Shirt Preview

Non Birding Bill is busy getting PayPal set up, but here is the preview for the birdchick shirts avialable at Hawk Ridge this weekend and hopefully online soon.

This is the the ladies three quarter sleeve "Pish Off" shirt. For non birders, here is a definition of pishing.

Here is the men's "Pish Off" t-shirt.

And my personal favorite, the women's three quarter sleeve "Hot All-Bird Action" shirt. I wore this into a fancy gift shop and the woman who was working the counter (and was over 55) raised an eyebrow and asked, "And just what is all-bird action supposed to be?" I acted innocent and said, "Why, I'm a bird watcher, what did you think it meant?" She turned three shades of red and said, "Nothing...I just...didn't know."

Hee hee hee.

I do have a couple of men's black t-shirts available in "Hot All-Bird Action" too.

My Artistic Process

For some odd reason certain readers of this blog seem to be gluttons for punishment and like my oddball drawings. So, I'm going to take a cue from the great Zickefoose and go through MY artistic process:

First, we start with a blank canvass, full of possibility! What will the muse guide me to do (oh, how I hope that muse is Kira).

There it is, the first hint of an idea, a message, a voice from the great beyond guiding this deep emotion onto the paper!

Now, it becomes clear. You may not be able to tell, but I can see that this is the outline of a rabbit.

This is the really, really tricky part. You have to get the mouth just right, you must make sure to have the "Y" upside down and not rightside up.

Once you have the mouth in place, you have to carefully get the eyes in. The eyes are the window to the soul and I must make sure to convey what this bunny is trying to say.

Now, at first glance it looks like this bunny is complete, but there is one small detail that will really make it come to life:

There, now it's complete! Wow, that was a harrowing 4 minutes. You know, I don't know why it takes Julie so long to get her paintings done. It only took me a few minutes for this masterpiece.

Seriously, I do have some "art" to do tonight. I have a bird house that I am supposed to paint. A charity for homeless people asked some local celebrities (can I say how weird it is to be considered a "local celebrity"--it's very weird, but cool because sometimes I get free drinks).

My original plan was to have commentors guide me through the process, but that got put the wayside with recent events (ie, I forgot). So, I'm going to paint it tonight (and I may add this bluebird I stuck in hole for fun). If anyone does have any last minutes suggestions, let me know. I have to have this ready to go by 1:30pm tomorrow.

Party At The Ridge!

This could be you this weekend!

Don't forget that this weekend is THE big hawk weekend at Hawk Ridge in Duluth. It's going to be a veritable who's who of birders and raptors and one heck of a party. I'm very excited, as one of my good buddies from Eagle Optics, Katie will be up there. A group from The Raptor Center will be there too. I will be there selling birdchick shirts (just the bird ones, the Disapproving Rabbits shirts aren't ready yet), my bird calendars and subscriptions to NatureScape News. Any blog readers heading up that day?

Hm, maybe I'll bring the shearwater head? And no, I will not bring Cinnamon to an event where thousands of buteos will be flying overhead.

Fred the Colonless Cat

Non Birding Bill and I are currently keeping an eye on Fred the Unlucky Black Cat who recently had his colon removed while his peeps are out of town. You'll be surprised to learn that he did not come home with a colostomy bag and is doing very well. Poor Fred, he must be on his 10th or 11th life. Infections, injuries, digestive problems--everything happens to pauvre, pauvre Fred. When he first came to his current home he had an injury to his hind quarters that the vet thought was the result of an animal attack--probably a coyote. Since Fred was a kitten at the time and much smaller and the puncture wounds form a square on the side of his haunch, I firmly believe that Fred survived the talons of a great horned owl.

I checked Mr. Neil's feeders yesterday and some may recall that Ed offered in the comments section a trial of Feeder Fresh because the feeders are often a big fungusy mess when I check on them. I must say, this product works really, really well! The feeders were not clogged like normal with the Feeder Fresh. The finch feeders that had thistle and sunflower chips were a little clumped around a couple of the ports but not nearly as bad as they can be after a good downpour of rain. So, Feeder Fresh gets my approval and if you are having fungusy feeder issues, pick some up at your local bird store.

The birds are oh so forgiving out here. We didn't feed all summer long because of a spring bear issue and when we put the feeders back up in August, normal feeding activity resumed in less than a week. Most birds in back yards are not so forgiving. Just goes to show that every yard is different when it comes to attracting birds.

Freaking Blogger

I have a camera. I have photos. I have blogger...

... which won't let me upload photos. DOH! Actually it uploaded the photos, but they won't show up in the entry. This is confusing my little budgie mind.

Another Day at Hawk Ridge

FIRST!

If I were the type of person who needed to call in sick to work, I would totally be taking sick days on Tuesday through Thursday this because it's been nothing but southeast winds at
Hawk Ridge in Duluth right now (the worst for hawk watching) and according to Weather Underground Tuesday afternoon they are supposed to switch to northwest winds (the BEST for hawk watching) and stay that way at least until at least Thursday. Hawk watching hasn't been too spectacular so far so I bet on Tuesday afternoon, all hell will break loose.

SECOND!

I spent this past Saturday helping Kim Risen and Ed Colosky with their day trip to Hawk Ridge. It was kind of a last minute decision for me to go otherwise I would have put the word out on the blog.

This was my favorite moment of Saturday. All of these kids were on the bust to go hawk watching. What could possibly have them so enthralled? A Hawk Ridge Naturalist was about to unveil a sharp-shinned hawk that was netted at the banding station:

There's a wealth of information that can be gained from banding birds, but when you open it to the public, this is where the real value comes in. Look at the faces of all of those kids, they are totally getting interested in birds. There is our future, ladies and gentlemen. The more kids we get excited about birds, bet better chance those kids will be interested in keeping those birds around in the future.

Many of the kids got to hold hawks or release them throughout the whole day. It takes me back to the first time I got to touch a sharp-shinned hawk (like the one pictured above in the very capable hands of Laura). That was a life changing experience and still is in the top five moments of my life. I remember thinking how incredibly lucky I was to touch a creature in the middle of a long migratory journey.

Here is young Trevor letting a recently banded sharp-shinned hawk go, continuing on its journey south.

We did have just about the worst possible weather for our bird trip to Hawk Ridge (the only thing that would have made it worse was pouring down rain) but we fortunate enough to get some great fall color and beautiful views from Hawk Ridge. I kept telling everyone that even though the weather was not promising, there was still a chance for great birds: cloudy days at Hawk Ridge are almost a guarantee for peregrine falcons. While I was taking a group on the Summit Overlook trail I heard a distant shout: "Peregrine Falcon!" We looked up and sure enough there was a peregrine right overhead!!

We did have a couple of programs for our tour group to watch and I have to say if you are at Hawk Ridge and a woman named Willow is about to give a presentation, pay attention. This chick is REALLY good at giving programs! She wowed our audience and did a great job of making sure everyone understood what she was talking about. What really separates her from the rest of the pack is her passion for the subject. I don't know how long Williow will be at Hawk Ridge, but it wouldn't surprise me if in years to come we see her on a list of great birders.

Another highlight of the day was seeing a Franklin's ground squirrel. Which we did see, almost as many as we did of hawks for the day.

They were able to bring a couple of birds out from the banding station so the day wasn't a total wash. I was glad about that, I really wanted the kids to get a chance to see the birds up close.

At the end of the day the group was tuckered out. Here is Sam, the youngest member of our group who behaved really well all day and slept almost all the way back to the Twin Cities.

Don't forget that this coming weekend is the official Hawk Weekend at Hawk Ridge and tons of people will be up. I'll be there selling calendars, official birdchick shirts and subscriptions to NatureScape News. If you're up there Saturday and Sunday stop over and say "hi!". If not, try to get up sometime mid week to watch those broad-winged hawks move through.

Squash Soup Recipe

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a squash soup recipe that I made. I had a couple of requests for the recipe, so here 'tiz. I waited to blog it because I wanted to see how much of the actual recipe I followed. My mother taught me to cook more on feeling and taste as opposed to exact measurements. The original recipe is from The Joy of Cranberries (this is an awesome series, I also have Joy of Rhubarb and have learned that you can get Joy of Cherries, Joy of Apples and Joy of Blueberries too).

So here is the basic ingredient list from the book:

Because cranberries aren't yet in season, I omitted the cranberry part and just made the soup itself. I also changed the quantities of some of the ingredients. I used one butternut squash that was not a pound and a half worth like the recipe calls for (I tried it a second time with the called for amount and didn't like the result). Here's a photo of Cinnamon for a size comparison on the squash:

"I resent the accusation that I have a face shaped like a butternut squash!"

Here are the main ingredients that I used. One medium sweet potato, the Cinnamon sized squash and instead of using 3 large carrots, I used 14 baby carrots. I peeled and cubed the squash and potato and halved the carrots. I put all of that in three cups of chicken broth, added a half teaspoon of ground sage, a pinch of ground ginger and a pinch of mace (if you don't have mace you can use nutmeg in its place).

You boil all of that until it gets tender. Once everything is tender I put it all in a blender (or you could use a food processor) until it's pureed:

This is the end result. It is a very filling fall flavored soup and goes well with a spinach salad (whenever you can get fresh spinach again) with a raspberry vinaigrette.

The recipe said that you can add a teaspoon of hot pepper sauce, which is an excellent addition. I'll be curious to try this with the cranberry bit that the recipe calls for, but I have to say the soup is quite nice on its own and I like to try squash recipes that don't call for copious amounts of sugar and butter (not that I have anything against sugar and butter but squash can be more than just a vehicle for those two ingredients).