My sister Terri sent me this fun shot of a red-shouldered hawk in Indiana. My mom said that they've been seeing quite a few there this winter. Love those guys--such a colorful hawk!
Holy cow. I rolled out of bed this morning and my inbox had exploded. It was mostly YouTube comment notifications. At least 70 in the inbox and more on the way, I told Sometimes Birding Bill, "I think I went viral again."
That was an understatement, usually Cinnamon videos or the video of the porcupet get picked up, but this time, my squirt bottle video was on BoingBoing, Digg, and MAKE. In the grand scheme of gossip blogs and tech blogs, not that exciting, but for a little birding blog--very exciting. My favorite comment so far is, "Hurray for Marge Gunderson's cute, dorky daughter/niece!" For those that don't remember, Marge Gunderson was the main character in the movie Fargo. I'll gladly take that!
There are some crazy bird reports going here in Minnesota during the subzero weather. I got a call yesterday from Ranger Dan, his wife saw eastern bluebirds warming themselves on a steaming manhole cover at Como Park in St. Paul. Another birder in northern Minnesota reported a shrike on their suet feeder (not out of the realm of possibility for such a carniverous bird, but not something you hear about too often). I have to go out today to id some nests along the Mississippi River within the National Park boundaries. I'm waiting until it gets above zero, but I might stop by Como and see if I can digiscope those bluebirds.
So, when not making videos of how cold it is this week, I've been preparing for some upcoming warm weather trips. Nothing like securing flights and hotels for places like Florida, Guatemala, and San Diego when it's below zero. I'm so excited about Space Coast next week! The weather peeps are saying that in Minnesota, we'll get a warm spell of 30 degrees, but it will be considerably warmer in Florida. I got really excited when I saw that Jeff Gordon's blog had a lovely shot of spoonbills in blue sky. I'm hopin' for some of that next week! Also, Florida Beach Basics put up a nice shout out over that their blog regarding my program next week--thanks, Marge.