Trekking

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER: Thursday night, we headed to Safeco Field for some baseball ... and Star Trek Night!

I decided to bring along an old lunchbox from the '90s as my purse for the evening. It turned a few heads (ha ha). The security guards who had to search the Klingon head upon our entrance got a huge boot out of it. Bet it's the first time that's happened to them. 

Our seats gained us special Spock shirts (the Mariners' logo and name is on the front).

By the seventh inning stretch, Worf needed to freshen up.

We had a local celebrity sitting in our section, Art Oberto, of Oberto jerky fame. Celebrating his 94th birthday, he threw out the first pitch! During his introduction, we learned he took over the family business at age 16. He was too young to drive, so before he went to school in the morning, he rode his bike to deliver Oberto products around Seattle.

We even got free Oberto jerky on the way out of the game. Thanks, Mr. Oberto.

One more random shot from last night. ... Right next to the Dippin' Dots stand, this colorful catastrophe was on the concrete. It was so pretty, I had to stop for a photo. 

BIRDIE: A few days ago, Annabelle was standing at our front window, and noticed a bird out in the yard. I keep a copy of the book "Birds of Seattle and Puget Sound" by Chris C. Fisher right on the front window sill just for such occasions. 

Christian thought it looked like a woodpecker, based on its bobbing head motions, and so Annabelle looked in that section of the book. In short order, she identified it as a Northern Flicker.

According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, "Of the 11 species of woodpeckers (including sapsuckers) that live in Washington, the Northern flicker (Colaptes auratus, Fig. 1) is probably the most commonly seen and heard."

On their website, the WDFW goes on to explain, "Flickers can also be identified by their loud call that sounds like wake-up, wake-up, wake-up; also a piercing, sharply descending peeahr (editor's note - that's not a typo). Any annoyance these woodpeckers may cause for homeowners is greatly outweighed by the large number of insect pests they eat, and the number of homes they create for other wildlife."

WDFW notes that the Northern flicker "are often seen hopping on lawns where they catch ants and other insects with their sticky tongues." No doubt that's exactly what the bird Annabelle spied was doing. We've got ants aplenty right now!