Tripping with the Birds

 It appears to have been a while since I posted here. Busy, busy, busy, getting the houseplants situated back in the house, picking tomatoes and turning them into frozen red sauce, and chasing after birds all over the place.

First was the Barrens Birding Blitz, my first venture into competitive team birding. As you might imagine I loved it. I saw a number of advertisements for it., but knew I couldn't go, as we only have one car. Then my friend and birding mentor, George Steele, asked if I would like to team up with him for the day.

Been experimenting with editing....

Well, heck yes! It was a lot of fun. I hadn't been to the Pine Bush since the early seventies, and although it has changed...A LOT...it is still a magical place. I could walk all day on the sandy trails through field and forest. We found forty-two species in the five-hour time window and I came home with my first ever bird event tee shirt.

Then we took what turned out to be a staycation. We had intended to head for Maine for four or five days but real life intruded on that plan, so we did local-ish trips. A shopping trip for Becky Thursday, Montezuma for me on Friday, McFadden's machinery auction for Ralph yesterday, and hopefully a trip north tomorrow.

Montezuma was weird. They drained the main pool to control unwanted vegetation I guess, and although it is said to be refilling now, there was very little water and almost no birds there. However, we visited Van Dyne Spoor Road for the Sandhill Crane unit and that was packed with egrets, herons, coots, gallinules and ducks. The Audubon Center had a nice  number of shorebirds, but it was pretty hot by the time we got there and I was about walked out, so we didn't see all of it.

Black-throated Green Warbler

Home birding was nice too. I am working on taming the locals by feeding cracked corn and peanuts right in the driveway by my backyard birding office chair. The jays and chipmunks are hilarious as they war over the peanuts.

Northern House Wren

Anyhow, please excuse my long pauses in writing here. Real life is just so interesting this time of year. Hugs