little year http://www.littleyear.com/ en Copyright 2010 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:35:55 -0600 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss a phoenix rises (the bird, of course, not the city) Been a while. Mostly because good bird blogging is hard work. But we're off to Minnesota next week for about 10 days, so there should be some good action. There may be live blogging, too, since I'll try it from my iPod, as I'm doing now. We shall see what we shall see. And maybe you will, too.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2010/01/phoenix_the_bird_of_course_not.html http://www.littleyear.com/2010/01/phoenix_the_bird_of_course_not.html odds and ends Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:35:55 -0600 mango dip There's a Green-breasted Mango in Beloit, Wisconsin, just over the Illinois border. This hummingbird's home is in Central America, so such a bird out of water created a lot of racket on the bird lists. It seems that everybody -- us included -- went to check it out. The bird shows up a few times a day at the backyard feeders of a couple of adjacent houses. The homeowners whose feeder the bird seems to favor don't mind a row of scopes pointing at their house as long as we stay behind the fence. They seem to get a kick out of the notoriety and even have a book for people to sign. So today we made our first visit.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/09/mango_dip.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/09/mango_dip.html odds and ends Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:04:27 -0600 we're in iowa ten minutes, and pole's already ahead Today was my birthday, so we decided to go to Galena, Illinois and be tourists. It's a historic town -- home to U.S. Grant -- but now it's just full of crummy gift shops and middle-aged Viagra types riding Harleys. We didn't do any birding, though, but we did make a quick dash across the Mississippi to say we'd been in Iowa. (Who wouldn't?) We drove through the small, grim island town of Sebula and managed to see lots of Great Egrets roosting in the trees and wading in the water. And while I was keeping my eyes on the road, Pole got a quick glimpse of a Belted Kingfisher. So after ten minutes, she has an Iowa bird list twice as big as mine.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/08/were_in_iowa_ten_minutes_and_p.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/08/were_in_iowa_ten_minutes_and_p.html LIST Sat, 25 Aug 2007 23:24:58 -0600 go home, your excellency, or at least get lucky IBET, the Illinois birding email list, alerted us to the presence of an ORANGE BISHOP at Montrose Beach. It was there all right. All the way from Africa maybe? No, all the way from some moron who released it from its cage. Since it's almost certainly an escape, we can't claim it as a lifer, bitchin' as it was. Apparently, the same poor fella showed up the last year or two, but he's just a cipher in the birding community until he hooks up with some of his kind and starts a breeding flock. But what do we care if he counts? We've got the His Eminence the Northern Cardinal who is just as bitchin' and outranks our foreign ecclesiastic to boot.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/08/go_home_your_excellency_or_at.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/08/go_home_your_excellency_or_at.html odds and ends Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:53:30 -0600 two lifers and least, but not least, a weasel Today we took a trip up to Horicon Marsh in Wisconsin--our first of the year, I'm surprised to say. The Wisconsin email list reported two rarities, and we saw them both: a BLACK-NECKED STILT and an AMERICAN AVOCET. We hadn't seen these birds since our trip to Texas last year, and it was a strange sight. Lucky for us, the birds also attracted two very good birders: Tom and Carol Sykes. Tom is the administrator of the WISB list that brought us up here. It was a hot day, and the Sykeses were able to get us two lifers: a WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER and a BAIRD'S SANDPIPER. They helped us navigate our binoculars through the dried-up mud using fish carcases as bearings. Best sighting of the day, though, might have been a LEAST WEASEL that dashed across the road in front of our car. Good day: two rarities, two lifers, and a weasel. But then a weasel day is always a good day.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/07/two_lifers_and_least_but_not_l.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/07/two_lifers_and_least_but_not_l.html lifers Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:11:04 -0600 bbq bird Pole and I spent today -- the Fourth of July -- at a barbeque in the Chicago suburbs at the house of one of my sisters. Her backyard abuts a wetland wildlife refuge, so hopeful, I brought my optics. Though we did see some Green Herons with the scope, the big catch for me was a HOUSE WREN. It was nervously hopping about in a locust tree that overhung the deck. An easy lifer for a lazy day.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/07/bbq_bird.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/07/bbq_bird.html lifers Wed, 04 Jul 2007 20:59:19 -0600 headhunter We made a quick trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden today, and since it was Sunday, the place was packed. We decided to walk away from the main area, and loop around the lagoon through the parking lot. Good thing, too, because as we walked along the path, a large raptor flew in front of us. It looked like it was carrying something and it was being mobbed by some Red-winged Blackbirds. We followed it to the tree where it landed, and Pole spotted it. It was a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk eating a even younger juvenile blackbird. No wonder the parents were upset. It was gruesome sight, but impossible not to watch. The first chunk the hawk ripped off was the head, and it was having a hell of a time eating it. (Skulls are so inconvenient.) The whole thing was amazing to see. I guess species whose names begin with "Red-" don't always stick together.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/06/headhunter.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/06/headhunter.html LIST Sun, 10 Jun 2007 23:57:05 -0600 one more We went to the Ryerson Conservation Area today, which is northwest of Chicago. We hadn't been here in a couple of years, but this is where we spotted some of our first warblers when we were beginning birders. They've built a new visitors center since our last visit, and that's where we saw the best bird of the day: a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. It was a lifer for both of us. Not a single warbler was seen, though an Eastern Bluebird was a nice surprise. We then headed back to Chicago to check out the Magic Hedge, where there were plenty of warblers. Always dependable, the Hedge.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/05/one_more.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/05/one_more.html lifers Sat, 19 May 2007 23:46:00 -0600 another reason to hate cbg I received a letter from the Chicago Botanic Garden about my membership. It started like this:
Dear Scrubb,

We've noticed that your Garden membership has expired.

Thirty years ago, who would have thought swampy land and foggy lagoons would become the Chicago Botanic Garden we see today? Our members did.

This shows how ignorant the CBG management is. They think wetlands ought to be improved. It's the kind of mentality people had 100 years ago, the kind of mentality that has led to the disappearance of wetlands today. What a bunch of ecological philistines.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/04/another_reason_to_hate_cbg.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/04/another_reason_to_hate_cbg.html odds and ends Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:25:19 -0600 some count, some don't peacock.png
Not legalToday was our last full day in New Mexico, so we decided to do some local birding in Albuquerque. We saw birds at the inn where we were staying, a place called Los Poblanos. It's one of the nicest places we've been at, I think, and it comes with its own flock of noisy peacocks. There were two males and two females, and one of the males was all white. It was spooky to see his ghostlike form roosting in the trees at night. The other male was the noisy one, and he always squawked back at the beeping of the car's lock. They were the most spectacular birds of the trip, but, unfortunately, not countable.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/03/some_count_some_dont.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/03/some_count_some_dont.html lifers Sat, 24 Mar 2007 17:17:35 -0600 migrating south with some other locals rattler.png
Our bladders braved itToday was dedicated to birding. We took a longish (100 miles) trip south to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. On the way there, we we pulled into a rest area with the rattler sign on the left. I love snake signage. You just wonder, though, if they could have put the rest area somewhere else. Bosque is one of the big birding hotspots in New Mexico, mostly, I think, because it has so much water. People here get excited about birds that are common up north, and they're especially proud of their Sandhill Cranes. But for us, the big draw was the local birds. If we want cranes, we can just drive a few hours to Indiana and see literally thousands. So whenever anyone here got excited about some crane sighting, we just thought, meh.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/03/migrating_south_with_some_othe.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/03/migrating_south_with_some_othe.html lifers Fri, 23 Mar 2007 23:15:10 -0600 recalculating We toured Santa Fe yesterday, but did no birding. Today we headed out north to Bandelier National Monument to visit the Pueblo ruins and, yes, do some birding. We concentrated on the ruins on our first go through, though we still carried our bins. The last stop on the tourist trail is Alcove House, which you get to by climbing a series of long ladders. They warn you it's not for everyone, and since Pole is acrophobic, she decided to sit it out. I bravely went up the first ladder on my own, but it was pretty spooky; the ladders are long and crooked. I hate to admit it, but I chickened out and went back down, which was even scarier than going up. Most humiliating of all were the little kids who passed me up. A birder, you say, afraid of death? Go figure.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/03/recalculating.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/03/recalculating.html lifers Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:33:10 -0600 300 + 320 Pole and I arrived in Albuquerque on Sunday to do some vacationing and some birding. That's why there's no birding entry until today, Tuesday. This isn't a Big Year for us, so we don't have to be psycho birding every single second. So after fooling around in ABQ for a day or so, we headed north to Santa Fe, but instead of viewing the beautiful colonial city, our first stop was the Randall Dewey Audubon Center. Psycho.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/03/300_320.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/03/300_320.html lifers Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:24:51 -0600 ahead a state I'm in San Francisco today for work, and I saw my first California bird: a Common Grackle. All I've seen of this city so far are the two blocks of Market Street between the hotel and the office, so I was lucky to see anything at all. Best thing is, I'm ahead of Pole for once: she doesn't have a bird from this state. Thank you, Common Grackle of California.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/02/ahead_a_state.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/02/ahead_a_state.html LIST Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:15:52 -0600 if you could read my mind, we wouldn't be here Last Wednesday (the 24th) we left on what's becoming our annual winter trip to Gunflint Lodge in Minnesota. January 28th is Pole's birthday, so that's primary reason we make the trip. Unfortunately, we only had a full three days up here, so the whole trip was rushed, and a bit of a disappointment, really. The entire last day -- the 28th -- was spent driving the 1000 miles from Gunflint (basically the Canadian border) to Chicago. Happy Birthday, Pole.

]]> http://www.littleyear.com/2007/01/if_you_could_read_my_mind_we_w.html http://www.littleyear.com/2007/01/if_you_could_read_my_mind_we_w.html lifers Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:06:04 -0600