The first week of November has overall been cool and mainly windy with multiple bouts of rain as an active pattern has set up as we slide rapidly toward late fall. At times the wind has been quite strong with the direction changing from southwest to west to northwest and back again. I have spent a lot of time in the south Quabbin area looking for waterfowl and staying close to home for Wilson (more on that below). With so much windy weather trying to track down late passerines has been tough but I have tried when the wind calms a bit and I have managed to find just two species of warblers. Waterfowl migration has been hot or miss with a few mornings producing little and a couple being decent, including this morning at Winsor Dam with ten species including nearly 200 American Black Ducks. Irruptive species continue to show up with continued large numbers of Purple Finches and increasing numbers of Pine Siskins and Evening Grosbeaks
Now for some sad news concerning my best bud Wilson. The cancer on his foot has returned to the point that the tumor has ruptured on a small part of the foot and the remainder of the tumor continues to grow rapidly. We knew the tumor would be back at some point as the removal of two of his toes two years ago was not enough to get all of the tumor but we just could not go through with a full amputation at that time. With all these recent changes for all of us we have had to cancel our trip down to south Texas we had scheduled for mid November. He has thrived the last couple years and does not act his age of 14 1/2. He is in no pain right now but he has to wear the booty to keep him from licking at the foot. Unfortunately there are not any good options going forward and we are still deciding on what to do. In the end it will be quality of life for him, as it has always been. He is convinced he can just lick the cancer away if we just gave him a chance! He still runs around when it is play time, even with the boot on. Fuck cancer.
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