Info Burung Kicauan

It's late in the day, but I wanted to get this one up before too many days slip by and the magic wears off.  My kinda magic anyway.  I'll be honest:  I'm not much of a valentine-r.  We usually don't do much but wander around in public sarcastically calling one another 'Valentine' all day long (and sometimes for a few days in advance) much to the chagrin of anyone within ear shot.  It's actually mildly hilarious.  And of course there's always the chocolate, but let's face it - there's always the chocolate.

'Be here at 7.  You're going to pee your pants.  And don't bother asking - I'm not telling you.  Oh, and don't bother guessing because you've never had it before.'

I knew it would be food, but what could it be?  A chocolate covered chicken?  And on top of that something weird started to happen.  I started to get nervous.  Like it was a real date in the old days.  I mean we still go on dates, but they're usually pre-discussed types of dates so this was kind of fun. To get even palm sweatier, when I called to ask what I could bring he said nothing...that he had the menus printed up.  He printed menus.

Friends, by the time you read this, I will be far to the north, traveling with my old pal Geoff Heeter. We're on a several-day quest to add a bird to our life lists: the Bohemian waxwing. In case you don't know it, this is a species that's very similar to the smaller, more common cedar waxwing. But the Bohemian is a bird of the far North and it rarely ventures as far south as Ohio. Or across the international border into West Virginia.

This winter the Bohos seem to be popping up quite regularly in southern Canada and across the northern portions of the northern US. I've been following sightings on the listservs and it seems like our closest opportunity is going to be along Lake Michigan. That's about a 10-hour drive north of here—13 hours for Heets.


If you don't know Geoff Heeter, you should. He's one of the two dudes (Dave Pollard is the other) responsible for The New River Birding and Nature Festival held each spring near Fayetteville, WV. The New River festival is kept intentionally small to keep the quality of the experience high, and to permit the event to be held where it is—just minutes from great birding spots.

If you are not familiar with the NRBNF, here are a few words and images for your edification:

You get to go birding watching in places like this spot along the New River.

While you are in a beautiful spot such as the one shown above, you are likely to get a chance to see the hard-to-find Swainson's warbler.

And when you do, you may feel inclined to do the Life Bird Wiggle.

It's quite the charming and friendly, spiritually-enriching, fun-as-hizzle birding festival. The organizers and a great crew of field trip leaders go out of their way to make sure everyone is happy. You need to check it out.

Now back to my buddy Geoff Heeter.

He knows how to run whitewater rapids safely in a raft. He knows how to make a primitive camp in the boonies. He knows how, when, and where to harvest ramps (and how to cook them up). He knows how to keep a string of pack horses from bolting when there's a mountain lion around.



And he runs Opossum Creek Retreat near Fayetteville, WV—a delightful bunch of cabins he built by hand using local timber. Opossum Creek is the epicenter of the New River Birding Festival. Heets is a really amazing person and I'm proud to call him my friend.

However the occasional hole does appear in Geoff's very impressive suite of skills.
Last spring at the traditional final night cookout for the New River Birding Festival, Geoff and his right-hand man Keith Richardson were manning the brand new, huge and shiny gas grill. They hooked up the gas and fired that baby up, turning to prep the meat for its fiery demise.
That's when acrid gray smoke began appearing from beneath the grill's lid.

Upon opening up the grill, these masters of outdoor cookery discovered that they'd left the owner's manual inside the cooking unit. Had it not been reduced to ashes, I wondered (aloud) whether or not the instructions read something like:

Congratulations on the purchase of your new grill. Please follow these instructions before use:
STEP 1: Remove this owner's manual before lighting the grill.




When I realized that I need a little birding break, and I felt the urge to head north after Bohemian waxwings, I called Heets to see if he could join me. Happily, he could make it happen. And now, as you read this, we're somewhere in the northern reaches of Michigan, searching for Bohemians.

I'll be sure to let you know how the quest turns out.

Have you seen everyone's winter white challenge posts the past couple days?  Holy mother of pearl they've been off the hook!  Even though I've been hanging off the couch viewing through the veil of delirium it hasn't masked the awesomeness.  Nerd alert:  I love sharing ideas.

I would like to begin by throwing up a big middle finger to photobucket.  How in the h*ll can you have 30% space one day and the next be at 10% over capacity?  I am so sick and tired of these hosting joints trying to take advantage of me (and likely others) to make a quick buck.  I deleted a ton of back up pics and STILL it won't budge.  As if I don't know what the tactic is.  Good luck with that!

On another note I would like to formally announce that I am sicker than I have ever been in my adult life, with the exception of the walking pneumonia that damn near claimed my life last year.  Monday consisted of the following:  get up, cry, go back to sleep, get up, drag down hallway, watch lung cancer survivors on Bold & Beautiful, cry, watch commercial about Lucille Ball dying from undetected heart disease, cry, pass out, wake up, sneeze 18 times straight, eat a chocolate, cry...I think you get the idea.  Finally hauling it to the computer to see photobucket wreaking havoc unnecessarily sent me right to the kleenex box.

• Anna Jane - See Jane
• Valerie - Red Vines for Breakfast - holy shiz i just checked her out and she's got her mom's fur on.  DEAL!
• Rosa - True Crew Love, but she also posts here so check both if you don't see it on one.
• Elle - Elle Sees
• Jayme - Jammer at 10am - girl is a sports fanatic and went to the superbowl...here's hoping she made it back.  

The second we open the back door to start the morning feeding frenzy, the doughheads make a big show of flying away. But they only go far enough to be in a good position to swoop in first to the fresh handfuls of dough on the deck rail and in the hanging dough feeder.

Here are a few of the most avid doughheads.