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

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