Well we seem to have survived the polar vortex. Even the lizard, although she was looking mighty tasty there for a bit. Temperatures have warmed up a bit and even touched above freezing. So now we have these wicked potholes. I think they are portals to hell. If you hit them in something small like a mini cooper you’re not coming out. You’re heading down to Satan’s doorstep. Those of us with larger cars will just blow out our tires or kill the alignment so we end up at the car repair shop. Hell by another name, especially if the mechanic has a boat payment due.
Molly volunteered at the Pokagon State Park Nature Center today so we made the trip down to Indiana with her. While she was working Lise and I tried hiking. Tough going. The trails were snow covered, but it had thawed and refroze, making the footing treacherous. We did a couple miles but it wasn’t easy. Still nice to be outside, even with the nasty footing. We passed one of Lise’s signs and could see by the tracks that someone walked out of their way in the snow to read it. Pleased Lise to see that the signs are being read. At Pokagon we got pileated woodpeckers, red-headed woodpeckers, and flickers. Lise saw house finches which I did not see.
Tracks proving someone looked at Lise’s sign.
Thanks to hard times in the far north we had some good local birding too. This has been a major irruption year for snowy owls. Every couple years the food source in the high north isn’t able to support the population. Mostly starving young birds are forced further south looking for food. This year one was even recorded in Florida. They have been seen in every county around here except Ingham County. Then this past week several were found. Two were only a couple miles from us. They were spotted Friday but we couldn’t get out during the daylight hours. Saturday we tried in the afternoon for a couple hours with no luck. Saw turkeys but no snowy owl. We went back out a bit before dark. While we drifted around looking a car was behind us obviously doing the same thing. When we pulled over to scan some fields he pulled up and said he had been around the area ten times with no luck. He pulled ahead and went on down the road. A couple hundred yards past us he got out and started jumping up and down and waving to us. Sure enough, a snowy owl only a couple miles from our house. Good thing we found them Saturday. Several people scoured the area without finding them today.
Not a very classy picture of a very classy looking bird. White, black and piercing yellow eyes. Very cool.
So right now our species count stands at 26 each. Between us we have different birds but except for the snowy owl they are all fairly common. Of the current set, during the coming year we should both get the species that the other has.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 