11 February, 2018            Short and primarily sweet

Short because it’s getting late and Evelyn and I just got home from a long and excellent weekend with family in Blacksburg and Charlottesville. Virginia. Primarily sweet rather than completely sweet because it’s not all my lovely nieces and adorable nephew. Because of course Obsessive Uncle Jay has to include at least one picture of a hawk to wrap up the sixth full week of 2018. I won’t start with the sweetest picture – but it’s primarily sweet.

Blacksburg this morning – Shane, Kristin, Wesson, Evelyn, me, Tara, Mackey, Turner (timer shot set up by Shane) 

This picture is more than partially sweet – it’s 100% sweet. I regret cutting off the tip of Turner’s nose in this one but he wasn’t the subject. My nephew Wesson on his 2.5 year old birthday, walking Mackey in Blacksburg in the 50º February rain. For nearly an hour. And when we were headed back toward the house, Wesson wanted to keep going! I should have asked Shane, but I’ll bet Wesson weighs less than Mackey. Think about walking a dog that weighs more than you do for an hour in the rain – and wanting more:

Check out that jaunty dog-walking flair. That’s how it’s done – he’s a Natural.

Evelyn’s sister said “he looks like a mini-Jay.” If his face was in that picture, she’d have said “he looks like a mini-Jay except he’s much handsomer!” He is a born dog walker, though.

Since I began this blog post a few minutes ago, my brother Shane texted me a picture he took early in today’s hike. Moments before Wesson hitched up Mackey:

Mackey keeping an eye on us, me walking Turner, Wesson walking point. This morning in Blacksburg (Shane took this one) 

Now a couple of obligatory (to me) raptor pictures and a pileated woodpecker or two then it’s off to bed. Have a great week!

1st raptor of the week – Red-shouldered hawk, 9:20 Monday AM, 10000 block Patterson Ave

2nd raptor of the week, Red-tail leaping from a cell phone tower near my house Tuesday

Honestly IMO there really is NOT such thing as too many raptors. But three is enough. Red-tail Friday, Discovery United Methodist Church.

Slight change of pace – no red-tail here, but a red crest on this adult female Pileated woodpecker from Pony Pasture early Monday afternoon:

Adult female Pileated woodpecker, Pony Pasture, Monday midday

 I hope to be more organized next week and get a more substantial blog post up at a more reasonable hour. But there are never guarantees. But have a fine week! All best, 

Jay, Evelyn, Mackey, Turner, and more

PS On our way back from visiting my brother and his wife and my nephew in Blacksburg today, Evelyn and I stopped in Charlottesville and had a late lunch with our niece Clare! I regret we came away with zero photographs, but our visit was as wonderful as our visit to Blacksburg. Except it didn’t last long enough! Another time.