Wednesday,September 28

Fall is here and you can feel it in the air. Today and yesterday proved very productive. I was able to get the pool completely winterized and covered. That's one of the most difficult jobs to complete because it involves climbing under the pool to disconnect the hoses. Glad it is done.

Last night I attended a talk at the Grange Audubon Center in Columbus. The speaker was Gregg Miller who was the bird consultant for the upcoming movie, The Big Year, due to be released October 14. Gregg was one of the birders featured in the book that describes his big year along with 2 other birders. A big year is when a birder counts how many bird species they see in a calendar year. For a long time, 600 was a good number of birds to see. In 1998, the year these three birders were doing their big year, they each saw over 700 species. The book is a great read and I am excited to see the movie. The movie has Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin along with other well know actors and actresses to round out the cast. As you may have guessed, the movie, unlike the book is more of a comedy. The hope is however that the movie will bring awareness to birdwatching whether it be a hobby or competitive.

Some of you have asked if you can still make donations to the Parkway Run that I recently walked in and the answer is yes. If you go to the web site: http://www.parkwayrun.com/ and scroll down and click on donate you can search for Team Lily and make your donation pretty easily. Thanks to you in advance and also thanks to everyone who already made donations.