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Blackbirds & Jellyfish

Sunday, July 1st, 2007

Red-Winged Blackbird

My choice for Baylands Bird of the Month is the red-winged blackbird. Big flocks of them are scouring stretches of grass for seeds and bugs.

I don’t remember seeing them last year, but they were probably all around while I was fixated on my primitive flying skills.

The bright red epaulets on the males are striking. The males travel in large fast-moving groups, foraging.

Looking for a picture on the web, I learned that it’s one of the most abundant North American birds and that it loves wetlands.

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The Baylands Battle Bash

Sunday, June 17th, 2007

Slow Stick Chase

See photo gallery here.

Pete Lane is an impresario and master of ceremonies who hosts an annual party at Baylands: BBOB, the Baylands Battle of the Bay.

Only Pete knows why the word “Bay” occurs twice in the title. Perhaps he thought the acronym needed an extra B.

Weapon of Choice. The weapon of choice in this battle is the Slow Stick, a very popular airplane marketed by GWS. It’s cheap, it floats through the air and you can easily find replacement parts—wings, tailfeathers, aluminum or fiberglass fuselage pieces, motors.

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When the Wind Blows…

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

Weather Forecast

At the beginning of my professional writing career I was a cub reporter at the Los Angeles Times.

Junior reporters in the City Room learned by writing obituaries, short local news items and the front page weather box, all based on simple templates.

The template for the Los Angeles weather box was (and perhaps still is):

Night and morning low clouds. Clearing midday. High today xx. Low tonight xx.

So the task was to find the weather forecast on the weather teletype, note the high and low temperatures, type the story and insert temperatures appropriately.

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