My bird list from Bird Day

Here’s my list of birds seen by yours truly.
Some of you birders who are longer in the tooth than myself may think, “You’ve never seen a Veery?” and the answer would be NO.
This is my second full year of birding, and with little kids and limited traveling funds, I get to very few good birding places. And I haven’t been on any sponsored, guided hiking trips. It’s all me, all the time.
So I am rather proud of my list for this trip.
(Did I sound too defensive in the above paragraph? Sorry…didn’t mean to)

(I had a lofty goal of listing these in taxonomic order, but it’s late and I’m tired)

*Listing with an asterick is a Life Bird

Bald Eagle*
Magnolia Warbler*
Wilson’s Warbler*
Common Yellowthroat*
Chestnut-sided Warbler*
Lincoln’s Sparrow*
Black-throated Green Warbler*
Great Crested Flycatcher*
Lesser Yellowlegs*
Sharp-shinned hawk*
Palm Warbler*
White-Crowned Sparrow*
Baltimore Oriole*
Brown Trasher*
Veery *
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet*
Common Loon*
Heard: American Bittern*

Double Crested Cormorant
Red-winged Blackbird
American Robin
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
American Redstart
Grey Catbird
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Yellow Warbler
Cape May Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Downy Woodpecker
Pied-billed Grebe
American Coot
Common Grackle
Canada Goose
Killdeer
Herring Gull
Mallard
Turkey Vulture
Mourning Dove
American Crow

So that’s 41 birds total seen or heard in a weekend, and 18 Life Birds.
Not bad, for just little ol’ me.

Advertisements

I had a farm in Africa

Captain, there be camels here!

Yep, that’s a camel. And yep, it’s IN OUR CAR.

We took an “African Safari” thing just outside of Port Clinton this past weekend, on the premise that the girls (and I) would get a huge kick out of feeding camels, zebra, buffalo, etc. from the car.

(insert ominous, creepy music here)

The emu was very polite, but was quickly shoved aside…

The first crazy animal we encountered was a giant Asian camel (the kind that are really hairy like a sheep) who was twice the height of our car, and yet he had no problem getting his big fat head into the window and into my face (while I’m holding Lorelei who is reaching for him) The food bucket was quickly yanked away from me and amid the screeching Geoff drove to the next feeding station. Well, it didn’t get any better.

I like to think of myself as a cool customer when it comes to animals, and usually think nothing of it when contact is necessary.

Well, that all went out the window when the big, huge, gargantuan buffalo got in my window,and I had no food to throw out to it and I thought it would get mad and bite or something, setting me to hollering to Geoff “Ahhh! Drive! Go! Go!” and setting the girls to panicking and screaming.

I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

Isabelle summed it up quite well when she stated, “I don’t think that was such a good idea.”

Just so the Blog Police gets off my back

This post serves two purposes:

1. To get my rabid FIL to calm down and stop faking official looking letters because I took a day and a half off from blogging.

2. To prove that I actually exist. I realized that I am always behind the camera and people may wonder if I am a figment of their imaginations.

(I’m the one in the hat)