Piedmont, South Dakota

I participated in the Piedmont, SD (nw of Rapid City) Christmas Bird Count today. A beautiful day, but some of the roads were still ice-covered from the big ice-storm last Thursday, when the count was originally scheduled. Temperature in the 40s, blue sky. Highlights for me were Townsend's Solitaire, Black-billed Magpies and Sharp-tailed Grouse, but nearly the rarest bird on the count for this area was the Northern Cardinal that our group got to see!

Tufted Flycatcher - Big Bend Nat. Park, TX

I'm too tired to give details now (1100 miles in less than 2 days), but I DID see the Tufted Flycatcher this morning!! More later I hope.

South Dakota critters

Dave and I have gone west and east of Rapid City to see the scenery and, of course, watch birds. Highlights of yesterday's trip to Pierre, SD were Black-legged Kittiwakes, Bald and Golden Eagles, lots of pheasants and Sharp-tailed Grouse, and the lovely views all around, many of the covered with snow. Back here in the apartment the highlight at the bird feeder area was a very tame buck a few minutes ago (in addition to the numerous juncos).

Quicky birding in Fort Worth

Zipped over to Memorial Oaks area early this morning, and was amazed to find that I was the only one parked in the parking lot, even by the time I left. Yellow-rumped Warblers ruled, followed by Carolina Chickadees and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Nothing rare, but it was such a beautiful morning, sunny, in the 50s (it got up to about 67 today). A couple of Wood Ducks were making some ungodly sounds that for a moment I thought were made by owls. I'm not sure what they were up to and I only figured out what they were when they flew off as I approached the stream.

Texas birding

Yesterday morning was a beautiful morning in our yard, but most exciting was the presence of at least three Golden-crowned Kinglets, high in the pecan tree. I don't think I'd ever seen any in my yard. Have you ever tried to photograph kinglets? They never stop moving. I snapped away, mostly getting pictures of browning pecan leaves. I didn't think I'd caught a single one, except for a nondescript belly shot, but I was surprised to see later that I'd actually gotten one in flight.

But I couldn't stay around. I'd planned a short trip to just north of Houston (about 4 hours away) to try to get photos of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers to use to paint from. I took our dog Shar along for company and arrived at W.G. Jones State Forest at about 3:30. I heard and saw numerous Brown-headed Nuthatches and Pine Warblers, and saw a couple of Downy Woodpeckers, a gorgeous Pileated Woodpecker, and a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker before 4:45, when all of a sudden the Red-cockaded Woodpeckers arrived, squeaking busily and then quickly diving into holes in the pine trees. You had to be quick to get a picture, but I got a few somewhat fuzzy ones. I thought all the pictures were of single birds, but imagine my surprise when a couple of the pictures showed two of the sneaky birds. Although better pictures would have been nice, I decided not to stay around overnight - my home sounded much better than finding a motel, and so I returned home last night. Back to work now, after a quick trip into the car dealer to replace a tail-light that a kind policeman last night pointed out to me was dead.

Report from South Dakota and Texas

Dave has sent me pictures of deer browsing at the weather service (one of quite a few apparently is shown in the picture). Turkeys cross his lawn periodicially (no picture yet), and Dark-eyed Juncos have started eating at the seed that I forced him to put out on the ground. These I believe are the pink-sided ones; I had seen white-winged ones when I was there. Meanwhile, I went out southwest of Fort Worth this morning and got my first Pine Siskins and Golden-crowned Kinglets of the fall (no pictures of them).

It's looking more like winter every day

I finally let myself go birding today, out to Lake Benbrook in southwestern Tarrant Co. (TX)and found 54 species in just under 3 hours. Sparrows were plentiful (Harris's, White-crowned, Song, Vesper, Savannah, Lincoln's, Fox), as were Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and American Pipits. Just one Brown Creeper was heard and then finally seen. Waterbirds were more limited - American Coots, Mallards, Gadwalls, Green-winged Teal. The only gulls that I saw were Ring-billed, and there were also Forster's Terns out on the water. Probably the best bird was a Bald Eagle diving at coots near the shore. I tried to get a picture when it was close, but only succeeded in getting it focused just before the eagle disappeared around a bend.

Driving, driving

Today reminded me a lot of my 2008 big year of birding. Driving, driving toward a goal, paying attention to the birds somewhat as I fly by, but mostly intent on the distant goal. This trip the goal is home, and I'll be there tomorrow. Today I drove about 730 miles across South Dakota, Nebraska and most of Kansas. Tomorrow out of Kansas, to Oklahoma and then Texas. I did not take this route in 2008, but I did quite a few days with similar single-mindedness. It was good to have our dog Shar along for company today. She's an amazing traveler, able to doze curled up on the passenger seat for mile after mile, only periodically rousing herself to look around, paw at me, and then circle around and curl up again. Of course she's always most eager to get out as soon as I slow down a bit from highway speed.

South Dakota birding

Finally I have Internet access here in Dave's new apartment in Rapid City. We've been buying stuff to get his apartment to feel a bit more like home, and we've been out birding to Canyon Lake Park here in the city, which now has many many Canada Geese, about 7 species of ducks, nuthatches, and chickadees. The birding highlight of this trip, however, is, hands-down, the Sharp-tailed Grouse that feed both morning and night on the football field about 1/2 a block from his apartment. I only found out about it after I followed a big fat grouse-shaped bird that I could see (from his living room windos) flying over a field down the hill from his apartment. Wonderful and unexpected in town!

South Dakota birding coming up

I'll be heading up there for a few days (11/3-5) to move my husband to his new job in Rapid City. We'll have a commuting marriage for an unknown amount of time after that. In SD on my visits this winter I'm hoping to see more Snowy Owls and Snow Buntings than ever come to Texas, and maybe a few birds that never or very rarely do (e.g. Gray Partridge). But most of the time I'll be in Texas, working for my patent clients, doing a few local birding trips I hope, and fulfilling most of the various volunteer commitments that I promised to do.

Unexpected prospect of South Dakota birding

Just a few short weeks ago, birding in South Dakota did not seem to be on the horizon. But now, after applying all over the country, my husband has taken a job in Rapid City, SD, to begin in less than 2 weeks! I'm over the shock. But figuring out how to be a 2-state commuter marriage will take more time. I'll be staying here in Fort Worth, but visiting up there as often as I can manage between client and volunteer projects/meetings. I've been following the South Dakota listserv, and note that Gray Partridges (which I almost missed in my ABA big year), and a Gyrfalcon (only rarely seen by me), and wintering ducks have all been seen recently near Rapid City. I am looking forward to seeing northern birds up there when I visit this winter.

More Extreme book progress

A big milestone today - I finished indexing the WHOLE book, and I proofed the WHOLE book, and I sent it all off to the publisher. It's really nice to feel a bit at loose ends for awhile. I had just one week to do it all. Now it will be looked over/re-proofed at the publisher, and then off to the printers! The publicity people are supposed to be hard at work at this point. Next time (?!?) I'll be more familiar with the process.

Extreme Birder excitement

My book jacket has been designed by Texas A&M University Press, and I think it looks great. I know it's in bad taste to brag, but still... You'll note that it includes the Spotted Owls that are at the top of my blog, which not only is a species that is way at the top of my favorites list, but also was one of the species that I worked the hardest for (at least 6 mountain climbs) in my big year. Seeing a picture of a Spotted Owl brings back very many memories, mostly good ones.

Update - Extreme Birder

Yippee!! I received an email today telling me the proof of my book is "in the mail" and attached to the email was a PDF of the proof! I can actually see how my book will look - it may actually be real. My photos are scattered throughout the book, my poems about my big year are in nice little sidebars, and my owl painting (see above) will be on the cover! Of course, I do have quite a bit of work to do to do the indexing of the book, and reading the proof VERY carefully, word by word, one more time. It will happen!