs. I suspect it may look really seventies, but such is life.

And, best of all, I went out for a walk around Shelley Lake, and since it was the first warm day after a coldsnap, it was a great day for waterfowl! Saw a female common merganser, a female bufflehead, and the real score, a pied-billed grebe. The merganser and grebe are lifers for me, so I was pleased.

In addition to that, which was awesome enough, I went down to the usual spot by the water to see if anything was down there–I’ve seen kingfishers, little herons, flycatchers and various warblers there before–and I startled five deer who were drinking. They jumped up and bounded off, except for one who stood and watched me suspiciously for a minute. I know deer are rats with hooves, they were the bane of my garden, but…they’re so pretty.

Then a Canadian goose who has lately decided that this is HIS stretch of creek decided to chase me off with much hissing. I am larger than a goose, but notably less belligerent unless young-earth creationism or the moon landing is involved. I quit the field.

Shelley Lake’s been good recently–I saw a red-shouldered hawk last time I was there, who literally sat and posed on a stub of a tree about twenty feet away for over a minute. Should try to get out to Lake Crabtree some morning this week and see if the spring migration’s blowin’ anything through.

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