Birdchick Podcast

**Party Pants** Jun 08, 2025

A screenshot of Party’s stats from the Denali website.

“The thing I love most about Denali is that it turned Sharon into a dog person.” Katie Nyberg.
For the record, I was always pro dog. I love dogs, I love my friend’s dogs. I just never saw myself as having the sort of life where I could live/commit to a dog. I never wanted to live with a dog, until I met a government dog.
When I blew up my life to move to Alaska to work for Denali National Park and Preserve, I signed up to be a volunteer dog walker for one of their sled dogs. If I was moving to a new state and new park, then I was going all in on the experience. As I was being trained in at the Denali Kennels, the young ranger asked if I wanted to walk a particular dog, the kennels had 30 at the time. I said, “I’m a middle-aged short lady, who would you recommend?”
He said, “I’ll assign you Party, she’s our smallest dog.”

Party on the right with the much larger Gus on the left. (NPS Photo).

Denali names their litters after a theme. Party and her siblings were born in July of 2016, the year of the National Park Service centennial so all the pups got a birthday themed name: Party, Pinata, Cupcake, and Happy. She was their smallest dog, but she was one of their smartest. She was well loved by all for sassiness and little dances she did. Her first winter training on the sleds, staff grabbed a great picture of her sitting on the sled and staring at the musher, it even made it into the Washington Post. All the dogs had their own harnesses for walking and they were labeled since they were custom to the dog’s size. One day while attaching her harness, I noted her true name she had with kennels staff: Party Pants.

Her true name.

Our first selfie after our first walk was very awkward.

Our first few walks were very…professional. She didn’t play with me and stuck to the buisness at hand of sniffiing, pooping, and peeing on our walks. I tried to play with her when we would get back but she would sit on top of her dog house and look as though she was tolerating my presence. Until one evening when I showed up with a tiny morsel of rotisserie chicken in my pocket. After that, we were besties.

One day I heard a warbler on our walk and tried to “pish” at it. She immediately stopped walking and turned to face me. I pished again and she thought it was a weird game and jumped up and pushed me. She eventually learned to sit when I would stop to look at a bird and even became quite adept at pointing out spruce grouse hidden along the Park Road. One of my favorite moments was taking in the sounds of Swainson’s thrushes on our walks in May.

Party and I got along so well, that the evening walks were my favorite time of the day. As soon as I would enter the dog yard, Party would come out of her dog house, running in circles, boisterously bark with excitement for our evening routine. I felt like an amazing rock star every time I walked into the dog yard. My absolute favorite thing that she did when she saw me was turn around, aim her butt at me, and wag her tail while turning her head. I got some video of it one day while I got momentarily distracted by a woodpecker in the dog yard.

Party and I took in the gorgeous landscapes May through September. Often rainbows would appear in the evenings on our walks. I’d tell her about my day. I’d tell my concerns and complaints. I’d ask for advice. She walked and sniffed. In September she would disappear for training and sometimes weeks long sortis pulling sleds in the Alaskan wilderness.
It was fun to watch the kennels staff come through the neighborhoods to train the dogs and get them ready for the season. If we didn’t have enough snow, they’d pull staff on carts with wheels to build up their endurance. One day I was checking my PO Box at the Denali post office and I heard the familiar barking of the dogs nearby. I headed over to the Riley Creek trail and saw the dog truck and some of the dogs tied up waiting their turn for training. One dog in particular got incredibly vocal and was “roooooing” for my attention. And then I saw the small dog turning round and round, jumping, and wagging her tail directly at me.

“I can’t wait to pull a sleeeeeeeeeeeeed!”

These dogs LOVE pulling sleds. They bark and howl with as the equipment gets set up. One morning in winter I went to say goodbye to Party before she would leave for three weeks and she was so excited, she could barely contain herself at the sight of the sled being set up.
As Party and I got closer, friends suggested that I apply to adopt her. Anyone can apply to adopt one of the Denali sled dogs when they retire. Preference is given to people who have a relationship with the dog. Could I adopt her? Should I adopt her? When I took a job with the Forest Service that would move me back down to Minnesota, I was weepy in the kennel manager’s office.
“Sharon, Minnesota is a fine place for Party to retire to,” David Tomeo assured me.
“Yeah, but if it’s better that she join someone’s private sled dog team up here, I’ll understand,” I said.
“She will be nine years old, she won’t have the same energy, she’ll be ready to be a pet when she retires,” he assured me.
So I applied to adopt her and picked my Minnesota home based on its dog friendly building rules, private dog park, and ample trails for both bike riding and dog walking and hoped for the best. I settled into my new Forest Service job and life. Then changes in government happened and I learned that my job would be going away sometime in the future and I should figure out my exit strategy. The same day I learned this, I got a call from Tomeo at the kennels informing me that Party was retiring and I could take her.
I went through so many emotions not unlike Ron Burgundy in a phone booth.

Party’s arrival at the Minneapolis/St Paul Airport.

I had friends come with me to the airport the day Party arrived. My friend Gayle documented the reunion, including my ugly crying at the site of her crate. I was terrified she wouldn’t remember me. When I poked me finger in her crate and said, “Party” she gingerly licked my finger. She seemed to recognize me but she also desperately wanted out. We got her out of the crate and chance to pee and stretch her legs, we walked to the valet to wait for my friend Josh’s jeep that would take her to my place. While waiting, I pished a little like I would at a bird. She immediately turned around and pushed me and then gave me doggie kisses. She did remember me!

BOOP

And now we settle into a new life. There’s lots of adjustment ahead like getting her to trust ceiling fans and feeling safe through thunder. But she thinks beds are the coolest and has made many new friends in our private dog park. With some time, she might even start to play with dog toys. However she wants it, I look forward to spoiling her in her retirement from federal service.
So, lost a government job, but gained a government dog. Good trade.

**Red-bellied Woodpeckers used to be called "Chad"** Jan 31, 2025
I have a robust collection of bird books and some that are over a century old. I was recently looking over Birds of America originally published in 1917 but I think my copy is from the 1930s. I was just doijng some casual browsing about woodpeckers and came across the section of other names for red-bellied woodpecker:

Male red-bellied woodpecker.

Zebra Bird (looking at their backs, makes sense)
Zebra-back (ok)
Chad (Wait…what?)
Shamshack (OK, now you’re just making this up)
Ramshack (What next, Abendego?)
OK, the “zebra bird” and “zebra-back” are actually better names than red-bellied woodpecker. But I was curious about “chad.”

A chad coming in for a drink while a couple of robins wrestle in the bath.

According to the book, “Chad is also a common appellation in some of the middle western States.” And it goes on later to say, “…upon alighting often gives voice to the harsh, brassy, cry of *chad, chad*, from one of its local names has been acquired.” That actually makes sense. In my brain I hear red-bellies as saying, *chew chew* when they give their call, so chad isn’t too far of a stretch…but shamshack and ramshack? I did some mild googling and found another great name, jamjack! The article says that it is also derived from some of the calls that I might call chew chew. So, I guess I will forever be noting chads out my window shouting “shamshack!”

Female red-bellied woodpecker tongue.

Incidentally, as I was doing all this deep diving on the red-bellied woodpecker tonight, I noted that All About Birds says, “Males have longer, wider-tipped tongues than females, possibly allowing a breeding pair to forage in slightly different places on their territory and maximize their use of available food.”
Yes, every woman is thinking about “foraging potential” when they read about a longer, wider-tipped tongue…

**Hummingbirds in Late Summer** Aug 23, 2024

Hummingbird coming in for nectar as I put this post together.

It has been a crazy ruby-throated hummingbird summer for me. And I’m grateful. Even as I type this on a Thursday evening in August on my deck, a ruby-throated hummingbird is hovering close to my nectar feeder while trying to decide if I’m a threat.

Ruby-throated hummingbird nest digiscoped with my phone and spotting scope.

I was walking around Westwood Hills at the end of July and watched a hummingbird gleaning insects around a water feature. I watched her fly up to a thin branch right over the trail to what looked like a small notch on the tree. I got her in my binoculars, and sure enough she was on a nest. I uploaded a video on Instagram that gives a better perspective of where the nest was.
Two weeks later I came back and sure enough there were two chicks sticking their little heads out.

Baby hummingbirds! If you want to see some baby hummingbird tongue, check out the video on Instagram.

When I knew I was moving back to Minnesota, I checked an apartment complex that was on my old birding patch. I used to pass this place all the time while birding and thought the grounds right on a wetland with a water feature and Joe-Pye-weed looked ideal. When I mentioned it to my husband at the time, he didn’t like the zip code, “That’s St. Louis Park, I have to have a Minneapolis zip code.” We all have our quirks.
But when I was cruising the website while in Alaska looking for a new place to live, I noticed that they named all of their floor plans after birds. Welp. I guess this is fate? When I did the actual in-person inspection, the woman showing me around said, “I’m going to start by showing you the Starling.”
I said jokingly, “I’m not sure I can live in an invasive species.”
“Then I’ll show your the Loon,” she said.
How could I not fall in love with this place? I live in the Morning Dove floor plan—which cracks me up because it’s one of the larger units and the Osprey is a one bedroom. And if you’ve ever seen a mourning dove nest…it’s in no way shape or form a two bedroom.
But I also noticed on the tour that a lot of people had bird feeders—especially hummingbird feeders. Having worked in a bird store, I know how many people do not keep fresh nectar in their feeders and they kind of become a decroative thing that hummingbirds visit for a second and move one.
After I moved in, I put up a seed feeder and didn’t bother with nectar. In Minnesota, hummingbirds pass through the Twin Cities metro area in May and nest out of urban areas and show up like mad in August. May 2 I was on my deck. A female hummingbird flew to my deck, she hovered around the seed feeder, then hovered in front of my face, and then flew away.
“Oh hell,” I thought, “did my previous neighbor have a feeder and was she back from migration expecting the same from me?” The next day on my deck…the same thing happenedd. I’m not a fan of hummingbird feeders because you have to really keep them clean to get the hummers, I prefer flowers, but I also wasn’t in the right state of mind to maintain a proper hummingbird container garden.
But a bought a pair of hummingbird feeders so I could set up an easy rotation system of putting out a feeder and having a clean one at the ready to quickly refill and put out when the current one had the nectar go bad…about two and a half days based on sun angles.

Hummingbird perched on a branch just off of my deck.

She checked it out and sipped demurely.
Then one day with my home office window open I heard a familiar clicking sound. I went to my deck and instantly found the male ruby-throated hummingbird doing his "U” shaped dive back and forth in the tree in front of me. Wow, displaying and nesting right off my deck. I guess it pays birding-wise to have a zip code just outside of Minneapolis.
Now she and her offspring visit my feeder and periodically engage in some fun aerial jousting and I will keep my hummingbird feeder rotation going until the ruby-throats move on sometime in October.
In many ways I feel like I’ve had a “basic bitch” birding summer. I haven’t chased rarities, but just delighted in the common Minnesota birds I missed so much while I was in Alaska. And I’m grateful for the hot hummingbird action I’ve had at home and at Westwood.

**Fall Migration Is On** Aug 17, 2024
I really missed fall migration while living in Alaska. Yes Alaska has fall migration, but it was all too brief. In Minnesota migration lasts months with shorebirds popping up as early as late July. But really it starts in August and depending on when lakes and rivers freeze it can least into early December.
While birding at Westwood Hills this week with my friend Kara, we watched dozens of common nighthawks fly over at about 5 pm, feeding and beginning the journey south. Yesterday, while working, I noticed a warbler flitting in the tree and got my binoculars on it. It was a young, hatched this summer Tennessee Warbler.

The view from the Rock Creek Trail inside Denali National Park and Preserve. I could walk out my front door and hike this regularly.

I knew I was in trouble in Alaska my first fall. The park starts to shut down mid September and if you live there, you practically have it to yourself. I decided I was going to hike a trail out my front door called the Rock Trail daily until the weather stopped me. I have seen many autumns, but none as spectacular as in Central Alaska. And after a few days of this plan, I realized I was bored on the hike and I couldn’t figure out why. What was wrong with me that I thought that view above was boring? And then I realized what was happening, I wasn’t hearing anything. No birds, no crickets, no katydids, nothing. Dead silence , and then I realized all the birds had left. There were a few cranes and swans flying over still. But the waves of warblers, waterfowl, sparrows, that I’d come to expect over many months in Minnesota they had all left already. Of course, I knew from reading books and articles that breeding seasons were fast and furious in the Arctic. I was living in the Sub Arctic…less than 330 miles south of the Arctic Circle. I realized that it was going to be months of silence…It was late September, I wouldn’t really hear birds again until late April…over six months away.

Boreal Chickadee

That’s not to say there were no birds. Boreal chickadees, magpies, and Canada jays were around. The first winter didn’t have much of a tree crop so I didn’t really see any crossbills or redpolls. I wasn’t allowed to have a bird feeder where I lived because park rules and grizzly bears so I could easily go days without seeing a bird.

On Saturdays in winter, I’d drive the sixteen miles to Healy to visit the grocery/hardware store/gun store/convenience store/liquor store known as Three Bears to watch the parking lot ravens as a form of desperation birding. Often, I’d buy a bag of walnuts to toss out to them.
My first Christmas Bird Count only had three species. The second one had more thanks to it being an irruptive year for finches and grosbeaks. Side note: the upside to a CBC in Alaska is that there is so little daylight, you count starts around 10 am and only lasts about four hours.

Wood thrush coming in for a bathe.

So looking at the calendar and realizing fall migration is on, I’m going to take it all in and enjoy it for as long as possible. Warblers are already moving through in Minnesota, and it won’t be long until we see even more nighthawks overhead, and wood thrushes (like on above) will be passing through our yards. We still three more months ahead at least and I intend to savor it.

What? I'm Out of Alaska? Yes Apr 05, 2024

Did you catch me on Almanac tonight? Confused because you thought I was in Alaska? Life is weird and if someone told me on January 1, 2019, “Hey, you’re gonna get divorced, live through a pandemic, and then live in the remote Alaskan wilderness but be back in 2024,” I’d have thought they were nuts. But here we are. Denali was a great time but I now have a job with the Forest Service that puts me in Minnesota.

So what were the things I talked about tonight?

The heron rookery at Marshall Terrace Park. You can read some of the history of the rookery here.

Birds and Beers

My Bird Club

If you want to catch some Alaska stories, I’ll be part of the storytelling group at Cheap Theater at the Black Forest in on April 20 at 7 pm and I’ll be one of the speakers at the Indiana Dunes Bird Festival in May.
More will come here as I settle back into the land of strong internet and grocery stores in walking distance.

**Whimbrels of the Sub Arctic in Denali** Jul 16, 2023
What, this blog still works? I know, I blew up my life, moved to Alaska and now all of my writing and creativity goes to a national park.
There are so many birds that I’ve seen and enjoyed over the years, but in many ways I didn’t truly appreciate them. There was a conversation between two men where one said that the outdoors is so much more enjoyable when you what things are. The other man got very defensive and said that he enjoyed the outdoors just as much as anybody and he didn’t need to know the birds, flowers, or trees.
I firmly disagree and the whimbrel is an example of that just being aware of something vs knowing it, is life changing. I know what whimbrels are, I’ve seen them in many places in the Lower 48 of North America. In the grand scheme of shorebirds, they are one of the easier to identify and quite charismatic looking.

This is a whimbrel that I got a photo of while filming a pilot for a birding reality tv show in LA. No, that’s not a joke.

PROOF, took this photo while the whimbrel was about 50 feet away. FYI reality tv shows aren’t scripted, but please note the paper the guy in the middle holding…

I’ve been trying to find photos that I’ve taken of whimbrels and figure out where I was when I took them. I feel like my first whimbrel was exciting but in those heady early days of my birding when I was getting lifers left and right and not quite paying attention to the first sighting because I was getting so many firsts at once. A few photos that I’ve found were from a reality tv show pilot that I filmed, right about the time my book *1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know* came out.
Whimbrels have a crazy beak, not as crazy as a curlew, but still pretty darned distinct. But where whimbrels really got my attention was as we started to study their migration patters and could put transmitters on them to really get an idea of their crazy flights to and from breeding grounds.

Whimbrels on wintering grounds eat quite a few fiddler crabs and it’s thought that the long decurved beak helps them get into their burrows.

In 2009, four whimbrels were tagged by researchers from the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia on their southward migration. The following spring, one bird left Virginia and flew to Alaska, traveling 3,200 miles in about 6 days in what looked to be a non-stop flight. Before that, we didn’t know that whimbrels on the east coast of the United States would end up in Alaska. Here’s **a pretty amazing migration map** **based on some of those trackers.**
But in 2011 the study showed how these birds managed hurricanes but also the many threats that they face. One bird known as “Chinquapin” successfully flew into Hurricane Irene and survived. A bird known as “Machi” flew through Tropical Storm Maria and another knowns as “Goshen” flew through the east side of Hurricane Irene, both eventually landed on Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and were legally shot as part of a fall shorebird hunt. You can read more on the William and Mary website.
I’m told that whimbrels were seen regularly along the Park Road in Denali. I haven’t seen that, I have had a couple of flyovers on the Denali Highway, but haven’t really seen them around where I live now—especially not nesting. One of the things I love about working here is the rich knowledge of the biology staff. There’s lots of careful research and a push/pull of keeping wilderness wild and allowing visitor access. There’s a known decline of whimbrels nesting on the Park Road, but is that a matter of traffic…or loss in other areas like migratory and wintering habitat? Pressures of unregulated shooting? Storms that are impossible to navigate?

Braided river bed off of the Park Road, the only road that goes into Denali National Park and Preserve.

So when some friends told me they were out hiking in Denali about seven miles from my place and had what they thought was a whimbrel, I went out looking for it. Working and living in a park that is roughly the size of New Hampshire (roughly six million acres), its hard to get bored. There aren’t many trails in the park and you are allowed to hike off trail. Sometimes that’s a challenge for a five foot woman navigating willows about as tall as me where I could surprise a grizzly or moose but I always pack bear spray and talk to myself to prevent surprising anyone.
Denali National Park and Preserve is over six million acres in size, roughly the size of New Hampshire. There is only one road through the park and right now, it’s cut off at the halfway point because that part was built on a rock glacier, the ice melted and the road slid away. I took the dry, rocky bed about a mile and a half to Jenny Creek. It was mostly shallow but with my short legs, I was going to have deep areas of very cold water.

Jenny Creek where I could already hear a whimbrel yelling on the ridge on the other side of the creek.

I always calculate the risk and wonder if it’s worth it. I especially do that living in grizzly bear country. I saw the deeper part of the creek, observed the slow of the water and if I could safely navigate it, and noted the steep side of the ridge vs the gradual. Which had more willows to traverse. It looked like the shallow portion of the creek had fewer willows, but a much steeper climb. The deeper part of the creek had a gradual climb, but more willows. Not going to lie, I entertained just keeping with the easy trail fo the dry river bed and forget the whimbrel…then I heard it calling from the top of the ridge, a bird siren song I can’t resist and opted for the shallow end of the creek with the steep hill.
I opted to bring my hiking poles for this trek and so glad that I did since that made the steep grade of the ridge so much easier to climb. The hilarious part is that I later learned my phone took video from my pants pocket. I can hear myself heavily panting and verbalizing my inner monologue to prevent surprising a bear or moose: “Thank you, past Sharon, for bringing hiking poles, good call. *pant pant pant*. Yo moose, yo bear. pant pant pant. Just a short lady walking through the willows. *pant pant pant*. Not interested in hunting today. *pant pant pant.* No cubs for me today. *pant pant pant*. Come on, old girl, you got this. *pant pant pant*. Almost there. *pant pant pant*. Short lady in the willows. *pant pant pant*”

Whimbrel flying over breeding territory.

The whimbrel started calling more and I started mimicking its call back to the best of my ability which wasn’t great. But I could make it loud enough that I wasn’t going to startle moose and I was doing it poorly enough that whimbrel clearly knew I wasn’t a rival for territory.

My favorite shot of the whimbrel. It’s not Nat Geo material, but I love it because I get a sense of its breeding habitat.

I eventually made it to top without being mauled by a bear and it was a gorgeous view and a lone whimbrel watched me warily and occasionally called. I sat down and took a breather, ate my lunch, gave the whimbrel time to see that I wasn’t a threat and it went on to foraging. There didn’t appear to be a second bird or even chicks, but the bird clearly acted like it was on territory. They should have chicks at this point.

View from the top of the ridge. The dry river bed below is what I used to hike to the area.

I took some time to just soak up the weirdo life I have now. Birding in Interior Alaska is so different. It’s not like living in Minnesota where a short drive will net me 50 species and lots of opportunities for photos and videos. In the winter, it’s downright BLEAK and there are days when I will see or hear only one species of bird a day. If the roads are nice enough, I’ll drive the 16 miles to the Three Bears parking lot to look at ravens out of desperation for anything live bird related.
But even in summer, it’s still not the hoards of birds you think of May and June in the Lower 28. My walk up to the whimbrel spot got me 8 species of birds. Lovely birds like fox sparrow and Wilson’s warbler but it’s not the same as being on a coast. But I’ve learned to savor the time I have with birds in the summer and especially in the case of shorebirds, get to know them in a completely different way—some of them even perch in trees! The whimbrel has its wintering grounds version of itself and its breeding grounds self is different. On the wintering grounds, they eat lots of fiddler crabs, up here…they’ll eat berries. What? A shorebird eating berries? Madness.
And to a certain extent, living up here is doing the same to me. Alaska Sharon is different than Minnesota “Birdchick” Sharon, simply because life up here has so many challenges. In some ways it is exhausting: calculating daylight, chances of hitting moose in the dark, how passable roads are and do I really need a salad that badly in February…couldn’t I just keep eating the canned carrots and frozen broccoli? But in other ways it’s so crazy weird and beautiful like the time your neighbor asks if they can swap you five pounds of roadkill moose in exchange for your bottle of Prosecco (that was an excellent trade).

A snippet of whimbrel breeding habitat.
I opted for the walk back to take the less steep slope of the ridge and the deeper end of Jenny Creek. It was in the upper sixties and mostly sunny which in the land of non stop daylight, makes for warm hiking. The cold creek felt good on my feet and thighs. I made it back with glimpses of caribou but no moose and no bears—which is fine. My preferred encounters with those species is from a vehicle and the moose are so thick in my neighborhood in May and June, I’ve had enough.
If you’d like to read more about whimbrels, do check out All About Birds and if you really want to find out who much we don’t know, check Birds of the World (that requires a subscription but is so worth it.

**My Latest Book: North American Birdwatching for Beginners** Apr 07, 2022
Last fall I got an offer to write a book. The money solved a financial problem for me and I agreed to it. I wasn’t sure that the world needed another beginner bird book, but it needed to be written, the process intrigued me, and I’d had a serious case of writer’s block during the pandemic and was finally crawling out of that hole.
I like deadlines, they give me focus. But like any writer, there comes a point when you realize you had some ideas for part of the book and no ideas for the other. And first drafts are for vomiting it all out on paper, no matter how messy it is and a good editor will help you fix that in subsequent drafts. So I wrote the Canada goose profile for a book and thought, “I’m sure the editor will make me fix this later, I’m tired and want to turn this in.”
They did not.

And I put this on Twitter.

When you write a book and it comes out, publishers want you to promote it. I’m in the process of starting a new job and moving to Alaska…all with a book coming out. So I put up a flip tweet about a flip comment I made about geese and it went VIRAL AF. Yay me for efficient marketing at a time when I have too much going on.
So the short of it is, I wrote a beginning birding book. If the above made you giggle and you think a non birder in your life would like to learn more about birds you can order North American Birdwatch for Beginners.
Because this book is coming out as I’m moving, I don’t have autographed copies now. Since shipping books to Alaska and shipping them to you might make them more expensive than they need to be, I may look into getting stickers that I can personalize to send out. I won’t have a good answer for this until mid-May.

**Snowy Owls on Breeding Territory** Mar 03, 2022

Female snowy owl perched on a building at the MSP Airport. How I normally see them every winter.

Snowy owls are something I regularly see in Minnesota. The Minneapolis/St Paul Airport gets a few overwintering every year. I’ve always wondered what it was like to see them on their breeding territory up in the Arctic, especially as I’ve followed Project SNOWstorm and all they have learned about snowy owl seasonal movement. When I headed up to the Arctic portion of Alaska last summer with Zugunruhe Tours, I got my wish. Fun fact that I learned about the name of the town formerly known as Barrow?

Standing at the town sign! Wait…what does that sign say?

According to the sign, this town’s name means “the place where we hunt snowy owls.”

What some people in the US know as the town of Barrow, AK is now called “Utqiagvik” which is a recent spelling of the town’s ancient name “Ukpiagvik.” According to the town sign the name means, “the place where we hunt snowy owls.” I chuckled when I read that. This sign made me think of how in the winter when snowy owls arrive, the “Owl Police” get riled up about how close people get to snowy owls. What would they think of the traditional town name?
I had a conversation with my friend Mark Martell, a biologist about snowys. “These poor things, they come down south and there are all these trees, that has to be confusing. They must wonder how to find anything.”
“Or,” Mark said, “they think, ‘This is GREAT! We need some of these up in the Arctic! I can hear and so so much futher!”
Fair point, Mark.

Utqiagvik has short buildings and no trees.

Looking around the town, I could see how it kind of resembled an airport. Some of the building are hangar-like, lots of open space, and trees. It’s right on the Arctic Ocean so lots of opportunities to hunt right on the sea ice.
Even though I was technically in the United States, it still felt like a foreign country because life is so very different there. There is no road to the town. You cannot just drive up with your trailer. You can only get in by boat or plane…and based on weather, that’s not a guarantee you’ll get in or out on the day you planned. Anything people need that is not in the immediate area has to be flown or shipped in. Conversely, anything you don’t need anymore also has to be shipped out. Car has broken down? Do you pay to have it shipped away or let it stay where it is. Along with that, it’s not easy to get food in and out. Really want to those fresh delicate fruits and vegetables…not an easy option. Avocado Toast isn’t a thing. Because of that and the Alaska Native population, there is subsistence hunting that helps people get through and they hunt what they need to in order to survive. Hence the sign about what the name of the town means.

Palm trees made of baleen from whales.

Signs of subsistence are everywhere. Some yards took leftover baleen from whale hunts and turned them into “Arctic palm trees” or other decor. The town was preparing for a Solstice festival while we were there and chunks of whale could be found as people took it out to thaw. It was fascinating to be in that world and learn how survival is very different in this part of the United States.
The town sign with a snowy owl did not over-hype and despite its meaning, there were owls around town! As I headed out of our hotel to our truck for the day’s birding, one of the other participants pointed to the cemetery next door and noted the snowy owl perched on one of the grave markers. A man and his dog walked by flushing the owl, but it soon returned. Our guide took us on a road closer to the cemetery so we could get photos. It was a stunning adult male male snowy owl.

Snowy owl perched on a grave marker.

But not only were they in town, we saw them as we hiked the surrounding tundra. We saw many snowy owls, one day we saw about six at the same time. They were far away and spread out, but that is the nature of the tundra—you can see for miles. Even though some were far away, I could see in my scope that they were active and getting mobbed my shorebirds. What a treat!

Our guide was very careful to keep us away from nests while we were out on the tundra so we weren’t trampling young or disturbing birds on eggs. But one day as we were hiking the tundra and enjoying the Arctic sun, our binoculars found a light floofy thing through binoculars. We both said, “Uh oh” at the same time. I looked at the guide, “Is that…what I think it is?”
“I hope not,” he replied. We were worried that we had in fact wandered toward a snowy owl nest. I got my scope on it and was relieved to discover that it was not a snowy owl chick. I walked over to get a better photo of what we saw.

Just a random caribou head. Oddly not the weirdest thing we found on the tundra, that would have been the random hunk of whale meat.

Snowy owl pellets.

Exploring Alaska wilderness is very free form. In many places there really aren’t any trails to follow, you just journey out. The tundra is a spongy wonderland and sometimes you end up in a puddle. As much as this post is about snowy owls, the real fun we were after were all the eider species. As we would work our way towards ponds to get closer to the ducks, we would use small rises to hide our presence. One of my best memories is hunkering behind a rise while a spectacled eider got used to me. The light was tremendously golden at 1:30am in the morning and pectoral sandpipers and snow buntings are singing all around me. I’m high enough on the vegetation that I can sit without my butt getting wet from the spongy ground. I stretched out my feet to enjoy the moment and that’s when I noticed the snowy owl pellet next to my boot. There was also some old white looking streaks of poop. Sometime not too long ago a snowy owl had perched here waiting for prey, digesting its previous meal. I love finding owl pellets and to find them on the tundra similar to how I might find great horned owl pellets in the woods totally delighted me. This pellet was chock full of lemming.

Snowy owl in a Minnesota corn field.

I now have a perspective when I see snowy owls in the lower 48. If you ever have the opportunity or find a bird tour company that will take you up to the Arctic, I highly recommend it. The snowy owls are cool and they are just the tip of the iceberg (ha ha) for all the fun that can be had. But what a treat to see these birds hunting and living in their breeding habitat.

**Snow Bunting Nests** Jan 08, 2022

Snow buntings flying around a remote road in Aitkin County, Minnesota.

Snow buntings are a fairly regular appearance in Minnesota in winter. It’s one of the birds I will watch for on the way to the bog or birding in the southern part of the state. They are generally in large flocks, skittish, and far away. You’re basically driving down a country road and a bunch of white birds with patches of beige burst off the side of the road as you pass.

Male snow bunting singing on a telephone pole in Utqiaġvik formerly known as Barrow, AK.

In the Arctic Circle, snow buntings are everywhere, practically yard birds and not so skittish. Part of the appeal of working in Alaska for a summer was the chance to explore the state further (I’ve birded Anchorage and Homer), and especially in the Arctic Circle with the hopes of seeing birds like snow buntings, shorebirds, and snowy owls in their breeding range.
When I landed in Utqiaġvik formerly known as Barrow, the northern most point of the United States, the first bird I heard singing loudly was a snow bunting warbling away on top of the airport hangar. They became one of my favorite songs of the trip. Males in breeding plumage are such snazzy looking birds. I immediately fell in love.
Here’s a video I took with my phone, Swarovski scope, and PhoneSkope case so you can hear the song of the snow bunting…and get a sense of the tundra and Midnight Sun:

As we drove around the tree-less town, I noticed people had bird boxes in their yards. That was puzzling to me because the tundra is known for not having trees. What possible bird would use a birdhouse or nest box here? Starlings are in the southern part of Alaska but nowhere near up in the Arctic. House sparrows have managed to not get a foothold in the state of Alaska yet. So…in the land of no trees and no woodpeckers, what bird would evolve to nest in a cavity? What cavities would there be? I soon had my answer.

Female snow bunting in a nest box.

Snow buntings used the nest boxes. It never dawned on me that they would use a bird house. But how and why, I wondered. I hadn’t read their nesting section in Birds of the World before I left for the trip. I think I assumed birds in the Arctic were all some form a ground nester.

Lemming tunnels and trails on the edge of of town.

It turns out that there are cavities in the tundra, in the ground made by lemmings. Lemmings are EVERYWHERE and I mean EVERYWHERE. One of our tour participants gave a squeak becase a lemming startled her when it ran over her foot! I did eventually find some snow buntings using an actual lemming tunnel as a nest. I got some slow mo footage with my iPhone attached to my Swarovski spotting scope for some footage. Because it’s slow mo, I cut out all the time she was actually in the nest feeding or this video would be five mintues long.

I did my trip up to Utqiaġvik/Barrow with Zugunruhe Birding Tours which I highly recommend if you like a small group experience.

**Birding The Park Road in Denali National Park** Jan 02, 2022

Three-toed woodpeckers were regulars outside of my cabin.

I paused my bike ride for some grizzly poop on the Park Road.

Denali National Park and Preserve is about the size of New Hampshire and has one road known as the Park Road that’s about 92 miles long. Most of it is accessible only by transit or tour bus, foot, or bike. I biked some of it while I worked there last summer. One day while I was biking I found some grizzly bear poop. Whenever I posted a picture of bears or bear poop I would inevitably get texts or comments warning me to be careful of grizzly bears so I began including, “Yes, I have bear spray” in every dispatch to family and friends.
This particular patch of poop was right before Sable Pass. About a week after getting this photo while biking there, I was driving through that spot to a meeting. I was recalling my bike ride when I noticed to buses stopped in the road with a large lump lumbering in front of them:

Grizzly walking towards my vehicle.

A transit bus and a tour bus where coming from the opposite direction and had a grizzly bear in front of them. I pulled over and let the situation play out. I had never seen a grizzly bear until I came to Alaska and couldn’t believe I was having a quintessential national park experience of a bear walking past my vehicle. I kept my eyes on the bear but whipped out my phone for a souvenir video.

Not digiscoped. Just right outside my vehicle window.

I love how the bear does not make eye contact with me. Bears are like people, they like the established trails and roads, like us they appreciate the path of least resistance. Also the road is chock full of Arctic ground squirrels which are a tasty morsel for a grizzly. This bear was clearly communicating, I’m just passing through, not making eye contact, just goin’ about my bear business, please leave me alone and things won’t need to get very real.
Not unlike me when I’m in downtown St. Paul in uniform. Just trying to grab some tacos, not ready to answer questions about fishing permits or parking (not that I can answer those anyway, but people always assume I know when in uniform).
Currently, part of the road is being rebuilt because a section is on a rock glacier (it’s more rock than ice) and it’s melting because Climate Change. There’s some amazing time lapse footage of what’s been happening on the Denali website. I actually got to drive that section of road before the latest landslide and it was terrifying to me. I drove out on the side against the mountain. I wondered how I was going to drive back to my cabin and be on the cliff side that has no railing. I can’t believe busses would pass each other on that section of mountain pass, but they did on a daily basis.
When I arrived for my meeting, I told the first ranger I saw, “Polychrome Pass is terrifying. I don’t know how I’m going to drive through Pretty Rocks to get back.”
He laughed, “Oh yeah, I remember my first time.”
I said, “I’m serious. I don’t think I can drive back on my own. I live here now.”
”Ohhh,” he said. “I’ll take you out and give you some cliff driving tips.”

Transit and tour busses passing each other along Pretty Rocks. Photo from the Fairbanks Daily News Miner.

I have now been over Polychrome Pass many times. One day I was with a coworker and while she drove, I took a video of what it looks like to drive that section. Alas there was no gyrfalcon perched here that day, but you could see where one had perched based on the white wash.

Eurasian wigeon mixed in with American wigeon at Wonder Lake. It was fun to self find this bird that I have seen so many times in Europe.

Birding the park reminded me quite a bit of northern Minnesota: boreal chickadees, black-backed woodpeckers, three-toed woodpeckers, goshawks blasting through, Canada jays, redpolls, crossbills, spruce grouse and oodles of ravens. There are other exciting birds there like willow ptarmigan, Arctic warbler, and northern wheatear. It’s crazy to me that Alaska is situated to not only get migrants from Central and South America, but also southeast Asia.
If you are a birder hellbent on getting ALL the lifers in a weekend, that’s not going to happen. Birds are spread out and some are only accessible by trekking off trail into wilderness. I was there for three months and didn’t get all the lifers I could have. I had quality time with quality birds, but there is A LOT of hiking (not necessarily on trails) to get to some of these birds. But you get stunning views and very interesting mammals.

Dall sheep out my window as I was on my way to a meeting.

They say if you see Denali mountain at all that you are a “thirty percenter” because it’s usually covered in clouds. If you see it without any clouds covering the mountain at all then you are a “fifteen percenter.”

Denali is definitely worth a visit, just for the sheer grandeur. But birding itself is better on Denali Highway which isn’t in the park. But that’s another blog entry for another day.
Incidentally, I’ll be working permanently for Denali in the near future. So I suspect that more Alaska bird blogs entries will be forthcoming.
Below are some of the birds I saw while out and about in Denali.

**A Toast To Curt Rawn** Dec 27, 2021

Curt always ready with a camera and occasionally a beer.

My friends, let us toast Curt Rawn and his desire for human connection, his love of birds, and his love of getting other people to enjoy birds.
I started Birds and Beers in Minneapolis on July 17, 2007. The intent was to have it once a month, but my travel schedule didn’t always allow for that. The following spring I was working a bird festival in another state and I noticed pictures showing up on social media for a Birds and Beers…that I didn’t organize. “What the hell,” I thought, “is someone trying to steal my event?”
When I came home and asked around to friends who attended, they said a guy named Curt Rawn organized it. I vaguely remembered meeting him at the previous Birds and Beers. I contacted him to ask why he organized one.
“I asked you when you would have a Birds and Beers in May and you said you were too busy,” Curt said, “so I put one on. Those things are fun!”
I laughed at how my little idea to connect birders in bars had gotten beyond my control in less than a year. I suggested we work together, I could definitely use the help to keep them going with my travel schedule. He happily agreed and we experimented with Birds and Beers the Woodcock Tailgate Party and Birds and Beers at the Crow Roost Edition. We tried having it at various locations and when we finally got too big, we landed at the Black Forest Inn.
Curt was always happy to help someone start a new Birds and Beers and was on hand to help get the St. Paul version off the ground, constantly nudging me to come along. “Hey Shaz, St Paul BnB was a blast, you have got to get to one of these!”
Birds and Beers would not be what it is had it not been for Curt. I never wanted to have it on a specific day of the month because some people couldn’t make certain days. Curt did a great job of pinging me every couple of weeks, “Hey Shaz, it’s time for another BnB.” He also did a great job of helping to spread the word.

This was an outdoor gathering I had after friends were vaccinated this past spring. I joked no one knew how to take pictures anymore because we all got out of the socialization habit during the pandemic. I printed this picture and had it framed while I lived in Alaska over the summer. I met the lovely Kare Snow in this picture at Birds and Beers.

Some of my closest friends are because of Curt. Once, I had been cornered into a conversation at a BnB and when I could finally get away, I made a beeline for the bathroom. Curt grabbed me and I snapped, “Dammit, Curt, I have to f*cking pee!”
The woman next to him laughed as he said, “I wanted to introduce you to this person new to Birds and Beers that I met at the varied thrush last week. Her name is Gayle.”
Gayle laughed and told Curt to let me pee. Gayle and I are very close friends to this day.
One of my favorite things at a Birds and Beers is to stand back and watch the crowd, see people connecting and having a good time or interesting conversation. Curt would often catch me doing this and we’d make eye contact, knowingly smile and toast each other. It was one of my favorite parts of our friendship.

Running into Curt Rawn at Biggest Week with Sherrie Duris and Asher Gorbet.

Before long Curt started coming to some of the bird festivals in the US and I remember a friend in the Rio Grande Valley asking, “What’s the deal with Curt Rawn? He’s everywhere.” I said, “He loves birding and he really loves people.”
And he did. If you were alone at a party or didn’t know anyone, he’d seek you out, get to know you, and hook you up with other people to talk to. He was a super connector. He was at home in any group. When I’d invite him to parties with our theater/comic friends he blended in easily.
When I’d get to a bird festival and he was there, as soon as he saw me he’d come in for a greeting and say, “Hey Shaz…this is wonderful, I love it! I’ve met so many people!” I see him saying that at the boardwalk at Magee Marsh or the trail at Estero Llano Grande State Park in my head, vividly as I type this.

Hanging out with Curt outside pre vaccination during the pandemic.

The pandemic was hard. Curt was a social creature and derived so much pleasure from the company of others, it was challenging for him. I had him over in the yard when I could or we’d go birding when time would allow. When I told him my plan for working in the Rio Grande Valley for several weeks last winter he said, “That’s sounds like a great idea, I wonder if I could rent a place down there too?”
Sure enough he found a place a couple of miles away from my rental. He arrived earlier and stayed later than I did, but true to form when I arrived he said to me, “Hey Shaz, you know Katinka?”
“I met her briefly at the RGV Fest a few years ago,” I said.
“Well she’s here too and needs company, we should all go birding,” Curt said.
And I got to know Katinka much better as a result.

If I entered in a good eBird sighting Curt would be under my balcony in 15 minutes.

Little things like finding him under my apartment balcony after I eBirded parakeets that morning meant the world to me. In the above photo we chatted for a few minutes and then got a yellow-throated warbler and western tanager in that brief time. We had a really great month. While birding one morning he marveled at how he dropped five pounds out of nowhere. He thought it must have been all the walking and birding in Texas unlike staying cooped up indoors in frozen Minnesota in winter. Little did any of us know what was really going on.
He got vaccinated while he was in Texas and immediately started asking me how soon we’d have Birds and Beers. I was nowhere near getting vaccinated and not ready. He managaed to get a few in without me.
When I came back from working in Alaska this summer he had a cough but thought it was due to the heavy smoke haze in the Twin Cities from the wildfires in surrounding states and Canada. When it didn’t go away after the smoke subsided he got the cancer diagnosis. He was quiet about it at first. But as things progressed I had him over and said, “You have to let people help you. We want to help you. Think of all the times you drove someone to chemo, you brought them food, you made them smile, you simply visited. It’s time to let us return the favor.”
There are thousand stories I could tell you about the man. Like back when I was married and my husband at the time was in Hong Kong and I had a back spasm and was immobile. He was out birding with his friend Tony and the stopped and grabbed some food and made sure I had things to eat the next few days. I’ll never forget that kindness.

The horrifying results when we tried one of those face swapping apps.

He could drive me nuts if we travelled together. We’d be scheduled to meet at certain time for breakfast and birding and he’d call when we were supposed to hit the road and say, “Hey Shaz, I met five new people at a party last night and they want to bird with us too and I’ll need another 45 minutes to figure out carpooling.”
He was so freaking goofy! I’ll miss his goofiness like the time he called and asked me for dating app advice and we realized he’d accidentally given himself the username “Curt69.” Sometimes I still call him that in my head.

Take in some classic goofy Curt.

When I was married I joked that Non Birding Bill was my first husband and my buddy Clay who I travelled with for Swarovski was my second husband. Curt asked, “Hey Shaz, can I be a husband?” And so I knighted him my third husband. But he really was more like a brother who drove me bananas and made me laugh.
One of my all time favorite photos of Curt was taken by Craig Mullenbach. Curt and I were working the MOU booth at the State Fair. The booth has a giant sign that reads, “Ask Us About Birds!” Craig and other friends arrived at the booth and gifted Curt and I Big Fat Bacon on a stick. Craig was about to take a photo of us at the booth. As he was, a member of the public noted the sign and asked, “Hey is it true that when you see a cardinal in your yard that it’s one of your dead relatives stopping by to say hello?”

Our reactions when asked a ridiculous question.

Our faces in that photo are PRICELESS. Curt and I laughed about that moment for years. And will I see Curt in a cardinal in my backyard? No. I’m about to move to Alaska where there are no cardinals so I guess that means I’m SOL?
No.
I’ll see Curt when I am with a gathering of birders and people are engaged in good conversation, sharing an amazing lifer story, eating lifer pie, and welcoming in a new birder to the group.

A reflection of Curt in the objective lens on my spotting scope.

I’m grateful for the friendship we had. I’m grateful that two weeks ago I went for a visit with my best soup and he taught me to play cribbage. He was happy that day, tired but happy. He was optimistic about his treatment and plans for 2022.
We texted the next day when his nausea was bad. And then he got very confused and ended up back in the hospital where things changed very fast.
I have a hole in my heart now. It’s much bigger than I expected it would be. But that is the heartbreakingly beautiful thing about good relationships. They have a shelf life.
So long, Curt, and thank you for the years of friendship and the many friends you introduced me to along the way.

**Driving From Minnesota to Alaska** Dec 20, 2021

In February, I was down round the Texas/Mexico border. By May I was in Alaska.

This year was so weird and filled with so many delightful surprises. I never imagined I’d find myself driving from the lower 48 states up into Canada to get to Alaska, but that’s what happened. I know many birders do big years and drive all over the country, but that’s not my style. While I was working from Alamo, TX this winter, I found out I was going to work for Denali National Park for the summer. I calculated the long drive I was going to have in front me. I had a co-pilot for the Texas to Minnesota bit, but Minnesota to Alaska was going me and only me.
I had the option of flying into Alaska for work, but I wouldn’t have had a car if I did that. And working in a park that is the size of New Hampshire and being two hours away from a city required me to have a car. I loaded up my birding gear, biking gear, and clothes and headed north. Canada still had hefty restrictions for crossing the border. I was fully vaccinated by the time I left, but Canada didn’t accept that and sent me back to Montana for a rapid test. I saw a testing station at the Canada border and asked, “Can’t I just take a test there?”
The border patrol agent chuckled and said, “If we let you in, you’ll have to take that one before you drive on.”
He was nice enough to give me the name of a clinic that was open for one more hour and I was able to get an appointment for a rapid test. They told me I was lucky I was doing this on a week day. Many people tried crossing on Saturday and all the clinics were closed until Monday and they were stranded. Mondays the clinic was full of cranky travelers.
I went back tot he border with my rapid test negative and had to sit and wait two hours for processing. During Canada’s lockdown, they gave me a very limited window for driving through and if I didn’t leave within my five day window, I’d be risking fines and further entry into the Country. I had to prove that I had hotels already booked or they would make me make the reservations while they watched…no sneaking into campsites at National Parks. I did ask for an extra day in case I encountered any snow storms and they did grant me that.

The AlCan Highway, beautiful but lonely.

The drive up was beautiful but lonesome. I wasn’t allowed to walk anywhere, parks had police at the gate watching for US citizens to keep them out. I was only allowed to use drive throughs or pay at the pump. At hotels, I was only allowed to be in my room and not wander out until it was time to leave.
But OMFG the wildlife! I had a chance to really use my treasured Bovids of the World field guide!

Wood bison!

I shared my location with a few people so if I disappeared, someone would have an idea of where I was. This backfired slightly when one of my sisters texted, “WHY ARE YOU IN AN EMERGENCY CLINIC IN MONTANA????” (Rapid Covid Test).
However, one person said, “You are leaving Muncho Lake this morning, FYI watch out for wood bison in the road about two hours out of town.” Yep. There were wood bison in and next to the road. Which I had no idea existed. Turns out they are shaped differently than the bison I have seen in the United States aka plains bison and they are considered endangered in Canada.
But there were some lifer mammals on the trip. The first was when I passed a small deer-looking thing with a big nose. “Did I just pass a caribou,” I wondered to myself.

Caribou on the highway!

I soon encountered many caribou and confirming that I was in fact now among caribou aka reindeer really hit home for me how my life was going to be different the next few months. Moose, black bear, coyote—I get all of that in Minnesota. But caribou? Wow. I kind of chuckled to myself that I was becoming a Lifetime movie cliche. Woman gets divorced and lives through a pandemic,. then decides to work in a strange and foreign to her wilderness. Cue the swelling John Barry music!

Many signs warned of sheep. Signs on curvy mountain roads had flashing lights to warn you about sheep.

Stone sheep.

The signs were no lie. If you passed a sign warning of sheep, there would be sheep. I knew I was going to get Dall sheep when I got to Denali, so getting stone sheep on the way was a nice bonus. I think they’re considered a subspecies of Dall sheep, but regardless, they were my first thin horned sheep.
I also passed countless moose, black bears, elk, foxes, and coyotes all on top of the gorgeous mountain scenery.

Common Raven near Munch Lake.

The fascinating thing was how strict everything was on my drive up and how much citizen didn’t care on my drive home. When I drove back to Minnesota I got the same spiel from border patrol about only paying for gas at the pump, only eat at drive throughs, and only stay in my hotel room. Every gas station I stopped at on the drive back had the pay at pump feature turned off. They wanted you inside buying snacks and beverages. When I checked in to one of my hotels the front desk clerk told me about a fancy curry dinner they were going to serve that night and I should join them. “I’m from the US, I’m not allowed to eat in your dining room,” I said.
The clerk said, “We don’t care where you are from, we really want you to spend money in our dining room. Wear a mask if you’re not vaccinated.”
“Does this mean you’ll let me walk around outside,” I asked.
They allowed it and it was a treat to be outdoors and get a good long hike in and enjoy the sounds of remote Canada.

Getting back into the United States from Canada was a real treat. I had to go and park my car and then follow the signs to walk into Canada, turn in all my paperwork proving I left the country in the allotted time, then get shoved out the door, walk outside and around the building, step in front of the line of cars waiting to drive into the US and walk up to the dive through window to get back into the United States.

The oh so fancy and official government signs directing you how to go from Canada into the United States.

Not as dramatic as walking along the Equator but interesting nonetheless.

I handed all my paperwork and passport the US border patrol. He said, “You can take your mask off, we don’t wear those here.”
Considering where I was entering the US, I was not surprised by this statement.
But I made it back to Minnesota. It was a grand adventure and I felt a bit badass doing that drive alone. It’s not something I want do alone ever again, but it’s nice to know that I can if I have to.

**Getting My Nemesis Bird** Sep 18, 2021

My former nemesis.

If you’ve spent time with me in person then you know that spruce grouse is a big nemesis bird for me. Big. Huge. GINORMOUS.
For those new to birding, a “nemesis bird” is a bird that you try to see and never get. You’re always arriving as someone says, “It just flew off, like, five minutes ago…”
Spruce grouse is particularly galling since they breed in Minnesota and yet I still manage to miss them. Now, they are a good four to five hours from where I live so it’s not like I’m missing a bird one to two hours away. I had kind of given up ever searching for them since I wasn’t seeing them and figured like many birds, one would just happen in front of me.
It was such a running gag at Birds and Beers that almost didn’t want to see one since people seemed to enjoy the joke so much. People loved to announcing their grouse find at Birds and Beers and looking pointedly at me. Or tagging me in photos on social media. Heck, even my boss came back from a weekend in northern Minnesota and told me that his brother served him freshly hunted spruce grouse.
I half-heartedly joked that I’d offer sexual favors to the first person to get me a spruce grouse.
And then I started dating a birder, someone with a cabin in northern Minnesota that was about halfway between where I lived in the Twin Cities and where spruce grouse hang out. When the pandemic hit, we kind of made it a pandemic project. Spruce grouse would be a lifer for them. I think we thought that maybe some “pandemic magic” would happen and all the time up north would get us the bird. But there was no pandemic magic. We went to areas where bird guides would say, “I had a group there today” and we’d go the following day and not get spruce grouse. We would see cool things like goshawks or pine martens hanging out, but no grouse.
So when the Alaska gig presented itself, spruce grouse were firmly on the table. As I got to know staff at Denali National Park via Teams meetings before heading to live in Alaska for the summer, word spread of my desire to see one. People would tell when and where they saw them. I’d receive text messages from a staffer of spruce grouse right out their vehicle window on the Park Road. One day, someone tried to arrange their laptop camera to face out their windows so I could watch the spruce grouse in their yard. I have to say that the staff at Denali National Park and Preserver definitely know how to make a girl feel at home. Many staff truly took my nemesis bird more seriously than I did.

My bike, a Surly Straggler, loaded for birding.

My first morning waking up in Denali National Park, I loaded my bike and my birding equipment in my Prius and hit the Park Road. One of the first birds I got was the willow ptarmigans I already blogged about. But when I was there in early May, the buses hadn’t started running yet and a private vehicle could drive all the way to Teklanika Rest Area and then hike/bike more of the Park Road.
I unloaded my bike from my car at Tek, got my trunk bag on, strapped in my scope and my binoculars and headed out. Yes. I also packed bear spray. I marveling at the beauty of the river and mountains around me, taking in the redpolls and crossbills, thinking how badass it is to be able to say, “Oh yeah, I biked in Alaska.”
And then the road curved into some spruce and WHAM! I knew the shape as soon as my eyes laid on it. The dark strutting blob was unmistakable. There he was, a displaying male spruce grouse!

That dark lump up the road is my lifer spruce grouse. And yes, please note the bear spray next to my binoculars.

I pedaled as close as I dared and took the displaying male in. I was so grateful for my NL Pures, they truly are a spectacular piece of birding equipment and the clarity of this life bird was overwhelming. I pedaled a little closer, then got off and set up my spotting scope low to the ground to get video of the displaying male. Meanwhile a second male came in…and then a third appeared in the trees just to my right. It took off to chase the displaying male. It was quite a site. I took video and drank in the scene and until all three males chased each other off and headed into the woods.

Warning: swearing. Also, the strut on this bird rivals Prince.

Portrait of a woman who has defeated. a decades long bird curse.

I was riding so high. The willow ptarmigan were one thing, but to just get spruce grouse while doing one of my favorite things (biking) was just too much. I rode the high as I continued to pedal the road. And then I noticed that I was going super slow. I made it all the way to Igloo Campground and was exhausted. My riding was not pretty, slow and quite a few stops. I figured I’d be a little off after driving nonstop for seven days and not being used the elevation, but I wasn’t prepared to be THAT sucky at bike riding. When I turned around to head back, I didn’t pedal for three miles. I’d been on a such a gradual incline and on a spruce grouse high that I didn’t even notice the incline.
The next few days were settling into the job and establishing a routine. About a week into it, I was walking to my office in the Headquarters Building when BLAMMO there was a a female spruce grouse right outside my window. I got a couple of quick and dirty iPhone shots, but I also accepted a universal truth: after you have finally seen and experienced a life long nemesis bird, you will see then everywhere and all the time.
Only I didn’t.
I would’t see another spruce grouse again until almost two months later when the person I’ve been dating came to visit. Spruce grouse was still their nemesis but I wasn’t foolish enough to guarantee finding the bird. But one night we were out walking one of the sled dogs I was assigned to walk (her name is Party and she’s amazing). Party went on point and there was a spruce grouse next to the road! My friend went after it, got a terrible iPhone photo but got great looks. Party was very upset with how the whole situation was handled. She clearly wanted off leash and to follow my friend to get at the spruce grouse, but I think she thought our interest was in eating it, not just looking at it. I could tell from her tugs on the harness that she was thinking, “No, you’re doing it wrong, let me help you, I’ll totally kill it and we’ll all eat it!”

Afterwards as the two of us celebrated a much sought after lifer with whoops and maybe even a slap on the back, I got this photo of Party. She’s so proud that she found the grouse.

And then it was several weeks until I had my fourth and final spruce grouse encounter. I made a reputation for myself among staff that if you needed to leave town and you had indoor plumbing (especially a bath tub) I was happy to watch your place and feed your pets.

One of my regulars had a cabin in the woods with a jacuzzi. One day, I noticed birds about the size of a thrush running in the grassy driveway. I was ready to dismiss them at Swainson’s thrushes, but the run was wrong and the shape…wait…that’s kind of a young pheasant shape…no pheasants in Alaska…wrong habitat for ptarmigan…what else…holy crap…SPRUCE GROUSE BABIES!
And there we were. All of us frozen. The grouse realizing something was moving in the driveway that hadn’t been moving before. Me, frozen hoping not to disturb them. Eventually the attention span of youth won and the chicks continued to forage while mom kept a watchful eye on me. I tried to play it cool and grab my scope from inside the cabin to get pictures and video.

And there we have it, I had a perfect nemesis/life bird experience of the summer:
I found a displaying male bird on my own while doing something I love like bike riding.
I got a female outside my office.
I got to show someone else who needed spruce grouse (with the magic of a sled dog).
I got to see a female with chicks.
Who knows if I’ll ever see one in Minnesota. And goodness knows that I have received plenty of good natured ribbing that I can’t really count spruce grouse until I’ve seen them in Minnesota.
But the big takeaway that I have is that some birds just need to happen. You can chase them all you want, but at the end of the day, the only way to get them is to let go and just let them happen. And when the time is right, they eventually will happen for you.

**Sounds of Willow Ptarmigan** Sep 04, 2021

What does a willow ptarmigan sound like? Utterly bonkers!

When you work for the federal government, you occasionally have opportunities to apply for “details.” If you are permanently stationed at a park and another park has a temporary staffing need, you can apply for it and work there for a few months. This is meant to help out a park as it rehires a new position. It also gives the person who gets the temporary job some career development—you can use it as a chance to work for a different type of park or to try out a different type of job.
Given all of the change in my life in the last few years, I saw an opportunity to work in Denali National Park and Preserve for the summer and thought, “YES! I want that please!” Part of it is a desire for change but also two birds I’ve always wanted to see are practically guarantees if you go at the right time of year: willow ptarmigan and my long-time nemesis, the spruce grouse. So I applied and then bada bing, bada boom I found myself in central Alaska in early May, living in a cabin in the park.
The morning after I arrived in Denali, I hit the Park Road in search of ptarmigan and places to ride my bike. I only went a few miles to where I hit subarctic tundra and there in the road was a male in all his ridiculous glory.

Life bird with a view!!!

My first ever willow ptarmigan strutting like a boss in front of my Prius. And yes, I drove a Prius to Alaska from Minnesota.

I pulled over and the ptarmigan immediately began singing me the love songs of his people. I was thrilled, elated, swearing with all the lifer joy a birder can feel. There was another male further away perched in a tree—I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR PTARMIGANS IN TREES! I made myself comfortable to listen and bask in this bird’s “song.” I ended up encountering willow ptarmigan on a regular basis in May and June along the Denali Park Road. One day I biked up to Sable Pass and was surrounded by males chasing each other. I wasn’t prepared for their even sillier chase call. I made a compilation video of their sounds. It’s so strange to be in land that is crazy majestic only to be serenaded by the likes of Looney Tunes.

My first day in Denali and my true love gave to me, a ptarmigan in a spruce tree.

This is the face of a woman who has finally heard willow ptarmigan live and in person and it was as glorious as she always imagined it would be.

**My Lifer Texas Blue Bunting** Jul 24, 2021

There are life birds and then there are LIFE BIRDS.

Taking a trip to a new state or country can yield you dozens of new birds in a day. But then there are those birds that catch your eye in a field guide or bird magazine article and you think, “My gods, I want that so much, I need to see it so badly, shut up and take all my money. Show me that damn bird.”
Generally, I prefer to get birds where they are supposed to be. And I’m content seeing birds over and over. The day I’m bored with green jays is the day I hang up my Swarovskis. I’m not one to chase a new state record on the other side of my state, especially if I have seen that bird where it normally lives. I’ll make an exception if it is within ten miles and I know I’ll see friends, but I’m not into chasing that much.

The blue bunting in the National Geographic Field Guide.

When I was working from the Rio Grande Valley, Texas this past winter there were many rarities being reported and of particular interest to me was a blue bunting. I have been intrigued by blue buntings ever since I was a kid and given a National Geographic Field Guide. Whenever I got a new bird book as a kid, I would immediately go to the pages of my favorite birds: scarlet tanager, indigo bunting, pileated woodpecker to see the photo or illustration. When I got to the page for buntings in the National Geographic, I was struck by a bird I hadn’t heard of before called a blue bunting that was even darker blue than an indigo bunting, it looked like it had patches of lighter blue, did the bird shimmer? As a kid I thought that must be something to see.
As I started traveling, I figured it was a matter of time until I would cross paths with one, but alas, my life list was blue bunting free. Sure, there are birds that pop up across the Texas/Mexico border, but they were usually females. I know, I know, female birds are cool too and we shouldn’t just look at the pretty boys, but I really wanted to see how that blue works on that bird. I couldn’t understand from photos what that blue was all about. Was this bunting super shiny?
This winter, one was reported at Resaca de la Palma, about 45 minutes from where I was working. People were posting pictures on social media, eBird was giving me alerts, it was too tempting not to chase. And Resaca is a good park, lots to see there so it’s not like I was going just for the bunting. I headed out and brought my bike along. Masks were still required if you were grouped around the blinds to watch the feeder birds. We waited, and even ran into a few friends who were happy to tell me that they had already seen the bunting. But no bunting ever showed up. Many other great birds did like the usual green jays and Altimira orioles. I decided to hit the trails with my bike and maybe try again the next day—the bike ride was good birding, and yielded a ruddy ground dove on one of the trails.

The dulcet tones of plain chachalaca song serenaded me as I waited hours for a blue bunting to show up to Resaca de la Palma.

I’d arrived a bit late in the day for the blue bunting and word on the birding street was that the bird shows up in the morning. The next day I arrived mid-morning and was told the bunting had just been seen. But it wasn’t seen again while I was there. I had only a couple of hours because I had an online training to do and the reception wasn’t good enough at the park for me to participate from the bird feeders. At this point I was thinking, “I’ve tried twice, let’s not waste any more time and gas…” But I kept seeing pictures of this glorious male posted by people who made the drive down from Dallas or Austin. I was only 45 minutes away. This male was practically a guarantee if I was there at the right time and when would I see one again? Also, we were in a freaking pandemic…what else do I have to do but go birding or ride my bike? The last time I’d gotten a lifer was 2019? Maybe even 2018?
I decided I would give the bird a third try, this time taking some annual leave work. I had a meeting at 12pm so I gave myself from dawn until 11am to get it. When I arrived before the visitor center was open the ranger saw me and said, “It was just here but usually will come back in 45 minutes.”

I actually got this crimson-collared grosbeak at Estero Llano Grande but it’s better than the picture I got at Resaca de la Palma. This species was all over the Valley this winter.

I had a good four hours to play with so I waited and 45 minutes came and went. I saw so many great birds that other people were trying for like the crimson-collared grosbeak, tropical parula, and golden-crowned warbler. Heck, I even saw the orange crown of the orange-crowned warblers as they bathed in the water feature in front of me. It was a weekday and pretty quiet, I mostly had the place to myself, apart from the occasional person looking for a different bird.
“You here for the crimson-collared?”
“No, but it was just here ten minutes ago, I’m here for the blue bunting.”
“Ohhhh man, I had the bunting last week, it’s amazing! Darn, I wonder if the crimson-collared will come back. I need that bird.”
Anther couple arrived and like me, they were going for the bunting. They staked themselves out at a blind to my left and we waited. 10am arrived and I began to wonder if I was going to dip on this bird again. I wanted to see it so badly. I’d already invested about 11 hours of watching and driving trying to get the bird that everyone else seemed to get. And I was seeing GREAT birds too so it wasn’t a total loss but I really wanted this bird. Time was growing short, it was already past 10:30am. I had to be in my car and driving back at 11am to make my next meeting.
Then miraculously…it flew in for some water at 10:45am. I managed to get some video because I wanted to see how all that dark and light blue worked together. Of course the danger of when I get life birds and take video is that it comes with a lot of swearing. But here is the video.

Who doesn’t swear when they get a lifer?

And the blue was insane. The bird looked like it shimmered, even though the feathers weren’t really shiny, so much as the bird has lighter patches of sky blue on its head, cheeks, and wings. It was a combination of blue that no photo can do justice and to watch it move and fly was like watching a piece of electricity flit around trees and dirt.
I drove home, triumphant. I felt giddy. I felt like a huge weight was off my shoulders. I felt like…I’d say I felt like I got a massage, but no, I felt like I’d just had really great sex. It’s not a feeling I get with just any lifer, this was a bird I dreamed about seeing as a kid—it’s colorful bird, it’s not like getting a flycatcher or Old World warbler. This was a highly desired bird. Also, I had gone for it multiple times. And while I waited for this magical creature to show up, I got to enjoy all my Texas favorites. I enjoy winter, but the silence gets to me. Working in south Texas this past winter really hit home how much I need bird song in my life as much as possible.
I lived on the high of finally seeing that damn bunting the rest of the day and well into the next. I could feel the endorphin rush with every breath. I made it back to my computer in time for my meeting. Oddly enough, the meeting I had to attend after getting that bird led me to more lifers, including a nemesis bird.
All in all, it was a great day and writing about the blue bunting still gives me a bit of an endorphin rush.

**Cicadas** Jan 24, 2021
Parents (or heck, adults who want a fun project on their desk while working from home) this is something fun and safe you can do with your iPhone.

Dog day cicada freshly emerged from its exoskeleton. The wings and body will get darker as it dries out.

I got a bit obsessed with insects this past summer. Not traveling and moving to a home with a backyard gave me the opportunity to really study and observe things I’ve always wondered about, like cicadas. The older I get, the more I groove on cicadas, they are a sense memory of childhood as summer was marked by their sounds. Where I grew up in Indiana and where I lived we primarily had scissor-grinder cicadas, Linnea’s cicada and some of the periodic species like 13 year cicada. But in Minnesota we mostly we have the dog day cicada—although last summer for the first time ever I did hear a scissor-grinder cicada singing in my front yard. My new neighbors already think I’m a little eccentric but thought it over the top when I leapt up with my phone to record the sound of a new Minnesota cicada. They asked, “Wait what? You can ID bug calls too?”

Cicada nymph found on a neighborhood bike rid

This summer I found a number of dog day cicadas emerging around my new place. Some were found gardening, others in the grass. Goodspeed was working in our garden, digging out some rocks and brought one over, “Look at these crazy insects I keep finding!” I knew immediately they were cicada nymphs and told him to put them back, that they were after tree roots, not any of the perennials.” I later read that dog day cicadas have a preference for pine trees. The neighbor has a large white pine and I’m sure its shallow root system makes it way to the backyard and that’s what the nymphs were after.
True to their name, when the hottest part of summer hit, the cicadas began to sing and I found their shells on hostas, the front yard maple tree, in the grass or the driveway. I’ve had an aversion to the nymphs ever since I was a kid. I think it’s because as kids we loved stepping on empty cicada shells for the satisfying crunch sound. One day I watched a girl crunch one shell with her bare foot and then squish a freshly emerged cicada with her other bare foot. I still can hear her wails of disgust and rage ringing in my ears 40 years later. Also, they look gross and like they can bite you. But at this stage of their life, they are finished eating and don’t really bite. If you pick them up and let them crawl on you, you will feel the grip of their feet—which makes sense. They are looking for something to grip while they go through the vulnerable process of emerging from their shell.
I picked up a few and used the time lapse feature on my iPhone to get this video.

You can make one of these too!
1. Find a cicada freshly emerged from the ground, this can happen at any time of day. When you find one, you have 15 to 30 minutes before the process gets going.
2. Find a good rough stick for the nymph to crawl on and get comfortable. Place the stick in a vase or glass that will keep the stick steady.
3. Find a way to aim your smartphone at it for awhile. Thanks to the pandemic and working from home all the time, I have a selfie stick that also works as a tripod and has a ring light. This is perfect for holding the phone steady and giving enough light to really see the process well. Pro tip, if you tap and hold your finger on your iPhone screen it will not only lock the focus, but the exposure as well. And then I hit start on the time lapse button and an hour later I have a green cicada and a really cool video.
4. Now, if you are worried about the cicada flying all over your house when it comes out—no need. As long as it’s light green, it’s not going to fly. It can crawl. Once the cicada is out for about five minutes, I either set the stick with the cicada on it outside the front door, or let it crawl onto the trunk of the maple tree to let it finish and then be on its way.
I love how time lapse on smart phones gives the opportunity to observe nature and share it with the world. If you choose to share this on Instagram, people will think you’re the next Attenborough!

Here’s my selfie stick/ring light set up. I got this because it makes you look awake at video meetings and is perfect for making time lapse videos of insects. I think I got this on Amazon for about $18, it even has a grip that will hold most models of smartphones.

Cicada I found on my car tire in the summer of 2019. Their wings are quite beautiful when they first emerge.

Cicadas are incredible creatures: a tremendous source of food for other insects, birds and mammals (even humans), you can ID them by song and there’s a rich variety in their song. The adults lay eggs on tree branches and the young hatch and fall to the ground, burrowing in to feed on the sap of tree roots. Different species stay underground for different periods. I’ve read the dog day cicadas take three years to develop into a winged adult—and then live about a week in that form. Some species can be underground for over a decade, think the 13 year cicada or the 17 year cicada.
It also works for me as a metaphor. The above cicada on my car tire was found the morning after I’d made a giant life altering decision. I had things to do and was irritated this was on my back tire, but at the same time I was struck by the vibrant hue of the green wings, the beauty sucked me in. I sat watching it and contemplating the life of a cicada. Here was something that was burrowed under the soil for many years, in the dark, perfectly content to suck the sap of a root of a tree, living in their self construct burrow. Over time, they get coated in anal fluid. Then one day, that’s not the life they need and they have to come up through the soil, to open air, the unknown and then go through what looks like a very uncomfortable process and live what life they have left to live. And they do it in a completely new way. There’s can be a lot to learn from a cicada.

**April 2020 Transforming A Yard For Birding** Dec 02, 2020
Let me tell you, moving during a pandemic…don’t really recommend it. But in April I moved right in between the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul to a town called Falcon Heights. Some would call it a suburb, I call it convenient. And before any wiseacre asks are there any falcons in Falcon Heights, it is robust with merlins. So much so that in April not only did I show merlins to friends who visited the yard, one night a male and female came screaming in, locked talons and crash landed on my next door neighbor’s roof. After that they copulated loudly with abandon.

So yeah, there are falcons in Falcon Heights.
There were bird feeders in the yard but they were tucked back in a corner, surrounded by bushy native plants and not as easily viewable as I’d like unless you were standing in one particular spot in the kitchen. That was something that always baffled me when I ran a bird store. Why bother with the expense of a bird feeder and seed if you don’t have it placed somewhere that you can easily view it? The birds really don’t need your seed. You’re essentially providing fast food for the birds, they can’t survive on it alone, it can help but they have their eyes on lots of food out there.
So poles were moved, feeders were added, squirrel baffles adjusted and appropriate seed purchased. Before long the birds took note. After adjust the feeders it took about a week for the birds to be on board. It took even longer for the woodpeckers to get the idea. But I knew from experience that chickadees will check out a new feeder first. Once they start, the others followed. And so it began.

Fly thru feeder is fifteen feet away from a tree trunk or branches. Coupled with a baffle, the squirrels stay out of it. Small suet cage was attractive to small woodpeckers.

Northern flicker tries braving the suet cage. After this comedy show, I decided it was time for a bigger suet feeder.

I love an old woodpile—so much bird potential (and native bees). Some of these were turned into feeders.

The yard came with a good base layer of native plants for Minnesota: chokecherry, pin cherry, wild American plum just to name a few. When spring really began to pop there was also brown-eyed Susan, rose hips, Joe Pye weed, butterfly weed and a host of others. I even tried my hand at planting a few natives and discover that I can actually grow cardinal flower without killing it and that it’s true, hummingbirds really like it.
But I really fell in love with the woodpile. So much bird feeding potential and it makes a great backdrop for taking pictures of birds. Quite a few species lurk around woodpiles looking for insects living in them. But native sparrows love them too. And since I wasn’t traveling or meeting friends for drinks after working in the home office all day, I began timing the end of my work day to coincide with golden hour—that great evening light and set up my digiscoping equipment and an adult beverage and just enjoyed my backyard birds. I even purchased a bag of extra fine sunflower chips and would scatter them far and wide for the native sparrows to pick out in the woodpile.

When I ran a bird store, I sold logs with holes for suet anywhere from $15.99 to $69.99. Not kidding, I sold a $70 holey log. This was a branch from the wood pile with holes drilled by an obliging young man…for free.

White-throated sparrow foraging around the woodpile.

This hollow log gets everything from catbirds to cardinals to shrews to rabbits.

I love a chonky fox sparrow. They are my favorite MInnesota sparrow.

Dark-eyed juncos love some fine chips.

It was gratifying to know that I still “have it” when it comes to bird feeding. There was a planter tray that had been used as a birdbath. I took some pieces of limestone from the crumbling limestone patio and added to that to bird bath, the birds were in like a shot. I don’t know why, but birds seem to find baths faster with rocks. They love shallow water and I’m not sure if wet rocks are easier for them to see, but it makes a difference.
It’s not all drinking and birds. I do wander the neighborhoods quite a bit. I can’t stay idle and generally try to hit my 10,000 steps a day. If I ever get to lead bird walks again, I want to be ready. One day taking one of my many pandemic walks in the neighborhood a van swerved next to me and the driver asked, “Do you want to see a baby owl?”
I didn’t have binoculars on and the woman didn’t look like anyone I’d met in the neighborhood yet. “How did you know I was a birder,” I asked.
She looked confused and said, “I didn’t. I just assumed everyone wants to see a baby owl.”
Well, she’s not wrong in my case.
Turns out her friend lived in the neighborhood and had been posting the owls on her Facebook page. She was so excited that she wanted to share it with the world.

A brancher great horned owl.

I saw the owls and marveled at how I’d missed the poop on the street. I cut myself some slack since I was relatively new to the hood. I went home to get my scope and came back for photos. I enjoyed watching the rest of their development over the months. This has turned out to be an owly neighborhood. They are hooting like crazy this November which I can only assume is early flirting and they are setting up territory nearby again.
There are worse places to land during a pandemic when a travel writer can’t fly. And it’s been a pleasure getting to know my yard birds again. I have always loved me some brown birds and the sparrow action in April did not disappoint. I did eventually get some colorful birds…but that’s a May story.

Lincoln’s sparrow pass through in April and October.

Song sparrow.

**I Guess I Am A Diamond Painting Artist Now?** Nov 02, 2020
Seriously. It’s official. I’m an artist. I’m part of an exhibit with MIA (aka Minneapolis Institute of Arts). I entered a Diamond Painting of one of my turkey vulture photos into their Foot In The Door Exhibit and made it in. The Foot in the Door Exhibit is basically a once every ten years event where anyone can enter art in it and MIA will put it on their walls. Normally it would be on their actual museum walls, but because of a the pandemic…it’s online.

I took a few screenshots of the exhibition with my pieces and pieces made by friends.

Yet, It’s one of the few goals I actually got to keep this year and it was good for me to have something long term to work on. It makes it extra special to be in mixed media along with my friend Gayle Deutsch and artist Rob McBroom—the surrealist who always enters the Duck Stamp contest and never wins because…judges are too attached to art ducko: art that looks the same, almost like a photo (I’m not saying it isn’t a difficult or challenging technique, I’m just saying that it’s too wrapped up in only one style of art).
What is Diamond Painting? Well, if you follow me on the various social medias, you would have seen a few time lapses I made. It’s kind of a mix of cross stitch and paint by number with a little bit of a cryptogram thrown in. You get a canvas covered in sticky material. There are tiny little boxes with symbols in them. You have to match the corresponding color to its symbol by using a pen to set down little plastic diamonds. After many hours and tens of thousands of diamonds, you have your image. This image is a favorite of a turkey vulture photo that I took at Everglades National Park in Florida in 2016. It makes me chuckle that this pieces incorporates birds, digiscoping and a weird pop art. I am a little sad that people can’t see it in person, there’s so much texture to it and it’s shiny and sparkly as you move around it. However, I’ll take any win I can get this year and this is definitely a win for me.
Here’s a brief compilation of the time lapses I made this summer while working on the piece:

What the hell did I order? The title was “Jeff Goldblum Sunset.”

How does one get in to Diamond Painting…completely by folly and drunk ordering. When I got the package I had no idea what it was and I was so confused on what it could be. I put it on Facebook, “What the hell did I drunk order?”
My friend Gayle was quick to come out of the woodwork, “Um I linked to this two months ago. Did you click and buy it?
Clearly the answer was yes.
I tucked it away and thought maybe I’d find someone who wanted it since I had knitting and a supply of paint by numbers to work on. And then my mom got ill. Full disclosure: she is well today and just as sassy as ever. But at the time she was not and many things were very uncertain. And it’s very hard when your parents make decisions about their health that you do not agree with. My mom lives in Indiana and I live in Minnesota. I went down for visits, but most of my time was back up north. There was absolutely nothing I could do about the situation.

This is the chart that guides you on who to put down your various colored beads also called “drills.” The beads have a number on their bag. So the light green would be 3047 and it should be placed where you see an “X” on the sticky canvas.

In a fit of cleaning and organizing I came across the mysterious Amazon package and took out the contents. None of it made sense to me so I did what any practical thinking adult would do—watch YouTube how to videos. I thought it looked insane and would take forever. Who has the time to do this? To get a fully informed opinion, I decided to try it. This was slow and painstaking, but oh…it sent me into a mediative state.
When Non Birding Bill came home that night and saw what I was doing, he said, “I’m not sure this is a good sign. This looks really insane.”
I agreed, yet persisted. Over several weeks.

An up close look at the stick canvas with the codes for the colors.

Any free time I had, I worked on this over the next six weeks. I had ten minutes over coffee in the morning before going to work? I did it. NBB watching some weird move, I placed plastic beads on sticky canvas. Phone calls with relatives to catch up on Mom’s health? I put on more beads.
It soon became a challenge to keep the beads/drills corralled, spillage is inevitable. The bags weren’t really resealable. The beads are tiny and managed to find their way everywhere. One night, I took my bra off before bed and my chest was covered in them. I started using an old ice cube tray to keep colors separated. But even that had risks, like the day the tray accidentally flipped from the table on to the carpeting. I spent two hours painstakingly using a flashlight and tweezers to get as many as I could out of the carpet. When that spot was eventually vacuumed you could hear hundreds more get sucked up.

Fail.

Fortunately, these companies give you far more beads than you will ever need. And with many you can reorder them if you have an absolute disaster. I have also seen things online where there are much better bead organizers and even specialized vacuums to help you with just such a tragedy. I haven’t ordered the special vacuum but I have ordered the bead organizer. It comes with its own suitcase…that matches my luggage.
I’m fine, really.

Jeff Goldblum gradually comes to life.

It took six weeks and 19,040 little plastic diamonds to put together Jeff Goldblum Sunset—that doesn’t include the many beads that were lost on my person, the carpet or eaten by my pet rabbit Dougal. But I stuck with it and the sense of accomplishment was well worth it. If I’ve learned anything with this craft it’s that yes, control is an illusion and I certainly can’t control many aspects of my life, but damn it, I can control over 19,000 beads to create an image. I can make them go where they are supposed to and even rearrange a few if the colors don’t look quite right.

The completed Diamond Painting of Jeff Goldblum Sunset

I had no idea the amount of legend this first diamond painting had. When I moved this spring, I framed it and it was the first thing to go up in my home office along with a spotted owl painting that my mother did. Sometimes Jeff even shows up in the background of my live streams. When friends come over for a patio hangout they ask, “Can I see “Jeff?” It truly is a weird and wonderful thing and the texture and shininess always surprises people.
When MIA advertised their Foot in the Door exhibition I knew I wanted to do another one…because a pandemic will certainly fuck with your sense of control. But this time I wanted to do a custom piece of one of my own photos…enter in my favorite vulture photo. I love vultures, I also love the color of this piece and working these colors really help with my meditation. I sent my photo and desired dimensions to a company called Heartful Diamonds and their customer service was great. It takes a few weeks to get the actual kit but they do follow up in case your image doesn’t work in the dimensions you chose and they readily send out extra beads. If you want to attempt this, I’d highly recommend one of their pre made kits or attempting a custom one of your own.
Now…if you’re looking for weird, then check out the diamond painting kits on Etsy…be prepared, not all of them are safe for work and highly erotic.
And as I look down the barrel of a “Covid Winter” in Minnesota where patio hang outs aren’t going to be as readily of an option and the sun will be out for 7 hours a day, I have more on the way.

**Skunks and Skulls March 2020** Oct 31, 2020
“I’d really love some quality time with a skunk,” I said to a person I’d been dating casually. (And they didn’t flee in horror.)
“Let’s go to my cabin,” he said.
I’m not sure if it was because Julie Zickefoose had shared a skunk on social media about the same time or if it simply dawned on me I hadn’t really watched a skunk the same way I watch other mammals, but I was really in the mood to see and maybe photograph a skunk.
I had just cancelled a flight to see friends who are more like family in Chicago, which was an uncharacteristically rash decision for me. I was worried I was being alarmist, but after reading tweets from an Italian doctor detailing how overwhelmed the hospitals were in Italy and that they were making decisions on who seemed the most likely to survive as opposed to treating everyone, it seemed irresponsible to travel on a plane. It looked like lockdown was a possibility for Minnesota as other cities were suddenly getting Covid cases in the United States.
“Let’s go to my cabin,” he said. “It’s remote, we can avoid people. There should be good birds at the feeders.”
This is what we found when we arrived at the cabin:

Arriving at the cabin, the deer didn’t even leave as we unloaded luggage.

Hey, y’all got any more of that millet?

When you see this it is time to move your bird feeders. A recipe for CWD.

Yep. Those are some amazing “birds” at the feeder. But the cabin isn’t far from Sax Zim Bog and the surrounding county has lots of bog habitat to explore, something I’ve never really had time to visit because I was always traveling. The surrounding fields were chock full of rough-legged hawks and purple finches were well in abundance. I did take a road trip up to the far northern reaches to look for my nemesis bird: the spruce grouse. I was assured by more than one bird guide that this was the spot they took clients to for practically guaranteed grouse.
Alas, my nemesis curse still stands as a northern goshawk was perched at the grouse spot. Don’t get me wrong, I love goshawks, but I’ve seen them, banded them, had one perched on my arm, had a female try to kneecap me…I just want to look at a spruce grouse. Just once.
That was not to be. So I threw out to the universe that I’d like to see a skunk, in daylight and maybe get some photos or videos of one. When we arrived at the cabin, a deer that had been hit by a car was in a ditch on the property. Some canids had already gorged on the carcass. I’m not sure if it had been coyotes or wolves, both are in the area in abundance. As we headed out for some birding one morning, I looked to my left at the carcass and saw a small, black ball on it. “Skunk,” I said, a little surprised that I had sort of willed one out of this air. It trundled away to some melted snow and lapped up water and then headed back to the feast to be found among deer skin and bones.

The skunk has a bit of a rosy glow to the patches on the fur, no doubt from working on the deer carcass.

When I think of a picture that I’ve taken to represent 2020, this one immediately pops up in my mind.

I stayed with the skunk for a long time as the snow gently fell around us. Snow mobiles cruised in the distance, but it was just us. I made sure to give the skunk all the space it needed so it could chow down in peace. And I thought about what was happening. I was supposed to toasting friends in fancy restaurants and instead I was on the side of a county road watching a skunk devour roadkill. And I was enjoying the moment.
I wondered how a lockdown would impair my life going forward. I was actively looking for a new place to live and all the things I’d loved about apartments in the Twin Cities: gyms, saunas, pools, community outdoor space was all being closed off. I was still dealing with divorce forms. Birding events that booked me for my storytelling and workshops were cancelling and that’s a chunk of my income…which I’m now a sole income earner. I was reassessing what I really wanted for my future. When would I be able to travel again? And dating? How the hell do you do that in a pandemic? How do you tell someone nicely, “You’re really a lot of fun, but I can’t see you anymore. It’s not you, it’s the pandemic.”
As I watched the skunk deal with the unanticipated feast of roadkill, I thought about how a pandemic could be a way to do have a sort of “do over.” In some ways, a divorce is a do over, but if a pandemic is going to make life stop, what could I do with that? I love all the travel that I do, but there’s so much in Minnesota that I don’t get to see. Maybe stopping and taking the time to enjoy the skunk and roadkill was what I needed to reassess?
One person I had dated always made plans last minute. 99% of the texts asking, “Want to grab a drink tonight” were answered with, “I’d love to, but I have plans.” They said that I needed to work on my spontaneity. I countered with, “I make plans so I can be spontaneous.” Maybe not knowing what’s going to happen more than two weeks out was a change I need?
Anyway, if you love of a skunk chewing on roadkill being a metaphor for 2020, here’s a video to meditate on.

**Frontera Audubon Turkey Vulture Roost** Oct 12, 2020

Inca dove chilling at Frontera.

While I was visiting the Rio Grande Valley with a friend with an eye on potential retirement spots I made sure to hit my favorite places. And one of those is Frontera Audubon. This is a tiny little park and every time I go, I get a gem. You can, of course get the Valley specialties, but every time I go there, I get a good bird, whether it’s a bird I don’t see all the time like a pyrrholuxia or gray hawk or even a Mexican species flitting across the border like a golden-crowned warbler.
I love all the nooks and crannies of the park and especially the sabal palm forest. The thicket is so dense it gives me a sense of peace. However, what I truly love about this place is the winter turkey vulture roost. You can smell it before you hit it. The smell doesn’t bother me, I put it in the category of “good bird smell” but when you’ve been vomited on by thousands of pelicans and herons in your career…your definition of “good” changes.

You know that you are some place special when you see this much vulture poop.

Vultures cruising in to their roost.

I do find it hilarious that when I do a google search for either Frontera or for vulture roosts, I’ll get directed to Trip Advisor reviews and people who…maybe don’t get birding. Here’s a sample:

Bad reviews of Frontera Audubon make me cackle.

Come on, people, it’s an amazing place to get vulture photos. And there’s plenty there to see, even outside of the feeders. Sure…you may have to have some patience, but that’s true of all birding spots. There are dozens of hot birding spots in the Valley and some I visit more than others, but Frontera is on the shortlist and I make it a priority every time I go. It’s tiny and chock full of birds.

Plain Chachalaca at Frontera.

White-tipped dove.

But I’m really here for the vultures. All the vultures. All the time.

I told my friend that this many vultures soaring above his head means that it’s time for retirement.

**February 2020** Sep 26, 2020

This Altimira oriole’s face kind of sums up my thoughts on the year.

Divorce just blows. There’s no other way around it. It’s not fun and it’s certainly nothing like the booze filled Divorce Train to a ranch in Reno that was featured in the 1939 classic movie The Women. But if there is any upside to suddenly being on your own after twenty years of shared decisions…it’s that ALL THE THINGS are back on the table: jobs in remote areas, eating microwave popcorn for dinner three nights in a row, traveling without checking someone else’s calendar…and where to retire.

The sidewalk entrance into Estero Llano Grande State Park always gives me a sense of peace.

I’ve always harbored a fantasy of spending my retirement (if that ends up being a possibility for me) in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. It’s my favorite birding area in the United States. I’ve often said that the day I’m tired of seeing a green jay is the day that it’s time for me to hang up my binoculars. But the idea of a tiny home, with a water feature, native plantings and access to all the Tex Mex food I want and maybe volunteering at Estero Llano Grande just seems like a wonderful way to round out the last part of my life.
When I tried warming up my ex-husband to the idea he wasn’t having it. I remember I took him down there for work and as we were driving around Harlingen he said, “Man, what a depressing area.”
“What are you talking about, this place is beautiful,” I protested.
“I see why you like the birds and the parks, but this place isn’t beautiful,” he said.
We saw things with very different lenses. But now retiring in Texas is back on the table and I decided fly down to the Valley in February…it was my last trip on a plane for a looooooong time. But I’m glad that my last plane trip was to a favorite place and not someplace like Mexico, Missouri.

An Audubon’s Oriole at the National Butterfly Center.

This trip, I made a point to stop at the National Butterfly Center, ground zero of the border wall fight. The federal government contractors started clearing the land before the wall project had been announced, much less before any eminent domain procedures had been followed. I started to drive to the property and a sheriff’s car was parked at the entry and told me we that we couldn’t get in. I thought it was odd but check in at the visitor center. “Of course you can get in. Unless they’re doing an active pursuit of people trying to cross, the area is open.”
There’s plenty to see and do around the grounds. It’s meant for butterflies but birds abound there and it’s a great spot for all the Valley specialties and sometimes there are bonuses like the Audubon’s oriole that was hanging out while I was there. The staff and volunteers also showed visitors an eastern screech-owl roosting in a picnic shelter. Here’s a video:

Some graffiti along the fence for the National Butterfly Center.

After walking the grounds for an Audubon’s oriole, I went back and the sheriff was gone. I headed down for more birding and a chance to stick our feet in the Rio Grande itself.
So many struggles in such a beautiful and serene environment: the struggle for families in dire circumstances doing whatever they can to forge a better life for their kids, no matter how high the cost. The struggle for someone to prove they can do something no matter the cost, they just want a showy legacy that won’t even do what is promised. The struggle of private landowners to have what they own being taken away by a government. All of this as there are struggles with all the plants and wildlife struggling around human made chaos. It’s a heartbreaking beauty in some ways and I wonder how many more years I’ll have to witness this beauty before it’s blocked off by a useless, ugly wall.

Meep meep. Zip. BANG!

I still have no idea what my future will hold at this point. My life has taken such a strange turn even outside the divorce. But I do hope it includes the valley again.

**January 2020...Birding Unfettered** Aug 31, 2020

I this meme posted on social media and it took me a full two minutes to realize that people were making a joke that one shouldn’t 30-40 olives directly from a jar for dinner. I’ve done this more than once and have no regrets. It’s kind of the same way I feel about popcorn for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, I love to cook, but I hate doing dishes.

Possible dating profile picture…one should know what they’re getting into with me, deer rib cages and sub-zero temperatures and all.

I make jokes on social media using #DatingInYourForties is weird. Although, I’m sure I’ve probably inspired a few #DatingABirderIsWeird after someone found a frozen blue jay in my freezer when they went to get some ice. It is very hard for my brain to process that birding can now be a potential romantic activity. I have been a great compartmentalizer my whole. You are my birding friends. You are my sci fi friends. You are my friends through Bill. You are my travel birding friends. You are my comedy writing friends. And so on and so forth. After being with a non birder for a couple of decades, birding just never fell into the romantic category of activities. “Life pie” can have a whole new meaning.
Of course, birding in winter in Minnesota is a strange test because your clothes for single digit temperatures aren’t exactly what I would call “sexy time clothes.” But good birds can make even the most awkward date a good time.
I know I’m not the first person to find themselves unexpectedly in a completely new life circumstance where none of the old routines apply and you can make up completely new ones. I decided for one thing to say yes to all the invitations. It’s great to only check with myself before I do something. It’s a liberating feeling to just say yes to a birding trip without checking to see if something non birding had been planned or that I’ve not been spending enough time at home.
Want to go birding tomorrow morning? I’m not working, yes.
What to go to Texas next month? I have lots of frequent flyer miles, yes.
Want to go to a cabin this weekend and do some birding? Oh, hell yes.

View from a cabin.

In Minnesota, many people have cabins for the weekend. You have to get used to a different schedule when you have a friend with a cabin. They generally are unavailable for city plans on the weekend from spring until autumn and forget holidays. Sometimes you can get invitations to cabins, either staying in them or pitching a tent outside. Cabins run the gamut from very basic with no shower but all the fishing tackle you could ever want and can be grand lodgings with air conditioning and hot tubs. Some are closed down for the winter, but a few have good heating and insulation and can be fun winter getaway.
When I moved to Minnesota I got a real education on cabin culture when I ran a wild bird feeding store. The company even came up with a seed mix just for cabin people called, “Cabin Mix” that people could grab on their way out of town and into northern Minnesota. We also carried rustic looking houses and feeders to match cabin decor, but honestly, the people really need something strong enough to withstand being knocked down by bears.
Friends with cabins have been gracious hosts when I learned that they have a cabin near a public blind with a lek. I’d rather roll out of bed and drive twenty minutes in the dark to get to a sharp-tailed grouse blind than leave the Twin Cities at 2am.

Fresh pileated woodpecker work outside a cabin.

I had an invitation to visit a cabin with some friends in January for snowshoeing on frozen lakes, birding and maybe some fat tire biking. These are fun weekends that generally involve cooking together as well. There was some very visible pileated woodpecker activity around the cabin and the next morning a pair took turns wailing into a tree.

The bird was so close…so photographable…except for the storm windows.

The cabin was fun for me—warm winter foods and nonstop pileated woodpeckers. Even if we never made it outside, I could watch my spark bird all day long. Although, I did feel super taunted by the bird. It was a great digiscoping opportunity, however storm windows keep your place snug and warm, but they can blur the heck out of photos.
However, the next day the cabin owner had removed the storm window and even carefully opened it when the birds returned so I could take all the photos. That is one trusting cabin owner to let out precious heat for a bird photography opportunity.

A clearer view of the pileated. There’s still a bit of heat shimmer from the heat escaping the cabin through an open window, but I still dig this picture.

The next day we headed to Sax Zim Bog for some birding. It was such a great time, not only for the birds but because I ran into so many friends who were birding up there for the day. Some were guides and when I’d pul over to watch birds, I’d find text messages that said, “Hey, did I just pass you over by the goshawk?” Yes, yes they had.

Hoar frost in the bog.

If you’ve never birded the bog and you have lots of lifers to get, especially owls then hiring a guide is a must. But if you have mostly seen the birds or only need one or two lifers, you can get by on your own with a stop at the visitor center and eBird. I knew of a reliable northern hawk owl and that was our first stop. The crowd of birders on the side of the road alerted us that the bird was indeed there.

A lovely way to start the day with a northern hawk owl who gives very little care to the birders below.

A female black-backed woodpecker (was a lifer for one of us) found on the way to the Sax Zim Bog visitor Center.

We were getting all the bog birds fairly easily, except for boreal chickadee, but that’s ok. Canada jays, rough-legs and barred owls are a nice consolation prize. We continued to run into people throughout the day, including one of my fellow park rangers who had just retired last fall. We ran into him at Wilbert’s Cafe and ended up having lunch together.
From there we headed out to a spot to look for three-toed woodpeckers. And I ran into John Jonas, one of my favorite wildlife photographers. He saw me driving my Prius around the bog, pulled over and asked, “You brought a Prius to the bog???” I smiled and said, “That’s how badass I am.”
We had quite a bit of hairy woodpecker activity and Jonas found the three-toed, but it was camera shy for me. I paused to get a slefie of all of us in the bog and it was at that moment a three-toed flew over all of us.

Beardy men at the bog.

What we lacked in three-toeds was made up for with a cool mammal experience. We did find a snowshoe hare hiding near the trail. I’ve seen them here and there, usually hopping away. But this was one of the closest encounters I’ve had with one and what a treat to see its winter camouflage in action!
We tried to finish the day with a great gray owl, but no one was having any luck. At sunset we drove the usual hangouts and it seemed that every ten minutes we’d pass one of the Sax Zim guides in their vehicle with clients trying to find a bird. We’d already seen many great grays and headed back to the cabin at dusk for some celebratory beer and whiskey. I have never seen so many ruffed grouse in the trees and bushes. It was clearly a bumper crop year and it explained why goshawks were easy to find in the bog this winter.

Craptastic owl photo!

We did manage one more species of owl that day. We drove past a snowy owl as we headed back towards Aitkin County. Not a lifer, but a cool bird.

Sunrise at the cabin.

On one page, a cabin just seem like a second home that you have to take care of: extra cleaning, yard work and other maintenance. On the other page, cabin life is seductive when you watch the sunrise over coffee while bacon sizzles on the stove a fox darts through the yard. You feel like you could give up work and just live hand to mouth up there forever.
But work calls. And friends in the city call insisting on lunch plans.

**January 2020 My First Birding Event of the Year** Aug 29, 2020
That awkward feeling when you write about your relationship a lot on the Internet and incorporate them into storytelling shows and then that relationship ends and you really don’t want to talk about why, but feel you kind owe people an explanation and well, you get booked for storytelling shows…and one of the first for the year is where that relationship started.
I knew this year was going to be weird. I knew writing was going to be hard. I never anticipated having an ex husband and having to navigate that phrase. But here I am.
The one thing that I know how to do really well is to move forward. Just keep moving forward.
I generally get booked for speaking engagements a year to two in advance. When an opportunity to speak and lead trips at the Virginia Beach Winter Wildlife Festival came along in late 2018, I was all for it. They contacted me over a year out and at the time I thought I’d get Non Birding Bill to come with me because we used to go there with his family for summer vacations when we first together. And because Virginia Beach was where he proposed. We had lots of great memories there. I got many a life bird at Sandbridge Beach and Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
And then life happened. And I found myself heading to a very public event loaded with emotional land mines alone. But, you have to move forward.
I’ve traveled enough that I know my limits on a good weekend and how to pace my flights. I purposely booked myself in early to give myself some time alone in the spaces that would be hard. Places that I wouldn’t want to show people shorebirds and gulls while reliving parts of a marriage this is no longer viable. I mean, c’mon, shorebirds are hard enough to identify as it is with out hardcore break up emotions exploding all around you. No one wants to get a lifer while their field trip leader is a bawling mess.
I went to the mostly deserted beach as cold winter winds accompanied the waves rushing to shore. It was the perfect weather for me in that the moment. I didn’t come to the beach to take in warm rays, I came to scour out emotions. I relived all the wonderful memories. I dusted them off, shined them up and put them on their proper place on the shelves in my mind. I examined the painful recent ones and tucked them away in a box and placed them in a drawer where they don’t need to be seen every day. I cried and was grateful that winter made people avoid the beach and if people saw me, they’d assume my eyes were watering with the cold wind. No one walks the beach to look at other people, the walk to look at the ocean and the crashing waves, perhaps even a gorgeous sunset.

I found someone’s secret in a mason jar on the beach.

As I walked, I came across a mason jar in the sand with a note that had washed ashore. I opened it and read it. It was someone’s secret. I’m a huge fan of PostSecret and read it religiously every Sunday morning over coffee when I wake up, no matter where I am. The secret in the jar was hard and painful and the writer was letting it go on the beach. I took in their secret, I understood it. If PostSecret teaches you anything, it’s that secrets are universal and letting them go or sharing them with the right person is liberating. And in a long exhale I let go of what I was holding on to and hoped that I was helping them let go at the same time. I put the secret back in the mason jar and left it exactly as a found it. Maybe someone else would be walking the beach that night and need to read it?
I continued down the dark beach, met the organizers for dinner and had a lovely time meeting new people and learning about their jobs and what brought them to birding.
My hotel was right on the beach and I was lucky enough to get a room facing the beach. I took a time lapse of the sunrise as I got ready for my day.

A nice big, fat sassy greater black-backed gull in front and a snoozing lesser black-backed gull in the back, surrounded by ring-billed and laughing gulls.

A willet working the shore. I got my first ever willet here over twenty years ago.

I looked out onto the beach and could see gulls and shorebirds. I took some time to enjoy them in the morning sun. I enjoy spending time with birds that I don’t normally see where I live. It’s nice to get a chance to soak up the differences in various gulls when it isn’t -20 degrees Fahrenheit and I take the time to nice not only color differences, but shape and flight patter.

Tundra swans at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Apart from my fond memories from over 20 years ago at Virginia Beach, one thing I was particularly excited to revisit was Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. When I would go on those early vacations we would drive down the road or even bike there. I got so many new birds Back Bay as a young birder: blue grosbeak, sanderling and king rail just to name a few. No jokes about sanderlings, I was a land lubber from Indiana at the time. I also remember the insane amount of cottonmouths. Usually, when you go to a refuge and there’s a sign warning of a potential danger (or a particular bird) it means that someone in the last 10 years. The cottonmouth signs were no joke. They were everywhere in the evening. I remember my ex husband was no fan of them and that if he saw one he would immediately make us leave. There was more than one cottonmouth that I falsely identified as “just a water snake, but don’t touch it.”
When we visited in July all those years ago in a time share, I read the signs at Back Bay that explained that tundra swans spent the winter there. When I moved to Minnesota and saw them by the thousands stopping in Minnesota to carbo load before reaching Back Bay, I always wanted to go back in winter to see them. This trip would be my chance and they did not disappoint. It was nice to finally realize that dream of so long ago.

White ibises were found among the swans.

I never get tired of large flocks of snow geese.

The rest of the festival was wonderful. We birding along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel—both on it and along side in a boat. I remember years ago after 9-11 having to get a permit to bird along there so I could get an American oystercatcher. My father-in-law went along as something to do, but also I think he was baffled by a new daughter-in-law who said that if they went to a particular island, they would see a very particular bird. Birds fly, why would one be so reliable. We got to the oystercatcher spot, pulled into a parking lot and as soon as we stepped out I said, “There it is.” He was shocked that the bird was so “easy.” Ahhhh, if only they all were so easy.

Long-tailed ducks and a couple of red-breasted mergansers.

The winter offered many delights and I loved looking out at a huge flock of gorgeous long-tailed ducks. Their elegant plumage reminded me of the move The Last Unicorn when King Haggard described watching them on the crests of the waves outside his castle, which stayed on an extended loop in my head the rest of my time at the festival when I saw the long-tailed ducks.
On top of those elegant beauties were scoters, loons and gannets. It was a tremendous day with lots of birders to share it with.

Surf scoters.

Brown pelican and black-backed gulls from the boat.

Chumming.

One of MANY rainbows I’ve seen this year. Nice to get one in January right over the ocean.

The boat ride made an attempt at chumming and though we didn’t get rarities, I never get tired of seabirds chasing a boat going for raw fish scraps, I especially love watching the giant brown pelicans thrown into the mix. Who knew how much I would rely on these images for backgrounds in Zooms and Teams meetings?

I did give my keynote, something that I generally love to do, these are tried and tested stories. I’ve tested many out on the road and these are the ones that always bring the audience along and even play well with non birders. But I was nervous because phrasing had to be changed with some of them. Would I trip up?

It was a wonderful way to get my toes back in the water.

Bobby Dyer the Mayor of Virginia Beach was my opening act.

I love that the Virginia Beach Mayor gave the opening remarks and a proclamation, it’s important to see local political officials taking birding seriously as an economic force. I apparently did fine, the audience was full and wonderful and afterwards the theater tech running the show said, “Hey, we had a guy here a couple of weeks ago from America’s Got Talent and you got way more laughs than him! I had no idea birds could be funny.”
I think I had a primed audience, but it’s good to know my stories still work, even if I had to make some relationship adjustments.

Bob, the Bobwhite.

Speaking of relationships, I flirted heavily with an education bobwhite quail while at Virginia Beach. I try really hard not to be the “ahem, I’m the keynote, can I have this special favor” at birding events, everyone is busy keeping an event running smoothly. However, when the caretaker for an education bird ask, “Hey, you want to feed my boy some wax worms,” and it turns out to be a bobwhite…I’m gonna play that card. How can I resist a cute chonky boi who makes all sorts of squeaky sounds? I’d like to think he was flirting back at me, but his interest went only so far as the few wax worms I had to give him. Listen to those little squeaks, how could anyone deny him anything:

Why can’t someone as cute as that ever show up on Tinder?
A good start to a strange year. That just keeps getting stranger. But we move forward.

**Birding around Budapest** Mar 02, 2020
I love a trip that give me a good sentence.
I was editing some photos and enjoying a drink in the outdoor cafe of my hotel in Budapest when a fox wandered in, looked at us and then went about its night.
And that is one of my favorite memories of a trip to Hungary a few years ago, I love the random and unexpected. I loved that fox on that trip. Well, that fox and the very distance ural owl we saw at Bukk. Some of the best stuff was right around our hotel in Budapest in late May. I’d never planned on going to Hungary in my life, but when life hands you an opportunity, you take it. It was a wonderful trip.

Since spring was heading into summer, blooming poppies were still abundant.

I spent a few days in this cozy hotel near the airport called Sarokhaz Panzio.

Red and white are popular themes in Hungary. This is the sort of thing I love to see and live in on the road and when I try to bring it into my home it makes my place look like an interior designer’s nightmare.

The great thing about birding is that it can be done pretty much where ever you are. I share this hotel with my buddy Clay Taylor from Swarovski and Jessie Barry from Cornell. This was one of my first opportunities to bird with her and she was hell bent on recording sounds of birds to at to the Macaulay Library. She has the enviable ability to hear a bird song once and have it down. I need to hear a song several times and in habitat context to get it down. Case in point, one of the few birds I know well by song in Europe is the crested lark. I was relieved to be able to id that one on my own.
The three of us basically walked the neighborhood around our hotel and to a nearby abandoned (or so I thought field loaded with poppies and larks. As Jessie grabbed recordings and I tried to give her space so as to not mess it up, a man started yelling at us in Hungarian. None of us spoke the language well and he didn’t speak English.
“Parlez-vous français,” I asked.
He shook his head now and asked, “Deutsch?”
Not really, well enough to get me slapped and find a bathroom. But between his German and my French we figured out the issue. We were near a construction site and trucks would be hauling. They didn’t want people wandering around. We showed him pictures from my camera to show we seriously were “vögel beobachten” and he told us we had a little more time before we really had to leave.

European goldfinch that sang over us at the cafe in our hotel.

There were many green finches in our neighborhood.

Clay going for images of crested lark singing on one the trucks we were warned about.

The crested lark Clay was watching. I took the video with my iPhone 7, PhoneSkope case and Swarovski ATX 65 mm scope.

Northern wheatear on territory.

Lesser whitethroat. Jessie was working overtime to get songs for the Macaulay Library.

Delicious soup and some pepper spread for fresh bread at the cafe at our hotel. Delicious!

Jessie and I did take time to wander around downtown Budapest and see the bridge. We climbed the hill overlooking the city to see the statues. My one regret in Hungary is that we did not visit the Columbo statue in Budapest, but we saw several others. It’s a beautiful city in the spring with poppies and birds.

Liberty Statue that overlooks the city.

Liberty Bridge.

Because of course I would go to Budapest and buy these as souvenirs…

**The Swarovski Digital Guide** Jan 24, 2020
I got to play with a prototype of a Digital Guide that Swarovski Optik is working on with Merlin from Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The video above gives you an idea of how it works. We demoed the guide with some birds like a mourning dove—mostly because the bird was super chill and not moving and it made a great show. I also tested it on green jays and pauraques.
But I also took it out on some of my field trips in the Rio Grande Valley to really put it through its paces. Here are some screen shots:

Here’s a picture of a female vermilion flycatcher on an overcast day.

Here I zoom in on the image I got with the Digital Guide prototype in the Merlin app.

Merlin nailed the id.

You can take great photos with this, it’s basically an 8x30 monocular with a camera built in. And though it can take great pictures, I was more interested in what it could do if conditions weren’t great for photography, but you still wanted a bird ID. It works great. Scary great.
It’s a wifi hotspot so it can send the images to either Merlin or the Swarovski app. If you have good cell service, Merlin will ID it right away.
I can tell that it works well in warm weather, but I was curious about some cold weather and I mean some serious Minnesota cold. I took it to Sax Zim Bog on a -15 degree Fahrenheit day to see what would happen. The device worked well, but the lack of cell service from Verizon meant that Merlin didn’t work so great up there. On the upside, I was able to store photos and use Merlin when I had a reliable connection.

Here’s a black-backed woodpecker taken with the Swarovski Digital Guide.

The Digital Guide saved the date, time and location of where the image was taken. So even though I had lack of service in the field, all the information was saved for when I could use Merlin. And all of it was stored in a separate album in Photos.

The black-backed woodpecker was Merlin’s first ID.

Now, I know some people are going to gnash their teeth over this—”THIS IS GOING TO RUIN BIRDING! WHY CAN’T PEOPLE USE A BOOK!”
This is not going to ruin birding. This is a tool to help you get started. And there will always be people interested in artisanal bird identification. It’s fascinating to watch where technology can take us. And to have a device with Swarovski quality glass that works with Cornell’s Merlin app is amazing. There are plans that the device will also work to identify other things like mammals and butterflies as well.
The future is now.

**An Ivory Gull Chase with Wendy** Jan 07, 2020
I think I talked about the ivory gull that was in Duluth back in 2016 when the podcast was going, but I never wrote up what a great day it was. This was back when my friend Wendy Cass lived in the same state as me. She was a regular to Birds and Beers and when the ivory gull showed up and stayed more than a week, she revealed that she hadn’t birded Duluth, Minnesota in winter and I decided it was time to pop that particular cherry.
Duluth can be as much fun as Sax Zim Bog in winter. There can be sea ducks, rare fulls, owls and if you’re lucky, a gyrfalcon. Pretty much all of those were being reported so I picked up Wendy one Sunday morning and off we went. As much fun as it can be, it can also mean standing on SUPER cold Lake Superior. Years ago some friends and I hired a guide out of Duluth to take us birding in the bog. He kept adding gulls on Lake Superior to our itinerary. We were like, “Thanks, but no. We want owls this round.” He kept pushing, even trying to sell us on how beautiful ring-billed gulls can be in the early winter light. I finally joked, “I will pay you extra not to show us gulls.”

The icy terrain around Lake Superior on a frozen January day in 2016.

Wendy was far better prepared for our walk from the parking lot to Lake Superior with her ice spikes.

It was easy to figure out where the ivory gull was being seen. We saw the bird and some birding friends right away. Someone put a pile of fish down to bring the gull closer.

Ivory gull chowing down on fish birders left for it (good thing it wasn’t an owl). I got this with my iPhone 6 and Swarovski ATX 95mm scope.

It was so cool to see the gull right away and socialize. Even though this bird had been seen for several days, there’s always the chance that one the day you decide to go on the two and a half hour drive up that it could disappear.
Incidentally, this is the bird that caused a stir on birder social media in 2016 because one morning, someone found a carcass of an ivory gull that had been eaten by a peregrine on the Wisconsin side of the water. Birders all over were losing their shit because they were going to see it that day or the following day. Then a guide up in Duluth said, “Hey, we’re looking at the ivory gull now!” He was unaware of the carcass and everyone demanded pictures. He posted a selfie with the gull a few feet behind him. There had been two gulls—and one would have been countable in Wisconsin. Everyone rejoiced; memes were made and people had another two weeks to go see an ivory gull in Duluth. I compiled a bunch of memes and gifs that represented birder emotions that morning.
After Wendy and I got the gull, I took her to some prime winter gyrfalcon habitat.

Yep, a grain elevator can be prime winter gyrfalcon habitat.

Look at that sexy beast! We got the full show from this bird, including going after the many terrified pigeons at the grain elevator.

It was great to be getting two great birds right away on top of the other northern birds we can get: eagles, rough-legs, waxwings. But just seeing these harder see species without a long wait felt like such an honor. I try very hard to remind myself that this is one of the reasons birding is so fun. There’s all the days when the bird doesn’t or if it does, it’s really far away. This was a party.
And speaking of parties…I usually bring a flask for rare birds with some nice scotch. We don’t drink the whole thing, but just take a celebratory sip—it’s even better if you have the one sip while the bird is still there. Wendy brought her own flask.

Um…Wendy…what kind of birding party is this?

Wendy’s flask was unlike any flask I’ve ever seen…I was like, “Honey, are you sure that’s a flask??”
After celebrating her two lifers we decided to go for one of the many snowy owls that were reported that winter. One being at the local Menards!

We drove right under this snowy owl on a light post.

Save big money and get a snowy owl at Menards!
We pulled into a parking lot where we could safely get a scope view of the bird. It had already been banded and the person who bands birds up in Duluth likes to tag them with shoe polish. I’d always heard that the reason was to easily mark them so the bander wouldn’t keep chasing the snowy owl all winter. Snowy owls have feathers down to their toes and they way they sit, you rarely see their feet anyway, so it’s not always easy to see a banded foot. I’m not a fan of marking them with shoe polish and this particular bird had it on the head and wing—that seems excessive. I referenced that I wasn’t a fan of this on Facebook and some people came out of the woodwork to ask why I’m “anti-banding” which I found hilarious considering all the banding I’ve done in my past. But I question putting something like shoe polish on a bird that uses its feathers for camouflage, especially in the longterm. I wonder how it affects a bird’s chances of getting a good mate during breeding season. Maybe if I saw some of the research and reasoning behind the shoe polish, rather than news articles that basically say, “oh hey, here’s a guy who bands snowy owls” I might be a better fan of it.
Here’s a closer look at the owl.

Snowy owl with shoe polish on the head and the primaries. Some say that another reason for the markings is to keep photographers from harassing the owls.

Here’s a second snowy we saw. It was also sporting the shoe polish head look.

Shoe polish birds aside, it was a great day with Wendy. She has since moved to the west coast and I miss her, but will always treasure this fun day trip to Duluth getting her all the lifers.

Lifer celebration!!!!

**A Legend of Birding is Gone** Mar 26, 2019
“My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.” Richard Adams, *Watership Down*

This picture of all of us posing on a tank in Israel sits in my office. When work gets ridiculous, I like to look at it to be reminded of the good times and the many friends, including BT3 that I have on the road.

Bill Thompson III aka BT3 was always someone I was happy to see. Years ago before there was any “Birdchick” and I was trying to get published, I sent bird articles to anyone. The ones from his family’s publication Bird Watcher’s Digest were the nicest, “This is a great article, but isn’t right for our publication.” It was handwritten and everything.
I first met Bill in my days of working for a wild bird feeding store, working birding trade shows called Bird Watch America but really got to know him at Tucson ABA Convention. We had a late night and he introduced me to what is my favorite beer to this day: Fat Tire. I have to admit that as nice as he was, I was really hoping to meet Julie Zickefoose and hoped he’d get me an in.
Not long after that I ran into him in the Rio Grande Valley. I was there on my own for the first time and he was leading a field trip. He dashed over to hug me and say hi and then pointed out my very first great kiskadee and informed me that they don’t say, “kisk-a-dee, kisk-a-dee” what they are really saying in their call is “Fuck the world! Fuck the world!”
Fuck the the world indeed. He’s gone too soon.
I have so many special birding moments or stories that I tell friends that he was part of. He may not even be mentioned in those stories, but he was there experiencing them with me. He was always someone you were happy to see when he walked in a room. He was generous with his time, advice and ear. He was always trying to make birding as approachable and fun as possible. **The New Birder’s Guide** is still one of the best books out there for someone who wants to make the switch from backyard birding to full on birding.
Here are some of my favorite memories of Bill.

It was a my first time in North Dakota at the Potholes and Prairie Festival. The weather had been challenging and I’d missed the Baird’s Sparrow and Sprague’s pipit. Kim Risen and BT3 had made plans to go birding the day after the festival and were kind enough to let me join them. The weather was perfect, cool and sunny and very little wind. The light made the prairie glow. We got to the spot and a Baird’s sparrow sang within 10 feet of us. A Sprague’s pipit hovered over us and harmonized with the Baird’s. On top of that we had other prairie birds singing like western meadowlark. We sat in silence for well over an hour. BT3 even napped. It was peaceful and everything I loved about birding: sharing their wonder with good people. My sense memory to that perfect moment comes back every time I see this photo.

BT3 and I shared a skewer of turkey testicles in Israel.

BT3 and I were part of a fam trip to Israel. We saw so many lifers and that crane migration is something to put on your bucket list. We were also on the trip with Bill Oddie which was a treat for many reasons—one being we are the same height so when all the tall people were zipping up a mountain, I had a fellow shorty to keep me company behind the group. At one point BT3 came over to us and said while laughing, “I’m sorry, but I have to tell you that when I’m around you two, I feel like Gandalf walking through the Shire!”
At the end of our trip BT3, Pete Dunne and I had a long evening before we had to catch our flight. We walked the beach in Tel Aviv to Jaffa and had a beer. When we got back to our hotel, I stood on the balcony and watched the people below. A bunch of young men stripped down to their underwear and began playing volley ball. BT3 caught me using my binoculars to enjoy the show and shouted, “Sharon!!!!”

Jeff Gordon grabs a selfie of all of us eBirding the crap out of Liechtenstein with Clay Taylor, Jessie Barry, Chris Wood, Corey Finger and BT3. (and our guide who I only remember as Leander).

So many trips, so many drinks, so many laughs…that time we drunkenly sauntered down the Alps and peed behind a dumpster together. That time we watched a wallcreeper on a castle and then followed Chris Wood’s idea that we go into Liechtenstein so we could be the top eBirders for that principality.
Hundreds of more memories that I just can’t put into words this morning.
He was a great friend on the road and incredibly helpful to my birding career. The birding community is not going to be the same. Oh hell, I suddenly remember he and Julie let Non Birding Bill and I stay at Indigo Hill and we made a video on How To Do A Big Sit.

Tim Appleton, Mark Cocker, Wendy Clark, Bill Thompson.

This was one of the Midwest Birding Symposiums and I got to get to know Wendy Clark. This was a gorgeous night on Lake Erie. The sunset was stunning in its colors but we thought the moment should be captured in black and white.
Bill, Julie and Wendy have been brutally honest about what this pancreatic cancer journey has been like for the family. The comment that broke me was a photo on Facebook of BT3 with Michael O’Brien and Zemaitis. They had run into each other in customs in November while returning from different birding trips. It popped up last week and BT3 wrote, “Turns our that was my last birding trip. So glad we crossed paths!!”
I’m not ready to contemplate what is going to be my last birding trip. Do all the things you want to do. Go on that birding trip. Skip the laundry and go look for warblers this spring. Eat all the carbs. Tell those important to you how important they are.
Thank you, BT3, for being such a great companion on the road. Thank you for all that you did to help me get to where I am today. Thank you for all you did to get people to notice birds. Thank you for sharing your music.

**Sax Zim Bog and Digiscoping** Jan 17, 2019
Hello! If you are here because of the KARE 11 or MPR segment, welcome! If you’re wondering about what the smart phone photography technique I was talking about, it’s known as digiscoping or phone scoping. It’s a way to use your smartphone with a spotting scope to take pictures and videos of birds and wildlife. You can learn more about the technique and the kit I use here. The case for my phone that I’m writing about is from a company called PhoneSkope.
Here’s a video I took of a northern hawk owl at the bog on Monday. This was taken with my iPhone in a PhoneSkope case and my Swarovski ATX spotting scope:

If you’re curious about “the bog” I referenced, that is Sax Zim Bog—a birding hot spot in Minnesota, especially in winter. You can find tons of great information at the Friends of Sax Zim Bog page. If you’ve never been, it’s best to hire a guide or consider going to the festival. The bog is large and without a strategy you can spend a lot of time driving without seeing any birds and wondering where to pee.
The bog is great birding year round, but there some birds that are easier to see in winter or can only be found there in winter. Target species for birders include (but is certainly not limited to) great gray owl, northern hawk owl, Canada jay, pine grosbeak, evening grosbeak, common redpolls, hoary redpolls, snowy owls, black-billed magpie and boreal chickadee. Several areas host bird feeders, some on private land, some on public. Friends of SZ has a great map pointing out the feeding stations. Some of the birds are after seed and others are after meat and fat in the form of chunks of venison.

Canada Jay perched on meat mountain (a deer torso) at Sax Zim bog. Dozens of black-capped chickadees will also come in for this. Note video below.

Boreal chickadee on a suet feeder filled with deer chunks.

I told my friends Gayle and Anne who dragged me out of my apartment for this day trip to listen for a “chick-a--shnee” sound instead of a “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” sounds. Among all of the black-capped chickadees in the bog is the browner boreal chickadee. We heard the bird but only caught barely a glimpse. We waited as long as we could but got the point where we needed to take the boardwalk back to the bathrooms. We carefully made our way back, keeping our eyes down to watch for icy patches when we heard a loud “CHICK-A-SHNEE!” There, about three feet from us on a feeder was the boreal chickadee. It was almost as if it was trying to tell us not to miss it.
We got good long looks and I had to back up down the trail so I could get a photo with my scope.

Colorful pine grosbeaks are in big numbers this year and easy to get at the bog.

I didn’t manage to get a photo on Monday, but here are evening grosbeaks from last year. They kind of look like a goldfinch on steroids.

Again not a photo from Monday, it was too dark to get a picture of the great gray we saw. However, I took this picture a year ago in the same spot.

So if you’re looking for a unique way to spend the day, consider visiting Sax Zim Bog. Also, it’s worth it alone to see the face of your coworker when they ask what you did over the weekend and you answer, “I went up to a frozen bog to look for owls. “

**Birding Lake Mburo National Park** Jan 17, 2019
After we saw the shoebill, I felt a weight come off of me in Uganda. I really, really wanted to see that bird. Of course I wanted to see many things, but that was the number one hope and Bird Uganda Safaris delivered. Even though my first look was at a distance I truly felt that I could really enjoy anything and everything because I saw my most wanted and didn’t have to stress if I would go home without it. It’s weird to pin so much hope on one species.

Leaving Mabamba wetlands we saw several trucks with fish attached to the Grill. Herbert told us that people put it there to keep it cool and fresh on the drive home. We asked if it worked and he said, “When I tried it, all I had was fish covered in insects and I never did it again.”

After the shoebill swamp we headed to Lake Mburo National Park where would stay at a Mantana Tented Camp. I wasn’t sure what the meant, but it sounded like an adventure. Along the way we would spot many birds and a few mammals. It was overwhelming because early on a bird trip everything is new and most likely a lifer, you’re not sure which species are going to be the common ones you see everywhere and which ones will be harder and that’s your one chance. Our guides Herbert and Davis from Bird Uganda Safaris also had the challenge of keeping us to schedule, but delighting in all of the things we were enjoying. But when we would stop for bathroom breaks we would always get fun birds.

Lesser blue-eared starling coughing up an undigestible seed seen on a bathroom stop.

Darkness descended as we entered Lake Mburo National Park and though we couldn’t see the landscape well we saw some mammals in our headlights. This park was where we got our first iconic African mammals like cape buffalo and zebras. When we arrived at the lodge, travel weary and hungry they gave us our keys and the rules of the tented camp. The biggest rule was that you were not allowed to leave your tent and walk the grounds without an escort. Not because you might be eaten by leopard, but because cape buffalo wander the grounds and if you surprise them you would be trampled. You can schedule staff to pick you up and there’s even a whistle in your tent in case you need help immediately. You blow on that and staff come running.
My porter carried my 50 pound suitcase on his head and with flashlights in hand we took the gravel trail to my tent. He showed me how to use the shower—I would schedule a time with him to fill the bucket with warm water and I’d have about 5 minutes to get clean. He also offered to spray my room with insecticide while I was at dinner for extra mosquito protection. I arranged for him to pick me up in twenty minutes and began to unpack. I suddenly heard a chirping noise and assumed it was a house gecko. Then I heard some fluttering.

To my surprise and delight, I had a lifer scarlet-chested sunbird in my bathroom. I think the bird had been roosting and my activity in the tent woke it up. It soon found a gap and flew out into the night. There were no outlets in my tent, though there were lights. Anything that I needed to charge, I would only be able to charge in the main lodge. At night I would plug in external batteries at the lodge to use the next day. I’d use my laptop to charge my phone. During the day I’d leave my laptop in the main lodge to charge.

The lodge charging station…at a slow time.

During dinner we could order from the bar and we were served three course meals of soup, a main dish like chicken and rice and a dessert. Bats would zoom in and out of the darkness while we ate and discussed the next day’s itinerary. The hotel manager came by and asked if we would like to arrange a wake up call—if you’re phone was changing, you needed some type of alarm. We also had the option of getting our wake up call with fresh coffee or tea. I arranged for my wake up call with coffee and a fill up of warm water for the shower.

I love an alarm that comes with fresh coffee.

I was so overwhelmed by the beauty and fun of the day that I fell asleep on my very firm mattress as soon as my head hit the pillow while crickets sang around me. At about 4am some snorting outside my tent woke me up. It didn’t sound like angry snorting and I assumed they were some kind of wild boar and fell asleep. Two hours later my wake up call arrived with coffee and biscuits. What a treat! He ten filled my bucket with warm water. I opened the valve to get good and wet before shutting it off, lathered my hair with shampoo and my body with soap. I opened the valve again to rinse and shut it off. I added some conditioner to my hair and opened the valve until the water ran out and I was perfectly rinsed. It was an ideal shower.

Freshly showered and caffeinated I absorbed my view over dawn.

I finally got a look at the outside of my room as I left for breakfast.

I stood on my deck and watched the sun reveal the majestic landscape around me as I sipped rich coffee. All around me birdcalls filled the air. I love being in a country and listening to people speak in languages I’m not familiar with. I don’t enjoy that so much with birds. I want to know who the all are.
I got dressed and packed up my daily birding gear and made my way towards the main lodge. When I arrived a green-headed sunbird was fighting its reflection in one of the mirrors and adorable mousebirds were teed up. The expansive lush landscape was filled with new birds. We wanted to eat breakfast but so many birds were popping up and we had to see them all. It’s one of my favorite feelings, surrounded colorful landscapes and birds and being surrounded by fruit and coffee. Herbert kept us on task because we had a boat to catch, he made us finish our breakfasts and load up in the vehicles.

Speckled mousebirds tempting us away from our breakfasts.

Yellow-fronted tinkerbird outside our vehicles.

Zebras on our commute.

Rüppell's long-tailed starling adding material to a nesting cavity near the boat launch.

Warthog with a yellow wagtail.

When we arrived at the boat launch, the sun was shining and the air was warming up. We had some time and while I lathered on more sunscreen, we got our fist looks at warthogs. I had no idea they were so cuddly with each other and that hey had to kneel with their front legs to eat vegetation! I made sure to take some video for Non Birding Bill (above). Barbets, starlings and swallows surrounded and delighted us. And then it was time to board.
I give a lot of boat programs in the US and personal floatation devices are mandatory. I have comfortable ones that were made specifically for women (thank you PFDiva). Personal floatation devices weren’t offered at Mabamba wetlands in our canoe but they were given to us for Lake Mburo. The PFDs we were offered the worst kind too—uncomfortable, ill-fitting and bulky. I decided to test the waters to see how hard they would enforce them. If a PFD doesn’t fit you properly they can be more of a hindrance in water than a life saving system. The boat captain strongly urged, but didn’t push it so I kept mine next to me. I was wondering if I should have made room in my suitcase for my personal PFD since we had so many boat trips in Uganda.

The boats we would take to explore Lake Mburo.

We explored the lake where we were dazzled by African fish eagles, malachite and pied kingfishers and African marsh-harried. Then I spotted my first hippo and forgot about birds. First there was one hippo in the middle of the lake… then they took us to a herd or bloat of hippos (how’s that for a collective noun).

All those lumps are a crash of hippos (another collective noun) on Lake Mburo.

A hippo contemplates if it can kill me as I digiscope it with my Swarovski ATX 65mm scope and iPhone X with a PhoneSkope adapter.

If you watch Fiona videos you get the impression they are delightful creatures who want to splash around with us and get chin scratches. In the wild they are far more menacing and really want to kill anything that gets too close. We watched their faces and backs just break the surface and were surprised at how much they reminded us of whales with air blowing out of the water…from either end of the hippo. I watched people kayak this lake and as much as I love kayaking, I’d never kayak anyplace there were hippos.

Hippo poop!

Part rail, part cool with a little bit of duck thrown in. This secretive bird is a finfoot.

As we cruised along the shore we found more secretive birds like white-backed night-heron, finfoot and giant kingfisher--check the eBird list for Michael O’Brien’s photo of the kingfisher. Imagine seeing a kingfisher that is the size of a crow. I almost wet myself.
As we kept near the shore we did find a common sandpiper bobbing on top of a rock near another finfoot. As we approached the finfoot the rock burst out of the water to reveal they were in fact a couple of hippos who were not happy with us. The boat backed up immediately and we survived.

I was taking a picture just as the “rocks” started to move.

The hippos running amuk when we unknowingly got too close. Not digiscoped. Yikes.

Water thick-knees were all along the shore of the lake.

And in case anyone asks, yes I did see the fish eagle.

The view from my safari vehicle with another not far behind.

We returned to land and explored more of the park both on foot and in our safari vehicles. Below are more photos of birds and animals we saw during our stay there. You can see our full eBird list an even more photos of Lake Mburo here. Our eBird lists for Mantana Tented Camp are here and here. And the lists from driving around the park are here, here and here.

A herd of impala chilling in the shade on the side of the road.

Digiscoped image of the male impala’s head taken from our safari vehicle.

Broad-billed roller digiscoped from the vehicle.

Crested francolin.

Red-necked francolin

Spot-flanked barbet.

African pied wagtail looking for tasty morsels inside warthog noses. Ew.

Madagascar bee-eater.

Red-chested cuckoo.

Pygmy mongoose trying to assess if it could kill me and eat me.

**How To See A Shoebill** Dec 29, 2018
The answer: head to you Uganda.
I’m a big fan of bullet journaling—I’m by no means anything like what you see on Pinterest, I’m a bit more basic and I find that this form of tracking creates some sort of order to the chaos of my brain when it comes to writing. Since I am no Catherine Hamilton, I don’t do much of the artistic side of it but I will decorate mine with stickers…especially bird stickers. I generally try to keep it to birds I’ve seen and place in weeks when I’m most like to see them. However this time last December a friend alerted me to shoebill stork stickers on Mochi Things.

One of my shoebill stickers in my bullet journal. And yes, I am tracking exactly what you think because I noticed I was giving far too many of them away to things that didn’t need them.

I’d never seen a shoebill and had no plans in the foreseeable future for that to happen. But hey, how often do you see shoebill stickers? Thanks to their popularity on the Internet, they warrant their own stickers. Even my non birding friends were excited about them. So I ordered them and populated my bullet journal with them.
Then in May I got in touch with Herbert Byaruhanga from Bird Uganda Safaris and the opportunity to visit Uganda came. Giraffes, hippos, leopards, chimps and gorillas were possible…but so is the shoebill, which can be found in freshwater swamps in central Africa. I could barely think about this trip for months, even delaying vaccinations because I couldn’t believe it was real, something had to go wrong to make this not happen.
The very first full day of the trip was our chance at the shoebill. I worried that something would go wrong with my flights from Minneapolis to Chicago to Brussels to Kigali to Entebbe would go wrong and I’d be delayed and miss it. And then there was the general anxiety of will we get the bird or miss it…because there are over 450 birds to seen in Uganda, I’m not going to see them all. I’ll will have to dip on some.
But my flights were uneventful and after 24 hours of travel I found myself in Uganda crashing on a bed in a hotel room at 1am. The next morning I woke and met my travel companions for the next two weeks in the parking lot a motley crew of birders from the United States, the UK, Panama, Australia and Taiwan. Every movement was exciting and mostly likely a new bird. Herbert took us to breakfast and then we’d be off to the shoebill. Our poor servers couldn’t keep us in our seats to eat or drink because were glued to the window for things like vervet monkeys and shikras.

After breakfast we hit the roads to Mabamba Wetlands where would take large canoes with motorboats out into the wetlands to look for shoebills, malachite kingfishers, yellow-billed ducks, black crakes, African jacanas and anything else, it was all good.

This area is used by tourists to search for birds and by the locals to cross the water and visit other communities. One day we passed a wedding party with a canoe loaded with gifts for the bride. The poor boatman had is motor fall off the canoe. We hope he made it over.

The boats take people and bikes across the water.

I turned around and discovered that everyone else in my group was excited by a close up hammerkop!

Boat safety is different in Uganda. But our guide was watching for the shoebills. There were also scouts in the swamp looking for them ahead of us.

The weather was perfect and the wetlands were beautiful and chock full of birds, just not shoebills.

We spend two hours in the wetland…and completely dipped on the shoebill. It was a disappointment and all part of the game but Herbert assured us that we would have other shoebill opportunities. He wouldn’t let us leave town without seeing one. And we did see the malachite kingfishers, jacanas and crakes, it was a lovely time. You can see the birds and some more photos at our eBird checklist.
Herbert took us out for some more excellent birding through the day and toward the end we stopped by Nabajjuzi Swamp because he had a lead on a shoebill. We scanned the swamp and did see it and we loaded into our vehicles to get to our next lodge. As we were on the busy roadway, Herbert gasped. He saw a shoebill. It was one of those sightings where only someone who sees this bird constantly and knows them so well that only they could spot them because this bird was far and hidden and we were going about 50mph. But we pulled over and everyone tried to get their glimpse of a lifer shoebill. I had a tough time because the vegetation is high and I am oh so short.

See that light wash of gray? That’s my lifer shoebill view. Weeeeee!

I looked around, I needed to be higher, but how. Then I looked at our super sturdy safari vehicles.
“Hey, Herbert, can I get on top of the truck to see the shoebill?”
”Of course!!”

Top ten life moment here. Standing on a safari truck to get a picture of shoebill. Thank you Carlos Bethancourt for the picture! Warning on the video below, I use “a swear” at the end. I couldn’t help it.

Much better view from on top of the vehicle. It was too far away for a great shot, but good enough for my memories.

Carlos joined me on top of the vehicle. This is the first time I’ve truly been captured right at lifer bliss. This was an amazing bird and top notch spotting on Herbert’s part.

A crowd gathered to watch the crazy foreigners losing their minds watching this bird.
I felt so relieved. We got the shoebill. It wasn’t exactly the view I had dreamed about, but we saw the bird in its habitat, you could clearly tell what it was and I could see the gorgeous gray eyes. I felt my shoulders relax and I was ready to enjoy everything else—it was all gravy at this point.
And the rest of the trip was amazing and I’ll write more. But Herbert had one more shoebill trick up his sleeve. On our final day of birding. He took our vehicles across Lake Victoria back to Mabamba Wetlands with one of his female guides to get a better view. He said that our group was the first time in 30 trips that he had not seen a shoebill there. He wanted to do it again. We were in, we were all in.

It was much rainier this time!

We were warned about rain and we had our rain gear. The boatmen also had umbrellas for us as well. We had to go into some of the thicker parts of the vegetation to get to the birds and we had to do some waiting while our female scout searched. But we got our shoebill!

We could see it with the naked eye and that was a satisfying view, but in the scope the bird was outstanding. With this view I got a much better sense of how huge this beast is.

People tell me I’m crazy for taking my scope on a boat but it was so worth it. Thanks to my phone I can get some great shots.

Thanks to my PhoneSkope case and iPhoneX I got this great shot for my memories.

Good grief, they can fly!

The murder stork’s ambivalent eyes demand respect.

Our wonderful scout who gave me the gift of a wonderful shoebill view. The boatmen and guides worked hard as well, but she’s the one who got us all there.

I made a video of our shoebill search and you get better idea of what it’s like getting around the Mabamba Wetlands.

**Wallcreeper on a Castle** Nov 13, 2018

You can’t trip without finding a castle in Europe.

One of the best mornings I ever spent was because of a cheaper flight. Sometimes when flying home from Europe, at least $1000 can be saved by extended the trip an extra day (usually to fly on a Monday rather than a Sunday).
Since we had an extra day we did some birding and for most of us the goal was wallcreeper. This is a mytical European bird that I’ve been interested since the first time I cracked a field guide for this area. Think of an elegant silvery nuthatch with bright pink wings that creeps rocky walls gleaning insects. I’ve dipped on them in Austria and Israel but my friend Dale had a lead on a one overwintering on a castle in Bregenz near Lake Constance. What’s not to love about that sentence? So away we went to locate the bird with our thermoses full of coffee.
Our group had the nervous anticipation of flinching at any leaf movement as we combed the castle wall for the small bird. Eventually the bird was seen high up and worked its way down. We had lots of time with the bird and we were even able to send it to Facebook Live to grip our friends who were at work or on a flight home.

Wallcreeper!

Check out those pink wings!

It’s a strange thing getting such a unique bird on a castle, especially one I’d missed several times. It’s all part of the magic of birding in Europe. The best part was that this was just the start of our birding adventure as Chris Wood from eBird came up with a mad plan to be the top eBirders in Lichtenstein.

Some celebrate with lifer pie, I celebrated with lifer beer—specifically Budvar in honor of my Czech roots. Unlike Budweiser in the US, this one actually has flavor.

**Birding Ethics When Abroad** Aug 12, 2018
There is quite a bit to debate when it comes to "ethical birding." You can practically make a drinking game out of arguments of taped calls and bird disturbances on your state's birding group every winter.

While taking pictures of feeding American Flamingos in Cayo Coco in Cuba, our guides told us they would be happy to make noise so the birds would fly off and we could get flight shots of the birds. We declined.

I've thought of this numerous times when in Central America and a guide used a taped call on a bird that they presumably take people to on a daily basis--or multiple guides visit on a daily basis.
I think there are times and places where taped calls can be effectively used. I would rather play a taped call for ten people who have never seen a yellow rail to get it to come out, rather than have ten people trample through rail habitat to see if one flushes.
There's definitely technique to using recorded bird calls. I wouldn't necessarily play a territory song for a species during fall migration. What works with one species may not work with another. A study in the late 70s/early 80s on how taped calls didn't interfere with nesting trogons can't be applied to Kirtland's warblers.
David Sibley was a wonderful and nuanced post on how to properly used taped calls for birds. Basically, go in with a plan and don't over use it.
When we were in Cuba, we had one overall guide and in every National Park we visited, we were required by the government to also use one of the park guides to take us in the park. They are paid, but they rely heavily on tips. And they have been taught that if people get the bird or the exact photo they want, they get better tips.

A Cuban Nightjar hidden in its roost in the woods around Soplillar. This and bare-legged owl were two big targets here.

The birding we did around the Bay of Pigs was spectacular and we explored the woods and savannas around Soplillar. One of our targets was the Cuban nightjar and our guides had one staked out, tucked away in thick vegetation. I realized when I got back to the states that I had heard one at night...they just sound more like a frog than a nightjar. We were a respectful distance away, no effort was made to clear vegetation out of the way for photos. Sure my pictures isn't going to end up in National Geographic, but I like how the branches obscure the bird, it takes me back to the moment when I saw it.

Just beyond those palms was a bare-legged owl.

The other target was a bare-legged owl. The guides knew where one was in a nesting/roosting cavity. They set us up around the deal palm tree pockmarked with woodpecker holes. They told use to aim our binoculars and cameras at a certain hole and then they would get it out. I'm familiar with a survey technique at roost/nesting cavities where you lightly tap on the trunk of a tree like a woodpecker and an irritated owl will poke its head out. I assumed that was what would happen here. I was not prepared for what happened and quickly switched to video when I realized what they were doing.

Yep, the local guide just started violently shaking the palm tree. The tree was in such decay that I was worried it would get pushed over. Sure I could have gone on a tirade, but white lady yelling at people in their own country about what they do is a role I never wish to have. I tried to offer some diplomatic advice as one professional guide to another.
"Hey," I said casually, "there's a technique that you can try where you just tap the tree lightly like a woodpecker. That might be a bit easier on the owl than shaking the tree."
The guide agreed and said that that is what he used to do and the bird stopped responding. Then they started to shake the tree a little and after awhile that stopped working. Now they have to shake very hard to get it to appear. Sigh.
I was amazed that the birds hadn't abandoned the cavity all together. Perhaps they had gotten used to some disturbance? Maybe cavities are so rare that they put up with it? The owl shared the tree with a nesting West Indian woodpecker as well. Based on the woodpecker behavior it clearly had a nest in the tree. There would be lots of noise and pecking that comes with a woodpecker nest that perhaps the owl is resigned to a life of daily disturbance?

There were times when other taped calls were used and I had to get the local guide to stop. Later in our trip we were out looking for a Key West quail-dove. When we arrived we heard a mangrove cuckoo--as species you can only get around Everglades or Biscayne National Park in the Unite States. Our guide of the day immediately started playing the call over and over and over.
I calmly suggested that maybe he should turn it off for a minute--give the actual bird a chance to assess the situation. But he continued. And this went on for several minutes. Not only was I irritated that my request was ignored, but I could tell the rest of my group was uncomfortable with the relentless playing or just downright bored when there were other things to be seen. I finally went to our main guide and said, "Tell him to stop, that bird is not going to come out. They don't call over and over like that."
Sometimes when people play a call nonstop or play it too loudly, the target bird will clam up and hide. The bird may be confused or threatened by the sound, "What is with that crazy sound, I don't sound like that, is this dangerous?" Some birds will hear a call once and clam up. Then it's up to you to wait--sometimes as much as 15 minutes and the bird will come out when it sees the coast is clear.

Key West quail-dove.

I suggested that we give up on the mangrove cuckoo, look at some other birds and maybe the cuckoo would come out while we focused on other things. Soon enough we found the original target of the day, the Key West quail-dove. And about ten minutes into enjoying that bird guess who popped out...

Mangrove cuckoo.

It was one of the best looks at mangrove cuckoo I've ever had. It casually fed in the tree, it preened--something birds only do when they don't feel threatened and are comfortable in their surroundings. Everyone had ample time for photos and video. The bird just needed time to get past all the calls.
I don't blame the guides. Clearly what has happened is that people have come before us and pressured the guides with their tips to get them exactly what they wanted to see or photograph. The guides depend on those tips and will do what they need to do take care of their families.
I referenced earlier that a guide offered to flush some flamingos so we could get flight shots and my group unanimously declined. We were content to watch and photograph them feeding. The birds were fairly close and comfortable with us. And they got so relaxed I got one of my favorite shots.

Look at that shiny flamingo cloaca!

I don't mean to pick on Cuba. Birding tourism is relatively new for them. There hasn't been the decades of birding like there has been in the US or the UK. Some of the top guides in Panama, Costa Rica and Honduras have had the chance to come to the US and get to know more about birding ethics. But I do think it's up to us to help point this out politely. If there is something you're uncomfortable with on a tour, have a conversation about it. I don't mean yelling at a guide in the middle of a field trip, no one will listen to that, especially if their being taken to task in front of a group. But when you're sitting down with them at the end of the day and having a drink, engage in a conversation about bird behavior and share how birding happens where you live. If birders/photographers before us are setting a bad precedent, it doesn't hurt to share how birding is different in other areas.

**Noticing Birds** Aug 05, 2018
"I don't really notice birds."
This was a recent confession from a very good friend who I have known for decades. I was baffled, how can you NOT notice birds...especially after knowing me? Haven't I told them a ton of interesting factoids? OK, I may have traumatized them when they told me they thought ducks were cute and I told them about duck anatomy. But I really thought they could handle that information.
How can someone not notice birds?
When I first started this whole bird writing stuff n 2004 I was used to people saying, "You watch birds? Huh, my grandmother does that." It was always said in way that was almost an apology, "oh that thing you love is boring."
And I've taken it as my mission to say, "Screw that, birds are amazing and we're all over here having an amazing time."
Over the years as all sorts of passions have come about, it feels like we share our passions. Though I may not get why my adult friends are obsessed with going Disney World every chance they get, I appreciate that they like it. When I'm watching that friend's third trip to Disney in a year on Facebook I realize, "Oh, I bet they watch my multiple trips to go birding in Texas with the same bewilderment." How many times do I need to see a green jay? Apparently as many times as my friends need their picture taken with Donald Duck.

On a recent evening I was still chewing on the "not noticing birds" conversation as I was participating in an Insect Safari as part of my job. Though the focus was insects, there were several birds around and I was watching them. One was a very obliging indigo bunting. I set my scope on it in case anyone wanted to take a peak as they paused in their insect hunt. One man put his eye up to my scope and was shocked. He insisted his wife and kids take a look too. As they did he said to me, "I gotta tell you, I never got birding, it just seems so boring. But that bird, that I can see why you do this."
Not long after my phone buzzed with a text alert. It was my friend who was driving around and found a turkey in the road. They sent a photo.
"You noticed a bird."
"Yes," the replied.
I'll take my victories where I can.

**The "Famously" Inconspicuous Henslow's Sparrow** Jun 16, 2018
I've really been taking the "Year of the Bird" to heart. This year I decided to carve out some birding just for myself on top of the classes and events I host. It's been one of the best springs (of course, I say that every spring when there are great birds). This week has just been spectacular.
I got my whole birding by ear class on this amazing Henslow's sparrow.

I wasn't going to post this part, but I feel like I should for the sake of new bird guides everywhere...sometimes bird guides make mistakes. Accept it, take responsibility for it, do your best to make it right, learn from it, but most importantly: get over it. In the last two years I have been experimenting leading birding by ear classes and field trips. From a guiding perspective these are great: I'm not guaranteeing that we will see birds, but we will hear them--which is the case for a great many species! We usually see the birds on these outings, but I find this hits the sweet spot of under promise and over deliver.
I was loading my stuff into the car for my 8am birding by ear class. I was going to arrive at 7:30am so I was a half an hour early. As I loaded my car I got a text, "How close are you, everyone is checked in for the class."
"Wow," I thought, "that's great people are so early...oh wait..."
This was my brain:

Yep. I got the times for my class confused. I wasn't set to be early, I was set to be late. I think I need this to happen to me about once every eight years to keep me humble. I arrived and apologized for wasting people's time and promised amazing birds and a binocular cleaning if they needed it.
However the group was forgiving and the weather was wonderful. The birds were incredibly obliging as we heard scarlet tanagers and recently fledged chickadees all around us. Someone even got great looks at their lifer common yellowthroat. When I do these sorts of classes, my brain is constantly listening for what's the next sound to talk about. I try to stick birds singing nearby and ones that I think people remember or have a chance to hear in your neighborhood.

Prairie area around Richardson Nature Center.

Sometimes I can hear a "good bird" but if I know it's a long shot to get the group on it, I'll "pick my battles" and ignore it. If there is an easy to view redstart nest ten feet away and a black-throated green warbler singing very far away, I'll focus the group on the restart. I do sometimes ask the group what they want. I was doing a digiscoping workshop and as the group was practicing on a ring-billed gull, I heard a Le Conte's sparrow on territory. I announced, "Hey, gang, I should tell you, there's a really great sparrow singing behind me. They're really hard to see, super lurky in the grass and we will have to work for it, but if you'd rather do that than take pictures of a gull we can."
They looked at me like I offered them broccoli ice cream and so we ignored the Le Conte's. I, however, went back later and photographed the crap out of it.
As we walked along I suddenly heard a faint and familiar sparrow sound. It was a Henslow's sparrow, a state-threatened species in Minnesota. Their call is not easy to discern if you aren't familiar with it. In fact, I always notice it because it's so...so...blah. It's kind of like a half-assed house sparrow call. All About Birds notes that these birds are "famously inconspicuous."
I had the group listen and get familiar with the call. I offered to play a taped call once to see if we could get it to pop up, but I warned that they don't always respond to it. Sometimes Henslow's perch just below the grass and you can't see them. The group was curious and we tried it. The bird never popped up. But we got to hear it very well. We continued our way around the prairie and heard a second one singing. I'd never had a Henslow's at Richardson Nature Center, so to get two singing birds was amazing. This time we were able to spot the bird, I got in the scope and it did exactly what I said it would do, perch just below the tops of the grasses. Our binocular and scope views of the bird were obscured by vegetation but people got to see a really great sparrow for Minnesota.
We continued our way around the prairie, got some great looks at bluebirds and indigo buntings when we heard a third Henslow's sparrow. This one was really loud and sounded like it right in front of us. Sure enough someone in my group found it and it was 10 feet in front of us, teed up nicely on some vegetation above the grass.

Everyone got a look and I was able to take photos of the bird for people with their phones through my scope and of course get the video that you see at the top of this post.
I also cleaned a few binoculars as penance for being late.

**Reporting Owls** Mar 31, 2018

Snowy owl pellets have been documented to contain parts of herring gulls, double-crested cormorants, great blue herons, peregrine falcons, barred owls, mink and house cat...they are badasses who can deal with some of the toughest predators out there. They also can nest on the ground where wolves and polar bears are present.

There was an interesting article about the p olitics of posting owl locations recently. Each winter I find myself more irritated when large numbers of owls show up and people go bonkers on the Internet arguing about whether or not the locations should be posted, if people are getting too close and whether or not they should be baited. When it comes to snowy owls, I figure this is a bird that nests on the ground and can live where there are polar bears, foxes and wolves. It's learned to live with bigger threats than a photographer. Also I shake my fist and wish all the snowy owls would just go back home.
And my attitude is a shame because...owls are cool. When you get started in birding, finding your first owl is a triumph of the human spirit! And with some practice you can find them more often than not.
One of the things that I love about where I live now is my birding patch. We have a wetland that is an easy 2 mile loop from my back door. I've eBirded the spot so much that it's now a hot spot. It's not the most exciting spot in winter, but I'm always hopeful that one winter I will get a northern saw-whet owl back there and I always watch for them. Last winter when we were having a balmy February, I biked past some cedars and saw the telltale small owl sign: copious amounts of owl poop and pellets.

Owl pellets and poop. Owl pellets are distinctive by having lots of bones in them unlike hawk pellets.

I pulled to a stop and carefully looked over the pellets under the pine tree. I could see some sporadic poop under the cedars but the most accumulation appeared to be under a nearby pine. I tried looking up high in the pine for more poop or even an owl but didn't see anything. Not seeing an owl I thought I would go in and collect the pellets. As I hunched over to avoid bumping into the lowest branches...BAM... perched in an old robin's nest on the lowest branch was an eastern screech-owl. The bird had stretched upward, looking quite skinny and branch-like. I know this is a defense and camouflage posture but the owl's faced almost looked accusatory, "How DARE you come in here!!"
Before I could help myself I said, "Oops, sorry," and hightailed out of there, feeling bad I disturbed it. The owl didn't fly away and I was grateful for that.
I biked by the next day and could make out it's shape in the thick tangles of the branches. This went along for a few more days and I decided to take Non Birding Bill with me and try and get a photo. There was no easy way to get a picture, the bird seemed to have found the perfect spot to communicate, "I don't care to be observed."

Don't worry, this was taken through the scope with my iPhone, I wasn't holding my phone up to the owl's face.

I found the one hole among the branches where you could make out the face of the owl about twenty feet away...where trucks typically park to unload packages for the local businesses. The bird stared at me the entire time I was there (about three minutes). Since the owl didn't seem to relax around me, I kept it brief with a documentation shot.
The next day I biked past and didn't see the screech shape on the usual low branch. I looked around some more and noticed that the bird moved to one of the cedars and was much higher up in the tree. Noted, screech, you don't like the paparazzi, I will leave you alone and keep your location on the down low.

Shrew skull found in one of the screech-owl pellets in my patch.

As winter transitioned to the breeding season, the owl disappeared. Late in summer I found a screech in a mulberry bush right over the trail. I was excited that my neighbor was still around and then realized that the tufts on the bird were downy--screech-owl offspring!
Later in the fall while biking I saw the telltale poop in the pine with the cedars and sure enough, there was the low-roosting screech. I took a moment to welcome it back and noted that once again it chose the roost that was surrounded by the most branches.
All of this bird's behavior has made me reluctant to tell anyone about the screech location. I was reluctant to even enter it in eBird. When screeches have been reported near me, they can attract a lot of photographers. Some don't seem to mind: roosting next to busy tennis courts or streets, but this bird keeps choosing impossible to photograph perches and on the days I bring a scope or a friend, it chooses a much higher roost the next day makes me think that it is not in the mood for disturbance.
But then there's my neighborhood barred owl. This bird is a bit more...chill. I first noticed it late last summer. NBB has taken to showing movies on our sun roof at night when the weather is warm enough. One night two barred owls flew right over the roof above our heads while we were watching Airplane. Later in the fall I was walking home from the patch and a barred owl was trying to take a grey squirrel off the trunk of a tree. And in early January, I was walking home from the grocery store on the bike trail behind our home and a barred owl flew out of the trees and cruised along the trail towards me. I was excited that it was going to pass by me until the split second I saw the talons start to lower and realized it was going for my grocery bag. I shouted and it veered off to my left. Nothing like an owl about to fly into you to get your adrenaline pumping.

Signs that an owl has been roosting.

I'd been trying to suss out where the barred owl has been roosting and I found some pine trees near some railroad tracks that gave me a clue. I found an accumulation of chalky-textured poop and old pellets. It wasn't in any of the places where I'd seen the screech-owl and it matched up to all the places where I've seen hunting, including the time it tried to kill my grocery bag. The interesting thing is that the roost was right over a social trail people had made in order to get access to the bike trail. I made a mental note of the spot and decided to include it on my walks. And sure enough on a single digit temperature day, I found it in the roost.

The owl took note of me and then went about roosting in the sun. There was a fat tire bike rider slowly moving along the bike trail behind me. They started coughing and that got the owl's attention. The situation reminded me of a quote I saw last year from Andrew Baksh about viewing and photographing owls: "I have had some lucky encounters and in each case the Owls were chill, I was chill."

This owl is very different from my neighborhood screech, it is quite chill. It hunts along a heavily used trail, it roosts over places people walk with their dogs and it doesn't seem to mind the occasional train.

Part of a gray squirrel skull found in a barred owl pellet.

So for me, when it comes to reporting owls I'll take it on a case by case basis. Some can handle people and some can't.

**Birds In Cages** Feb 19, 2018

Home cooked meal in Honduras.

One of the risks of traveling for birding is that sometimes you are going to see birds in cages and it's going to gut you. One of the most brutal examples for me was in Honduras. We had spent the morning in arid and remote habitat looking for the Honduran emerald, a hummingbird only found in Honduras. We saw several other species, but the day was hot and we couldn't get enough water. Because we were far from out lodge and all the villages nearby were small, arrangements had been made to have lunch at a local rancher's house. His wife prepared us a hard meal of chicken, salad, rice, beans and freshly squeezed juice. Her home was lovely and we ate indoors, while her kitchen was outdoors.

Outdoor kitchen in Honduras.

Afterwards we were allowed to wander the yard, take pictures of her kitchen or nap in her many hammocks. I grabbed a few photos of her stove and then settled in a hammock. I had a vague awareness of her animals around the property, most notably chickens but then I noticed a bird cage leaning against a tree with three white-fronted amazons inside. I tried to will myself to not pay them further attention and to let myself fall into a nap. Then I overheard two women from my group discussing the birds. "Oh, look at that! Mom, dad and a baby!" My brain snapped awake.
"They're not babies," I called over and the women looked confused. I walked to the cage and noted the overturned water dish, the empty food dish and complete and utter lack of toys for the birds to chew. I noted the bark of the tree that the cage leaned against was covered in chew marks. And I noted two birds hunkered together while a third--the odd man out had chewed most of his body feathers away. "That's not a baby, that is a bird bored with it's captivity that is chewing it's feathers because it has nothing to do."

White-fronted amazons in a cage. One is plucking its feathers.

I could feel rage and frustration coming over me...followed by the inevitable welling of tears. We'd seen these parrots throughout our trip living in the wild. There's nothing like seeing the parrot brain and beak navigate in the wild. They're so smart at figuring out how to crack open hard nuts for finding food and establishing long term pair bonds. After seeing them in the wild that morning and now to see three bored in a cage was gut wrenching. I noted the chickens freely roaming the yard--soon to be food. The food chickens had a better life than the three birds living in bored torture that were kept out of love.
I walked around the yard trying to force the emotion back. This was a birding tour, not my time to be some white lady telling a woman trying to get by in Honduras on how to raise her pets. But I also thought of the bird I had at home and how miserable he'd be in cage with nothing to chew and no water on a miserably hot day.
I went back into the home and grabbed a napkin from my lunch to try and hide what I'd been thinking. I decided to force myself back to the cage and confront the situation. I wanted to look the plucked bird in the eye and just acknowledge that I see the life it's living and I know that it sucks. As I looked at the plucked bird, it walked over to where my hands were and its beak reached through the bars toward my hand holding my slightly damp napkin...it wanted to chew it.
My Spanish is terrible so I asked my local guid to ask the woman if she'd mind if I gave her bird a napkin to chew. She nodded it was ok. I brought it forward and the bird greedily snatched the napkin away and started tearing it apart. Its cage mates came down to explore as well.
I asked my guide to translate for me. "This bird needs a job. This bird sees how hard you and your family works and it wants to work too. Because it has nothing to work on, he gets bored and plucks his feathers. If you give him some rope or coconut husk to chew on, it might stop chewing its feathers and be beautiful again."
She seemed to consider the suggestion, but I have no idea of it worked and left embarrassed that I'd gotten emotional in front of the group. I especially don't enjoy being the person visiting and learning about another country and telling people how to live their lives. I've built a thick skin when it comes to nature. Life in the wild is brutal. Most animals don't die quiet deaths in their sleep, they're eaten alive, they can live for days starving after receiving a crippling injury, babies are plucked from their nests...it's horrifying. When I see animals in awful domestic situations I try to remind myself that life may not be much better for them in the wild. But a parrot that can live for decades sitting bored in a cage...that torture seems far too long.
And this doesn't only happen to parrots. It happens to birds we can see in our backyards..

An indigo bunting for sale outside of my hotel in Havana. One of many seen on my trip to Cuba last year.

Our first day walking around Old Havana, I heard an indigo bunting singing. It didn't seem to be the right habitat but maybe it was a bird caught in the city during migration. We looked for the source of the song and found a balcony covered in bird cages full of illegal birds: Cuban bullfinch, indigo buntings and painted buntings. We would end up seeing wild birds illegally kept in cages every day. The most common was the painted bunting. To learn more about the bunting trade in Cuba, read this fascinating article the bunting black market.
Part of our trip included a visit to a tobacco farm. As the farmer explained his process for trying leaves, a painted bunting new to captivity frantically flitting around the cage looking for an escape. We also passed a mocking bird which sat with its foot tucked, a relaxed posture. It had seemed to accept its place in a cage. The farm was huge and there were several other buntings in cages.

A caged mocking bird and caged painted bunting on a tobacco farm in Cuba.

I took our cultural guide aside and said, "Look, if you are going to bring birders here, you should maybe tell the farmer to at least hide his illegal birds."
She looked surprised and I explained that even in Cuba, buntings were not allowed as pets. I also explained that while our group was chill, some birding groups would raise a big fuss and get angry at seeing that. Our guide marched right up to the farmer and started yelling at him. He smiled, answered her and walked away.
"What did you tell him," I asked.
"I told him that birds do not belong in cages and he needs to let them go," she said angrily.
"What did he answer," I asked.
"He said how can he see them otherwise," she replied.

Painted bunting.

Indeed, how could he? The concept of watching birds in the wild as well owning binoculars and spotting scopes is not a thing in Cuba--yet. And when the painted bunting are there, they are secretive, hidden in grasses feeding. Not the flashy bird on a perch singing his beautiful song.
That night at the bar we were having drinks with our ornithologist guide Hiram. We were discussing all the illegal birds and in cages. I mentioned how it was clear from the bunting's frantic hopping in the cage that it was a recent capture, but the mockingbird had clearly accepted its captivity. It seemed very relaxed and even at one point tucked its foot--something birds do when completely relaxed.

The Cuban trogon cannot be caged.

Hiram said that it's custom to take mockingbirds from the nest when they are young and then teach them the Cuban anthem making them a beloved bird. The Cuban people love their birds. They want them nearby and singing all the time. Hiram also mentioned that people have tried caging the Cuban trogon and it dies in captivity...which is why it's so beloved and a national symbol. Like the Cuban people it cannot be contained. It prefers death to life in captivity.
These are not problems I can fix. People love birds. Sometimes that translates into living conditions that aren't the best for the birds. This is not a problem that can be fixed today, next week or even next year. Maybe over time with some education this might be minimized. But for the current time many of the bird species we know face odds and dangers we can't imagine.

**Cuban Parakeets Go Full 69** Jan 17, 2018

Cuban parakeet in Playa Larga.

I've said it before and I'll say it again and again, there is nothing like seeing parrots and parakeets live and function in the wild--especially if you have ever been crazy enough to share your life with one in your home. Their bright colors, incredible brain and ability to mimic often overcomes our good sense to not have one in your home because of their destructive tendencies and incredibly loud, screechy calls. But seeing that all come together as a means to find food and shelter in their environment is such a beautiful thing, especially when we see recognizable human behaviors.

Allopreening parakeets.

So it was quite the treat when our guide got us on a flock of Cuban parakeets in the general neighborhood of our hotel. It was getting close to noon and the light wasn't great. Our group struggled to get the birds in the dappled canopy. I gave up on getting a "magic shot" and thought I'd just find a bird or two and get some bird behavior shots and video...and boy howdy did I. The above pair started by sitting side by side and preening their own feathers. Then as pairs frequently do, they started allopreening or grooming each other's feathers. This can be a way to woo a new partner and once your partnership is solidified, it's a way to reinforce the pair bond...then things got weird. The birds soon went from, "Here, let me nibble that hard to reach part of your face..." to "let's get busy."

Yep. That is indeed what it looks like. And it went on for several minutes.

Then one bird flipped around on the perch (I refer to that one as Bird A) and started preening the vent and cloaca area of Bird B. The other bird followed suit. This went on for several minutes. Having the brain of a 15 year old, I was delighted by this turn of events. They kept macking on those areas for so long, this was no longer about, "Let me just clean up the feathers in this area for you" but more like, "Wow, this feels great, don't stop, for the love of all things holy, YES!"
There's something about psittacines (parrot order) that really appears to have a thing for sexual pleasure, beyond just the cloacal kiss for mating you see in most wild birds. When our cockatiel was alive, masturbation was an important daily ritual...and he would take his own sweet time about rubbing his cloaca on his chosen item all while huffing and puffing and squeaking. I especially found it amusing when his favorite area was next to a mirror and he clearly watched himself at the same time. Was it another bird in his mind, or was he watching himself? Who knows, but he had a great time.
After several minutes of 69ing each other, Bird B had enough and tried to go back to preening other areas of Bird A. However, Bird A was having none of it and kept thrusting it's cloaca in Bird B's face.

"Pardon me, I'm not done."

"No seriously. You need to get in there and finish that."

And they went back to it for another five minutes and then Bird B clearly had enough and flew off to another perch to forage in the trees.
Birds, man. Always keeping things in the field interesting. Here's some video of the allopreening...and beyond.

**Birding In Troubled Times** Jan 12, 2018
I'm not racist.
I never imagined I would need to make a statement like that, but when the leader of your country says words and supports groups that blatantly are, I feel I need to make sure people know this. Especially the many friends I’ve made all over the world.

The chestnut-sided warbler migrates to the United States to raise their chicks, then heads to "shithole" countries like Haiti and El Salvador every year.

I hesitated to put this up because I was worried about starting a political argument in the blog, something I try to avoid. And then I thought…since when is stating clearly that you believe in equality for all people a political statement?
Countries, like people are complex AF. They can show unknown beauty, teach you things that cannot be learned in a book or classroom, they can bring you unimaginable joy and they can make you irrationally angry. They can also break your heart.

I’ve been in countries that I’m sure the current President of the United States would term “shitholes.” Though I have not been to the countries he specifically stated were "shitholes" many of the countries I've been to share some particular characteristics with his list: people of color and for some, extremely poor living conditions. I generally like to keep things neutral in the blog because I want to focus on birds and wildlife and I think no matter how much we disagree with each other politically, we can find commonality in nature. In the past when I see things I struggle with while out birding, I tend to leave that as a story I only tell friends over dinners and drinks. I think I need to stop that.

For example, Honduras was one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever been too. I loved the people I met, the terrain was breathtaking (literally and metaphorically) and the birds were outstanding. However, the poverty was overwhelming. Every animal I saw was emaciated. You could see the rib cages of dogs, horses, cows—even pigs. Imagine that, my fellow US citizens, pigs so thin you could see their ribs.

While I would stay in my cozy lodges where my daily choice was bird watching, a massage, reading in a hammock, writing, sketching, or snorkeling, some families around us were living in shacks with tarp roofs struggling to survive. Children were out there who couldn't go school because they were needed to go through the streets and search garbage bins to find scraps to sell or eat just so their family can survive. Yes it can be argued that the tourism dollars I bring with me helps, but will it help the individuals I saw? Highly unlikely.
And this is not the only country that has that kind of “shithole” existence going on. Perhaps you’re thinking I might next bring up Cuba or Guatemala living conditions I witnessed. Nope. I’ve seen similar shithole existences right here in the United States. I saw it right in our capital of Washington, DC last October—people living in tents around monuments or within site of the White House itself. I see it daily in Minnesota. Right now, someone is living in a tent on property adjacent to my apartment building’s complex. The current temperature outside as I write this is -13 degrees Fahrenheit. He is a white male living in that tent in the United States.
If you’re reading this and you voted for Trump, I don’t care what policy or tax break or health plan you thought he would fix for you. Can’t we agree that this overtly racist attitude is intolerable, unacceptable and a total embarrassment? And if you think it’s ok, I would encourage you to book a trip somewhere out of your comfort zone. Learn more about the countries you don’t understand. Most people aren't out to "get us." They want a little piece of stability to spend time with family and friends and pursue their happiness.
The thing that’s incredibly frustrating for me is that the news gets overwhelmed with these immature comments and we are missing actual changes that affect us all right now: Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge could be taken from us for a useless border wall that is for show and not action. The Eminent Domain process was ignored on private property when the federal government started work on the wall on private property owned by the National Butterfly Center in Texas. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act has been relaxed a bit so killing birds for construction is ok. The Bundy family who tried to take federal land away from the US people by high jacking Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is free because federal prosecutors botched their case. As of today the federal government is about week away from a shutdown…something that almost happened right before Christmas. The government was less than 48 hours from a shutdown but no one noticed because, “Oh hey, the president said something insane again.”
So, in case it wasn't obvious...I'm not a racist and I don't think any of what is going on right now is ok. And as I struggle with daily outrage fatigue, the thing that is getting me through this is watching birds. And Jameson.

**Che Guevera's Cave and Ant Hatches** Dec 30, 2017

Cueva de los Portales in La Guira National Park

One of the places I was most excited about visiting in Cuba was Cueva de los Portales in La Guira National Park. This was the headquarters of the Western Army and the hideout of Che Guevara during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. I was curious to see something that I'd read about so much in school. This is also the spot to get Cuban solitaire. I have fallen head over heals in love with the solitaire family, their songs are haunting. I can send you to Xeno Canto so you listen to them, but computer speakers are a poor comparison to the real thing. If you do go there, put in your headphones at least. The true solitaire song in the wild echoes off the sides of mountains and sounds other wordly. So far Brown-backed solitaire is my favorite bird song ever, but I was very curious to hear how the Cuban solitaire sounds different.
The Cuban solitaire did not disappoint. As we explored this beautiful cave and heard the patter of rain and the chittering of bats that haunting song bounced off of the cave walls. I could have sat and listened for the entire day.

Inside Che Guevara's cave which was also loaded with bats and swallows.

The cave is definitely worth exploring, but if you go in with cameras (or spotting scopes and binoculars) you will be charged a "camera fee." Make sure to have Cuban Convertible Pesos handy.

The Cuban solitaire was not easy to see, but I was more interested in listening to it.

American kestrels are very pale in Cuba.

La Guira National Park is a good spot to see yellow-headed warbler too.

If you travel into Central America enough, it is inevitable you will experience an ant hatch...in your hotel. Previously, I wrote about experiencing an ant hatch that happened in my room at Panacam Lodge in Honduras (this is not a knock against that lodge, this is just part of life in the tropics). Hotel Islazul Mirador (also called Hotel Islazul San Diego de los Banos) was our base for this stretch of our trip because it was near the cave. Most of the occupants at the hotel appeared to be residents enjoying some weekend fun. Two of the men on our trip took a stroll outside the hotel and within a few blocks met a local teacher who gave them a tour of the town. He had started a personal library for the town from books he collected from foreigners. Incidentally, if you wanted to take something to Cuba for the people, I highly recommend bringing along copies of your favorite books to read in Spanish and leaving them behind.
I shared a room with my friend Sue and the morning routine was that I would wake up first and as I moved around, Sue would gradually wake up. One morning I woke and went into our bathroom. As I was gradually gaining consciousness, I heard a clicking sound. I looked down and noticed a large insect crawling under the door into the bathroom. Then a second. When both were inside, they fluttered their wings and made the clicking sound..."Oh no," I suddenly realized: ant hatch.

Winged ants crawling around the bathroom.

I brain sprang into action, I didn't have ants on me so the hatch must have just started. I needed to close up our suitcases so we wouldn't have them in our clothes. I needed to wake Sue but not panic her. I stepped out of the bathroom and noted a few more ants on the floor.
"Sue," I said in steady but firm voice. "Sue, you need to get up and close your suitcases. I need to turn on the lights."
I flipped on the lights to see where the ants were coming out. I looked for any kind of gap along the ceiling and walls. I couldn't see ants. Sue was getting out of bed and thought our room was flooding in her half awake state. I was trying to carefully explain the hatch because I wasn't sure how she would feel about thousands of large, winged ants crawling all over us. There were some more winged ants on the floor and then I noticed the clicking sound was louder just outside our room door. I realized with some relief that it wasn't in the room, but outside. When I turned on the bathroom lights, that must have gotten their attention and the ants were crawling from under our room door and a gap from our shutters. What a relief that it wasn't inside!
I turned off the lights in our room and decided to take a peak outside.

The light just outside our room was out so we didn't have that many ants outside of our door. However, walking down the corridor you could see that our neighbors' rooms were all covered in dying ants that were attracted to their lights. It had been raining most of the day before. When the rains stopped, queens hatched to go on their mating flights with males. After the mating the wings on the queen fall off and she goes to start a new colony. But all of these ants got distracted by the lights and spent all their energy around it, exhausting themselves. As morning was approaching they were dying and their wings were falling off.
I wondered about people coming out of their room barefoot to have coffee, only to step in and slide through ant guts. I went back to my room to finish prepping for the day's adventures grateful to not be dealing with ants in our room.

When I headed down to breakfast the sun was bright and the dead ants looked quite beautiful in the light. While we were eating, the hotel staff went through and swept them away. I looked down at the pool and it was a different story. A layer of drowned ants covered the surface. The pool boy would have his work cut out for him this morning.

Jellied papaya...with cheese.

One of the specialties our cultural guide Claudia told us to try at the hotel was jellied papaya. If you think papaya is ok but could do with more sugar then this is right up your ally! It was far too sweet for me but it was an interesting flavor. Make sure to give it a try.

**Las Terrazas Birding** Dec 29, 2017
After some fun times and barely birding in Old Havana, we met up with our main guide in Cuba, Hiram Gonzalez (pronounced "ear rahm" not they way we say Hiram in the US). Hiram is quite possibly one of the last people to see an ivory-billed woodpecker alive in Cuba. He's an ornithologist who specializes in endangered species on the island. If Zapata wren is your goal--he's the one you want to know to see one.

He's also one of the most colorful guides I've ever gone with. How often do you go out with a guide who points to your endemic lifer with his half finished cigarette? He speaks very good English with a heavy accent. It took me a minute to figure out that "janky bird" was giant kingbird. At night, he'd join us at the bar and school us in birds and the better rums. But he was always so excited to show us his birds which I'm sure he'd seen more times than I've seen a cardinal. Ever time he would exclaim, while wildly flailing his cigarette, "Look AT dat!!!"

Male Cuban martin.

We headed towards Las Terrazas to a plantation to get some of those Cuban endemics we'd been reading about so much. On the way we stopped for gas and got a lifer: Cuban martin. We had martins zooming over the roof of our hotel. Even though it was April, I wasn't sure if there still might be some male purple martins on the island and it's impossible to tell male purple martins from male Cuban martins. But at the gas station there was no doubt.

Female Cuban martin in a nest cavity, check out the wasp nest above her head.

Unlike purple martins, Cuban martins nest in holes in buildings--not the houses and colonies people in the United States have trained martins to use. These martins were using any hole or gap in the gas station. Cuba is know for several species that are endemic--spend their entire lives on the island. But martins fly away in winter and only breed here so their considered a breeding endemic. Kind of the way golden-winged warblers would be considered a breeding endemic to the North America.
We continued our journey and at the first stop in Las Terrazas, it was the "holy-shit-new-birds-everywhere" sensory overload time. That lovely point where you are afraid to focus on just one bird because you might not see the other new bird right behind you ever again. Many of the endemics we saw on the first stop ended up being birds we would see almost every day like Cuban trogon, Cuban tody and Cuban green woodpecker...getting actual photographs of them was another story.

Our very first bird was the Cuban national bird, the Tocororo or Cuban trogon. As we were watching Cuban oriole and Cuban green woodpecker flew over--to a nest.

Cuban green woodpecker.

The farm to see grassquits!

Clouds and mist moved in as well giving things a mysterious air. After our initial stop we headed to a nearby plantation where they were setting up to feed their chickens. However, domestic fowl are not the only birds to see. This is the spot to get cracker jack looks at grassquits.

Cuban grassquit.

I could show you images of grassquits but it's far more fun to watch video of them happing around. There were far more yellow-faced grassquits than Cuban grassquits but we got ample looks at both. These are now considered to be part of the tanager family and are related to Darwin finches.

I tried to get a picture of Flat Michelle with the grassquits, but they were having none of it.

So a local farmer was happy to oblige instead.

**Horned Guan Death March** Dec 26, 2017
This post was updated December 19, 2017 when I noticed many of the photos were gone after transferring the blog from Wordpress to SquareSpace. I also updated some of the text. It was originally two posts and now I've condensed it to one.

This particular toy at the top of this post is a replica of a horned guan. You can get them from knock-off Kinder Eggs called Yowies—which for whatever reason are legal in the US. I was going to just buy the eggs until I got my guan, but the chocolate is nasty. Rather than going the traditional route of purchasing several inedible eggs, I found someone on eBay who already had the guan and for the price of one Yowie egg I had the guan sent directly to my home. To people who say this is cheating...I say, "Bite me."
A horned guan is one of the rarest birds in the Americas. Imagine a black and white bird the size of a turkey that has a bright red horn on its head that lives in the trees on the side of a volcano. Even if there weren’t only 600 or so of these birds left in the world, they're are still an amazing sight.
If I truly understood what was ahead of me to see a guan, I don't know that I would have gone for it. There were tales from some of my buddies on the bird festival circuit that it was a horrific climb. I had heard of well-known, great birders, who I considered to be physically fit, having to crawl that last part of the trail just to see. Here's Julie Zickefoose on NPR and on her blog or Bill of the Birds on his horned guan search. I think a part of me thought that was just a bit of exaggeration--birders have their fish stories too.
The hike up Volcan San Pedro was saved for one of our final days of birding in Guatemala. Our group had been mentioning it to each other, "Do you think you're going to be able to do it?" or "Sharon, do you really think you can take your scope up the volcano, I'd leave it here."
I heard that previous male birders had brought their scopes, so I thought that I should be able to do it too. I didn't get very scared until the day before. I had found some wifi at our lodge in Los Andes and put up a status update on Facebook: Sharon is nervous about tomorrow's climb up the Volcano to see the horned guan. I got a comment from Chris Benesh who works for Field Guides--travels all over the world to show people birds. He was also on the same Ivory-bill Search Team I was on. I considered to him to be very physically fit. He left a comment to the effect of the climb being the toughest he had ever done, it was brutal, but the got the guan.
Okay, if Chris called it brutal, maybe those stories of birders panting and crawling to the top weren't just exaggerated fish tales. I decided to be all Scarlett O'Hara about it and, "I'll not think about that right now, I'll go crazy if I do. I'll think about that tomorrow."
We had one more field trip planned at Los Andes to look for some mannikans, I opted to take the afternoon off, relax a bit so I could be fresh the next morning. The next day was a rough schedule. We had to be ready to go by 4:15 am, take a bus to Lake Atitlan where we would take a ferry to San Pedro for the climb. The hike up to the guan was going to take four hours, who knew how long the hike down would take.
Gulp.
Initially, all went well. We arrived at Lake Atitlan and watched in amazement at how the locals used the water. As we were loading our ferry, one man drove in his tuk tuk (tiny taxi car) into the water for a wash, another drove in his truck, a couple of people were bathing in the nude right on the water's edge.

Volcan San Pedro...were we really going to climb that?

We boarded boat, marveled at the beautiful volcanoes that surrounded the lake and laughed as the cool water sprayed us as we hit waves. Outside the boat we looked to pad our species list with lesser scaup, brown pelicans, and ruddy ducks. As we approached the other side of the lake, we watched in amazement as Volcan San Pedro loomed over us. Yes, we would be climbing this extinct volcano. Hugo, our guide tried to alleviate our fears since many of us were not accustomed to this altitude. In his quiet, spanish accent he said, "Yes, we will go slow. It will be slow, slow walking, then looking at birds, slow, slow walking, then looking at birds."
I felt some comfort in this. Perhaps the four hours was not all climbing but just such a slow pace of birding that it would seem steep, but not be that bad.
When we landed in San Pedro, I saw more tourists here than in any other town. Peddlers were ready for us, a Mayan woman greeted us with a basket full of baked goods. I looked at the steep streets in front of us and wondered if we were going to start right away, but our local guides and hosts Irene and Ana Christina said that a bus was coming to take us.

Our "bus" was a pick up truck and they ended up corralling ten birders like livestock in the back to take us up to the horned guan preserve.

I love this photo. We’re all so happy, so giddy, so blissfully unaware of the horrors and sweat that awaited us. That’s me with Mike Bergin of 10,000 Birds, Jen Sauter, Hugo our guide and even a part of Rick Wright. It was all just an exciting adventure then.

This poor guys was carrying what appeared to be recently washed blankets up a steep road.

We began our drive through the narrow cobblestone streets of San Pedro, up and up we went. We passed many locals taking the route on foot, many carrying piles of goods on their backs. What is it like to be acclimatized to this?

We arrived at the reserve for the horned guan. We readjusted our packs with our lunches and our bottles of water and began the trail. The day was sunny, the birds were numerous and we made some stops.
We found a spot loaded with western tanagers (more of those North American breeders). I was excited to get the rufous-capped warbler. I had actually seen one of these earlier in our journey, but was the only one who had. I was glad others got to see it and this time I even got to digiscope it. We also got great looks at this ginormous squirrel cuckoo—it was much bigger than the black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos I see. And so beautiful too—reminiscent of a brown thrasher.

Rufous-capped warbler.

As we stopped for all of this birding, I started to think, “This isn’t so bad.” I have short legs and I was not used to the elevation but was doing ok. I did lag behind the group but always managed to catch up with enough time to rest along with them before pressing forward. I felt that I could do this.

The relentless trail to the guan...five hours of this nonsense.

But then we didn’t stop for birds anymore and the trails became much steeper. It was switchback after switchback. It was dry and the volcanic dust made for powdery walking conditions. I toiled up the trail and as my pace slowed, the sound of our group ahead became more and more faint, I realized I was losing ground. There was another person named Mel in our group who seemed to struggle with the climb along with me. I was grateful for the company and to not to be the pokiest of the little puppies.

This guy booked it past me like the switch backs were nothing.

Local farmers loaded with burdens of fire wood, corn or coffee moved swiftly passed us on the trail. Many looked to be twice my age which made me feel worse. I bike ride, I lead nature hikes, I haul bee equipment and this trail was turning my legs to jelly. It was relentless in its incline. I was desperate for a flat surface. The high elevation and lack of oxygen didn’t help either. Life in Minnesota rarely exceeds 850 feet. The trail starts at about 5000 feet and has a change of over 4000 feet.

The gorgeous views on the climb.

After much sweat and panting my slow friend and I caught up to the group at another resting spot. I hoped that we were half way up and was saddened to learn that we were only a third of the way, with another three hours to go. It was at this moment that Gustavo from Neblina Tours told me , “I’m having trouble staying balanced on this steep trail. Would it be alright with you if I took your scope and used it as a way to balance myself on the trail?”

One of our guides Hugo on the left. Gustavo on the right holding my scope...note how much equipment he was carrying besides my scope.

It was lie. He carried more on this trip than I did: he had two massive field guides besides his binoculars, lunch, water, recording equipment, etc. I knew it was a lie and I was too sweaty and tired to care. I gratefully accepted his offer and continued my slow lumbering walk up the trail.
We eventually made it to a halfway point. I sat on the floor of the observation deck and used the wooden railing to prop my head up and looked out at the beautiful view. I was seriously questioning my life choices. I was not forced to do this, I signed up--willingly. What’s worse is that I could have stopped at any time. I could have just stopped walking on the trail and said, “No more, I’ll wait here in the shade, watch some foliage-gleaners and pepper-shrikes and wait for you on your glory walk down the trail after seeing the guan.” One of our group already had given up the trail due to a bad knee. It was the honorable and safe thing to do. But I willingly continued. Quitting this steep upward battle was never an option to me.
I looked at our group and said panting, “This is like hitting yourself with a hammer because it feels so good when you finally stop.”
We laughed and Hugo warned that we should probably save our oxygen.
Jen soon joined Mel and I as those lagging behind now and two of us practically held on to each other to stay upright. Ana Christina from the tourism board sensed our waning resolve and anytime we paused she would call in her sweet Spanish accent, “Jen, Sharon, come on, the horned guan is right up here.”
We fell for it once and scrambled up, but realized she was really a cloud forest sprite beckoning us forward. It worked. At every switchback we would pause to try and get some order to our respiratory system, Ana Christina would be another switchback ahead of us calling, “C’mon Jen. C’mon Sharon, horned guan is waiting for you.”
We finally reached the horned guan appropriate elevation. I sat in the dust. Gustavo smiled and pointed out how dirty my face was. Fuck you, Gustavo. Part of our group rested, while the rest did an initial search.

The exact moment I realized I hated birds and that I may need psychological help.

I took a picture of myself at this point. I wanted to remember forever the exact moment I realized how much I hated birds and that I needed psychological help. What the fuck was wrong with me. I had heard how horrible it was and I kept going, for what? For the high of seeing one rare bird.
No guan. We needed to go higher. Fuck everything.
We paused once more. Optimism was fading in the group. A few still held out some sweaty hope, but the rest of worried that we’d been talking too much or paying more attention to our body and foot aches and completely missed the turkey sized tree chicken that was our quarry. One guy even said, “You know, we could go all this way and not see it.”
This was the first time in my life I ever felt the deep, gutteral desire to throat punch someone.
Then an anxious whisper came from above us, some crazy asshole in our group was still climbing and went two switch backs up…and found the guan. All of us suddenly forgot body fatigue and dashed up the switchback—where had this new-found energy come from?

Horned guan foot.

The light broke through the trees and…all I could see was a bird foot. Fuck you, bird. I was going to count it, but if this was all I’m going to get of you. Fuck you.

Finally, a little head poked out. I saw the horn, the little red horn where the guan gets its name! And the crazy yellow eye! At first we thought there was one guan, but there were two…and then a whole flock of about 7—they vocalized, they displayed, they flew! My little head exploded in awe as I realized I was watching what is arguably the most endangered bird in the Americas.

Horned guan in all its crazy glory. Alas, this was back when I was digiscoping with a point and shoot. Oh the photos I could get now with a smartphone.

And after all of that, we had to go back down! Certainly it would not take the five hours that it took to get up to the guan, but it would still take time. My legs are only used to flat surfaced and had been trudging uphill for four hours non stop. And now I had to go down, something I still wasn't used to. Every muscle in my legs vibrated at any moment I stopped. I kept going, but the decline and volcanic ash still caused me to slide and fall. Every time I did fall, a large cloud of dust preceded me, causing Hugo to cross his arms and shout, "Safe!" as if I were a baseball player sliding into home. Fuck you, Hugo.

Some way, some how we made it back down the trail to our meeting point, our water bottles depleted. Ana Christina took us to a local watering hole for some refreshments to wait for the ferry. In our dehydrated state, we should of have had water, but it wasn’t safe for the American to drink so our only option was beer. Giddiness soon set in with most of us, especially for me--I NEVER HAVE TO DO THAT CLIMB EVER AGAIN. It occurred to me that a horned guan is a bird that I will only see once in a lifetime and I had a pang of pity for guys like Hugo and Mel who would have to lead a tour here again and take people up that volcano. Those poor god damned bastards.

One of the many Mayan ladies who sensed our fatigue and tipsiness and used the opportunity to relieve us of many quetzals in exchange for their exquisite and colorful textiles.

We finally crossed the lake and checked into our next lodge. I took a very long shower with my scope and binoculars to clean off all of the volcanic dust. By the time we were settled and clean it was 8:30pm when we sat down for dinner of squash soup, homemade tortas, fruity drinks and rich dark Guatemalan run.

I've only ever seen this hot sauce in Guatemala. It was as tasty as it was hilarious.

We discussed the next day's birding. After getting our stuff together at 4:15am that morning and birding almost 12 hours, I was delighted to hear that we were meeting at 7am for breakfast before birding (we'd get to sleep in).
Mel said in a panicked voice, "Hey that means we won't get birding until 8 - 8:30 am, anyone for starting earlier?"
Goddamn lister was already on the quest for more birds.
Hugo our guide said, "Well, it's whatever you want..."
There was a pause, I could tell by some in the group that they needed the rest as much as I did but didn’t want to look like the weenie and say no. I myself have no problem saying no.
"I gotta say that I'm not in favor of that idea and would rather sleep in and rest after today."
Mel looked disappointed, but I felt a palpable wave of relief come across the table from everyone.
So I look down on my little plastic horned guan that ordered from eBay, I think you can understand why I don't think it's cheating to go through loads of technically edible chocolate to get my little souvenir of the day I realized my limits in birding.

**Changing Binoculars** Nov 27, 2017
This summer I had the heartbreak many of us experience with our binoculars...moisture inside the lenses. Who knows when I did it--park service canoe program or on a plane coming home from Hungary. Considering they had been used almost daily since 2005 and I'm rough on equipment that was a hell of a good run. Fortunately, being Swarovskis they have a great warranty and something like this can be repaired with only shipping from my house as the cost.

My first truly great pair of binoculars. I love you old ELs, dings, scratches, sunscreen and bugspray stains and all.

I contacted the repair office to get a tracking number and sent them in for treatment. Swarovskis have a lifetime warranty. I've sent my old ELs in for what I thought was a realignment about 9 years ago. That's when I learned I had a minor astigmatism and hello, glasses! Even though they didn't need to be repaired, the team completely refurbished and cleaned them. When they were returned to me it was like having a brand new EL. I could tell they were still mine though by the dings along the hinges. Oh the times those bins have been tossed in a backpack for last minute birding runs, dropped on the floor, dragged across mud when I wriggled under electric fences or fell along with me when I slid down mountainsides or volcanoes. The lifers they brought to me, both expected and unexpected...that time a dear, sweet Brit named Mike Watson ran into me early one morning on the boardwalk at Biggest Week and said, "Hey, Shaz, fancy a male Kirtland's? It's just right here."
"Get the F*CK out of here!"
His face and the lifer were priceless.
Swarovskis are a tough piece of equipment. I have put these binoculars to the test on many continents. There was even a point at a meeting at Swarovski Headquarters in Austria a couple of years ago after the new versions of the ELs were out and a staff person noticed the state of my old ELs--good, but well worn and well loved. He said, "I'd really love to see you with a fresher pair. We've upgraded them since that model."
I politely declined the offer for an upgrade. I know it's an inanimate object but those 8x32 ELs was been with me almost every day in any sort of weather condition, every sort of mood. They've known temperatures from 120 degrees Fahrenheit to -32 degrees Fahrenheit. They've known the thrill of a sociable lapwing in Kazakhstan and the agony of missing resplendent quetzal in Honduras and Guatemala. They gave me my first glimpse of a Zapata wren in Cuba and my lifer Syrian woodpecker on the border of Israel and Syria. They have helped me enjoy waxwings and purple finches chowing down on crabapples in my yard and give me a crisp view of woodcocks illuminated by flashlights. We've seen some serious shit together.
Because of my relationship with Swarovski, I knew when my old ones were sent in for repair they'd be noticed. They were...as was all of the equipment I've been loaned over the years. "LOOK HOW OLD YOUR STUFF IS, LET'S UPGRADE!" If you've ever seen the movie Moonstruck, it's kind of like when Cher's character stops into the salon to take out a few grays in her hair and the stylist goes nuts and they give her a complete makeover.

One of my favorite things on the Swarovski 8x32 ELs was how perfectly they fit my right hand. The first time I held one, they felt like they were modeled just for my hand. I loved being able to use them one handed.

I dug out all of my Swarovski boxes from storage and found my old EL box from years ago. I poured a glass of Talisker Storm, put in some Harry Nilsson and toasted them and all the adventures they gave me. They grew with me as I grew my blog which led to my writing and speaking career. I carefully packed them in to the box. I had hoped that maybe I hadn't trashed them too badly and maybe we could turn them into a contest like we did years ago and I gave away my old scope. Despite asking, I have not heard. I suspect that the scratches on lenses and worn hinges have deemed them recyclable.

Hello, gorgeous.

And then my new 8x32 ELs arrived. And let me tell you that was a painful two weeks. I have a back up pair of bins--which are not bad. They are a great mid price binoculars but once you've gotten used to using a pair like this on the regular, it's hard to go back. They arrived just in time for me to go to an event with the Lorain County Bird Club in Ohio.

One of the first birds that I tested my new Swarovski 8x32 ELs on was an immature red-shouldered hawk.

I got to take the on a trial run on a cloudy and misty day which is where you can really see the difference between mid-price binoculars and Swarovskis. Holy cow. My old ELs were fantastic...but the new edge to edge clarity and they way these worked with my glasses was stunning. This new pair fits in my hands perfectly. I need to dirty her up a little bit, give her that fantastic field-worn look, but I think we'll get along fine. In the meantime I'll enjoy that new binocular smell and christen her with some fantastic winter specialties. Maybe in January I'll take her on her first trip to Sax Zim Bog.
For those who are into the whole unboxing trend, Non Birding Bill made an unboxing video of the ELs.

**Birding In Havana** Nov 19, 2017

You get a special stamp on your boarding pass after you go through all the security hoops at the Miami Airport.

I'm always excited when I travel but I hadn't had quite the belly doing flip flops feeling for getting to a location since my first trip out of the country to Guatemala. Cuba is something I knew covered only in history classes and locations in movies like the Godfather Part 2. Here I was boarding the plane. I laughed when I saw I had one of those strange window seats that didn't have a window...Why, airlines, why? Well, at least it wasn't the middle seat and I could see enough from the window of the person in front of me. I flew over Cuba when I went to Honduras so it's not like I haven't seen it from the plane and the flight is short.
As we wrapped up a 45 minute flight, I could the island from the window ahead of me. And then the captain got on the speaker and told us that there was a grass fire at the Havana airport, no one was allowed to land and the air traffic control tower was being evacuated. So we headed back to Miami and landed. I frantically started making phone calls to Holbrook so they could let the Cuba contacts know we went back. They assured me that if the fire is small, chances are good they'd send us back before they day was done. The captain kept us on the plane and an hour later we were given the go ahead to head for Cuba again, the fires were out. We made the short hop and our flight mates cheered as we landed in Havana among charred grasses.
Baggage claim was pandemonium because of all the delayed flights landing at once. But we finally made it to our cultural guide who got us to our hotel and recommended some local restaurants that we could safely walk to from the hotel in Old Havana. Hunger outweighed fatigue and well, I was too excited to sleep. Our group headed out in the dark and music filled streets in search of food and a beer or two. We found a restaurant willing to let in some weary travlers on a late night.

Sampling of the breakfast buffet at my Havana hotel: papaya, cheesy rice, friend chicken, suateed cabbage, hot dog wrapped in pepperoni, deviled egg, baguette with melted cheese. There all kinds of breads and roll to choose from as well.

El Capitolio in Havana.

The next morning, our cultural guide Claudia took us on a walking tour of Old Havana as well as a city park where we were meant to look at the gardens and butterfly house...but it was the first day for new birds for us so were more drawn to the bird around us. The trees were full of white-eyed vireos which we could easily hear but not see. But it wasn't long until we got our first regional specialties.

Gray Kingbird

Cuban Emerald

Red-legged Thrush is probably the most common bird we saw on the island.

An American Redstart was gleaning insects near a turkey pen to load up for it's flight to Florida and nesting in the United States.

After we got some birding out of our system we were ready to pay more attention to the culture. Claudia took around the various squares and historical sites. After she gave us the tour and left us for a few hours to relax in our rooms, she encouraged us to explore on our own as Havana, particularly Old Havana is very safe. I took her up on that offer when I went out to get a postcard for Non Birding Bill. His only request for a souvenir from this trip wasn't cigars, it was to receive mail from Cuba. Which interestingly enough took about three months to arrive from home. I was in Cuba in April and then went to Hungary in June. NBB received the Hungary postcard well before he received the Cuba one.
As I walked Old Havana alone, far more vendors of cigars, "art" and internet access cards approached me than they did when we were with Claudia. The streets in Havana are very active with living statues, so much music, and dancing you can't help but feel like you have your own personal music soundtrack where ever you go. If you pause for music and take any photos or videos, handlers for the performers will make a bee line for you to drop in some cash. The energy of the city reminds me quite a bit of New Orleans, you can see why artists and writers are drawn to Havana, the creative vibe in the air is as thick as the aroma of cigars.

Plaza de la Catedral also know as Plaza de la Ciénaga which got it's name because every spring this became a marsh and then the water would be stagnant. But when it was dry, people really liked being here. They eventually were able to drain it. The Cathedral was built in 1727.

Statue of famous flamenco dancer Antonia Gades.

Mural by Andrés Carillo depicting important figures in Havana's history. It was made with sand and resin.

The many feral dots in Cuba. Some in Havana like this pooch have tags that identify them as being cared for by someone in the historical society. They make sure the dogs are fed and taken to the vet. The dogs mostly sleep during the day and become quite active at night. They are everywhere and think nothing snoozing in the middle of a busy sidewalk.

The many feral cats of Havana. These felines looked like they were about to drop the most epic indy album you've ever heard. The cats were active during the day but disappeared at night when the dogs were active.

Of course there are Eurasian collared-doves in Havana.

We saw evidence of Santería being practiced around Havana like this chicken sacrifice.

We stayed at Hotel Ambos Mundos in Old Havana which was Ernest Hemingway's home for seven years. That's Hemingway's room and the hotel offers tours. The hotel is a bit of a fixer upper and was undergoing some renovations while we were there. Sometimes the elevator worked and sometimes it didn't. Sometimes all the lights in your room worked, sometimes only one. Sometimes you had water, sometimes you didn't. But the lobby bar was nice and the rooftop restaurant was lovely with beautiful views of the Havana and lots of Cuban martins. The location is great for many of the historical sites in Old Havana.

Watching cruise ships from the roof of Hotel Ambos Mundos

Some of the old housing given to residents to live in. They are responsible for their own renovations and sometimes neighbors will pool together fundraisers to try and keep them livable.

Oh what could be done to the insides of these homes with some money...that ceiling is incredible.

It's not all classic cars in Havana. There's the horse and buggy crowd as well.

Above is a very brief video I took for Flat Michelle, my friend I take on some of my travels. The stilt dancers are very well know in Havana--we saw them featured on many postcards around this island. But tow things to note in the above video: 1. the big pink building in the background is our hotel and 2. note the lady in blue. She saw me filming the dancers and was coming by to collect some money.
I have more photos of Havana over on Flickr if you are interested.

**Cuba Birding Trip Planning** Oct 28, 2017

Classic cars lined up in Havana.

So you found a way to get to Cuba to do some birding! Awesome! Here are some things I learned that you might find helpful. In April I had the opportunity to visit Cuba and this article is about my general impressions. I'll get into more detail for specific areas in future posts. My trip was through Holbrook Travel and it was one of the best trips I ever took.
We're kind of in a golden age of birding travel as far as locations, amenities and type of birding tour you can take. I don't mind the occasional "death march" for a particular bird, but I do not like ten days of death marches. I like to return home from an adventure relaxed, refreshed with a drive full of photos and notebook full of story ideas. I no longer enjoy returning home feeling like I need a vacation from my vacation. When I told Holbrook that I wanted to see lovely Cuba birds, experience the culture and history and maybe spend some time on the beach for a nap--they were the first tour company to give me exactly what I asked for, it was amazing.
But here are some things to note about Cuba:
Money is...complex...

You'll be dealing with multiple currencies.

You will not be able to use a credit card or debit card with a bank based in the United States. So, US citizens need to go with all the cash they anticipate needing the entire trip--and you will be tipping a lot. Tourists will use the Cuban Convertible Peso aka CUC (the note on the top in the above photo) and locals will use the Cuban Peso ( the note on the bottom in the above photo). CUCs are worth a lot more than Cuban Pesos. Stores will often have two prices for an item to reflect this. When paying cash in a store and receiving change, keep in mind that some might try to give you the change in Cuban Pesos--therefore taking way more of your money than intended.
When I went to my bank to get cash to take to Cuba, they were full of useful information. When you exchange money in Cuba, you are charged 3% fee. However, if you exchange US currency you will be charged an additional 10% penalty. So if you go down with $1000 US dollars, you will lose $130 at least in the exchange. My bank was well versed and noted at the time that they advised clients to exchange US currency for Canadian money or Euros and then to exchange that in Cuba to avoid the 10% penalty.. When I went in April 2017 the exchange rate with Euros was almost even with the US dollar and I had some Euros leftover some trips to Europe this year. When I exchanged my Euros in Havana, I was charged the 3% fee. When I exchanged my Euros in smaller towns like Playa Larga, I was given an even exchange of Euros to Cuban Convertible Pesos. I've had some people tell me that they were still charged the 13% percent when they exchanged Euros because they had a US passport (which you have to show when you exchange money). I can only report my personal experience and that did not happen to me.
Internet Will Be difficult.

One of the Internet cards you can purchase that grant you 60 minutes of Internet usage in Cuba.

I think by now you can get cellular service in Cuba via Verizon and Sprint, but it's not great. Generally, I use wifi when travel and if I need to make a call use Skype or WhatsApp. When I was Cuba, the country had only had the Internet for five years. There is no such thing as private wifi. You cannot tuck yourself into your room at the end of the day to upload photos to social media and text with friends. The only way to use the Internet is to get a 60 minute access card that will let you log in at places like hotel lobbies and restaurants. You find the connection and use the id numbers to log in. You must be vigilant about logging in or logging out. I found that even just putting my phone in airplane mode didn't necessarily log me out and I'd lose unused minutes. Even with the cards the wifi is slow unless you're at one of the huge all inclusive resorts.
The cards can be purchased at hotels, convenience stores or from random guys on the street in Havana. They run anywhere from 1 - 3 CUCs. If you go to a store or hotel, they are only allowed to sell you 3 cards at a time so you can't go in and buy a bunch for your group or for yourself.
You'll Need More Than One Guide.

The three guides I took to Cuba. I also used my Sibley app on my phone.

There's no one perfect bird book for Cuba. My favorite of the three is *Endemic Birds of Cuba* by Nils Navarro--we even got to meet him as part of our trip. It's useful discussing habitat as well as having fantastic illustrations and good photos. He even has a checklist of the endemics on the cover and he encourages you to put you name on it because your trip helps contribute to the understanding and knowledge of the birds of Cuba. However, this book is mostly for the birds you can only see in Cuba. It doesn't cover all of the birds you can see in Cuba. The *Field Guide to the Birds of Cuba* covers all of them but is problematic both with its illustrations and also by not numbering the pages of the illustrated plates--grrrrr. I hear that it's being redone, but I don't know when that's happening. *Birds of the West Indies* has ok illustrations but you do need to pay attention to the maps to make sure your bird is one that is expected in Cuba.
Toilet Seats Are Not A Thing, But Tipping Is.

Typical Cuban restroom.

I'm always fascinated by the different restroom differences you find when you travel--like sometimes it's just a hole in the floor. Cuba has toilets, but frequently the public ones did not have toilet seats. Most public restrooms have someone on hand to give you some toilet paper before you enter. Essentially, if you need to go, you need to tip a few coins. If it's an emergency and you're out of cash they won't prevent you from going in.
You Can't Visit National Parks On Your Own

Those classic cars are everywhere. This one drove past as we were taking a group photo. Our overall guide Hiram Gonzales is second from the left.

In the US you can purchase your park pass and go birding on your own. In Cuba, you have to get a state guide to take you in to the parks. It was interesting watching our main guide Hiram navigating this. Our groups was in an outdoor bar and someone overheard we were birders going in to Zapata Swamp. They were also birders and going on their own and hoped our guide would give them tips. All Hiram would give them were the names and numbers of other guides available to take them in. The other birders got frustrated and Hiram told me later that the guides are a must.
Another thing to keep in mind when birding in Cuba is that the two semesters of high school Spanish that you took ten or twenty years ago is not going to cut it. Bone up on your Spanish skills before you go or hire a local cultural guide (which is what we did) to help with translations. Hiram spoke English but some of the park guides we were required to use did not speak it at all.
Also, since the guides are living for your tips, some of them haven't learned the most ethical birding behaviors. They've learned that if they get people the bird, they get a better tip. I'll write more about that in future posts.
The Food Is Not Spicy.

A dish of roast pork and vegetables in Havana

I was warned the food will be quite bland in Cuba. I found it to be quite flavorful. I think what people were trying to warn me about is that even though this is a Latin country, the food isn't super spicy like what you'd find in Guatemala or Mexico. Rice and beans come with everything and roast pork was the most common meat, but seafood was available and was quite fresh and delicious. If you have any kind of allergy or sensitivity to foods, you do need to be vigilant and repeat it again and again. I have a pineapple sensitivity (fortunately not life threatening) and there were a few times that even though I'd mentioned I couldn't eat it, it would find its way into a beverage or sauce.

Guess what is on my bread? Answer below.

Condiments are always fun for me to discover in different countries. I'm always fascinated by what is offered and especially what different communities like to spread on their bread. Of course no one can top my true love of Austria where putting "lard spread" on your bread is a thing, but many places still have fun and unique offerings. In Cuba, we were offered bread with a dish full of a very light colored spread. I thought it was some kind of butter. It was not. So imagine taking a bite of your bread and expecting butter only to get mayonnaise instead. It wasn't my thing. I need some meat or cheese to mingle with the mayo. Others in my group were delighted by it.
You Will See Illegally Caged Birds Everywhere.

Indigo bunting for sale outside of our hotel.

I'm going to write more about this later, but you will see a lot of illegal birds in cages. I started keeping a tally of all the indigo and painted buntings I saw in cages. I saw a bunting in a cage every single day I was in Cuba. There's a lot more going on here than people who simply want to profit from wildlife and it truly deserves it's own article. If this is something that angers you, be prepared for it.
The Most Common Bird I Saw...

Red-legged thrush.

I just realized that the only bird picture in this post was a bunting in a cage and I needed to add one of the many cool wild birds we saw. Red-legged thrushes are common and all over the friggen place.
What Can You Bring As Gifts?
When we asked about things we could bring to Cuba as gifts we were told anything sports related--especially jerseys or ball caps, nylons, thumb drives, coloring books and crayons.
The coloring books and crayons were met with a cool response. The thumb drives and sport caps were VERY welcome. The nylons...well, I wouldn't take garden variety panty hose. What Cuban women want are the sorts of things you'd purchase from Leg Avenue. I didn't want to be the creeper taking secret photos of women so I don't have photos to back this up, but what struck me was that the women in Cuba tend to flaunt what they have. The airport security were all gorgeous women in their twenties wearing fishnets and heels as well as form fitting shirts and skirts...kind of like something you'd find searching for "female security guard costume" on Amazon. At one of the banks where I exchanged money, the female manager came out who looked to be in her fifties and she also had the fishnets, short skirt, blouse as well as a corset over it. I was asked by Holbrook if our female cultural guide had been dressed appropriately because some tours had complained the women were dressed immodestly. I was a little irritated by this. Here's the thing--everyone dresses that way in Cuba and people from the US are coming to visit. I don't think the women of Cuba should dress for my comfort, they should dress for their own and we should deal with it.
When I was in Cayo Coco, I had hotel staff ask me outright for things I might be leaving behind. I was returning my beach towels and the towel girl asked me for any toiletries, dresses, skirts or shoes I might have, "Please, pretty lady, do not leave them in the room for the maids. If you, kind lady, could bring them to me here before 6pm, I will give them to my family." I felt like my Keens water shoes, convertible pants and spf 50 sunscreen would be a big disappointment to her.
When it was raining, no one had rain coats. Our cultural guide said that rain coats don't make it to Cuba...I may have left mine behind.
A couple of the guys in our group wandered a small town after a day of birding and met the local librarian who was happy to show the books he had collected from people around the world. And based on that, I would suggest finding Spanish translations of your favorite book and bring those down.
Another welcome item would be ibuprofen. Sure, there's socialized medicine in Cuba but we learned from many women that you need a prescription for it and pharmacies frequently run out. Ladies, many of us know how important that sort of thing is throughout the year. If you can spare your travel bottle at the end of the trip, it's appreciated.
If you can find a way to get to Cuba--do it. I would advise not cutting corners or trying to sneak in around the current US restrictions. It's a beautiful country and the people are very warm. I felt fairly safe walking the streets of Havana on my own. And if you're looking for a good company to travel with, I highly recommend Holbrook.

**Game of Thrones Birding** Oct 04, 2017

Trujillo Castle.

When I was birding in Extremadura this winter I was informed of some filming locations for Game of Thrones season 7. I avoided mentioning any of these because I didn't want to get into spoiler territory. I'm generally ambivalent about spoilers for things, but I have friends who take it very seriously. I'm a big fan of Game of Thrones, the audiobooks got me through many a mile while driving to bird survey locations. When I got home I did some googling to figure out what locale in the show I was birding in.
Early reports online were showing the characters Jaime Lannister and Bronn of the Blackwater wandering around as well as Lannister banners. The speculation was that the castle was going to be Casterly Rock.
However, this is what Casterly Rock looked like in the show:

Casterly Rock in the season 7 tv show. Keep in mind that the books said it was more like this.

That is not Trujillo Castle. The odd thing is that a lot of sites are still saying that it was used for Casterly Rock but the architecture of the two castes is very different. After a very particular episode I thought maybe Trujillo Castle was used for Highgarden exterior shots but no, that was Castillo de Almodovar in Spain's Cordoba province. It wasn't until the final episode when I figured it out:

There we go, Bronn and Jaime hanging out on Trujillo Castle.

Trujillo Castle was used as King's Landing...cool! I was going to talk to Holbrook Travel about some birding tours in the next year or two. I'm kind of tempted to do a series of Birding in Ice and Fire trips: go birding at Game of Thrones filming locations. Anyone who misidentifies a bird will be told they know nothing.
Anyhoo, the birding in Trujillo was fun. Here are some highlights:

It looks like a European starling but it has now spots. That makes it a spotless starling.

House sparrow nesting inside a stork nest.

View from Trujillo Castle.

**Betrayed By My Government Pants** Sep 28, 2017
It was the best of times, it was the moistest of times...2016 was a difficult year for me for a variety of reasons. Here's one of them. Warning, this post is quite possibly a little bit TMI.

We get a good mix of people at the Big Watch event.

One of the things that I love about my job is the opportunity to host a couple of big birding parties throughout the year. One is called the Big Watch which I do with the help of some birders in Washington County, Minnesota in the spring. We go to Grey Cloud Dunes Scientific and Natural Area and tally all the birds we see and hear from sunrise to sundown. In 2016 it was a chilly but fun filled day. This was my first time hosting an event like this outside of the Twin Cities metro and was happily surprised we ended up with more people showing up than birds on our list--it was a good list that ended with 87 species.

Brown thrasher seen at our Big Watch event.

Even though it was chilly, Grey Cloud can be full of ticks and I'd taken the time to treat my ranger uniform with permethrin. The day after the Big Watch I woke up with an itchy welt on my left butt cheek. I didn't think too much about it. I figured a mosquito must have gotten through my ranger pants. April and May is an insane time where I try to balance ranger work with bird festival travel all while enjoying spring migration. I'm on the road more than I'm at home. The bite continued to itch and swell a bit more and yet I continued to ignore it. I noticed that the swelling was getting a little harder, but still paid it no mind because I had paperwork to file and suitcases to pack.
I woke for my flight to Ohio four days after the Big Watch and noticed that my pajama bottoms were stuck to my butt cheek, specifically to the area of the bite that had been oozing. Just what everyone wants to wake up to, a crusty oozy butt cheek. The welt also felt three times the size it had been on Monday morning. I asked Non Birding Bill to do his spousal duty and take a look, worried that perhaps I'd finally gotten a tick bite with Lyme disease. Pulling down my pants I asked him, "Hey, do you see a bullseye-type welt on my ass?"
"No, but wow. That doesn't look good at all," he said, concern in his voice.
However, I had a flight to catch and no time for a doctor. I covered the area with copious amounts of Neosporin and a large bandage and then headed to the airport towards the Biggest Week in American Birding. I figured I would try to squeeze in a doctor's appointment when I got home, before I flew off to Alaska. In my brief flight from Minneapolis to Detroit, the bandage was soaked through and the oozing went through my tights onto my skirt. It also seemed to have gotten larger during the flight and the skin was hot and hard to the touch. I realized that I was in over my head and this ass situation was no good. I needed a doctor sooner rather than later.

Is this Cape May warbler wondering what's wrong with my butt?

I headed straight to Maumee Bay to check in to my hotel room and frantically scan the Internet to find a doctor in my health plan's network. I could hear delightful spring warblers and vireos in the trees, but I was on a mission. I wondered how I was going to check in quickly and make it to my room and not have anyone notice what was going on with my rear end. I love festivals because I run into so many far flung friends who want to hug and chat. There's nothing like an oozy ass to make you want to not be touched or even be friendly. I decided I would avoid eye contact as much as possible and be a merlin--look like I'm late for an appointment and dash through the vendor area to my room. The plan worked and when I got to my room I googled away. I found a Minute Clinic that was nearby and in network. I snuck out the back way of the Maumee Bay to avoid people and drove over to the clinic.
I knew after she examined me and went straight to typing on her smartphone that I was in trouble. She was using a symptoms app and when she found the answer she was looking for told me, "I'm going to call the local emergency room and urgent care and whichever has the shortest wait is where you're going. You need help now."
I protested and said, "Let's go to the one that's in network, I'm not made of money and want to avoid an out of state hospital bill."
Urgent care it was.
The doctor was very kind and said, "You have a staph infection which has led to cellulitis. Without doing a test I can't tell you for sure that it's MRSA but we're going to hit you hard with antibiotics. Oh, and stop scratching it. You may want to followup with your doctor at home."
My main concern was the nonstop oozing and I asked what she could give me.
"That's going to take a few days for the cellulitis to go away. In the meantime you can get the expensive surgical pads, but I recommend you use Maxi Pads since they're so much cheaper and as a woman you know how absorbent they are."

One of my first birds at Biggest Week, an American woodcock. It's not looking at my butt...is it?

I filled my prescription, loaded up on all the anti-itch cream I could find and...Maxi Pads. After returning to my room to get everything situated, I headed out to Magee Marsh. When I got to the parking lot I sat in my car awhile. I was stupidly worried and self conscious, would people see me walking around with a bulge on my butt cheek and wonder what was going on? Would the infection keep oozing and then go through my pants? Would I be able to enjoy the birds or just keep thinking of all the terrible things that are happening to my butt?
However, seeing my first American woodcock of the day and catching a glimpse of a northern parula took my mind of my behind. Birding has always been magic like that for me. Then I noticed something...

During spring migration, the only butts people watch are warbler butts.

It was spring migration. No one was look at me, let alone my ass. Birders watch the trees for warblers. Thank goodness!
I started to ease up and ran into many friends...including former nurse Patteye who I'm pretty sure I overshared, but boy did she help put my mind at ease. As I continued with my festival duties, my butt situation didn't appear to be getting smaller, but it also didn't appear to be growing size anymore so that was hopeful.

My view in Homer as I foolishly googled worst case scenarios for staph infections.

Monday I flew home, did some park service work and then Wednesday I flew to Alaska. I realized that I was creeping up on the one week mark from my diagnosis and that my backside was as weepy as ever. After I checked in to my cabin in Homer, Alaska I took in the view for a bit then settled down with some Jameson and the Internet to read more about staph infections and cellulitis while hermit thrushes and golden-crowned sparrows sang late into the night, because nothing alleviates medical fears like reading Web MD while jet lagged and drinking. After about thirty minutes I was convinced that I was going to have to have an emergency assectomy in Alaska and wondered how it would affect my ability to work and go bike riding. And were there any hospitals in network in Homer Alaska.

Seriously, I had white-winged scoters (including an albino) and sea otters outside my cabin and all I could do was lament over my backside my first night in Alaska.

However, as luck would have it my friend Lynne came along to this festival and I remembered she worked in a lab at a hospital and maybe she had some insight on staph infections. Mercifully I had enough decorum to not drop my trousers and ask her to look. She told me that whatever was going on back there was going to take several days to clear up, to avoid scratching it and take all my meds even if I thought I was better. She also reminded me that she was there and things would be ok.
It also helped that there were so many amazing birds in Alaska. It never ceases to amaze me how I can take a break from whatever problem I'm having by watching birds.

I enjoyed some quality time as my infection appeared to go away.

Parasitic jaegers bombing out to see are a great way to take your mind off your troubles.

The song of a Pacific wren echoing through the woods is another great balm for the soul.

Twenty-four hours after chatting with Lynne and enjoying some birding field trips, time with friends and teaching outdoor workshops while hermit thrushes fluted in the background I finally noticed that the antibiotics were making headway with my infection. I was going through fewer pads and the affected area was getting smaller.

It's not every day you get to see the orange crown on an orange-crowned warblers. This dude stayed put long enough for my digiscoping workshop that my participants got photos of it.

I enjoyed my time in Alaska, I made it home to Minnesota. I finished taking my meds and the oozing stopped. Things were a little pink back there, but it was definitely on the mend. I went back into my uniform into work.
Twenty-four hours later the oozing began again. I went to the doctor and explained everything that happened over the previous weeks and he assured me not to worry that we would treat it with even stronger antibiotics. I asked how I could be getting it and he said, "Staph can be anywhere. Even on your body. All it takes is an open area on your skin for it to get in. And stop scratching."

Spring migration continued while I wondered if my behind would ever be normal again.

The week long antibiotics did the drink. Everything was fine. Until I did another ranger program and the next morning a small, itchy oozy bump appeared. I hightailed it again to the doctor. He seemed more concerned this time compared to last time and we tried a different antibiotic. "I can't say without a test that this MRSA but if it keeps coming back we may have to look at some alternatives."
With this third visit, I noticed a common denominator. Every time I wore my ranger pants I got the infection back, no matter how many times I washed them. There was a part of me that wondered if I had developed an allergy to my ranger pants and I'd get a special dispensation to never have to wear those polyester wool monstrosities ever again. But before I could say it was an allergy for sure, I knew I had to burn my old pants and order a new pair.
The final round of antibiotics did the trick. After living life in my new ranger pants I haven't had any issues again. All in all I lived with this for three months. I was reminded of what a weird biological experiment our bodies are and if I had this infection 100 years ago would I have even survived?
Anyway, I'm grateful to friends who kept me calm and to all the birds that took my mind off of it.

**Birding Around Homer, Alaska** Sep 04, 2017
There is never enough Alaska to be had. I loved exploring Homer so much, I'm already eyeing a tour offered by Zugunruhe Birding to Barrow next year.

Semi-palmated plover seen along the Homer Spit.

Alaska is one of those states you can't say no to when it comes a callin'. It's so far from the lower 48 states I was the speaker in 2016 for the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival and it was a place I immediately felt at home. One thing that struck me about the area was how much it reminded me of northern Minnesota if it had mountains. I met quite a few people who were originally from Minnesota and Wisconsin, came to Homer for work with the intent to stay for three years and yet found themselves in Homer going on 16 or more years. I could see myself doing that...not so sure about my city loving husband, but me? I'd for sure give Alaska a go.
The state of Alaska is so huge, you need more than one visit or the opportunity to live there to really get to know all of the different areas. It's beauty is overwhelming and the day length is unnerving.

Everywhere you look in Alaska you see a Bob Ross painting. This is Chugach National Forest, Moose Pass between Anchorage and Homer.

My foot compared to a moose track.

I wondered how quickly I would see a moose on my drive from the Anchorage airport to Homer. I had to stop at a few scenic vistas on my way because I was not focusing on the road but the overwhelming beauty. Everywhere I stopped were signs of moose from tracks to poop. We have a small and dwindling population of moose up in Minnesota and I went on a moose safari in Sweden a few years ago so they aren't new for me but are always cool to see. I have a fairly distrust of moose on the side of the road ever since I saw the episode of Mythbusters that pretty much said you're boned if your vehicle collides with one.

Moose blocking traffic in Homer.

The closer I got to Homer, the more moose I saw: in the road, along the road, running along side my vehicle...which was quite nerve wracking. And signs like these didn't ease my mind. But I made it to Homer without incident and picked up a few lifers along the way.

Mew gull...so weird to see a gull perched in a tree and also weird that I was able to id a gull on my own...

Golden-crowned sparrows sang all around my cabin.

The light at 10pm in Homer in May...

I checked into my cabin at Shadow Star Vacation Rental which was right on the bay and gave me views of scoters, sea otters and of course lots of bald eagles. Golden-crowned sparrows, sooty fox sparrows and hermit thrushes serenaded me as long as it was light out. Which was a bit of a problem for me. I tend to wake up with the light and the cabin had excellent light blocking curtains so when it was still dusk like at 11pm I'd have a shot at sleep. However, the hermit thrushes and sparrows kept going and my brain refuses to turn off when bird song is going, especially gorgeous songs from thrushes or birds I haven't heard before. But fortunately, Shadow Star offered the most comfortable bed I've ever slept on in my life and that combined with noise cancelling headphones playing white noise allowed me sleep.

The Sourdough Joe breakfast at the Fresh Sourdough Express. There's fresh reindeer sausage in there so I had to order it.

After a good breakfast, I explored Homer and what it had to offer for birding, specifically along the spit. This area was infamous for years for the Homer Eagle Lady who fed chum to hundreds of bald eagles. Since she's passed away, Homer now has very strict rules about feeding birds along the spit. Apparently, there are some after effects of the feeding like black-legged kittiwakes now nesting under the piers so as to not have their nests predated by eagles.

One of the piers where kittiwakes seek shelter from eagles.

Black-legged Kittiwake up close.

That's not to say a kittiwake colony doesn't attract attention. Here's an immature peregrine falcon and northwester crow near the kittiwakes. Eagles still abound as well.

Obligatory bald eagle photo from Homer. They pretty much nest on anything that can find. You might be at risk if you stand in one spot for too long.

Black oystercatcher seen along the Homer Spit.

You may have noticed that I attended a festival with "shorebird" in the title and I've posted very few photos of shorebirds. I went in 2016 and the timing of the festival and shorebird migration didn't quite coincide. Such is the nature of migration and weather. Though I didn't get the big numbers of godwits, sandpipers and plovers, there are plenty of birds to keep you entertained and to fatten up your life list.

Common murres against the sun taken from a boat.

One of the field trips you will want to make sure you get a space on is the seabird trip. It's only three hours but you can head out to a common murre colony and find eiders, common and Kittlitz's murrelts. It's also a gorgeous way to experience the Homer Spit view. If you're not sure how you would ever do on a pelagic, this small trip and a good way to test out your sea legs. You get quite a few opportunities for seabirds and shorebirds.

Common murres and black-legged kittiwakes on Gull Island. Digiscoped from a boat. The iPhone is a very forgiving camera.

I like the above video because it captures the frenetic activity of the birds and the adventurous air on a boat birding trip. Just walking around Homer can feel like an adventure, but the sights, the wind, the roar of the common murres and kittiwakes yelling overhead combined with the aroma assaulting smell of copious amounts of bird guano just adds to it.
But that's just the birding around Homer. There are other places to explore in the next post. Also, be sure to check out the shenanigans my friends Sue and I got up to with our friend Flat Michelle.

**Monfragüe National Park, A Vulture Lover's Paradise** Jul 04, 2017
Let me tell you about about vultures...and Iberian ham...

Birders looking badass as hell climbing up to Monfragüe Castle to do some birding in Monfragüe National Park in Extremadura.

I recently visited Extremadura which is in the southwest region of Spain and bordered by Portugal. It's an "autonomous community" meaning that even though it's inside Spain, it governs itself. Extremadura is fairly wild and remote and offers tremendous birding opportunity as well as Roman ruins. I've written a little bit about castle birding over at the PhoneSkope blog which includes this region. If you are looking for a unique birdwatching experience, Monfragüe National Park has it.

Griffon vultures roosting on one of the may rocky cliff faces in Monfragüe.

The big show while I was at the park was the large population of griffon vultures...which are a bit different than the turkey and black vultures we have in North America. This Old World species is ancient looking and gigantic, they make turkey vultures look practically anorexic. To give you an idea, a turkey vulture weighs about 3 - 4 pounds. A bald eagle can weigh anywhere from 8 - 12 pounds. A griffon vulture...now that beast can weigh as much as 25 pounds! Wrap your head around that for a minute--a soaring 25 pound bird! That's about the weight of a trumpeter swan!

Griffon vultures pair up for life and nest in breeding colonies along rocky cliffs. Spain hosts the largest breeding population for this species and Monfragüe National Park is a great place to view them.

One morning while we were out birding, there was a griffon vulture perched on a rock in the field. There was no way to stop to get a photo, but you could clearly see the bird was almost as tall as me, at least four feet tall. Our guide said the bird was probably feeding and when the afternoon faded to evening there were no thermals or warm currents of air for the bird to use to soar up to the cliff, it had to spend the night on the ground because it's too big to flap up to the cliffs in a powered flight like a common buzzard would be able to do. I asked if there was any danger of predators getting a vulture and our guide smiled and said, "No, not a bird that big."
When I used to do eagle surveys, I always knew they would be one of the last birds to hit the thermals and I wouldn't really see them lift off until after 9:30am since they are a bit heavier than hawks and other soaring birds. If vultures are your target in Spain, you can sleep in before you go watch them.

The castle in Monfragüe National Park offers dynamite views of griffon and black vultures as well as song birds on the trail up to it.

It's one thing to go birding in a beautiful park with a rugged landscape. Monfragüe ups the adventure by offering tours from a castle on top of hill and looking into the valley below. When you get there, you go out on the roof and survey the landscape. Vultures start to rise and it isn't long until they're on the thermals and soaring 15 feet away from you and your eye to eye with this massive, winged beast. To make it even more decadent, there's a vendor with a cart who will sell you some espresso or beer to enjoy while you take in the view.
Below are some more highlights:

Griffon vultures rely on soaring to keep their massive weight in the air, since their heavy bodies would burn too much energy for flapping in powered flight. They soar high looking for dead livestock.

Imagine returning from vacation and a coworker asks, "What did you do?" and you can answer, "I stood on top of a castle in Spain watching vultures soar past me while I sipped an espresso."

Other species of vulture can be possible too, depending on the time of year. These are black vultures with my lifer Egyptian vulture mixed in.

European serins serenaded us on the trails in the national park.

Eurasian wrens are one of my favorite singers.

One of the prized species in this region is the Spanish imperial eagle. My picture got photobombed by a griffon vulture.

Black stork.

The park a mixture of scrub habitat among rocky cliffs and and small oak forests. One tends to think of Europe as being mostly historic cities and villages but there's a warm wildness in Extremadura that is unique to Europe. You can find spots and feel like you're in a true wilderness.

If you are not a vegetarian, make Iberian Ham a priority when visiting Extremadura.

Speaking of the small oak forests, one of the best cured meats I've ever put in my mouth can be found in Extremadura. Pigs are left to wander the oaks during an acorn mast for six months before they're killed. The meat is then cured for three years, but may linger in shops for another two years before purchase. It's buttery soft and can be put on the traditional breads, but I enjoyed it on it's own. I thought Austria had a handle on making my favorite cured meats, but Iberian Ham blows it out of the water. It's the sort of food after tasting it where I thought, "I have to come back here, I can't imagine never eating this ever again. I know a lot of birders like to celebrate a life bird with "lifer pie," but if you're in Spain and you're a carnivore then make "lifer ham."

**Swarovski's BTX: Half Scope, Half Binoculars, All Comfort** Mar 03, 2017

I remember years ago in my twenties working at a wild bird feeding store and reading Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman on a slow day and thinking, "Man, I'm wasting my life by playing it safe with a steady job. I need to be out traveling and bird watching, living hand to mouth." Then I'd read something Kenn wrote in Bird Watchers Digest and it would mention being someplace with editor Bill Thompson and I'd think, "How cool would it be to travel around with other birders? Get to see new birding products and what the latest."
Cut to 15 years later and doodly doodly doodly: here I am doing just that. Life has taken me to many strange and wonderful places. Recently, it sent me to Austria to take a look at some new products Swarovski has been working on for the last few years. They've taken their modular ATX spotting scope line which already allowed you to customize your objective lenses to another level. Now you can truly personalize a Swarovski scope to suit your particular needs.
Are you ready to see the weirdest, yet coolest spotting scope that's coming down the pike?

Say hello to the new BTX which combines binocular vision with the light gathering ability of a spotting scope.

The new BTX allows you to use both eyes with the spotting scope. Not only does this scope work naturally with the way our vision, it also gives you an almost 3D image of a bird. Like a pair of binoculars you can adjust it for your face with the eye cups and the barrels. There's even a diopter to balance out the lenses to your vision. An adjustable forehead rest allows you to comfortably watch birds through the scope for hours by resting your head against the scope. This is the perfect tool for sea watching, hawk counting or bird surveys. I wish I had this back when I was doing my eagle surveys and I had to stake out a bald eagle nest for four hours at a time. Doing that with one eye gets a bit exhausting on the muscles.
I already have the ATX scope and it is a fantastic piece of equipment. When I came along on this trip, I brought it too and was able to do side by side comparisons while watching waterfowl. What surprised me was that going from using both eyes on the BTX scope to only one eye on my ATX scope was difficult. The BTX was so comfortable visually that it felt like I was going from a high end scope to a low end scope--which is ridiculous because the ATX is a quality piece of equipment. But most of us were meant to use both our eyeballs to see well and that's what the BTX was designed for.

And in case you are wondering, you can digiscope with the BTX.

Of course I had to see if I could digiscope with the BTX. I didn't have an adapter for it so held my iPhone 7 up to one of the eyepieces and after some zooming on the phone to take out the vignetting I got the above shot of a whooper swan. However, digiscoping doesn't really capture the 3D view of birds and wildlife you will get with this scope.

This is the ME 1.7 magnification extender.

The BTX magnification is 30 power with a 65mm and 85mm objective lens and 35 power with the 95mm objective lens. But if you want more magnification, you have have another option. Swarovski has also created a magnification extender which can be used with the BTX and the ATX and STX as well. If you attach it to the 65 or 85mm BTX you'll go from 30 power magnification to 50. If you use with the 95mm objective lens you'll go from 35 power magnification to 60.

The new Swarovski PTH tripod head.

Because of the design for comfort, the BTX only comes as an angled scope. It is a bit on the heavier side of things for a Swarovski scope. For example, an ATX 85mm is roughly 4.2 pounds and the BTX 85mm is roughly 5.5 pounds. Since it is a bit heavier, it's best to use it with a balance rail. There's even a new tripod head to accommodate the new set up.

Yes, you can still wear a hat while using the forehead rest on the BTX.

If weight is a concern, Clay Taylor and I played around with the BTX and the 65mm objective lens which comes out to about 4.8 pounds. A smaller objective lens makes the scope lighter but won't have as much light gathering ability as an 85 or 95mm. Even so, it still works very well. But this set up is really the dream set up for hawk watching platforms and those who dig scanning for gulls and jaegers on sea watches.
If you see a BTX at a bird festival this spring, take it out side, really adjust for your eyes and marvel at the view. You wouldn't think there could be any more major advances in the world of quality scopes, but this is really quite something.

**Song Sleuth: The Bird Song ID App** Mar 02, 2017
One of the most common questions I get in my Tech Birding classes is, “Why is there no Shazam-type app that will allow me to use my phone to identify bird calls?"
Two reasons:
1. Birds have accents. Generally, when you hear Adele singing “Hello” over a speaker in a Target in Minnesota and then a few months later hear Adele sing "Hello" over a speaker in a Walmart in Florida, it's the same song. However, a cardinal in Minnesota is going to sound different than a cardinal in Florida.
2. Also when a song is playing, there’s usually only one song going on at a time. How many times is there just one species of bird singing at a time?
That said, there's a new app called Song Sleuth that wants to help you out!

The Song Sleuth app includes illustrations and bird information by David Sibley.

Developers at Wildlife Acoustics have released the Song Sleuth app available for iPhone (an Android version should be coming in a few months). Wildlife Acoustics actually came out with an app before there were smart phones. It was in the form of a blue box you would wear around your neck that would record calls and try to id them. It wasn’t all that user friendly and was a bit cost prohibitive. I can’t remember the exact cost, but it was over $100.
That technology didn’t go over well in the consumer market but it did go over well in the biological survey field. When I used to do bird surveys for wind farms, I’d have to work with bat audio equipment from time to time and it was always Wildlife Acoustics software. The microphones would be set on timers to record sounds at night and then software was used to ID all the spectrograms of the different bat calls. It’s really the only way to monitor bats and get a handle on the species that may be in an area.
This is not as user friendly as a Shazam app, but it is indeed a useful tool to help you learn your bird songs. And I hate to use all caps here but I feel this is really important:
THIS IS NOT AN APP YOU CAN BLUNDER YOUR WAY THROUGH. YOU MUST READ THE DIRECTIONS OR WATCH THE YOUTUBE TUTORIAL before you start to truly understand how it works and how to use it in the field.

What the Song Sleuth looks like in recording mode. The key to using this app is understanding the spectrogram of the bird songs.

This app is very cool for recording calls. When you have the app open in recording mode, the mic is always on and recording, but not saving everything. If you suddenly hear a bird start to sing that you want to identify and hit the record button, it will automatically default the start of the recording to the three seconds before you hit the record button. As you record, you’ll se the spectrogram of sounds from the song you are trying to id as well as your own noises from walking or coughing and ambient noise like planes.
After you have captured the recording, the app will generate three possible species that made the sound. It's best to try and trim the recording down to the actual song you want to id. If you use the whole recording and there are other birds singing, chances are good that you'll get a misidentification.

The Song Sleuth app brings up a list of three possible identifications to your recording. You'll note the app brings up humans as a possibility. It also includes some frog and squirrel species which is pretty cool considering how many people mistake mammals and frogs for birds sounds.

When Song Sleuth brings up the list of possibilities you can either agree or disagree with it. If you aren't sure, you can listen to the preloaded calls to compare to your recording. You can even compare spectrograms of the prerecorded calls to the ones you captured. If the app brings up the incorrect identification, you can go into the full list of birds in the app to try and find it.
I played around with this app with sounds from the All About Birds site and with bird calls in my local patch. Let me tell ya, trying to find singing birds in a Minnesota winter is not that easy. I had mixed results with the app. I would say about 60% of the time it nailed the id, especially if I trimmed down the recording and try to filter out wind. But 40% of the time the bird I was trying to id wasn't on the list. Part of it was disagreement with the app about what birds occur in Minnesota in winter. We have an influx of tufted titmice in the Twin Cities this year and the app didn't think they should be here so never considered the bird a possibility. I had to go in and manually include in the list of possible birds.
But I do love that this app gets you into a habit of visualizing bird sounds on a spectrogram. I think that visual clues are very handy for someone just starting out and you'll be surprised to see the distinct vocal patterns birds can have, even with an accent. I also love that this app lets you record calls and even if it doesn't get the correct id right away, you have something you can take home and compare with bird sounds online. I played with this on an iPhone 7 and was able to pick up bird and squirrel sounds from far away. Ideally, you want to be as close as possible to get the call, but considering the size of the microphone on an iPhone it does a decent job.
I also think that over time the app will improve as more people start to use it. To get an idea of how it works, check out the video on how to use the app. It's not a perfect app, but if you are struggling to learn your bird calls, I do think it's worthwhile to download.

**The Magic Of Finding Owls** Feb 21, 2017
We're having our third straight weird winter in Minnesota. A third winter of unpredictable weather patters. February used to be my guaranteed snow shoe hike month and for the past three winters I've had to just call them hikes or cancel them because thaw cycles of turned the trails to ice. This past week like the rest of the country we experienced insane highs in the 50s - 60.
I'm not going to panic about it, but I am going to take advantage of a weird spring like day to go bike riding, it's one of the things I enjoy almost as much as birding. And it's a perfect combo when I can combine them both. I often listen to movie soundtracks while biking to make my ride more fun.
The other day I was biking and listening to The Force Awakens, specifically the Jedi Steps part at the end of the movie. As I biked along, something suddenly got my attention. "Wow, that's a lot of poop."

Look at all those pellets!

Because it was a thick clump of cedars I immediately assumed it was a saw-whet owl roost. I noticed about four spots where the bird had spent lots of time and dropped lots of pellets. I gingerly walked around to try and look up in hopes of not flushing the bird (with that ruddy mysterious music playing through my headphones). The first two spots had no owl above, then I got to the spot in the above photo. I looked up and less than two feet from my head was an old robin's nest with a gray phase eastern screech-owl perched on it (just as the music swelled when it revealed Luke Skywalker in the movie). I immediately said, "Holy shit," crouched low to put as much space between us and backed away, hoping against hope that I wouldn't accidentally flush it. I was not expecting that bird to be that low...or in a robin's nest. It stayed in its spot and I wondered if felt a little bad ass, "Well, I showed that human!"
The next day I took Non Birding Bill with me to see the bird and try to digiscope it. The branch it chose is perfect for hiding. It's on the lowest and thickest branch and the branch curves, creating a tent over the owl. I flattened my tripod as low as it would go, crawling on the ground to get a view as far away from the owl as I could. I found one window through the needles to get a glimpse and snapped a few photos for my own documentation.

This owl maybe low, but it has figured out a great hiding spot.

I've never found a screech-owl roosting in cedars in winter. I've mostly seen them in natural cavities or nest boxes. And as always when I find an owl, I wonder how many I've passed because I assumed they wouldn't hide in a particular spot.

I like this photo because the owl turned away from me. It no longer saw me as threat enough to stare down. All in all we were there three minutes getting pictures and grabbing a few more pellets.

And for now this owl will be left alone. If it stays warm I'll bike past but I won't stop except to collect a pellet or two. I'm going to have try and hit that area in March at dusk to see if I can hear any screech-owl trilling.

**How To Look Like A Bad Ass Birder** Feb 08, 2017
Have you ever been out birding with your digiscoping kit or traditional camera equipment and wondered if there was an easier and more comfortable way to carry your camera and binoculars at the same time? Did you ever hope you'd look like a total bad ass while doing it? Well, I have three words for you: Tactical Birding Harness.
Actually the real name is the CCS Binocular & Camera Harness and as soon as you put it on, you feel ready for what my friend Ben Douglas would call "beast mode birding."

The CCS Binocular and Camera Harness from Cotton Carrier.

Initially, I was skeptical about this harness on two fronts. First, I'm female and I'm a well endowed. Though I enjoy using binoculars harnesses for comfort, it can be a challenge to get those to work around a curvy chest. Many of these products are built for guys and well, the products get weird when applied to a woman's body.

Image of a guy using the Binocular and Camera Harness from the Cotton Carrier website.

The second concern is that I had is that I have a low center of gravity and I wondered if having this stuff hanging on me was really going to be anymore comfortable than my usual set up of a traditional binocular harness with my camera slung over my shoulder while carrying my scope on a tripod.

Me wearing the binocular and camera harness.

To my surprise, the tactical harness can be quite comfortable. As soon as I put it on, I felt a bit like Bruce Wayne suiting up for a night with the Joker. Being short, I had to do a lot of cinching of the shoulder straps, but once I got the harness snug against me, it wasn't bad at all. The fitting of this harness is really key (and gents, you may want to skip to the next paragraph as I'm going to get into some serious boob talk here). Ladies, if you leave it slightly loose, the harness shifts a bit as you move and then you're left with that look many of us dread: one of your breasts is randomly hanging out on the side. Don't make it so tight it hurts to breath, but have someone help you tighten it on the shoulders and the waist to keep in in place.
Once fitted well, it doesn't move as much as a traditional binocular harness. Many women tell me that they find the traditional binocular harnesses uncomfortable. I think one reason is that people don't pay attention to where the leather patch is in the back. Sometimes it has a tendency to ride up just below your neck, when really it should be squarely between your shoulder blades and depending on how active you are in the field, you periodically have to pull it down. This harness stays in place for the post part when snug.

You'll note there are straps with clips to help secure your camera and binoculars to the vest should they become dislodged from the vest, preventing them from dropping to the ground. I like how the binoculars are flat against the chest and don't flop around. I'm using 8x32 ELs which are compact and lightweight, it might be a different story with larger barrel binos.

The harness comes with adapters to attach to the bottom of your camera and around the barrel of your binoculars. The washer has arrows that when aligned correctly will secure your optics to your harness.

The harness has an adapter and velcro strap to attach to the barrel of your binoculars and a tripod adaptor for your camera. These have large washers that will lock your optics in place on the front of the harness, and off to the side (you can adjust whether you have the second piece on your right or left to favor which side you use most). I did notice that after awhile the velcro strap on my Swarovski ELs would come loose and slide a little bit and I'd have to retighten it to keep it aligned with the harness.
I also had to get used to my binoculars and camera in a new area. If you've had your digiscopign set up for awhile, using them has become second nature. This is a bit of a different configuration and it takes some getting used to the different way you have to holster holster and reholster your bins, especially if you're excitedly looking at a bird. Here's a demo of the binoculars being holstered:

A small pocket in the belt holds a cover to put over camera to keep them dry if it's raining while you're out in the field. There's even a holder just inside the front of the harness in case you have an umbrella with a thin rod that you want to put over yourself to stay dry. Just wearing the whole set up around for an hour was not bad and the best part was that my binoculars and camera felt secure and not like they were bouncing all over the place. This is something I might use while at a birding festival or birding remote areas. I wish I had this back when I was doing bird surveys. I'm not sure if I would wear this set up in an urban park, it might be a bit much and cause neighbors to question you. But if you are going to wear it in an urban park, go big or go home:

The harness accessorizes well with a Batman Cowl.

The Update to Baby Porcupine Eating Banana with Hiccups Jan 18, 2017

Ten years ago while volunteering at The Raptor Center I went to my friend Gail Buhl's office. Though she's in charge of the eduction birds, she's a licensed wildlife rehabber and sometimes takes in other creatures. That day she had a porcupet aka a baby porcupine that had been found on the side of the road next to its dead mother who had presumably been hit by a car. I took a video of it eating a banana while having the hiccups. It's had over 2 million views and that doesn't count the times it's been stolen from my channel and placed on someone else's. After the porcupine was old enough he went to Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center where he's lived ever since teaching kids and adults what's true and false when it comes to porcupines.

Recently I went to a conference at Wolf Ridge and got a chance to not only see him where he lives but to also see him in action in the classroom and outside during a tracking workshop. What a treat! So above is a ten year update.

**The Fabulous Hummingbird Bar At Rio Santiago** Dec 12, 2016
One of the coolest places I visited in 2016 also gave me one of the most unexpected experiences I've ever had in my life. While in Honduras we visited the bar at the Rio Santiago Nature Resor t which is known for maintaining over 200 hummingbird feeders daily, including keeping them clean and full of fresh nectar throughout the day. The video above gives you a hint of what the hummingbird activity is like, but that really only scratches the surface. The sheer amount of hummingbird mass in the air and zipping around your head coupled with the wide variety of species is mind-blowing, especially for someone like me who lives in Minnesota with only one species regularly occurring.
But hummingbirds are not the only reason to visit and as much as we all wanted to plop down, have a beer and soak in some hot hummer action, our guide Elmer Escoto took us on a walk for something "very special if we are lucky." We meandered the trails on the resort property and found a few North American breeders that were just beginning their northward movement like wood thrush and gray catbird. But we also saw masked tityra, shining honeycreeper, brown jays and yellow-throated euphonias.

The fabulous golden-hooded tanager seen as soon as we were in the parking lot at Rio Santiago.

Always fun to see birds like this wood thrush that spend the summer with us in the United States wintering in Central America.

This was the bird Elmer was hoping to show us--a young spectacled owl. This bird was already out on it's own but still had some downy feathers around its face.

Elmer found us a young spectacled owl. They are just a little smaller than a great horned owl and eat a wide variety of small prey. This is a young bird that still had some white around the head but was already formidable in its adult size. And something as cool as an owl is definitely worth tearing some birders away from over 200 hummingbird feeders. We headed back down the trail and back to the bar...the better to work up a sweat for an ice cold beer.

A lovely violet-crowned woodnymph coming in to the hummingbird feeders.

So we settled down with our cameras and beers at the hummingbird feeders to take advantage of the dwindling daylight to get photos--though I was having more fun getting slow motion video of the hummers with my iPhone and my scope. Moments like this are one of my favorite parts of travel. We had already had a few days of glorious hiking and fabulous birds. The afternoon was a nicer relaxed moment to just sit and enjoy the colorful avian bounty around us. The air was hot, heavy with humidity (as welcome change from the still frigid Minnesota) and the beer was cool, You have the blissful moment of thinking how far from home you are, how different life is here and you still have a couple more days of adventure to go. I love moments where I can stop, be still and drink it all in, it's pure contentment.
And then a baby ocelot walked into the bar.

You read that correctly, a baby ocelot walked into the hummingbird bar.

My mind went into overdrive. With mammals, especial predatory nocturnal ones, I never expect to ever see one outside of a zoo, I'm content to know that they are out there in the world. I never have to see them. That's something biologists and wildlife guides soaked in sweat, bug bites and intestinal parasites see--that's their reward. When I'm down at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in south Texas and see the ocelot crossing signs, I do keep watch but realize that I'm not going to see one. To have an ocelot show up and have it be an adorable young one to boot was over the top unexpected. It explored the bar, it killed and ate a mouse, it ran within feet of me.
The ocelot hopped on a table and we completely surrounded it. I asked the question that we all wanted to know but were afraid to ask.
"Can we touch it?"
"Sí."

Nothing in life could have prepared me for the honor of being chewed on by an ocelot.

What is it about us that we have to feel something with our hands to get a full and true experience? Seeing and hearing is wonderful, and I'll be honest smell is pretty up there with me (and yes, I sniffed the ocelot more than once). But touch...no observation is ever as deeply satisfying as the ability to touch the subject. I think with ocelots in particular since they are as masterful at camouflage as an owl, primarily nocturnal and will do whatever they can to avoid being seen by us, living their life on the their eating small mammals and birds. The colors and patterns of their fur hiding them from me in plain sight.

The young ocelot eventually made it over to the bar.

Since my Spanish is dodgier than my French, I asked Elmer what the back story was behind the young ocelot. He said that it had been found on a trail on the property as a small kitten, about the size of a human hand. It was brought and the decision was made to feed about house it until it was large enough to be on its own. The resort did this before with another ocelot several years ago. They raised a young female kitten and when she was old enough she roamed the yard and eventually disappeared when she was an adult. She returned a year later, denned up and and raised kittens.
The plan with this ocelot was to let it roam the property, learn to hunt--which it clearly was and keep inside at night until it was big enough to defend itself from larger predators.

What else do you do when a baby ocelot hops on a bar? You take a selfie and post it on all of your social media accounts!

Look at those adorable white spots behind the ears! The fur was strange, simultaneously soft, but not the soft velvety feel I get from rabbits. Almost like really fluffy felt. What an opportunity to feel that fur on top of a warm, active body.

Right after this was taken, the young ocelot noticed its own face in the front screen of my phone. It pressed its ears back, gave a tiny growl and wanted nothing to do with me after that. Smart cat.

As the group settled in to one more beer and talk of ocelots, I did what any modern woman does these days when something cool shows up--I took a selfie and immediately began posting it to social media.

Most of my friends' reaction to the ocelot selfie.

But not all of them...

Some of my friends are well aware of the wild cat trade and they begged me to remove the photos because they felt they glorified wild animal ownership. When I pointed out that this was a not a pet but meant to be released to the wild when it was old enough, some of those friends were dubious of the young ocelot's origin. Was this truly found as an abandon kitten or was the mother killed so this kitten could be a tourist attraction?
All I know is that I know Elmer and I trust him so I trust the story of the ocelot's origin at the resort. The bar has over 200 hummingbird feeders and a steady birding clientele, why add a baby ocelot when the experience is already outstanding? The young ocelot appeared healthy, able to hunt mice on its own and had minimal interest in us apart from fingers it might chew on. In fact, compared to most of the animals I'd seen in Honduras, this was an exception because you could not see it's ribs. Several cows, horses, dogs and even pigs were emaciated by United States standards.
At the end of the day, Honduras is not the United States. It does not have the wildlife rehabilitation network and advancements we do here. People do the best they can with what they have and for many it is barely enough to take care of themselves and their children. I walked around that beautiful and wild country with a spotting scope that cost more than what many Hondurans make in a year.
To me travel is as much about learning as it is about experience. Sometimes you just have let an experience wash over you and learn from it. And when Life hands you a baby ocelot in a bar in Honduras, you go for it, douse yourself, revel in it.

Ocelot and beers. The women who helped tend the young ocelot until its big enough to roam the forest on its own.

Darkness descended and the hummingbirds disappeared. It was getting to be the time of night when the young ocelot would need to go inside and we had to head back to the Lodge at Pico Bonito for dinner. We escorted the ocelot to its night retreat. And we got another great look at a formidable predator.

"Pardon me, folks, but could you get out of the way so I can swoop down on that young, tasty kitten?"

The young spectacled owl had flown from its secluded spot to go hunting. It seemed quite interested in the small mammal in our midst. But soon that wild cat will be too big for the owl and join the nocturnal fray.
If you're ever interested in traveling with me, check out my events page. If you have a group of 8 or more people who'd like to go somewhere with me, let me know sharon@birdchick.com.

**Not Getting a Quetzal** Dec 10, 2016

How can you not feel like you're on an adventure while birding in a landscape like that? This was taken at Los Naranjos Eco-Archeological Park.

One of the reasons we started our Wildside Nature Tours Honduras trip at Panacam Lodge was that it is close to Santa Barbara Mountain National Park. Resplendent Quetzals are possible there, however, that appears to be my worldwide nemesis bird and we didn't see it. I'm beginning to think that is a bird I am simply not destined to see in the wild because I've been to a number of places where is should be "no problem" for me to find one and all I've gotten is the call and shadow. But I'm not a one bird woman and there were plenty of other birds for me to enjoy in our spot for resplendent quetzal.

White-eared hummingbird I got video of in slomo mode on my iPhone. This bird was in our mountain guide's backyard.

Coffee and corn grow side by side on the Santa Barbara Mountain. I'm sure the corn kind of makes it shade-grown coffee, right?

Coffee flowers and beans up close.

Coffee bean with the husk removed, showing the sweet fleshy part that surrounds the bean we like to roast, grind and drink. The flesh was vaguely sweet with just a hint of coffee flavor. It was a pleasant thing to suck on while we hiked up.

The trails were rocky and slick with moisture. All of us had to take careful steps in our hiking shoes. A doctor once informed me that I have "weak kneecaps" and prone to things sliding out of joint. I try to exercise in a way to minimize that, but I'm also very careful about my footing in such situations, especially when I'm balancing my gear. Our mountain guide clearly lived in the area his whole life and easily managed the trails swiftly in only sneakers.
Despite the general lack of quetzals, we had great birds like flame-colored tanager, collared trogon, bushy-crested jay, golden-winged warblers and white-faced quail-dove. You can see our eBird list here.

Craptastic picture of a bird with a glorious name: common chlorospingus.

A slate colored solitaire. What they lack in color, they more than make up for in song. Check out some of their songs over at Xeno-Canto.

Cinnamon Hummingbird.

The poultry posse in our guides backyard. These critters looked fairly robust. Most of the livestock around Honduras is much thinner than their United States counterparts.

After our morning romp on mountain trails we were ready for some lunch at D&D Brewery. I took the Birds and Beers sing as a good omen.

Rice, beans, plantains...a common addition to most meals in Honduras. Mmmmm. The lovely thing about the beans in Honduras is that they have a loverly caramelized, earthy flavor. I'm sure this is some form of lard added to it. But they are delicious.

After lunch we birded Archeological Park Los Naranjos. There are Mayan ruins that are about 28,000 years old and lots of lovely birds. You could easily spend three hours just around the main entrance. There were motmots, oropendolas and even a few North American songbirds to found.

The social flycatcher is a daintier version of the great kiskadee you can see in south Texas.

A summer tanager. Since it was early March when this was taken, it would be in the US in just over a month.

These birds are EVERYWHERE--the Montezuma oropendola! This is also the bird that non-birding friends email me about whenever they are in Central America.

Rufous-naped wren.

Yellow-winged tanager.

Turquoise-browed motmot.

Lake Yojoa

And though we spent most of the late afternoon grabbing lifers and didn't really look at the ruins, we did make a quick walk to Lake Yojoa which was an outstanding view of the mountains (one of which we had been on top of in the morning). As the sun descended on this magnificent view we saw bare-throated tiger-herons, northern jacana, snail kite and purple gallinule. Just when we thought the view couldn't be more magical a few dozen nightjars filled the sky with their bouncy flight. The big treat for me was that it was a mix of common nighthawks and lesser nighthawks and what a treat to be able to study the differences side by side.

**Surprise Roommate In Central America** Dec 04, 2016
A video to give you an idea of what it's like birding in Honduras.

First class on an International Flight doesn't play any games when it comes to food or booze. Thank you, American Airlines.

After a rough autumn, I decided to go through my photos and find things I haven't written about and some of the great things happened in 2016 Turns out, I never wrote on the blog about how much fun I had on my trip to Honduras with Wildside Nature Tours. I also think that I needed some time away from Honduras to digest what I saw. Honduras is heartbreakingly beautiful. Amidst all the rugged wildness, ancient culture and eye searing color, it's also a developing nation and life is very different than it is in the United States. So while there was overwhelming beauty and adventure to be had, there was also immense poverty.

The greeter at Panacam Lodge in Honduras, a blue-diademed motmot (also known as Lesson's motmot on eBird).

The view behind my bungalow when I arrived at Panacam Lodge.

We ended up staying at two different places in Honduras. The first two nights we were at Panacam Lodge which was foggy with mystery when we arrived. You just knew cool-ass wildlife was hidden, tucked away in the greenery.

Hmmmm, evidence that I had a roommate or two sharing my bungalow.

I wanted to do a little unpacking and freshening up before our group met for dinner. As I took things out of my suitcase, I noted a spot where there was some kind of excrement. It was large, almost as large as a mouse but not quite. I looked up from where the pile was and just where the plaster met the wood in the ceiling I saw a crevice and some movement, definitely insect and probably a bit larger than what I'm used to.
When you travel, especially to countries where it's warm and humid--critters in your room are going to happen. Even if you paid for a single occupancy room on your tour, I guarantee you will have had some sort of roommate that's neither bipedal nor necessarily a mammal. I'm generally so tired at the end of the day that I can't care about what is in the room with me. There was a time I inadvertently spent the night with a bat at Canopy Tower in Panama--not the worst thing I've ever woken up next to and those are the sorts of things that add character to your travel stories. I opted to continue unpacking and ignore whatever movement was coming from the crevice in the top of my room.
Then I made the mistake of looking up once more.

FYI the Spanish for ant is hormigas!

Very large ants were now emerging from the crevice. Now when I say large, I mean about the size of a multivitamin that you take in the morning and wash down with a giant swig of juice so it doesn't get lodged in your throat. Even more alarming was that some had wings. I had a queen hatch happening in my room! This wasn't going to be just a few ants. This was going to be an "Antenning." I can put up with a few bugs, but I really didn't want to wake up at 2am and be covered in about 500 winged ants fluttering around looking for any crevice available to start a new colony. I considered the possibility of leaving doors and windows open, but considering that was even more insect life outside that would be more than happy to come in, I ruled that out. Also, a hatch would no doubt attract bats and I don't need to sleep with one again.
I put everything back in my suitcase and closed it up. I took some pictures of the ants and I went to the front desk with my haphazard Spanish to see about getting another room. I showed them the picture of the ants and tried to explain and got reassuring faces smiling and saying, "Sí, hormigas!"
Mercifully, Elmer Escoto our guide was walking by and heard my voice, "Amiga, what's going on?"
I showed him my phone and he said, "Oh no, you are about to have a lot of ants."
I asked about the possibility of switching rooms but the lodge was packed. "Amiga, go to dinner and I will make sure this is taken care of for you, ok," he said and I dutifully obeyed.

Every fish dish I had in Honduras was fresh and tasty and served with plantains.

I'm an adventurous eater, especially when away from home so if there's an entire fish body that's been fried on the menu, I'm going to eat it. Elmer eventually joined our group and assured me the lodge was taking care of things. The fish practically melted in my mouth and paired well with the pickled onions. And any day plantains are involved with a meal is a great day. We dined, we discussed the the following day's itinerary and the bird possibilities ahead.
I went back to my room and heady notes of insecticide punctuated the air to my bungalow. The crevice showed no signs of life. My floor, however, looked like a battlefield out of Game of Thrones with about 500 dead and dying ants. I giggled and decided on a new rule for my room--unless you are laying on the bed, shoes must be worn at all times. I fell asleep safe in the knowledge that I would not be covered in in flying ant queens and let the days travel fatigue carry me away.
My alarm went off the next morning and there were even more dead and dying ants on the floor. I quickly dressed for our morning breakfast-birding and figured that the staff would sweep up the ant carcasses while I was out and I would return to an ant-free room.

Squirrel cuckoo on the grounds of Panacam Lodge

Ivory-billed woodcreeper hitching up a wooden post at Panacam Lodge in Honduras. The bird was gleaning insects attracted to the lights. Disregard my narration.

The adorable bat falcon.

The view from the top of the Panacam Lodge tower.

A pair of keel-billed motmots tucked in the darkness of fog and forest viewed from the top of the Panacam Lodge tower.

A simple breakfast to start the day at Panacam Lodge. I swear I could live on nothing but cheese and plantains in Honduras.

We got in some woodcreeper and motmot action then had some breakfast. Everyone was curious about my ant situation and mercifully I was the only one who had an ant hatch. We birded areas off of Panacam grounds and I'll write more about that in another post. But just birding around the trails of the Lodge was very fun. Here's an eBird list of what was around the lodge. The bat falcon above was just outside the lodge grounds and ended up in an eBird incidental report.
When we did come back from birding other areas I was anxious to see what my room was like. Clearly the staff had worked hard to sweep up the ants...but more were still stumbling out of the crevice. I spent the night with fewer dead and dying ants and the next day we headed to Pico Bonito Lodge. When I was escorted to my bungalow at that lodge, I instantly heard a "chirp chirp chirp chirp" sound. Nervous, I looked at the staff and they said, "It's a house gecko, all the rooms have them."
I was ecstatic. If I had a house gecko, they would eat any ants about to hatch. They were a preferable roommate.
Panacam is a lovely lodge and close to many birding locations--including a spot for resplendent quetzals. The ant incident is just part of the joy of nature travel to remote areas. The staff did the best they could to keep me comfortable during the incident. And as I said, it's fun story to whip out at dinner parties when people ask me about my travels.
Ants aside or the "antsident" as Non Birding Bill calls it, if you are ever interested in traveling with me, especially if you're interested in digiscoping, laughing and relaxing as well as birding check out my tours page.

**Digibinning with the Renner Technique** Nov 28, 2016

I teach quite a few workshops on digiscoping throughout the year. My preferred method is using a smartphone with a spotting scope, but I'll also use an SLR and spotting scope too. My friend Renner Anderson has heralded his love of "digibinning" which is using binoculars and his iPhone to take pictures.

Curt Rawn got a shot at a Birds and Beers of Renner Anderson showing his "rubber band" technique for attaching his iPhone to his binoculars (this was before he had a PhoneSkope adapter).

I've always been been dubious of the digibinning technique and advise against it in my workshops. I think there is no easy way to hold the binoculars steady and get a good shot. Renner feels differently. "I always have my iPhone in the field anyway because I am already using it for eBird Mobile, field guides, Merlin and BirdsEye," Renner said. "I like to hike for adventure and exercise and usually don't bring my telescope so it's nice to be able to use my binoculars for getting documentary photos."
At my last digiscoping workshop that I hosted, Renner arrived and was ready to show off his digibinning techinique using his Swarovski ELs, iPhone and PhoneSkope iPhone case and bluetooth shutter release. I grabbed a quick video so you could see the Renner Technique in action and some of the photos he's gotten of birds in the last year.

Renner also add, "Because I attach the PhoneSkope case to just one eyepiece (the right eyepiece) I can use the other eyepiece to look through with my right eye and this puts me on the bird immediately and very easily, even birds in flight. I focus on the bird using the focus adjustment knob of the binoculars with my right index finger and center the bird in the visual field so I don't have to be looking through the iPhone viewing screen.
"Because both of my hands are holding the binoculars and I'm looking through the other eyepiece of the binoculars I don't have any way to trigger the shutter with my hands. For that reason I have developed the idea of holding the PhoneSkope remote shutter between my lips and activating the shutter by squeezing down on the PhoneSkope remote shutter by tightening my jaw. Not a pretty site but it works really well.
"Only problem here is that if the bird is close I have to adjust for the fact that although the bird may be centered in the field of view of the barrel I am looking through it will be off center for the barrel that the iPhone is looking through. This doesn't matter for birds at distance such as birds in flight.
"With my current technique with the PhoneSkope case attached to a single eyepiece I haven't figured out a way to secure the iPhone to the binoculars with a rubber band so I am always nervous that the iPhone might fall. Currently I just hold the round piece of the PhoneSkope adapter firmly against the binocular eyepiece with my right thumb
"Of course the Blue Tooth can drain the iPhone battery (not to mention the Gaia tracking app that I am using to document my hiking adventure and BirdsEye and eBird Mobile and Merlin and the field guide apps) so I do bring an extra battery along with me in the field."
Remember, you get a discount when you purchase a PhoneSkope product and use the code Birdchick13 when you check out.

**The Ultimate Goshawk Experience In Maine** Oct 23, 2016

The rocky coast of Acadia National Park.

This June I had the opportunity to go to the Acadia Bird Festival in Maine which is a gorgeous place to get Barry Manilow's Weekend In New England stuck in your head. Maine is a fantastic state to visit and Acadia National Park is one of the coolest federal parks you can check out. Blue and gray seemed to be the overwhelming colors while I was there.

Common eiders chillin' in Maine.

Northern Parulas were all over.

Periwnkle snail shells and what I think are blue mussel shells. Feel free to correct me, I'm not BivalveChick...but what a fun name to say out loud for whomever is.

A pair of black ducks on a pond inside Acadia National Park.

And since we are keeping with a blue theme, one must devour some blueberry pancakes while in Maine. I highly recommend Sips in Southwest Harbor. A delightful restaurant with great coffee and lovely atmosphere.

Acadia is especially cool if you're into weird ass water birds like the common eider, Atlantic puffins, black guillemots and warblers like northern parula and black-throated green warblers. Colorful warblers really pop in that somber pallet. If you go to Acadia, either for the festival or on your own, make sure to schedule a boat trip. I didn't do it this time--, but I have before and it's your best bet for seeing puffins and other seabirds. It's also a unique view of this particular national park. Pelagics are fun but they are also exhausting (at least for me) and this trip came at a point when I needed to listen to my body and take things a bit easy.
While I was at the festival I heard a rumor about a northern goshawk nest that had been located thanks to a high school cross country team that was running on the paths in a woods next to the school. They were dive bombed relentlessly by the female. I've worked with goshawks both in captivity and bird banding. I love the northern goshawk, it is my favorite raptor. As an adult it's gorgeous with it's soft gray feathers and maniacal red eyes. It acts before it thinks--something I can relate to. And they take no shit. I once watched a northern goshawk fly through Sax Zim bog and it noticed a red-tailed hawk perched in the top of a tree. The goshawk changed direction, snuck up behind the beefier red-tail and popped it on the head as it kept flying. The red-tail was clearly startled and watched the goshawk power away, seemingly knowing there was no point in chasing it, it would be too fast and not worth the effort.

Most of my northern goshawk experience has been in bird banding. What a beauty to behold and have the honor of holding in your hands...and it is a loud ass bird.

Goshawks are also fierce defenders of their nest and territory. I've heard from more than one wildlife biologist of how the female will dive right at you if she feels you've gotten too close to her nest. I've always wanted to experience that. And it's not like other hawks that might fly at you. This isn't a mere game of chicken, this bird will hit you if need be. I was envious of the cross country team that got the goshawk experience and wanted it as well.
Throughout the festival as I would chill between field trips and workshops at headquarters I noticed certain bird listers sneaking off to see the nest. Those in the know were trying to keep the nest location under wraps but if someone needs a goshawk for their list and had a reputation for being respectful, word would spread. At the end of the festival, I mentioned casually that I'd like to see the nest and maybe digiscope it. Michael J Goode of Down East Nature Tours knew where the nest was and offered to take me in to get a glimpse. It was the end of the last day of the festival, it was cloudy and threatening to rain. We didn't have a lot of time but it seemed worth it. So with another guest we headed over to the school and the surrounding woods.

Oyster mushrooms abound in the woods on the way to goshawk.

We crept into the pine woods. I was glad to have a guide, the trails were meandering and there would have been ample opportunity for me to take a wrong turn and question whether or not I'd find the nest. Also, temptation was everywhere in the woods--so many edible mushrooms like this large patch of oyster mushrooms. If I had means to cook in my bed and breakfast room, that would have been my dinner.
Michael warned me when we were near the general area of the nest. We wanted to be as silent as possible so as not to stress the goshawk and have a chance to see one perched. Oh how naive we were. Before we got to the nest I heard the familiar loud call and a goshawk circled us, periodically landing at the top of the tree, sounding the alarm. We soon found the nest while the bird circled.

Male northern goshawk calling.

The bird finally perched and called incessantly from the top of a pine with branches so thick, there was really only one spot to stand to get a glimpse of him. I got a few hasty documentation shots but that was it. I was so happy to see a goshawk in the wild--any day with a goshawk can NEVER be a bad day. But I did have a pang of disappointment...this was not the goshawk experience I'd heard about--of birds diving at us. I realized this was the male and he would simply call in alarm. The female must have been out on a hunt and I wouldn't get the dive bomb experience.
After I got my shots we decided to turn around and head out. We wouldn't get better photos, we saw the goshawk and we didn't want to stress them out anymore than necessary. Then, something tucked in the woods answered the male's rapid higher pitched cry. This was slower and deeper. The female had arrived. I just happened to have my iPhone out and on slo mo video and held up my phone and pressed play. Before I knew what was happening she was flying right at me! I got the following video within a few seconds of her arrival. The first few seconds are real time. The second half is her coming at us at half speed. WOW. Warning...I swore...justifiably.

This is what happens if you ever find yourself anywhere near a northern goshawk nest...the female will drive you out!

THAT was the ultimate goshawk experience I always wanted to have! After she bombed us a second time, she passed a third, this time so low, she almost kneecapped Michael. She perched above us, daring us to go any direction but out. I wanted to digiscope her, but I knew as soon as my objective lens was aimed at her she would dive right for it. And I'm not sure the Swarovski warranty covers talon lens damage.
We hightailed it out of the woods with her in close pursuit and the male circling us above the tree tops. All in all I think we were there less than five minutes but what an exhilarating five minutes of life that was! One of many nature related dreams checked off my list this year.
Here are few highlights from the Acadia Bird Festival. This is definitely one to check out...if for the fresh lobster alone. Make sure to get either a National Park Pass or a weekly pass at Acadia. Some of the field trip locations require meeting in the park without going through a gate and if a ranger catches your car without a pass you could potentially get a ticket.

What a delight to come upon fields of wild lupine as I drove around.

Fascinating mold patterns on trees.

Below is a red-breasted nuthatch nest we found right on a trail. Another really cool nest that we found was a junco nest. I knew they nested on the ground, but I'd never seen that. Alas, it was so well hidden that there was no way to get a photo, but how cool to watch a female junco with a beak-ful of food disappear into a clump of vegetation on the ground!

Red-breasted nuthatch nest seen during a field trip at the Acadia Bird Festival in Maine. Male brings in a spider to feed the young and the female takes away a fecal sack (bird diaper). What goes in must come out. Birds digiscoped with Swarovski ATX 65mm scope, iPhone 6s and PhoneSkope adapter.

Pink lady slipper or as I like to call it: testicle flower.

Maine mosses.

Barnacles.

Acadia where you can hear wood thrushes, hermit thrushes, black-throated green warblers, northern parulas echoing through the trees. I found a log tucked in there where I just laid down, turned off my phone and absorbed the world around me.

Black guillemot. Alas, I was not able to get a good shot of a puffin.

I don't know my geology that well but the patterns in the rocks along the Maine coast are fascinating.

This could be you at next year's Acadia Bird Festival.

Would you like to travel with me? Check out my trip to Cuba in 2017 through Holbrook Travel!

**Ode to Dr. Strange** Sep 12, 2016

Storm approaches on the Kazakh Steppes. One of the many places I've been thanks to my college degree.

I just found out Dr. Paul Strange died this week. He was a close friend of my mother’s as well as the man for whom she worked for several years.
My mother is a Christian Scientist who worked as a nurse for Dr. Strange. We can unpack that dichotomy at another time, but when I asked her about how someone who doesn’t believe in medicine could work as a nurse, she simply said, “Lots of people have jobs they don’t believe in.”
My parents both worked hard at full time jobs that they didn’t love. My dad was clearly miserable and I remember thinking that I had to do whatever I could to avoid spending 40 hours of my week doing something I hated. My mother could make any job fun, she blooms wherever she’s planted. I never thought we were poor, but I knew that we didn’t have money like some of the other girls at school who had tanning beds in their homes or routinely went to Florida or Mexico during school vacations. Though my family didn’t have that kind of money, we sometimes went out to eat, had a VCR, a house with a big yard and many of the other comforts of middle class.
It was expected that I’d go to college and get a job I enjoy. I had absolutely no clue about money as a kid, other than my dad poured over spreadsheets and bills on weekends and played the lottery a lot. All my other friends had parents paying for college or scholarships. I figured that’s what would happen to me.
When I started applying to colleges, I got a rude awakening for how much tuition was going to cost. And as much as the travel but bug inside me wanted to go several states away, out of state tuition was out of the question. Indiana State University had reasonable prices and was far enough away that I’d have to stay there and not live at home. I’d been part of a summer theater program at ISU as a high school student so had a reasonable chance of getting some scholarship money.
I applied, I got in.
I figured finances would figure themselves out, either with scholarships, a part time job or this mythical thing called financial aid. My family didn’t qualify for financial aid. I got scholarships but not nearly enough. I didn’t realize at the time how much credit card debt my parents were in—a situation that would come to a head at the end of my college years and subsequently end their marriage.
My mom, not knowing what else to do, did the only thing she could. She prayed. Part of being a Christian Scientist is your daily “lesson” where you read assigned texts of *The Bible* and also *Science and Health* by the founder, Mary Baker Eddy. This is done as a daily meditation, you read the assigned passages from the two books and think about how they apply to your life and whatever healing you may need. My mom didn’t just read in the morning, but she took to going to a nearby Christian Science Reading Room on her lunch breaks.
Before she retired, my mom was the office cut up. She was a fun pal to make you laugh with over lunches and cigarette breaks. She was a prankster. She was not above wearing glasses with a penis nose at the office. When she started disappearing over lunch and being evasive about where she was going, it was assumed that my mother was probably having an affair until one day a coworker noticed mom’s car in the parking lot of the Christian Science Reading Room. The car was distinctive, a rusting Mercury Cougar that had gone from dark blue to purple from constant exposure to the sun.
Not long after that, Dr. Strange sat mom down and asked why was she spending her lunches at her church. Mom spilled everything. She confessed her stress about how to send me to college and that she was praying for a miracle.
The next day the doctor called her into his office again and said that he and his wife Judy thought that I could do a lot with a college degree and that I’d be something special. He said that they’d pay the difference in tuition that I didn’t get covered with scholarships. The one stipulation was that I could never be told that the Stranges were behind it.
Of course I was told after I graduated that the full ride scholarship I’d received was actually from the Stranges and I was overwhelmed with gratitude and the idea that two people who mostly knew me through stories from my mother believed in me so much, they’d make it possible for me to go to college. I didn’t have to pay them back other than to live a happy and productive life.

My friends Amy and Jody went with me to Terre Haute for a professor's retirement and we stood on the old New Theatre state where we honed our performance, directing and writing skills.

There’s so much I wouldn’t have had it not been for them. I’m sure I would have found another way to get a degree, it may have been at a much slower pace and with huge amounts of debt. Who knows where I’d be living and if I would have gotten the same tremendous job opportunities I’ve had here. Thanks to them, I got my degree in four years, I met many life long friends I still see today, I met my husband of 18 years and that’s also where I met the person who encouraged me to move to Minnesota. Though my degree is in theater, my performance and writing skills are a large part of my career as a interpretive naturalist and writer.
I’m forever grateful to Dr. and Mrs. Paul and Judy Strange. I wouldn’t have the weird little life that I cherish so much if they hadn’t stepped in. I sent them a letter after college. I acknowledge them in every book I get published. I try to be helpful to other people when they ask. But how can you ever repay people who step in at a crucial time in your life and open a world of possibilities so selflessly?
Dr. Strange is gone today. And the world for me is a little less than it was before.

Thank you, Paul and Judy.

**Florida Is For Vulture Lovers** Sep 02, 2016

"I will beak your car when you turn your back."--Black Vulture.

I spent some time in southern Florida this year. I was there for work, but one of the upsides of Florida is that there is a large supply of lovely birds to practice your photography on. If you are someone who really digs vultures, then Florida should be your vacation destination. You have ample opportunity to soak them in.

Vultures at dawn.

My work was at Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park. I stayed in Homestead, FL and when I woke up my first morning there, I found dozens of turkey vultures already in the air, kiting on the breezes. It was one of the eeriest albeit coolest things I'd seen in awhile. The birds hung in the sky, which seemed weird to me to see large soaring birds at it so early in the morning. Where I live, they don't get thermals until about 10am so you really don't see soaring at dawn, but when you're along the coast, oceans change things. But so many birds in the air, so silent, while wind rustled leaves and palms contrasting with the watercolor pallet of dawn make for a fantastic site.
I soon discovered why there were so many vultures passing Biscayne at all hours--there was a landfill nearby. Here's some video I got with my scope and iPhone:

Those aren't just vultures, the birds swirling closed to the machinery are gulls, but man oh man that's a big ass pile of biomass in the air.
If you haven't been, Everglades is a gigantic beast of a national park. There are many units and varieties of habitat to check out. I was warned by a colleague that since I was driving a government vehicle, it was imperative while visiting Royal Palm that I should do everything I can to protect the car. The vultures are such an issue, the park has a page dedicated just to them.

Vehicle displaying proper vulture damage prevention technique at Royal Palm in Everglades National Park. Note the black vulture soaring overhead.

Apparently it's a thing that black vultures like to chew a car and do thousands of dollars worth of damage. When I pulled into the parking lot for Royal Palm I could see that something was a afoot. Many vehicles were covered in tarps, or at least all the chewy parts were like tires, windshield wipers and the parts around windows. And if you passed all the cars and thought people were just being weird, there was this right outside the visitor center:

Signage at Royal Palm explains the whys and the hows of vulture protection in the parking lot.

No one seems to know why vultures like to chew on all the rubbery pieces on a car. Is it because they're prone to ripping putrid flesh and they need to keep in shape for when that big road kill deer appears? Or is there some flavor or nutrient that attracts them? No one has the definite answer yet, but one thing is clear, black vultures seem to be the main culprit. Turkey vultures seem content to keep their distance from cars and trucks.

Here's a black vulture selfie.

As I meandered the trails around Royal Palm I could see that they had a huge population of black vultures and those vultures gave no fucks about people. Before I took the above black vulture selfie, a group of about 20 people on a tour had walked past. Some paused to take photos and the vultures eyed them, but they were in no hurry to get away. We don't have black vultures where I live in Minnesota, but when I've encountered them in other states they prefer to keep a healthy distance between themselves and the average human. Not so in Florida.
I'm relieved to say that the tarps kept my government vehicle safe from the prying beaks of black vultures and mental note to you, don't trust your vehicle to vultures in south Florida. I'd love to see how rental car companies handle that kind of damage.

Turkey vulture with daisies, they practically pose for you at Everglades.

Meanwhile, the much more well behaved turkey vultures are a delight to experience at Everglades. Not only do they have less of an interest in chewing on your car than black vultures, they'll obligingly pose for you in good light when not soaring around looking for food.

You can see right through this turkey vulture's nose.

This guy was part of a small group of turkey vultures hanging out near Flamingo at Everglades. I was out there because high tide had brought in a bunch of shorebirds and I was delightedly sitting at a picnic table loving the chance to study dunlins and western sandpipers in non-breeding plumage when a few turkey vultures landed and posed in front some daisies. I know they're not traditionally pretty, but I love the texture of the wrinkles and warts. I love that their nostrils are essentially a hole through their head, layered with sensitive tissue that can detect delicious carrion from a distance and in an appetizing way I'll never comprehend. I love the contrast of the off-white beak, the bright red head and slightly iridescent feathers. And just when I thought this bird couldn't make me love it more, it gave me this:

Hi there...

And then this:

So if vultures are your jam, make South Florida a priority to visit.

**Experiments With Eagles** Jun 23, 2016
I went to the Kachemak Bay Shorebird Festival in Homer, Alaska--which is a delightful festival, I highly recommend it. I met a ton of people who were originally from Minnesota and for one reason or another had moved to Alaska. I can see why, it's beautiful and great for people who enjoy the outdoors. Homer actually reminded me quite a bit of northern Minnesota--only with glaciers and mountains.

I got a kick out of this sign--it reads "gulls" and not "seagulls."

As I was birding along Homer Spit, I saw the above sign and suddenly remembered this was where you used find Jean Keene the Eagle Lady (another former Minnesotan). She lived along the spit and collected fish from various sources as well as roadkill moose to feed 200 - 300 bald eagles a day in the winter. That's a lot of bald eagles. Many enjoyed it--especially tourists and wildlife photographers (if you Google search "bald eagle flock" the first several photos are from the Eagle Lady feeding spot). Local hotel owners also appreciated a boom in business in winter. But some residents were not so thrilled to have eagles perched on their cars or homes and pooping all day. So the town of Homer has banned the feeding of predatory and scavenging birds, grandfathering her in so she could continue. But when she died, the eagle feeding stopped.

Me with Lynne Schoenborn, Sue Keator and Flat Michelle.

Two friends from Minnesota, Lynne and Sue came up to the fest and we got to spend some time together. Sue brought along a couple of photos of another friend named Michelle. I love Michelle, she takes photobombing to another level, knows lots about native plants and is always a good time at Birds and Beers...but there's one way we differ: she hates travel. She hates it so much she has said that her goal is to never have a passport.
So we brought along her avatar in the form of Flat Michelle and began posting photos of her on Facebook. Michelle says it's her favorite form of travel.

Flat Michelle kicking on back with an obliging sandhill crane in the background.

Here's Flat Michelle with an obligatory Alaska bald eagle photo.

One of the places Lynne, Sue and I birded was Anchor Point--which is great for sea ducks, shorebirds and sparrows. There were a gazillion eagles and unlike Homer, people are allowed leave piles of unwanted fish on the beach. You could get quite close to the them, they really are used to people. I suggested that we put Flat Michelle in one of the fish piles and step away. We could then digiscope her with some bald eagles right next to her face.

Flat Michelle posed with some halibut carcasses.

We had two different Flat Michelles. One kicking it with a beer bottle and one looking freaked out. We thought with a close proximity to eagles it would be funnier to start out with freaked out Michelle--you'd look freaked if an eagle was eating a dead fish next to your head, right? We placed it in front of a pile of fish that some eagles had been chowing on. We walked back, I set up my scope and we waited...
And waited...
And waited...

A bald eagle warily eyes Flat Michelle.

Eventually an eagle flew over, but it flared up when it saw Flat Michelle and circled a few more times. It landed nearby and just stared at her. A few more eagles flew in but like the first, just lingered along the periphery, occasionally squeaking in apparenty disapproval. The majestic eagles, all reluctant to land near the picture. Gulls and crows flew in but like the eagles, everyone kept their distance.
The first to let down their guard were the northwestern crows. As soon as one got some food, the others flew in and gobbled up all the fish they could before the eagles and gulls moved in.

A bald eagle walked behind Flat Michelle and the feasting crows.

Several more bald eagles flew over and around the fish pile, but none would get near it with Flat Michelle. I thought once the crows showed that it was safe the eagles would join, but they were having none of it.

A glaucous-winged gull yells at Flat Michelle while a northwestern crow gets a morsel.

After awhile I thought it would be fun to get a time lapse video of Flat Michelle. Here it is:

Soon, another fisherman dumped a pile of halibut on the beach. And not just fish carcasses that have been filleted already but a few completely intact specimens. The eagles immediately flew over and completely ignored our mostly picked over fish pile. I suggested to Sue that we try that tastier pile and maybe use the beer version of Michelle. I wondered if her wide-eyed expression and both hands up was a threatening site to an eagle? So we placed the relaxed, chill beer drinking picture with the pile and stepped way back.

The northwestern crows wasted no time in joining Flat Michelle.

The young glaucous-winged gulls were t he first to come sample the fish. After the adults watched to see that nothing bad happened to the young ones, they moved in.

Meanwhile, that was as close as a bald eagle dared to get to Flat Michelle.

Here's another time laps with the "beer Michelle."

We also made a movie trailer so Michelle could see the fun she had around Homer, Alaska.

**Greater Roaderunners** Apr 11, 2016

One of my bird survey offices in Texas.

I've kind of transitioned in the last year or so to do less surveys and more writing and giving programs. I love bird survey work, but it's taxing physically both on your body and your time. Basing each week on airports and storms is less exciting as I get older. Spending times in airports over 30 weeks in a year makes it hard to connect with friends. Sure, there is social media, but that's not the same as being there for, "Hey, I had a bad day, can we grab a drink tonight or breakfast tomorrow?"
A common question I get from friends who knew about my shift in careers is, "Do you miss the travel?"
No, partially because I will never stop traveling. I'm just more selective about the types of travel I will do now. That's not to say that there won't be things I miss. I love point counts and I think that's why I'm drawn to big sits (if you're going to be around the Twin Cities, my park is hosting one on April 30) or simply working my patch over by my house. You have an idea of what will be there but it really takes just staying in one spot over and over to get the big picture.

Jackrabbit sizing me up on one of my surveys.

Also, just sitting in one spot gives birds and animals a chance to get used to you and in some cases, come over and check out you out. And some of my best birding moments have been on bird surveys.

A greater roadrunner doing exactly what its name suggests...running in a road.

I've always had a fondness for roadrunners since I was kid. It may have been because there was a cartoon roadrunner on tv or that my grandparents lived in New Mexico and it was their state bird. I even had a carved roadrunner that played "Kind of the Road" when you wound it up. As a kid I remember thinking that if there were Smurfs in the desert southwest, I bet they'd tame roadrunners and ride them.
When my family took a road trip out in New Mexico, my parents would periodically say from the front seat of the car, "Oh, there goes a roadrunner." Being the youngest sitting in the middle seat in back and being super short, I never got to see them. I thought this incredibly unfair since I would be the one most interested in seeing one. I never really got a great look at a roadrunner as a kid. We stopped someplace for a bathroom break and one ran away from us, but nothing like the quality time one can get with a cardinal.
Throughout the years when I've been in range of roadrunners, I've had flashes while driving or watched one scurry in backyards, but just not time to hang out with a roadrunner and really get some great shots. With some birds, I lament as they stay out of reach, but I also realize that at some point I'll get an opportunity, I just need to be patient and wait.
I finally had my roadrunner moment last summer.

One of the things I'll miss from my Texas surveys: Stripes Gas Station tacos. The chicken fajita is the most reasonable shot at getting vegetables in your day while doing field work.

One morning I started my first survey spot, unwrapped my gas station taco and pressed start on my stopwatch to start my point counts. Dickcissels were waking up all around me and then I heard a familiar cooing. It was the coo of a greater roadrunner...and it sounded like it was ten feet away. I froze and scanned to my left where there was a tangle of mesquite.

Greater roadrunner digiscoped with Swarovksi ATX 65mm scope, iPhone 5s and i5 adapter.

Sure enough, about fifteen feet away was a greater roadrunner singing away. It was not bothered by me at all. The bird was so close I could only get head shots. After a few minutes, I stepped back away to see if I could get a full body shot.

Check out the sexy postorbital apteria...that's the bare skin that's blue, white and red behind the eye. I've only ever seen them expose it while calling.

As I watched the roadrunner sing I thought back to when I was in third grade. My parents moved me to a Catholic school mid-year. It was the first day and our teacher was discussing the desert. She asked the class if we could name animals that didn't need a lot of water so they could live in dry climates. I raised my hand and answered roadrunner. She smiled and said, "No, those only exist in Cartoon Land."
She immediately moved on to another student but I couldn't believe she didn't know about roadrunners. The next morning before school I gathered up my National Geographic Field Guide with the roadrunner page bookmarked, my Wonder of Birds book that had a cool series of roadrunner pictures of the adults killing a lizard and feeding it to their chicks, my collection of state bird stamps that included the stamp for New Mexico that had a roadrunner on it, and a tourist brochure for New Mexico that had a picture of a roadrunner on it. I waited until lunchtime and went to the teacher's lounge--it was a different world then, the teacher's lounge door was open so you could see your teachers smoking and if you needed to, you could come in and ask a question. I went in with all of my birding paraphernalia and up to my new third grade teacher who was talking to the Sister Elizabeth the fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Stahl the social studies teacher and the principal Mr. Greer.
"Hi Mrs. Meyers," I said, "I just wanted to let you know that roadrunners do live in real life and they're the state bird of New Mexico." I opened my books and showed the pictures. "I can see why you might be confused, they're not blue like in Bugs Bunny, they're really brown and sometimes people call them the chaparral cock."
Mrs. Meyers nodded, said she had things to do and left the lounge. I was not her favorite student after that. But it turned out ok, the fourth grade teacher was a nun with a stern reputation. She was also a birder and Sister Elizabeth and I got along just fine when I hit fourth grade. She even gave me a Forebush/May book on the final day of fourth grade.
Anyway, here's a little video that I got of the roadrunner. You might need headphones to hear the call. iPhones don't have the best microphones and the soft call of a roadrunner is going to be overpowered by dickcissels singing away.

A roadrunner was vocalizing near me on one of my bird surveys in Texas. Taken with iPhone 5s, Swarovski ATX 65mm spotting scope and Swarovski i5 adapter.

**Birding And Camping In Sweden** Feb 28, 2016

Kolarbyn is known as Sweden's most primitive hotel. Seriously, check their website, that's how they bill themselves. Can you make out our hut hidden in the Swedish wildnerness?

Did I ever tell you about that time I went camping and birding in Sweden?
Probably not in the blog. This is another in a series of adventures that happened in the last few years that has made it in some of my keynotes or conversations over libations at Birds and Beers, but never made it here.
So...Sweden:

On this trip I learned to find suitable shelter for surviving a night in the Swedish wilderness as well as how to filter water through a beer can, building a fire from mosses and forage for lingonberries and mushrooms.

Believe it or not, this trip was work related but I still look back on this trip and wonder...did that really happen? We were based at Kolarbyn Ecolodge which literally bills itself as "Sweden's most primitive hotel." But even though it's primitive, it's still beautiful and your experience is more relaxing than you'd think. It's about a two hour drive northwest of Stockholm.

The inside of my hut complete with wood burning stove and wooden planks with sheepskin to sleep on. We also added some padding and a sleeping bag for good measure.

Imagine if some designers from IKEA went out into the Swedish wilderness and designed very tasteful, elegant and minimalist huts with trees, dirt and mosses--you'd have Kolarbyn. The camp specializes in giving you a complete outdoor and survival experience. They were a bit baffled by birders. They expect their guests to be ready for hikes--which birders are but when they hear good birds, they are going to plant ourselves to observe and identify. Even experienced bird trip leaders know that guiding birders is like guiding cats. They walked us past an area that had nesting a family of black-throated divers (aka Arctic loon in North American field guides) and we planted to enjoy not only the view of the birds but the sounds as well. But I think they gradually got the hang of birders.

A chef cooks fish and cheese over a campfire.

The food was wonderful. Sometimes a chef cooked for us and there were times when we helped prepare the meal. One of the experiences you can have at Kolarbyn is learning to identify edible foods in the Swedish mountains. During our trip in September, blueberries and lingonberries were plentiful and a handy snacks. There were also a variety of edible mushrooms which tasted great sauteed in butter over the campfire.

Chaffinches lurking around the campfire hoping for some scraps of food.

It's just not a trip to Sweden without tube food.

My first morning when I joined the camp for some coffee, the owner of Kolarbyn offered me some caviar from a tube. I soon learned that I could get meat and cheese from a tube as well. You really haven't lived until you have had reindeer meat squeezed out like toothpaste onto toast heated over a campfire. As I marveled over this strange food, they asked me what food I would have in Minnesota that they might find weird in Sweden. "Lutefisk," I said without thinking--it's the grossest thing people eat here. Fish soaked in lye with the consistency of Jell-O is enough to weird most people out. But I forgot where I was and the Swedes looked at me in astonishment and said that they loved lutefisk. Of course.

Me next to an ant mound. As part of of our survival training we got to taste ants. They had a citrusy flavor when stressed.

Now typically on these sorts of trips, the end of the day is capped off by a large meal and a few drinks. Our first night we sat down to an early dinner. The plan was to go out on a moose and wolf safari in the dark. The beverages were presented in the form of juice and non-alcoholic beer. Everyone looked confused and asked where the real booze was hiding. Our safari host smiled and said, "We have learned that if we don't give you alcohol you are much quieter and we have a better chance of finding wolf and moose."
More than one of us lamented that we hadn't hit the duty free shop at the airport before arriving to the camp.

Two of 21 moose seen in one hour's time on our Swedish night time moose safari.

The moose safari did not disappoint--we saw several. Moose are kind of a confusing thing in Europe. Over there, they call moose "elk." What we call elk in North America, they call "wapiti." We have had a steep decline in the moose population in my home state of Minnesota so it was a real treat to see so many. One of the moose we saw had a fresh injury on its nose, like a chunk had been bitten out of it--perhaps by wolves. Actually, I can understand why Minnesota had so many Swedes settle here. The landscape is very similar--as is the wildlife. Not only did we see moose but we had divers (loons) and wolves.

Piece of moose hoof found in fresh wolf poop.

We saw lots of evidence of wolves--especially their poop. We staked out a spot on a trail to one of their dens in the hopes of one or two passing by. Though we didn't see the wolves, we did have some capercaillie settling into a roost tree near by--those things are so huge, their bodies cracking branches sounded more like Big Foot was coming through the forest than grouse. We never did see wolves on this trip, but we did hear them howl. I've seen wolves in Minnesota and Israel (though that one looked more like a coyote) but getting to hear a pack howl on one of our nighttime safaris was one of the coolest non-birding things I have ever part of--and worth a bit of sobriety. Sitting in utter darkness and in such a remote area of the Swedish wilderness under innumerable stars on a carpet of spongy mosses and a pack of wolves starts howling...I get goosebumps now remembering.
Speaking of sounds, get a load of this video:

This is a method of calling in livestock grazing high in the mountains. We heard this in northern Sweden at an ecolodge called Kolarbyn. This voice echoing off of the trees and lake was as beautiful as the wolves we heard howling at night.

One night they brought in a woman named Christina Holmström who does "kulning" which is a method of calling in livestock from the mountains. On our final night they allowed us to cut loose and have some wine around the fire. As we were sipping and toasting, this song started echoing off of the lake. Her evening song was just has haunting as the wolves howling. By the way, Kolarbyn also has a floating sauna on this lake which I highly recommend using, if you get too hot simply jump in to cool off or sit on the dock marveling the stars or northern lights.

Forgoing huts or tents, we spent a night sleeping directly under the stars and woke to black-throated divers yodeling off the lake in the morning.

The ground beneath us was moss, berries and mushrooms. Pro tip: don't eat the red capped mushroom.

Daniel Green with me in Sweden. He helped us find lesser-white fronted goose.

After camping we headed back towards to Stockholm but did a bit of wetlands birding along the way. I was excited because we met up with Daniel Green of Bird Safaris Sweden who I have met before on my travels in Israel and south Texas. A great birder who is a great guide for Sweden or anywhere else you'd wish to travel around the world.

Barnacle goose.

I was excited for this spot because it was chock full of barnacle geese. This is a glassy looking goose that I've always wanted to see. Thanks to television, they're also known as the "base jumping goose."

But there were all sorts of waterfowl and shorebirds here including lesser white-fronted goose (which my pictures are terrible and are not here). It was a great trip and between the food and the birds, I think Europe is one of my all time favorite birding destinations outside of the United States.
More birds below:

Marsh harrier and common buzzard soaring over our heads.

Swedish jackdaws.

White-tailed eagle.

Hooded crow and jackdaws.

Apparently is customary to have a photo of the king and queen of Sweden in the bathroom. Even in an outhouse.

**Birder Emotions About The Ivory Gull On January 6, 2016** Jan 06, 2016

Courtesy of Nathan Swick.

Courtesy Michael Retter and Nathan Swick.

**Sinister Bird Cheerleading** Dec 22, 2015
I realized that as my life has shifted to more professional writing, I don't write for my blog like I used to. Once I've written something that ends up over at Outdoor News or Audubon, there's no need to put it here. But I do a lot of writing for other things like Encyclopedia Shows so rather than just leaving that to be scratches in one of the myriad of notebooks Non Birding Bill and I keep, I thought I might as well put it out here for better or for worse. So here is this week's Encyclopedia Show entry on Cheerleading. There is some profanity (gasp).

If they chose to do so, red-winged blackbirds would probably make an ok cheerleader.

I don't get cheerleading. I'm not disparaging people to have cheered or currently cheer but I don't get the concept as a whole. But then again, I'm often perplexed by sports ball. We cheer for people with tremendous athletic ability who can tackle each other, or throw and catch an oddly shaped ball from one end of a field to another, or for being able to dodge of bunch of dudes while bouncing a ball and periodically tossing it into a round net. I find the find the sports industry as strange as I find the spectacle of the fashion industry.
Maybe it’s because most of the things I do aren’t cheer related events like birding or paint by number. No one ever cheers you while birding:
“2-4-6-8!
Who just got a magnificent frigate?
Birdchick! That’s right, bird-bird-bird-bird Birdchick!”

Me at a running event.

For me personally, I don't find cheerleading useful. Every now and then I get in my head to do a 5K. I'm not great at it. My rules for a 5K are:
1. Finish.
2. Don't die.
3. Don't be last.
My reasons for doing 5ks isn’t any deep spiritual thing. It’s to keep eating in the manner in which I have become accustomed and if there ever really is a zombie apocalypse I'll have a reasonable chance of surviving the first round of killings. I've never experienced the "runner's high" that people talk about, but then again the people who tell me about it tell I need to do a longer run and that you really feel it at the 8k mark. Blah. I'm lucky to make it to the 5k mark.
When you run at events, there are people who are cheering you on...complete with cowbell, usually at the halfway mark or towards the finish. When I get to that point I'm not that thrilled with the cheering because my brain is generally to the point of, "Hey, you know a walk/run is a perfectly valid way to finish this and would probably burn more calories...aw, fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck, people are cheering us, we can't stop and walk now we have to show them their cheering is working, keep running. Fuck. Keep running."

Cranes at dawn in Kearney, Nebraska.

But I have had occasion to see birders cheer odd things like actual life and death instances. I was co-leading a trip to Kearney, Nebraska to see a million snow geese and about 40,000 sandhill cranes pausing in their northward migration to their arctic breeding grounds. The highlights are going to the roost at dawn and at dusk to see the massive congregations of birds. When you aren't in the crane blinds you drive around to watch the birds forage for waste corn in the surrounding farm fields. Our group was watching a large flock when the birds suddenly spooked and took to the sky forming a huge gray crane tornado.
We soon saw what panicked the birds--an adult bald eagle was making tracks for the center of the tornado, its sites clearly set on one particular crane. The eagle made contact and clipped the crane, the bird flipped, the eagle rounded again and went to catch it. Meanwhile, everyone in my group was cheering. Half the group was cheering for the eagle and the other half were cheering for the crane to get away. As opposed to a football or a basketball game, they were literally cheering a life and death situation. One bird was trying to avoid starvation, the other bird was trying to avoid being eaten.
The eagle again dove for the crane and this time made actual contact. The crane was literally upside down and the eagle had at least one foot-full of talons lodged in the crane's belly. Bald eagles and sandhill cranes are roughly the same weight, averaging about ten pounds (give or take a pound or two). Even if this had been a twelve-pound eagle, it can only carry half its weight in flight. The captured crane flapped its wings and was able to dislodge itself from the eagle's grasp. The crane managed to right itself and fly away from the eagle.
Then it did something interesting—the crane made a beeline for our cheering group. The eagle turned and was in hot pursuit. The crane left the flock and flew right over our bus, meanwhile the eagle paused and went around our screaming group giving the crane some much needed distance to try and flee the eagle. In hindsight I wondered if the crane sensed the eagle would be wary of humans or was just so terrified of being eaten that it didn’t notice us? The surrounding din of thousands of cranes would have easily drowned out our voices. Eagles do not like to fly over anything dangerous so our group would have given it pause. But the eagle increased speed and continued after the crane. Both birds flew well out of sight and we never saw the finish but that adult eagle seemed determined and depending on how injured that crane was, it was very likely the eagle caught up to the exhausted crane and finished it off.
The adrenaline of the group wore down but we all noticed how strange it was to cheer and shout for that battle. What did say about each other and the side we chose?
I wondered if there were instances of birds cheering. I scoured my bird books and wondered if perhaps parent birds cheer on their kids when learning to fly?
No, not really, they either kind of sit aloof watching what happens. If anything, they taunt their young by not feeding them. And then perching some flight distance away starving the kids into flight.
Birds definitely scream and yell, usually when a predator is present and they are screaming and yelling: “Hey guys, there’s a thing right here that’s trying to hide and kill us!”
But I think the closest I came to finding a bird cheering is from a book called *Mind of the Raven* by Bernd Heinrich (which is a fantastic book).

Beware the mind of a raven.

The story is about a 98 pound woman who didn’t even clear five feet in height. One evening she was working behind her Colorado cabin. For about twenty minutes a raven had been annoying her because it was *“putting on a fuss like crazy.”*
“I never paid much attention to ravens,” she told me, but this one was so noisy it was downright irritating. The noisy raven kept coming closer…Hannum had never before noticed ravens “cackling like crazy.” Was this raven trying to say something? She started to listen more closely.
*The raven was close, and it made a pass over her calling raucously then flying up above her to some rocks, where she finally saw a crouching cougar, twenty feet away, ready to pounce.*
*The lion moved his head just a bit as the raven flew over. That’s when I saw him. I never would have seen him otherwise. He was going to jump me. That raven saved my life.”*
The event was declared a miracle in the news.
Heinrich saw a miracle but not the way Hannum saw it. Ravens have no interest in helping people, especially someone who never paid them any attention or fed them. That raven wasn’t warning her. That raven was cheering on the cougar. The idea is that the raven saw the woman as a source of food. Not having the talons or teeth to kill her itself, it noticed a cougar nearby and called it in to kill her. The cougar wouldn't eat her all but would open her carcass enough and leave enough behind for the raven to feed on.
That raven noticed a cougar nearby and a small human that raven was cheering that cougar. Perhaps it sounded something like this:
“Hey, you could kill this right now!
Go Cougar go!
Pounce Cougar pounce!
Kill Cougar kill!
Go! Pounce! Kill!"

**New Birder Advice** Oct 09, 2015

Insert the Ned Stark joke here: winter is coming, juncos are in full force in Minneapolis. My patch is full of them right now and always taking a moment to observe even a common bird like this can imprint their shape and behavior on your brain.

I was recently on Jekyll Island for the Georgia Ornithological Society annual meeting and I had a blast. What really impressed me was not only the diversity of birders but the mix in ages. I met Evan who runs the Georgia Young Birder Club and he asked me what is the one piece of advice I would give new birders. I had to resist the smart ass part of my brain that wanted to answer, "never drink scotch under 15 years of age" or "avoid the clap" but I managed to retain a modicum of adulthood and gave what I hope is a better answer.
My initial advice is always to try and find a place and do your own informal bird survey. Whether that's picking a spot or a few nearby spots and doing weekly 20 minute point counts or visiting it as much as possible. You learn so much about about the birds that visit, pass through and breed there. That's been my big takeaway doing bird surveys over the years. I've now adopted that with my local patch.

My patch on a brisk fall morning. Thanks to a hard overnight rain, the air was thick with the aroma of wet autumn leaves.

I discovered my patch not long after we moved a year ago. I ran into a fellow eBirder not too long ago and they said, "You're always turning in lists from this spot when you should really do this other spot, the birding is better."
That may be, but I love my patch because it's in easy walking distance from my home. If I find myself with a spare hour, I have time to not only bird my patch but add over 5000 steps to my step tracker app. It's a win/win.

One of the hundreds of white-throated sparrows lurking about in my patch today.

My other advice is that if you do not have children and you have a choice between birding and responsibility...choose birding. Always. I've never regretted that decision (my credit cars maybe have, but me personally, no). My classic example that I've pointed to before is the time years ago when I random day off of the bird store and though I should have used that day to do things like clean the kitchen and tackle the piles of month old laundry, I decided to take a day trip up do Duluth to see Hawk Ridge. The winds were supposed to be perfect for a good broad-winged hawk flight, right out of the northwest. Even as my car reached the outer suburbs, I almost turned around, "You're an adult now, you should really do laundry," but my bird side won out.
It ended up being a record day for Hawk Ridge and over 100,000 broad-winged hawks were tallied that day. It was magical. And I would have hated myself had I chosen to stay home and do laundry instead.

Palm warlber.

And unless I'm just home for a very hardcore birding trip or survey, I generally try to avoid laundry, vacuuming, cleaning out the fridge, etc as much as possible and go birding. Last night I was biking through my patch and almost hit a Harris's sparrow that flew in front of me. I knew that if I went to bed before midnight and got up at 6:30am (or about) I'd have enough time to walk my local patch, get some birds and get cleaned up for a day at the park service. I was hoping to digiscope the Harris's sparrow but also I just like looking for sparrows in the fall. All those lovely combinations of brown, rufous, gray, buff and heck if I'm lucky enough to find a Nelson's sparrow, even pumpkin color.
I did get some yellow-rumped warblers and palm warblers but there all kinds of great sparrows: Harris's still (though none were obliging enough for a photo, swamp, fox, white-throated, Lincoln's and quite a few song sparrows.

First winter chipping sparrow.

At first glance, I really wanted to turn the above bird into a clay-colored sparrow when I first saw it but my patch isn't really clay-colored habitat. After a bit more observation showed the bold eyeline of a chipping sparrow and it lacked the white "muttonchop" look of a clay-colored. Chipping sparrow makes way more sense for this habit anyway. A bummer to not add a new species but I do enjoy sorting out tough species. If you've never noticed how similar these two sparrows can look in the fall, check this out from the Sibley app:

First winter chipping sparrow is on top and non breeding clay-colored sparrow is on the bottom--they're practically twins! Mercifully, they are way easier to separate in summer.

**A Birder's View of the Grand Canyon** Jul 02, 2015

A Clark's nutcracker perched on the rim of a tiny piece of the Grand Canyon in dawn's early light.

I recently returned from some training at the Grand Canyon and two things made an impression:
1. Nothing can really prepare you for the Grand Canyon. Sure, maybe you saw the Brady Bunch episodes filmed in the canyon or perhaps a trip in a commercial jet has taken you over it, but standing there on the rim and staring down into the gaping maw of ancient rock that goes a mile deep and you suddenly realize, "Oh hey, that's fault line"...it kind of bowls you over.

The South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I love how insignificant I feel looking into this crazy deep hole in the ground.

I think my friend BirdSpot put it best, "This place cannot be oversold."

2. How do more people not die at the Grand Canyon every year? They get about 5 million visitors and average only 12 deaths a year. That's pretty incredible given some of the dangerous terrain and quite frankly, the average person's ability to do something stupid like texting and walking, going off trail because that one ledge would be a really cool selfie on Instagram or just tripping over your laces.

Stellar's Jays were all over the South Rim.

I was primarily there to get some training in and though it was several days long we had time in the morning and evening to explore and even two whole days off in the middle. Our training facility offered bikes for us to use to explore the area. I was up early every morning because I was used to a different time zone and I thought it would be fun to bike around the rim before my classes. I got a hard less in that high elevation turned what would be perfectly reasonable hills in Minnesota into thigh and lung torture at 6000 feet in Arizona.

One of the dozens of pygmy nuthatches that surrounded my room at the Grand Canyon.

I opted instead to go birding around my dorm in the morning and opened it up to others who might interested. There were some great birds to be had including oodles of pygmy nuthatches, ash-throated flycatchers (one even nested on the training center's dorms), mountain chickadees, black-throated gray warblers, white-throated swift--basically a host of cool southwestern birds that a northern girl like myself doesn't get to indulge in very often.
There were also large herds of elk and mule deer. I don't trust any animal with a hoof and it was incredibly unnerving to walking out of your room at night and find yourself within ten feet of the butt end of an elk. I did my best to give them a wide berth but they really liked coming close to people.

This was a young mountain chickadee that was trying to glean insects with its family from the overhang and screens around our building. Being young and naive it let me grab a quick selfie before it flew away.

For my day off I found a spot using the BirdsEye app that reportedly had painted redstart, nutcrackers, western bluebirds, western wood-peewee and other southwest specialties. It was a different part of the canyon to explore and thought it sounded like a fun spot. Due to the heat and daylight hours I thought I'd start at 6am and offered it up to others in my class to come along.
Now comes the weird part. This was a training for people who work in the National Park Service. I was the only birder. Oh sure, there were one or two who knew local and specialties species of their parks but going birding outside of their parks? Crazy!

Violet-green swallows were all over around our dorms and the canyon. Oh how frustrated I was this time last year that I didn't have time to fly to a spot to video one for our web series.

It gets better. We had the option on our two days off of getting a permit to go hiking into the bottom of the Grand Canyon. While I was there it was in the 90s--granted that's a dry heat but it's still hot. That was just at the rim. Down in the canyon it was actually 120 degrees. So to safely hike in there the group was going to get up at 3am and hike the switchbacks down into the canyon, spend the night (did I mention it's a 120 degrees) get up at 3am and hike back up. Yeah, they were going to go down first and then go up second. That basically sounded like tourture to me. Couple that with the fact they were leaving at 3am and my bird walk started at 6am...I was the reasonable one. How often does birding seem like the more reasonable thing to do?

Western bluebird posting outside of our dorms during one of our morning bird walks.

We followed the driving directions in the app and found a nice shady spot among junipers and ponderosa pine for some light birding. We didn't get the painted redstart but we had most of the other birds that were on the eBird report and a singing hermit thrush. Two other intrepid rangers joined me and what they didn't know about birds, they made up for in residual knowledge about wildflowers and trees.

Fellow park rangers Erik Ditlzer and Charlie Kolb aren't just tree huggers but tree sniffers. Charlie told us to smell the ponderosas because they could smell like vanilla or butterscotch. This one smelled like vanilla to me.

But the best part was when we hiked in and came to another opening of the South Rim and had a terrific view of the Grand Canyon...alone. We got to sit and meditate on the grandeur without being surrounded by tourists. There really is no ugly view of the Grand Canyon. Sure, it changes color throughout the day but it is spectacular no matter where you are. But what a treat to sit for an hour or so with friends to talk and not talk and not have people maneuvering about you with selfie sticks. I think it was one of my favorite moments of the trip.

A remote view we found of the canyon where there were no tourists courtesy of the BirdsEye app.

My main goal in coming to Grand Canyon was to see a California condor. I didn't want to just see one perched, I wanted to see one fly. California condors were part of that trifecta of endangered birds I learned about the in the late 1970s and early 1980s: bald eagles, peregrine falcons and California condors were all about to disappear. Bald eagles and peregrines have made quite the comeback, but not condors. There are several factors like the condor's ability to lay one egg a year that contribute to their slow return to the wild. Also it's arguable that this is a species that's on its way out even without humans mucking up the environment. They were meant to forage on the carcasses of megafauna like giant sloth or mammoth not deer or elk. Will this be a species that will forever need human stewardship to stay around?
That canyon has a lot of birds soaring about...many of them turkey vultures. Here's a great photo showing the difference between a soaring condor and soaring turkey vulture.

The Grand Canyon with a bird soaring over! No, it's not a condor, it's a turkey vulture.

I've seen condors in captive settings and I've even been in a clinic when one was sedated for examination and got to touch it. But I wondered how something that huge flies. It's kind of like seeing a giant bustard fly, you can't imagine it until you actually see it.
As my fellow park service employees found out about my interest in birds they all wanted to know what I wanted to see. When they learned it was a condor they were all eager to help. I loved how everyone had a vested interest in helping me find a condor--isn't that just like a park ranger, make sure the visitor gets the experience they want. I wasn't too worried. Sure I wanted to see one right away, but I knew I had ten days to find a condor, it had to happen. There are roughly 72-ish birds using the area, one had to fly over at some point. The first few times we went to the canyon as part of our training, I tried to play it cool...but of course I had my scope with me. I got a fast education of just how many turkey vultures and common ravens roam the skies.
Everyone was pointing to large soaring birds asking if I had seen them. "Yes, I saw the turkey vulture." Or to be technical, one day I did say, "Yes I see the turkey vulture...oh wait...oh crap, that's a zone-tailed hawk which flies like a turkey vulture--bonus!"

Spotted towhee singing around Bright Angel trailhead.

My Saturday birding companions were also on the lookout to find me a condor. Other colleagues who hiked the canyon or did other things on our day off me throughout the day asking if I found the condor or even better alerting me to condor-ish things they saw in various locations soaring around the canyon. It was really, really sweet.
After a fun morning of Saturday birding, we then headed for Bright Angel Trail Head where condors were reported regularly on the BirdsEye app. As soon as we arrived on the trail, all three of us looked up and saw a bird, one said, "Uh...Sharon..."

If you look close you can make out that the black speck is a California condor.

Yep, there it was, an adult California condor soaring overhead, high in the sky but easily identifiable without optics. Of course I tried to digiscoping it, but a bird in clear blue sky high overhead is next to impossible to find with a scope and I decided, "Screw it, just enjoy it" and put up my binoculars and savored my condor. The thick wing shape, the bulky body, the proportions nothing like a vulture or eagle...so old world looking. Spectacular. I did snap a phone of a dark speck in a luscious blue sky as a souvenir. How could I not?
I had a second view of a bird high overhead the following week. And delighted in saying casually to my colleagues, "Has anyone not seen a condor yet, there's one right over our heads."
Again too high to get a great photo but man how cool to see something like that airborne. I've condors in captivity and even got to touch one in a clinic situation, but see something that huge, flying around in the wild was truly something special. I don't know if this is a species that will be able to survive without human intervention, but I like that that a bird that huge has a place like the Grand Canyon to move around in.

Common raven scavenging the park's trails near the concession stands.

I did get a kick out of the ravens around the trails near concessions stands at the Grand Canyon. Unlike crows, ravens can soar on thermals like hawks. The ravens here soar around the rim and keep a vigilant eye on tourists who drop food and then immediately land in the sea of human bodies to grab a fallen Cheeto. Brazen and huge, what a delightful bird.

Dark-eyed juncos were all over but these were the southwestern race of red-backed juncos.

I also got so see some fun regional birds like the red-back race of dark-eyed junco. Remember when we used to have, like, species of junco and then they got lumped and a bunch of birders lot their minds? Good times.
I also got to see...and not digiscope the local white-breasted nuthatches who look and sound a bit difference than the nuthatches we have where I live. World on the street is that the American Ornithologists' Union might split the white-breasted nuthatch into six different species. Maybe that will make up for the junco lumping of long ago?

Taking in the view near the Tower off of Desert View Drive.

The canyon has something for everyone: views, fossils, birds, archeology, geology, hiking...ok, it maybe lacking in good wifi so maybe it doesn't have something for someone like Non Birding Bill but man, it truly lives up to the reputation of being a spectacular place.
I hope everyone has a chance to visit it at least once in their lives...and that they don't die in doing so.

**Non Birding Bill Told Me To Try The Hydra App** Apr 23, 2015
Non Birding Bill has been raving about a photography app called Hydra. When you click to take a photo the app takes up to 60 images and then merges them into a single high-quality picture. He said it would be great for birding. Heres' what I got:

I think this is supposed to be a hairy woodpecker.

So, Hydra, great for selfies...not so much for birds who constantly move.

White-crowned sparrow digiscoped with the camera app that comes with the iPhone 5s and Swarovski ATX 65mm scope.

I thought maybe if I found a bird that was perched and not actively feeding like the above white-crowned sparrow might give me better results. Above is a photo taken with the camera app on the iPhone. Below is Hydra.

White-crowned sparrow digiscoped with Hydra app on iPhone 5s and Swarovski ATX 65mm scope.

Maybe if you are into some surreal photos of birds this might be the app for you.

**Dancing Dougal** Apr 21, 2015
We have a pet rabbit named Dougal. When he's really happy he hops in all different directions. We call this "popcorning" but the rabbit industry insists on calling it "bunny binkies." I just can't call it that. Regardless, if your rabbit does this, they are happy:

**Hermit Thrush Foraging Technique** Apr 15, 2015

Hermit thrush was foraging around my beehives.

Patch birding has really made birding fun for me in a way I didn't expect. I've always enjoyed keeping an eBird tally of what I see around our beehives, but I'm really digging keeping track of the park near our new apartment as well as keeping track of what shows up around our apartment itself...but I'm still not a lister.
I got a hermit thrush around our beehives and while I was watching it, I noticed it was kind of shaking its feet. I took some video with my iPhone through my scope and made a mental note to look "hermit thrush foot quivering" up later on the Internet and see if this is a thing with hermit thrushes. Sure enough with my first Google search, Cornell did not fail me. According to Birds of North America Online:
"Foot Quivering: Interpreted by Dilger and also Brown et al. as a ritualized ambivalent intention movement of simultaneous, conflicting drives to attack and to retreat; but also may serve as foraging technique used to locate insects under leaf litter. Brackbill and Kilham cite observations of foot-quivering while foraging, with no indication of the birds being disturbed and Skutch reported a similar observation of Russet Nightingale-Thrush in the non-breeding season and outside of its breeding range."
I love the first part describing it as something the hermit thrush does because it's not sure if it should attack or retreat. "I'm just gonna kick the ground, man."
I don't think this particular bird was disturbed by my presence and that just coming in from migration the bird was most likely looking for some tasty invertebrates in leaf litter. Either way, here's the footage and maybe you might see thrushes doing this in your neighborhood.

**My Kind Of Birding** Mar 24, 2015

The outdoor library at Canopy Lodge in Panama. Doesn't that look relaxing?

I have been party to a lot of discussion online and in meetings about what women birders doing. Part of this is because women are 50% (at least) of the birding population in the US and hard to find in Europe. My thinking is that generally women enjoy birds differently than men but some of my female birding friends are hardcore listers and bristle at the notion that women aren't as competitive as men, most of the women I know are very casual as far as their interest in listing goes. There seems to be a mixture of enjoyment from photography, art, socialization and balancing life and birding.
I think over the years, I have discovered that there are things I enjoy about birding and things I do not. Competitive listing (apart form an informal apartment list I keep in my fridge) is not for me. I think it's because I see the impossibility of trying to see every single species on Earth, not only the logisitics and money involved with travel but also how species are discovered or lumped and split I don't want to take a once in a lifetime trip to New Zealand, get every bird there and then five years later learn some species was split into five based on DNA and chip notes and there are three birds I still need. I don't want that to ruin the fact that I went to freakin' New Zealand.

Learning to separate flight calls of western and eastern meadowlarks was a cool revelation. Westerns make a "chup" call and easterns make "bink" type call.

One form of birding (and listing, I suppose) that I've discovered I love is patch birding. I think it's from doing so many point counts for work. Monitoring one place over several weeks at various times of the day and discovering shifts in seasonal movement or how resident birds act throughout the day is very satisfying to me. It doesn't matter that I don't get a new species, but if I get a new to me behavior or learn distinguish new calls, it's incredibly very rewarding--like the day I realized the difference in sound between a western meadowlark flight call vs an eastern meadowlark flight call.

Crimson-backed tanager taken from the porch of Canopy Lodge in Panama--that is a bird worth traveling for.

Even if I'm not doing surveys for work, I love every opportunity I have for birding a new area either in the US or around the world. I don't necessarily enjoy it when a tourism board wants me up early for ten days in a row, but I also realize that when life hands you opportunity, grasp it with both hands and sleep later.
I enjoy scanning a field guide and seeing what are iconic birds of an area and what bird looks really cool to me and target for that--like a shoebill or toucan or the above crimson-backed tanager--is that not a dynamite bird worth a plane ticket or what? Best part was that this was one of the first birds that I got when I visited Panama a few years ago. I had a late flight and slept in a bit the next morning to find a little coffee, bacon and papaya waiting for me on the deck. I sat on the comfy outdoor chairs and soaked in the rainbow of colors at the feeders. I ticked off several iconic birds: honey greepers, tanagers, saltators all over some coffee and bacon. That is my kind of birding.

I swear, there are four different species of warbler on this page.

What I do not enjoy is hunting down every single possible bird in an area for the sake of having a larger list, especially if all the birds look the same (like the above warblers). Not that I'm dissing brown and gray birds--Non Birding Bill can attest to how much I love them. But I don't want to spend over an hour playing calls, pishing or whatever to get some skulky species that looks like five other birds while there are scenic vistas to enjoy and less skulky and more charismatic birds out there. Also, if a bird is being that skulky, we're stressing it at that point, let's leave it alone.

Orange-chinned parakeet chewing up a flower in Panama.

Another thing I enjoy is playing around with digiscoping. A bird in lovely evening light like an organge-chinned parakeet nomming down on a flower is just too cool. A fun souvenir from travel.

Bat falcon soaring over Canopy Tower in Panama as the sun sets.

I also enjoy quiet moments like standing barefoot on the top of Canopy Tower listening to tinamous and collared forest-falcons call as a bat falcon hawks for insects overhead while I sip a gin and tonic (I know, I know I normally drink whiskey but in warm weather I do enjoy a little bit of gin).
And as much as I enjoy some of the trips I take to see a showcase of their birding offerings, I don't relish 4:30 - 5am start times for ten days. A few is ok, but man oh man, do I enjoy a day where I can sleep in til 7am and still see some cool stuff.

Howler monkey in the trees just outside of Canopy Tower.

Does this sound appealing and like your kind of birding? Consider coming with me to Panama this fall. We'll catch the fall raptor migration, we'll drink, we'll get up at reasonable hours, we'll laugh, take some great pictures of cool birds with our smartphone so we can text them to friends who are at their desks and even work in time for a few naps. You will come back from this birding adventure vacation without feeling like you need another vacation.
Canopy Lodge and Tower are two of the best birding destinations I have ever been to. As soon as you land, the guides take care of transportation and our meals as well as our birding needs. We will have a blast and a trip of a lifetime.

**Digidapter For Digiscoping** Mar 22, 2015

A new digiscoping adapter I've been playing with since seeing it in Florida called the Digidapter.

I've had the opportunity to play around with some newer digiscoping adapters both for smartphones and for SLRs. When not using my iPhone 5s to take pictures and video, I've been using my Nikon V1, which is a very good camera and generally I use with the Swarovski TLS APO adapter.
The Digidapter is designed so you can set your camera on it and then the hood will fit over the eyepiece. Currently, this adapter will work on Swarovski, Zeiss, Leica, Kowa and Celestron. The owner is able to custom make adapters, but those will probably be a different price than what's on the website.
What I thought was cool about this Digidapter is that it fits a number of cameras--perhaps even a few point and shoots. But the really cool part is that the biggest beef I have with "universal" adpaters is that they tend to be futzy--you have to make constant adjustments. You screw the bottom of your camera to the Digidapter and then make adjustments to how it lines up with your scope eyepiece. The cool part is that the two red nuts on the adapter are adjustable and help you keep track of where to place your camera after you take it off the adapter. Once you know where your camera fits on the adapter, you slide those to the front of the camera and tighten and viola--you always know where the camera needs to go on the adapter.

One of my favorite photos I've gotten of a bird--a crested caracara taken with the Nikon V1, TLS APO and Swarovski ATX 85 mm scope.

If there's one downside to the Nikon V1 is that sometimes there's too much zoom with it on the scope. Which if birds are far away is great. But if you want to get birds at a feeder outside the window, you can sometimes be too close to get a full frame body shot. So I thought I would try using the V1 with the Digadapter.

I took some digiscoping adapters to my local patch for some testing (much to the chagrin of the local Duck Lady who was irritated that I declined her offer for duck food and pissed when I said, these ducks have plenty of natural food). All the waterfowl posted in this entry were under the downed snag.

I've been trying to test out these adapters at feeders to give you an idea of field of view in the camera but we keep getting cold snaps and some of my go to nature centers for photos have now covered their windows with stickers to prevent widow strikes which makes bird photography next to impossible. So I found some obliging sleeping ducks in my neighborhood.

Mallard digiscoped with Swarovski ATX 95mm spotting scope, TLS APO adapter and Nikon V1.

Above is an upcropped image of a mallard taken with Swarovski ATX 95mm spotting scope, TLS APO adapter and Nikon V1. You can see that it's a challenge to get the whole bird in. I normally solve this by keeping my distance with birds and that strategy generally works out. But sometimes, like in the case of being in a blind that's not an option--isn't it always something with photography?

This is my Nikon V1 with the TLS APO adapter. I nice light-weight system.

Above is my current system. I like it because it's relatively easy to carry in the field. To use it, I had to remove the zoom lens that came with the camera body, purchase and an adapter that would allow the body to work--funny thing, if you use a non-Nikon lens on this camera body, it won't shoot. You get an error message that says there's no lens...even though there is one. You have to spend about $120 bucks on a Nikon adapter with electronics that tells the camera body there is indeed a lens attached. You also have purchase a smaller cheater adapter that lets you actually attach another lens to it. Well played, Nikon, well played. If I'm not going to buy lenses from you, you're still gonna get some of my money.
Anyhoo, the TLS APO adapter from Swarovski has a lens inside it that is optimized to work with your scopes eyepiece. I also like that the sleeve of the adapter that fits over the scopes eyepiece also acts as a protector for the lens on the inside. I've generally liked this system and once used to working with it, you can get some really nice detailed shots (like the above caracara).

Mallard digiscoped with Swarvoski ATX 95mm spotting scope, Digadapter and Nikon V1.

Above is an uncropped photo of a different mallard that was slightly to the left of the first mallard (it got chased off by a rival as I was switching lenses. This is with my Nikon's original zoom lens, Digidapter and Swarovski ATX 95mm spotting scope. A wider field of view than with the TLS APO adapter. But I love it's lightweight and how easily it slides on and off of my scope's eyepiece.

This is what the Digidapter looks like attached to my spotting scope.

I think I need a different Nikon lens for this system, it's a little too close to the glass on my eyepiece than I'm completely comfortable with. There is an extender I can purchase too which takes it a little further from the eyepiece. It's a little chunkier than I'm used to, but for an adapter that works with lots of scopes and cameras, it's very good and slides on and off of the scope eyepiece easily. It's solid and made of aluminum so is fairly light weigh.

**Winter Wings Bird Festival** Nov 12, 2014

One of the many breathtaking views one can have during the Winter Wings Bird Festival.

One of the cooler places I visited this year was the Winter Wings Bird Festival in Klamath Falls, Oregon on the California border and not that far from Crater Lake. For some, this might be a bit of a challenge to get to, the nearest airport is Medford, Oregon about an hour and a half drive through a mountain. If you aren't used to snow...consider renting a vehicle with four wheel drive.
This festival is strong on photography, I was there for some digiscoping workshops and though while I was there the sun wasn't as cooperative as I would have liked, the views were still well worth it.

Winter Wings is great for people who enjoy photography, adventurous landscapes and eagles. This place is loaded with eagles.

Going through all of my digiscoped images, I didn't really do justice to all of the bald eagles one can see in Klamath. If bald eagles are your spirit animal--this festival is for you, this place is lousy with eagles and the landscapes offer a great background to get shots. There was one particular eagle I was hoping to see. I noticed on the Winter Wings Facebook page that there had been sightings of an adult bald eagle with "diluted plumage." We went out scouting with a local guide for our digiscoping field trips and sure enough he helped us locate it.

Dilute plumaged or leucistic adult bald eagle surrounded by Brewer's blackbirds.

I do enjoy going for a chase to see a rarity but I found it particularly fun to sort through the hundreds of bald eagles to locate this particular bird.

Golden-crowned sparrow.

For birders in the eastern US who are looking for ways to rack up some western lifers, this festival is ideal. Above is a golden-crowned sparrow but you get all sorts. Even I got a couple of lifers on this trip.

My lifer Barrow's goldeneye--I had what I felt was an uncountable one for years. I was digiscoping a huge flock of common goldeneyes and when I downloaded my photos, I noticed one very distant bird in the back of the flock was a Barrow's. I just couldn't bring myself to count it since I didn't notice it while I was out in the field.

My lifer white-headed woodpecker.

California Quail.

The town locals really seem to get into the festival. Because it was so rainy, going out to digiscope wasn't always an option and many people opened up their homes and bird feeders so my classes could keep their cameras dry while getting pictures of birds.

Oregon junco viewed while in the state of Oregon.

Western red-tailed hawks trying to dry out after some rain.

But I think where this festival really stands out is the opportunity to bone up on raptor identification. There aren't many places where you can have a dark-morph red-tailed hawk soaring with an immature bald eagle and adult golden eagle. This place really gives a variety of raptors in a variety of plumages and you really get a great chance to study the difference.

A bonus for me: a dark morph ferruginous hawk.

Tundra swans.

A very wet coyote moving amongst the waterfowl.

On top of raptors, there's quite a waterfowl concentration here with loads of opportunities to see tundra swans, snow geese and greater white-fronted geese. The Klamath Basin has struggled with a water shortage the past several years so I'm not sure how that's going to impact the numbers at future festivals...or of western migrating waterfowl.

This shows the drought in the western US. You can see how Extreme Drought covers the Klamath Falls area from the Hi-Def Radar App.

Due to the extreme drought the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge doesn't get the water it needs and the waterfowl that rely on it during migration are forced to move elsewhere. I'm not sure how much that will affect the festival. There are plenty of other birds but it's rough when we can't be reasonable about our water usage and spare some for waterfowl that rely on it during migration.

Digiscoped petroglyphs from Lava Beds National Monument.

We did cross over into California to Lava Beds National Monument. I was bummed that the trails to the petroglyphs were closed because some people had gone in and vandalized it but I had my scope so I was still able to see and digiscope quite a few of the petroglyphs which was pretty cool. Petrolgyphs are all up and down this rock formation as water levels have shifted over the years, so enjoying with a spotting scope or binoculars is not a bad way to go.

Townsend's solitaire.

So if you're looking for a fun February getaway for some western birds, put this festival on your list, especially if you're a photographer (and that includes digiscoping). I say that because I had one guy try to argue with me that digiscoping was not photography. Yes, it is, dude with the big lens, it's just a different technique.
I will warn you that this isn't the warmest festival one can go to in the winter (though compared to Minnesota in February, it was downright balmy) but the views more than make up for the chilliness.

**You Can Relax Now, It's Safe To Purchase A Second Edition Sibley** Oct 29, 2014

A new printing of *The Sibley Guide to Birds Second Edition* is available and you can see a difference from the first printing with just the back cover. Note the bolder font on the book on the left.

Hey, remember last March when we were all excited to see the new and improved *Sibley Guide to Birds Second Edition* and there were some color issues? I'm happy to report that there has been a second printing and I would say that it is safe to purchase this one of a kind bird guide.
Mine just came in the mail and it's clear that the publisher listened to people's concerns which included the reds were too dark, the font too light to read and some of the greens were a little off.

Scarlet tanager comparison from left to right: screen shot of Sibley iPhone app (first edition), Sibley Second Edition first printing, Sibley Second Edition second printing.

The first page I went to when the second edition came out (both times) was the scarlet tanager page. That was the first clue that the reds were off with the first printing. With the newer edition the scarlet tanager is brighter. Not as bright as the app, but it works for me. Now many people said that they didn't mind the darker reds--they know a tanager despite how dark it looked in the book. But if you have a Sibley, you want that guide for the harder to id birds and that's where the reds need to be better.

Here's a comparison of the red-shouldered hawk page of the Second Edition Sibley: first printing on the left, second printing on the right. An improvement!

Some greens were corrected as well, here is a vireo comparison page. First printing on the left, second printing on the right.

Typos like the white-winged crossbill sex mixup have been addressed as well. First printing on the left, second printing on the right.

So if you were holding off on purchasing the new Sibley, now is the time to purchase it--the Second Edition includes more than 600 new painting and 111 rare species were added. There are many additional notes on how and where to watch for birds and flight patters. Some taxonomy is still out of date--but isn't it always with field guides? There is no Ridgway's rail in this edition.
However, it truly is a magnificent book and I'm happy that the publishers took the time to give David Sibley's illustrations the proper printing they needed. That man knows how to communicate bird id so elegantly with his brush strokes. So much hard work went into this book and I think that's what made the first printing so disappointing, it's truly a thing of beauty to see Sibley paintings how they were meant to be seen.

If you want to know if you are purchasing a second printing of the Second Edition Sibley, go to the copyright page and look for "Second printing, July 2014." If it only has "Second Edition, March, 2014" you are getting the darker guide.

I would be wary of purchasing this guide online because you wouldn't be able to tell if someplace like Amazon would ship you a first or second printing. When you have the book in hand, look for the copyright page (the back of the title page) and look for "Second printing, July 2014." You could also go to page 541 and look at the scarlet tanager.
No word yet on when there will be an app version. My guess is that is on the back burner since they clearly worked hard to get the second printing of the second edition where it needs to be to make all us picayune birders happy.
I've been asked if people can trade in first printings--I have no idea. You would have to take that up with whoever you purchased your guide from or the publisher or the company that printed the book (note photo above: Knopf or Scott and Nix). Who knows, maybe the first printing could become a collector's item? I would love it if I could get my first printing autographed with a, "Whoopsie, David Sibley." Or even better, "Are you happy now??? David Sibley" on my second printing.

**Birding Portugal In Autumn** Oct 11, 2014

Mértola, Portugal which is a big ole pile of history. If you need birding tour advice for Portugal, contact Birds and Nature Tours in Portugal.

I was excited to test out the WordLens app on my phone. You hold up the camera lens on your phone to a sign and it tries to translate the sign into your preferred language. This was the first Portugese sign I tried it on. Not perfect, but you get the idea of what the sign means. That's my buddy Clay modeling with the sign...he's not really a troll.

Partaking in some whole fried eels. Be prepared to eat a LOT of very fresh seafood in Portugal. I think the best thing I ate was the grilled calamari and a lightly and simply battered fish with lemon. If you are not into fish, "wild boar" or "black pig" is an option. If you're a vegetarian...be prepared for omlettes and lots of boiled vegetables.

I recently had the opportunity to do some birding in Portugal while I was there for a meeting (it's was incredibly kind of the organizers to schedule birding on top of work). However, this was European style birding which meant we were going to go for as many birds as possible and not really focus on digiscoping. The birds were often far away, this is what my friend Clay describes as "bird spotting" and really reminds me of what I do for some bird surveys. Don't get me wrong, I love the chance to see some new birds and I get that birds are not necessarily the most cooperative of subjects, but the digiscoping opportunities were few and far between and that's what I really enjoy in the field.

Flamingos seen on one of our bird excursions. We did see some fly over our bed and breakfast the Quinta da Praia das Fontes in Alcochete

That's not to say that Portugal didn't have its birding charms. I flew in and out of Lisbon (which constantly reminded me of the movie *Casablanca*). As we crossed the bridge from Lisbon to Alcochete, I noted large, whitish birds that weren't quite egrets. My buddy Clay was with me and asked, "Hey, Shaz, see the flamingos?"
I know flamingos have to be somewhere in the wild, and I saw some far in the distance in Kazakhstan years ago, but I think Out of Africa and various nature documentaries had me believing that Africa is the only place for them, not some European country. Yet, there they were, plain as day in all their comic finery, honking like geese.

This was the hallway to our meetings while in Alcochete--I may have walked extra slow. Wrens, blackbirds, robins and warblers chirped while foraging amongst the foliage.

Blackbird working the grounds of our bed and breakfast.

We held our meetings at the bed and breakfast called Quinta da Paraia das Fontes and the grounds were chock full of common European birds. Through some kind of work miracle, I've managed to be in Europe several times in the last two years and I'm finally getting a handle on the common calls. Crested larks were all over the place and I knew the call right away (it's a three note chirp that to me sounds like their announcing their name, "Crested Lark! Crested Lark!" Two of the coolest birds we saw which were big distractions to the meeting as they foraged outside the windows were firecrest and waxbill. There was no way to digiscope them, but I drank in their presence with my binoculars.

Check it out, it's a spotless starling--that's a thing, an actual species to see while in Portugal.

One of the birds that amused me most on the hotel grounds was the spotless starling. It looks and sounds like the very common European starling but this time of year that bird shifts plumage to be covered in spots...not the spotless starling. Woo-hoo, life bird!

The kitchen where we had lunch during our meetings. The place we stayed in was built in the 16th century and the family still lives in part of the villa. The family still cooks with the stove. This day, our meal was catered and was vegetarian pizza, fresh and lightly battered fish and tomato rice--so tasty.

I had to chuckle because the door knob to my room only came up to my knee. I'm short and even I found locking and unlocking my door awkward.

After dinner I asked for a Jameson on the rocks. The restaurant set down the bottle, a glass and the ice bucket. This happened at every restaurant where I ordered a whiskey in Portugal. With great power comes great responsibility.

Black-tailed godwits, one pied avocet and one black-headed gull.

One evening we birded the shores of Atalaya. We had a tip that while the tide was out we could get some good shorebirding in...and we did, we trudged about a mile away from our vehicles, over shallow channels to take in all the birds. We saw several flamingos who were color banded and we took note of the numbers so we could turn them in later. However, while we were enjoying the excellent light and birds, someone from our group radioed to us that the tide was turning and we should think about heading back to the vehicle. When no one moved, he radioed again, "Guys, come back now."
We reluctantly packed up our optics and trudged through the mosquito swarms and vegetation to get to the channel...which was now quite deep. As those with longer legs strode ahead of me, I noticed Tim Appleton picking up chunks of wood and then what looked like an ancient sea worn cooler. "Why is he doing that?"
When I finally got to the channel, I understood. The lads encouraged me to ride it. I took note of my camera and my iPhone in my various pockets and thought, "No effing way."
The guys kept assuring me it would be safe and I said that I'd rather see one of them test out her seaworthy capabilities first.

Some of the birders in my group trying to crossing a deep channel in an ancient cooler...that also had a GIGANTIC hairy spider lurking the debris in the bottom.

So the lads gave it a go...you might be surprised to learn that the cooler was not a seaworthy craft. I decided that I would put my camera and phone in the cooler and walk across with the cooler. I stepped in, my feet sank deep in the silty muck. I felt a moment of panic of getting stuck and ever the gentleman, Mark Andrews gave me a hand and helped me across. Meanwhile, other men int the group who were not wearing quick dry convertible pants like I was, dropped trou and crossed in their underwear (side note to the lad who said he did this when I wasn't looking, I have excellent peripheral vision). The water that had only been calf deep earlier was now crotch deep on me. But all of my possessions made it across very dry and my pants though reeking of briny water were soon dry as well.
All part of the adventures of birding.

The autumnal countryside in southeastern Portugal can look rather bleak. This was a rabbit skull found along a fence line. The back of the skull had a bit of a triangular cut into the skull cavity. I can't help but wonder if an imperial eagle or buzzard are the cause of its demise.

After the days of meetings were finished, we headed out for a full day of birding in southeastern Portugal near the border with Spain. It was a bleak countryside during the cusp of September and October. Perhaps in the spring it's a lush landscape, but in the fall, it has a dry beauty.

Crested larks surrounded us as we birded. Full disclosure, unlike other bird photos in this post, I digisocped this particular lark in Israel a few years ago. But I love crested larks and wanted to include one in this post.

I have to say, birding is quite an elixir for me. The night before we headed out, I tied a few on with some of my fellow participants. We stayed up at the outdoor bar across the road from my hotel until after 3am (a bit to the irritation of bar staff). Our group was meeting at 6am to head out. I slept past my alarm and had to eat breakfast in the car but man o man, I am no longer young enough to pull those sorts of all night shenanigans. But as soon as we got to our destination and the birds kicked in, though far away, I felt better. Nothing clears my head of hangovers, sleep deprivation, anxiety or anything stressful like birds. Birds never disappoint.
OK...that's taking it too far, nemesis birds disappoint until you finally see them.

Here are my lifer great bustards...very, very distant even digiscoped with my Nikon V1. This is what I would call, "Yeah, life, but better view desired."

Those aren't chukars, those are red-legged partridge and not from a game farm, just running around wild.

The only bird that was close! My lifer little owl. It was right next to the car and if any of us got out it would have flown of. This was digiscoped at sunset with me leaning my ATX 65mm on the open window of the car and digiscoping with my Nikon V1. There were easily 300 utter crap photos that preceded this one just barely in focus.

Though often distant, we really racked up some cool birds including corn bunting, marsh harrier, azure-winged magpie and black-bellied sandgrouse. Our first stop gave me three lifers right off the bat: stone curlew, little bustard and great bustard. We even got to see the great bustards fly and let me tell you, that is a weird bird to see in the air. It's about half the size but the similar shape of an ostrich and glides high above the trees.

Though we are birders, we are interested in all things natural. A puddle in the middle of the road yielded some fun.

The birds may have been far away but our group found a puddle with all sorts of fun, mostly dragonflies. I have a tendency to roll my eyes when a birding trip gets railroaded for dragonflies, but I was desperate to digiscope and well, dragonflies would do in a pinch. The big excitement was in the form of a pair of red-veined darners mating and ovipositing some eggs in the puddle. We set up our respective cameras and noticed a frog next to them. I thought I would play around with filming in SloMo on my iPhone...and got quite q surprise!

While digiscoping some ovipositing dragonflies we noticed a frog...and then a surprise. Digiscoped with iPhone 5s, Swarovski ATX 65mm spotting scope and i5 adapter.

I'm not sure what the species of frog or snake is but what a treat to find so much life in one small puddle. Did you notice how the dragonflies saw the snake right before it approached and lifted up right before it was in the frame? Cool.

Panorama of Mértola which was a delight not only for seeing a few more specie of bird, but for a quick tour through history. On the right is the town, on the left is a castle and the surrounding yards of a Catholic church which was built on top of a 12th century Muslim town which was built on top of some 5th century roman ruins.

Mértola was the perfect lunch stop. Not only did we have a fabulously fresh tomato salad, but I was introduced to "grilled cheese" with homemade pumpkin spread on toast.

Inside the Catholic church in Mértola...do you see the bird?

We stopped for lunch in the town of Mértola and were offered a quick tour of the church and archeological sites. While getting a tour of the church, several of us were immediately distracted by a bird perched just above the alter.

One of the most challenging digiscoped images I've ever done. Hand holding my iPhone 5s up to my binoculars to try and get a shot of a crag martin.

It was a crag martin just hanging out. Half of us lost interest in the finer details of architecture inside the church with this brown bird. Ah birders, we are a funny tribe.

Old Muslim village excavated outside the church.

But when they took us behind the church, they showed us the archaeology going on and how the grounds were built over an old Muslim village. As our guide pointed out the reasons why the towns were short who lived where, random pots, jugs and stones were strewn along our walkway. How weird to be able to touch something built and used in the 1100s.
Our guide informed us that as they were excavating the town, they uncovered some roman ruins. That really knocked my socks off.

Oh hey, no biggie, just some 5th century Roman mosaics.

As the tour continued with the Roman ruins, we could see where parts of the Muslim town built on top of it used old Roman columns to fill in parts of their town. History piled on top of history piled on top of history. How fleeting we all are and who will build on top of us some day?
If you find yourself in Portugal, I would put this beautiful, steep cobblestoned town your list to visit and make sure to sign up for an archaeology tour.

The view of Lisbon from outside our hotel in Alchochete.

One truly can go birding anywhere and though Portugal was not on my list of places to visit, I'm glad I had the opportunity. If Non Birding Bill had been along, he wouldn't have like the mosquitos along the estuary or the all day birding excursion, but he would have had a good time at some of the historical sites. Portugal does offer something for everyone.

**BirdFair: Logistics For A Visitor From The US** Sep 03, 2014

Jackdaw and Wood Pigeon digiscoped through the window of my room at Oakham School.

The first thing you need to know about visiting BirdFair is that it is not really about bird watching. Pretty much all of the birding events we have in the US are all about the field trips, afternoon workshops, interesting keynotes and *maybe* a small vendor area (maybe). Even though BirdFair is held at Rutland Water--a great little place to go birding in and of itself, people are there to shop.

The optics tent at BirdFair.

The optics areas are set up the facing water so you can test out binoculars and scopes on waterfowl and shorebirds, but if this is a first time trip to Europe or the UK and you need to get some lifers, plan on arriving a few days before BirdFair and get your birding out of your system ahead of time. Sure, there are opportunities to do some birding there, but this event is so huge and so jam packed, don't waste your time hunting down what might be lifer blue tit when those are pretty much everywhere.

This was a cool bird song app that I downloaded for the trip and is called Bird Songs of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

I mentioned earlier that I used the new Collins app for my trip. I also downloaded a Bird Song app for Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Since my travel has exploded the last couple of years (I was in Europe twice last year and will be doing at least two trips this year and chances are good I'll be in Israel again next spring) this seemed like a good way to go because it covers so many countries.

Some of the detailed bird song info that comes with the app.

It's an expensive app at about $79 but if you consider all the area it covers and that each bird in at has several calls, a sonogram to help you remember the call and comparisons to similar species--it is the most comprehensive bird song app I've ever seen. Pricey, but worth it if you are going to be in both Europe and northern Africa (consider how much you spend on field guides).

Oakham School is a boarding school that opens up dorm rooms for attendees at BirdFair. They operate a shuttle service to and from the fair. The only down side is that the shuttle only runs for an hour before BirdFair opens for an hour after BirdFair closes, so you can't really use the shuttle if you suddenly find yourself in dire need of a nap in the middle of the day.

The BirdFair website is very helpful for locating accommodations. I didn't have huge amounts of money to spend in the UK but I found the Oakham boarding school fine for my needs. They were nice, clean and comfortable dorm style rooms with decent wifi. There's a shared shower and toilet (just like in dorms). The doors to the dorm buildings are locked with a code that you have to use whether you are entering the building or leaving. Dorm rooms themselves do not have locks, but you have the option of renting the locks. Most people I know opted not to rent the locks, feeling that birders are a trustworthy group. I chose not to have a lock and on my last day found a very..."interesting" card in my room. No writing, but strange little smiling creatures pasted on it. I asked the staff if maybe it came from the cleaning person but they were as perplexed by it as I was by it. Was it from a fellow guest and meant as a bit fun? Who can say, but finding it placed next to my laptop did make me think twice about getting a lock next time I stay in Oakham.
The school provides a light breakfast of breads, cereal and milk in the morning and appeared to have a coffee and tea service running all day. The staff was very kind and helpful if you needed advice on travel and food around the area. Oakham is very close to Rutland, I think it was about a 5 minute shuttle ride to and from the fair.

The grounds around Oakham School.

I chose not to drive in the UK. I just didn't think my jet lagged brain could handle a steering wheel on the right side of a car as well as navigating driving in the opposite lane. I relied on friends driving me rides to and from bus stations to Rutland. It is possible to travel to BirdFair via train for bus and Google maps is helpful in revealing the route (though not always clarifying the prices). But getting around the town itself is quite easy and if you are really hard pressed for a lift, there are affordable taxis. All of the taxis I took in the UK were cash only affairs--make sure to have pounds (not Euros) on hand and don't rely that everyone takes credit cards like they do on the US.

View from the Swarovski Optik tower of Rutland Water Reserve.

A tip I picked up from Nature Travel Network is that if it rains at BirdFair--things get muddy. It's on a wetland after all. Really comfortable shoes are a must for all the walking, but if it rains, you want to be prepared for muddy conditions and puddles. Locals appeared to be wearing their best Wellingtons. I opted for Keens and they worked just fine.
When I visited, the temps were very cool--in the 50s and 60s. But the tents were warm. Be prepared for a continual shift in temperature based in you are inside or outside a tent--wear layers.

Carl Downing (the man you need for birding in Colombia and John Hague aka Drunk Birder at my first international Birds and Beers.

Thanks to the encouragement of UK birder Drunk Birder, we gave a Birds and Beers a go in Oakham. We chose The Three Crowns, a Steamin' Billy pub. There had been some confusion in the emails as I made arrangements and I was sad to discover that the pub didn't have menu (out side of chips aka crisps). The manager felt bad about the confusion and went away to purchase us something called a huntsman's pie that was delish:

Huntsman's Pie with something called piccalilli and Branston pickle.

Huntsman's pie isn't vegetarian or gluten free, but for an omnivore--it's fantastic. The pastry is full of pork with a poultry later and then then stuffing. I discovered that I think piccalilli (a yellow mustard pickle combo) is the best thing ever. I had only ever heard of it from the "I'm a Little Weenie Lookin' for a Bun" song.
But I loved hanging out in a small pub in Oakham. Locals came in with their dogs! I love that there were about four or five dogs chasing and playing in the pub (and sneaking up for a nibble of food). I chatted with some of the locals and met one who said he'd been to BirdFair in the past but didn't go every year. No one was viewed as a "birder" in the UK, birding is just part of the culture. OK, maybe extreme twitchers get a look, but people who watch birds from time to time are viewed about the same as hunters or a football fan is over here.

Me with Craig Nash aka @BirdBlogger on Twitter.

A local brewery provides a BirdFair Bitter during the event, make sure to have some time to grab one of those--a very bold and flavorful ale.
One last thing, a pro tip from a local--leave your own binoculars at home or at the very least, in your hotel room when visiting BirdFair. People who wear their gear around the fair are viewed as "posers." A well seasoned BirdFair attendee told me, "You can tell who the serious birders are at BirdFair, they don't wear their binoculars to show off. They are here to look at products."

**The Vikings: An NFL Team That Prefers Aesthetics Over Wildlife** Aug 26, 2014

It's time to contact **Governor Mark Dayton** **651-201-3400**, guys. The Vikings are just being ridiculous now. Let the governor know if you like football and that he called this the "people's stadium." We deserve a stadium that isn't lethal to birds.

Dammit, Vikings.
I just wanted to go to BirdFair in the UK, enjoy a few days in London on a mini break with my husband, come home and write some articles in a mild jet lag haze, reset my body clock and instead...I had to deal with you because you decided to go all "arty" on us.
For those who don't know, here's why the shiny, clear glass is the problem with the new stadium design. Here's an easy, energy efficient alternative that will kill fewer birds.
The new Vikings' Stadium that is less than a mile from the Mississippi River aka the 35W of midwest bird migration and the Minnesota Sports Facility Association opted to not to go with energy efficient (and Minnesota made) fritted glass on the 200,000 square feet on the building. Even though the Minneapolis City Council approved a resolution urging the MSFA to use bird friendly glass. At first it was implied by the Vikings that this was a money issue and would cost just under a million dollars which was one tenth of one percent of the overall budget for the stadium.
And then the announcement came that the budget for the stadium was going to go past the billion dollar mark for things like extra freight elevators and escalators. OK...and the glass?
Vikings spokesman Jeff Anderson tweeted that now the glass isn't a money issue, it's an aesthetic issue. Are you kidding me?

Thanks for catching this CityPages. Never in my life did I think I would see the day that an NFL team was more concerned with artistic design than money.

My inbox blew up a little bit while I was away and Audubon Minnesota planned to drop off some signatures to Governor Mark Dayton and invited me along. I looked at my travel schedule and thought, "Yeah, I can do that." Then I sat in on a conference call yesterday and found out that I wasn't just attending, I was going to say a few words...hoo boy.
Rolf Thompson from the National Eagle Center made the two hour drive up from Wabasha to speak up Matt Anderson from Minnesota Audubon and many of his staffers were there to speak to the media and show some of the fritted glass options. Other bird lovers around the Twin Cities also showed up--those of us with flexible Tuesday mornings.

Artwork by Miranda Brandon. These were one of the huge prints Audubon Minnesota brought to Governor Dayton's office to bring home the point of why the Vikings Stadium needs to take birds into consideration.

Audubon Minnesota brought along some of the beautiful and gut-wrenching photography of artist Miranda Brandon. She's done surveys for dead and injured birds around building and took photos of some of the dead birds to illustrate what happens when birds impact windows during migration.
Think about a ruby-throated hummingbird like the one in the above photo. If you see that bird in May in Minnesota, that bird has already crossed the Gulf of Mexico on its own two wings, twice at least. If it's older than one year, it's done it several times. How frustrating to find one dead from hitting a window in Minnesota in May. It has returned all that way from South America to breed in Minnesota (or a little further north) only to have its journey end abruptly against some glass in a death that could have been preventable. That's what the new Vikings Stadium will do with the glass they've chosen for "aesthetics." And not just to hummingbirds but robins, warblers, vireos, raptors, woodcocks--all sorts of species.

Just of the few of the over 76,000 signatures gathered demanding that the Vikings use bird-friendly glass in the new stadium.

These signatures are not saying that football sucks and we shouldn't have a stadium. What the signatures are saying is that the type of aesthetic we want to see is a 64 yard touchdown run--not bright shiny glass that is lethal to birds, we just want a stadium where we can watch football without feeling guilty about the impact on birds. People are there to watch a game, not the glass.
So please, contact Governor Mark Dayton and let him know that this issue is important and that he needs to direct the people he appointed to the Minnesota Sports Facility Authority to do the right thing and switch to bird-safe glass which will be energy efficient and more cost effective in the long run.

**BirdFair: Products, Passion and Conservation** Aug 24, 2014

This is an image taken with the Pentax Ricoh Theta-- I was trying to give an idea of what it's like to be in the thick of the crowd.

One of the really cool things I saw at BirdFair didn't necessarily have to do with birding--it's the Pentax Ricoh which takes a crazy spherical image that uses an app to let you rotate and sling the spherical panorama image around--it's really cool. I'd love to have one of these and put in the center of a bird feeder or better yet in the middle of some caracaras at the Martin Ranch in Texas--wouldn't that be a cool perspective? But I wanted to use this to give a sense of the scope of vendors and people at BirdFair. But as much as BirdFair is about businesses selling products and services, it's also about passion and connection (jet lag must be settling in because I find myself saying that like Mooj in *40 Year Old Virgin* in my head).
But it's true, it's that passion and connection that also makes it such a brilliant fundraising event. Hats off to founders Tim Appleton and Martin Davies for organizing such the fair with a crackerjack network of volunteers (and thank you Tina Lindsay for answering all of my questions before I arrived). But the money raised from attendance tickets and booths makes it possible for BirdFair to donate large sums of money to conservation projects around the world.

One of many cool encounters at BirdFair: the Biotope booth. The make gorgeous blinds (or hides) for photography and wildlife watching. I especially loved their floating blind for taking pictures of sea ducks.

As much fun as it is to learn about birding field trip opportunities in Norway, you can also learn about the efforts to create beautiful architecturally designed blinds or hides used (check them out, they are so cool) to watch the birds in the area--especially the sea duck hide, man oh man, we need one of those for my National Park!

Hanging out at David Lindo's (aka The Urban Birder) booth. He's trying to get people interested in a national bird for Britain. I was trying to rally people to vote for starling or house sparrow, but alas, neither made the top ten. You can see the finalists (and vote) here. Photo by Mike Watson.

But BirdFair is a great place to be inspired for ideas. Typically the companies you see at US trade shows are generally from Central and South America--at BirdFair, the companies are world wide: Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Israel, Ecuador, Panama and quite often it's not just the eco-tourism lodges or bird tour operators, it's also representatives of the government there to speak with you. And you get a global perspective.

I was very excited to see my friend Jonathan Meyrav who I met a few years ago while birding the Hula Valley in Israel. He's a loud and hardworking voice for this migratory hot spot and always generating ideas on how to help the birds he loves and shares with his family and friends. This past spring he organized the Champions of the Flyway, a big day aimed at raising money for a specific conservation project which for 2014 was Bird Conservation Georgia. I wanted to participate in that event, but I'd already scheduled myself for 5 other projects. So Jonathan and I talked about ideas for 2015 and whether I participate in the event or not, how I can help the cause. The thing I love about Jonathan is if he has a successful idea, he's not into hoarding it just for his area, he spreads the passion and love around. He learns from others and tells you what worked for his country and how that might apply to bird conservation in your own country--he's refreshing and inspiring to be around. Here's a fun 8 minute video that gives an overview--check out, the birds are bananas. And the end of it was the best use of Daft Punk I've ever seen.

A major new international bird race has been taking place in Eilat, Israel - one of the world's most spectacular migration hot spots and rewarding birding destinations. 2015 The next Eilat Birds Festival will take place on the 15-22 March 2015, we are already taking bookings so don't hesitate and migrate south to Eilat for a birding vacation of a lifetime!

Champions of the Flyway may also be one of the most diverse gatherings of birders I've seen--which is cool. I really like that I'm not the only female birder out there doing these sorts of things. I have an idea for a team I'd like to assemble for 2015, we will see if it happens.

The Sound Approach series...look at that old school iPod...I almost ignored this booth based on that.

The birding is certainly more intense in the UK and this booth based on the book series The Sound Approach uses sonograms to teach you bird songs. You listen to the calls as you read and kind of learn to see them rather than hear them. They are only available for Europe but if you were going over there, this might be a good way to brush up. Incidentally, these are co-authored by the founder of Lush Cosmetics...

Check this out, it's the new *Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World...*get it now while it's hot...and before the taxonomy changes.

Here's the new *Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World* a complete checklist whose taxonomy and contains illustrations and distribution maps for every bird species in the world. It's huge, it's beautiful, it isn't cheap and surely there won't be any changes, splits, lumps or elimination in the near future making it obsolete...right? I love the idea of an illustrated world checklist, but with how often taxonomy changes, why not make this digital so you can get the up to date changes?

Protip: visit any Scotland related booth in the afternoon, there will be scotch. I really liked the Birdwatching Wildlife Club booth.

So one of the things that I've heard from British birders who visit the states is how surprised they are to see so many women engaged in the activity in the US. And not just in a backyard birding capacity, but serious listing. As I walked around BirdFair, the sexes seemed to be evenly split. I mentioned this to my friend John and he said, "Nope, those are girls dragged along by their boyfriends or husbands."
I don't think that was 100% true, I did see some women paired off and heard them actively discussing birding in remote locations, but there were a few booths that I would visit and patiently wait for one of the booth attendants to be freed up so I could ask my questions and I would get, "You ok?"
Taking that as a cue for conversation, I would say "Yes," and before I could get further than that word, they would spin around and talk to the next available male customer in the booth (even if he arrived at the booth after I did). I was immediately dismissed as the "girlfriend" who would be a waste of time to talk to. As a former retailer, I could kind of understand--several times you've engaged in conversation with women only to have them say, "Yeah, I'm just here with my boyfriend." That would be frustrating. But on the other hand, I didn't care for the immediate dismissal. So at a few booths I found that I had to be a bit aggressive to show that yes, indeed, despite being female I am very interested in birding products and travel and yes, I am not afraid to travel to places where I might get dirty.

A signed print from one of my favorite bird artists: Katrina van Grouw of *The Unfeathered Bird*.

The Art Marquee was full of all kinds of art and photography. I wasn't allowed to use my camera in there, but walked around and took it in. I passed a booth and immediately recognized the prints of Katrina van Grouw who wrote one of my favorite books of 2013 *The Unfeathered Bird*.
I thought, "Oh cool, someone is selling her work!"
And then I realized...she was herself. And the prints were signed...and so I dropped some money that Non Birding Bill doesn't need to know about and purchased the above print of a budgie. I tried not to geek out too hard and I hope I didn't freak her out. But that was a real treat to be able to purchase a print from her in person and tell her how much I loved that book. Can't wait to get it framed and get it on the wall next to my Catherine Hamilton sketch.

My team for A Question of Stork with Tim Appleton and Mike Dilger. Photo by Craig Nash.

There are lectures going on throughout the day at BirdFair. Some are twenty minute workshops on anything from photography, bird in different areas and conservation efforts. I did one of those on Smart Phone Digiscoping. Others are longer and a bit more entertaining, like Bill Oddie interviewing a woman who composes music for David Attenborough documentaries. I was part of one of those called A Question of Stork hosted by Stephen Moss. Above is the photo of my team and our opposing time was Matt Merritt, Bill Thompson (fun to run into him while across the pond) and Martin Davies. I was nervous about a quiz show thinking I wouldn't have much to contribute to worldwide birding but I was assured this was all about fun and improv and I thought, oh this is like some of the shows NBB and I do here like You're Making That Up or PowerPoint Karaoke and it's more about being funny than right.
Nope.
It was clear about three questions in, you needed to answer correctly. But I did know a couple of obscure book and "famous" birder questions so I wasn't a complete loss to the team. My favorite part was the when one of our teammates had to mime to get us to guess a bird. That was hilarious and I'll never think of masked booby the same ever again. We lost by one point but I think people were entertained.
More on BirdFair is coming. This event is so huge, it cannot be covered in one post. And if you haven't caught on yet, it's a really cool event...and you should find a way to go.

**BirdFair: a few thoughts** Aug 20, 2014

I think this photo of the Andalucia Birding booth in Spain sums up what a lot of BirdFair 2014 was for me. Friends sharing ideas, business plans, great foods and maybe a drink or two. The gent in the middle with the beard is my friend Peter Jones who I met birding in Israel a few years ago.

Ever since I heard of the British BirdFair I've wanted to go. Being social and a lover of birding, I knew it was right up my alley. But I was also curious about a birding event that boasts attendance of well over 20,000 people a year.
I can tell you now that it was amazing and if you are interested in birding, go. Find a way to do it: give up daily coffees at a coffee bar and brew your own, cut back on trips out to eat at restaurants, do a Kickstarter, shift vacation plans from Florida in February to a trip to the UK in August, tell family and friends that during holidays and birthdays in lieu of gifts, you want cash or air miles--just go. BirdFair is a must, not only for the chance to see really cool products, but to experience a truly world wide crowd of people who care about birds and conservation. You can not only "buy stuff" but you learn from what other countries are doing to help birds. I cannot recommend a trip to BirdFair enough.
The photo at the top of this blog encompasses the spirit of the fair. In their Andalucia booth, Peter and one of his guides share cheese, wine, chorizo and tomatoes from their birding area in southern Spain with past trip participants. I met Peter Jones in Israel a few years ago and when I passed, he insisted that I join them for tapas. It was delightful to meet their British tour participants and learn more about birding opportunities and conservation challenges in Andalucia.

The map that shows where the marquees and lecture areas are for BirdFair...it's enormous.

You can purchase passes per day or get a three day wrist band. I knew with my ability to talk and the chance to see old friends, I would need a full three days. My initial plan was to do a fast circuit the first morning, noting where friends had booths and noting which booths I wanted to chat and spend more time with and learn about their product and services. Or to just find surprises that I didn't know I wanted. I also knew that if I didn't do a quick once over, and did it marquee by marquee, I would feel rushed with whoever I chatted with and be thinking, "This is great, but I wonder what's in the next marquee, I need to wrap this up."

The Pork Roll at BirdFair offered at one of the smaller lunch stands away from the main food area--best sandwich there for non-vegetarians. And the British are brilliant--you have the option of adding extra "crackling" to your sandwich aka very crisply pork fat.

After that I grabbed a pork roll and a BirdFair Bitter (a flavorful sturdy ale) and circled who I wanted to go back to in the program (programs cost a pound and are well worth it, though there's lots of signage to help get you with scheduling as well), I created a strategy for each day. Even with that plan, I was unable to hit all the booths I intended, but that may have more to do with me being a chatty gal, especially when I find friends I haven't seen in years or friends I've only known online and met for the first time face to face.

Some of the unique birdhouses from Out Of Our Tree who has the tagline "quirky woodworky."

There truly is a little bit of everything at BirdFair from backyard birding like the above very unique bird houses...

To bird food...and since I have the sense of humor of a 13 year old, I giggled mercilessly at the idea of purchasing 50 fat balls...that are "no mess." Though on Facebook someone informed me that these are called Meisenknödel" in German which is supposed to mean "tit dumpling." What a delightful phrase!

To birdfood...

Inside one of the many marquees at bird fair.

To hip gear for the birding lifestyle...

To cameras (all the top brands were there)...

Swarovski not only had a booth, but a tower to test out digiscoping equipment on Rutland Water.

To just about every optics manufacturerer you can imagine...

This is my friend Mike Watson from BirdQuest. He's helping me put together some digiscoping trips to Panama and Scotland. Details very soon and if there's someplace you'd like to go with me, let me know!

To birding tour companies and a lot of government tourism boards...

To books! This book cracked me up. It's nothing but rare bird accounts for Norfolk. I love that this book exists, I love that it is so specific to just Norfolk. I loved reading all of the accounts of the first time the bird was spotted. We need more books like this in the US. A fun read with valuable information...but not too dry.

I asked a couple next to me if they would take my photo with my book. The obliged but the very nice British lady did ask, "My dear, don't you know how to take a selfie yet?"

I was incredibly surprised to find my book at one of the booths. I brought a couple along "just in case" but to find it out on the table, prominently propped up was a huge and delightful surprise. If I had more room in my suitcase, I would have spent way more money at BirdFair. Not only did they have new books, but they had used book dealers and I have a fondness for early 20th century bird books. Ah well, next time...
So this is entry one for BirdFair. There will be more. Non Birding Bill and I are currently galavanting around London and he really doesn't want me spending our vacation time writing about how fabulous BirdFair was. I'm going to break down the next two posts about it into logistics of getting there and then some of the amazing things that I saw like this:

A scotch tasting held at the Islay booth...why yes...yes I am very interested in visiting Scotland...for birds and other things.

They had scotch tastings at some of the booths! And not just cheap scotch, nice scotch. I actually saved visiting the Islay birding booth for a scotch tasting so that way I could ask legit questions about bringing a tour there and not just be a lurker for some Laphroaig...but they seemed just as eager to sip than ask questions so after some information, we settled in to sipping and exchanged emails for later. I understood, it was a long day and this was a nice way to relax.

**BirdFair Bound & A Collins App** Aug 12, 2014

Packing the essentials for British BirdFair!

I'm busy getting all the last minute laundry, packing and travel arrangements finalized as I head to BirdFair in the UK for the first time. I'm so excited because I have always wanted to go this event and I even get to do an iPhone digiscoping presentation on Saturday as well as partake in an improv game called a Question of Stork.
I'm excited to see old and new friends and to make Birds and Beers officially international by having one thanks to the aid of Drunk Birder on Friday night at 7pm at the Three Crowns! I think we will be two peas in a pod. When all the bird fun is over, I get to meet Non Birding Bill in London for some fun.

Screenshot of the new Collins Bird Guide app available for iPhones and iPads on August 14, 2015.

Also, just in time for my trip across the pond comes the Collins Bird Guide app to all of Europe, based on the best-selling *Collins Bird Guide*, by Lars Svensson, Killian Mullarney and Dan Zetterström, lucky me! I have to admit, I was leery because BirdFair isn't really about going on field trips, it's about looking at birding products and services. After the fair, I'm going to meet Non Birding Bill in London to visit with friends and not really do that much birding. Would this be more bird info than I would need. Should I just take a little British Guide with me instead?

You can tailor the list of possible birds by using the map tool on the app.

But, the app lets you tailor your location and list of possible birds. If you are like me and just studying from somewhere in the states, you can tap the map of Europe of where you plan to be (and note the season) to get a list of likely birds. If you are already in Europe, you can use the location services of the app to pinpoint where you are as well as the time of year to generate the likely species.

Another way to narrow the list of possible birds is by entering in field marks.

When you see a bird you can't identify, most apps will allow you to create a list of possible suspects based size, shape, habitat, colors, etc. This app will also let you type in specific types of field marks which is pretty darned cool. One of the reasons I really like the Sibley app is that you can compare two species at once, this app will let you compare up to 6 different plumages at once--which will please the European warbler watchers.

The duck hybrid page--oooooooooo!

The Collins app is a comprehensive European guide with over 700 species, 750 recordings of songs and calls, over 3500 illustrations and 60 videos of common birds--because sometimes you need to see the wagging tail of a wagtail to make sure that yep, that is like the most common bird over in Europe and the have some variation and that is indeed the bird that I saw. The app is £12.99 which in the grand scheme of field guide apps is par for the course. If you are going to Europe and you don't want to take a book but want to know what birds you will see, it's worth a download on an Apple device.

**Tawas Point Bird Festival** Jul 21, 2014
Hey...does this website look different? Yep, we did a redesign. I hope it's easier for people to read. It's certainly going to be easier for me to maintain and enter content.

The lighthouse at Tawas Point State Park.

I've run into Shelly Moses-Martinez at the Biggest Week in Ohio a few times. She also has started her own version of Birds and Beers in Michigan called Birds and Brews. She kept telling me that I needed to come to Tawas Point Bird Festival some year and we made it happen this year.

Chestnut-sided warbler digiscoped with an iPhone at Tawas Point.

This small festival was so much fun, it reminded me a lot of being in South Padre Island when the migrants come across the Gulf and warblers and tanagers are just everywhere. The only exception being that place was a bit cooler in temperature. Migrants tend to follow the shores of Lake Huron and many are low and easy to see. It's similar to the amount of warblers you can see at Biggest Week, but not as crowded. I had so many chestnut-sided warbles all around me.

A "slidey-backed gull seen in Tawas, MI.

The birding community is tight-knit and excited to show off this lovely lake town. I loved the gull themed slide near my hotel. You can stick around the point and bird the crap out of the area, but some of the field trips take you to some breath-taking Michigan habitat. One of the trips takes to see Kirtland's warbler, which if you don't have that species, this is the place for you.

View during the AuSuble field trip.

Since I've already seen Kirtland's I opted for the AuSable River Valley field trip which was quiet, and yielded us lots of warblers. We were surrounded by pine trees and a lovely view from atop a bluff. Our guides was very good. He lives in Illinois but spends part of the year in Tawas. He even made a point to hang out with the back of the large group to make sure they were seeing and hearing some of the same birds. I have trouble telling some of my trilling bird species apart and he took the time to explain the differences between pine warbler and chipping sparrow.

False morel aka "beefsteak" mushroom seen on our field trip.

As some of you know, I like to forage for the occasional edible mushroom. I'm a big fan of the saying, "There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters." I pretty much stick to the "fool proof four" or the "safe six" like morels, chicken of the woods, hen of the woods--the things you cannot mistake for anything else. I know there are false morels and we found quite few on our trip. I can tell by the fatter, squatter appearance what a false morel is but I always double check when slicing morels because an edible morel will be hollow and a false more will be solid.
I overheard one of the participants talking about eating "the beefsteaks." "You eat that? I never eat false morels because they are supposed to be toxic."
She informed that she eats them all the time. I clearly had to do some googling. Apparently, some people can eat false morels without consequence, while others can experience diarrhea, nausea, dizziness, headaches and in rare cases even death. You never know, it's a crap shoot (ha ha). I don't see myself trying a false morel anytime soon but I did learn something new.

Porcupine found on the AuSable River Valley Trip.

No matter what trips you sign up for, make sure to spend time walking the point. Even if you are doing it after all the afternoon workshops and you don't know your warblers well, lots of people will be there to help you id birds and even make sure that you are seeing the birds too.

Baltimore oriole digiscoped with an iPhone

Make sure to find the fruit feeding station and just zone out for a bit at all the crazy amounts of orioles chowing down on oranges. There are so many and the amount of orange and yellow is bananas.

Orchard oriole digiscoped with an iPhone while carbo loading on some hummingbird nectar.

It's a popular photography spot but if you are new to digiscoping this would be a great place to practice.

One of many scarlet tanagers outside the festival hotel digiscoped with an iPhone.

The birds do drip off the trees. Even right outside the main hotel where all the field trips met, we had quite the warbler and tanager wave...and a group of about 20 birders with scopes watching them forage for insects on the budding trees. But the town seemed to welcome birders with quite a few posting signs welcoming birders and business would ask if you were having a good time if you were wearing binoculars. They may not understand exactly why you animatedly talking about the killer northern parula you just saw in their parking lot, but they are just happy you are enjoying the town.

What happens when a parent asks if their kid can have their photo with me...I just can't take a normal photo.

Shelly was kind enough to host a Birds and Brews and that was a lot of fun. There were even kids (who had root beer). I love having these in other areas, it's an informal way to meet other people and get a pulse on the local birding community. I'm really excited because a lot of the people involved in organizing this small fun event are going to be involved with hosting the 2015 Midwest Birding Symposium. It's been fun in Ohio, but will be cool to try it in a new state.
One final note, I was surprised through some weird occurrence that I was able to get a direct flight from Minneapolis to Alpena which is less than an hour from Tawas Point. Who knew? But the airport was SO tiny. How tiny? Check this out:

Alpena Airport Signage

That's their baggage claim sign. You literally got off the plane and walked inside to this sign. To rent a car, you had to call for an attendant because he works the grounds of the airport. Which was fun and much more relaxed than the usual airport experience.

And you never know what you'll find while you're driving around. Who knew I'd see a Jesus statue and dinosaur cutout so close together?

Digiscoping with Clay and Sharon, Episode 8, Contest Winner Jun 26, 2014

As I sit at my open kitchen window this morning listening to urban bird calls and waiting for YouTube to upload the final episode, I have a mixture of relief and sadness. This series has been so much a part of my life the last six months, that I'm partially grateful to have some freedom in my schedule, but sad to not work on it anymore because it worked all the creative resources of my brain. As much as it was a puzzle for viewers to figure out the series clues and theme, it was a puzzle for me some days to figure out how to organize footage, edit something to make sense when a memory card decided a key scene I filmed was corrupt and choosing which bird footage to use. As my blog is turning 10 years old this year, it's very different than when I started in 2004. I don't just have a Minnesota audience anymore and how many times can I post "Hey, orioles are back" with genuine enthusiasm? Not that I'm not excited when I see the orioles are back, but writing about in the blog is not the same. It's more fun to post the first oriole's picture to Instagram. Speaking of Instagram, there are so many new ways and platforms to share information--sharing and discussing news is better suited to Facebook and Twitter than it is in the blog.

When I have a time consuming project like this series or writing a book, my brain will try to distract me by percolating 100s of great ideas. Ideas that require time, other people and organizations and money--but are still great ideas. One of the hardest things I've learned for me is that ideas are easy, followthrough is hard. I can have the greatest idea in the world (or hear someone else's idea and want to work on it) but if I don't have the time or resources, I have to let it go. Working on this series not only gave me the break of working on "the same old" blog posts I really needed, but has taken enough of my working brain, that new ideas for the blog have been percolating in the back of my head.

I'll be spending the next month implementing them and also I am excited to write again.

Will we do more videos? Yes!

Will we do another series...I hope so, but I'm not sure.

This was an experiment. I was in a reality tv show pilot last year (that has mercifully aired unnoticed) and though creatively it wasn't what I needed, I realized, "Is this all it takes to make a show?" And I used what I learned watching the crew as they filmed us to make Digiscoping with Clay and Sharon with mostly a couple of iPhones. I'd love for it to be a regular show--whether on YouTube or Netflix, or even Nat Geo, but that takes money, planning, writing (yes, reality shows have scripts), a better sound system, a crew and holy cow I could really use a continuity editor (I'm surprised no one ever emailed about my shirt changing colors in Episode 2).

If you enjoyed this series a big way to help is to let the sponsors know. For example, if you ever stay at the Alamo Inn, tell Keith that Birdchick sent you or that you enjoyed his cameo in the series. Tweet to Princeton University Press or Swarovski Optik Nature that you liked it (and especially let them know if you bought something). Check out the apps BirdsEye NA or BirdLog from BirdsEyeBirding. Go birding in South Texas either the Rio Grande Valley or Corpus Christi, you won't regret it. I'm half-tempted to run a digiscoping tour there (another great idea percolating in the back of the brain).

Thank you sponsors and friends for making this show possible. And now for the video, there are three winners. The first person our rabbit picked got the Swarovski Spotting Scope, the second person gets their choice of bird book worth up to $40 list price from Princeton University Press and the third person chosen gets a copy of my book 1001 Secrets Every Birder Should Know.

Sharon's pet rabbit Dougal picks the winner of the Swarovski spotting scope as a conclusion to Digiscoping with Clay and Sharon.

**Digiscoping With Clay and Sharon, Episode 7, Fun With SlowMo on the iPhone** Jun 19, 2014
Here it is! This is the final clue to the series theme! Have you figured it out yet? I tried to drop some heavy hints in this episode!

Be sure to check out the pages of our generous sponsors for this episode, especially if you saw something in the show you liked: Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years) www.swarovskioptik.com Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie

Be sure to check out the pages of our generous sponsors for this episode, especially if you saw something in the show you liked:
Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years)
Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming)
South Texas Nature (because birding the Rio Grande Valley is a must do)
Alamo Inn (my favorite place to stay when birding the Rio Grande Valley)

Screen Shot 2014-06-19 at 8.23.10 AM

If you are enjoying the series, please consider sharing an episode on your social media outlets. And remember, kids, birds shown in the first seven episodes have all been digiscoped by both Clay and me and are a clue to the series theme! If you correctly guess the series theme, you are entered into a drawing for a Swarovski spotting scope. **Please read over the contest rules before entering.**
All entries that deviate from the contest rules will be disqualified. The winner will be announced in the eighth episode airing on June 26, 2014. To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel.
Contest Rules (To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel. )
1. All entries for the Swarovski STS spotting scope need to be emailed to digiscoping@birdchick.com and must include the answer, your first and last name, mailing address and phone number (in case I need to contact you regarding shipping).
2. You can guess the theme more than once, but only ONE correct entry per person will count in the drawing. (You should probably watch a few episodes before you guess).
3. All entries guessing the series theme must be received no later than 11:59pm Central Time on June 23, 2014.
4. The winner of the Swarovski spotting scope will be chosen at random and the decision of the judges is final.

**Digiscoping with Clay and Sharon, Episode 6, Discreet Birding** Jun 12, 2014
So...this episode got a little weird but I love that I got to work with some of our good friends and professional actors like Kelvin Hatle, Dawn Krosnowski and Birds and Beers regular Duck Washington! I love that this project allowed me to see some friends...even if I was ordering them around. Alright, we are in the home stretch of the web series...have you guessed the series theme yet? Enter your guess at Digiscopoing@Birdchick.com with your guess ( and please read all the contest rules below).

Guess the series theme and you could win a Swarovski spotting scope! Please visit the pages of our generous sponsors. Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years) swarovskioptik.com Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming) http://press.princeton.edu/birds/ Please read over the contest rules before entering.

Be sure to check out the pages of our generous sponsors for this episode, especially if you saw something in the show you liked:
Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years)
Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming)
If you are enjoying the series, please consider sharing an episode on your social media outlets. And remember, kids, birds shown in the first seven episodes have all been digiscoped by both Clay and me and **are a clue to the series theme**! If you correctly guess the series theme, you are entered into a drawing for a Swarovski spotting scope.

Purple finch reach

**Please read over the contest rules before entering.** All entries that deviate from the contest rules will be disqualified. The winner will be announced in the eighth episode airing on June 26, 2014. To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel.
Contest Rules (To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel. )
1. All entries for the Swarovski STS spotting scope need to be emailed to digiscoping@birdchick.com and must include the answer, your first and last name, mailing address and phone number (in case I need to contact you regarding shipping).
2. You can guess the theme more than once, but only ONE correct entry per person will count in the drawing. (You should probably watch a few episodes before you guess).
3. All entries guessing the series theme must be received no later than 11:59pm Central Time on June 23, 2014.
4. The winner of the Swarovski spotting scope will be chosen at random and the decision of the judges is final.

**Digiscoping with Clay and Sharon, Episode 5 Florida Birding** Jun 05, 2014

Screen Shot 2014-06-05 at 12.46.33 PM

One of my main goals with this series was to find ways to avoid the Minnesota winter so of course I wrote an episode that takes us to Florida...

Guess the series theme and you could win a Swarovski spotting scope! Please visit the pages of our generous sponsors. Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years) swarovskioptik.com Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming) http://press.princeton.edu/birds/ BirdsEye Birding (the most useful bird finding apps available) www.birdseyebirding.com Please read over the contest rules before entering.

Be sure to check out the pages of our generous sponsors for this episode, especially if you saw something in the show you liked:
Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years)
Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming)
BirdsEye Birding (the most useful bird finding apps available)
If you are enjoying the series, please consider sharing an episode on your social media outlets. And remember, kids, birds shown in the first seven episodes have all been digiscoped by both Clay and me and **are a clue to the series theme**! If you correctly guess the series theme, you are entered into a drawing for a Swarovski spotting scope.
**Please read over the contest rules before entering.** All entries that deviate from the contest rules will be disqualified. The winner will be announced in the eighth episode airing on June 26, 2014.
To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel.
Contest Rules (To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel. )
1. All entries for the Swarovski STS spotting scope need to be emailed to digiscoping@birdchick.com and must include the answer, your first and last name, mailing address and phone number (in case I need to contact you regarding shipping).
2. You can guess the theme more than once, but only ONE correct entry per person will count in the drawing. (You should probably watch a few episodes before you guess).
3. All entries guessing the series theme must be received no later than 11:59pm Central Time on June 23, 2014.
4. The winner of the Swarovski spotting scope will be chosen at random and the decision of the judges is final.

Digiscoping With Clay & Sharon, Episode 4 Light and Photography May 29, 2014

This is a fun episode, there are two cameos: our pet rabbit Dougal and Greg Miller (aka Jack Black's character in The Big Year). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i3L_gwdgtQ

Please visit the pages of our generous sponsors if you see something you like in the series:

Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years)

Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming)

Alamo Inn Bed & Breakfast (the best place to stay for birding in the Rio Grande Valley, TX)

South Texas Nature (information for birding south Texas, including the Rio Grande Valley)

If you are enjoying the series, please consider sharing an episode on your social media outlets. And remember, kids, birds shown in the first seven episodes have all been digiscoped by both Clay and me and are a clue to the series theme! If you correctly guess the series theme, you are entered into a drawing for a Swarovski spotting scope.

Please read over the contest rules before entering. All entries that deviate from the contest rules will be disqualified. The winner will be announced in the eighth episode airing on June 26, 2014.

To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel.

Contest Rules (To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel. )

1. All entries for the Swarovski STS spotting scope need to be emailed to digiscoping@birdchick.com and must include the answer, your first and last name, mailing address and phone number (in case I need to contact you regarding shipping).

2. You can guess the theme more than once, but only ONE correct entry per person will count in the drawing. (You should probably watch a few episodes before you guess).

3. All entries guessing the series theme must be received no later than 11:59pm Central Time on June 23, 2014.

4. The winner of the Swarovski spotting scope will be chosen at random and the decision of the judges is final.

Screen Shot 2014-05-20 at 12.57.33 PM — **Episode 3 - Digiscoping Techniques** May 22, 2014

And here is episode three which includes a last minute cameo addition of a Lawrence's Warbler! How many bird shows do you know have one of those in an episode?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQDKYi3fhKY&feature=youtu.be

Clay and I also talk some photography techniques in this episode and remember, kids, birds shown in the first seven episodes have all been digiscoped by both Clay and me and **are a clue to the series theme**! If you correctly guess the series theme, you are entered into a drawing for a Swarovski spotting scope.

Be sure to check out the pages of our generous sponsors for this episode, especially if you saw something in the show you liked:

Swarovski Optik (the optics I've been using for years)

Princeton University Press (my favorite nature publisher and sign up for updates on their cook BirdGenie bird call identifier app that's coming)

BirdsEye Birding (the most useful bird finding apps available)

**Please read over the contest rules before entering.** All entries that deviate from the contest rules will be disqualified. The winner will be announced in the eighth episode airing on June 26, 2014.

To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel.

Contest Rules (To make sure you do not miss an episode, subscribe to the Birdchick YouTube Channel. )

1. All entries for the Swarovski STS spotting scope need to be emailed to digiscoping@birdchick.com and must include the answer, your first and last name, mailing address and phone number (in case I need to contact you regarding shipping).

2. You can guess the theme more than once, but only ONE correct entry per person will count in the drawing. (You should probably watch a few episodes before you guess).

3. All entries guessing the series theme must be received no later than 11:59pm Central Time on June 23, 2014.

4. The winner of the Swarovski spotting scope will be chosen at random and the decision of the judges is final.

Screen Shot 2014-04-23 at 11.34.43 AM — **Overly Dramatic Painted Bunting** Apr 23, 2014
As cool as it is to do work in south Texas during spring migration, things like worm-eating warblers are really distracting when one has serious deadlines looming.

Things have been quiet on the blog and a little bit on the podcast front because I have been knee deep in a fun project with several partners including Swarovski Optik, Princeton University Press, South Texas Nature, Alamo Inn Bed and Breakfast and Birds Eye Birding and well, even poor Non Birding Bill. Here's snippet of some footage I'm putting together for a program Clay and I going to do about it at this week's ABA Convention (it looks better if you watch it in HD):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS6hbwtaBwU

So what's been occupying my brain? A web series which will premiere May 8, 2014 on my YouTube Channel. It will air once a week for 8 weeks. All the bird footage in each episode was digiscoped by Clay Taylor and me. And on top of that, all the birds in each episode are a clue to the series theme. If you correctly guess what the theme is, you will be entered into a drawing for a Swarovski Spotting Scope (and a few other prizes).

Each episode is only 5-10 minutes long and features a digiscoping and birding tip and a little bit of info about some of our favorite places for birding and designed to be something you could watch on a break at work--so safe for work viewing for sure.

One of the challenges that Clay and I have filming this is that most if it is outdoors and "pretending" to be digiscoping in great places like South Padre Island during migration. That's when we had the above scarlet tanager fly in front of us. Of course you're going to digiscope that...but do I have an episode that it will fit in based on time of year and the series theme? And aren't we supposed to film some dialog? Ah well.

Despite all of the challenges, this project has incorporated all of my favorite things: birds, travel, working with good friends and colleagues and stretching all of my creative muscles. Here's a preview if you haven't seen it yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLj80lDyA_RDBE5og8dgz_UGqugm_8yxvj&v=Mm0OE0aSoV8

If you could share the trailer on your various social medias, I'd appreciate it. I'm hoping this opens the door for other bird series (whether by me or others) to show up on YouTube or other venues. If you want to make sure to not miss one of the 8 episodes, subscribe to the YouTube Channel.

The drawing for the scope winner happens in the 8th episode.

I have to give some major props to poor Non Birding Bill, he's had to travel along with me for help. He even travelled with me to the Rio Grande Valley...during spring migration.

It's weird that so much of my life is on the road and I have a passel of good friends he's never met in person and with this project, he's had a chance. It was also fun to run into the likes of Greg Miller (aka Jack Black's character in the The Big Year movie). Here's Greg trying to wow NBB with birds as Estero Llano Grande State Park. Bill did concede that the pauraques were cool.

Oh and speaking of pauraques, you know how they're always a possibility at Estero near Alligator Lake? They're currently tucked further back and there are babies! How many birds can you make out in the above photo?

Clay and I had been warned that the birds were tucked a bit. We were trying to find them when one just kind of ambled out and was stretching wings. The bird suddenly noticed Clay and I staring at it in awe and then it scurried behind a yucca--I had no idea those things could scurry. We grabbed our scopes to try and digiscope it, making sure to stay on the trail. We had to practically hand to be on all fours to see her from the trail, but Clay found her lurking way back. With the naked eye, she looked really puffed out. I wondered aloud, "Is she incubating eggs since she's puffed out like that?"

Clay got the scope on her and said, "She's not puffed out, those are chicks!"

Sure enough, she had two chicks snuggling out from her breast--how cool to see that!

Alas, pauraques do not fit into the series theme for the show...maybe this show will be good enough that I can get another series commissioned?

**Overly Dramatic Painted Bunting** Apr 23, 2014
As cool as it is to do work in south Texas during spring migration, things like worm-eating warblers are really distracting when one has serious deadlines looming.

Things have been quiet on the blog and a little bit on the podcast front because I have been knee deep in a fun project with several partners including Swarovski Optik, Princeton University Press, South Texas Nature, Alamo Inn Bed and Breakfast and Birds Eye Birding and well, even poor Non Birding Bill. Here's snippet of some footage I'm putting together for a program Clay and I going to do about it at this week's ABA Convention (it looks better if you watch it in HD):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS6hbwtaBwU

So what's been occupying my brain? A web series which will premiere May 8, 2014 on my YouTube Channel. It will air once a week for 8 weeks. All the bird footage in each episode was digiscoped by Clay Taylor and me. And on top of that, all the birds in each episode are a clue to the series theme. If you correctly guess what the theme is, you will be entered into a drawing for a Swarovski Spotting Scope (and a few other prizes).

Each episode is only 5-10 minutes long and features a digiscoping and birding tip and a little bit of info about some of our favorite places for birding and designed to be something you could watch on a break at work--so safe for work viewing for sure.

One of the challenges that Clay and I have filming this is that most if it is outdoors and "pretending" to be digiscoping in great places like South Padre Island during migration. That's when we had the above scarlet tanager fly in front of us. Of course you're going to digiscope that...but do I have an episode that it will fit in based on time of year and the series theme? And aren't we supposed to film some dialog? Ah well.

Despite all of the challenges, this project has incorporated all of my favorite things: birds, travel, working with good friends and colleagues and stretching all of my creative muscles. Here's a preview if you haven't seen it yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLj80lDyA_RDBE5og8dgz_UGqugm_8yxvj&v=Mm0OE0aSoV8

If you could share the trailer on your various social medias, I'd appreciate it. I'm hoping this opens the door for other bird series (whether by me or others) to show up on YouTube or other venues. If you want to make sure to not miss one of the 8 episodes, subscribe to the YouTube Channel.

The drawing for the scope winner happens in the 8th episode.

I have to give some major props to poor Non Birding Bill, he's had to travel along with me for help. He even travelled with me to the Rio Grande Valley...during spring migration.

It's weird that so much of my life is on the road and I have a passel of good friends he's never met in person and with this project, he's had a chance. It was also fun to run into the likes of Greg Miller (aka Jack Black's character in the The Big Year movie). Here's Greg trying to wow NBB with birds as Estero Llano Grande State Park. Bill did concede that the pauraques were cool.

Oh and speaking of pauraques, you know how they're always a possibility at Estero near Alligator Lake? They're currently tucked further back and there are babies! How many birds can you make out in the above photo?

Clay and I had been warned that the birds were tucked a bit. We were trying to find them when one just kind of ambled out and was stretching wings. The bird suddenly noticed Clay and I staring at it in awe and then it scurried behind a yucca--I had no idea those things could scurry. We grabbed our scopes to try and digiscope it, making sure to stay on the trail. We had to practically hand to be on all fours to see her from the trail, but Clay found her lurking way back. With the naked eye, she looked really puffed out. I wondered aloud, "Is she incubating eggs since she's puffed out like that?"

Clay got the scope on her and said, "She's not puffed out, those are chicks!"

Sure enough, she had two chicks snuggling out from her breast--how cool to see that!

Alas, pauraques do not fit into the series theme for the show...maybe this show will be good enough that I can get another series commissioned?

Screen Shot 2014-03-01 at 11.42.39 AM — **Web Series Teaser** Mar 01, 2014
I'm just back from some epic US travel. I've been in California, Oregon and south Texas. Some was bird festival work and the rest was filming for the web series Clay Taylor and I working on for this spring. Here's a little clip of some of the fantastic footage we got while at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42Wfr_gr0jg&feature=youtu.be

This clip is crazy on several levels: the fact I can get slow motion video with my iPhone and you can see how fast the kiskadee zips in and out of the shot and then watch it hover in slow motion to get the peanut butter out of the suet log is just nuts.

If you haven't seen the trailer for our series, check it out. It's not just a nature show, the birds in each episode will be a clue to the series theme. Guess correctly and you will be entered into a drawing for a free Swarovksi spotting scope!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm0OE0aSoV8

**Crow Coughing Up A Pellet** Feb 04, 2014
I periodically do segments on our local All Things Considered broadcast in the Twin Cities. I offered to show them the winter crow roost and the host Tom and his producer Sam were interested. You can listen here and they brought along a videographer who got some terrific footage of the crows, be sure to check it out.

We had to reschedule the recording at least once because of the cold weather. We are having the sort of winter that Ned Stark would be proud of up here and I didn't want to take them out to see the roost in sub zero weather. Yeah, I know birders are hardy and we can take it, but I find with newbies and casual birders that they really don't have as much fun and I'm not into sadomasochist birding for everyone (just a select few). I like to do it when it works with everyone's schedule and comfort level.

We finally found a day when it was in the 30s and it was a great time.

I joked with producer Sam by asking if that is how he keeps his microphone warm in winter. He said that this was for wind protection but it looks like a piece of Muppet more than a microphone.

I know crows are pretty common birds, but I do really enjoy their winter roost--thousands of crows coming in and swirling around at dusk, it's beautiful spectacle. Not quite a murmuration, but definitely lovely in its own way. And I love taking non birders out and see them be just as awed as I am (if not more so).

As we did the interview, I tried my hand at digiscoping the crows with my iPhone. I can get some arty shots, but it's still can't quite capture the majesty of the roost. However, as I was grabbing footage, I managed to get a shot of a crow coughing up a pellet--just like an owl or hawk would. Watch the crow on the far right:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGrIpbUqkIA

Several bird species cough up pellets, just not as regularly as birds of prey. I've seen gulls, shorebirds, robins and even a scissor-tailed flycatcher do it. In theory, any bird will cough up parts of food they cannot digest from scales, exoskeletons or even berry husks. But you don't often see other birds do it. Was fun to capture the footage.

instasam — **Crow Coughing Up A Pellet** Feb 04, 2014
I periodically do segments on our local All Things Considered broadcast in the Twin Cities. I offered to show them the winter crow roost and the host Tom and his producer Sam were interested. You can listen here and they brought along a videographer who got some terrific footage of the crows, be sure to check it out.

We had to reschedule the recording at least once because of the cold weather. We are having the sort of winter that Ned Stark would be proud of up here and I didn't want to take them out to see the roost in sub zero weather. Yeah, I know birders are hardy and we can take it, but I find with newbies and casual birders that they really don't have as much fun and I'm not into sadomasochist birding for everyone (just a select few). I like to do it when it works with everyone's schedule and comfort level.

We finally found a day when it was in the 30s and it was a great time.

I joked with producer Sam by asking if that is how he keeps his microphone warm in winter. He said that this was for wind protection but it looks like a piece of Muppet more than a microphone.

I know crows are pretty common birds, but I do really enjoy their winter roost--thousands of crows coming in and swirling around at dusk, it's beautiful spectacle. Not quite a murmuration, but definitely lovely in its own way. And I love taking non birders out and see them be just as awed as I am (if not more so).

As we did the interview, I tried my hand at digiscoping the crows with my iPhone. I can get some arty shots, but it's still can't quite capture the majesty of the roost. However, as I was grabbing footage, I managed to get a shot of a crow coughing up a pellet--just like an owl or hawk would. Watch the crow on the far right:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGrIpbUqkIA

Several bird species cough up pellets, just not as regularly as birds of prey. I've seen gulls, shorebirds, robins and even a scissor-tailed flycatcher do it. In theory, any bird will cough up parts of food they cannot digest from scales, exoskeletons or even berry husks. But you don't often see other birds do it. Was fun to capture the footage.

peacock stiteler — **Birding Gorman Nature Center** Feb 03, 2014
First things first: To anyone I know in northern Ohio who might see this and say, "Heeeey, I thought we were friends, why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

It's not my fault. Thanks to having a large family concentrated in Indiana and Ohio, I sometimes come in and out and just see family. If it means anything at all, there I times I visit these states and never see family because I have so much work to do. It's not you, it's me and my inability to manage my time better.

While visiting Mansfield, Ohio to catch up with family members, I found myself with a little bit of free time. One of my New Year's resolutions is to use eBird regularly and part of my strategy when I travel and I have no particular birding agenda is to do bird a "Hotspot" that hasn't had an entry in awhile...apparently NO ONE is eBirding in Mansfield, Ohio so I just picked Gorman Nature Center as Non Birding Bill could come with me and hike trails (for exercise) easily while I could lolly gag and take pictures.

I noticed a small flock of tiny brown birds on the ground and I was pleased to realize that they were golden-crowned kinglets, fun birds to see any time of year. Here's a really craptastic picture I digiscoped with my iPhone and spotting scope.

But that was not the highlight of the trip. It was a bird in the pine tree in this photo right outside the nature center building. Do you see it? Look at the trunk of the pine tree. Now go about halfway up from the ground and look to the left. See it? There's a thick vertical shape at about nine 0'clock. I first saw it and thought, "That must be a branch...man, that's long, almost like golden eagle long...no...horned guan long...that must be a branch...holy crap, it's moving!"

So I got in my binoculars and laughed. Then got it in my scope.

I looked at those hella big feet--certainly not golden eagle feet...but they do kind resemble horned guan feet. I knew what it was and it was certainly not what I thought I would find while out birding on a winter day in Ohio. The large bird did an excellent job of hiding itself in the pine tree but I managed to get a shot of its face:

It took some jockeying around to get in a good position, but I finally did and got the bird's face. It was a male peacock! You can even see some snow resting on its back. I know there are peacocks that reside at the Kingwood Center about four to five miles north, but seeing one here was a surprise. I tried to google around to see what the story was for this bird, but all I couldn't find much information. I suppose it's not out of the realm of possibility that a peacock from Kingwood wandered away and found itself at Gorman. It was a smart bird, roosting near the bird feeders.

UPDATE: I got a message from Jason Larson - Richland County Park District Director of Operations and he says the peacock is not from Kingwood Center.

"He does not belong to Kingwood, nor have any local collectors claimed him. The Ohio Bird Sanctuary and other local rehabilitators only administer aid to native wildlife and we have no facilities to house the bird here, nor do we want to, as our mission pertains to native wildlife in Richland County and Ohio. We have attempted to find him a home, but unfortunately, he is still "homeless" at the present time."

Anybody in Ohio want to adopt a peacock?

Anyway, Gorman was a nice way to spend an hour on a good hike. I'm sure it's a super birdy spot in the summer, especially around the wetlands. Sometime I must visit Mansfield in spring.

golden crowned — **Birding Gorman Nature Center** Feb 03, 2014
First things first: To anyone I know in northern Ohio who might see this and say, "Heeeey, I thought we were friends, why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

It's not my fault. Thanks to having a large family concentrated in Indiana and Ohio, I sometimes come in and out and just see family. If it means anything at all, there I times I visit these states and never see family because I have so much work to do. It's not you, it's me and my inability to manage my time better.

While visiting Mansfield, Ohio to catch up with family members, I found myself with a little bit of free time. One of my New Year's resolutions is to use eBird regularly and part of my strategy when I travel and I have no particular birding agenda is to do bird a "Hotspot" that hasn't had an entry in awhile...apparently NO ONE is eBirding in Mansfield, Ohio so I just picked Gorman Nature Center as Non Birding Bill could come with me and hike trails (for exercise) easily while I could lolly gag and take pictures.

I noticed a small flock of tiny brown birds on the ground and I was pleased to realize that they were golden-crowned kinglets, fun birds to see any time of year. Here's a really craptastic picture I digiscoped with my iPhone and spotting scope.

But that was not the highlight of the trip. It was a bird in the pine tree in this photo right outside the nature center building. Do you see it? Look at the trunk of the pine tree. Now go about halfway up from the ground and look to the left. See it? There's a thick vertical shape at about nine 0'clock. I first saw it and thought, "That must be a branch...man, that's long, almost like golden eagle long...no...horned guan long...that must be a branch...holy crap, it's moving!"

So I got in my binoculars and laughed. Then got it in my scope.

I looked at those hella big feet--certainly not golden eagle feet...but they do kind resemble horned guan feet. I knew what it was and it was certainly not what I thought I would find while out birding on a winter day in Ohio. The large bird did an excellent job of hiding itself in the pine tree but I managed to get a shot of its face:

It took some jockeying around to get in a good position, but I finally did and got the bird's face. It was a male peacock! You can even see some snow resting on its back. I know there are peacocks that reside at the Kingwood Center about four to five miles north, but seeing one here was a surprise. I tried to google around to see what the story was for this bird, but all I couldn't find much information. I suppose it's not out of the realm of possibility that a peacock from Kingwood wandered away and found itself at Gorman. It was a smart bird, roosting near the bird feeders.

UPDATE: I got a message from Jason Larson - Richland County Park District Director of Operations and he says the peacock is not from Kingwood Center.

"He does not belong to Kingwood, nor have any local collectors claimed him. The Ohio Bird Sanctuary and other local rehabilitators only administer aid to native wildlife and we have no facilities to house the bird here, nor do we want to, as our mission pertains to native wildlife in Richland County and Ohio. We have attempted to find him a home, but unfortunately, he is still "homeless" at the present time."

Anybody in Ohio want to adopt a peacock?

Anyway, Gorman was a nice way to spend an hour on a good hike. I'm sure it's a super birdy spot in the summer, especially around the wetlands. Sometime I must visit Mansfield in spring.

Win A Swarovski Scope Jan 28, 2014

Guess what, gang? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm0OE0aSoV8

Once again, I have partnered up with Swarovski Optik North America to give away a spotting scope. And this time we are producing a short eight episode web series with birding and digiscoping tips with me and my buddy Clay Taylor. Now for the contest part: the birds in each episode are a clue to the overall series theme. If you correctly guess the theme, you will be entered into a drawing for a Swarovski STM spotting scope!

The series will debut this spring, we are still filming some of it. You do not have to be a top notch birder but it helps if you know birds.