Category Archives: Year 4

Not in Kansas anymore!

Year 4

Dorothy … you’re not in Kansas anymore!!!

Early this week I was bicycling in a snow flurry along the cold, windy shores of Lake Superior. Yesterday, in 85F heat, along with Molly we both went mountain biking for the first time in our lives. I figured at age 61 it was time to try something new in life!

Given the name of the sport includes “mountain”, we biked up and down steep trails next to the Pacific Ocean. Uff dah! Scarier going down than up. In addition. without meaning to I often popped wheelies on the uphills during particularly steep climbs. Finally throw in 85F heat and humidity just to make things interesting. We both survived. Molly took two minor falls. I somehow avoided falling. Much messier sport than road biking. Dirt all the way up my shins. Now we will need a great sunset, a drink and dinner. Given we are in Costa Rica, that will not be a problem!

Here is a pic of my wife enjoying that well earned sunset … and yes, my camera is focusing on some birds too! Hopefully my ID’s are correct.

High up in the trees … Orange Fronted Parakeet, Red Crowned Woodpecker and White Tipped Dove

Just above me! Iguana.

Beachcombing … Spotted Sandpiper and Great Tailed Grackle

Sing Out for Spring! (videos)

Year 4,

After my failed red-throated loon quest in the Port Washington area of Lake Michigan, I returned to my cold Northland along the shores of Lake Superior. In between birding outings I took a bike ride along the shore … 35F, snow flurries, and a 20 mph wind out of the Northeast. Twas an ugly cold bicycle ride.

Thankfully my birding excursions yesterday to some of my favorite wetlands were much more favorable. Both the Roy T. Johnson Wetlands (near Cloverland, Wisconsin), and the MacQuarrie Wetlands (near Wrenshall, Minnesota) by virtue of their locations relative to Lake Superior are way ahead of birding habitat north of the big lake (read cold with little signs of Spring in evidence).

In addition to both lots of Meadowlarks and Wilson’s Snipes singing out for mates, I saw two big migration events. At MacQuarrie yesterday afternoon when the sun finally came out, I found a flock of 500+ Scaups resting on their northward migration, and a few minutes later 1,000+ tree swallows swarmed the air directly above my head as they fed in the late afternoon sun above one of the wetland ponds.

Meadowlark

Wilson’s Snipe

Killdeer

Red-Throated Loon Quest: Failure!

Year 4

This afternoon I moved my continuing failing quest to see a red-throated loon during their migration back to the Arctic. My birding location was the Milwaukee waterfront which although it did not yield “said loon”, it did yield a new lifer bird, the Black Crowned Night Heron. In addition, Horned Grebes posed for photographs. Will try again tomorrow morning at sunrise.

Horned Grebe

Black-Crowned Night Heron