Raining in NYC, something that apparently didn't happen the whole time I was gone, and something we badly need. Supposed to be thunderstorms; meanwhile, only drizzle, but we'll take it. Have been down to the river every day since the morning after my super dooper flight, and have this report: two almost-grown Gadwalls following their mom around, chowing down on the pilings. This morning, a lone mallard male. Urban Naturalist tells me the mallards and Gadwalls have been in evidence while I've been away, and the mallards have also successfully raised babies, though I'm not sure how many. We have two broods of terns and a couple of young cormorants. The terns have't quite got the fishing thing down yet, so there's a lot of noise out there when one of them actually catches something. Maybe it's the others encouraging him, or maybe they're discussing how to steal it. The young cormorants, on the other hand, seem to have been born good at fishing. We have young Canada geese, too, and of course herring gulls, black-back gulls, and occasionally laughing gulls.

The trees are lush, but one or two are turning already. I feel like summer's flashed by, mostly because for so much of it I wasn't here, so didn't get to be part of it daily down by the river. Not complaining, just glad to be home.

Italy pictures have been downloaded, by the way, so they'll be up on Flickr, and some of them posted here, soon. And then, of course, back to the Mongolia tales.