Could I Be a YouTuber?

Well, maybe after an equipment upgrade.

Yep, it’s been a while again. But at least I’ve been keeping up with the Bird of the Month!

Sort of.

Okay, last time I posted, I said I’d update you about a poetry tournament that I entered. Well, I sailed through the first round but—despite a valiant effort and a close match—couldn’t pull out a win in the second. But hey, it was fun. Madness Poetry is an annual event, so I may try again. You can find out more on their site and also view my poems.

Just a few days ago, I entered another poetry contest (couldn't resist). It's a summer-themed contest, and I used the opportunity to experiment with a shape poem. Check back here or in the news section of my homepage to see how I did.

As far as the birds go, I’ve begun making plans for a YouTube channel chronicling my birding adventures and my life as a debut author. Problem is, I have no experience shooting videos, and my photos are pretty uninspiring (even with the little zoom attachment I bought for my phone). What I could do for any bad shots or grainy video is draw the birds and use them as supplemental graphics for my videos and also post on Instagram. Here’s an early bird drawing of mine from when I took up the hobby during the Covid lockdowns.

Black-crowned night heron

The other problem is that I’m extremely camera shy, so I’ll have to somehow get over that if I want to actually appear in any of my videos. Those YouTubers make it look so easy!

Okay, enough of that.

I don’t have much to report on the “stars” front, other than that I finally submitted a completed draft of my next novel, The Star of Moon Village. Oh—and as far as I know, we’re still waiting for that nova explosion that I mentioned in my last post. Keep checking the Corona Borealis constellation!

See you next time!

Bird Success, Star Fail

My homemade eclipse viewer.

Project FeederWatch has come to an end (sniff-sniff). It’s always a bittersweet day. Of course, I’ll still be filling my feeders and looking out for some “wow!” birds, but I will miss tallying up my sightings and sending them off to the Cornell Lab.

A whopping 26 different bird species visited my backyard feeder station from November through April. Most came to eat. A few stopped by just to see what all the hubbub was about. Here’s the list (if you're using a phone, apologies for the wonky formatting):

Mourning Dove Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Blue Jay Carolina Chickadee Tufted Titmouse House Finch

White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren European Starling Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird American Robin House Sparrow American Goldfinch

Chipping Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco White-throated Sparrow Song Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird Common Grackle Northern Cardinal

But no worries, the citizen science continues! This time in the form of NestWatch. I’m already monitoring one that appeared in the shrub outside my dining room window. And just this morning, I spied three hatchlings!

Now onto the stars. Or at least the big one that hangs out in our neighborhood. As with the 2017 eclipse and the 2012 transit of Venus, I stupidly forgot to buy solar viewer glasses! Fortunately, back in 2017 I was able to get a brief look through my neighbor’s glasses, but this year all I had was the cardboard box viewer that I’d built from online instructions.

I wasn’t in the path of totality, but my backyard did grow eerily dim and the temperature dropped. Also, the birds got noticeably louder, adding unsetting background vocals to the whole experience.

The next big celestial event will be when a “new” star pops up. It’ll happen sometime between now and September, in the constellation Corona Borealis. Of course, it’s not a new star, but a nova (yeah, I know “nova” means new, but you get my point). A nova is when a star suddenly increases in brightness, and in this case, since the star usually isn't visible to the naked eye, it will seem like a brand new star has appeared. You can read more about why it happens, where to find it, why we know it's coming, and also learn a few fun facts here and here.

Okay, that’s it for now. I’ll be busy in the coming weeks writing poetry for a tournament. (That is, if I make it past the first round). More details in next month’s post.

And if you haven’t already, be sure to check out May’s “Bird of the Month.”

A Bit of News

A new month already? Wow. Blogging sure makes time zip by. In a way that's a good thing, since I’m excited about Bird Nerd coming out in the fall. On the flip side, once you get over a certain age, you don’t mind the clock slowing down a little.

Having said that, with this new month comes some actual news to report. My publisher and I agreed on what Book 2 will be, and it looks like I’ll be headed to the moon! Okay, let me rephrase that, just in case you thought those were two separate reports. No, I’m not actually headed to the moon. But I will be spending time with characters who'll be making the trip. A story that had gone through countless iterations—from short story to novel with multiple revisions along the way—will now be seeing the light of day under the expert guidance of my editor.

I won’t give more details yet since I’m not sure how much I can divulge. Perhaps there will be some kind of official announcement. Stay tuned!

Speaking of the moon, as some of you probably know, a commercially built lander called Odysseus arrived there in late February. Not only was it the first commercially built spacecraft to land on the moon, but it was also the United States’ first moon landing since Apollo 17 in 1972.

Despite it toppling over (oops!), Odysseus still managed to send back valuable data to NASA as well as some cool photos. Some of the data sent during descent and landing will hopefully help improve future landings.

Now that lunar night has fallen, the question will be whether Odysseus will wake back up in three weeks when the sun is at its highest again. Here’s its final transmission:

In bird news, nothing exciting to report—well, other than my first snow goose experience. A huge flock made a pretty picture while traveling across the blue sky. Klaus saw them first while working in the yard. Then later, while I was out running errands, I saw them again (could’ve been a different flock, though, since I was pretty far from home).

For more on birds, be sure to check out the latest Bird of the Month!