With A Watchful Eye

A parent Barn Swallows feeding young at Woodland Dunes in Two Rivers

Moments are all we ever will have.  I tried memorizing the Wisconsin landscape one last time. 

As the young were getting ready to leave their parents, so was I.  Once again the summer flew by much too quickly.

My brother's beautiful oasis.

Wisconsin was the end of my 2018-19 birding season. It will be some time before I go back again. 

I realized that everything is different now.  I cannot help but see the past everywhere I go.  Faces that were once a fixture of a place are now gone.  It's like the town grew old without me. 

For the first time in my life, I actually felt like my family had dodged a bullet.  My Dad was going to be okay this time, but I got a glimpse of the future and I didn't like what I saw. 

Green Heron in Manitowoc

I don't feel any different here in Arizona.  When I observe birds in Wisconsin though, I feel some strange past connection.  The birding has a weight to it.  In Arizona, it's a fun daily game.  But when I see a bird in my hometown, it's like hearing an old 80's song from high school. It floods my brain with memories and people.

Common Yellowthroat

Sometimes I'd walk down causeways.  I like lighthouses.  And I like gulls and cold lake air.  I memorize the smells and feelings that belong to that moment. I am in command of that moment. There will never be another moment like it.  I see my future and I am at peace with it. But living in the moment can be difficult for me because I know the "now" can never last forever.  In that moment, everything is as it should be, safe. It won't be that way again. 

A lighthouse in Kewaunee

The mascot of this blog is the Bonaparte's Gull.  It is a gull that I love most. It's also why it's the header to Las Aventuras. I wish I could trap this moment and return to it again and again and again. It brings me joy. 

A Bonaparte's Gull

Whether it was a birding thing or family outing, I tried to absorb every detail. Normally, I "disappear" from my family when I'm not home visiting. I'm in Arizona and if it weren't for texts, I'd be missing in action for months.  I hate talking on the phone and am not one for writing letters anymore.  We all live our busy lives.  When I'm home, I catch up on all the daily happenings between the family members.  

In the Upper Pennisula of Michigan with my Dad and Jax

I see patterns and cycles. Change does not happen easily there. Perhaps we are all stubborn and set in our ways.  I wonder if we all truly appreciate that we are together.  One event flows into the other without really giving everyone a chance to think about the experience.  Or appreciating that moment. It's always planning for the next. Maybe it's because my siblings have children and that's what children do, talk about the "next thing" that they're going to do instead of taking in the moment.  I tried working with 4 of the nephews and nieces on that one.  We were at a movie and my niece asked me what we were going to do the next day.  I told them to just watch the movie:)

Henslow's Sparrow at High Cliff State Park

One morning I won't forget anytime soon will be the one where I went with Travis to find the Henslow's Sparrow in a prairie 40 minutes away from home. It would complete my sparrow chase for the state and the list of new sparrows I had hoped to observe in the field for this summer. What a wonderful morning out as we watched this amazing lifer sing on top of the bushes surrounded by a sea of grass.

My Dad and I usually do a trek out to Washington Island from Door County.  We took J-man with us.  I'll say he was pretty good for most of the time, but not having had children myself, he certainly knew how to get me to snap.  There was one night I blew a gasket with him.  He wanted up and down and up and down and up and down a chair while I was trying to get a project done.  I don't know where that darkness came from but it emerged quickly and took only a moment to put this 3, turning 4 year old, in his place.  I can't believe I actually yelled at him. I love that kid. I actually went to bed upset that I snapped at him. 

In Door County

There are so many voices in a family.  Quiet time is a must.  If I don't have that space, I unravel into a nightmare of a human.  I know myself well enough to make that an important thing.  My father tries to do the same, but he often can't escape the noise.  We both have that in common.  Peace and quiet are sacred things and I wish we all respected those a little more with each other because it is important.

One day, I watched Trumpeter Swans at Horicon alone. I only had a few hours to play.  If this had been in Arizona, I'd have spent the whole day there counting birds. 

My brother created his peaceful retreat.  He put his pontoon into the river by his home.  This land used to be my Grandmother's before she passed. I'm glad he has it now.  It's so beautiful there. While home, we took the pontoon up and down the river. I'm proud of my brother for taking something precious and making it better. That river is incredible.  

My little sister pulls the pontoon to the dock in her fancy shoes

But at the end, I was ready to go home.  It had been a great summer, but I had work waiting for me back in Tucson. It will be another several years before I head back to Wisconsin.  My birding year for next year is already planned.  I'll be in Oregon and Washington this October and Hawaii in December.  Then there are potential treks to New Zealand, Florida, Thailand and Central America.  One of them will have to be cut from the schedule, but for now I'm leaving it all open. 

This little guy will be bigger the next time I see him. I hope he stays curious and continues his love for the outdoors. Over the next several weeks, we head back to Arizona for a scouting mission, a birding festival and trek to Greer in the White Mountains.  

Until next time friends......

The Whirling Dervish

It started as an innocent weekend up in Phoenix.  I'd visit my family during Comicon and then head north of Phoenix with friend and birder Gordon to the town of Pine for a little research on the northern most range of the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher. That was the plan....

We had a great time watching everyone dress up for Comicon.  While enjoying the ambience, we kicked back a few Malibu and Cokes at the pool with my family.

Then it was time for sushi.  We had an amazing dinner.  During our visit, I had my phone off for much of the time.  Then I took my phone out......

Part of my family

"Code 5. Little Bunting reported at the Mexican border!"  It was the first Arizona record ever.  I hugged everyone good-bye and Gordon and myself were off the next day bright and early to hopefully spy this amazing Eurasian bird. How in the hell did it get down here?!?!

Sunday morning arrived bright and early.  We were at the border town of Douglas at a random hotspot called Slaughter Ranch Museum.  If you like US history, I think you should visit here.  I'm not sure what the story is behind the ranch, but it looked interesting. It's 5 bucks to get into the place. I know, I know.  I'm terrible.  But we're birders. We're all about the habitat and birds!  Slaughter Ranch did not disappoint.  Well, it did if you went to find the Little Bunting on Sunday.  It never showed. However, let's start at the beginning....of the line:)

You know it's serious business when you find a very long stretch of vehicles lined up to get into any museum. We arrived just as they were opening the gates. Anytime a mega rare bird shows up in Arizona, it's like a special holiday of friends and family getting together to celebrate a bird. This was to be the location of our church get-together.  So at the Church of Birds, some 50+ members arrived and flooded the property as they set up a perimeter around the pond.  Mass was about to begin!

Now I've heard some people call the Church of Birds a cult.  Maybe.  I mean it represents every type of human/bird hybrid personality out there like 1) The ducklings (they respond well to direction).  2) The mother ducks ("While I'm not the bird police, I  we need you to get out of this area and get in line behind me!").  3) The doves (they always wait for someone to feed find the birds for them).  4)The jays (they look pretty innocent, but they are always watching you and everyone else for an opportunity to mob when your guard is down; they like to hang around together in groups of 4 or 6) 5) The paired swans(independent married couples who float around wherever, oblivious to the ducks and ducklings and any other birds) And the waxwings(or the roamers). I'm definitely the nomadic bird.

The duck, duckling and dove hybrids all stay behind and concentrate their efforts on the Little Bunting.  The jays stay near the gang but continue their whispers watching the others move about them. Several of the waxwings realize there are too many birders hanging out in the area where the bird was foraging the day before.  So like the waxwings do, both Gordon and myself go where the food bird song is being heard.  We searched similar habitat that might have been attractive to the Little Bunting. 

All the while, we were observing some amazing birds. At one point, I just let the Little Bunting go and opened myself up to relax and bird.  We were going to do that anyway up in Pine. It was time to just have fun and observe the incredible amount of bird activity on this museum's property. And when we did, we discovered something more.......

Great Horned Owlet

The heat of the morning began to wear on me.  We needed water.  As we slowly made our way to the car, we noticed a different looking bird moving through the grasses. Birding in the Arizona sun is taxing.  In Wisconsin, when the weather is too cold, I snap a panorama of pictures of the ice sheets with gulls on them.  I stitch that panorama together later in the warmth of my house and ID the gulls from the comfort of my desk. So on this day, I did the same thing with the strange bird.  I was too tired to concentrate anymore. 

Barn Swallow

We eventually returned back to Tucson and I filed my reports, recordings and photos.  When I got to the files of the unusual bird and blew the picture up, I realized that we had something very special, a rare migrating Bobolink.  We both became very excited and I sent a couple photos to friends to verify the bird.  It was indeed a female Bobolink, the first record for that area ever.  I wanted to get the word out to other birders and immediately filed the photos and documentation into the rare bird alert.

 The Bobolink was a state bird for both myself and Gordon.  While we didn't spot that Code 5 Little Bunting, we had a blast exploring a new part of the state.  

And for our hard work, we were rewarded with a different rare bird.  Even better?  We were able to contribute new data for that area!  The countdown begins. I have some very exciting projects coming up in the next few weekends.  Stay tuned for more......

The Tie That Binds

Barn Swallow

Like all good things, our journey to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park came to an end.  Our final days were sunny and rainy.  We stayed around Estes Park and near several other park trails to map out our wedding plans this October.  I am excited for our families to come together and experience this wonderful park.  

Garter Snake

One of my favorite spots to explore happened to be around Lake Estes. 

Several times we were caught in the rain and hung out under a ramada watching elk and other critters scramble for cover. 

Pine Siskin

There is nothing stranger than finding a pelican in the middle of a mountain lake.  And yet we found THREE of them!

American White Pelican

So during our last several days, we scouted out several spots for our vows to take place, sampled several of the restaurants around the area and took a look at our cabins.  

Pine Squirrel

October will bring crazier weather(possibly snow!).  I am also hoping that Fall will be either in full swing or winding down at that time.  The Elk will be bugling while the tourist crowd will be smaller. 

And while there were many tourists during our pre-wedding visit, we found many quiet areas to escape.  

A Robin warns us to read the sign

On our last night, we drove back to our campsite after a memorable week visit.  I cannot wait for this wedding family reunion to happen.  I learned a long time ago that weddings are not about the people getting married; they are about the people attending:)  It will be a "small" event with just our families.  With just immediate family, there are around 50 people!  Some of my family are planning on hunting while others sample the beer and shop around the area.  The plan is to get the ceremony over in 15 minutes with a picnic afterwards.  Then it's all about how they want to spend their vacation as a family.  

I hate weddings with a passion but I understand the importance of them.  So since I could not avoid the whole wedding event, I tried my best to make it as natural and simple as possible:)  Compromise is great.  "You want a wedding?  Great!  But it's going to be outdoors and like a camping trip:)"  And there were other discussions compromising on "this" and "that", but ultimately, I think we have a wedding that represents both of us. It's going to be a Lord of the Rings event.  We're going to wear Elvish robes and ride out on Elk:)  Enya will also be present singing her ethereal music. My nephews and nieces will dress up as Orcs. My siblings, since they are from Wisconsin(aka the Shire) will dress up as Hobbits.  Okay....maybe I'm going too far, but it helps cut down the stresses of planning for a wedding. 

Violet-green Swallow

During the upcoming weeks, Las Aventuras will be heading out to various locales searching for tropical and pelagic birds. The life bird quest continues! Until next time friends......

Swiftly Passing By

 I spent a whole week debating what I would do....chase birds or just relax and bird a favorite hotspot.  There are more birds I need to find but they are simply too far out of range to observe properly within the short amount of time given.  Everything now points to California but I only had the weekend for birding.  And I didn't want to be on the road driving for most of it. 

Sparrow love.....Vesper Sparrow

When I am conflicted with direction, I know what I must do.  Bird the Whitewater Draw.  I think it has to be one of my absolute places to visit.  The location feels like I'm back in the Great Lakes region again.  It's a pretty special place. 

Now if we took the mountains out of the shot above, this could be a wetlands somewhere in central Wisconsin. During the winter months, this place becomes a hotspot for many birders as thousands of Sandhill Cranes congregate these waters and surrounding farmer's fields. As one might imagine, lots of waterfowl also hang out here. 

It's a little too soon for all of these birds, but we did have one large flock of Cinnamon Teal hiding out in the reeds.  We did a little walk around the area and flushed over 60 of these ducks!

It's still warm and it's still wet in Southern Arizona.  Another storm passed through our area from the Pacific Northwest and it pushed down several more migrating Vaux's Swifts. 

Vaux's Swifts are pudgy swifts with short tails that breed between Southern Alaska and central California during the summer.  As they head back to Central and South America, several will pass through Arizona. Many times, this bird can be seen riding the winds in front of major storms around watering holes.  In my case, Hurricane Odile helped me locate one around the Sweetwater Wetlands. This year has been a very good year for many birders in Southern Arizona with all of our monsoon storm activity. 

There were lots of brown and gray birds from our adventures.  From top to bottom and left to right.  
Merlin, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Red-tailed Hawk
Loggerhead Shrike, Killdeer, Mississippi Kite
Common ground-dove, female Lazuli Bunting, Vaux's Swift

Perhaps the most significant part of this trek was observing migrating swallows as they gather in great numbers heading south.  The highlight of our day is captured below on this fence line. Swallows tend to be tricky birds to capture on camera.  And it's rare having 3 different swallows sit still long enough for a picture. As I've stated in previous posts, a lot of birders have a hard time id'ing swallows above them because they fly so fast.  On this trek, they surrounded us in great numbers.  We stood inside their cloud amazed by their acrobatics.  There were lots of bugs....including chiggers.

L to R- Bank Swallow, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow

The bug life increases with heat and moisture.  This Great Swallowtail below found our citrus trees at El Presidio, laid the eggs and is now in the final stages of butterfly life. A bit like Charlotte's web. 

Giant Swallowtail

There is a birding loop I make if we go to the Whitewater Draw.  We drive through Benson and Tombstone and count birds along the way.  Once we arrive at the Whitewater Draw near McNeal, we spend a good portion of our time birding.  At around lunch time, we head over to Bisbee for break and then head over to the San Pedro House near the San Pedro river for an afternoon of birding there. Then it's visiting our relatives in Sierra Vista and back home in Tucson. 

And Arizona sunsets are always amazing.  If you haven't birded Arizona, you're missing out.  Over the next several weeks, my journeys will take me to Globe, Colorado and a return back to California.  And the adventure continues.....

For more fascinating finds, check out Wild Bird Wednesday!