OK!! Enough of that. Lyn and I are are attempting to record 2000 species of birds this year. We are at 77 for the year only 1923 to go not bad this means we will have to average 192.3 new birds per month....maybe!
So we are off for a little shake down trip.

First we head to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Over wintering ducks. Then to Ocean City, Maryland for an overnighter (Free use of Condo). We hope to rack up all three species of Scoter, 2 of Loons (Divers), Long-tail Ducks, Eiders, and maybe even a Screech-owl at Blackwater.

Leaving OC we head south and cross over the Chesapeake Bay in VA...stop at tunnel and check out what is there...Purple Sandpiper..any Scoters we might have missed....who knows?

Then it is off to Florida...Pensacola first. visit Ann and Dan Forster....then Everglades and Keyes...just to see what is there...up to Miami and off to Venezuela for 15 days...we have arranged for a guide and transport and we are off to Henri Pittier National Park and so on and so on..

We will return sometime around April 2nd or 3rd...who knows?

We will post then.

Just to let you know what is on the burner so to speak.
February- Minnesota
February & March- Florida and Venezuela
April- 2 weeks in Colorado and Wyoming...back to MD..early migration
May- Iceland and Norway
June- Brazil (Looking for 2 people to round out this one)
July- Brazil
August- Southern Ecuador & Northern Peru for Tumbesian Specialists
September- Bolivia (Looking for one person to round out a 3 person trip. This is a great trip)
October- Back to Peru for Southern Birds and a little sight seeing
November- Argentina
December- Argentina and Chile

So good birding everyone.

See you soon.

Now I am not talking about the blown call that you might make when you are out by yourself. No. I mean the "Super String." Where you "string" the bird so bad that for days on end you just want to sit in your darkened basement and smack your head repeatedly with your Sibley's* and swear that you will take up mushroom watching as a new hobby.

Well. We do not want to lose any birding enthusiasts. So how do you deal with the potentially devastating fallout from your "super string"?
There are several schools of thought on this subject. Murphy's Law will dictate that your Super Oratorical Ornithic Yammer of Biblical Proportions will undoubtedly occur right in the middle of a gaggle of birders. So you say, "Skip. You have had lots of experience with just this problem. What would you recommend that I do?"

Well here are a few pointers that I have found useful:

1. Blame it on the weather. "My eyes were watering from the sub arctic 60
degree winds".
2. Blame the call on your glasses, binocular, scope, field guide or hat. Break
out a cleaning cloth and start to furiously clean your binos explaining, "Oh
man!! I forgot to clean my glasses since I came back from birding the
Amazonian Paramo in Berundi, Australia." Hopefully everyone will be
impressed with your world travels and amazing grasp of geography. Just to
let you know I never clean my glasses, binoculars, scope or hat. Just in
case I need an excuse.
3. Look at the person next to you and say, "Thats the dumbest call I have ever
heard." Then duck and weave and try to blend in with the other birders in the
confusion.
4. Blame your bad call on suspect information from some famous personality.
This works well if you have had them in a class before. I personally blame
all kind of bad calls on Pete Dunne and Clay Sutton. But, I never blame
anything on Pat Sutton or Louise Zemaitis.I do not want to get my butt
kicked. Write a list of names on an index card which you can keep in your
pocket and when the need arises pull out your card and blame away.
5. Quickly break into a foreign accent and pretend your new in town. If you
have forgotten that you are with your local birding group go directly to #7.
6. Call out another bird real loud. Preferably a rare and endangered species or
even an extinct species as this usually creates quite a stir and your blown
call will quickly be forgotten.
7. If nothing is working do what I do and fall to the ground and start rolling
around, foaming at the mouth (this is always effective), speak in tongue
(learn a few Greek, Latin and Arabic words and feel free to throw these in as
needed), and do the "frying bacon." This usually freaks people out so bad
that they will completely forget your stupid call.
8. Cry.
9. Or else as a last resort you can admit that you made a mistake. Now I know
what you are thinking. "Nelson are you out of your ever luvin mind?" Now I
only recommend that you use this as a last resort. This is an extremely
radical ploy on your part to throw everyone off. Accepting responsibility for
a bad call or a boneheaded misguided stupid stupid decision is just plain
Un-American. So please be very careful when using this potentially
dangerous and subversive tactic.
Notes: Caution should be exercised about over using #7. Your local birding club will start giving you the wrong meeting times and locations for field trips. I've noticed that my copy of our schedule appears to have been tampered with.

* Please note that if you are European (as George Bush has discovered there are actual people who live in Europe) please use the hardback version of "The Complete Guide to the Birds of Europe" to get the full effect. I have used the paperback version in the past and feel that it is not up to the task at hand.

Unfortunately there must have been some kind of rare inversion caused by what I believe was a local weather event know as "el Doritos". This caused a misunderstanding by Oscar and Lyn of what came out of my mouth.

Now I know what I said, but unfortunately what they heard sounded alot like "Brown Penguin" which is not a local bird in Texas (still pending a decision by the state records committee)....or anywhere else.

Now Oscar and Lyn stop what they are doing and look over at me hunched over my scope.
"Brown Penguin. Huh?" Oscar asks in disbelief. Lyn covers her eyes and shakes her head.
"Well..yea..the tern beside the Brown Penguin" says I still focused intently on the tern.
"Brown Penguin? Where do you see a Brown Penguin?" asks Oscar. Lyn is holding her head as she knows whats coming next.
I look over at them staring at me in disbelief as I furiously start to wipe the lens of my scope.
"Penguin....who said Peneguin?" I look at Lyn.
"Thats the stupi....." She cuts me off. "Don't even try it Buster!!!"
I reach for my list in my pocket.
Lyn is shaking her head, "Your list went through the wash last week."
" Gee you Gringos are mucho loco...."
Oscar is now shaking his head. "Thats a really bad accent Nelson."
Lyn turns to Oscar. "If you think that is bad just watch."
"Great Auk flying", I yell pointing behind Oscar and Lyn.
They don't even budge.

Down on the ground I go arms and legs flailing in all different directions. Foam appears at my mouth as I use every Pig Latin word that I know. I'm doing the frying bacon right there on the sand.

"Come on Oscar. Let's go. He'll start to cry next." says Lyn gathering her scope.
"Does he do this often?" asks Oscar.
"Well not all of the time." says Lyn "Just when ever we go birding"

The only thing that exceeds the cold...cold...weather of Northern Minnesota is the warmth of the people. These people are awesome. Wherever we went we were inundated with all of the local citizens special owl encounters. Everyone was eager to share with us their favorite "owl road." We even got tips from Ken Boyd at the gas station on Route 210 in McGregor and permission to go "tramp " his field in search of owls. Ray Rheinhold, owner of Town and Country Motel in McGregor not only gave us his tips, but dug up a copy of "Birding Aitkin County" by Warren Nelson (no relation...well maybe no relation...could be...hell who knows the Nelsons cover half the state). We even had a construction worker, complete with the required Carhart coveralls, pull up and idle his large diesel truck with a Bobcat skidloader in tow while we were parked along the raod scoping a good bird.
"What you folks looking at?" he asked.
Now where I come from once I tell people that we are looking at birds we usually get laughed at or cursed. When I tell this guy we are observing a Northern Shrike perched in the tree, he says "Good Bird! There are some great owl roads just go down and make a left hand turn at the cross roads then make the next right turn and look for the farm on your right. Have fun." And off he rode.

My wife and I just looked at each other. How could this be...what parallel universe did we land in, where ordinary just plain old folks (my kind of people) take their time to not only talk to birders, but to give actual fantastic birding tips.
I Love Minnesota!!!!!

Now the McGregor area is fantastic. All of the backroads have very little traffic so they are very safe for our type of birding, driving slow, sudden stops and my bad driving. All of the backroads and nooks and crannies of Aikin County are worth birding so do not be scared of the ice and snow coverage. We never got stuck once.

The area that was kind to us was Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The people working there were helpful, gracious and kind. While there we had excellent looks at Great Gray, Northern Hawk and......

Now I belong to the Yogi Berra School of Birding which goes by the mantra " I'd Rather be Lucky than Good."

We had just ticked Great Gray Owl and Northern Hawk Owl ("little round Christmas decorations with tails at the tops of trees" a rather good description supplied to us by Rich Peet a Minneapolis birder......I thinks he spends a lot of time in the bogs) and was feeling pretty full of myself. So...I decided to get a little greedy and go for Black-backed Woodpecker. We drove over the bridge on the road leading out of the Refuge and found a good spot which I though looked rather good for woodpeckers and turned off the car. Black-backed Woodpecker is a good bird for us and was one of our target birds.
I reached over to lower the window on the rental SUV and when I turned my head I was face to face.....rather face to facial disc with a rather small, but sleepy looking Boreal Owl. Just nine feet from from the car at eye level...you just can't get any luckier than that!!!

We believe that this is the first report of Boreal Owl for Rice Lake....if anyone knows any different please comment us at the end of this blog. Photos to follow.

While there we had one of the most surreal and beautiful birding days of our lives. It snowed most of the day and a day spent birding in this fantastic winter wonderlad was made that more delicious because of the good birds and short hikes back into the frozen bog land. We were simply enchanted.
On McDavitt Road we also learned the rewards of patience. Someone (thank you...thank you...thank you) has hung a bag of suet under a tree along a foot path leading east. We parked, turned off the SUV, and while the snow fell gently around us and the silence enveloped us like a blanket we waited for the Black-backed Woodpeckers to make their grand appearance onto this Swan Lake like winter stage.
We waited and had Black-capped Chickadees, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers show up at the suet, but alas no Black-backed Woodpeckers.
And then from east to west flew a woodpecker. A rather dark looking bird in flight, but with that distictive WP flight pattern....Binos up...the bird lands on a tree rather denuded of bark and proceeds to to go to work doing that thing that woodpeckers do so well. But not hammering or pecking, but rather scraping or flaking the bark off. The Black-backed Woodpecker was soon joined by it's partner so we now had two of these wonderful new ticks to observe for the next twenty minutes.

Sax-Zim is a fantastic birding area and a return in spring is in our future.

If you find yourself in the city of Two Harbors you have to do yourself a favor and go to the Vannilla Bean Bakery & Cafe...great coffee(best of the trip) pancakes that are to die for and fresh baked bread. If you are headed to the lighthouse and harbor area you have to go past the place...stop in...great service and friendly folks. Check out the bakery I know I did.

We left Two harbors and headed up 61 to Grand Marais and the Gunflint Trail. I only have one word to say about the Gunflint Trail...SKUNKED......SKUNKED......SKUNKED. OK! That is not three words but one word repeated three times. We were so skunked that I still stink.
Now we were not literally skunked by a skunk we were skunked by the birds which is worst. We got NOTHING...zilch..zero....bumpkis.

We did not count the two ravens laughing so hard at us that they fell out of tree....besides who would have believed us.

So we left Minnesota a few ticks to the good and a little wiser about the birds of the frozen north. This trip seved it's purpose...getting us not only out of the house and getting some fantastic birds, but this trip actually served as a training trip for our upcoming May trip to the town of Kirkenes in northern Norway...the fabled land of the mid-night sun.

Would we go back to bird Minnesota in the winter...."You betcha"

It started in Duluth, Minnesota on Friday at 7:30 am. We showered, ate and headed south to St. Paul Minneapolis birding along the way and picking up Snow Buntings at Sandstone National Wildlife Refuge along with four Rough-legged Hawks.

A nice ending for a short trip to the frozen north which included Great Gray Owls, Northern Hawk Owls and a first for us and the Rice Lake Wildlife Management Area a cute little Boreal Owl.

Not a bad trip and we left Minnesota a few ticks to the good and a little wiser about the ways of the north.

It all started to go down hill upon our arrivial at Chicago Midway Airport. We had a Mid-Winter count scheduled to start the next morning at 7:00 am and guess what our flight was delayed. We arrived back at our home base at 4:30 am dead beat and worn out. Two hours, or was it one, of sleep and we were back at it again.

Mid-Winter Counts in Frederick County, Maryland are not exactly what one calls exciting. Unless your idea of fun is counting thousands of Starlings, thousands of Crows and House Sparrows with a few good winter birds thrown in. But there we were ready to tuff it out.

After eight hours of driving and counting crow after crow after crow after....hey what is that one.

I told Lyn, my life birding buddy, to check out the Killdeer in the snow melt to the right hand side of our truck. I watch for cars while she slowly announces that it is not a Killdeer, but a Northern Lapwing..."It's to big for a Longspur" says I.
"Your right" says she. "It is to big for a Longspur. It's a Lapwing."
I start to drive off. Then I stop. "It's a Kestrel taking a bath in the snowmelt" says I.
"No" says she, "It's a Lapwing. Look at the crest"
I finally raise my binos up to my bleary sleep deprived eyes to gaze at one of the most beautiful birds to visit our shores from afar. We have seen this bird before where it is very common in winter in Ireland. We have also seen the bird in breeding plumage and in breeding habitat on Raflin Island in Northern Ireland in spring, but never in the States.

In fact until Lyn and I set our eyes on this bird it has never been recorded in the State of Maryland and only sparringly reported across the nation.

So now you see our problem. No camera (we still had not unpacked from Minnesota) no proof. The bird does not exist in the eyes of everyone else including that dreaded body, The Records Committee.

So now it is Saturday night. I report the bird and am met with well let's just say that they chalked the bird up to Sleep Deprivation. Now I can't sleep again as the list chaser will surely be out in force on Sunday am and my stomach is a complete knot.

Saturady night comes and goes...no sleep. Sunday 2:30 am still no sleep. What if the bird is not there the next morn. Will we be laughed out of the state.
3:00 am ...no sleep 4:30 am....no sleep
7:30 am...make coffee...now I have been awake for 48 hours straight.
Go birding with Lyn...White-throats...Bluebirds....Sharp-shin Hawk shows up and makes me forget at least for a moment the giant knot that has developed in my stomach.
Check my e-mails. I see that the sighting has been posted and sent out. Now the bird just needs to be there.
9:30 am Can't wait any longer. I call Gary Smyle...if anyone will dog this bird it's Gary. Sure enough I get him on his cell.
"No bird. Just a Killdeer"
Oh no any bird except a Killdeer. How many birders are there now questioning the sighting. "It was only a Killdeer that the sleep deprived idoit strung along for a Lapwing."
I do laundry..well I put the clothes in the machine...did I put in detergent...I can't remember...I put more in.

Noon comes and goes 53 hours without sleep.

4:30 comes nothing from no one. Can't stand it anymore. Lyn wants to go look for Owls. Drive to Washington County. Even the owls won't talk to me. I get skunked.
Drive back.
57 hours without sleep and I am still as sharp as well a block of hardened concrete.
Get back.
Call from Gary.........He has pictures.
It's now 10:30 pm. I have been up for 63 hours straight.
The only thing that I can say is " I hope I don't have to go throught this again or get another bird like this one...welll until I get at least 8 hours sleep.

Good Birding and thanks to all the people who showed up today to see the Confirmed First State Sighting of a rather lost Northern Lapwing.

I am going to get some sleep now.

www.mdbirds.org/birds/gallery/lapwing.html

I'm not quite sure , but I intend to spend the rest of my life finding out. You are invited along. Maybe we will discover together why this seemingly innocuous hobby could turn into a dark force which drives them from warm hearth and safe harbors to bug infested swamps and wind driven paramo.

Meet the people that they meet along the way also as they travel in search of the next delicious tick. Also you get to travel with them and see wonderous new and exotic lands such as Duluth, Minnesota and maybe meet and greet a real Duluthian of the frozen north.

If you are not, or do not know a birder peek inside the strange and bizarre world of these obviously deranged people as they span the globe in search of their feathered avian prey. Also meet other birders who together irregardless of race, creed or nationality form that 1% of society who are constantly " Out of the Box!"

Our first stop on the tour was Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in search of Short-eared Owls. A tip from Gary Smyle, a dedicated member of the Maryland Ornithology Society, sent our intrepid birders off to bird this National Battlefield and surrounding areas.

This area is an IBA or Important Bird Area, an area deemed of sufficient importance to either breeding, migranting or over wintering birds. Upon reaching this area it became immediately clear that this habitat of farm lands and fields with wonderful wooded fence rows and stream edges is important winter raptor habitat.

Reaching the area where the Short-eared Owls(Asio f. flammeus) were located we were able to quickly spot the owls. (total of 12 seen, but a high count of 44 in the evening has been reported) Then we were given the opportunity to not only observe a hunting Short-eared owl on the wing, but a Northern Harrier(Circus cyaneus hudsonius) on the wing in the same field for comparison views of these two convergent evolutionary predators. Birding 101 does not get any better than this.

Other raptors seen were many, many, many Red-tailed Hawks in all stages of plumages. Even an Albino Red-tail Hawk(I believe that the bulk if not all were Buteo jamaicensis borealis) which briefly made us think " Snowy Owl", alas it was not to be, but still a good look.

Three Rough-legged Hawks (Buteo lagopus sanctijohannis) were spotted also with two being seen together over the field where Picketts Charge culminated the third day of fighting in the bitterly divisive War between the States.

American Kestrel(Falco s. sparverius) were also common along power and telephone lines.

All in all not a bad day.

If I failed to mention it at the begining one of our goals is to try and see 2000 species for the year. In 2003 we were able to see over 1000 species for the year and feel that maybe this year is our year to top 2000. We shall see....

And as that crafty Doylian figure Sherlock Holmes put it " The game is afoot..."