The Jacana

I will give you three guesses as to the definition of, "Jacana".

Is it:

1. A popular South American dance, made famous by the singer/dancer Charo in the 1960's.
   
2. A cocktail, typically made with cachaça with a float of Midori.
   
3. A bird not typically found in North America.

If you guessed #1 or #2, then I commend you for your creativity/gullibility. In reality, however...

It's a bird! They typically live from Mexico to Panama, and once in a rare while, they show up in Texas or Arizona for some unknown reason.

And there is one in Texas right now! And so are we! And we happened to be nearby, and found it today!

Look at those toes!

Woohoo!

Most Extreme Blog Post Challenge

Hola desde la Ciudad del Viento,

Arriving in Chicago yesterday, I was delighted to have a "Life Imitates Art" moment. If you're in my target demographic, and I know you are, you have played the game Watch Dogs on your XBox. As you know, this game is set in Chicago, and lets the player roam through the city and suburbs at will.

Turns out, the city is JUST LIKE the game! The look and sound of the trains, the neighborhoods with their brick houses, and the layout of the roads were all amazingly familiar. The other familiar aspect was the way you drive. In the game, the best way to get around is just to zip past other cars on the shoulder at high speeds, regardless of how wide the lanes are. And, just outside O'Hare airport, you'll see a sign announcing "Shoulder Riding Permitted"! Sure enough, cars passed us on the shoulder doing at least 20mph faster than the rest of traffic, just like I did in the game!

Anyway, on to a recap of the superlatives of recent adventures:

Most Hardcore Birding Moment: Chasing a report of a Nelson's Sparrow outside of Madison, WI, only to find that the bird is located in a boot-soaking marshy field of chest-high cattails and ankle-grabbing viney plants (and no doubt nasty spiders and other bitey creatures). And then, wading through it all to triumphantly find the sparrow. Like a Boss!

Most Ironic Business Name of the Day: "Goose Haven Gun Club"

Most Random Yet Amazing Birding Moment: Getting out of the car at a National Wildlife Refuge where a Whooping Crane (one of only a few hundred to live in the wild) had been reported, only to have the bird fly right over our heads, circle lazily, and then drift away over a hill, never to be seen again. By us, at least.

Most "Oops!" Moment: After finding the Whooping Crane, driving to Madison, WI for a nice evening in a fun town, only to find there is a UW football game (vs. Hawaii, of all teams) starting in a few hours and literally every hotel in an hour's drive is sold out.

Most Miserable Dining Moment: Finding ourselves at Bennigan's. For the second day in a row. Remind me not to come back to Elgin, IL

Most Glorious Dining Moment: The Purple Pig, in downtown Chicago. House cured tuna?Fried pig's ear with giardiniera? Octopus a la plancha? Yes, please!

Three more birds this weekend make our total 661 for the year. Could 700 be in our reach?

We have officially given up on the Black-billed Cuckoo. A few were reported in Chicago last weekend, but 8 hours of searching and asking every birder we meet has turned up zilch. F'ing cuckoo! So, tomorrow we're hitting the Natural History Museum and some other tasty restaurant here in Chicago. I could get used to this...except on Tuesday, we're headed to McAllen, so I won't have time to become accustomed. That's probably good for both my wallet and waistline.

Go Cubs!
Me

269 down, 96 to go

Days, that is.

Believe it or not, fewer than 100 days remain in 2015. For normal people, this is the time of year when thoughts turn to planning for the holidays, cleaning out gutters in advance of autumn rains, and dumping that lame quarterback off your fantasy football team, because he is sucking like a Hoover and a Dyson put together. For others, namely me, this is the time of year when desperation starts to set in.

You see, early in the year, every tree offers the promise of a new bird to find. Even well into the summer, we could drop into a new area and rack up at least half a dozen new birds, maybe more.

Right now, however, there exist only maybe 20 more bird species that we can realistically expect to find this year, with about another 30 or so that are possible but unlikely. These are spread around the entire country, with many of them appearing like Brigadoon, out of the fog for a day and then gone again for many years.

Tantalizingly, several of these have been around all year, or were here in spring migration, but we missed them. Now is our last chance, as we’re just running out of time! We either need to find a way to slow down the calendar, or have a run of amazing luck.

Some of that luck started this week. Reports surfaced of a Red-throated Pipit in Marin County. American Pipits are onomatopoeic, as they fly around spastically shouting, “pip-it! pip-it!” . This Red-throated fellow, however, only shouts “pip” and he’s not from America. Typically, he lives in Europe or Asia, so maybe this is how one translates “pip-it” into German or whatever? Anyway, with prompting and assistance from our friend, Alex, we spent a morning at the reservoir where the bird had been reported, and managed to track it down for bird #658 on the year.

What’s up next? Right now, we are outside of Chicago, spending the weekend chasing after the cursed Black-billed Cuckoo (again), as well as a few others. Then, we take a short jaunt down to south Texas (again), this time for a special tour to find a special little owl.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!