I can’t believe how long it is since I’ve written. We have been on the go and I just haven’t had the time to sit back and collect my thoughts or the connectivity to post something.
I was in Delaware and Pennsylvania from March 16 through March 29. Photography was only so-so but I was at the ocean and the birding was good. I got 25 new species for the year on the trip.
Missisilpin River
Great horned owl nesting on an osprey nesting platform
One of the last days I was in Delaware the weather was cool and misty with a strong wind coming in from the Northeast. Not a pleasant spring day. I was on the beach at Gordon’s Pond, part of Cape Henlopen State Park. The park was once part of Fort Miles, a coastal artillery fort designed to protect the Delaware Bay from German warships. The fort had a range of artillery, including some 18” inchers similar to the ones on the large battleships. These guns could throw a Volkswagen beetle 25 miles. Accurately. There was a corresponding fort on the Cape May side of the Delaware, effectively covering the entrance to the Delaware Bay. This was pre-radar, so there are a series of cement lookout towers used to spot enemy warships. So I was standing on the beach in a cold wet wind by a couple of the lookout towers thinking, “being in these towers in this weather would have been one miserable watch to stand.” Then I realized that my Grandfather, Ted Livering, very well may have been in one of those towers. He was in a coastal artillery battalion and came through Fort Miles before heading to Europe. Ted, thanks for being there.
Lookout towers on the beach. You can barely see to the surf, let alone to New Jersey.
Some of the remaining buildings from Fort Miles. With the ocean in the background That would be very expensive real estate right now.
A bunker on Great Dune, highest sand hill between Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras. A whopping 75′ above sea level. This held a 16″ gun.
A hidden bunker. From one side it looks like a sand dune. Many people have walked up it not knowing it was a bunker.
Looking at Jersey in the fog.
Looking at Jersey in clear weather.
16” gun.
16” gun.
Anti-aircraft gun.
Right after getting back from that trip Molly had a two-day water polo tournament over by Grand Rapids. It was a fun tournament and Molly played a good bit, despite being sick. MSU fielded an A team and a B team, and both teams played three games. I took over 1600 pictures and posted just under 1600 of them.
Molly under pressure.
Molly getting a pass off while being double teamed.
Molly taking a shot.
Carly showing the proper application of an elbow to an opponent’s face. This one was called as a penalty.
A few days after the tournament Lise and I headed to St. Louis, via West Lafayette, to visit Stefan and Kasey. We left in a snowstorm that dumped about five inches of snow and melted the same day. More on that later.
Had a good time, just hanging out and chatting. St. Louis is quite interesting. It’s a city with some problems, but there’s some great history and some really interesting neighborhoods. I could spend a bunch more time there, just poking around. We did a couple road trips to historic river towns like St. Charles and St. Genevieve. Something I never knew was that the Spanish had a claim to that whole area. The French got the claim from the Spanish, and then sold it as part of the Louisiana Purchase. Stefan took us down to Hawn State Park where we did a lovely six-mile hike. The weather was great, the terrain was great, and the company was great.
Leaving Lansing in the snow.
Tulips blooming in St. Louis.
Crossing the Missouri River on a car ferry.
Barge traffic on the Missouri.
We got 17 new species for the year during the trip. One species, Eurasian tree sparrow, was a lifer for Lise and me. It’s an Old-World species that was released in St. Louis in 1870 but never spread from that area. If you want to see it you must go to St. Louis. Which means anyone doing a real Big Year has to pass through St. Louis. We happened on it by chance. We stopped at Horseshoe Bend State Park, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi on our way back. While drifting through the park some sparrows flew up, which we pretty much ignored thinking they were house sparrows. Luckily Lise was thinking and said, “wait, check for Eurasian tree sparrows.” We popped up our binos and sure enough, Passer montanus, a lifer.
Eurasian tree sparrow.
Eurasian tree sparrow.
While we were gone, Lindsay was watching the house and feeding the lizard for us. She called to let us know there was “a lot” of water in the basement. Well, she was correct, it was a lot.
Between the snowstorm and some high rain days, this area is saturated and flooding. This is the wettest I have seen this area. We’ve had a couple basement moisture intrusion incidents but this one was the worse. To make it even more fun, the previous owner decided it was a good idea to carpet the basement of a house sitting in a floodplain. That was about as bright as saying, “Clinton’s a shoe in, I don’t need to vote.” Thanks to that stroke of genius I’ve spent the past few days pulling out sopping wet carpet and padding, and watching YouTube videos on how to prep and paint a cement floor. In the past couple weeks we’ve been hit with high winds crashing our tree into the neighbor’s fence and water in the basement. As I sit here waiting for the charcoal coals to get hot I can’t help but wonder what other natural disaster will hit.
All I know is, it ain’t my fault.
Why women live longer than men.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 