Note to self:

to be posted in large RED letters on the front of my camera bag.

DO NOT arbitrarily decide that after a week of gloomy cold wet weather, the following warm... pretty... cloudless... Saturday is a good day to go out expecting to get a few good bird images at a local but little known, but well kept, massively underused by the public... park. Said park, despite its size of several hundred acres of trails, most excellent brush piles and tree lines for small critters to hang out in, and being excellent bird habitat will be inundated by uncountable car and truck loads of loud people with barking dogs and screaming small young heathen creatures who would much rather be sitting in front of some mindless electronic device while their brains stagnate into mush.
If the urge suddenly overcomes me to the point that I'm actually thinking about going anyway, rush over to my young 275# neighbor's house and get him to kick me in the butt enough times that I won't consider going out, even under penalty of a jab in the eye with a sharp stick.
Remember that you're not crazy about barking dogs and the best place for loud, screaming, unkempt brats is at least 500' away from any given place I've decided to stand, sit, or otherwise occupy.
Being able to go out and do things when the rest of the world is at work and underage humans are forced into some kind of confinement like school, daycare, etc., is one of the main reasons you retired!
THIS MESSAGE IS NOT TO BE REMOVED FROM YOUR CAMERA BAG!
Signed:
Self

It was too nice of a day to stay in -- even for couch potatoes. I should probably print this out and put it in my camera bag, so I can remember to learn from your mistakes.

Cemeteries are almost always quiet. Older ones usually have nice mature trees and birds. Admittedly, the habitat is not very diverse, so the type of bird is more limited.

All of next work week looks like there is a good chance for good shooting weather. Hope you have a chance to go out then -- while everybody else is locked away at school or work.

LOL Skeeter! We had a nice day for the Christmas bird count. I would just get focused on a group of birds and someone would come driving by on the country road. darn it! So annoying.

Cemeteries are a good idea. Especially if you have conifer cones, you might get some good finch action.

The cemetery idea is an excellent one and also a location I've never thought of... and not to be sacrilegious but at least the residents would be quieter and more mild mannered than the groups I usually encounter.

No conifer cones close but I occasionally come across a few in my birding forays here and there . Based on feeder suggestions from others, I think I'm going to pick up a few before next winter and try out the smeared peanut butter or suet option on them.

Just checked my two seed feeders and it appears that the wind today, gusting 25+ mph at times, has emptied both of them by blowing the seeds (BOSS in one and smaller grains in the other) completely out of the trays. Since both of these feeders are self replenishing by gravity feeding new grain down to the feeding ports, the feeders just keep furnishing seeds to the lower tray where the wind blows it out on the ground. I suppose the ground feeders that visit will have a heyday by tomorrow morning.
Steve

Too funny Skeeter. Sounds like my idea of hell, too.

I understand those feelings. I agree cemeteries are very interesting to visit, partly for their quiet.

Yep, there is a wide body of opinion that cemeteries can be good. Just don't try to stay too long, that would be a grave error.

*snort*

Oooh, Resin! You are bad!

LOL Resin. :) Only you would seek to undertake such a statement.

Thankfully it is not too often that we've dealt with this kind of noise. A couple of places are bad, so we do not often visit them unless it is a birding club field trip. One thing that bothered me the most actually was done by an adult in a speed boat. There was a large group of Coots in a lake and he drove through them not just once, but twice. I pointed my camera in his direction and he went off in another direction. He didn't need to know that my camera didn't have enough zoom to catch any details. ;)

Somehow, children need to get involved in nature and may learn to appreciate it. We take our little ones on nearly birding venture we take and they have always been fairly quiet. If they get bored, they just start looking for rocks and other treasures that shock us adults at times, like the headless fish.

I guess there are some advantages to working evenings and weekends. I am usually out walking on weekday mornings when the trails are less crowded. Downside, if I ever decide to join one of the birding club outings for a guided tour of one of the better birding spots, I would have to take a day off.

Margaret -- you almost had me explaining that, but my brain caught up before i could embarrass myself. Y'all are so good at this.

That's OK, Margaret's deadpan delivery almost got me, too!

Thank you Resin and Margaret for undertaking the task to inter a little humour in this thread.

Frank, I thought that people may think we're losing the plot.

Don't worry, sooner or later this thread will die and get buried.

And I'll mourn its passing.

*snort*

Although it may be buried in a mass grave with many others it will still be available for someone to resurrect.

Or it may just R. I. P. :P