Mid-west Adventure 2015, Part 2

Hola desde un lugar muy plana,

Tucked away in a tidy, modern hotel room with blazingly fast WiFi, sipping a cold IPA, I could be in any number of urban environments. Instead, I'm in Steele, North Dakota, population 715 give or take, about 50 miles east of Bismarck.

This hotel is conveniently located near the plains and glacial lakes where we are birding, and across the street from a truck stop with a Caribou Coffee store. CC is the North's answer to Starbucks, and I've decided that it is, without doubt, the best chain coffee store in America. Hey, CC, if you need a spokesperson, give me a ring!

After 24 hours here, I find that I like ND better than I thought I would, for one key reason. It's not the hotel or CC, but I'll reveal it shortly.

When last we spoke, the Wife and I were about to go night birding. We were successful in hearing an Eastern Whip-poor-will, although the mosquitoes were vicious and drove us back to the car almost immediately after it called!

The next day, we spent four hours (!) walking paths near streams with adjacent dense brush, in hopes of finally landing a Mourning Warbler. Having only about 30 minutes before we needed to leave for the airport, we finally heard a "chip", and a little coaxing from a recording on our phone (I know, we are bad, bad birders!) caused the warbler to pop up briefly out of his bushes. And with that, we now have seen every warbler that regularly visits North America!

We arrived at the hotel at dusk, greeted at our hotel by this amazing sculpture, which we honestly had no idea was there:

It's the World's Tallest Sandhill Crane! As the late, great Huell Howser would say, That's Amazing!

FYI, in case you're planning a visit, a town down the road claims to have the world's largest buffalo. Did not check that out. But, it's on the short list for a future visit.

And, somewhat surprising to me, there might be a future visit, because ND has a key attribute (at least in the part we visited) that makes it superior to many other states.

Is it the scenery? The gently rolling plains are beautiful, and the quality of the light here is great for photography, but that's not it.

Is it the hospitality and dining? I'm sure there are fine establishments somewhere in the state, but not near us.

Is it the birding? Well, we did find some great birds that we've only seen a few times before, like Sprague's Pipit and Black Tern, but that's not it either.

The reason? Because there aren't any of those annoying Michigan flies, and I haven't had to use DEET the whole time! As I always say, an absence of bugs makes the heart grow fonder.

That said, we did miss the birds we came to ND to find. Looks like Baird's Sparrow and Nelson's Sparrow have already hit the road, and so we'll have to find them elsewhere this year. Sigh.

But, next stop is a boat! After a couple days at home, we head over to Half Moon Bay for another pelagic trip, hopefully with less fog and smaller swells than our last trip!

Later!
Me

Mid-west Adventure 2015, Part 1

A todos los amantes de la cerveza,

Greetings from the Mitten of Michigan!

We are currently hanging out in Grayling, MI, the gateway to "up north" of Michigan, the self-proclaimed Canoe Capital Of The World, and home to the Camp Grayling, the largest National Guard training site in the country. You have now learned more about Grayling, MI than most Michigan residents know.

Our Mid-west Adventure 2015 began a couple days ago in Minneapolis. Our main targets for this trip are an endangered sparrow that is easiest to find near Minneapolis, an endangered warbler that is only found in a small part of Michigan, and a few other birds we missed during spring migration that summer up here.

This also marks our first visit to Minneapolis and to Michigan, so the trip has been filled with First Impressions. To assist those readers who may be planning a visit, or could be inspired to plan a visit by the sanguine words of this blog, here are some tips informed by these impressions:

• If you ever come to this part of the country, do bring an industrial-sized container of DEET. Gangs of mosquitoes hold several large territories, giant ticks hang from branches to fall silently on unsuspecting blood-filled tourists, and blinding clouds of flies surround you at all moments. Actually, I exaggerate; the flies just obscure your vision and don't follow you inside. Usually.
• Minneapolis has an inordinate number of excellent brew pubs making their own beer, charcuterie, and other delectables. You will not go hungry here, but I do advise planning some gym visits else you may be shopping for a new belt before you leave!
• Summer weather has been surprisingly warm and a bit humid; 75F-80F temps at 11PM don't seem that unusual, so fashionable Mid-westerners can saunter the streets at night in their Bermuda shorts and Birkenstocks in comfort. But beware midnight thunderstorms that dump buckets of rain and keep your rain jacket close!
• Prince apparently does not busk on street corners here, and contrary to popular belief, Andrew Zimmern's ghost does not haunt the restaurants of Minneapolis at night. The city offers many entertainment options, but those are not two of them.
• You may find a White Castle restaurant. If you are from the West, you probably heard of this from the famous movie, "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle" or from your Eastern friends who lament that they can't find these restaurants out West. My advice after one visit: keep driving.
• Don't make the same tragic mistake we did, and fail to reserve time to visit Mall of America. This Temple to Capitalism is the second-largest mall in the US and gets more visitors than any other. It even has its own hotels and an amusement park! How could we miss this??!?!? 

Enjoy your trip, and maybe we'll see you there!

Oh, and if you're looking for birds, we can tell you that Murphy-Hanrehan Reserve south of Minneapolis is still a good place for Henslow's Sparrow, although expect to walk miles of grassy, wet, mosquito-y trails through the fields to find one. And, if you failed to sign up for a tour to find the endangered Kirtland's Warbler in May and June, do not despair! Come to Grayling, wander through the right kinds of stands of Jack Pine in the morning, and listen carefully, and you will find your bird!

Next up: night birding for Whip-poor-wills and then off to North Dakota!

Cheers,
Me