little year

Today after work, we headed to the Magic Hedge. There wasn't much going on, but we did see a BROWN THRASHER. This was a bit of a relief because we thought we saw one in Texas, but decided it was a long-billed instead. So in some strange way, I was glad to be able to fulfill the brown thrasher's Little Year Destiny. We also saw a weirdly unabashed hustler. These guys usually wander around furtively, but this one was proudly standing in the middle of the bushes, just waiting. At least he had his pants on, so I'm grateful for that. Pole stumbled on him when alone, and he kind of freaked her out. What can you do? Texas has alligators, we've got this.

posted by Scrubb at 05:47 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST

Today was our last day birding Texas. Once again, we started out at the Convention Center and were lucky enough to have some super birder point out a PRAIRIE WARBLER. This guy is a bird photographer, and he told us this was the worst season for birding Texas in the last 10 to 15 years. Dry dry dry. (He's the one who came up with the name "Laguna del Morte," which I appropriated for a previous post.) His recommendation: Arizona. So we've added to our list, and we shall see. Driving out, we once again took old Port Isabel Road and saw a CASSIN’S SPARROW and BEWICK’S WREN. Then onward to today's main event, the Santa Ann NWR.

Santa Ana was pretty far away, but the good news (satiric comment follows) was that it was away from Chicago, so it would only help to make the return trip that much more hellish. And speaking of hell, the weather at Santa Ana was, well, I won't insult your intelligence. As we drove into the refuge, Little Miss I-just-saw-a-lifer-and-you-missed-it caught sight of a GROOVE-BILLED ANI as it dropped into a field. With that monster bill, it's hard to miss unless you're me.

Walking around the refuge, we saw only two new birds: some STILT SANDPIPERS and a CINNAMON TEAL. We ran into another super birder photographer, this one a young-ish guy who recently served on search team for the ivory-billed woodpecker. He wasn't allowed to share anything with us, though, because he had signed a non-disclosure agreement. However, he did help us find a NORTHERN/TROPICAL PARULA hybrid that was lurking about the place. Hybrids -- huh! -- what are they good for? Sure, it was nice to see it, but we can't count it, even if I did put its name in all caps.

Thus ended our birding trip to Texas. We still had to drive 1200 miles (!) to Chicago, and it took us a day longer than we planned. If we had stuck to my original itinerary and spent our last day near Houston we would have been fine, but someone (Pole) convinced me we could save time by by starting at the bottom of Texas and sticking to interstates. Aargh. The one good thing about the new route was that by following the Rio Grande toward Laredo, we got stuck in the March for Jesus parade in Rio Grande City. A bizarre experience that cheered me up mightily after our heroic navigator informed me how profoundly we were hosed.

To sum it up, though we weren't crazy about Texas -- specifically the coast and the Rio Grande Valley -- we were very glad we came. Texans are friendly and helpful, and the birding was extraordinary. We saw 121 new birds for Little Year, more than doubling our count. Pole saw 81 lifers, and I saw 77. A great trip, and I'm sure we'll come back again to get the ones we missed. (Especially the ones I missed and Pole didn't, damn her.)

posted by Scrubb at 09:29 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + lbjs + lifers + shorebirds

Another lifer we missedSouth Padre Island isn't just popular with birders and girls gone wild, it's also big with escaped convicts and murderers. The day we got there, some concerned citizen claimed to have seen escaped murderer Richard Lee McNair hanging out among the tourists. He was all over the web a week or two ago in an extraordinary police video. You get to watch McNair convince the hapless cop who pulled him over that he's got the wrong man. Amazing. Anyway, we didn't see nothing and we ain't saying a thing.

In today's birding news, Pole and I headed off to the Sabal Palm Audubon Center and Sanctuary, which is south of Brownsville, near the Mexican border. A very lush place, but -- you guessed it -- hotter than hell. Lots of paths and walkways, and lots of birds, too. It was even more uncomfortable than our trip to High Island, where we burned beyond recognition. Our system today was to go out for short expeditions and then return, panting, to the water fountain at the visitor center.

A well-balanced BBWDNear the center, Pole spotted a BUFF-BELLIED HUMMINGBIRD at the feeders. I missed it this time, but caught it later in the day. We spent most of our time hanging around the lake, either pacing the walkway, or walking the paths nearby. We saw a pair of LEAST GREBES, and, in a large tree, a LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER and a LESSER GOLDFINCH. Pole spotted the last two, but I wasn't able to get the goldfinch because it flew away before I could get a good look. The most frustrating bird I missed, though, was the GRAY-CROWNED YELLOWTHROAT, which Pole saw in the exact spot they told us to look. She got to watch it for about 20 seconds, while I had only a fleeting glimpse as it dropped into the reeds. It's an extraordinary rarity, and I don't know if I'll get the chance to see it again for the rest of my short, yet deeply fulfilling, life. We went back to the spot repeatedly, but it refused to show up again. Damn prima donna rarities. Also saw the black-bellied whistling duck pictured above.

Back at the feeders, we saw three lifers in five minutes: a BLUE GROSBEAK, a WHITE-WINGED DOVE, and an OLIVE SPARROW. On our final walking loop, we saw a bird we had been looking for all day: a female RINGED KINGFISHER. A huge bird, the most spectacular of the day, with a bill that never stops. Then, just before we left, we spotted an exquisite ALTAMIRA ORIOLE at the visitor center feeders. This was another bird we'd been searching for throughout the day. We told a guy who worked there about our disappointment, and as we were getting ready to go, he came out excitedly and pointed it out to us. He had heard its song while sitting at his desk. What a nice man. As we drove out of the refuge, we saw one more lifer: a LARK SPARROW, exactly where another birder told us it would be.

Our next stop was Boca Chica beach, which runs just north of the Rio Grande and the Mexican border. Like Bolivar Flats, they have no problem with people driving on it. There was lots of garbage all over the place, but what was odder were the dozens of people parked in their cars, barbequeing or fishing or swimming. Why would anyone want to hang out on such a disgusting beach? And if it's used for recreation, why doesn't the government keep it clean or patrol it in some way? Where's the Lamar Women's Club when you need them? Typical Texas. We did see one Border Patrol car parked on the beach, but the guys inside didn't seem to be doing anything. We drove the two and half miles to the river, and saw cars parked across the water, some with Texas plates, some with Mexican. Go figure. We did see quite a few birds, two of them new for the year: a PIPING PLOVER and a LEAST SANDPIPER. Even though the beach was ugly, it was nice to be in the air conditioning after out ordeal at Sabal Palm.

As we drove back to South Padre, we took Old Port Isabel Road. This dirt road is a little-used short cut that the guide said was good for birds. Sure enough, we saw some lifers, including a HORNED LARK, a BROAD-WINGED HAWK, and a CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN. A good, if physical grueling, day. Totals were 16 for Little Year, 14 lifers for Pole, 12 for me.

posted by Scrubb at 08:20 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + challenges + lifers + raptors + shorebirds

Osprey with digitally docked tailFirst thing today, we checked out the South Padre Island Convention Center, which is supposed to be a good spot. It was. It's right on the water, and strolling in the sands we saw BLACK SKIMMERS and a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER. It would have been nice to see a skimmer actually skimming, but we did see it actually being black (and white and orange), which is something.

Plenty of birders were ogling the shrubbery near the center, so we joined them, managing to see a BLACKPOLL WARBLER, a SCARLET TANAGER, and a TENNESSEE WARBLER. In a year or two, the convention center is going to become the World Birding Center, which sounds pretty highfalutin'. But what that means beyond a gift shop, I can't tell you. At present, though, they've built a nice walkway through the marsh to the water, and that's where I digiscoped the osprey. There's a large water tower nearby, and a nice old couple pointed out a small hawk perched high up on one of its railings. With a scope, it proved to be a PEREGRINE FALCON.

The rest of the day was devoted to Laguna Atascosa NWR. As soon as we came in, I was lucky enough to see a green jay, a species I had missed yesterday. We explored the area near the visitor center, and sat for a while in a low, dark blind. There Pole saw the species she missed yesterday, the golden-fronted woodpecker. We also got a WHITE-TIPPED DOVE. At a spot nearby, we saw what we first thought was a Brown Thrasher, but after considering range and the bill, we decided it was a LONG-BILLED THRASHER.

A panting bobcat viewed from air-conditioned comfortWe hopped back in the car, and the rest of the day was spent driving around the refuge, which is pretty damn huge. At one point, Pole spotted a large feline dashing across the road in front of us. We caught up with it and followed it as it slowly trotted along. It proved to be a bobcat. And boy, did it look miserable, emaciated and panting in the hot Texas sun. (Need I say that it was another blistering day?) The refuge had seen better times, too. There's been a bad drought in the area, and many of the lagoons and ponds were dry as a bone. We wondered what the bobcat was eating, and sadly watched it disappear into the scrub. I hope it killed something, because -- sorry to be mammal-centric -- it was worth a hundred thrashers.

As we drove around the refuge, we stopped here and there, picking up new bird one at a time, including:

NORTHERN BOBWHITE
WILSON’S PLOVER
BROWN-CRESTED FLYCATCHER
CURVE-BILLED THRASHER
WHITE-TAILED HAWK

I missed two of these: the bobwhite disappeared before I got out the the car, and the thrasher was on Pole's side, and I could never get a bead on it.

The last bird of the day was the wonderful PLAIN CHACHALACA, which we saw on a last walk around the visitor center. We saw another as we drove out, and heard its crazy call, which goes -- well, you can guess. This day added 14 birds to the list, 9 lifers for Pole, 9 (with the jay) for me.

And here, for misery's sake, is another shot of the bobcat:

posted by Scrubb at 07:13 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + lifers + other animals

And don't forget the venomous ivyToday started as another driving day, this time from Rockport to South Padre Island. We paused at a rest stop along the way, and saw the amazing sign on the left. Never mind that they mean "venomous," not "poisonous," but what halfwit is going to walk their pet after reading such a warning? Only in Texas. Lots of boat-tailed grackles here, and this was the first time we heard their outrageous squawking. They can make the most hellish, unbirdlike sounds imaginable. That must be why they're called "niños del diablo." (I just made that up.)

We drove south on Route 77, a raptor hotspot, and sure enough, we spotted a CRESTED CARACARA and HARRIS’S HAWK in short order. Pole got to claim them first because she saw them longer and knew what to look for. But we saw more of both before long, so I got to check them off, too. In fact, the Harris's were all over the place.

Today's star attraction was a mouthful: the Langoria Unit, Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area, which is northwest of Harlingen. A long name for a little unit. Though it has some tall trees, it's mostly a dry place with barren soil covered by shrubs and bushes. The most verdant spots are around the fountains -- just hoses, really -- that the managers have installed. Of course, it was hot as Hades. We walked around the loops a couple of times, and saw the following birds:

GREEN JAY
GREAT KISKADEE
COUCH’S KINGBIRD
COMMON GROUND DOVE
YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO
GOLDEN-FRONTED WOODPECKER

Pole saw the jay without me, and she also got a good look at the cuckoo, which I only glimpsed. But the woodpecker was all mine. I had a nice, long look at it, but Pole couldn't find it in the trees. It's not often I spot something she doesn't, so good for me. We also kept running across a family of javelina, who had two cute little piglets (javelinitas?).

After about an hour, we were pretty knocked out, and our parched gullets were desperate for some liquid. Not far from the place we found a little sno-cone stand. We both had a lemonade shake-up, and Pole unwisely ordered a coconut sno-cone as well (which was blue, for some reason). She paid for her gluttony later by being sick.

It was getting late by now, but we'd thought we'd make a quick stop at Laguna Atascosa NWR. We got lost getting there, but on the road just before th refuge we saw BRONZED COWBIRDS and a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW. Best of all, just before the entrance gate we saw a pair of GREATER ROADRUNNERS flirting crazily with each other. What a nice bird. We got to watch them -- along with a couple other cars full of perverts -- making sweet roadrunner love. Beep! Beep!

We didn't stay long, and the only new bird we saw was an OSPREY atop a radio tower. On the short trip to South Padre, we also managed to spot a WHITE-TAILED KITE. A lot of traveling today, but we nailed 13 new birds for Little Year, 11 of them lifers.

posted by Scrubb at 07:07 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + challenges + lifers + other animals + raptors

No, ma'am, we sure won'tLast night we drove south to Rockport. Most of the drive was in the dark, and we passed several refineries glowing in the night. Ugly places -- talk about your Dark Satanic Mills. Our first birding stop this morning was Goose Island State Park, which is on the Lamar peninsula. Before we entered the park proper, we stopped off to see the Big Tree, which is the Texas State Champion Oak, whatever the hell that means. It's a big ol' tree, and best of all, we saw a BLACK-CRESTED TITMOUSE in its branches, a lifer for us both. The area was different from most what we'd seen in Texas so far, since there wasn't garbage everywhere. The reason? The Lamar Women's Club. (See photo.)

The park was nice, too, though there were pretty slim pickings in the bird department. We drove around a bit and had no luck until we parked the car in front of some bird feeders on Warbler Way. I have to admit, it's nice to bird from the car on a miserably hot day. Lots of birds there, but the only new one was a DICKCISSEL, a double lifer.

Then onward to today's big gig, the Aransas NWR. As we drove in, Pole saw a MOTTLED DUCK in someone's front-yard pond. She got out to get a closer look, spooking it away before I had a decent look. Lifer for her, dammit.

Pole in the open to give herself a wide reptile bufferAransas gets a lot of mileage out of having alligators all over the place. Right by the entrance, there's a small gator viewing area. It runs along a creek, and you can safely ogle the critters from behind a fence, laughing at their powerlessness. We took a quick look, and then headed for the nearby Rail Trail, which runs along the selfsame creek. Just before entering it, we spotted a WHITE-FACED IBIS fearlessly disporting itself in the reptile-ridden waters. The crazy thing about the Rail Trail is this: even though it runs along the gator creek, there's no fence to keep the buggers out. In fact, soon after we started walking it, we saw a gator sitting on the grass facing the trail, only about 10-15 feet away. What an insane place for a path. The gator could have attacked us easily, and I don't think beating it on the snout with a tripod would have disturbed its birder munching. We walked the rest of trail pretty quickly, because we decided we weren't frigging idiots. After we left the path, I saw a snake dash off the road into the bushes. Pole hates snakes, so the addition of another cold-blooded abomination kept her on edge for the rest of the day.

We hopped back in the car, and driving along, saw a tom turkey crossing the road. He wasn't skittish at all, so we wondered if he was sick, or whether he was just sex crazed. At our next stop, we met a Finnish birder who had just arrived in Texas. He mentioned the turkey's odd behavior, and asked us if was mating season. This guy's English wasn't great, so what came out was, "Is it playtime for turkeys?"

We made a few other stops in the refuge, and at one we saw some javelinas, which is Texan for peccary. Last new birds of the day were some BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING-DUCKS. By now it was dusk, and the bugs were coming out, so we hit the road. On the way back we made a stop at Goose Island to check out Warbler Way, but didn't see anything new.

It seemed a slow day compared to the last two, but slow for Texas still yielded five new birds for Little Year, all of them lifers.

posted by Scrubb at 08:02 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + lifers + other animals

Pole on High Island, resplendent in her birder plumageToday we returned to High Island . . . prepared. The day started out well because we got to check out of the odious La Quinta. We skipped their lousy breakfast, and headed straight to Gander Mountain. Pole wanted to get some of that new-fangled clothing that's impregnated with bug repellent. They didn't have it, so instead, we got long-legged, long-sleeved sunblock outfits (UPF 30) that we changed into at the store. Of course, with our sensible pants and shirts, we now looked like the typical dorky birder I ridiculed in yesterday's post. Pole is particular about how she dresses, and she wasn't happy about her outfit. And I was kind of disappointed in her, too. The good thing about birding with Pole is that if there are no birds around, I can at least look at her.

After our dork transformation, we headed to the Waffle House for breakfast. The place is a bit of a dive, but we had the best waitress of our lives: someone name Taesheba. (I'm not sure on the spelling, but she pronounced it like "Toshiba".) She got our food to us real quick, and she kept topping off our drinks before we even finished them. And when we left, she told us to have a "blessed day."

We didn't see anything new on the way to High Island -- in contrast to yesterday's bounty -- so we went straight to Boy Scout Woods. In the parking lot we saw a bunch of birds on the ground which turned out to be INCA DOVES. A lifer 2x, so a good start. Needless to say, before we started, we coated ourselves with DEET. Walking down the street toward the entrance, we saw an ORCHARD ORIOLE.

Once inside, we each paid our $5 fee (somehow we missed that yesterday) and right away we saw a LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH, a PAINTED BUNTING (wow), and a ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. Other birds we spotted in the santuary were:

NASHVILLE WARBLER
EASTERN WOOD PEWEE
SUMMER TANAGER
PHILADELPHIA VIREO
WARBLING VIREO
PROTHONOTARY WARBLER

We left to explore Smith Oaks, another spot run by the Houston Audubon Society. Before we got there, Pole jotted a quick post card. I ran it into the local post office for her, and got in line behind a local who was buying a book of stamps. She didn't care what kind of stamps, she said, "as long as they don't have any birds on 'em." I guess they're sick of us on High Island. I wish Taesheba had been there to kick the woman's blessed ass.

Smith Oaks ought to be called Sweltering Oaks, or maybe just Sweltering Hellhole. The point I'm trying to make here, you see, is that it was hot. I was wearing this snooty floppy hat made by Filson's. It's treated with wax to be waterproof, so it probably wasn't the best choice for birding in a fiery furnace. The heat caused the wax to be extruded from the fabric, and combined with large amount of DEET and birder sweat, well, that there hat was just about the most repulsive object you could imagine. And it was on my frigging head.

Back to birding. In the woods we saw a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT and a BALTIMORE ORIOLE, but our goal was a place called the Rookery, which was just that. When we got there, we saw hundreds of cranes, spoonbills, and herons. Alligators, too. An extraordinary sight. Added to our list were TRICOLORED HERONS and BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, along with an INDIGO BUNTING.

Pole on Bolivar Flats, looking for birds amidst the trashWe left High Island and headed south to Bolivar Flats. You're allowed to drive you car on the beach, and it looked like they don't really care if you dump your trash there, either. You had to walk the last stretch of beach (which is an actual bird sanctuary), so it least they got that part right. But it is amazing that people or the government or whoever is willing to put up with so much pollution. It was like the Third World. Still, we did see quite a few birds:

RUDDY TURNSTONE
CASPIAN TERN
SANDERLING
LEAST TERN
ROYAL TERN
BROWN PELICAN
SANDWICH TERN
RED KNOT
DUNLIN
REDDISH EGRET
AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN

Our last trip was a little south, walking the jetty at the end of Jetty Road. One the drive there, we saw some EURASIAN COLLARED DOVES. On the jetty itself we spotted -- as a local birder told us we would -- thousands of AMERICAN AVOCETS. Also got a MARBLED GODWIT and an AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER.

Another big day for Little Year: 31 new birds, 18 lifers for me, 16 for Pole.

posted by Scrubb at 07:52 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + challenges + lifers + other animals + shorebirds

Pole in Anahuac (on a tilt, as poles often are)Last Friday we left for a week-long trip to Texas. We drove Friday night and all of Saturday. Not straight through, mind you. We stopped in Cape Girardeau, Missouri on Friday and made it to Beaumont, Texas last night. So today -- Easter Sunday -- was our first day birding the Texas coast. And though today was our biggest day ever for birds, it may have been the worst day ever, too.

Starting with the worst, the hotel was a dump. It was old and run down and in the middle of an industrial area right next to the highway. I won't tell you its name, but let's just say it was a La Quinta Inn. We knew we were here to bird, so we got over that pretty quick. (Right.) So this morning we headed for the coast down Route 124 toward Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. It wasn't long before we saw some CATTLE EGRETS in a field along the side of the road. And the a BLACK VULTURE flying above us. Two lifers from the get-go. Then we hit it big.

We pulled off the road next to a small creek. We got out the scope, took a gander, and saw a pile of new birds:

BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE
GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE
GLOSSY IBIS
COMMON MOORHEN
BLACK-NECKED STILT
FULVOUS WHISTLING-DUCK
ROSEATE SPOONBILL
BARN SWALLOW
SNOWY EGRET
EASTERN KINGBIRD
GREEN HERON

Pole was freaking out a little because there were so many unfamiliar birds, many of them lifers. We were also using a new field guide -- the National Geographic -- because we needed to have all the Texas specialties, something our Peterson doesn't cover. We know our way around the Peterson, so finding birds in the Geo was frustrating. And on top of that, some crazy crop-dusting plane starting buzzing about 60 feet over our heads, scaring off the birds. Real overload. Once we got all these water birds, we continued south and saw three more along the road: a SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER, a LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, and some NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS. So after about 15 minutes of birding, we ended up with 16 birds for Little Year, 8 of them lifers. Whew.

As we entered Anahuac, we got out to join some other birders to scope a big, dry marsh. Lot of gulls and shorebirds including:

LAUGHING GULL
GULL-BILLED TERN
WHITE IBIS
WILLET
WHIMBREL
SEMIPALMATED PLOVER
LESSER YELLOWLEGS

After checking the refuge headquarters for maps, etc., we moved on through he refuge. We saw some NEOTROPIC CORMORANTS and a GREAT EGRET. Also a raccoon shuffling around in the grass. The most beautiful bird for me, though, was a PURPLE GALLINULE that was slowly prancing about 20 feet away. And we finally saw an AMERICAN BITTERN, a bird we'd been wanting for a long time. It was out in the open, and -- as usual -- it kept up its camouflage behavior because it's too birdbrained to know it was out in the open. We had a nice long look at it until some photographer (another birdbrain) scared it away. Pole also got a quick glimpse of an alligator. Continuing our Quest, we spotted:

FORSTER’S TERN
LITTLE BLUE HERON
NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW
PALM WARBLER
YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER
SEASIDE SPARROW
COMMON TERN
LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER

We spent a couple of hours in Anahuac, and when we left, we decided to make a quick stop to nearby High Island, one of the most celebrated birding spots in Texas.

High Island isn't really an island, but you do have to cross this freaky bridge to get there. It's short, but its arch is very high, going up at an angle that seemed about 40 degrees, but was probably only 30. Pole hates bridges, and so she was gripping onto the car's door strap for dear life. Once we were down to earth, we were surprised on how ugly the island was. Texas in a nutshell: not a nice place, but it's where the birds are. We headed to Boy Scout Woods, one of the sites managed by the Houston Audubon Society, hoping we could just make a quick stop.

As we were leaving the car, Pole asked whether we should put on bug spray. I thought about it and said no. She agreed. The thing is, we hate putting stinky goop on our bodies. It really cramps our style. We walked into the woods and entered a beautifully maintained, shady sanctuary. There were lots of birders wandering around, some watching birds from the special viewing bleachers. As soon as we got there, a woman pointed out a BLUE-HEADED VIREO. She then asked if we wanted to see a Painted Bunting, and we said sure.

The bunting was actually in someone's yard that abutted the refuge, and we had to walk through a maze of paths to get there. Our guide was dressed in the ugly uniform birders often wear: formless floppy hat, tan safari shirt, and pants you can covert to shorts with a zipper. And in this case, the seat of her pants were covered with berry stains from sitting on the bleachers. (There but for the grace of God . . .) Anyway, she brought us to the place, and as soon as we stepped into the bushes to get a better view, the vermin came. It was the worst mosquito attack I've ever experience in my life. I was slapping them off Pole's back nonstop, and when I looked at my right ankle, there were about eight of them in the same spot. I killed them all with one whack. I then smashed one on my left ankle, and watched as a drop of blood rolled into my sock.

I wanted to get the hell out of there, but it's funny, I needed to wait for Pole to say something. I just didn't feel I had the right to quit. Maybe it was some macho thing. Or maybe I'm just nuts. "These bugs are too much," she finally told the woman. "We'll come back tomorrow with bug spray." Screw the bunting -- we got out of there fast. For a while, it looked like we might get lost and never find our way back to the car, but guided by Pole, we escaped. We dashed into the car and killed the few bugs that made it inside with us. Then it was my turn to freak out. I just stared into space for about a minute, panting. Pole said she never saw me look so crazy. But, man alive, those frigging mosquitoes were horrible. We drove off the island, got something to eat, settled back into La Shithole Inn, showered, and collapsed.

So a very good day and a very bad day. The total count was 36 Little Year birds, 20 lifers each. And did I mention the third-degree sunburn?

posted by Scrubb at 08:40 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + challenges + gulls + lifers + other animals + shorebirds

After work, we headed off to Wolf Road Prairie Nature Preserve in Westchester (a western suburb of Chicago) to join a walk led by some folks from the Chicago Audubon Society. The purpose was to view the courtship flights of the American Woodcock. Though we heard several of the birds peent-ing in the grass, not a one flew into the air. Kind of a drag after a long haul to the burbs, especially since we didn't really have the time for it. (We're busy getting ready for our trip to the Texas coast this Friday.) We did see some BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS before it got dark, and -- this is truly amazing -- I didn't make a single dirty joke about the word "woodcock".

posted by Scrubb at 11:58 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST

The view from my cold plywood cell

We woke up at 3:30 am to watch some chickens. I guess that means we're officially -- I don't know what -- officially bat-shit looney. I'm ambivalent about the whole thing. It was really something to see the GREATER PRAIRIE CHICKEN in action (a lifer for us both) -- no doubt about it. But to travel 250 miles, to sleep just three hours in a crummy motel, and to freeze our asses off in the Black Hole of Calcutta, well, that's a lot for a chicken to ask.

The chicken viewing was at Buena Vista Grassland in Wisconsin, a few miles south of Stevens Point, if that means anything to you. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources does a great job setting up the program: you pay $15 a head and you meet someone at 4:30 in the morning who escorts you to a plywood blind. The blind was nice as far as blinds go, with a big bench and plenty of window hatches.

Pole, wrapped to her eyeballs, chicken watches

The birds appeared on schedule, and I even managed to digiscope a photo that was almost in focus. The mating dance was amazing, and I've never seen a bird with a puff-up-able air sacks before. All through the morning, their low "old muldoon" call that seem to come out of everywhere. We saw 6 males and from 3 to 6 females.

The finest record from our expedition

But as the morning went on, we got colder and colder. Pole wrapped herself in a picnic blanket, but it didn't keep her warm -- or from complaining. They told us we had to stay until the females left the lek, which was supposed to be at about 7:30. But when the cold starting getting to us, we forgot the spectacle, and just wanted the goddam females to get the hell out. Just as some females began to leave, juvenile males started showing up, and since they look like females, things got confusing. These new birds had neck feathers -- pinnae -- that stuck up, so we thought they were juveniles. There were some agonized whispers in our blind about the sex of these newcomers, and whether we were justified in leaving. Our decision was to leave at 8:00 no matter what. (But I'll be honest: the colder it got, the more the birds looked like juveniles.) As soon as we opened the door, the two guys in the blind next to ours got out, too. No one wanted to leave first; it was like a game of (prairie) chicken. Which we lost.

The cell where the two birders were kept for over three hours

We got back to the hotel -- a Best Western and a real dump -- and managed to sleep for about and hour before we headed out to Necedah Wildlife Refuge, which was relatively close. Necedah is one of the stopping places for captive-bred Whooping Cranes, so we were hoping we'd see some. Sure enough, as soon as we pulled into the first viewing platform, Pole spotted a WHOOPING CRANE in the distance. Then, to our delight, it flew right over us, calling all the while. We got a great view of it, and it was a toss up which was better: the chickens or the crane.

We spent the rest of the day at this wonderful place, and got a few new birds: WILD TURKEYS, a GREATER YELLOWLEGS, a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, and a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. I didn't see the kinglet because I took a nap in the car. Pole -- who got less sleep than I did -- was relentless. I, on the other hand, was sleepy. Relentless . . . sleepy . . . relentless . . . sleepy. Which character trait is more admirable?

posted by Scrubb at 10:43 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + lifers

Today we made our first trip to Northerly Island, which was formerly Miegs Field, Chicago's lakefront airport. I used to like Miegs because is was fun to watch airplanes landing only a few blocks from a skyscrapered downtown. But Mayor Daley loves his parks, so he used 9-11 as an excuse to plow over the runways and plant this greenery. I don't want to sound like a nature hater, but I'm a friend to all birds, including the big silver ones. I'm not losing any sleep over it, mind you. My cube faces west so I can't see the damn lake anyway, and hizzoner has given us another place to bird.

Northerly Island is just a prairie at present with only a few young trees. If there's a grander landscaping plan, I don't know it about. We saw an American Kestrel as we came in, but the bulk of our time was devoted to hunting LBJs: little brown jobs. This name can apply to all the little brown birds you see, but for us, it usually means sparrows. They're a challenge because they mostly look alike. The key word here is "mostly". If I had every sparrow species in a cage in front of me, it would be easy to ID them. Almost all have distinctive markings, but most of these distinctions are minor. It's like those irritating "Spot the Difference" pictures you find in the funnies. "This sparrow has a gray crown instead of a brown one, this one has a spot on its streaked chest, while this one has a spot but no streaking." It's a real pain in the ass. I find it so frustrating that I usually just don't give a shit.

Pole knows her LBJs much better than I do, and even though she gets frustrated with them, she's much more driven. She's probably more frustrated with my lazy ass, because every time she points one out saying, "Look! Look! What's that? What's that?", my reply is invariably a lazy-assed, slacky, "Eh. Just another LBJ."

But today we were lucky because there were lots of sparrows and plenty of time to watch them. In addition to the usual suspects, we saw a SWAMP SPARROW, some FIELD SPARROWS, and a FOX SPARROW, the last a lifer 2x.

Next stop, the Magic Hedge, which was -- what's the word I'm looking for? -- magic. As soon as we got there, Pole spotted a YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER, a lifer we had both been eager to find. It's a beautiful bird, and on top of that, it has one of the funniest names in the business. When I was growing up, the name seemed to be on the tongue of every comedian (or maybe it was just Johnny Carson). It was also a staple of my own childhood shtick, and let me tell you, it caused lots o' laughs. I highly recommend it.

Other birds were a NORTHERN FLICKER, a HERMIT THRUSH, and a GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. Best, though, was another Fox Sparrow, who gave us a show with his manic, two-footed, backward hopping. It was very amusing, and I'm actually thinking of adding the motions to my popular sapsucker routine.

posted by Scrubb at 07:25 PM | permalink | stuck under LIST + challenges + lbjs + lifers