Moments in North Dakota

During quieter times during the trade show, I let Cinnamon run loose. She kept heading over to a wood carver's table. At first I thought she was just after wood chips that fell on the floor. But after observing her assume this position, I realized she was hoping they would carve a figurine of her. They just smiled and patted her head.

Can I just say how much I heart Eldon Greij? He gave a wonderful presentation at the banquet about birding moments. He shared slides he'd collected from photographers over the years and told about special moments with certain birds he had seen in his lifetime. He's so funny, every time the audience would go "Awwwww" at a cute photo that looked a tad anthropomorphic, he would say, "Stop that!" Yet, at the same time, some of his birding moments were so personal, he himself get a little emotional recounting the stories. He's a wonderful presenter at festivals, not too dry and boring, but not saccharine sweet either. Just the way I like 'em.

Cinnamon and I worked all day Saturday and had a great time at the binocular booth at the Potholes and Prairie Bird Festival. I love the friendliness of the town. Since I had decided to come to this festival at the last moment, I didn't really research what birds to expect in the area. I had heard people say they were seeing lark buntings, Baird's sparrows and Sprague's pipits--three I have never seen before. I mentioned in passing that I would like to see those species and all day Saturday between customers people came up to me to give me directions to find them. BT3 gave directions to a large pile of barbed wire that would guarantee lark buntings. Paulette of Arrowood NWR gave me a PLOTS map with marks on it. Stacey Adolph-Whipp told me of a spot where there would be so many Sprague's pipits singing, that it would be hard to hear the Baird's. A few other people gave directions.

I decided to go look for them before I drove home on Sunday. When I followed Paulette's directions and map, I discovered a huge pile of barbed wire--the pile BT3 must have been talking about--low and behold lark buntings. The area was so beautiful and isolated, I decided to chuck any further directions and just experience the prairie and meander here and there.

I found this dilapidated house right off of 14. I took a walk down the "minimum maintenance road" to take a few photos. Dickcissels, grasshopper sparrows and savannah sparrows surrounded me. As I had the house and landscape in my viewfinder, I noticed some movement.

A doe was walking right towards me. When she was within 20 feet of me, she could sense I was there. The wind blew my scent straight for her. She started raising and lowering her head. It reminds me of something Cinnamon does when she's uncertain. We call it her bunny pushups, as she crouches down and rises up, trying to size up the object. The deer knew I was there, but she couldn't see me because I wasn't moving. I wanted to stick it out and see how close she would get, but my nose had other plans. I sneezed and she took off. It was a beautiful moment until the snot interrupted.

I love taking time out in these isolated spots. We're fortunate to live in a country where you can find places and pretend to (or in some cases actually) be the only person for miles. I used to think birding in boreal areas was my favorite habitat, but more I spend time on prairies, the more it is my favorite. I was so overwhelmed by the songs.

As I meandered, I found a spot engulfed by the songs of Sprague's pipits--this must be the spot that Stacey told me about. You couldn't hear any other birds, not even the bobolink. Their song reminds me of a canyon wren song, the way it spirals downward. I was so overcome, you couldn't see them, but you could hear them all around you. I decided that I didn't care if I didn't see or hear a Baird's, this moment was more than enough for today. I got back in the car and reconfirmed some birdcalls. I decided to drive around and do some digiscoping with a car window mounted scope. As I drove, the arrangement came loose, and I had to pull over and tighten it up. I absently noticed I was hearing a Baird's sparrow singing. I though I left my laptop playing songs and I turned to shut it off. My laptop was closed. There was an actual Baird's singing near the car. As I stood outside I could hear three different birds singing. I found one teed up on some grass but he flew down before I could take his photo. Three new birds--sweet!

Swainson's hawks were all over the place. It totally seemed like a switch had been flipped when I crossed from Minnesota into North Dakota. As soon as I crossed the border, all the red-tails turned into Swainson's hawks.

Check it out, east meets west in North Dakota:

Here on these rocks we have an eastern kingbird on the left and a western kingbird on the right. I've never seen this before, I don't know if this was just a meeting of the minds or some potential hybridization or what. I wasn't pulled over in the safest spot, so I couldn't stick around to find out.

With the wind blowing, the western kingbirds were kiting quietly over the grass. I wish I could have photographed that, but they were too quick for my digiscope setup. I did enjoy watching them hang in the air silently.

Speaking of kiting, there was an actual kite festival going on in town during the bird festival. When I drove by, I could hear some of the house sparrows in the neighborhood giving warning calls. I wondered if it was over the kites? They're clever fellows, I'm sure they eventually figured out that the giant octopi weren't going to get them.

I did learn that several people at the ND fest will be at the ABA Convention next week. Eeep. I need to prep for that. I leave Saturday for Maine. Part of the time, I'll be working with the Stokes. Whoot! I'm so stoked about the Stokes.

Cowbirders

The entertainment at the Potholes and Prairies Festival has been unique to say the least. Last night we ate lots of buffalo and watched a gunslinging re-enactment. The crew was kind enough to perform their scene even in the pouring rain. I don't think the cowboys were prepared for how rowdy our group was. We whooped and hollered and just had a general blast. I don't think the bad guy had ever been called a lily-livered-fringe-vested-yella-bellied sapsucker before.

The actors mingled with a crowd for a bit and here we have the town floosy, Ruby flirting with the founding editor of Birder's World, Eldon Greij.

She made the rounds and hit up Bird Watcher's Digest editor Bill Thompson III. Hmmm, she seems to be going for editors of major bird publications. I'm not saying she's a gold digger, but she ain't messin' with no broke birders...I wonder what Miss Ruby would have done if Amy Hooper, the editor of Wild Bird Magazine was here?

Adventures on Prairies and in Potholes

For me, field trips come in two categories. The first type is characterized by fantastic weather that makes me feel great to be alive accompanied by fantastic birds, especially life birds. I come home with stories of the chestnut-collared longspur I finally saw for the first time. The second category is the field trip that is just an adventure. The weather is uncooperative and you come home with harrowing stories of survival. Field trips are so weather dependent. You cannot blame a festival if the weather doesn't cooperate; you just make the best of it and muddle through.

I went out with the Chase Lake group today. Here is a view from the bus window early on. I'm not out of focus, that's just me trying to take a photo through a drenched bus window. Part of our gang had not seen sharp-tailed grouse and decided to brave the wind and rain to see it flush (thankfully, I already had seen that grouse). This has been some of the worst weather for birding I have ever experienced! Not only is the weather bad for birding in general, it's bad for the particular types of birds that are specialties like prairie birds. You try listenin' for a Baird's sparrow in high winds and driving rain--you'd have an easier time trying to find a deer tick on fishnet pantyhose.

As we kicked up dust and more rain fell, our windows became impossible to observe birds. One of the guides sitting at the front of the bus said, "There goes a snowy on the right side of the bus." We said that we would take her word for it.

The weather did not stop the intrepid guides. Here we have Stacey and Bill rubbing down the window and squgeeing them off. Way to go guys! Boy this festival really makes their bird guides work.

Look! Now we can see one of those cattle egrets through the window! Thanks Bill and Stacey!

Our bus driver was jus a boy who couldn't say no. He went wherever the leaders advised him to go. Some these roads were so less traveled that Robert Frost would have been oh so proud. Above you can see the minimum maintenance road we were on. That's our driver being reflected in the mirror. Doesn't he look like he's having the time of his life?

We did have a harrowing moment when the bus slid off the gravel road and down towards a ditch. The driver had all of us pile to one side while he worked to get us back on the road. He succeeded! I love the uncertainty behind some of the smiles in that above photo.

It was not a great day for digiscoping, which is too bad because we got some great birds like a Nelson’s sharp-tailed sparrow. Above is a nest that we found while out looking for Baird's sparrows. See the nest? It's right there in front of you. Here's a closer look:

Here it is. Notice anything weird? Take a look at those eggs. Note how the top two are a little larger, spottier and browner. Those are cowbird eggs. We think the other three are savannah sparrow eggs. There was one singing very nearby that circled around us. I won't know for sure until I get home and check my egg book. The cowbird eggs did not remain in the nest after this photo was taken.

Here is BT3's entry for the trip too.

Here is Cinnamon working the booth. She disapproves of the weather and of me being out in it. Saturday we will be at the booth all day long. We might check out Chase Lake again on Sunday morning or Long Lake. The weather is promising to be better than today and we'd like to get a lark bunting before we drive back to the Twin Cities on Sunday.

A big upside to the weather is a general lack of mosquitoes and relatively few ticks.

Little Update On The Prairie

Boy, you can tell it's spring migration, blogging updates are few and far between. I had a great time at Detroit Lakes, but boy do I feel like I've been rode hard and hung up wet. I think I have a bird hangover.

I just plain exploded when I got to the Detroit Lakes Festival. The warblers hadn't shown up yet, and the weather and been cold and rainy. We were actually a little nervous on Thusday night that we would not be able to find to many warblers for the weekend trips when wouldn't you know it on Friday afternoon, the warbler floodgates opened and they were dripping off of the trees. They must have just flown in. It was funny because we started with a couple of redstarts and yellow-rumps and then someone found a Wilson's warbler. I said, if we had a Wilson's anything is possible, so one of the other trip leaders and I started calling out species we could use including blackburnian, blackpoll, magnolia, Cape May--wouldn't you know it, we got all of those--and two surprise parulas!

What I really like about Detroit Lakes, is that you can visit three different habitats: hardwood, boreal and prairie. I ended up co-leading the prairie trips, which is what I wanted. I have a soft spot for bobolinks and they were everywhere.

Here is one of the hundreds we saw. I really enjoy leading field trips but it's hard to digiscope. When you're a field trip leader the priority is to make sure everyone on the trip is seeing the birds around and to help find target species. The bobolinks really put on a show. At one point two males were fighting over territory and were flying within 7 - 8 eight feet of our heads. There were also several upland sandpipers around. You can' help but feel attractive with those birds around. Their call sounds like a wolf whistle.

Since there weren't a lot of tall perches for the birds of the prairie, they made do. Above is a Wilson's snipe balancing on a wire. We also saw a couple of upland sandpipers do this. Can I say how weird it is to see shorebirds perched on a wire?

We stopped at a great spot called Felton Prairie. I loved all the marbled godwits, they scolded us almost everywhere we went. The grass was almost as tall as the godwits. I got a chuckle out of them. As I would scan the grass you would see these little heads pop up with these enormous bills.

We were all standing in one spot watching for horned larks and godwits when we heard the rumbling and thumping. Some cows were running straight for us.

They stopped along the edges of the road and watched. If we moved ahead, they would follow. I think they thought we might feed them.

I offered to teach them how to use binoculars, but they didn't seem that interested.

Here is something unexpected at a Nyjer thistle feeder: clay-colored sparrows. I had no idea these guys would eat Nyjer. I love their buzzy little call.

When Cinnamon learned about all the ticks festival goers were gathering, she laid out a huge disapproval. She only made one brief appearance at the booth, she didn't want to risk the ticks. Can't say I blame her.

There was an odd incident with the manager of the hotel we were staying in. Pets were welcome, but he was greatly concerned about Cinnamon and warned me I would pay for "any soiling" she may do to the room. Cinnamon was most upset and disapproved of this. After all, it's a well known fact that I am somewhat of a slob. Ask anyone who has ever worked for me. Ask WildBird on the Fly, she's roomed with me, she would know. Take look of Cinnamon's space in the above photo.

Above is my bed in the room. I ask you, who is more likely to soil this room, my rabbit or myslef? After Cinnamon corrected the manager as to who was the mess maker, he gave her a pack of little mineral blocks--what a nice guy! Since I was messy, I didn't get anything.

After three days of getting up at 4am, working the binocular booth, giving workshops and performing, I was barely awake enough to drive, so Jeff the ever helpful Leica rep led me to some much needed coffee. We did get a kick out of the billboard in the above photo. Are there any male readers of this blog that would like to call that number?

I am so tired, I must sleep more. I apologize for typos, I'm too tired to go over this more carefully.

I’m Back At Chez Stiteler

If you are still having problems using the blogger photo upload button, I feel for ya'. Sometimes I can use it, and sometimes I have to use Cyber Duck. One thing I have noticed: if your issue is after you have selected your photo and hit the download button, it starts to load and then shows a blank box with a little "done" a the bottom. Try again, sometimes by doing it four or five times, it will finally show the right box. Also, if you keep numbers out of the name of your photo, that seems to make a difference too. That's how I got photos in this entry. It's a pain, but it's an option. Spell check is still not working. Whoa is me (har har).

I'm Home! No thanks to Cinna-bunny-butthead. Apparently, she disapproved of leaving the carpeted hotel room with a king sized bed to hop on and hide under. I got a late start anyway, and then on top of that it took me a half hour to corral Cinnamon and get her in the car. It was the first time the whole trip that she was really naughty. Rabbits are a lot like cats, they have their moods when they want to be cuddled and moods when they want to be left alone, moods when they want to explore and play and moods when they want to hide. This was Cinnamon's mood to not travel in the car. Once we were in the car, she wedged herself between her litter blox and the insulation on the floor of the passenger seat and pouted all the way home--the whole 600 miles. When I pulled up out in front of our home, I couldn't get her out of the car, she somehow managed to thump and splash hay all over me. She must have enjoyed the cranes more than I realized...or the ladies at Red Lobster who spoiled her rotton with veggies and parsley.

The drive home was GORGEOUS! The sky was a vivid blue, enhancing the snowy landscape. Roads were very clear so I could still notice all the raptors on the way home. During a mile stretch I saw an adult red-tail soaring, then a dark morph adult red-tail sitting on a fence post (it looked like a life sized chocolate hawk), then a perched red-tail so light, at first glance its head looked like a ferruginous hawk (unlikley for central Iowa) and a couple of kestrels.

During a four mile stretch in southern Minnesota we counted 9 red-tailed hawks, one harrier, one rough-legged hawk and five kestrels.

So, now I must tackle my massive to do list. Thanks for all the well wishes for a safe journey, they worked, we arrived home without incident.

Working the Booth in Nebraska

Today was fun. The drive from the hotel to Rowe Sanctuary to set up the Eagle Optics booth was beautiful. It was in the 40s and bright and sunny. The cranes were taking advantage of the thermals and soaring high in the sky and created what looked like crane tornadoes. Swarms of blackbirds were moving around the trees too, it's a regular bird rush hour. When you aren't in your car, sounds of spring are everywhere: cranes (of course), killdeer, bluebirds, western meadowlarks, blackbirds and geese, I feel so invigorated, especially since I got snow in Minneapolis and Madison this week.

The big excitement came today when an adult bald eagle took out one of the sandhill cranes right on the river in front of the viewing area at the sanctuary. The crane was probably injured to begin with, because a healthy sandhill is too much even for the most macho of eagles to take on. After the eagle finished off the crane, it started plucking the feathers. Something got its attention and it flew off. It wasn't gone ten minutes when a red-tailed hawk flew in and took advantage of the dead. It was pretty sweet.

Speaking of sweet, check out the shirts we are selling at Eagle Optics. The shrike was drawn by Julie Zickefoose. Even Cinnamon approves.

Ivory-bill Celebration Observations

Here is a photo of ivory-bill rediscovers Bobby Harrison and Tim Gallagher visiting the Eagle Optics booth. It was fun to finally see both guys at the same time. I told Bobby that I was beginning to think they were the same person since you never see both of them at the same festival. I need to give a big Thank You to the Brinkley Chamber of Commerce and to Bobby Harrison for directing people to my website and to Eagle Optics website. While working the Eagle Optics booth I would get one of three comments:

1. "Are you that birder chick? The Chamber told me to check out your website, it's nice to meet you." 2. "I need to get some new binoculars and that Bobby Harrison fellow said that I needed to get them through you." 3. "Oh, Eagle Optics, I've purchased my binoculars through you, I love them."

For a first time festival, Brinkley did a pretty good job. Sure there were a few rough edges, but that was mostly minor details that you learn as you do a festival. I was so amazed by the number of people who just dropped in from neighboring towns because they heard about it on the news or because they saw the sign off of the highway.

I was asked to give a talk on Birding 101 at the festival. I kept it informal and light humored and the response was favorable afterwards, I had never done one trying to describe what birding is all about.

I started my talk with a monologue from Play on Birds about one person's journey to birding. In the talk I make a reference to pishing. At the end of my talk, I opened it up for questions and a lady asked me, "Can you tell me what 'pissing' is?"

I haven't had a line served to me on a silver platter like that since my last visit to my mother.

I answered, "I can tell you what that means, but I think what you really want to know is what 'pishing' is, spelled P-I-S-H. If it's not, I'm certainly happy to oblige on the other word."

She quickly covered her mouth when she realized what she asked and all of us, including the lady who asked the question, got a good giggle out of it.

Pete Dunne had given a talk the day before on the art of pishing. For the non birders that check this blog, pishing is a noise birders make to get birds attention. Say the word 'pish' in a whisper while keep your teeth clenched together, that's a basic pish. You will find each birders has their own technique and for the most part is can be a useful tool to get a birds attention and getting it closer to you. Usually, in a performance I will include a demo of pishing (especially when doing it in a regular theater setting, however since this was a bird festival and Pete had just talked about pishing and the audience laughed loudly at the reference, I continued on. Mental note, from now on, always define pishing, even at bird festivals. Friday and Saturday were an action packed days, helping people with binoculars. I was so excited, June Osborne purchased a pair of Zeiss binoculars at the booth, it was an honor to help her. She told me the story of how she and her husband of 53 years met--in jail! They were both part of a church youth group in high school that would go sing to guys in the drunk tank. Her husband Harold said he was smitten right away. I hope I'm lucky enough to reach half that number with Non Birding Bill. That's June wearing her signature purple between Amy Hooper and me.

Speaking of Amy, she got a little weird on this trip. Bless her heart, she's from California and just not used to chilly temperatures. Granted, the air did get a bit crisp and I even broke out some earmuffs at one point, but she was really affected. Saturday afternoon I had to pack up the booth, which is the hardest part of the job for me. If I sell anything, it's not going to fit in the boxes the same way as it arrived, so I have to carefully repack to make sure everything is cushioned and secure for the trip back to the Eagle Optics headquarters. It's kind of like a game of Tetris. Well, I was tired and a bit of mess when I finished and the banquet was going to start soon. I decided to head back to the hotel room and try and clean up for the dinner. Amy came along and on the way we stopped for some super sugary gas station cappucino to reawaken me. When we got to the room, I checked messages on my cell phone. I heard Amy mumbling in the back ground, but didn't pay too close attention. Something about "feet and hot water". I got off the phone and went to the sink to wash my hands and found her standing in the tub, fully clothed with her feet sitting in hot water while drinking her gas station cappuccino. I looked at her quizzically and she replied, "I told you, happiness is cold feet in hot water." I'm always happy to be of service to my warm weather friends in cold temperatures.

We freshened up and headed to the banquet. As we eat we listened to all those involved with the first search from Tim and Bobby, to David Luneau who shot the famous video, to Gene Sparling the kayaker who got ivory-bills searchers attention when he spotted an odd woodpecker while on the Cache River. All of the guys involved in that early initial top secret search are deeply affected by what happened to them, but I had never really heard Gene talk about it in person before. All the speeches were great and all but Gene's involved Powerpoint, but Gene got up, and spoke from his heart. He still hasn't quite deciphered what all this means in his personal grand scheme of things. And as much as I enjoy listening to Tim and Bobby recount that fateful day and as interesting as David Lunneau is, I was touched deeply by the refreshing, soulful honesty of this naturalist who truly loves the Cache, ivory-bill or not.

The city of Brinkley itself is overwhelmed by this situation but they opened up their arms to welcome birders and charmed us with their hospitality. I love all the places I've been so far with my job, but Brinkley is becoming a favorite with the friendliness of the people who are not only curious about why someone would travel hundreds of miles to their town for the slimmest of chances to see a bird, but are also grateful for the business.

The number of participants certainly exceeded my expectations and those of the organizers. I heard on Friday that there had been 157 people at the Fish Fry and that didn't include people who just popped in for the activities during the day or who were to show up just for Saturday's activities. Our hotel was certainly packed Saturday night. I had a tough time finding parking when I came back after the banquet. I hope the festival continues to grow in the future.

Ivory-bill Haircut

I originally posted this entry Saturday morning. As soon as I hit "publish post" there was a commotion in the vendor area and low and behold an Ivory-bill Haircut Demonstration was in progress. I recovered the post so I could add in this rarely captured event! Pictured left is hard working volunteer Bart sitting in for Penny to work her hair magic. Bart was the best, not only did he help keep the festival moving, but he was kind enough to find a box for me to stand on during my presentation so I could see over the podium. Standing next to Penny in the orange ivory-bill shirt is Lisa Boyd who runs the Ivory-bill Nest-- your one stop shop for everything ivory-bill. My friends ask if I will ever get an Ivory-bill Haircut on one of my trips to Brinkley. Cute as it is, I just don't think it's a good day to day style for me. But we had seen some men that have chosen this bold fashion statement at the celebration. They style appears to require lots of gel and colors (even more color than I put in my hair).

People surrounded Bart and snapped photos in awe of his bravery (pictured, right). Bart mentioned that he got a discount on the cut, because he already had white hair, so Penny could skip adding that color in. As soon as Bart's cut was finished, Lisa loudly asked, "Okay, who wants the next one?" I've never seen a crowd disperse so quickly in whole life! I did find more men with the avian hair style. So, what does an Ivory-bill Haircut look like? Well, here is Bart receiving his finishing touches:

And here's another satisfied customer:

And it wasn't just for the mature birder. The young guys were sportin' this do as well:

And it's not just for people with hair! Even if you are "closely cropped" so to speak, you can still get this high fashion style. Here is tv reporter Todd Wilson of KTHV sporting an Ivory-bill Haircut:

It is interesting to note that NO WOMEN, not a single one was spotted at the celebration with the cut. I was told is was a unisex style, but the ladies weren't diggin' it.

Ivory-bill Fest Report

When I pulled into the parking lot this morning, that good bird smell was heavy in the air. You could totally smell the blackbirds that had roosted around there the night before, it reminded me of the bird housing at the Raptor Center. I got the booth put together without too much trauma and sold a pair of Rangers right away, thanks to the help of Ron Austing who brought a friend over to look at our products. I was very excited to meet Ron, he is another guy who has photos just about everywhere. When I was going through his prints available for sale, I recognized so many from various bird books. Then, I found one of my all time favorite photos of a red-tailed hawk. Isn't it sweet? I didn't realize that he was the guy who took the photo. But geeked out when I realized how talented he was.

In the booth next to me was a lovely couple who carve birds. Their carved birds worked as great targets for people to test out the close focus on the various binoculars. They told me that they just sold a life sized ivory-bill carving for $12,000. They do tremendous work, that is one their ivory-bill heads pictured at right--even Tim Gallagher was impressed.

This evening we heard a wonderful band playing at the celebration called the Greasy Greens. Their big claim to fame was playing at President Clinton's inaugural ball. They rocked the crowd here...well, as much as you can rock a crowd of birders. They debuted a new song about the ivory-billed woodpecker that combined the Woody Woodpecker Theme and Rockin' Robin. Amy and I invented a couple of a new dances to it: the bino and the scope. I wonder how soon that will be all the rage at birding festivals?

Boy, I tell ya' I am racking up the author lifers here, I'll have to update the list as soon as I get home. I met June Osborne who is as sweet as she can be. She was sitting behind us at Gene's Barbecue and we ran into her around the festival. I also met Pete Dunne again, and he bought lunch for all of us hard working optic reps at the festival--what a guy! He even stopped by the booth to talk to customers about binoculars and offered some great pointers. He's currently packing seven power binoculars--I like a guy who is comfortable with his magnification. I'm going to use this photo for the author page, but can't wait to post it. Here is Pete stealing a fry as I steal a photo of him.

The blackbirds poured into the trees again tonight, just as hypnotic as last night. This time there wasn't anyone around to try and scare them with fireworks, which was a relief. I overheard someone say with a tone of disdain, while watching the millions come in, "You know, this is what people think birders do. Like birders want to sit around and be entertained by this?" I couldn't help it, I piped up, "I'm a birder and I love this, I could watch it for hours. It's hypnotic." I don't know what it is, but giant flocks of birds just fascinate me.

In the next entry: What does and ivory-bill haircut look like anyway?

Back to Brinkley!

I love being at the airport and I love traveling. I had a conversation with a freelance writer friend who warned me to be careful what I wished for. He said it was hard being on the road in a cramped plane, sleeping in an unfriendly hotel and just trying to get things done. So far I have found the opposite to be true. I tend to get a lot of work done catching up on phone conversations (with my hands free headset at left) and doing some emailing while waiting at the gate. Once on the plane I get a surprising amount of writing accomplished whether it be blog related, catching up on emails, an article for Birding Business or something for Eagle Optics. No distractions. This trip I used the time on the plane to go over the packing list of product that will be waiting for me in Brinkley. I tried to make sure that I not only knew what was packed but try and memorize the weights, prices, etc.

Ever since I was a kid, I have loved airports, I love watching the people and I love the buzz of everyone off to destinations. You can see how excited some are to get to a vacation spot and other just off for work. I just like the energy. When I touched down in Little Rock, I got into my rental car and headed straight for the festival:

Welcome back to Brinkley! Okay, for the record, I am a safe driver, I do not snap photos while going down the highway, but about 15 miles from Brinkley one nasty traffic jam came into formation. When I got off the exit, there was a police officer directing traffic! Who knew? Could this be a sign that the festival is jammed packed full of participants? I was shocked. I was also a little concerned with the officer started using his cell phone while directing traffic. Call me crazy, but I want someone's full attention when they are directing vehicles of various sizes off of and onto highways.

Typically a traffic jam is not my first place to be, but there were so many snow geese moving that it was fun to watch swirling and descending onto the nearby fields as I sat in the highway parking lot. It was bird rush hour! As I got closer to Brinkley, I noticed hoards and hoards of red-winged blackbirds. I hadn't seen flocks like that since I was a kid in Indiana. I estimated one flock to be at least 2 million birds (that's a conservative estimate, not an exaggeration). I was super excited to notice that the flocks were heading towards the Brinkley exit like I was. Here is a photo of a flock (note traffic in the lanes heading away from Brinkley are moving quite fast):

When I arrived at the convention center, there was a young man with fireworks taking aim at the red-winged blackbird flocks attempting to roost in the trees (kind of like that scene early on Steel Magnolias when they boys are trying to get the birds out of the trees before Shelby's wedding--although in the movie they look to be rock pigeons with house sparrow calls dubbed over). The birds would land, and make the trees look like full foliage, the fireworks would zoom in the center, the flock would rise and then descend down into the trees again. I mentioned to the crowd watching that this a bird festival, the birds should be left alone. I was told, "This isn't a blackbird festival!" I was also told that we would want the birds gone because of the all the droppings the birds leave behind. I mentioned that birds tend to "evacuate" more when scared so all the fireworks were doing were just encouraging the birds to poop. At this point there was a loud bang, and the flock zoomed our way--we all hightailed it into the convention center.

Inside I found all the merchandise had been shipped, figured out where my booth was to be set up. The boxes were large so Steve Moore and Amy Hooper helped me move them. Boy, WildBird Magazine really is out to help! My boxes are in place, so I went to grab an Ivory-bill Cheese Burger and call it a night. Back at the hotel I fine tuned my presentation for Saturday: Birding 101. I love titles like that because it's open to interpretation, I can go several different directions...I just need to keep in mind that I only have 30 minutes.

Tonight, my booth looked like this:

Tomorrow, it will be a buffet of fine binoculars!