Posted 5/16/01 The fish, the birds and what happened to the phones? Sunday Night, by MaryHelen Swanson Originally I was going to write something interesting about the fishing opener, which at our house started well with the landing of four nice walleye. What a pity when I had to tell my husband all we had to eat was fillet of walleye the other night. But then the weather changed and the fish at Goose Lake narrows took a hike. My grandson rescued a nice jig from the trees, however, and was happy even if he didnít catch a fish. Then Jim Whittaker called with a concern he and his neighbors had about robins. Where are they, they were wondering. True, one either missed the big flocks returning this year, or they deunionized and chose to come back in smaller groups. I saw a few early in the spring, I think theyíre busy now sitting on nests waiting for the blessed event. The robin concern got me to thinking about geese and ducks and how I havenít seen as many of them around this year, although a mallard was standing at the end of my neighborís driveway watching the passing cars Monday morning. I also saw an eagle near my home this week, majestic and proud sitting at the top of a dead tree. His graceful flight over the top of my car was a super sight. As for other birds, in my yard all my beautiful feathered friends have returned. I was, however, a little late getting the hummingbird feeder filled. It wasnít until I stopped by Esther Schmidtís last week that I discovered the tiny creatures had returned. One showed up at her empty feeder that day. Sure enough, at home they had arrived and were looking for the sweet nectar at my feeder. They were patient, however, as I quickly stirred up their sweet food. I assume they appreciate it by the number of visit they have been making. The indigo bunting and gold finches are bright as holiday lights complimenting the yellow and red tulips blooming under my feeder. And the rose-breasted grosbeak, well, what can you say when such an elegant bird chooses your feeder each evening, sharing it politely with the stunning cardinals. My backyard aviary is completed with nuthatches, chickadees, house wrens, mourning doves, bluejays, and various and assorted brown birds who make a lot of noise and a big mess under the house eaves. Well, by Tuesday morning, it became apparent that I would have to use part of my column to help explain what happened Monday night when many area folks lost phone connections making long distance calls, faxing and internet access impossible. After several calls to various Qwest departments, I reached a Media Relations person named Bryce (sorry I didnít catch his last name). He was as puzzled as we were, here in North Branch, and then came upon an e-mail that had some sort of explanation. It was so technical in nature he couldnít decipher it, so he had to call the experts in Denver. Well, hereís the explanation in terms we can understand. It was the heat. Yes, the high temperatures that hit us unexpectedly early this week caused ìintermittent errorsî in the line affecting about 600 customers starting at 4:31 p.m. Monday. So Qwest patched the equipment and brought in some cooling equipment. And now the lines and equipment are being cooled and the Qwest people believe it will take care of the issue. They will also be monitoring the equipment. My questions is, did they not expect it to get hot here in Minnesota? If it hadnít happened now, would they have waited until June or July when itís supposed to get into the 90s, to discover that the equipment needed to be kept cool? There seems to be a lot of puzzles everywhere this week. At least we got an answer to this one, even if we do find it a little disconcerting. ©Post Review