My First Pelagic

Saturday dawned cold, rainy and windy- not so perfect weather for a pelagic birding trip on Lake Superior out of Duluth. I met Deb from Sand Creek Almanac near a freeway exit between Hasty Brook and Duluth and we motored up to meet Mike Hendrickson and the group he was leading on this memorable trip.

The captain of the LL Smith told Mike he'd still take us out so Mike gave us our options: go out on the lake (20 mph winds with gusts up to 25-30 mph and 6-7 foot swells) , boat around the protected harbor where the water would be calmer, or cancel all together and Mike would lead the group around Park Point by car and foot. We opted for the harbor. I had a good gore-tex rain jacket and layers under that and felt I was prepared for the wind and drizzle.
Mike is an awesome birder and was terrific in calling out everything he saw. I'm quite sure I was the least experienced birder of the bunch and I really appreciated that Mike and the other better birders would call out birds that were probably "old news" to them.
Everyone in the group was asked to bring popcorn which Mike would toss into the water "chumming" to attract gulls.

Here they come!

Deb and I spent the better part of the trip perched by a picnic table at the back of the boat. I was really glad to have that table to grab on to later on when we neared the channel that separates Minnesota Point from Wisconsin Point- the entrance to Lake Superior. I think the plan was to scan this breakwater on Minnesota Point for gulls but I lost interest in birding and conversation the further out into the channel we went.

Ok, so it's getting choppy. Then we started rolling uppp...then down...

I can handle this. The waves are getting taller...

Wisconsin Point, and beyond that, the open lake and 6-7 foot waves. The LL Smith running directly into the waves is REALLY scary, but we had to turn around! So the captain turns the boat, and now we're parallel to those 6 foot rollers.

I look out and we're up high on top of a wave (hang on to the table!), and then, it feels like the deck falls out from under my feet (hang on to the table!) and a wave broke over the back of the boat and the water is OVER the railing! (HANG ON TO THE TABLE!) The spray was over my head.

You can see I was drenched from about mid-thigh on down. That, combined with strong winds and temps in the low 50's made for a chilly morning. But I'm not complaining. I saw :

White-winged Scoter (lifer!)

Caspian Tern (lifer! and a beautiful look)

American Black Duck (lifer!)

Belted Kingfisher -one of the best looks I've ever had

Herring Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Bonaparte's Gull

Double-crested Cormorant

Common Merganser

That was an exciting trip and I'd love to go again. If you're interested, check out Mike's webpage for his spring and fall Lake Superior boat trips and if you have time, stop over at Mike's blog Colder by the Lake Birding and read his hilarious account of this trip.

But wait! The day's not over yet. After Deb and I got a hot lunch in a warm restaurant where our pants and feet could dry, we headed out to Park Point and we saw...

Odds and Ends From Last Weekend

We did get an extra non-birding treat last Saturday when we saw this steam engine come chugging up the hill. We could hear it and feel the vibrations in the ground before it came into view. It was a nice reminder of a different era of transportation. Does anyone remember Lunch With Casey? It was a local (Minneapolis/St. Paul) children's TV show that ran over the noon hour back when kids left school to go home for lunch. The character Casey Jones and his pal Roundhouse Rodney were very popular and they made many appearances at local businesses. When I was five or six my Dad took me to see Casey Jones at a department store opening. We waited what seemed like hours in line and when we finally got to meet Casey, I started to cry, and told Casey that I loved him and asked him if he would marry me! He got down on his knees and hugged me and said I'd have to grow up a little before I could get married but that he loved me too. I went home a very happy little girl.

After we left Hawk Ridge we headed down to Park Pointe to look about. Someone spotted a plover and Sharon got her scope out to get a better look.
We narrowed it down to either a Black-bellied or American Golden-Plover in winter plumage. Stan saw it take flight and noted the black "armpits" which made it a Black-bellied Plover! A lifer for me!
That wraps up my 50th birthday birding weekend. I'll leave you with one more look at those red-tailed hawk feet.
A rabbit nightmare!

On to Hawk Ridge

We left Frank Taylor's banding station in a downpour but by the time we reached Hawk Ridge the rain had moved on. The winds were not favorable for seeing large numbers of migrating raptors. Sharp-shinned hawks were flying low and I got lots of good advice from Stan about differentiating accipiters. I have to say, it's really great to spend a day with two talented birders like Birdchick and Stan Tekiela. I learned so much from them both. Asking questions on the spot, in the field is the best way for me to learn.

Along with the sharpies there were kestrels, a few goshawks and a few red-tailed hawks. Three of the red-tails were flying together and Sharon and I noticed that one was quite a bit bigger than the other two. I'm guessing the large female was trapped and banded while we were there. Just before we were getting ready to leave the Hawk Ridge staff announced that they were bringing a red-tail down to be released.

She was "big and feisty" according to the gal showing her off to the crowd.
Isn't she gorgeous?!
I caught her nictitating membrane in this shot.
Glorious!
Click to enlarge and check out those feet.

Did you know that spellcheck doesn't recognise the words accitiper or nictitating?

Birding 50! Part 2

Saturday I left home at 0630 to drive to Eden Prairie to meet a birding group going to Duluth led by Birdchick and Stan Tekiela. The weather forecast predicted rain, but we had plenty of enthusiasm so we hit the road! Our first stop was a private hawk banding station run by Frank Taylor, a friend of Sharon's. Frank gave us a tour of his blind and a wonderful explanation of their operation banding hawks. Frank is extremely knowledgeable and articulate and his excitement about sharing his passion for raptors was contagious.

When we pulled up there was a knot of people near the cars and we quickly got out to see that they had caught an injured Peregrine Falcon in their nets. Since we were headed back to the Cities later in the day, Sharon and Stan volunteered to take the peregrine back with us to the Raptor Center fro evaluation and treatment. Check out Birdchick's post to read the awesome information about this bird.

Here's the view from inside the blind. It is set up on the edge of a large hay field. I was lucky to be inside when a sharpie flew into the nets. They had caught and banded two sharpies before we arrived. It was a terrific learning experience to be able to see these birds up close and have them described in such detail.

Here Sharon is holding the adult male for closer inspection. She let us all have a sniff of the sharpie. I thought it smelled like warm, brown grass- clean and outdoorsy.

Then Sharon did the sweetest thing- she handed the sharpie to ME! I couldn't have asked for a better gift. Thank you, thank you Sharon!

Now, people who know me know that when I'm really happy my eyes disappear behind little slits. You can barely make out my pupils in this picture that Sharon took.
( does Photoshop have a tool to remove double chins?)

I was thrilled! They have a lottery to choose visitors to release the banded birds. Don't those ladies look excited? Frank is giving them directions to count to five and then gently let them go while Sharon is lying on the cold, wet ground to photograph the release from the best angle.

The day isn't over yet...

Birding 50! Part 1

Art asked me a while back if I'd like a big party for my 50th birthday and after thinking decided against it. What I really wanted was a weekend of birding and dinner out. Well, what a weekend I got! My birthday was Friday but we also had a wedding to attend Friday evening so Art, God bless him, took the day off work and told me he'd be my driver and birding partner! The weather was Minnesota fall perfection. Blue skies, golden sun and cool breezes. I can't adequately describe the smell of the air. Maybe everyone in blogland has autumn air that smells as good- but I doubt it. After the kids left for school I grabbed my camera and two pairs of binoculars and we took off. Our first stop was a little park near home that I'd always wanted to check out. Do you ever wonder where all of the robins go after their babies fledge? Well on Friday most of them were in the ball fields at this park. Not much else to see so we headed off for some corn fields where in previous years I'd seen thousands of geese resting. I was hoping to spot a Cackling Goose among the Canada Geese. Only one of the fields was cut so there were fewer geese than I expected, and no Cackling Goose. But I did spot another Canada/domestic hybrid! I don't believe I've ever notice one of these hybrids before and now twice in one week I've found one. We watched it for a bit and like the one last week, this one stayed right in the middle of a knot of geese, maybe making it harder to become prey. Our next stop was Eastman Nature Center. Near the entrance Art spotted six turkeys in a grassy area. Turkeys used to be common only in the southern part of the state but I've seen them further north over the last couple of years.
The park is full of soft maples, beautiful yellow in the fall.

I think ninjas were here!

Sugar maples turn orange and red.
I spent fifteen minutes trying to photograph this sparrow. I'm working very hard on my sparrow identification skills and have found that it's helpful for me to get a photograph to refer to when trying to make an id. Lincoln's Sparrow- I think.
Prickly beauty, a thistle.

I wonder if Julie Zickefoose knows what this fresh scat is? Art couldn't believe I got on my knees to get a picture of it!

Birding 50! --- Part 1 --- Then End

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I heard my first "Oh, sweet Canada" this morning and sure enough there are scads of White-throated Sparrows scratching under my feeders right now. I do love sparrows!

Birding in My Yard and Away

My mind has been spinning these last few days. So much is going on and I have several bird trips coming up. It's less than one month until the Cape May Autumn Weekend and the First Birder Blogger Conference. This will be my first out of state birding festival and I'm getting more excited by the day. I've started making mental lists of what I need to bring. I'm hoping to learn lots from great birders but really what excites me the most is meeting the bloggers that I've gotten to know. My air and hotel reservations are made, the car rental taken care of, and my confirmation for the weekend events came in the mail yesterday. It's not too late to join us!

Tomorrow is my birthday and Art is taking the day off work to take me birding. There are a couple of local spots that I've wanted to visit and I'm really looking forward to spending some time outdoors, just the two of us. Tomorrow evening we have a wedding to attend. It will be Art's oldest nephew and the first of our kids' generation to marry. Everyone got new outfits for the occasion. There's a dinner and dance but I won't be staying up too late because Saturday morning I'm headed up to Duluth with a group being led by Sharon the Birdchick and Stan Tekiela. If the weather is good we'll be going to the hawk banding station that Sharon's been posting about and if the weather is poor we'll check out the migration along the lake. Either way it should be a blast!

Who's this little guy? I've had lots of warblers eating insects in my back yard this last week. My frustration level goes through the roof trying to id these green/gray/yellow twitchy birds.

Maybe if I look upside down...

Ahhh... a bird I CAN id! A pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers turned up yesterday. I heard their distinctive call long before I saw them. There are usually one or two that winter in my neighborhood and make frequent visits to the suet and Zick dough. Speaking of Zick dough, my local grocery store finally got their shipment of corn meal. It was impossible to find here for the last month. Any ideas why? Their warehouse said they'd heard it was because distributors were getting more for selling their corn for ethanol production.

Mmmm...tasty!

I bought enough corn meal to make Zick dough throughout the winter.

Here is a super frustrating moment in warbler watching. This grassy area was vibrating with twitchy warblers. I could not get a picture so finally I decided to focus on the yellow leaf and see if maybe a bird would hop into my focus. No luck. Or at least I didn't think so until That is I uploaded this picture and zoomed in to check it out further.

Take a picture- it lasts longer!

Look! It's another green/gray/yellow bird that I can't id!

Cute though...

The Sky Last Night

All in the space of three minutes, then the rain came down.

Marie According to Art

Ruthie tagged me last week to play the middle name game. The name of the game is to:

List one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don't have a middle name, use the name you would have liked to have had. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your middle name game facts. At the end of your blog post you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

I've been trying all week to come up with something for my middle name Marie but I've been stumped- more creatively challenged than usual if you can believe it! I was mumbling to Art about how hard it was to think of anything and he said he'd give me all the answers! So- here's Marie according to Art:

M is for married. I'll admit this is the most important relationship in my life. We were
both 32 when we were married. (no longer spring chickens according to my Mom!)

A is for approachable. I'm told I am a pretty friendly person and I have an open
face. Strangers talk to me all the time. (much to the puzzlement of Art!)

R is for responsible. I take my responsibilities very seriously. According to Art I take
on everyone else's responsibilities too. I'll admit to that. Just let go Lynne.

I is for iron willed. Art said "you are a little hard to deflect once you put your mind to
something". OK, I'll buy that.

E is for entertaining. I enjoy conversation. I love to laugh and can be a bit snarky,
usually at my own expense.


So there you have it. Marie according to Art. Having Art choose the ideas was a bit therapeutic!

I copied this quiz from Delia at Beginning to Bird. It's a quick quiz- check it out!!

Your Power Bird is an Eagle

You are spiritual and able to soar to great heights. You are a true inspiration, and many people look to you for guidance. And you are quite demanding in relationships... but you're worth it. People know that you will become even greater than you imagine.

What's" Your Power Bird?

White Goose

Coming home from the grocery store I saw this white goose fly into a field with thirty or so Canada geese yesterday afternoon. I found a place to park in a business lot, I grabbed my binoculars and camera and started off after them. It took a while to get near enough for a photo as they were very hinky about my presence. At first I thought the white goose was a partial albino Canada goose but looking closer it was quite a bit larger with a thicker neck and bill. Here I am, throwing myself on your mercy for an id again! Would a domestic goose fly along with a wild flock? Could it be a hybrid?

What do you think?

Nice DOES Matter

Barefoot Gardener at the blog Barefoot in the Garden (a fellow Minnesota blogger!) kindly awarded me the "Nice Matters Award". I am particularly flattered about this award because I've always believed that nice DOES matter. Kindness matters. An elderly Sister who was my freshman biology department advisor in college told me years ago that it was important to raise people up every day. She explained that we need to lift our faces and look at others with a smile. Some times it's a greeting or a kind word. Other times it might be a helping hand. Even the people who irritate or just don't like you- raise them up with a silent prayer. She said raising people up would change lives. Well, it changed mine. Thank you for the advice Sister Helen Joseph Sanschagrine. Thank you for thinking of me Barefoot Gardener.

The Many Sides of a Chickadee

The front side.
The back side.
The side side.
The under side?