The Ballad of the New Captain Pete

<Sung to the theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies>

Let me tell you a story 'bout some folks named us,
Just did Minnesota on a yellow school bus.
Barely got home and then was time to leave,
So we headed down south for a boat to the sea.

Ocean, I mean. Pacific. Half Moon Bay.

Next thing you know, we were walking down the pier,
High on Dramamine, and toting lots of gear.
Ready for the journey and bundled in our coats,
But fog was so thick, we could barely see the boat.

Advection fog. Probably. Thick as pea soup.

Well, the New Captain Pete was loaded with radar,
And captain wasn't worried 'bout hitting a sand bar.
So de-spite the fact we could barely see an inch,
The boat chugged away, while Pete called, "Don't fall overboard and break my 30-year streak".

Waves ain't so bad. Soothing almost. While you're still in the harbor...

Out past the jetty, the throttle goes to high,
We zoom through the mist like our hair was afire.
But the swells grew up, the boat pitched in the gale,
Leaving more than one person hanging over the rail.

Chumming, that is. Not us. We were pumped. Full of Meclizine.

Over twenty miles out, the Continental Shelf falls away,
Not a bird in sight, just sea lions being lazy.
Made a great big loop around the yellow data bouy,
While some unfortunate sailors continued their spewing.

Felt bad for 'em. But not too bad. My lunch was great.

By the end of the day, the bird tally wasn't bad,
One new lifer, a Scripp's Murrelet, was had.
Plus we added seven new birds for the year,
Then we headed to the pub for an ice cold beer.

The New Captain Pete!

<Frenetic banjo solo, banjo catches on fire, banjo player explodes>

Are you experienced? Part 3

Dear AviFans,

It is SO nice to be home, where the mercury doesn't even know how to get lower than 20F. We even enjoyed a cocktail last night on our deck, without need of polar fleece or down jackets!

After my last report, many of you have undoubtedly already purchased tickets to Duluth, and some are likely considering attending next year's Festival. Who could blame you?

Common Redpoll says, "C'mon, it'll be fun!"

To help you be more informed travelers, I offer this description of the events of Saturday, February 14, as exemplary of the winter birding experience. And, yes, this is how those-who-have-been-married-too long spend Valentines Day.

Winter Birding Experienced
3:30am (CENTRAL time): Alarm goes off. Swearing occurs.

4:15am: Walk outside of hotel bundled in polar gear to scrape windows and warm car. Hmm...not too bad, -10F doesn't feel as bad as I thought. Wind blows. Get punched in the gut. HOLY CRAP where did that come from??? Props to the Wind Chill; it really knows how to beat you up!

4:30am: Start the 45 min drive to the festival. Arrive, park, and run into building.

5:30am: Bus opens doors. Run to bus. Did I mention it was 5:30 CENTRAL time? Oh, and that we were using school buses?

6:00am: Driving starts. Try not to fall asleep.

7:00am: Getting light outside. Can't see anything -- windows iced up on the inside! Remove handy, official Sax Zim Box Ice Scraper from official Festival Welcome Packet and start scraping. By the time one pass on the window has been completed, it's starting to ice up again. Resume scraping. Rinse, lather, repeat.

8:15am: Bird seen. Bus goes crazy. Get off bus to see bird better. Yep, it's a bird! Run back to bus.

There really was a school bus. True dat.

9:00am: Stop at some bird feeders. Because birds are normally very dispersed in these conditions, and to make the festival a little more festive, the local community stocks feeders for a few weeks prior to the festival. Get off bus to appreciate all the activity.

No idea who the dude on the left is, and when I took the picture I literally had no idea I had captured this! I assume he's checking whether expectoration will freeze prior to hitting the ground. Or, he's rabid.

 10:00am: Stop by another set of bird feeders. These, however, are unusual...

Downy Woodpecker likes to think he took down this beast.

To provide birds (and other denizens of the bog) some rich fat, Minnesotans hang roadkill and other carcasses on trees. The temps never get above freezing, so the meat doesn't spoil, but the critters can pick off tasty morsels for weeks. Now THAT was something I'd never seen before.

10:15am - 4pm: Repeat all of the above.

We logged over 200 miles that day. In a school bus. But, one thing that kept it interesting was sitting near one of our guides, Greg Miller. Greg did his own Big Year in 1998, and ended up in a tight race with two other birders to set the then-record number of birds seen in a year. A book, "The Big Year" was written about the adventure, and the 2011 movie of the same name was based on it (Greg was played by Jack Black). He was the speaker that night, and getting to know him on the bus beforehand was a fun experience!

Doesn't birding sound fun? Are you experienced? Do you want to be experienced?

Gray Jay dares you to try it

Eskimo kisses,
Me

Dive in to Duluth!

To my fine feathered friends,

Monday night we returned from a 5-day trip to Duluth. Minnesota. In February. With temperatures as low as -25F with wind chill.

I'll let that sink in for a minute.

Now, I'm sure many questions are racing through your heads including, "Is the milk in my fridge still good?" and "Should I paint the ceiling beige?" and possibly "Why did they go to Duluth?" All are perplexing quandaries worth pondering; however, I shall focus on the last question.

The primary reason for our trip was attending the Sax-Zim Bog Winter Birding Festival, and thus be escorted to see birds that spend their winters in the lower 48 and summer in the Arctic, such as this Snowy Owl:

The Snowy Owl, he is a lineman for the county

Mission accomplished! We added 17 birds for this year, and including 8 that we had never seen before, including this Northern Hawk Owl:

Maniacally posing with his lunch, an unfortunate Headless Vole. Note that the vole was in possession of a head until about five seconds before this picture was taken.

An explanation of the actual winter birding process is pending. For now, allow me to explain a little about our destination.

Duluth is a fine city of nearly 90,000 people, perched precariously on the edge of Lake Superior. As one of the largest cities in Minnesota, Duluth offers many advantages as a destination, not the least of which include:

1. Photographic opportunities! For instance, when the gales blow across Lake Gitche Gumee, ice piles in mounds and blocks on the shores near Duluth. These ice floes can destroy homes, but also create beautiful formations and even ice caves complete with ice stalactites and stalagmites.
2. Novel forms of recreation! You can walk on a frozen lake, fish in a frozen lake, or drive your car in circles on a frozen lake.  
3. One of the longest freshwater sand bars in the world! Epic! 
4. Ideal location! Near Wisconsin, where the liquor stores can open at 6AM!
5. Umm... Duluth has a nice personality?

Now, aren't you wondering why you haven't been to Duluth? Yah sure you betcha!

Still thawing,
Me

You, Too, Can Be Amazing

Dear friends,

I've got some wisdom to lay on you. And this Royal Tern is very happy about it!

Lorde says you'll never be royal, apparently despite your name. So, give it up.

And so is this American Oystercatcher!

Serious orange crush with eyeliner. Go a little easy next time, sister.

Whereas this American Coot wants nothing to do with me:

The coot, also known as the Jesus Christ Bird

We're back in Napa, with 2 days of downtime/work before our "adventure" to the Sax Zim Bog Birding Festival in cold-as-freaking-Hell Duluth, MN. I can't wait, he said drolly, for Saturday morning with its forecast morning temp of -9F, or a should-be-illegal -29F with windchill.

But, for now, let us forget about the future, and sip from our Bulleit Rye Manhattan (the official cocktail of BirdSee'd) while we reflect on what we have learned from the past 6 weeks.

Many believe bird watching to be a gentle form of recreation, often involving overstuffed lounge chairs positioned strategically near, but not too near, a fully-stocked bird feeder and the consumption of mimosas. For those who call themselves, "Bird Watchers," this is sadly true.

However, those that call themselves "Birders" know differently. We know that Birding is a War of Attrition. In the face of physical discomfort, weak birders scamper away, whimpering about mimosas. Strong Birders Persevere.

We persevere in the face of nasty weather, as has been previously documented on this blog. We did not quit.

We persevere in the face of the absence of birds. For instance, on Saturday, we waited 6 freaking hours for a stupidly rare (in North America) White-Throated Thrush to show up at the place where nearly everybody else in the world saw the dumb bird for the two days before, only to come up empty-handed. We did not quit.

We even persevere in the face of odor. For instance, to find the Chihuahuan Raven, we paid a visit to the aromatic Brownsville Sanitary Landfill. We went up on the mountain of garbage (sadly the only mountain for hundreds of miles) to find this scene:

Oh, my

Were our olfactory senses gravely offended? Oh yes. Did we find our bird? As quickly as we could. Did we quit? Actually, yes, after this we went straight to the hotel for showers and detox. But, in our minds, we did not quit, just paused.

Your homework is to reflect on the value of Perseverance, and write a 500-word essay on how your life would be better with more of it.

Until next time,
Me

Are You Experienced? Part 2

To the posse,

I hope the storm that I hear is battering California right now doesn't result in the house being flooded. Good luck staying dry!

We had a nice day birding today, picking up 4 new birds for the year. Normally, that would be great progress, but compared to the other day at Estero Llano, it feels slow!

For today's installment, I thought I would continue the many-parted explanation of what birding is like, based on our experience yesterday looking for the Sprague's Pipit, a secretive bird of the grassy fields:

Field Birding Experienced

We pulled over to the side of the road, staring in disbelief. To our left, a 30-acre field of ankle-high grass, in which was hidden a small bird. In front of us, a mass of troops: 3 Border Patrol trailers containing 8 ATVs, 6 Border Patrol SUVs, 3 local sheriff's patrol cars, and 5 Texas Highway Patrol cars, and at least 2 officers per vehicle. Plus, 3 Border Patrol boats in the water and a helicopter circling over the forest nearby.

"Are we supposed to be here?" I asked.

"Well, it is a county park," she said, "and the cops are chatting and laughing. There were no signs telling us to stay away, and none of the other people in the park seem worried. It must just be a staging area."

"Um, all right, then how do we find this bird?"

"Well, the guidebook says the Sprague's Pipit hides in the grass, so we can't see it, and it doesn't call unless it's flushed. So we need to walk through the field until we scare it up. It is supposed to make a specific call, fly around, and then dive to the ground. If that happens, we have our target."

So, we started trudging. And trudging. And trudging. Down one side, back again, down another side, then diagonally across the field. Then, a noise! A small brown bird peeped, flew up in the air about 50', did a wide circle around us, then did a nearly vertical dive to the ground several feet away.

We looked at each other. "I guess that was our bird? That's all we get?"

"Yep," she said. And we trudged back to the car. 

Doesn't birding sound fun? Are you experienced? Do you want to be experienced?

OK, tomorrow we check out Laguna Atascosa NWR, and the sun is supposed to shine for the first time all week, so it should be a good day!

Lates,
Me

p.s. South Texas drivers seriously have to be the worst in the country. There seems to be a belief that turning left is a divine-granted right; we've seen half a dozen people turn left across 3 lanes of oncoming traffic, forcing oncoming traffic to slow or stop. Also, apparently "speed limits" are actually treated as maximum speeds, because we frequently encounter people going 35-45mph in a 55mph zone. On a busy, two-lane road. Arg.

Nothing to complain about this time #birdporn

Dear Multitudes,

The last two days have been a Birdie Extravaganza. South Texas rules.

We arrived at Estero Llano State Park early on Wednesday. After buying our Texas State Park Annual Pass and scanning the lake, we trudged the muddy trails to find this cutie:

The grass-loving Gray-Crowned Yellowthroat, if you know what I mean

This little guy is usually found only in Central America, but for some reason decided to come north, maybe to enjoy the cold weather? Fortunately for us, this migrant had not yet been picked up by the seemingly ubiquitous Border Patrol, despite several recent reports of his presence. So, with the help of a Snowbird who had seen him recently, we were able to refind the bird and track him for about 20 minutes. Our friend Laura, a Yellowthroat fan, will undoubtably be jealous!

The rest of Wednesday and Thursday has been one interesting sighting after another. We found this Eastern Screech Owl in the same box he/she was in last April:

This night owl needs to take lessons on how to sleep during the day. Tip #1: For a solid rest, do not stick your face
out the window.

The Least Grebe, rarely-seen outside of south Texas and occasionally south Arizona, came out to visit for a while:

Eyes glowing yellow, slightly demonically

We had a long encounter with a Green Kingfisher:

That's an absurdly large bill. And, you know what they say about large bills...

 And tracked down this White-eyed Vireo:

Like small lemons with wings and pointy bills, this vireo has a sour attitude. 

Thanks to a friendly, matronly birder, we got to see the Common Paraque during the day, normally found only in the gloaming or the witching hour:

This idiot was sitting right next to the side of the road in broad daylight. Of course, we did walk by him multiple times without seeing him, until we were physically pointed in the right direction, so I guess his camo works fairly well.

And, today we found a young female Prairie Warbler, far from her normal habitat:

Young lady, if you're hanging out in Texas waiting for Spring Break, you know you have two more months to wait, right?

Net, we've added nearly 60 birds to our year count in the past two days.

Tomorrow, we leave Pharr/McAllen and head east to Brownsville. We'll spend a few days around there, then move to South Padre Island for our last night in TX.

Love,
Me

p.s. the best road sign recently has been: "HITCHHIKERS MAY BE ESCAPING INMATES". Run, hikers, run!!!

Texas is freezing and wet, could be worse

Dear Peeps,

Day broke forcefully in Round Rock as the sun elbowed its way over the horizon, the promise of another fantastic Bird See'd filling the air. Or, possibly that was just the Mr. Coffee pumping out some weak-ass hotel room brew.

We were in Texas, on the second leg of our trip, and anything was possible. Texas is notable in Bird See'd Circles for hosting an amazing number of species of birds, due in part to a unique confluence of ecosystems (everything from desert and semi-arid grasslands to subtropical palm forest and ocean shore in a relatively small area) plus its location next to the Mexican border and on the migration pathway, and amazing barbeque (true fact--birds love BBQ, bird watchers eat it to make us more attractive to birds).

Unfortunately for us, the weather has been making being outside less than pleasant. In the past three days, we've had periods of sub-freezing temperatures, strong winds, and steady rainfall, fortunately not all at the same time. We staked out two places where rare birds had recently been reported--the Striped Sparrow outside Austin and the White-collared Seed Eaters in San Ygnacio--and spent hours at each place, but to no avail.

On the other hand, we have picked up a few very interesting species, and our count for the year is now well over 200. The Surprise Bird of the Trip occurred when we stopped at a random restaurant on our way outside of Austin, having given up on finding anything new there, and found 5 Monk Parakeets perched on the electrical wires above the road. This shows that you can plan all you want, but finding birds is really up to the birds.

The weather is expected to clear and warm up for the next few days, and we're planning to visit some amazing places here in the Rio Grande Valley. Send wishes of luck!

Best,
Me

Everything you know about Kansas is wrong

Friends back home,

Today finds us in Round Rock, Texas, a somewhat charmless suburb of Austin, home to Dell Computers and the delicious-if-somewhat-nauseatingly-rich Round Rock Doughnuts.

Briefly on the birding, the past 48 hours have been rather cold and wet. Friday morning's birdventure was greeted with 17F temperatures, which had to be endured while standing in a field waiting for more types of longspurs to show. We managed to hear some Smith's Longspur, and also see a few American Tree Sparrows:

Gratuitous chest shot

Saturday morning, was warmer at 37F, but with a steady rain. We went birding anyway, got soaked and frozen, but did manage to find other new birds for the year. Then, a quick flight to Dallas and drive south, and here we are.

Reflecting upon our time in Kansas during the flight, I realized that a number of "facts" that are commonly told about Kansas really aren't true at all, and I'd like to correct the record:

"Midwesterners are rude"
Actually, everybody was incredibly nice and helpful; a fast food cashier took time to explain the menu to us. Even the kids were quiet and well-behaved.

"Everything is expensive"
A fairly decent dinner for two with beers was under $30 including tip, and gas was as low as $1.76/gallon. And don't even talk about real estate prices.

"It's lush and verdant"
Literally, the only green we saw was on a few juniper trees. Otherwise, everything looks like:

"The terrain is mountainous"
There were a few formations that you could generously call hills. However, most of the state we saw was like this:

In fact, Kansans are unfamiliar enough with the concept of verticality that they actually have this road sign:

"Weather is always mild and pleasant"
See above.


I think you'll agree that those myths are thoroughly busted now. Enjoy your next visit to the Sunflower State!

Until next time,
Me