It was fifty degrees in Iowa City yesterday so we went for a walk on the Terry Trueblood trail yesterday. Other people got the same idea. One guy was jogging in shorts! Yeah, it’s fifty degrees, but there’s still snow on the ground (in places) and there’s ice on Sand Lake.
About that ice on Sand Lake. It looked thin in places and we could see cracks in it everywhere. But that didn’t stop ice fisherman and others from going out on the lake.
We even saw an American Kestrel! That’s the first time in over 4 years. In 2020, we were out on the Trueblood trail and another walker pointed out an American Kestrel. I couldn’t get a clear shot of it then, but I did this time. I think it’s a female because of the black bands on the tail.
The balmy weather won’t last. We’ll be in the deep freeze next week.
We finally got a couple of videos of a goldfinch! It has been years since I’ve been able to catch a brilliant male goldenrod and it happened last week on the Clear Creek Trail.
In fact, we saw a few birds with the usual idiosyncratic behavior. Goldfinch are rocket fast and hate getting caught on camera.
On the other hand, robins seem to be aware of when they’re being watched and ham it up.
Catbirds also seem to know when they’re being observed and flit away just as I’m getting the camera focused. The one I caught seemed to moon me with its rusty-feathered rump as it took off.
Cardinals also show off and can sit for several minutes preening while you get decent footage.
Birdwatching is a lot like fishing. When you tell others about the whoppers you lost at the lake, it’s a lot like birders telling you about the rarely seen, mysterious birds everyone but experts almost always never see.
And I swear I saw a blue bunting while we were out that day. It flew right in front of me. You should have been there. I haven’t seen a blue bunting in decades!
We play cribbage and we tried playing using the Muggins Rule the other day. We “muggled” through it is what I should say.
During one game, Sena got the total count wrong, which led to a confusing situation leading to her overpegging and eventually winning a game, which didn’t make a lot of sense.
Most of the problem was misunderstanding how to apply Muggins rule to overpegging. It’s not clear to us how to address that. Underpegging is easier to understand. If Sena underpegs and I catch it, I’m supposed to call Muggins and peg the difference between the actual pegging score and her over score.
She overpegged a large number of holes and got so far ahead, that I couldn’t catch up. What we didn’t understand is that, according to some rules, the player who overpegs is supposed to move her peg back to the original position behind the front peg.
On the other hand, there is more than one set of rules for how play Muggins. The American Cribbage Congress (ACC) has official rules for it, and they say it only applies to underpegging. It applies after you peg.
On the other hand, I can find guidance for overpegging elsewhere on the ACC website, and it covers overpegging. It’s in the Tips Library and interestingly there’s a slang term for it: Hauling Lumber.
“Hauling Lumber – Hauling Lumber (or Timber) usually refers to intentional Over Pegging, which is one form of cheating during a cribbage game. It is believed the term originated due to most boards being made out of wood and the offending player was pegging more wood than what they were entitled to.”
“Overpegging – Overpegging is pegging more points that what you are entitled to take. It may happen during the play of the hand, in counting the hand or by accidently taking more pegs than indicated. If the opponent catches the Overpegging, you must return your front peg to the proper place and the opponent gets to take the difference between what was pegged and the correct total. If you notice your own Overpegging before your opponent, you may announce the fact and correct your front peg to its proper location with no penalty. See also False Claim of Game and Hauling Lumber.”
However, the Tips Library also says this about Muggins:
“Muggins – Muggins is taking points your opponent misses. Muggins points come from one of two sources. If your opponent misses points during the play of the cards, Muggins may be called after a pause to make sure the opponent is truly missing the points. The other situation is where your opponent fails to count and/or take all the points in the hand. Once he has under pegged his hand, Muggins may be called for the difference in what was pegged and the actual count in the hand. Muggins may not be taken in the case of an opponent failing to take his two points when a Jack is the starter card, those points are lost once the dealer plays a card. Muggins is not applicable in the case where an opponent over pegs his hand, see Over Pegging – Hauling Lumber.”
The bottom line seems to be that overpegging is not allowed in Muggins. If you do it deliberately, you might want to haul ass away from the game table.
I wondered about what the term “Muggins” itself means so I made a cursory search for the origin of the term. I found out that the term is connected to the word “mug,” which means fool or idiot. By extension, I guess it could mean that a cribbage player who makes mistakes in the game is thought to be a simpleton.
This is part of the reason why we’re not going to use the Muggins rule anymore. It takes a bit of the fun out of playing cribbage.
The Iowa State Fair will again have the Cribbage Tournament this year! It’s on August 18 (the last day of the fair) from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m at the Oman Family Youth Inn. Registration begins at 10:00 a.m.
We walked the Terry Trueblood Trail the other day and ran into a couple of other bird watchers. They said they’ve seen many birds called dickcissels on the trail.
I couldn’t remember ever seeing or hearing a dickcissel. We have enough trouble catching a clear sight of goldfinches. Both birders said the name comes from the bird’s song. They said it sounds like the bird is saying “Dick, Dick, Dick.”
I’m not so sure. As it happened, I think we saw a few dickcissels that day. We think the bird doesn’t sound like it’s saying “Dick, Dick, Dick.” I think it’s more like “chirp, chirp, chirp.”
Anyway, I think I got a video of three dickcissels, along with a few other birds. Do you agree or disagree? And what do you think of the name “dickcissel” for a bird? I read one article written by someone who had a low opinion of how the bird got its name.
What are those things in the water? I think they’re fish.
I’ve seen a couple of Cribbage videos on Huddle Around Games, which is a YouTube site dedicated to Cribbage as well as other games.
This one is a tutorial on how to play Cribbage for beginners. He calls himself Zulwarn, which is his name when he plays the online form of a computer Cribbage game called Cribbage Pro. I play (well, mainly lose) on Cribbage Pro, but not on line. I just play the computer, on Brutal level. I guess I like punishment because Brutal doesn’t make mistakes.
The other day we went birding on the Terry Trueblood Trail. You couldn’t ask for better weather. We saw a lot of birds paired off and checking into the nest boxes or building from scratch.
I don’t know how we got so lucky. We saw male and female red-wing blackbirds, tree swallows, sparrows, and goldfinches.
The difference between the guys and gals is that the female birds tend to be drab. It’s mainly for protection. The females don’t want to attract attention from predators. The males tend to be flamboyant, as if you didn’t know that from your own experience with humans.
The red-wing blackbird male has stunning red and yellow epaulets on its wings. The female is mostly brown.
The tree swallow male is startling bright greenish-blue. The female is a bit duller.
The goldfinch male is a loud yellow while the female is kind of drab olive.
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