Sax-Zim Festival of Birds

We started our festival weekend Friday morning. Ruth picked me up and we headed north. We stopped for lunch and to top off the gas tank in Moose Lake. I told Ruth that Hasty Brook was not far out of the way so we took a slight detour and stopped at "the lovliest place in my world". There was so much snow there wasn't even room to pull off the road so we looked around from there. It was so nice to have Ruth see my place. But the afternoon was flying so we hit the road again and motored on into Duluth, made a quick stop to check in to our hotel and drove on to the pretty little town of Meadowlands. There we were greeted by these colorful banners depicting various winter birds of the area. Before I go any further I'd like to thank the people of Meadowlands and the surrounding area for welcoming the festival birders so kindly. We were welcomed warmly and fed like royalty!

When I walked in to the community center to register for the festival I was greeted with a big hug from Mike Hendrickson the man who put this festival together.

Here's a shot of Mike addressing the crowd before the evening program. Only about one third of the people are visible. I believe there were 153 birders in attendance, representing 19 states! That's an amazing turn-out for a first year festival. The evening speaker was Dave Benson, author of a new book- Owls of the North, a Naturalists's handbook. He shared great information and is a terrific story teller. After his presentaion everyone headed back to their hotels as we needed to be back in Meadowlands and on our busses ready to hit the birding trails by 0600 the following morning.

We were driving down the roads of the bog before morning light scanning tree tops for Great Gray Owls- no luck. But our first stop was a local family's increadable feeding station. We could see the busy activity from across the road and as we neared we could see the special birds feeding there. There were Common Redpolls everywhere! And then the guides pointed out, in among the Common Redpolls was a Hoary Redpoll! I love these frosty little birds. Both Redpolls were life birds for me!! Yahoo!!! Can you see the Pine Grosbeak sitting on top? That's another lifer!!

There were quite a few Evening Grosbeaks flying in and out. What beautiful birds, both perching and in flight. It was hard to leave this place, there were so many gorgeous birds here but our schedule had us moving along to look for more.

Another road in the bog had an area with suet cages and a part of a deer carcass set out to attract Boreal Chickadees, Black-capped Chickadees, Gray Jays, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. Within a few minutes of our arrival at the deer carcass a flock of Chickadees arrived. Among the flock we could hear a Boreal Chickadee but it just wouldn't show itself to us. The gray Jays must have been in a different part of the woods too.

Time to move on and looks for woodpeckers. We did have a fly-over of a Black-backed woodpecker that another bus had watched and id'd. Pictured above you can see fresh flaking of black spruce bark. The flaked bark is below the tree on the snow and the exposed wood of the tree is a rusty brown color. This is a good indicator that Black-backed or American Three-toed Woodpeckers have beed foraging on this tree.

We lucked out and got a great, long look at this male American Three-toed Woodpecker. All too soon the morning was over and it was time to head over toward Duluth and lunch. On our way we went to a spot where a Northern Hawk Owl had been sighted. Sure enough one of our guides spotted it hunting over an open field. We got to watch it for a bit- what a fast little owl. This bird was really a big thrill for quite a few of the birders on our bus. I didn't take any pictures of this owl as I have some from last year.

However, I was really excited to get a picture of this rare sighting across the road!

Back on the bus, a quick stop for fast food lunch, and we were headed for the Superior landfill looking for rare gulls. I think I've mentioned before that I really don't have a passion for gulls. I think a good part of my attitude is that they really are complicated to ID. With LOTS fo help from one of our trip leaders I was finally able to pick out two white gulls with dark bill tips that were different from the rest- Glaucous Gulls- my fourh lifer!! If you click on the picture above, and scroll around on the gulls, maybe you'll see the Glaucous Gull too.

Ruthie, Mike and me (would Photoshop work on my windburn and double chin?)

The day was getting late so the bus driver pointed the bus back toward Meadowlands. We were greeted with smiles and congratulations on life birds and piles and piles of hot food! I would decribe the meal as a classic Minnesota church supper- ham, mashed potatoes, meatballs and gravy, green bean hotdish, cole slaw, pickles and olives, and perfect dinner rolls.

It was heavenly!

Our evening speaker was Laura Erickson. She gave a wonderful talk about birds of the bog. She's a terrific, funny speaker and I learned alot. She brought her eduation screech owl Archimedes along. It was a real treat to see a screech owl up close and it was so apparent that she loves that little owl. I brought along two of Laura's books and she signed them graciously. Now let me tell you what a dork I am. I bought one of the books at a used book store. When Laura opened the cover to inscribe it, she asked me "So, who's Melissa?". Puzzled at the question, I'm thinking that the previous owner must have been Melissa and she must have put her name in the book. So I answered that I didn't know who Melissa was but that I'd bought the book used. Laura smiled and signed the book. I tucked both books in my bag and Ruth and I left. When we got back to the hotel I glanced at the inside cover to read her inscription and saw Laura Erickson's name not once, but twice. She had originally inscribed the book to Melissa when she bought it too! When she signed it for me she wrote:

"To Lynne,

Thanks for conserving paper and birds.

Owl the Best,

Laura Erickson"

I've read that book cover to cover and have picked it up and re-read sections several times since and I cannot believe I never noticed that it had been signed before. Sigh...

The next morning brought a forecast of blizzard conditions in southern Minnesota so Ruth and left a bit earlier than we had planned. But we had made arrangements to stop and visit Deb at Sand Creek Almanac, another wonderful Minnesota blogger. I can call Deb an old friend (we've met three times now!) but she and Ruth had never met. We had such a blast seeing where Deb lives and meeting her children and many pets. I loved seeing the place that inspires Deb's beautiful writing. It gave me a connection to her that I never had before. We got a tour of the FABULOUS house that they're building. The design is amazing and I'm starting my campaign of hinting for an invite to the open house when they move in this summer! We spent quite a while watching Deb's feeders. The chickadees, redpolls and pine grosbeaks put of a show for us giving us a chance for just a few more pictures.

Deb's lovely young daughter Starflower took a photo of the three Minnesota blogging gals just before we left. Sally the yellow lab jumped up right at the last minute to plant a quick lick and get in on the act.

I got to meet another Minnesota bird blogger at the festival. Jeff at Ecobirder is an amazing photographer and a very nice fellow. He'll be posting his photos from the festival and I can't wait to see them. Be sure to follow the link and check them out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you Ruthie for the wonderful birding weekend, and for the warm wool socks and the lovely prayer shawl that you knit for me.

Thank you Deb for opening your home to us to visit and for letting us see your Sand Creek.

Thank you Mike for working so hard to put this terrific festival together for birders to experience the Sax-Zim Bog.

Bog Bloggers

Sunrise over the Sax-Zim Bog

The first anual Sax-Zim Bog Festival of Birds was a FANTASTIC success!! Wonderful friends-both new and old, FOUR life birds, so much laughter and lots of new knowledge about birds. I could not have asked for a better weekend. BUT- today is my daughter's 15th birthday and I

promised to take both of my kids and one friend each to the Mall of America (ugh...) so check back later for my post about this wonderful festival!

Sax Zim Birding Festival

Tomorrow morning we're finally headed to the Bog. Ruthie is picking me up in the morning for our trip Up North to the Sax Zim Bog Festival of Birds. I've been to that area a couple of times before and can't wait to get back. One of the field trip destinations is the Hedbom logging road which is only about 20 miles north of Hasty Brook. The field trip Ruthie and I signed up for on Saturday includes a trip to Duluth Harbor and I'm hoping we'll stop at the Duluth airport where a Snowy Owl has been sighted many times this winter. I'd be thrilled to see the the Snowy Owl but my all time favorite bird sighting was when I saw a Snowy in Duluth in January, 2007.

Here's my bird wish list:

gray jay

boreal chickadee

pine grosbeak

evening grosbeak

common redpoll

hoary redpoll

snowy owl

great gray owl

Really, I just want to meet Ruthie, relax, see birds, relax, meet new friends and greet old friends, laugh, relax, have fun and relax. An added bonus is that we're stopping on the way back down to the Cities to visit Deb from the Sand Creek Almanac. It'll be a regular Minnesota Blogger's Convention!

Wish us luck!

I hope I bought enough hand-warmers!

Thank you Barefoot!

The lovely Barefoot in the Garden, a fellow Minnesota blogger nominated me for the "You Make My Day Award" and I'm just so flattered. Thank you! Now I'm supposed to nominate 10 others but to be really honest, I'll have to give it some thought and do it later.

I've got a tight schedule for this week. I'm making my list and packing for the Sax Zim Bog Festival of Birds. Ruthie the Nature Knitter is picking me up Friday morning here in the Twin Cities and we'll be car-pooling on up to our lovely hotel in Duluth. There will be a dinner and program Friday evening. Dave Benson, a naturalist from Duluth and author of Owls of the North: a Naturalist's Handbook will be the speaker. Saturday will start early (0600!) for our field trip to the Sax-Zim Bog and on to the Duluth Harbor. On Saturday evening will have dinner and Laura Erickson will speak. Laura recently took the job of science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Both speaker should be great.

I am just so excited about this trip and I can't wait to share it all.

Wild Thing!

I've always felt it was a thrill and an honor to make eye contact with a wild thing.

She stared at me so long this afternoon,

made me glad I wasn't snack-sized!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wild thing

You make my heart sing

You make everything

Groooo-vy!

One of my favorite songs ever!

WILD THING

by the Troggs

1966

A Lifer?

This handsome African Gray parrot is about the extent of my birding as of late. He lives at the nursing home where my sister is living now and from the first time I met him he has liked me. He talks quite a lot but mostly only when I turn my back. Last week he surprized me by asking "Wanna go to Albuquerque?" He gets as close as he can and gives kisses. About ten years ago he came in with a resident and has become a permanent resident himself even though his owner has since died. My whole family enjoys visiting him after we've visited with my sister. I will say though I have seen MANY red-tailed hawks along the freeway while driving back and forth to the nursing home.

My backyard is hosting all of the winter regulars, house sparrows, house finches, juncos, goldfinches, cardinals and blue jays, white breasted and red breasted nuthatches. The downy and hairy woodpeckers and chickadees are everywhere. Right now as I'm writing this it is two-thirty in the afternoon and the temperature is a whopping -7 with a windchill factor of -31!! The gusty winds aren't expected to die down until later this evening. There is a handfull of chickadees huddled and tapping their black oilers on the window air conditioner in the bedroom window. Birds often gather there on cold days because of the warm air that I'm sure leaks out through the window. Even on such a brutally cold day as today I am cheered to hear the spring songs of the chickadees and house finches. The male cardinals are singing territorial songs high in the bare tree branches. Because of my sister's illness, as tired as I am of the cold, I find myself trying not to wish for time to hurry us into spring. But no matter our wishes, the days lengthen and the sun passes higher in the sky in it's own time. There is so much in life that is unpredictable and out of our control but the seasons merge one into another in their own time too.

The Peace of Saint Francis

Far and away my favorite room in the Como Park Conservatory is what I always called the fern room. It is cool and the air is moist, smelling of life and all things green. There is a little waterfall that tumbles over rocks and past various ferns into a pool at the feet of this lovely statue if Saint Francis. Saint Francis is even a bit green and there are thick carpets of mosses between the plants.

And then there are the orchids. There are creamy orchids,

wispy, delicate orchids,

and sparkly orchids.

I know absolutely nothing about orchids except that they are amazingly beautiful. My visit to the Conservatory refreshed me. I won't let years go by before I visit there again.

here'z a gud wun

Color on a Cloudy Day

I took a break last Friday afternoon to spend some much needed time on my own. Since I was in St. Paul I decided to take my new camera to the Como Park Conservatory. The Como Park Zoo and Conservatory are over 100 years old and I have many happy memories of visiting the zoo from childhood on. This room of the Conservatory is popular for weddings. The flowers are changed often with different flowers and color pallettes. January here in Minnesota was very cold and gray and the warm moist air, the color and the intoxicating scent of the flowers were like a mini-vacation.

On a matching bench across the reflecting pool from this one sat a woman doing a tiny watercolor painting of the beautiful lilies. I watched her from a distance but didn't want to intrude on her work.

There are many colorful koi in this pool. I think if I were one I'd love to live here.

Does anyone know what this flower is? It smelled softly of vanilla.

The asiactic lilies were all in shades of white through dark pink. Their fragrance was lovely but a bit overwhelming if I got too close. I think I spent an hour in this room but the orchids and the fern room were calling...

I've Been Missing (and missing you all)

I haven't had the time or the heart to do any blogging in quite a while. For those of you that don't know about it, just a few days after the first of the year my sister was diagnosed with a very aggressive and invasive type of brain tumor. She had surgery last week to slow its progress but didn't come through it as well as they had hoped she would. She is slowly making progress and we are hoping she will regain her speech and awareness that family is with her. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

This is my weekend of working a stretch of 4 night shifts at the hospital. It's been obscenely cold here in Minnesota, barely making above zero for highs during the day. You might think that these cold temperatures would have kept people home and out of trouble but the emergency room has been very busy the last three nights. One more night shift to go- HURRAY!! I should be sleeping but instead I'm watching the NFC championship game. If the Vikings can't be there I'm more than happy to cheer for Green Bay.

I'm keeping up with your blogs as time permits, taking walks with you, enjoying your birds and back yards, smiling at your stories and photographs. Even if I'm not commenting, know that your posts are making me feel connected to the things that I love too and I thank you for that.

New Year Wishes

You all know the last few months have been difficult for me with the sudden passing of my Mom. Yesterday would have been Mom and Dad's 69th wedding anniversary so needless to say they've been on my mind a lot. Of course I miss them both terribly but I'm also finding myself thinking about what they gave me. So very much of who and what I am came from their teaching and example.

We always had a cabin growing up where I was the one filling my pockets with rocks and feathers. One of my favorite memories is going on "rock walks" with my Dad. After I'd filled my pockets Dad would fill his. Dad was the one to show me bird nests what he called "wild canary" feathers. He made me a little wooden box with a screen front to catch frogs and bugs. Mom would sit for hours with me by the water's edge so I could catch crayfish and minnows. She never squealed when I brought home snakes or spiders.

Mom and Dad always respected my need for solitary time- I've always be comfortable to be alone. They encouraged me to buy my own house and travel. I didn't get married until I was 32 and they helped me be self-reliant and confident.

Moving on to a new year and a new season of my life without my parents, I realize that I will carry them with me every step of the way. I am grateful for my past and excited about my future.

I wish you all a healthy and peaceful New Year, with surprises and new birds around every bend in the road.

A Stupid Road Trip

I was hoping to have some great stories of wonderful birds to share tonight. I was hoping to be able to post beautiful pictures. Art and I packed the truck this morning. Boots, hats and gloves, extra socks. Camera and back-up camera. Binoculars, field guide, Birdjam. Hand warmers. Insulated mugs and a thermos of hot coffee. Stop for gas and we're on our way-

Hasty Brook here we come!!

We'd made it about fifty miles on the freeway when we heard a thunk. A bad sound. The power steering went out, the heat turned off and the check engine light came on. Art managed to pull the truck off the freeway to the first exit and into a gas station. He knew before he even opened the hood that it was the serpentine belt. We found an open auto parts store half a mile away that had the part and limped over there. Seventy five dollars (cha-ching!) later we had the belt and tools he needed. Handy Art fixed the problem in the Checker Auto Parts parking lot. Art was so pleased, and it was only 10AM so we turned around and got back on the road headed Up North.

Hasty Brook here we come!!

We weren't on the freeway more than a few miles when I started to hear a flappity-hissy sound. Art said "Oh, that's just the belt seating itself". Moments later gray smoke was trailing us and the power steering went out again. Please-oh-please maybe the belt just came loose. Nope. The water pump was shot and antifreeze was spraying all over. Now we had to call a tow! While we were freezing waiting for the wrecker Art called Checker again and luckily they had a new water pump to fit the truck. (I'm grateful for cell phones!) Finally the tow guy showed up and loaded the pickup. I stuffed myself in the back seat of the tow truck for the SIX MILE tow north to the next exit and then back to Checker Auto. Six miles = $120!!!!! (cha-ching!!)

Art's brother lives 45 minutes away and he drove over to help him replace the water pump ($80 cha-ching!!). At around 2PM they were done. After another $75 (cha-ching!!) for tools, sealant, antifreeze and paper shop towels (they cleaned up after themselves very thoroughly) we were ready to go. The guys were cold and hungry and had worked so hard, we needed to stop for food before getting back on the road. White Castle was two doors down and that's what they wanted. I've heard about White Castle hamburgers but don't remember ever tasting them. Well, now I have tasted a "slider"- one bite was enough. Check that off my life "to do" list. It was awful, really awful! The little burgers were wet and gooey. The bun stuck to my fingers. The onions were clear and colorless and slimy. The meat(?) was wafer thin and gray!! Ugh!!

It was too late to go on to Hasty Brook so Art suggested we check out Carlos Avery Wildlife Refuge a few miles away. Surely there would be birds waiting for us. It was really pretty there. The skies were quite overcast but there was lots of fresh, clean snow. For two hours Art drove slowly through the refuge, stopping patiently when ever I thought I saw something. Trying to keep the conversation cheerful during our 5 MPH, two hour refuge drive, Art reminded me that this wildlife area is a favorite body dumping ground for Twin Cities murderers. NEAT.

We saw:

one pheasant

two ruffed grouse

one blue jay

That's it.

Eight hours,

$350 (not counting gasoline)

four birds,

no pictures.

I had such high hopes of visiting my Hasty Brook. I wanted to see cool birds. It just wasn't meant to be. We picked up pizzas on the way home. Oh well, we're all home, safe and sound and the pizza was terrific. It could have been worse!

Just You and Me

It's been nuts around here. I've worked all three shifts in the last seven days. Art and his brother were gone Sunday through late Wednesday, driving to Las Vegas and back to pick up a '72(?) Camero. Art's brother rebuilds cars. Luckily, before he left on this cross-country jaunt, Art took a day off work so we could get the bulk of the kids' Christmas shopping done. Molly and I finally went to put the artificial tree up last weekend only to find that most of the cheesy plastic pins that held the branches on were broken. So a quick trip to Menards found us lugging home a new fake tree. I am sooo not in the spirit. No baking this year. Thank heaven for Costco! One stop shopping for all your entertaining needs!

Running last minute errands today I saw three deer and a beautiful red fox along the freeway near home. And then I saw these two beautiful hawks. It must be time for them to be pairing up all ready. None of the wild birds or animals I saw cared that people were racing around them. I doubt the world looked to be spinning crazily to them. Their lives are driven simply by their instincts. Maybe it's the season, or my turning 50, or the loss of my Mom, but I've been thinking a lot lately about how I want to live. I'd like a simpler life. That's a frequently heard expression these days. It's hard for me to let go and unclutter. I tend to hang on to worries as much as I do things. I really want to lighten the load and purge my house of STUFF. Knowing my habbit of fizzling, maybe I should set the goal small- a bag or two a week. There are several charities in our area that come to the house for pick-ups. Maybe someone else would find value or use in the things that I feel are closing in around me.

Letting go of the worries will be harder. Fretting over how things are compaired to how they "should be" is a major stumbling block for me. One of Mom's favorite expressions was "Pick up a rosary- it will help you let go". Well, I'm taking her advice, working on my faith and bringing some peace back into my life.

I wish you all peaceful hearts in this Christmas season.

HAS U SEEN IT?

moar funny pictures

Are you looking for a good laugh?
My fourteen year old daughter sent me the link to I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER and I haven't stopped laughing yet.

Seven Random Things

I just remembered that Nature Woman tagged me a couple of days ago for a "Seven Random Things" meme.

Here are the rules:

The rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Hmmm... Here's what I came up with:

1. I am a Medical Technologist and part of my job is to draw blood for legal blood alcohol levels for law enforcement agencies. A few times a year I receive subpoenas to testify in court. I just got one for next month. Yuck.

2. I always have a rosary in my pocket or in my purse.

3. My fingers are double jointed. My thumbs can bend backward at a 90 degree angle.

4. I can't stand to scoop corn starch out of the box. I can feel a squeak like fingernails on a black board.

5. I have a serious addiction to Caribou latte, extra hot, no foam.

6. I love Costco. It used to be that I couldn't get out of Target without spending $100. Now it's Costco.

7. My favorite flavor of ice cream is vanilla. Actually, vanilla is the only flavor I like.

________________________

Since most everyone I know has been tagged all ready, I'm going to refrain from tagging anyone else. Feel free to join in if you want to!

The Sax Zim Bog Birding Festival

Hello Friends! I wasn't sure if I remembered how to put a post together with photos, it's been a while. I've been reading all of your blogs and occasionally commenting, but it's taken a bit to find the energy to write a post. But now I have something to tell you all that I'm really excited about. I'm signed up for a birding festival in northern Minnesota in February. It's the Sax Zim Bog Birding Festival. This is its first year for a formal festival and it sounds terrific. The dates are February 14-16. I'm especially excited that Ruthie, the Nature Knitter will be driving up here from Rochester to the Twin Cities to pick me up and we'll be carpooling on up to Duluth. There will be two evening programs that sound wonderful. One of the speakers is Laura Erickson, an ornithologist and a gifted birder from here in Minnesota. I had the honor of meeting her last January when I went on a birding trip with the Duluth Audubon group. I'll be bringing along my copies of the books that she has written 101 Ways to Help Birds and For the Birds: An Uncommon Guide (Appointment With Nature) - I'd love to have them signed.

I'll be hoping to see another Great Gray Owl. This is one of the many GGO's I was fortunate to see in northern Minnesota during the irruption winter in 2004/2005. I wrote about it in this post Great Gray Owls for Susan. I wrote it trying to entice her and Laura up here to the frozen northland to see these amazing birds.

Maybe we'll be lucky and see another Northern Hawk Owl like this one biting the head off a vole.

I might wish to see another Snowy Owl, but even if I don't, seeing this one last winter in Duluth was pure magic.

The other evening speaker is Dave Benson, a naturalist and writer from Duluth who is the author of a new book Owls of the North: a Naturalist's Handbook. The book looks great and I hope to buy it there.

Here's the brochure description of the field trip Ruthie and I have signed up for:

Sax-Zim Bog/Duluth Harbor Area: We will meet in the parking lot at 6:00 a.m. to get organized and leave by 6:30 a.m. We will start the day by looking for Great Gray Owls at dawn and then concentrate on Sharp-tailed Grouse, Northern Hawk Owl, American Three-toed & Black-backed Woodpeckers, Northern Shrike, Boreal Chickadee, Red & White-winged Crossbills, Common & Hoary Redpolls, Evening & Pine Grosbeaks, Snow Bunting and other winter bird residents. After lunch we will head down to the Duluth harbor to look for some possibilities like Harlequin Duck, Gyrfalcon, Thayer’s Gull, Iceland Gull, Glaucous Gull, and Snowy Owl. If there is time look for Bohemian Waxwings.

I'll be happy with any or all of these birds listed. I'd like to add a Gray Jay to the list. As many times as I've been Up North in the winter, I've never seen a Gray Jay.

Any of the rest of you want to come up? I'll pick you up at the airport and provide trasportation to the winter wonderland of northern Minnesota!

Will there be life birds that you won't find anywhere else? YES!!!

Will it be fun? YES!!! (maybe even too much fun!)

Will it be cold? Well, OK, it will be cold- but- you CAN handle it! I'll even provide the hand warmers and hot drinks. And cookies. And banana bread- I make really good banana bread with and without mini-chocolate chips.

_______

I would like to acknowledge and thank Mike Hendrickson who worked very hard with the people of the Sax Zim Bog area to get this festival up and running.

We close our eyes,

we bow our heads

and offer thanks

for daily bread.

For friends and family

gathered near

for forests and rivers

for elk and deer.

For oceans and mountains

for plant and stone

for all that we feel

for love, beauty and home.

And when the day comes

that we must say good-bye,

we thank you, dear God

for the tears we shall cry.

And our children shall sit

with their own children small,

and give thanks once again,

for the miracle of it all.

Steve Myrvang

A New Normal

Thank you friends, for the kindness you've shown me over the last two weeks. Your comments, emails, phone calls and prayers were a great comfort. I don't think I can find words to adequately convey my gratitude. Please know that I thank you with all my heart.

The last two weeks have been so difficult. But I'd like to think that the really hard parts are over and I'm trying to find a new normal for my life. After the burial last Thursday we all came home, changed into comfy jeans and sweatshirts and relaxed a bit. The kids got out the video games on the Wii and quickly had us laughing. That felt so good. Art came outside and helped me clean and fill my feeders. They had been empty for so long I wondered if the birds would come back. I needn't have worried- they came back in droves! Chickadees and nuthatches, both white-breasted and red-breasted were swirling around my head as I put the filled feeders back up. At one point I counted seven red-breasted nuthatches zooming around the feeding stations.

"Thank you!" Check out the tail on this gray squirrel! I try to toss some seed or nuts in this old wooden pop crate for the squirrels. It keeps them off the feeders that hang on our old wooden swing set. I put aluminum stove pipes on the 4X4 uprights to act as baffles but they quickly found a way to jump from the huge lilacs to the top beam. As long as they don't destroy my feeders, I'll admit that I enjoy watching them and they are welcome.
I wonder why her tail is ringed like that.
Even the bunnies are welcome. This one lives under the play house. Rabbit damage was minimal over the summer and we've fenced in the shrubs to keep them from chewing bark over the winter.

I finally unpacked my suit case for Cape May yesterday. Of course I have no regrets about not going but I did feel a little sad about not being able to meet the bloggers. BUT- I have a year to use my plane ticket! And I do plan to use it for the Second Bird Blogger's Conference!

At Peace

My brave little Mother passed away this evening.

Thank you all.

Lynne

Short Update

My mother took a turn for the worse on Wednesday and I cancelled my Cape May Trip, no regrets. There will be other trips. My place right now is at her side. It was a long day of very tough decisions.

The outpouring of prayers, love and support has overwhelmed me- and all this from friends I've never even met. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

Lynne

My Mom

Just a quick note to let you all know what's going on here. On Monday my Mom had a bad fall and was found unconscious. She 's in the trauma/neuro intensive care unit with several brain bleeds that are being watched. Gratefully, her status has gone from grave to critical and now this morning to serious. If the results of today's CAT scan show no progression of the bleeding she will be considered stable enough to go out on the neurology floor. Her neurologist that I have known for 10 years and in whom I have tremendous trust has told me that if she's stable through tonight I should feel safe in going to Cape May tomorrow. My brothers agree. In fact they are adamant that I go. I'm torn. Monday morning before she fell, I spoke with my Mom and she was so excited for me that I was making this trip. She said she was proud that I was so brave to fly away to meet strangers and to learn more about the birds that I love. Please offer a prayer for my Mom.

Crex Meadows Birds

Time for a quick recap of the birds we saw at Crex Meadows on Saturday.

Red-tailed Hawks

Northern Harriers

Field Sparrows

Snow Buntings- lifer and an awesome view!!

Woodcocks

Canada Geese

Green-winged Teal- lifer

Ring-necked Ducks- lifer

We spotted 3 Northern Shrikes (2 of them were my spots!) This one was pretty far away but I think you can still make out the field marks.

There were quite a few Trumpeter Swans. Here is a pair with their three gray goslings. I learned that trumpeter swans were extirpated from Minnesota due to hunting and as few as twenty years ago they were very rare to see. They've made quite a healthy come back.

The main reason I signed up for this trip was to see the Sandhill Cranes. Several thousand of them use a field in Crex as a staging area on their migration south. Every evening in the fall the cranes come from about a fifty mile radius to this field to spend the night. To say it was a remarkable sight would be a gross understatement.

If I scanned the tree line with my binoculars I could see lines of the sandhills flying in from all directions.
Sandhill cranes stay in family groups throughout their migration. As they flew in they were constantly calling to each other. The sound was musical- a combination of yodeling, trumpeting, and trilling.

I found the experience so moving. It felt like I was witnessing something very special, and very old. As the light waned, and we got ready to leave, there were thousands of sandhill cranes in the field, still calling to each other. I wonder at their language and I wonder at their instincts, passed on through the generations that call them to this field in Wisconsin year after year.

It was a privilege to stand on the edge of that field and watch those magnificent birds, something I will never forget.

Crex Meadows Sky

I went on another birding field trip yesterday to Crex Meadows, a 30,000 acre state-owned wildlife area near Grantsburg, Wisconsin. I've wanted to visit Crex for some time and was excited to find an organized trip. It was a fun group led by Stan Tekiela through Eden Prairie Park and Recreation. Hellziggy, AKA "the other Sharon" a frequent commenter on Birdchick's blog was there with a ginormous lens. Needless to say, her pictures were AWESOME. I really am satisfied with my point and shoot, but I secretly dream of a digital SLR with a sweet lens! Saturday was the first day with significant sunshine in quite a while and the golden light made the trees glow.

I really couldn't get enough of the sky. The cloud formations were amazing. A perfect weather day, temps around 70, gentle breezes and sun.
I drank it all in, like a tonic.
I couldn't take my eyes off the ever-changing sky.
Were there birds?

Oh, yeah, there were birds all right...