Looking for Nature Downtown

 I had to use my imagination.  My walk was a little too late in the day to find Ravens downtown.  Two days ago I posted a photo of a Raven seen above my driveway, and under the circumstances, I had to invent a new word, "Ravenblur."  See Sunday's blog posts for the original photo.  When I decided to bring my camera along on this mid-day walk, I was definitely hoping to find a cooperative Raven for a sharp photo.  The best I could come up with was stopping and staring with awe at this large Black Locust tree on Main Street.  Seemed like an ideal rest stop for a Raven, so I imagined one.  And it wasn't blurry.

 This little mind game put me in bird-watching mode.  I did hear some Mourning Doves in the distance, and saw a few crows flying quite high overhead, but found no opportunities for close-up photos.  That is, until I came across an egg of the Sierra Glassblown Bird that apparently had fallen from its nest, although it might be like Killdeer and other species that lay their eggs on the ground.  Not likely, though, since the egg wouldn't be well camouflaged.  It looks like it could have been a soft landing on this leaf litter, so I'm assuming the bird hatched successfully and is probably hiding under a nearby building until it's able to fly.

Before heading back up the hill to my house, I came across an amazing new product in a store window.  A camouflaged office desk set.  My imagination went wild.  I thought of "survivalists" hiding in a remote forest writing their rebellious literature and not wanting to be seen by spy cameras that apparently are ubiquitous these days.  Then I thought of writers who were paranoid about their ideas being stolen before they were copyrighted.  If they wore camo and used this sort of desktop tools, maybe they wouldn't be seen.  Then I imagined the sort of hunters who take field notes - are there any?  The kind that would buy a hunter's blender powered by an small internal combustion engine.  I saw one at Cabela's for around $400!  Imagine the comfort of fixing a daiquiri in your gas-powered blender while secretly writing notes on the location of deer, elk, antelope, jackrabbits, and quail with your camouflaged pen.