(Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know... more birds. But that's why God invented the back key.)

I was at the hardware store Saturday afternoon and noticed suet cakes on sale. I usually stop feeding suet to the birds during warm weather because suet can melt and get disgusting. But the cakes were cheap and I thought, "Why not one more round?"

I bought two cakes.

Not an hour later I was standing on my deck looking out at my feeding stations, the suet feeder freshly filled with two blocks of hardware store suet. On the feeder clung a downy woodpecker happily pecking away at the fresh fat. "Boy, that didn't take long," I congratulated myself, glad I decided to go with the suet one more time.

Then from the right, between my neighbor's house and mine, I watch a Cooper's hawk glide in not six feet above the ground - silent as a wraith - heading directly toward the feeders. It pulls-up in midair, hovers momentarily right by the suet feeder, plucks off the woodpecker in a flash, and flies into the woods carrying the hapless, unsuspecting bird.

I knew my feeders were a favorite haunt for area hawks. I've seen remains before. But this was the first time I'd actually witnessed a nab. And a downy! Why couldn't it have been a house sparrow? I felt very bad.

As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.
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I filled the hummingbird feeders for the first time this year on Saturday. My first ruby-throat arrived this morning. A male, gorget ablaze.

Despite the last 3 days in the 90s, summer is officially in Maryland.
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Addendum: On the way to work a pileated woodpecker flew right over my car as I drove down US-29. What a great bird day.

"Succotash" and "lima" are not in my cell phone's predictive text dictionary.

Oh... I also like toast.
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Snow! Damn you! Snow!
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A house rule here at Plugs and Dottles (well, more like a guideline) is to never bore the reader with reviews. Books, movies, TV, music, restaurants, theater, whatever, I've just decided to avoid blogging them. Partly it's because no one really cares what I think about Grey's Anatomy (Will Meredith ever stop whining?), American Idol (watched only by losers), or the Academy Awards (Tina Fey looked hot, then I turned it off.) But mostly it's because I just don't have the skills necessary to explain why I think something is worth regarding.

But every once in a while, I encounter something that I really must bring to people's attention. By not doing so, I'd be screwing up. Case in point: The Canterbury Tales.

For some reason now forgotten, I decided I wanted to see what this book was like; I picked up the Penguin edition. As everyone knows, The Canterbury Tales was written in the late 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer. That's so long ago the book isn't even in English, but Middle English, which is as much a foreign language as Sanskrit. I needed a modern English translation. The book is about a group of pilgrims traveling to England's Canterbury Cathedral. The pilgrims are encouraged by their host to each tell a story. The best of the lot gets a free supper at the tavern upon their return.

I never would have thought a book written more than 600 years ago - in verse - would grab and hold my attention to the extent this one did. I never would have thought scatological humor is no less funny today than it was then; that clergy in that era of absolute religiosity were regarded as universally conniving, prurient, and low; that tales of heroic knights and faithful maidens speak to today's world no less than Chaucer's.

As amazing as it sounds, The Canterbury Tales is one of the best books I've ever read.
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The snowfall in Howard County this year has been pitiful. I've shoveled the driveway only once and that was to remove a 1/2-inch layer of ice on top of a 2-inch layer of slush. Am I never going to see a good snow again?

On the up side, pine siskins are in my backyard in all their seed-gorging glory. Most years I don't see any siskins at my feeding stations. This year, they're carrying away small dogs.

At least this winter hasn't been a total loss.
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Son to Father: Daddy, when you were a kid, did you ever organize things just for fun?

Father to Son: Why, yes. Yes, I did. Why do you ask?

(Photo from a recently found Polaroid.)
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I've been meaning to post this photo for a while (taken with my crummy cell phone camera). I was so tickled when I saw it. My one and only reserved parking space. Made available to me while traveling for work in Tucson back in December.
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