Fools and Englishmen

Saludos fiesta gente!

The insanity has reached new levels, heretofore unparalleled in my personal existence. Yesterday, we drove 500 miles to go birding in 114F weather, to find a little gull who got lost, as so many do nowadays.

Now I'm not English (although some of my best friends are), so clearly Noel Coward was onto something.

In this case, however, it wasn't just any little gull, it was a Little Gull! This is a rare visitor to California, possibly from Asia, and has the distinction of being the smallest gull in the world. If you're a Bird Nerd, you would appreciate that this gull appeared to be only somewhat larger than a phalarope. If you're not a Bird Nerd, then please realize: there is still time.

Our target was reported earlier this week near the town of Lemoore, CA. Now we had never been to Lemoore before, but our first impression was positive. On the way into town, we passed Lemoore High School, which must be a FANTASTIC place to be educated because (A) there was an actual fireworks stand in the parking lot selling actual fireworks, and (B) across the street from the school is a restaurant named "Lolita's". Undoubtedly, that would have brought a tear to Nabakov's(*) cold, steel-blue eyes.

The one downside to Lemoore is that they apparently have The World's Largest Outdoor Furnace, and it was turned to SCORCHING. When we first arrived at the ponds where the gull had been reported at about 3PM, our car's thermostat read 110F. When we returned to the car after an initial failed attempt to locate our quarry, the temp read 114F. Fortunately, the furnace must have run out of hydrogen, as the mercury had "cooled" down to around 100F by the time we left at 6:30.

If you're curious about what a Little Gull looks like, glue your eyes to this pic:

Little Gull stares pensively into the mirror, contemplating his own mortality as he wonders what the Hell that was that died in the background.

If you'd like to see a little action, then check out this video we took with an iPhone through our scope (the gull is in the middle):

Now, there is clearly a lot going on here, much of which I attribute to Delirium from the heat:

1. Our protagonist, the gull, is Riverdancing his way through the puddle.
2. The tall pink-ish/orange-ish headed bird in the foreground, the American Avocet, is a drama queen, strutting about majestically, swiping its bill through the water with dramatic pauses. His stationary partner to the right, clearly embarrassed at this display, refuses to look at him.
3. The small birds on the left, Wilson's Phalaropes, are playing Dizzy Bat, except without the Bat or the footrace that traditionally follows.

Fortunately, the temps didn't get any hotter, or who knows what deranged acts we may have witnessed?

Speaking of hotter, the next few days will find us in Arizona, chasing some exotic hummingbirds and a few other targets. We are visiting just at the beginning of monsoon season, so maybe we'll also get a terrifying torrential thunderstorm or two!

Hasta la vista,
Me


(*) Fun Regional Fact about Nabakov that I learned while doing extensive research for this blog post. Apparently, he lived in Ashland, OR for a while and finished the novel Lolita while there.

Not What We Expected, But It Turned Out OK

Eureka! from Seward, Alaska!

I didn't see that coming.

Sunday, we set out right on schedule for our boat trip, checked in with no issues, and were the second people on the boat. We departed at the proper time, gently cruised out of the harbor on glassy water, and then picked up steam crossing the bay. Then, about 90 minutes later, after sightings of Bald Eagle, porpoises, and orcas, one of the boat's two engines died.

Now, I'd like to say that it went down like this:

Boom! The engine exploded into a huge ball of flames! The boat rocked forward, then backward, then heaved dramatically to the left...we were taking on water! Automatic life support systems caused life rafts to deploy! Passengers were tossed life vests and the Captain shouted, "Prepare for the worst!" But, then! Lo! A pair of whales breached right behind the boat! Their splash put out the fire! And -- believe it or not -- the whales then nudged the boat forward, and then pushed us all the way back to the harbor. True, 'dat.

Actually, we just limped back to the harbor on one engine, and the boat company offered to fully refund everybody or rebook on a different day. We opted to rebook for Monday, and gave it one more shot yesterday.

Man, was that a good choice!

The weather was nearly perfect, with blue skies and sun all day. We saw incredible scenery, had about 15 minutes of watching a Humpback Whale repeatedly breach and slap its tail, got up-close and personal with a glacier, and added 3 life/year birds. Fortunately, a birding tour group happened to be taking the same boat, so we were also in proximity to two expert guides to help with Bird ID, and the captain went out of his way to pull up next to places that were known to be good for birds.

If you ever find yourself in Seward, I highly recommend a trip with Kenai Fjords Tours. The captain was great, the boat was comfortable (although the food could have been improved), and when something went wrong, they did a perfect job of customer service.

So, in the immortal words of The OG William Shakespeare, all's well that ends well!

We're finally headed home today, with only a few days for work, laundry, and cleaning cobwebs off the walls before embarking on our next journey: a short trip to Tucson to find some weird-ass hummingbirds and a rare visitor from Mexico called a Tufted Flycatcher!

Hasta la vista,
Me

Dall's Porpoise. It was completely underwater and swimming alongside the boat, so you can see how glassy the water was at that time.

Northwest Glacier

Momma sea otter with pup

Parakeet Auklet!

Thick-billed Murre! Like the Common Murres we see in Cali, but note the blacker color; thick, almost raven-like bill; and white line on the side of the bill.

Look! It's Humpy the Humpback Whale doing the Tootsie Roll!

Postcards From The Edge

Wet fishy kisses from Seward, Alaska!

The town is named for William Seward. Old Billy was the savvy Secretary of State to Abraham Lincoln who conned Russia into selling us Alaska for all of about $7 million, or $0.02 per acre, in 1867. Since that deal worked out so well, maybe we should keep investing in real estate? Mexico seems like a good "buy low" opportunity, and doesn't "Tequila: Made in America" have a nice ring to it?

Seward is also known for being the start of the Iditarod trail, of which we saw the finish line in Nome. I believe we earned an Achievement today for seeing both ends of the trail, but XBox hasn't yet credited my account. I'm still waiting, XBox.

It's also home to the famous Polar Bear Jump-Off, in which clinically insane people jump into the frigid waters of Seward's harbor IN JANUARY to raise money to fight cancer. Maybe they should be raising money to fight brain damage, which they clearly all have, but, hey, to each her own.

We are in Seward tonight in preparation for tomorrow's boat trip out to the Kenai Fjords National Park. This may be a shock to some of you, but the highlight of the trip is...drum roll... Fjords! Besides being a fun word to pronounce (roughly "fe-YORD"), these are narrow, steep-sided valleys formed by glaciers and then flooded by sea water. Aside from dramatic cliffs and coastline, we should get glaciers and a number of marine mammals. Importantly for our Biggish Year, it's also our last chance for Alaskan seabirds, so we will have our attention torn in many directions!

As this trip winds down, here are a few of the sights you missed by not coming with us. I mean, we didn't offer, but you still could have popped over for a few days.

It's never too early to re-model your home...

But that DIY is some seriously tiring work, man!

Seriously, give it up for the Arctic Tern. These sun-loving birds breed in the Arctic during June and July, fly south to ANTARCTICA to hang out during the southern Summer, and then fly BACK again the next spring! At a minimum, this is about 24,000 miles of flying per year, and many birds take meandering courses that are much longer, up to 57,000 miles per year!!! They often live to be more than 30 years old, so in a typical lifetime, they could fly a distance equivalent to going to the Moon and back three times. And here I get tired walking from the couch to the fridge and back.

A wonderful creature is the Caribou
His antlers can grow more than an inch per day
I don't know how the Hell-he-do.

Denali, covered in clouds, like it apparently usually is. Even in the summer, about half the days the mountain is enveloped in clouds and is not visible at all.

Jaeger coming in a for a landing.

Dall Sheep in Denali. Two mammal pics in one post is evidence that I'm not JUST about birds!

Rusty Blackbird says, "Seriously? Can't a guy eat lunch without somebody whipping out a camera? Why you gotta point that thing at me? Jerk."

Until next time,
Me.