Big Ass Year Contemplations

Here's Crumby in black vulture guise contemplating progress during his Big Ass Year.  Crumby is now up to 85 sp.,  including, of course the bv, which is #15 for Crumby's Big Ass Year.  Yet Crumby is seriously aggravated whenever he misses a bird identification, and therefore, can not count that particular bird.  We have already noted the missed swallow and the missed meadlowlark.  Those twain are still missed;  the swallow because it has not been espied again, and the meadowlark, much espied, yet always mute. 

Then there are the freak occurrences.  There Crumby was, struggling to harness up, when all of a sudden he audited a branch or small tree snapping; which event simultaneously spooked a pipit-sized yellow bird that zipped along close to the ground until it was ouf of state or sight.  Whichever came first.  All this Crumby espied out of the corner of his eye, employing Druid vision.   Trouble is, the responsible party or parties that provide rules or guidelines for the Big Ass Year, don't accept Druid vision particulars.  And well they should not.  Yet that bird was dang sure something.  But Crumby missed it. 

Crumby shall fret over missing that bird for the remainder of his mortal days.  Correct.  Only once the Goddess clasps dead Crumby to Her Ample Bosoms shall Crumby then have some slim chance of identifying that missed bird.  Praise the Goddess!

For many moons Crumby relied upon the Sony Cassette Recorder, Model TCM 818 for bird work.  In fact, as recently as just a few years gone by,  Crumby employed that same recorder as a last resort, yet strictly minding official rules or guidelines, for pulling gcws and bcvs out of the woodwork.  Ha!  Crumby remembers this one time he was standing on the edge of a cliff fixing to play the gcw vocalizations when all of a sudden a totally invisible evil doer sneaked up on Crumby and pushed him over the cliff.  Fortunately Crumby slid down the cliff on his buttocks avoiding any serious damage.  But simutaneously, accidentally,  Crumby pressed the record button on the Sony, thus taping over the gcw in favor of sliding down cliff noises with chickadees and titmice, (chicks and tits) excitedly hollering in the background.  Mercy!  That was a bad day at work!  That event didn't go into the NEPA document!

The Sony still works.  Well, it still records and plays.  But the counter was broke decades ago.  And the cassette door no longer springs open by itself.  Requires a manual assist .  Plus it is, by todays recorder standards, big, clunky and neo-luddite.  So Crumby, since he is in the midst of a Big Ass Year, has figured on updating to a digital PCM type recorder.  The new recorder should arrive this week, just in time for a calling meadowlark, maybe.

Here's another Big Ass Year documentation photo.  #63.