Another camping trip

Blue Knob State Park was beautiful, though the weather was a little crazy -- rain and cold one minute, then sunny and clear the next, then back to rain and wind, etc. But we took lots of blankets, we hiked some, and we just had a great time.

It was really nice up there and we made some great fires and had good camp food (eggs w/ cheese and veggies, mountain pies with sauteed portobellos and onion and green pepper, s'mores).

Sadly, I didn't actually see any good birds, but I heard lots of them -- Eastern Towhees, Red-eyed Vireos, Blue-headed Vireos, Chipping Sparrows, maybe a Black-throated Green Warbler (zee zee su-zie) and a Hooded Warbler (wheeta-wheeta-wheeteo), and some other sounds I didn't recognize and couldn't find on my birdJam. So no cool bird pics, but I did see this bird:

Indeed, "if they fly you die." *shudder* We were at Wegman's shopping for last-minute camping food when we found this baby in the $5 DVD bin. I resisted the temptation to buy it, however.

I have some camping pics of the site and the park, but they're on my camera in the car. I'll add those later.

For now, I'll add some pics of Niblet from my phone camera:

chillaxin'

checking out a bowl of strawberries

getting some morning snuggle time

nuzzling my pillow and hoping for more petting

See how his fur has all grown back on the side of his head? He's all healthy and abcess-free now. I'm so glad I took a chance and switched vets; Ellen saved Niblet's life.

Summer is such hard birding, at least for boreal birds. Too many leaves! Maybe now's the time to focus on waterfowl. Speaking of which, I was doodling around on the Project Gutenberg website and found this great book on duck ID. You can download it for free, including the drawings and stuff. Pretty cool. If you've never looked around on Project Gutenberg, you should -- you can find a lot of great older books, including many of the old classics, all for free. Makes for good reading, if you don't mind reading on the computer. I usually pull up a book then do a "select all" and copy and paste it all into a Word document so I don't have to stay online to read. I highly recommend the site.

Anyway--more bird adventures whenever I have some. In the meantime, hope you're all having a great summer and seeing some good birds. I can hardly believe it's finally July; I'll be leaving in about three and a half weeks. THEN I'll have some adventures for you!

I know, I know--where are the updates on Niblet? Seen any new birds lately? What are you doing?

Truth is, I've been kinda busy. I had to finish and put to bed the little newspaper I work for last week--and that took a lot of work. Then we went camping, and while I did call in a Scarlet Tanager to within 20 feet of our campsite, I didn't have my camera! (I loaned it to Matty so he could photograph the furniture he's selling on craigslist. BTW, I'm selling stuff on craigslist too! If you're interested in an authentic Cavalier Coca-Cola cooler, a really comfy couch, a beautiful art-deco gateleg table, some nice old oak chairs, or a beautiful Jacobean-style oak secretary, let me know!)

So I didn't get pics of the tanager, and I haven't taken pics of Nibble lately. I will say that he's doing absolutely great. No return of the abcess, and his fur's pretty much grown back (or at least over the shavey part--he does still have a tiny bald spot, but I guess it's just gonna stay that way). This morning, he hopped into bed with me and wouldn't let me stop petting him for about ten minutes. Then he was done; he hopped off to chillax under the couch.

We're going camping again this weekend, just me and the girlfriend. We're going to Blue Knob State Park, which should be really nice. Lots of easy to moderate hiking trails, some interesting geology, and probably some nice high-altitude birds.

This will be the first time AB and I have camped alone -- other times we've gone with her friends from Maryland or with Gretchen and her girlfriend. So this will be really neat -- I'm very excited about the thought of the long weekend and some birding in a new spot.

I promise I'll update with photos and excitement on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

Meanwhile, have a safe and happy Fourth of July! Pop some fireworks (if you're allowed) for me, and try not to catch anything on fire.

Third blogiversary!

My photo of a Screaming Piha which will be used in Spiny Software's newest birding application for iPhone -- and for which I was paid twenty whole dollars!

Am I now a professional photographer?

So today is the third blogiversary for this little bird bloggy, which started as a way to document my fledgling efforts (heh heh) at learning about birds. It seems like a million years ago now, as my life was dramatically different then: I was living in the Marsh House with Kat, working with a Peterson's guide published in the 1930s (which I got for a quarter at a book sale!), trying to build my own spotting scope, and trying to figure out what the heck a "meme" was. Ah, the memories!
Back then, my first lifelist had 44 species on it -- including a few mistakes -- calling a house finch a purple finch, etc. Silly me. I also counted the great horned owl my dad brought home -- the owl that chased me around the backyard. I don't count that one now, as he was captive.

I also named what I thought were the top ten most beautiful US birds -- it was, looking back at it now, kind of a silly list! Here it is:
1. Cardinal
2. Indigo bunting
3. Dark-eyed junco (incredibly cute)
4. Red-tailed hawk
5. Mallard (male--sorry, female)
6. Snowy egret
7. Barn owl (love that face)
8. Bluebird
9. Rose-breasted grosbeak
10. Ruby-throated hummingbird

I gotta say that my choices today would be quite different. Here they are, in no particular order (except for the Blackburnian--it's my favorite):
Blackburnian Warbler
Painted Bunting
Eastern Bluebird
Hooded Warbler
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Varied Thrush
Tree Swallow
Indigo Bunting

I know that's only eight birds -- but I wanted to just list the ones that came into my mind without looking at a list.

So -- three years into it, and I have over 200 (barely) birds on my lifelist. I have a decent spotting scope and my Leupold binocs that I bought at a flea market for $30 bucks (but which are worth quite a bit more, it turns out). I have a decent point-and-shoot digital camera, and I've taken some photos that I'm pretty proud of. I've made a lot of great friends, both online and in person. All in all, this whole birding thing has been one of the best things in my life, even when the rest of my life sucked.

Soon I'll be beginning to bird all over again -- a new place, a new field guide, and a new life. It's gonna take me at least another three years to document that process. I hope you'll stick around for it.

Thanks for the memories!

Future birding -- a cross-post

I posted about Illinois' Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, and its potential for yielding some grassland lifebirds for me, on my California Dreamin' blog. I don't post too much on that blog, but I should probably start. I was hoping to bank some of my research and plans for my California move.

If you've ever driven I-80 across the country, please feel free to visit that blog (or this one) and leave your travel tips in the comments. I'm hoping to see a Prairie Chicken (greater or lesser) somewhere along the trip west, so if you know where I can see one within an hour's drive of I-80, please let me know!

Out standing in their field

Sorry this is so blurry -- it's on super-zoom on a cloudy day. I often see this turkey (or many like him) on my way to and from work.

This guy looks like a cow version of that shepherd dog Sam from the Wile E./Ralph Coyote cartoons.

Apparently, this goat often sits or stands on these cows. I think he's standing on this cow or one right behind him. He's definitely not on the ground, though. The other day, the cow was standing and the goat was curled up on the cow's back. Sadly, we just got laying-down cows today, which must mean more rain.

Programming note: If you'd like to read about my latest bird-related dream, I sent it to Kyron's Dream Birding blog, which is a fascinating cache of bird-related dreams by different people. If you ever have a bird dream, maybe you could send it to him. And yes, my dreams are often that crazy.

Some cool pix from Baby G

My best friend Gretchen takes a lot of pictures with her camera phone and sends them to me. I thought I'd share a few of them with you because they're always pretty great.

Yesterday, a request came over the birding listserv asking for help with an injured Ruddy Turnstone. I gave the guy the name and info for our local wildlife rehabber, for whom Gretchen volunteers. This morning, she sent me this photo of the very Ruddy Turnstone in question!

She's helping to take care of him!

Gretchen lives out on some property owned by a local greyhound rescue organization, and she gets to hang out outside for a lot of the day, working with the greyhounds--she works there. She sees some pretty cool stuff out there:

This is "Albert" (her name for him), a toad she found and described as the biggest toad she'd ever seen. Not ten minutes later, I got the following photo with the text "toady tricks:"

I replied, "That Anthony, always fooling around!" She was pleased with my name for the smaller guy. How she got these guys to pose like this, I have no idea. Maybe she's a toad whisperer.

She's also seen some great birds out there, like this Ruffed Grouse:

Here's a photo of her mom's HUGE dog Remus, who was too big for Gretchen to kidnap:
This dog makes Domino, a normal-sized dalmation mix, look like a puppy. It's a BIG dog.

She also sends me funny things she sees, like this, with the text "hee hee:"
That Gretchen, always fooling around.

Still and always, however, my favorite Baby G photo will be this one of Domino:That's one sweet old gal.

Work ducks!

The courtyard ducks are growing more bold each day as they get used to being around humans. Everyone's been very respectful of the ducks as Mama leads them to the pond for their water time. Here are some pics I took during break: