Almost wordless: It’s now officially the third snowiest winter in Chicago. Photo taken this morning in my backyard.
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Welcome to Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia of To Be Continued, a place where readers share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.
After several years of being on tour with different blogs as the monthly host, the Mailbox Monday Blog is now the permanent home for the meme.
It finally feels like spring is in the air – never mind that it is supposed to snow again on Wednesday. Today it’s warm out there! I went for a two hour hike on Saturday for the first time in months and my body is letting me know about it. Time to get back into shape and use my new fitness tracker to monitor my progress and keep me motivated.
Here’s what showed up in my mailbox last week:
New Arivals
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert from Amazon Vine and Simon & Schuster Audio.
From the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a powerful and important work about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a compelling account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes.
North of Boston by Elisabeth Elo from Amazon Vine and Blackstone Audio.
A gripping literary thriller, North of Boston combines the atmospheric chills of Jussi Adler-Olsen with the gritty mystery of Laura Lippman. And Pirio Kasparov is a gutsy, compellingly damaged heroine with many adventures ahead.
NIL by Lynne Matson from Macmillam.
On the mysterious island of Nil, the rules are set. You have exactly 365 days to escape—or you die. Seventeen-year-old Charley doesn’t know the rules. She doesn’t even know where she is. The last thing she remembers is blacking out, and when she wakes up, she’s naked in an empty rock field.
Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor from HarperOne.
With her characteristic charm and literary wisdom, Taylor is our guide through a spirituality of the nighttime, teaching us how to find our footing in times of uncertainty and giving us strength and hope to face all of life’s challenging moments.
What are you reading?
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Is it Spring Yet?
Does the first sighting of a robin in the northern states mean spring is here? Maybe, but maybe not.
In the autumn robins typically gather into flocks and vanish from the backyards. Northerners assume they migrate south to warmer climates and move back in the spring, but in recent decades their behavior has changed.
Don’t Robins Migrate?
Robins from the northernmost parts of the US and Canada do move south. Forty years ago it was rare to see a robin during the winter in Illinois, but in the past few decades sightings have become more common. Robins have been routinely observed during the Audubon Christmas bird counts and I often see them in groups when out walking on the nature trails.
What has changed?
Birds don’t migrate because of the cold, they leave when food supplies are scarce. Migration is risky, and if birds can avoid making a long trip into unfamiliar territory, they will stay local or move short distances. The short answer to what has changed for the robin is the availability of food.
In the summer robins eat insects and worms, in the winter they eat berries. The explosion of buckthorn, honeysuckle and other invasive fruit bearing shrubs has allowed more birds to remain in northern climates than ever before.
We don’t know if the robins we see in the winter are the same ones that were here during the summer. They could be flocks from Minnesota or Canada, and my Illinois robins may have gone to Missouri. Then again, they may be the same robins that are here in the summer.
This past winter, which was harsh even by Chicago standards, robins would routinely stop by the backyard for berries from my Eastern Cedar Tree and grab a quick drink at the heated bird bath.
Where are we seeing robins this winter?
I generated this map using eBird to show where robins have been observed this winter from December through February. The darker the color, the higher the frequency of sightings. Clicking on the image will take you to the real-time map where you can zoom in for a closer look at the locations.
![[eBird generated map of Robin sightings Dec 2013 - Feb 2014.]](https://undermyappletree.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/robin-ebird-2014.jpg?w=595&h=439)
[eBird generated map of Robin sightings Dec 2013 – Feb 2014.]
eBird is a real-time online checklist program. Birders and citizen scientists enter their observations into the eBird database. Reports and maps can be generated for individual bird species showing their abundance and distribution at a point in time.
So, Is the Robin A Harbinger of Spring?
Depending on where you live, the sight of a robin will still mean spring is near. For me, when I see them scouting my yard in pairs and arguing over nesting territory, spring has arrived. After this winter, that can’t happen soon enough.
Saturday Snapshot was originated by Alyce at At Home With Books. It is now hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2014 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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Your Life Calling: Reimagining the Rest of Your Life
by Jane Pauley
Narrated by Jane Pauley
Genre: Inspirational
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Publish Date: January 7, 2014
Format: Audio, 6 hours | 50 minutes
Audio Listening Level: Easy
Rating: 4 of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
Jane Pauley, one of America’s most beloved and trusted broadcast journalists, gives voice to the opportunities of her generation—and the next one too—offering humor and insight about the journey forward. Your Life Calling is a fresh look at ideas that have been simmering since boomers first entered midlife with a different perspective on the future than any generation before: that there was more to come—and perhaps the best of all.
My Thoughts:
I never looked toward my later years as “retirement” – I bristle at the word. Instead, I looked forward to the day when I could work fewer hours, accept less pay and do more satisfying work. I thought that day would be 10 years in the future. I wasn’t planning on the company I worked for closing their doors leaving me unemployed. A disaster or an opportunity? I wasn’t sure. This book came along at the right time for me.
I now believe it’s never too late to reinvent yourself. The problem is momentum – we tend to keep doing whatever we are doing because change can be unsettling or impractical. As a member of the baby boom generation, and one who had the same career for 20 years, I am the target market for this book, a series of inspiration stories. The people featured in these stories accepted the challenge to change their careers after many years of working in a field that was not giving them the satisfaction they needed.
This is not a self-help book. It doesn’t tell you how to change but instead inspires you to look beyond what you are doing now. What did you love to do? Your passions, your hobbies? Sometimes it takes the first half of your life to realize what you really have a passion for and when you do it, it will not feel like working.
She acknowledges that not everyone will be able to quit their job at age 55 and reinvent themselves. Many of the people she writes about are already retired or had sufficient income to retire early. But some found themselves in the position I’m in – lost a job but didn’t want to go back to the same career – and were able to make the change. I’m still working on it, but I know it’s possible. Whatever your situation, these stories will inspire you to look forward to the day you can change your life to one with more balance and fulfillment.
At times we all need a little inspiration and encouragement to help us realize that what seems like an impossible goal is something we can achieve. A good read even for those who have not yet reached 50 – you’ll be getting there soon enough.
Audio production:
I listened to the CDs in my car over the span of a few weeks. As this book is a series of stories, it is the perfect book to listen to in bits and pieces. Jane Pauley was the obvious choice as the narrator and does not disappoint. Even if I were reading the print version I would be hearing her voice in my head. The audio version would be a good choice for people who don’t often listen to books and want to try out the format. The short, engaging stories don’t require heavy concentration and it’s easy to regain focus if your mind wanders for a moment.
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Source: Review copy provided by Simon & Schuster Audio
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Almost wordless: Despite the cold – it was well below freezing – I saw quite a few critters and birds out enjoying the sunshine yesterday. Two Fox Squirrels were lounging in a tree while their buddy dug in the snow below for some food.
More Wordless Wednesday. © 2014 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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Welcome to Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia of To Be Continued, a place where readers share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.
After several years of being on tour with different blogs as the monthly host, the Mailbox Monday Blog is now the permanent home for the meme.
By March there are usually some small signs of spring – a few early bulbs poking out of the ground, birds singing, a hint of warm breeze in the air. Nope. None of that this year. We are still buried under snow and breaking all-time cold records for sub-freezing temperatures. So the snowy mailbox stays up for another week.
New Arivals
.
William Shakespeare’s the Empire Striketh Back by Ian Doescher From Quirk Books
Return to the star-crossed galaxy far, far away as the brooding young hero, a power-mad emperor, and their jesting droids match wits, struggle for power, and soliloquize in elegant and impeccable iambic pentameter.
The Homing Instinct: Meaning and Mystery in Animal Migration by Bernd Heinrich from Amazon Vine.
Acclaimed scientist and author Bernd Heinrich has returned every year since boyhood to a beloved patch of western Maine woods. What is the biology in humans of this deep-in-the-bones pull toward a particular place, and how is it related to animal homing?
The Perfect Score Project: Uncovering the Secrets of the SAT by Debbie Stier .
The Perfect Score Project is an indispensable guide to acing the SAT – as well as the affecting story of a single mom’s quest to light a fire under her teenage son.
The Moon Sisters by Therese Walsh from Crown Books.
A beautiful coming-of-age novel about two sisters on a journey to forgive their troubled mother, with a sheen of almost-magical realism that overlays a story about the love of a family, and especially between sisters.
What are you reading?
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More snow, more cold, more ice. The trails are nasty and I haven’t been out much so I looked back into my archives and found some photos from a walk along the trails at the wildlife center near my home. An effortless, lazy birdwalk, where I didn’t have to work very hard to see birds up close.
Willowbrook Wildlife Center
Willowbrook Wildlife Center is the facility where I take injured and rescued wild animals. It is a 50 acre nature preserve, refuge and wildlife rehabilitation facility that provides care and medical treatment for injured and orphaned animals that are native to northeastern Illinois. The trails are open to the public and many permanently disabled animals – eagles, songbirds, owls, raccoons, foxes, to name a few – have a permanent home here.
Here are a few of the permanent residents that live in enclosures along the trails:
Barred Owls
Barred Owls have huge eyes which gives them impressive sight at night. They have three eyelids and a neck that can turn at 270-degrees. These two owls will remain at the center due to vision impairment and wing injuries, possibly from hitting a car. They look deceptively cuddly here, but in the wild are territorial, agressive birds and sharp hunters that swallow their prey whole.
Great Horned Owl
The Great Horned Owl is one of the most commons owls in North America. It is also the largest and most powerful. They can take down large prey including raptors, falcons and even skunks, although they often dine on smaller fare such as rodents and frogs. This bird had permanent wing damage from being entangled in a fence.
Red-tailed Hawk
Loss of habitat due to human development are a problem for the Red-tailed Hawk. Collisions with vehicles, poison from pesticides and electrocution from power lines are just a few of the threats they face. This bird had a broken wing which did not heal well enough for him to be returned to life in the wild.
A Visitor
A robin watched warily from a tree while gobbling down berries.
Don’t get lost
The back 40 acres is a nature preserve and walking trail where many wild birds can been seen. This sign is at the entrance to the trails. I’m wondering how many times people got locked in that it was necessary to post a sign!
Saturday Snapshot was originated by Alyce at At Home With Books. It is now hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2014 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.
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