Manitowish Waters, here I come!

For the past three years I've been involved in the annual birding festival for the Discovery Center in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin. It's a great and sincere little festival, filled with fun activities and learning opportunities in a beautiful part of Wisconsin--even if I weren't the keynote speaker this year, I'd strongly encourage you to attend. There's a reception tomorrow night, and most of the activities take place on Saturday. Check it out! (scroll down)

Oklahoma superlatives

Wow--I've been looking through my photos and it's going to take forever for me to get them all "up." But here are a few of the superlatives of the trip:

• Most sardonic look by a prairie dog:

• Most dead animals on roadsides: turtles, especially red-eareds and snappers.
  
• Most dead mammals on roadsides: armadillos (at that end of I-35. As I approached my end of I-35 today, it was porcupines.)
• Most unexpected adventure: being awakened from a sound sleep in my car by Refuge people to get my car to higher ground and me and Photon to a safe spot during a tornado warning and torrential downpour.
• Most thrilling adventure: When Joe Grzybowski and I came upon a diamondback rattlesnake in Blaine County. Joe wanted to get the snake safely off the road before any other cars came along, which rather pissed the snake off, but a bit farther down the road we came upon a dead diamondback sans head and tail--"collectors" (there should be an uglier word for them) can be brutal.

• Scariest moment--I don't think I was even mildly scared the whole trip.
  
• Nicest stranger--the lady at the Pizza Hut in Watonga, who kept calling me "sugar" and "sweetie."
  
• Kindest act: After patiently allowing me to tag along on a cowbird monitoring day, and thereby learning full well my limitations, Joe Grzybowski let me tag along on a Black-capped Vireo monitoring day, too. It's up and down on rocky terrain--stunningly, breathtakingly beautiful country, but I'm neither experienced on that kind of terrain nor in as good shape as I should be. Joe went up and down the rocky slopes as nimbly as a mountain goat. I suppose I was rather like a goat too, in the sense that I had to scramble up more than a few rocks on all fours. But Joe would wait up and then have some cool and interesting story to tell and not even let on that he was really just giving me a chance to catch my breath. As it was, we covered one mountain and 11 vireo territories in what seemed like a full day to me. But on a REAL full day, Joe covers three times that! I should have worn this shirt:

• Best bird: Well, duh! The Black-capped Vireo! I think my favorite was the one at the Quannah Parker Lake Dam who let me photograph and record him.

• Biggest tragedy: I think it was stepping on a cricket frog when I was trying to get a Lark Sparrow out of the women's bathroom.
• Most painful moment--crashing into a sharp corner wall in the shower room at the Refuge campground when I slipped on the wet floor on Sunday. I smacked my face right where my skull juts out at the eyebrow, and gave myself rather a shiner--the blood pooled on my eyelid like a sickly blue eye shadow. The other woman in the shower room was actually a registered nurse, who made sure I didn't have a concussion. The best thing about being 55.5 years old is that people never look too closely at you, and either no one noticed at all or anyone who did notice didn't say anything.
• Most beautiful flowers: I can't decide whether it was the prickly pears, the barrel cactuses, the Indian blankets or just the generic fields of prairie flowers in full bloom because of all the rain.
  
• Most respiration-compromising situation: not the climbing, but seeing so many Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Mississippi Kites the first day. I'd be watching in joy and awe and suddenly realize I was holding my breath. I guess after a few days I started taking all this beauty for granted, or leastwise I kept breathing when I saw such gorgeous things.
• Most amazing song: the mockingbird who was up at the Quannah Parker Lake Dam. I can't get over the imitations that bird made. The video I took is on my video camera rather than my regular camera, so it's going to take a bit for me to figure out how to get it on my computer, but I'll post it ASAP.
• "Toothiest" goose (click for enlargement and look at the serrated bill--also notice the feathered eyelid):
  
  
• Most intriguing nighthawks--the ones I saw with Vic Fazio when we went out to Hackberry Flats. These were apparently functionally illiterate, and hadn't read the books that say they rest on fence posts, horizontal branches, and other fairly wide structures.

• Silliest occasion I marked--turning 55.5 on May 11. And I just did the calculations--sometime during the evening of June 1, I'll turn 55.555. Should I call that a quintessential occasion or a cinco-pated day or what?
  

Lots more stories, photos and videos to come.

Rattlesnake videos (very short)

Iowa rest stops and other logistical matters

I'm at the first rest stop in Iowa. Iowa is one of the most civilized states--they provide free wireless Internet at their rest stops! Which reminds me that I should mention a few logistical matters I might forget about the trip. If you ever find yourself in Watonga, OK, the Watonga Motel was very nice--the people were warm and welcoming, they allowed Photon to not only stay, but to stay in my air-conditioned room all day when I was out in rattlesnake country, and it was a really nice room for $42.99 a night, with a refrigerator and everything. And if you are going through there, the Pizza Hut is the best one ever. The waitress was extremely friendly, calling me sweetie and sugar and making interesting conversation while I waited for my pizza to go. It was like being with Queen Latifah herself!

On the other hand, I didn't like the DQ in Chickashaw. I usually order a small "chocolate-dipped strawberry blizzard" for me and a tiny vanilla cup for Photon, but this was my breakfast so I broke policy and ordered a medium. Big mistake--at this DQ, they do the blizzard the stupid way, with the tiny thin chocolate pieces rather than the thick ones, which spoils the whole thing. I wish Dairy Queen would standardize their definition of "chocolate dipped strawberry blizzards"--they're splendid when made with the big chunks. Plus that store doesn't put tiny ice cream orders in a dish--they said Photon's had to go in a cone, and then they put the little ice cream cone in a dish. Not that Photon doesn't like cones, but it seemed silly to insist that the cone had to be there. So I won't be visiting that DQ again.

Overall, people at gas stations, restaurants, and food places I've stopped at along the trip have been friendly and warm. And with our long drive today, I'm sure at some point Photon and I will wend our way to a DQ and a good blizzard will wash away that one negative memory for good.

But back to the rest area--the whole time I've been typing this an oriole has been singing away! Hardly new for my I-35 list, but what a lovely sound.

Whew! Heading home!

Little Dog on the Prairie

Photon and I have had such a wonderful time in Oklahoma! There was a bit of rain (well, 7 inches in 2 or 3 hours one night when a tornado touched down on the north side of the mountains, meaning refuge staff had to come and wake me up and evacuate me. That was an adventure--especially because they brought us to the environmental education building, where Photon got to investigate a bunch of cool stuffed animals!). But all the rain made everything about as beautiful as it could possibly be.

(Diamondbacks viewed through 12x camera aren't quite as close as they appear.)

And the pièce de résistance:

I'll have a bazillion more photos, and some videos of a singing Painted Bunting and the most versatile mockingbird I've ever heard as soon as I can get them up.

Oklahoma, here I come!

I'm so excited I could pop! I'm in Des Moines, Iowa, after driving since noon, and barring fierce storms should be in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma tomorrow! Scissor-tailed Flycatchers! Mississippi Kites! Painted Buntings! Summer Tanagers! Chuck-will's-widows! And, most thrilling of all, Black-capped Vireos! Plus on Tuesday, again barring fierce storms (well, maybe even rain) I get to tag along with Joe Grzybowski while he goes about his spring vireo work!

The drive today wasn't very fun bird-wise--it was cloudy and the wind was ferocious. There were a few red-tails and one Cooper's Hawk, but I didn't spot a single kestrel perched on a wire along the whole drive! One Western Meadowlark was singing away at a rest stop--I'd have recorded him but the wind and traffic were too loud. Lots of red-wings, one distant egret, and a dead prairie chicken complete the list--a pretty short one, and I hate seeing dead prairie chickens.

I had a crosswind through Minnesota, making it hard to steer and it really hurt my gas mileage--I only averaged 46 miles per gallon. And by the time I got into Iowa, it had shifted to a full headwind, and boy did that do in my mileage--it was barely over 40 by the time I got this far. The wind is noisy through the window in my motel room, too. Other than the crappy miles per gallon (and non-hybrids would have gotten way worse!) the Prius seems to be working out great for this adventure. I have one side of the back seat down, with an air mattress and my sleeping bag set up on that side, and managed to fit my tent and other camping gear (including a small stove and my coffee maker), food, luggage, audio recording equipment and all that stuff easily, while keeping the front passenger seat free for Photon. She's been having a jolly day--she met some golden retrievers, another bichon, a couple of yorkies, and some other dogs here and there at rest stops, and here in our room she seems to be delighting in the two double beds. They're exactly far enough apart that jumping from one to the other seems like a challenge, while close enough together that she can actually make the jump. So she's jumped back and forth at least 20 times so far. On days like this, I love a self-exercising dog!

Keep your fingers crossed that the weather cooperates this week. If it's too rainy, I can always sleep in my car, and I have plenty of stuff to do if it's too rainy to be outside. But boy do I hope I can take pictures of the Wichita Mountains and its splendid birds!

Pleasant morning, sort of lackluster birding

Can you pick out the Lesser Scaup?

I'm not sure if I'm remembering all the birds we saw this morning, but my total is only 30 species. But we had some splendid looks at them--pretty close up views of a small flock of Greater Scaup with one lone Lesser among them, a gorgeous if uncooperative Horned Grebe (they apparently do not approve of paparazzi!), a nice little Brown Creeper, and, perhaps most beautiful of all though it was pretty far away, a huge flock of terns--I'm 90% certain they were Common Terns--banking and wheeling and twinkling in the sun. It was cold and windy--only 36 degrees when I left home, so people were pretty shivery by the end of the morning.

I'm leaving town for a couple of weeks, so Larry and Jan Kraemer, who are excellent birders and have a splendid Swarovski spotting scope, will be leading the Warbler Walks till I get back. This year I didn't get around to sending out any press releases, so attendance hasn't been too big and they've been lots of fun! Come and join us--Tuesdays at 6:30 am at the Western Waterfront Trail parking lot across from the zoo and just west of the TappaKeg Inn and Bar on Grand Avenue, and Thursdays at 6:30 am at Park Point at the big parking lot by the soccer fields and recreation building.



Canada Goose
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Merlin
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Common Tern
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird

Finding heaven on a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek

Oh, wow! I got up at 3:30 this morning to head down to Solon Springs to the Sharp-tailed Grouse viewing blind. It was the best ever! The full moon was obscured by clouds until just before it sunk in the western horizon. Being May, the temperature was pretty survivable--45 degrees instead of the 20s or lower 30s as it's been when I've come down the past two years. And I saw at least a dozen males and no fewer than four females at a time. It was really splendid. I brought my son Tom's video camera and got some great footage, but I don't know if I'm going to have time to go through it this week. I've got a few more things I have to finish today, a talk at our local Barnes and Noble tonight, a field trip tomorrow and several more things that need to be done, and then Friday I head to the Twin Cities for an all-day school program and then am speaking for the Ramsey County Birding Festival's kick-off spaghetti dinner Friday night. Archimedes will be along for those. Then Saturday Photon and I are off for Oklahoma!! We're going to be camping in the Wichita Mountains and learning about Black-capped Vireos--I'm so excited I could pop! Plus I'm going to get bazillions of photos and video of them and other cool birds. I'll be gone until the Manitowish Waters Discovery Center Birding Festival, on May 18 and 19th. My eyes are really tired now--that blasted Bell's Palsy has really done a number on my eyes! After a little nap I'm going to get back to work.

But meanwhile, until I get the video up, I did post a bunch of new pictures, all digiscoped, on my Sharp-tailed Grouse photo gallery. Some of my best Sharp-tailed photos ever!

Another great Warbler Walk

We had another lovely day for a warbler walk, and 43 species, not even counting the peacocks and peahen that were perched up high at the zoo!

Many people got to see this pair of flickers mating--here they are sitting about. You can't tell for sure if the male is smoking a tiny cigarette behind that trunk.

These two male cowbirds were spending quite a bit of time displaying to the female. As with most female cowbirds, she seemed attracted to both.

Green-winged Teal!

Canada Goose
Gadwall
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Merlin
Greater Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Pine Siskin

Raven 1, Laura 0

One of the problems with spending so much of my life trying to educate the world about birds is that it sort of sets me up to be a know-it-all. And it's ever so easy for birds to prove how little I really know.

I have a lot of friends on Salon Magazine's Table Talk forum, and when anyone there has a bird question, it makes its way to me. Right after answering a spate of bird ID questions, I got two questions of more practical importance, and in both cases my advice sort of backfired. One woman was seeing a beautiful budgie at her feeder. The bird wasn't associating with the feral population of New York budgies, and was pure white, so it was almost definitely an escaped pet. I suggested that she get a cage and leave it open in the yard to see if the budgie, like Ogden Nash's Custard the Dragon, was just seeking a nice safe cage. So she went out and bought a cage, and voila! The budgie disappeared altogether. I hope that if it needs a home, it comes back.

Then, another friend was having problems with a raven picking at the stuff between her roof rack and the roof of her minivan. I suggested hanging some helium balloons up there. In my experience rehabbing, crows and jays were terrified of helium balloons, and I figured it was because nothing in nature acts the way helium-filled objects do, "falling up." So she got some nice shiny balloons and put them on her car. And here's what happened:

I found some helium balloons Sunday, in several colors. This morning, as soon as I got to work, I tied them to the roof rack of my minivan, one at each corner.

No raven for about an hour. Then he landed on the ground next to the van and walked around it a couple of times, all the while eyeing the balloons.

And then he flitted up to the rack, and walked around on top, cocking his head at the balloons. He inspected them for quite a while, pulling at the strings, tentatively pecking at the balloons.

He's already deflated the blue one - scared him when it popped and he flew off, but I think he figured out pretty quick why it popped, cuz he came right back and popped the yellow one.

The red one and the purple one survive. He appears to like purple, cuz that's the one he's admiring himself in now.

I guess he hasn't heard the story about balloons falling up confusing ravens, cuz it hasn't bothered this wiseguy a bit.

I wish she could have gotten video!! But I guess it's time to take my sign in, huh?