Rapid City

I've started my "yard list" of birds in Rapid City, even though I've not moved up there yet. The best by far is a singing Western Meadowlark out the back in the fields beyond the yard. This is the first yard (I think) since I grew up in Wisconsin that meadowlarks were around the house. This is serious prairie, even though civilization (and a rumored Wal-mart) are encroaching on it.

Eat, sleep, unpack old boxes, shred and/or throw away junk, repack new boxes, do client work,sell Extreme Birder books, and sneak in a bit of birding. The latter, this morning at Village Creek Drying Beds, where highlights were a Willet (rarely there), a breeding plumage Eared Grebe, lots of swallows and Chimney Swifts, and the usual nesting season Great Blue Heron rookery.

Spring, Book-writing/publishing, News

I took a morning drive around south Tarrant Co. today. The Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, which ought to be the Texas state bird, have arrived. I've sold some of my Extreme Birder books even though I haven't yet given a talk or done a book-signing yet. I was delighted yesterday when I got an email asking if I could speak in November at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival! And in the newest news of all - I have just signed a contract with Texas A&M Press for another book, which will be about endangered birds in the U.S. It will be written especially for concerned citizens who are not fanatic birders, and will contain species information and stories and paintings and sketches and probably photographs of the birds chosen for the book. Life is exciting!!