Been a busy birding weekend. Finally got a snow bunting Friday. Lise has a project on the waterfront in Port Huron. She wanted to go view the site and dragged me along. Cold, windy, rainy and such a lovely view. Not recommended as a first date place. This was almost as good as our trip to the Detroit waterfront, just a little colder. And fewer burnt out buildings. But, we did see snow buntings. And they had a nice little coffee chop.
That’s Canada across the river. I don’t see no moose or hockey players.
This is going to become a park.
Draw bridge on the main street in Port Huron.
Saturday we drove for an hour with Barb down to the Portage Lake Yacht Club to get a Pacific loon. Personally I was expecting Thurstan Howe III and Lovey at the yacht club but they didn’t show. Actually the yacht club people were very accommodating people and let a host of birders use their deck as a viewing platform.
This should have been an easy hit but the lake was completely fogged in. No horizon line, no differentiation of water or fog, just gray. No ability to focus. You stare through the scope at gray and then something pops through the mist into your field of view for a few seconds. Hopefully you can focus fast enough to catch a flash of white on the throat. We did get the loon which was a lifer for Barb. Lise got a Bonaparte’s gull for the year too.
View from the deck of the Portage Yacht Club.
There is a lake, and a Pacific loon, out there.
Sunday we did a road trip with Barb and Ellen over to Berrien and Allegan Counties chasing a Townsend’s solitaire and cackling, Ross’s, and white-fronted geese. We didn’t do too good. First we chased Townsend’s solitaire at Love Creek Nature Center and Warren Dunes State Park. Busted both places. Walking the dunes was pretty cool though. This felt like Lawrence of Arabia kind of stuff. Living in Lansing it’s easy to forget that Michigan has the largest collection of freshwater dunes in the world.
Barb, Ellen, and Lise crossing the dunes.
Still crossing the dunes.
Lise looking for a Townsend’s solitaire.
After busting on the solitaire we made a quick run up to Allegan State Game Area to, as Ellen complained, “parse some geese out.” You park under the no parking signs on he highway and scan the farm fields looking for flocks of geese to parse. We did get a Ross’s goose for Barb but nothing to add to our lists.
Then we did dinner at Salt of the Earth in Fennville, Michigan. If you ever have the opportunity to eat there, do it. Even though they don’t serve scrapple, this is worth the trip. An old brick downtown building that was probably a store in a prior life. They have a brick oven that they use for fresh breads and meals. Except for a hardware store and pizza place here isn’t much more in Fennville. Lord knows why Fennville has a restaurant like Salt of the Earth but I’m thankful for it.
Then there was the dark side side of the weekend. I bought a new Dell computer with Windows 8 installed. If you ever have the opportunity to use Windows 8 – don’t. The only thing worse than the Apple iPad interface is Microsoft trying to emulate the Apple iPad interface on a desktop computer. Did these mental midgets ever stop to think that maybe some of us use computers as tools and not as a way to define our lifestyles down at Starbucks? If I wanted an iPad I would have bought an iPad.
Installing software to make the computer useful is another challenge. No more just inserting the disk and checking a box saying you read the license agreement. You need to create a personal account by giving your name, email, name of your first born, and a product code just to get an installation serial number. I love it when I use academic licenses and they ask for my graduation year. I usually pull a Zonker Harris and put in for about 20 years out from now. I am getting a little worried when they start asking for my next of kin. Especially since I typed in the product code wrong.
Then, like a fool I tried to add a 3 Terabyte hard drive to the system. Two screws, two plugs and Windows will take care of everything. So much for my Monday night. Apparently “plug and play” is right up there with other great American lies like; “the war to end all wars”, “mission accomplished”, “compassionate conservatism”, “peace with honor”, “I am not a crook”, and “I have read this license agreement and agree to these terms”. Could add something about not having sex with a white house intern to the list too. I don’t know if that’s as bad as lying about reading the license agreements. Both are a Y chromosome thing.
The species count right now stands at 324 for me, and 306 for Lise on the 338th day of the year. I’m neck and neck with old man time on a percentage basis. I have 92.5% of the goal but 92.3% of the year is shot. So while I’m fighting a Windows hard disk issue tomorrow, old man time will be creeping by me. Story of my life maybe?
Pressure is on. May need to do a UP trip before our Florida trip.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 