Classes are over, grades are posted, and I can turn my
attention to others things. I did three courses this past semester, two for
Lansing Community College and one for MSU. The MSU class, in particular, kept
me jumping. At least I wasn’t trying to work a regular job too. That would have
killed me.
Yesterday, Lise and I helped Barb with her area of the East
Lansing Christmas Bird Count. Barb doesn’t have what you would call a prime
territory. We do mostly driving. Not a small bit of it in trailer parks, looking
for bird feeders. We also check out the Granger Landfill. I love the smell of
methane in the morning.
We’ve helped Barb in this count area for a number of years
and are starting to appreciate its nuances. Like the trailer that always has a blow-up
Harley Santa on it, the inability to safely pull over when car birding, and the
kidney wrenching lack of public bathrooms. This year we had the additional
benefits of six inches of snow the night before, and light freezing mist as we
were finishing. What better way to spend a Saturday?
Santa needs a little air to inflate his Harley.
Prior to Christmas Bird Counts there was an American
tradition where teams of hunters tried to kill as many things as possible on
Christmas Day. The team with the largest carcass pile won the contest. About as
intelligent as voting for Trump because you didn’t think he really had a
serious chance of winning. In 1900 ornithologist Frank Chapman proposed doing a
bird count instead of trying to blast everything living thing out of the sky.
The idea caught hold and now there are over 2,000 individual counts. Mostly in
in the U.S. and Canada, but also in other countries too. National Audubon’s
Christmas Bird Count represents the largest and longest running citizen science
effort in the world. There are counts scheduled while we’re in Delaware for the
holidays so I’m sure we’ll do at least one of them.
We bitch about Barb’s crummy area, but there is some logic
to it. The area wasn’t always trailer
parks. Surveying the same area over time allows for the examination of change
over time. Sometimes science isn’t pretty. For bragging rights, this year we
got the only rough-legged hawks, ruddy ducks, and ring-necked ducks on the East
Lansing count. You gotta get your pleasures where you can. We didn’t go to the
final tally, but I’m sure the other teams were so jealous.
This morning we experienced a winter rarity here in
South-Central Michigan. Fairly fresh snow and clear sunny skies. We hopped on
our skis for our first cross-country skiing this winter. Only did a couple
miles, but it was a great way to start the day.
Skiing at Harris Nature Center
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 