Butchers and MEAT!

Mis Pescaditos,

The last 10 days have been a brief respite from the rigors of doing a Biggish Year. We've been home except for a short trip, which I will explain briefly, getting caught up on work, chores, and other mundanities. Well, that's all about to change... but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Last Saturday began like a Typical American Saturday for a Typical American Family: we rose at 6AM sharp, quickly dressed, and then drove to Starbucks. Breakfast procured, we then drove 3 hours to find a bird. See? Exactly like the average family.

The specific bird, however, is what distinguishes this Saturday from other more routine Saturdays; our bird of interest was a Brown Shrike, a rare visitor from Asia. This one, like many other rare visitors from Asia, was a juvenile who apparently got lost when told his parents could he please please go to Bobby's house for dinner, he'll just be a little while, everybody else gets to go to Bobby's house, why why why, Bobby's parents like him better, OK thanks bye!

This Brown Shrike has taken a liking to the Mendocino area, and really, why the heck not? Mendocino has everything Shrikes like, such as bees and grasshoppers (of course, many other places do, too, but don't tell our guest). And, it's only 3 hours by car to great places like Napa! (like he cares)

Fortunately, our Brown Shrike did not play hard-to-get. After our 3 hour drive, we walked the 1/2 mile road to where he was supposed to be, only to find 8 other birders who had been waiting for a while. As though Mr. Shrike knew we were finally there, not 5 minutes later, somebody shouted, "There's the bird!!!"

Yo, Shrike, why you gotta be so far away? Couldn't you have come just a BIT closer? No? OK, fine, be that way.

After a few minutes of watching him fly from perch to perch, we looked at each other and asked, "Are we done here?" Apparently, we were, so after a total of maybe 30 minutes, it was time for the 3 hour drive back home. Such are the burdens when you're doing a Biggish Year.

[Aside: Apparently, the term for a group of shrikes is an "Abattoir of Shrikes", and a nickname for the shrike is "Butcher Bird". Really??? A) I've never heard this, so it must not be true. B) They're so cute, they can't be that bad. C) Just because they capture prey and jab it into thorns or barbed wire to hold it still so they can feed, do they really deserve such a negative rep?]

To make the trip a little more interesting, we detoured through Bodega Bay to grab lunch at Diekmann's store (fresh crab sandwich FTW!) and tick off our first Long-Tailed Duck of the year:

I'd like to apologize to Mr. Gull for not getting him in focus. Lo siento, mi amigo.

At this point of the blog, you may be wondering, "Hey, Mr. Sir!" (and I thank you for your respectful tone, go on) "what was that big change you were talking about?" Well, Jimmy, thanks for asking.

As you may know, Spring is just around the corner, and Spring brings Migration, typically in a large floral basket with some flowers and a bottle of champagne. Scientists can actually track clouds of birds with radar, and combine that with weather data to forecast which birds will arrive in a particular location on a particular date. And we couldn't let those birds show up without saying Hi, could we?

So, starting Sunday, we're embarking on MEAT: Most Epic of All Trips! MEAT will have us on the road for about 60 days, in which we will drive to Texas via Colorado, take a side trip to fly to Florida, and then drive back home through the Chihuahuan, Sonoran and Mojave deserts. Really, just a little jaunt through the countryside, right?

I will be updating you on our progress as Internet access allows (which may not be often!).

Until next time, which should be somewhere near Denver,
Me