Author: turndoozie

We pretty much spent the day recovering from the Florida trip and the holidaze in general. Back to the drudgery of reality with a dash of winter weather thrown in for good measure. Last night we went to a New Year’s party that had us up to after midnight. Rare thing for us anymore. For us wild and crazy is keeping a library book past the due date.

Just a wild and crazy Okemos lady feeding the birds.

Lise and I got out to Lake Lansing Park for a little walk in the snow. So far we got the usual suspects, red breasted nuthatch, white-breasted nuthatch, black-capped chickadee, tufted titmouse, American crow, and blue jay.

In the next few days we need to do some planning for the upcoming year. Last year I just barely made my goal, in large part because we mostly chased things instead of doing some advanced panning. Eisenhower had a great quote about planning. “I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable”. That’s pretty much how I feel about it too. Can’t count on the birds to read and follow our plan but at least we can try to maximize our chances of finding the little devils. We can make our plan but then it is adapt, adopt, and improve. And we’ll count on Barb dragging us out in ungodly weather to find things.

What a long strange trip it’s been.

Robert Hunter, the Grateful Dead.

We started this little adventure to get us outside, doing something we have only sporadically done the past 17 years. We set a goal that I thought would be challenging, but achievable. Kind of like Stalin’s five-year plans but without the labor camps if we didn’t make 350.

So what have we accomplished? For starters, I made my 350 species goal. I got 351 species, Lise got 337, and we have a combined count of 352. The goal ended up being more challenging than I thought. As the days were winding down I was thinking of all the lost opportunities during the year. Like not chasing the whimbrels down at Erie Marsh because I assumed we would get them in Florida. Had I not made 350 Lise probably would have preferred the labor camps to my moping. (Definitely! – Lise)

I added 35 species to my life list, bringing me up to 438 species. I haven’t added that many new species in a year for about a decade. I’m not sure if Lise is keeping a life list since she lost her’s in an ugly computer accident but she added some lifers too.

Our birding skills have greatly improved. We were really rusty and this is not something you learn in a book. This is a field skill, but based on book knowledge. With some better preparation, especially on the audible side, our counts may have been higher.

We got to spend some great times with friends like Barb, Ellen, Joanna, Jean, Fred, Brad, and Anita. I would not have made my goal without their help, especially Barb’s. We capitalized on her wanting to beat everyone in her office and Ellen letting her come out and play with us. We also met some of the local birders. If not for their listserve posts there is no way we have gotten 350 species.

We did a lot of travelling. Not all for birding but we usually managed to work in a little wherever we went. We went to Arizona as a family, I went to Delaware by myself, we did a family trip to Delaware, and Molly and I went there for Thanksgiving. Lise and I went to Maine for Zack’s wedding. I did the ESRI conference in San Diego where I got a couple species. We did a family trip to Chicago. As expected, the Chicago trip didn’t increase the count but it was fun.  We did a family trip to Florida. And, we did a bunch of trips around Michigan and northern Indiana.

Too many places we couldn’t do justice to in the short times we were there. I really do want to spend some more time in Arizona and Florida. Two different systems, one defined by a lack of water, the other by an abundance of water. There are some other places on my list too, but they will need to wait until we have more travel flexibility. This coming year will be very different travel-wise, mostly centered on college visits.

We found birds in all manner of places, from great natural areas like Madera Canyon to coastal Delaware and Florida to the Lewes-Cap May ferry to someone’s driveway in Kalamazoo. I rag on this place a bit but if you take the trouble you will find things here. Like I posted before, Sean Williams got 266 species just here in Ingham County. It really is a case of opening your eyes and looking around. It also helps to know what you are looking at or listening to.

We also found some fun non-birding places and had some interesting gastronomical experiences. All good in their own way. You just need to be open to opportunities and stay away from chains. Except Starbucks and Beaners. Good coffee is an essential. Usquaebach is a Gaelic used for whiskey. The English word whiskey is derived from it. Loosely translated it means “the water of life.” I like my Irish whiskey but I would put decent coffee is right up there too.

For me personally, the most interesting part of this little adventure has been writing the blog. It was Molly’s idea to do a blog. It was a great suggestion and according to feedback we have kept some people amused. I even have some people stalking me, or “following” me as it is called in the blogosphere.

This was not something I had ever done before. I wasn’t sure what to write about at first and there has been an evolution in the writing. The original intent was for both of us to do the writing but I ended up doing most of it. Lise took on the thankless task of editing. No matter how often I looked at a post she would always find a typo or missing word. To her credit, she didn’t change any of the things she thought were of questionable taste. You never know, the queen may end up reading it. No knighthood for me I guess.

I still have some to learn about the blogosphere though. According to Lindsay, I have to tag things so more people can find the blog as they are searching for things. Like if you happen to be searching tumblr for “razorbill” or “roseate spoonbill” my blog will come up.

Well I need to be moving on. Like the fiscal cliff, my virus software expires at the stroke of midnight. Trying to compromise with McAfee is about as likely as getting compromise in Congress. If I don’t renew my virus software they probably post my email address on a hacker’s bulletin board. So I need to quit this post and protect myself before we go to a New Year’s party.

I plan to keep this up and I still need a goal to be shooting for. Gives me a reason to get up on the weekends. Given travel restrictions in the upcoming year I need to think a little more local. There are about 440 bird species recorded in Michigan. A couple of those have probably been killed off but the number is somewhere in that ball park. Some are only occasional visitors. So for the next year I am keeping to a Michigan goal, seeing over 200 species within the state.

At least for now I will keep this blog site up. Since we are past 2012 I may migrate to a different site. Something that isn’t dated and I can organize for searching and archiving. I may need to call on Lindsay, my tumblr expert.  

Auld Lang Syne my friends. See you next year.

We are back in 18 degree Okemos, after two days of driving. Time for a little catch up.

Wednesday the 26^th we met up with Tom and Claire at Myakka River State Park. The nice police officer there didn’t give me a $291 ticket for doing 31 in a 15 mph zone. I wasn’t deliberately speeding. I was looking at a kettle of vultures when, as the nice officer politely pointed out, I drove right past the 15 mph speed limit sign. We both got a gull-billed tern and American pipits. And I also got Wilson’s snipe. We should have gotten the pipits and snipe back in Michigan. Kind of lame that we had to go to Florida to get Michigan species but they still count.

Molly and Claire in the canopy walk at Myakka State Park.

In a new gastronomical experience we got to try some gator bites at the snack bar. They were tough, chewy, and tasted just like deep fried batter. For all I know they battered up a pair of old alligator shoes. I can add a new one to my eating life list but it’s nowhere near as good as scrapple. I have tried horse and cat meat and would put both above gator. At least as prepared by the Myakka State Park snack bar.

After leaving Myakka we used the iPad to help us find burrowing owls. Driving around Cape Coral looking in people’s yards we found the adorable little guys at the Cape Coral library. Right at dusk and another lifer for me.

We celebrated by going to play pool at some smoky den of iniquity in Ft. Myers called the Miscue Lounge. One of the google reviews (which I only read after going there) stated that the food and drinks are cheap, it is by far the cheapest place in town to play pool, and some of the clientele are “sketchy” but nobody bothers anyone else. That’s a pretty good description. Pool on good tables was $8 an hour. We played about an hour, I had a couple beers, and we had a couple sandwiches. Total tab was $25. It was worth the $25 just to check out the clientele. Sketchy is a pretty good description. This was kind of the “you mess with me, you mess with the whole trailer park” crowd. Molly got to see a different slice of life. But, nobody bothered us even though we pretty much stood out like a bunch of Yankee birders in a redneck bar. I have to say though; there were some damn good pool shooters in there. Slicker than deer guts on a door knob.

Friday morning Lise and I checked out some Ft. Myers Beach coastal areas. We got sandwich tern and Wilson’s plover. The sandwich tern was listed as very common but we just were not finding it. When we finally keyed one out, with the scope at a long distance away, they started flying over our heads. I think they were laughing at us.

After the beaches we went inland to the Babcock-Webb State Management Area looking for red-cockaded woodpeckers, yellow-throated warbler, and possibly even a Bachman’s sparrow. They also have wetlands that have bitterns and rails.

The red-cockaded is a federally endangered species. The red-cockaded area in Babcock-Webb is pretty well defined and the nest trees are marked so the biologists can easily locate them. They have a very distinctive call and we got them by an audible. That put me at 349.

After that a cold rain started in. We would stand in the rain trying to find a yellow-throated in mixed flocks of warblers. Sometimes we would have the van hatchback up so we could stand under it. No luck with the warbler. Then while I was walking by a wetland area, not one but two American bitterns flew up. Number 350, in the rain and almost at dark. On the way out we stopped at the shooting range to use the bathrooms. Virginia rails were calling in the wetlands by the outhouses. Number 351. Icing on the cake. 100.29% of my goal for the year. There is still a day left and a Townsend’s solitaire hiding out in Berrien County.

Lise trying to stay dry.

Wetland the bitterns flew out of. They didn’t care about the rain.

Ed after 350. Wet, tired, and happy.

I finished up my Florida birding on a misty, moisty Saturday morning at Bunche Beach Preserve. The preserve is listed as a great shorebird place. It has a long flat beach going out into the Gulf. At high tide you can walk out 100 yards out into the gulf and still be in knee high water. At low tide there are large expanses of pools and wet sand that are great for shorebirds. I was there at 7:00 AM with a low tide hoping for a snowy plover, whimbrel, or long-billed curlew. No luck on them but did see a bald eagle through the mist, had nice views of ibis and pelican flocks flying through the fog, and a piping plover. None added to the count but all were nice to see.

Shorebird tracks, Bunche Beach Preserve.

Whenever I see a photographer with a big lens I have to mention to Lise that his wife let him buy a big lens. Feelings of inadequacy I guess. Then at Bunche Beach I saw a nice lady photographer with a huge lens. Even her’s was bigger than mine. I may need therapy.

Florida is an interesting place in terms of both wildlife and people. Some serious weirdness in both cases. Judging by billboards, the whole southern Georgia – northern Florida area seems to be a mix of fundamentalist churches and porn shops. Maybe some combination of the two. Sacramental strippers with semi parking out back.

There are lots of people packed into the coastal areas. Some pretty sterile areas with multilane divided streets and gated housing areas. You can’t walk to get groceries, you have to drive. But then there are lots of really neat natural areas, both coastal and inland. Unfortunately all packed with people. If you wanted to do anything you had to do it early. By 10:00 any place worth visiting would be packed. Granted we were there at a major vacation time. I think 75% of the people were either European or Asian tourists and the other 25% us goddamnyankees. In the Navy I was told by a southern friend that goddamnyankees was a single word that just naturally rolled off the tongue. Like the word Momma. Anyway, the natives just hunkered down wishing we would dump our money and then go away as fast as possible. Probably coming at the end of January would be a different story but that ain’t gonna happen until Molly is out of the house.

The flora and fauna add another dimension of serious weirdness. Plants that don’t need soil. Vultures that attack cars. Honking big lizards with big sharp teeth.  Big pink birds with spoon shaped bills. The beaches are full of interesting shells but we often forget there are some strange looking shellfish that live inside those shells. And then there are manatees. Like Stefan said, fat, puffy, and harmless. They just float in the water, not hurting anyone or anything. I would be up for throwing any jackass that hits them with a boat propeller in jail.

We really didn’t scratch the surface. Florida deserves some more investigation. Big water, interesting natural systems, weird plants and wildlife, and 70 degree January temperatures beat the daylight out of Okemos.

So I guess tomorrow I need to do a yearly wrap up and figure out what I’m doing for the next year. Any suggestions?

Bromelliads growing without soil on the side of a tree.

Resurrection fern grows on the trunks of living trees. No soil needed.

Palmettos. Not too weird but I thought they are kind of neat in black and white.

While they’re stealing your hubcaps. Tough neighborhood.

A cousin of our lizard Fido. Come closer children.

Tri-color heron. Not weird, I just like the picture.

Roseate spoonbills. Is that a weird looking beak or what?

Whelk and a scallop. Odd looking varmints.

Just floating along.

Manatee nostrils out for a quick breath.

Number 350 was an American bittern. Details to follow.

Things are looking grim for getting 350. We are not getting some of the species that we should be getting. I hate when the guides say something is common or abundant but we don’t see the damn things.

Christmas Day, after the obligatory delay for opening presents, we went down to Corkscrew Swamp. A National Audubon preserve, Corkscrew Swamp is one of those special places. The largest remaining track of old growth cypress trees in North America. There is a range of distinct habitat types, from very dry to very wet, with distinctly different vegetation types. All driven by at most a change of 20 inches in elevation. At the high point there is dry saw grass pine barrens, at the low point standing water. With cypress trees standing in water, ferns with 12 foot fronds, and plants that don’t need soil. And gators. You walk through there expecting to see a conquistador in armor looking for the fountain of youth. Unfortunately, after about 10:00 you get every manner of person walking through there. They need to do a better screening of their clientele. I start hoping for the conquistadors to start taking out of few of the undeserving. I love Corkscrew but we didn’t get any new species there. Even though they see yellow-throated warblers every day there.        

Then we went driving around. Somewhere outside of Immokolee, while Lise was on the phone with Gretchen, we got a crested caracara. Not too long after that ground doves popped up. We ended up going down to Everglades City. Nothing too exciting there except the vultures on the Depot Restaurant.  Wonder why the parking lot was empty. Coming out of Everglades City we had a short-tailed hawk fly over. Not great looks at a lifer but enough we could ID it.

Is this appetizing or what?

Today the ladies slept in and I went back to Corkscrew. I was there right after they opened at 7:00 AM. There was only a couple people there, either birders, photographers, or both. Good people that deserve a place like Corkscrew. By the time I left the place was overrun with tourists speaking at least three languages other than English. And a few versions of English I wasn’t too familiar with. Some of the ladies started down the boardwalk wearing heels. At least I did get a painted bunting. Great views of a totally out of place loggerhead shrike too.

Loggerhead shrike at Corkscrew Swamp.

Cooperative pied-billed grebe at Corkscrew Swamp.

Then I headed out to a place in the Everglades called Shark Valley, hoping for a purple gallinule. The place was completely overrun with tourists. But, I did get the purple gallinule. A few other cool things were there too.

Purple gallinule.

Green heron.

Teeth with an attitude. Lots of fat tourists to munch on too. Time to thin the herd.

Shark Valley is about half an hour past Clyde Butcher’s studio. Clyde is pretty much the premier landscape photographer since Ansel Adams. He does absolutely stunning work. I stopped in and bought my second Butcher photograph. It’s worth checking out his work (clydebutcher.com) .  

The gallinule put me at 342 species for the year. 97.7 % of the goal with 98.4% of the year gone. Getting another 8 species is going to be really tough. No time to elaborate though. The family is whining about not getting in their sleep allotment so I need to shut down.

We are down in Ft. Meyer Beach, Florida, for the holiday. We left Lansing and it was just nasty. It took twenty hours of driving and sometimes we hit some nasty traffic but it was worth it. Today it was about 70 degrees. The day before Christmas people were frolicking on the beach. I can live with this.

Our driveway right before leaving.

 

Sitting on I-75

Molly and Lise at Payne’s Prairie, Gainsville.

Ed and Lise at Payne’s Prairie, Gainsville.

Florida isn’t without it’s weirdness. Bromeliads that just suck their nourishment out of thin air. Nasty looking lizards with teeth and an attitude. Ancient looking birds like the anhinga.

Spanish moss, a bromeliads.

Teeth with an attitude.

Anhinga at Ding Darling.

Birding has been pretty good. I’m up to 337 and Lise is at 323. I’m at 96.3% of the year but old man time is at 97.8% of the year. I need to get another 13 species to make the mark.Getting 350 will be interesting, especially with my family fighting early reveille.

Pelicans at Ding Darling.

Great blue heron at Ding Darling. 

Probably the craziest thing was finding a razorbill at the causeway to Sanibel Island. These things belong on the open water off Northern Canada. Lise spotted it and we were kind of dumbfounded. Then some other people with big lenses showed up to take pictures. Apparently there is a large flight of these things down here in Florida. Something like 500 flew through Miami. I guess they just want a warmer Christmas too.

Razorbill checking out Florida for the holidays.

Typical sunset over the Gulf. Not something we will ever see in Okemos.

Yesterday we did the Capital Area Christmas Bird Count with Barb. The Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) have a long history. In the late 1800s and early 1900s there was a tradition of a Christmas “side hunt.” Instead of hunting to fill the larder, you went out and killed every bird you could see for fun. Big, small, tasty, unpalatable, ugly, pretty, it didn’t matter. How many you killed is what was important.

Frank Chapman, an ornithologist with the new National Audubon Society, proposed counting birds instead of killing them. So in 1900 the first 25 Christmas Bird Counts took place. There are now over 2000 counts. Tens of thousands of people participate. This is the longest running example of citizen science going. The results are published annually in American Birds.

The counts are set up in 15 mile diameters circles. The idea is to count everything inside the circle. Obviously exact counts are impossible and counts are biased by level of effort and observer skill. Still, there is value in the data set and some long term trends can be teased out of the data.

When we were in Bloomington we regularly participated in the Lake Monroe CBC. A person who shall remain nameless ran the Lake Monroe CBC like a Field Marshal, but the Lake Monroe CBC was always one of the most productive in Indiana. In terms of number of species observed, number of individual birds tallied, and number of participants we kicked butt. Our cabin was inside the count circle so Lise would lead a group that worked out of the cabin. I and a friend named Jess would lead a group into a back country area. We would start in the morning, trying for owls while it was dark, and didn’t finish until almost dark at the end of the day. We would do an easy 12 miles of walking during the day. In all weather. On multiple occasions the temperatures were in the single digits.

The Capital Area CBC isn’t quite as glamorous. A number of counts, like the Capitol Area CBC, were set up decades ago centered on the urban area where a particular club or Audubon chapter was centered. Unfortunately, through the decades the urban areas have grown and underlying landscape in the count areas has changed. What were once fields and woods are now subdivisions.

Usually a count circle is divided into territories to facilitate a comprehensive survey and a leader is assigned to a territory. God help anyone that poaches into another territory. Unless your initials are D.W. which allows you to poach anywhere you want. Some people hold onto those territories through the ages like Nebraska season tickets. They get passed down generation to generation and no interlopers are allowed in. Lesser mortals are stuck with the leftovers. A big component of Barb’s territory consists of driving through trailer courts looking at bird feeders. There is also the opportunity to check out the landfill and the cemeteries in the area.

Even with the drudgery of counting birds at trailer park feeders there is some fun in the CBCs. Through the ages Lise and I have done Christmas Bird Counts in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Delaware. They are fun and even if you are stuck driving through trailer courts you are contributing to a larger body of knowledge. There is always the hope that your group will turn up something unexpected that no other group will. This year we had the high count of starlings for the Capitol Area CBC. On a brighter note, Lise did get a northern pintail at the one place in the territory with a little bit of water. That brings her total up to 308 for the year.

Lise, Vince, and Barb checking out the area.

Barb takes us to the best birding places. Breath deep, the gathering gloom. We did get ~1200 starlings here, the high count for the CBC.

Our territory.

They all add to the count.

This was in one of the cemeteries we covered. How useable is a shepherd’s hook that is permanently attached to a bench?  What happens if you want to hang your shepherd’s hook over your solar light?

Maybe the Mayans were right. The world ended for 20 sets of parents in Connecticut today.

Note: Tumblr is having some issues today so if there is some odd text at the beginning and end of this post, it is from Tumblr.

Today is 0.083333333333333333…….. or 12/12/12 (12 divided by 12 divided by 12). Not as interesting as the end of the Mayan calendar but it does amuse one. Will Barnes and Noble be selling new Mayan calendars when the old one ends? Can you get a Dilbert desk version? Does daylight saving time affect the Mayan calendar?

Not much going on birding wise. I think old man time has passed me by the past couple days. Shooting for Florida in ten days. That should bump the list up. I need 25 species and I think we will get 15 fairly easy but we will need to work for the others. Getting Lise to 350 will be challenging.

So I like to whine about living in this miserable place, all farm fields and subdivisions. It is stunningly mediocre. My list would be a lot larger if I lived somewhere with a better range of habitats or being near the coast. It has nothing to do with my birding abilities.

Then along comes Sean Williams. On December 8 he set a new Ingham County record with 266 species for the year. Just in Ingham County. I would have a hard time getting 266 species just in Michigan, let alone just in Ingham County. I was thinking of making 250 species in Michigan my goal for next year. It helps that he is an ornithology PhD student and has the time to get out on a regular basis. He hits Lake Lansing almost every evening and does regular forays around the county. He knows his stuff though, and he shares information. His regular posts on the local listserve helped us bag a number of rarities.  

So not too much else to do this week except work and check out the big anti Right to Work legislation protest.  Had to walk through the protest on the coffee run. An estimated 12,500 protestors. I’ve seen a lot of protests on the Capitol lawn but this one won the prize. Lots of police, lots of media people. Good for downtown businesses. The coffee shops were packed.

Police cars lining the mall.

Media field day.

I don’t think I would make these people mad.

There were a lot of people there. The Republicans stirred up a hornet’s nest this time.

Taking a break – probably union mandated.

There was one almost amusing incident. Americans for Prosperity, a right wing front group, knew there was going to be a large protest. So they rented this huge tent and put it on the capitol lawn right in the middle of where everyone would be. Then they had this guy antagonizing the protestors in front of media people. He was trying to stir something up so someone obliged him with a couple swings. And they pulled down the tent. FOX news made a big deal out of the “union violence”, like one guy taking a swing at another one is a riot. Pretty pathetic. It’s not like they de-pantsed the guy in public or anything. I’m not what you would call a union fan but even I could see this was a pretty lame attempt at union bashing. If FOX news calls this violence where are they on a good Friday night in Lansing where a much smaller crowd has shootings or knifings. If they really want violence I’m sure we could find some for them. And for a challenge they could still find some way to blame it on the unions or Obama.

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Got another new one today. Lise and I drove about 40 minutes over to Nashville Michigan, in Barry County, to get a varied thrush. For some reason this bird decided to be about 1,000 miles east of where it would normally be.

The bird was coming to someone’s feeder. I don’t think this nice gentleman knew what he was agreeing to when he said it was OK for people to come by. We got there early afternoon and a couple guys from Grand Rapids were already waiting. While we were there someone else showed up and blocked the driveway. Barb went later and people from Ohio were there. 

We were waiting in cars for the bird to show up. Lise saw it first directly over the car with the guys from Grand Rapids. Ever the nice person she jumped out of the car with her arms waving to tell them it was directly over their car. Before I, or the gentlemen from Grand Rapids, could see it, the bird flew off. All’s well that ends well though. About 30 really quiet minutes later it came back and I got a good look.

I’m now at 325, Lise is at 307 and our combined count is 326. I’m neck and neck with old man time. I’m at 92.86% of the goal and there is 92.90% of the year gone. So with standard rounding allowed by any reasonable person, we’re tied. That would not go over too well in a league swim meet but we don’t have fanatical parents watching us here.