6-word Meme-oir

I was tagged by Ivars of Ivars' Birds to participate in the six-word memoir meme. I thought and thought about how to whittle myself down to six words. As Mark Twain said "I can give you 3o pages in two days. I need 30 days to write two pages." So, as I tend to do a lot in my life, I will paraphrase The Simpsons:

"Nature embiggens even the smallest man."

So now I get to choose five more on this meme's way to conquering the universe. In fact, I think it's high time blogospheres collided, so I'll tag my wife Kellie at Cottage Knitting and send this meme into the knitting blogworld. And how can the other birders have missed Amila at Gallicissa? Are we so afraid of his Scrabble skills that we can't ask him to describe himself in 6 words? Oh, I see. He's out of town; I'm sure he'll have thirty of these waiting for him when he gets back from his tour. Fellow newbie birder and blogger BirdingGirl of BirdingGirl needs to show everyone what it's like to bird Mass and Cape Cod-style. Dan of Nervous Birds has been making sure Ram's Head in Annapolis hasn't gone out of business since I graduated, let's see if he can string six words together after a gig! Over at Hakodate Birding, S.C.E. supplies endless pictures of everyday (to him) exotic (to me) birds. Three words for birds, three for footy, which is what I assume he talks about at the end of his posts.

Okay guys, here's the rules:

>1. Write your own six word memoir
>2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like
>3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere
>4 .Tag five more blogs with links
>5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

William Butler Yeats

The Wild Swans at Coole

The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

Mute swans, since he's Irish. Photo from Wikimedia. Is it wrong that I don't really care for Yeats?

Flo-ree-da!

Well, we just got back from a long weekend in Florida visiting the wife's family, including our new nephew Baby Joe. My brother-in-law and his wife were very kind in taking us out to a few local parks to let me do some birding and to get Baby Joe into nature. I've mentioned before how great Florida can be for the beginning birder. It's pretty dang good for the slightly more experienced birder as well. Here's the breakdown:

Life Birds: 14

Wild Turkey
Eared Grebe
Red-shouldered Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk
Common Moorhen
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Common Ground-dove
Pileated Woodpecker
Loggerhead Shrike
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Hermit Thrush
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler

Florida Life Birds (excluding above): 22

Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
American Coot
American Oystercatcher
Ring-billed Gull
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Pine Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
American Goldfinch

And, hey, how about year birds (excluding above): 11

Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
White Ibis
Black Vulture
Osprey
Sandhill Crane
Laughing Gull
Fish Crow
Northern Parula

Pics to follow! None of them mine!