More than 42
The heat resumed in the first week of August. In the weekend I walked in the Heard Natural Science Center. The temporal wetlands turned dry in the heat, as often happens during hot Summers. I saw a lot of species, but no new additions to my Collin County county of 86. I had 86 in 2020, though, and reached my goal of 100. We'll see how this year goes.
August birding in our area tends to be a bit less species-rich. For the past three years, I have hit the count figure in my county of 42 species. This year I will see if I can eclipse that meaning-of-life figure.
Sparrow continues to learn new commands in dog training. Right now we are working on "paws up," a trick in which he places a pawn or paws on a raised small item. I took him for a walk this morning. He enjoyed saying hello to the somewhat shy poodle/something mix. Sparrow believes that every dog in the work should be his friend, but his belief is not particularly contagious among other dogs he meets.
We finished watching Season 3 of The Orville, which was a fine season indeed. We also watched the latest Dr. Strange movie, with Elizabeth Olsen giving a fine performance as the Scarlet Witch.
I've been watching the games in the Chess Olympiad in Chennai. In addition to the US team, I've been following the Jersey men's and women's teams and the Swedish women's team. The stories of the Olympiad are those of 16-year-old Indian Grandmaster Gukesh D, who went on a long 9-game winning streak against top competition and Polish WIM Oliwia Kiolbasa, who won 9 in a row. Social media hovered over the difference in the two achievements, given that Gukesh played stronger competition, but I believe both achieved a lot.
My own chess play Sunday raised my rating 40 points, after a few tournaments with declining ratings. We'll see if I can get my blitz chess rating as high as I hope.