26°27'3.25"N , 82°6'47.25"W

Gettin' ready to head off to one of my favorite places on this blue planet.

Be back in a week...

Sunday birding on the refuge

Pamela and I took a couple hours to visit the Parker River NWR (on Plum Island) on Sunday morning in an attempt to 'fatten up' my 2008 PI Birds list. I have thrown my hat into the ring for a casual contest among some of the folks on the PI Birds Group to see who can tally the most species in one calendar year. I don't expect to come in anywhere near the top - in fact it is my only hope to not be last. We'll see what happens.

Highlights included the always exciting winter species on the refuge: Snowy Owl, Northern Shrike, Rough-legged Hawk, Bald Eagle, and especially cool - hundreds of Razorbills just a few hundred feet off-shore. An interesting high/low-light was also a roadkilled Cooper's Hawk with a similarly roadkilled pigeon still in it's talons. I felt like something of an avian CSI agent trying to figure out what happened - was this immature bird chasing the pigeon into the roadway and the two of them got hit simultaneously as the hawk clutched it's prey in it's talons? An interesting note is that these birds were at the edge of a parking lot - and they weren't there when we had first pulled up but were there when we returned 15 minutes later. Looked almost like somebody pulled over - pried them from the grill of the car onto the snowbank, then moved on.
Very odd. I did take a few pictures, but am not going to post in the interest of allowing any reader to keep their meals in their respective places. Anybody interested can e-mail me and I'll send them along. (I don't expect anyone to!)

One of the biggest highlights of the day for me though, was watching a male Hairy Woodpecker go about it's work just 15 feet away from us, (while a Downy worked on the same tree for a short while)

More photos are at my pBase gallery - including a few with him sticking his long sticky tongue out!

I have seen Hairy's up close before, but usually at a feeder, and there is something much more satisfying to me about seeing a bird in a more wild environment.

Now I know that Hairy Woopeckers aren't anything special, but anybody who knows me can tell you that I am a woodpecker fanatic (hence the name of this blog). The impetus for many of the locations I have selected to travel to for birding have had woodpeckers in mind first, then all other species next. How many birders do you know that go to Southeast Arizona primarily to see Acorn and Arizona Woodpeckers, then get excited for Elegant Trogon afterwards? In the last few years I have managed to see all US species in the family except Nuttall's - which I will be going to California to see in February, staying with friends Pica & Numenius of the "Feathers of Hope" blog - and, of course, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, which I hope to someday have the pleasure of seeing. (But that is a blog entirely to itself, which I have no interest in getting into at the moment.)

Barn Owl as ring-bearer

I just found this story via the Birdchick blog.

I wonder how one would go about doing something like that here....



... and if Pamela would go for it for our wedding.

A sadder note...

Yesterday evening, Pamela's mother passed on. It was very quiet and peaceful, and Pamela was able to be there with her along with one of her sisters.

I have not known her long, but I do know that she was a beautiful woman who raised some wonderful children. Her passing is sad for the family, but was dignified, and I think will be agreed that it is a blessing. My personal feeling is that she has now regained her facilities, and I'm sure knows how much she was loved and will be missed by all who knew her.
She is now with lost loved ones, and will continue to watch over and love those that she has left behind.

God bless, Edith Lorraine Dean.

The new year (and a new list) begins

Pamela and I started out the day yesterday with our friends Paul & Diana to start our new year list. We attended the BBC trip lead by Laura de la Flor and Mark Burns that they have led annualy on Jan 1st for the last 11 years. (This is my fourth year doing it) The morning started clear and crisp but the weather deteriorated slowly throughout the morning until early afternoon where it turned to mixed snow and rain. We did manage to get some good birds in before the weather turned - with fantastic looks at a light-morph Rough-legged Hawk that I managed to get some decent photos of...

*more photos posted in the "raptors" gallery at my pBase page

I even managed to get a life bird after the weather turned- two VERY wet and bedraggled Hoary Redpolls in absolutely miserable conditions.

The day did end on a very different note, which I think deserves a seperate post to follow.