56 thoughts on “April 18, 2018: Inevitabilites, Pt. 2”

  1. Had an owl outside our window this morning. It looked like a Great Horned by all appearances, but it was no more than 12". Cornell Labs says 18" - 24". Juveniles appear to consistently lack the size of "horns" this thing had. AMR, you've got mail.

    1. Since we're playing ID that bird, I saw this guy on a recent jog. Nothing particularly cool (?), just a lot bigger than I normally see around there.

      1. It's an adult Red-tailed Hawk.
        You can see the "red" tail (orangish-brown, like a Robin's breast) between the wingtips there.
        If it seemed larger than usual, it was probably a female. Females average bigger than males in all raptors species in the US except the vultures, but the degree to which varies. Some species show no overlap between males and females (the biggest males still smaller than the smallest females), but others will show overlap.

        1. If it seemed larger than usual, it was probably a female.

          Just in case, my frame of reference was "larger than, you know, like, a bird". That's about the extent of my ornithological prowess.

    2. Has anyone put up an owl house on their property? We have some living in the wooded area behind our house but would like to see more in the area. We certainly have plenty of rodents for them.

      1. "Yes". It was a wood duck house that an owl squatted. I don't think the owl used it for anything but a daytime roost.

      2. I looked into the dimensions for a Barred Owl house, and it seemed really big and gave up on it.

    1. If one more [redacted] tells me that Puerto Rico is an island surrounded by water I'm going to go full on Tasmanian Devil.

  2. Stick bait: The NDSU men's basketball coach called my nephew Jax this weekend to tell him they were looking forward to watching him play this summer for the Pulley Panthers 16 and next season with the Cougars. A scholarship wasn't offered (yet), but the kid is on their radar.

  3. It looks like this latest storm has veered south and spared us any more snow, and the forecast for the next 10 days shows temps in the 50s and 60s. I took my bike down from the garage rafters more than a month ago and now I can finally start riding it.

          1. Still kicking myself for that. Ah well, I'm taking a "let it melt" approach to my driveway and only shoveling the sidewalk.

    1. A month ago I put my MG's battery on the charger and fired up the car for a small "systems check" drive to make sure small things like the clutch and brakes survived the winter. It hasn't moved since.

      Thankfully the kids have taken to playing at the park despite the snow, but I'm ready for them to be playing outside more often to burn off some energy.

      1. I went home from the hospital in an MG Midget, which is probably grounds for an on-the-spot child endangerment arrest today. Pops’ other “car” was an International Harvester.

        What do you have — A, B, C, T-series?

        1. It is a Mark 1 Midget, so it has the 948cc engine. I joke that the lawn mower makes more low-end power. I drive my 4-year old around in the neighborhood, he puts on a bike helmet and we let it rip.

  4. Jose Bautista has signed with Atlanta — to play third base. He has 3094.1 innings at third, including 38.0 over 8 games (4 starts) last season. The last time he played even 50 games at third in a season was 2008. Hopefully he can get Mickey Hatcher to loan him a glove — by DRS he’s a -23 defender, while UZR/150 has him at -5.7.

  5. My first round pick in the professional wrestling death pool from last summer is gone. RIP Bruno.

  6. The hero pilot that landed the damaged airplane the other day went to the same college as my brother and sister, MidAmerica Nazarene in Olathe, Kansas. The pilot, Tammie Jo Shults, graduated from college the year my brother graduated from high school in Idaho, so they wouldn't know each other, but it's still pretty cool. My older brother transferred to MidAmerica his junior year and graduated from there. My sister, who is the middle child, went to MidAmerica for a year or so before going back to Minnesota, training to be a CNA and then eventually an RN. I've been to that campus many times. They gym at that time was basically a large shed. There were 4 or 5 rows of bleachers and for men's basketball games, the students would stand on the top row and bang on the metal wall to make a huge amount of noise. The roof was so low, you couldn't shoot from beyond halfcourt or even make long passes for fear the ball would hit a rafter.

        1. Back date to the 15th. Seems odd that they would DL him for migraines since he could be good to go as soon as tomorrow, but maybe because of so many off days before this, they want to be able to send him to the minors for a few games before activating him.

  7. Launch the Teague-Rose-Crawford backcourt into the sun.

    Chris Paul seems to enjoy being guarded by Rose.

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