![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I have a third interview now. Another teaching school, this one in Chicago. I'm very happy to have a third. Still, I'm a bit sad that neither of the 2 teaching schools have M.A. programs. I'd like to teach some graduate classes. My only shot at that right now is just, wow, way beyond me. I'll try to pull it off and get invited to campus, but there are so many more qualified people. I think it's that my interests dovetail so nicely with others on their faculty. So I'll need to know something about their work and theorists and whatnot. Lots of studying to do before Dec 28.
There's been a lot of bird activity the last few days. Today we had a white-throated sparrow in the yard, which is a first for our yard this year. Lots of mourning doves, of course. A very active male towhee digging in the leaves. Possibly a female or immature house finch at the feeder. Our yellow-bellied sapsucker was still here yesterday, but I didn't see him today. I put a ring of aluminum foil around part of our tree to protect it. It seems to be working. On leaving school Friday, I had a very pleasant encounter with a group of cedar waxwings. It took me a minute to recognize them, since I haven't seen them that often. They first caught my attention because of the way they flew. They *pulse* through the air: a pump and then sailing with wings pulled back against their body. They were hopping between some trees. My first good look at one, I saw a crest and thought perhaps it was a tufted titmouse because it was greyish in the light and the basic shape. But there was marking on its face and it was a little bigger. then it flew back to the other tree and I noticed how smooth its feathers were. That's a distinguishing feature of the cedar waxwings, they always look picture-perfect and smooth. It all clicked then. Waxwings are also gregarious.
I'm not going on any bird outings soon. Too much to do. I think next month I'm going to try to find a couple of experienced people who are willing to go on an educational outing.
There's been a lot of bird activity the last few days. Today we had a white-throated sparrow in the yard, which is a first for our yard this year. Lots of mourning doves, of course. A very active male towhee digging in the leaves. Possibly a female or immature house finch at the feeder. Our yellow-bellied sapsucker was still here yesterday, but I didn't see him today. I put a ring of aluminum foil around part of our tree to protect it. It seems to be working. On leaving school Friday, I had a very pleasant encounter with a group of cedar waxwings. It took me a minute to recognize them, since I haven't seen them that often. They first caught my attention because of the way they flew. They *pulse* through the air: a pump and then sailing with wings pulled back against their body. They were hopping between some trees. My first good look at one, I saw a crest and thought perhaps it was a tufted titmouse because it was greyish in the light and the basic shape. But there was marking on its face and it was a little bigger. then it flew back to the other tree and I noticed how smooth its feathers were. That's a distinguishing feature of the cedar waxwings, they always look picture-perfect and smooth. It all clicked then. Waxwings are also gregarious.
I'm not going on any bird outings soon. Too much to do. I think next month I'm going to try to find a couple of experienced people who are willing to go on an educational outing.