Tom Hascall Cole

Gayle Johnson-BeckerZoom zoom zoom!

Carol NewtonObviously a bad egg! :( Your descriptions are enjoyable.

Perry AlbertsonI still see one from time to time. Have read about the impalements but never seen personally experienced it! Thanks for sharing!

Carol NewtonI tend to agree with you!

Carol NewtonWow! -- adrenaline rush, huh? My brother was walking out in the desert in ID and one struck at his walking stick. It had not rattled!

Wendy ColeWho got killed by an eastern diamondback?

Tom Hascall ColeIn my investigations many years ago, I remember that one of the people in our family chain was bitten and died of a bite from this snake. I don't know where them records are anymore. Maybe it's wrong.

Gayle Johnson-BeckerNice. You are truly talented. My version would be two stick fish.

Sally Cole MooneyWow, I remember that day. I'd forgotten about that shirt, skirt, and shoes, all eaten by Hurricane Katrina one year later!

Kate Mooneyi'm so much skinnier

Kate Mooneythat's really nice photo. frame it!

Tom Hascall ColeI left that shirt hanging in a closet in Ireland. Darn. My favorite cowboy shirt. No idea where it came from. Some Irish feller is wearing it as we speak.

Joanie Johnson HartmanGreat picture

Jenny Anna LindeNeat pic. I agree...frame it!

Jim ZelenskiWoulda been a good pic if that fella hadn't run in front of the camera....

Tom Hascall ColeOh is this one super smokin' bird processor. I built it from the ground up. No factory-made swill pie this one. I raised it from a pup in the Mac System 8 environment and painstakingly trained it to work in OSX. It will extract any particular sparrow from all the flocks of finches and sparrows I ever saw. I've recorded more than 20,000 birds in it dating clean back to 1971, so I need an industrial strength piece of software. I can sort out any birds with size six shoes or false teeth or any who can be depended on the take the Fifth. I can explore time, graph a bird in a place or a year or in an anything I say. I can print you out a list of which birds I saw in which place at which time and with which person was there as a witness. I can view the data sorted, filtered, or fricasseed if I feel like it. It grates, chops, minces and makes one Long-billed dowitcher last all winter long! When I rebuilt it, I decided to keep the hokey, cheerful, old-fashioned look that it had way back when.

Tom Hascall ColeHey, the photo is kind of grainy. Darn.

Stephen ColeHells Bells, I aren't knew you had so many of them books.

Joanie Johnson HartmanIt was fun to see you after SO many years. Birding was fun - I'll have to get over there again. And you forgot "them there books", as per our grammar conversation.

Wendy ColeOh Tom....so sorry....how awful!!

Sally Cole MooneyDamn! Now you and Dits have April sightings of these creatures, and I've never seen one in the wild.

Joanie Johnson HartmanHow cool! I have never seen one in the wild either.

Tom Hascall ColeAs you can see, the long-billed dowitcher hasn't been sighted by me in 15 years (or ever) at Elliot and Cooper Roads in the month of June.

Sally Cole Mooneyoops.

Tom Hascall ColeThey migrate.

Tom Hascall ColeHERE'S THE REQUESTED LYMRIC: My favorite bird is the dowitcher It has a beak as big as a howitzer And when it moves it, it seems Like a sewing machine But it's just getting pieces of chow which're Quite tasty, actually Thank you very much indeed!

Sally Cole MooneyI just looked at the number of times you'd seen that bird (a lot), and then since I know you're a fan of it I decided it would be the perfect bird to see.

Tom Hascall ColeLet's hope that it's the one, but I have my doubts.

Stephen ColeHellava photo!

Joanie Johnson HartmanVERY cool shot! VERY cool bird!

Sally Cole MooneyWow. I'd always see the yellow-crowned on campus in New Orleans

Tom Hascall ColeThe problem with the yellow-crowned is well known: he is taken to small practices, while the black-crowned is known for his absolute refusal to take the fifth.

Tom Hascall ColeA coyote PUPPY DOG! July 5, 2010. His mom was hiding to the right, but she didn't bite me. They both walked to the left under the chain-link fence and into the birding area.

Stephen ColeHe could be Skippy's friend.

Tom Hascall ColeSkippy could be his dinner.

Sally Cole MooneyThat's because to Lucky you were the roommate from hell.

Tom Hascall ColeWell, I tried to share the Cooper's hawk, but this came along as well. Well, who cares? Nice acuarela if I do say so myself even though I didn't have much talent as a painter.

Jenny Anna LindeI like it! Love the colors...

Tom Hascall ColeBlack border is gone.

Paul MorrisWhat!?

Tom Hascall ColeI heard this horrific screeching and these weird birds flew up in the tree. They stayed only a minute and flew off into town West Northwest.

Paul MorrisAny reports of these birds living wild in the city? (I've heard only of the pf lovebirds.)

Tom Hascall ColeThey've been seen at the ASU Research Park (which is a terribly sterile environment and not an interesting place for me). http://www.azfo.org/gallery/2009/html4/Black-hooded_Parakeet_ASUResPk_Baker_20091018.html The pictures on the site are much better than mine. The page says, These Black-hooded Parakeets were photographed by Kim Baker on 18 October 2009 at the ASU Research Park in Tempe. There has been a flock of these parrots in this area for many years and they seem to be seen with increasingly frequency in other areas of town as well. The flock was 3 birds two years ago, but Kim saw 7 suggesting that the flock is possibly breeding. This species is well established in parts of Florida and may be on its way toward following the Lovebirds as the next established exotic in Phoenix. It is native to Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina This species is called Black-hooded Parakeet or Conure in most field guides, but the latest edition (6th) of the Clements Checklist has adopted Nanday Parakeet as the common name.

Tom Hascall ColeJust migrating through Arizona I guess.

Wendy Colegreat photo!

Paul MorrisYes! Nice pic.

Tom DitsworthA Beaut !

Tom DitsworthGreat picture. Don't you think South Mtn has a very unique (coloration) population of chuckwallas ? ... when I look on the internet at pictures of other chuckwallas (yes I really do that) ... none of them seem to have the bright orange tail of those at SM.

Tom Hascall ColeWell, I don't know. I used to the orange tail. You ought to google image the Sage Thrasher that I saw there yesterday. He has a streaked breast. You were with me when I saw the only other one I ever saw. Perhaps yo can recall that day, 12/28/2005. My database reads: Went with Dits and Steve and Dit's sons. Started at 8:00 and went in Dit's truck. Went to the springs.... We walked the wrong way and then went up an amazing long waterfall-like arroyo and clean to the top where there was a scary cliff. We went back down and found the spring finally. It had plenty of water. There was a lady there with a dog and a Nature Conservancy pack. It was a long hike. Afterwards, we toasted our adventure over several varieties of beer. I bought casserole ingredients at the store while we were at it. Dits's boy had some huge golden retrievers.

Tom DitsworthYes, now that I've reviewed by pictures, yes I remember it well. I especially remember feeling pretty silly walking up to where the GPS said the Spring would be ... when common sense would indicate otherwise ... I will send you a picture of the Sage Thrasher (I think) and our 'end of hike' shots.