Hey Guess Whose Blogging?

Yeppers everyone I am baaaaack in the saddle and ready to take over where I left off. I needed a vacation from blogging and for the life of me I don't understand where some people can constantly blog several times per week or day! So do NOT expect that this blog will constantly have some new blog posting every day or every week. I'll post when I am damn good and ready to post a blog entry!

Of course I will blog about all sorts of shit and I am sure I'll piss someone off but hey thats what blogs are all about. Pissing people off.

Well today I get an email from a MOU insider telling me I cannot advertise on the MOU listserv anymore. So I sat back and figured out that this person must of been referring to a post I made back in late Feb. about the 2007 Lake Superior Boating Trip and announcing the dates of the trips and referring people who are interested to click on my website link.

Birders find ways on their state birding listservs to bring birders to their websites where they sell books, calendars, bird trips, newspapers and all sorts of crap. Birders do this by creating signature links advertising their website under their names after each posting. Some birders like myself and others will being birders to their sites by saying "if you want to see my map for so-so place just click here" and there they are seeing your site and looking around at what you do or what you sell.

For some reason I am being signaled out and making it though I am the only one doing this sort of thing. At least I am honest by just telling people about my trips without resorting to being a damn sneak about it. I know one thing NOT A DAMN THING WILL COME OF THIS because its so petty and its all because someone wants control! I post 99.9% of the time bird sightings or bird updates about Sax Zim Bog. Every once in awhile I will post something about my Lake Superior Trips on the listserv and of course because I just kick the door down and announce my intentions those who resort to clever tricks in getting the public to thier websites are pissed off because I had the nerve to do something they are to afraid to do themselves. Believe me nothing will come of this -- trust me on this.

Since I am back blogging, I see our little rose-tinted glasses wearing Ivory-billed Skeptic is still keeping his blog alive with his nonstop 24/7 postings of IBWO crap. I mean really how many years are these idiots going to debate the existance of a large woodpecker? Remember those days in high school at a football game or basketball game when the home team chearleaders will shout "we got spirit yes we do, we got spirit how about you?" and then the visiting team will yell the same line back at the home crowd "We gotta spirit yes we do blah-blah-blah--" Well this is how I look at both of these camps. They try very hard to top each other by publishing this or saying that or blogging about this and that. I guess you got give these guys credit for keeping the energy up to yell at each other 24/7 over a freaking bird!

I love this photo on the left. I am getting better with this digiscoping and I have to thank Laura Erickson for lending me a Nikon scope with a 20x eyepiece that really made my photos much crisper.

Is it just me that have noticed this but there is no news coming from Hawk Ridge Bird Conservatory. WAIT hold on for a sec, who came up with that idiotic name? I have yet to meet anyone who says "Hey lets go birding at Hawk Ridge BIRD OBSERVATORY" Honestly everyone in Duluth calls the place "Hawk Ridge" and if you look at any newsprint articles in the Duluth News-Tribune, the place is always mentioned as "Hawk Ridge". Even during tape news segments on local TV its called "Hawk Ridge" Why or who decided to change the name? Anyway, there is no postings or nothing on thier website about the 2007 St. Louis County Birdathon and there appears to be no Spring Hawk Watch on West Skyline in Duluth this year. OHHH since I mentioned the spring hawk watch did anyone notice the posting on the MOU-Net by Dave Carman? Did you see that he was able to ID a swan that was sitting out in some open water behind the WLSSD Sewage Plant from the top of Enger Tower West Skyline Drive? Holy crap! Now I been at the viewing areas where Dave was and there is not a chance in hell you can view the base of the bill of this swan from where he was or see if the culmen was curved or straight because at this time of the year Trumpeter Swans are just as likely as Tundra Swans! UNBELIEVABLE! We all read Kim Eckert's article in this month MOU state journal "The LOON" and how tricky swan identification can be and its even tougher when you are almost a mile plus away from the bird! How many Golden Eagles he saw? I am sure I'll get some anonymous posting on this --wink wink

Hey in a few weeks I will be gone in Colorado leading some folks around for two weeks. Then in June I am off to Churchill leading another group. I am pumped for the Colorado Trip but not so pump about leaving my family behind for two weeks. My daughter is going to play spring basketball on a AAU league which is a top level league for basketball players. She is only a 6th grader and she is currently 5'9 and she played on two teams this past winter. She tried out for a 7th grade travel team and made it as a 6th grader and then played with her friends on a 6th grade rec league. She averaged 25 pts per game and 15 rebounds on her 6th grade rec league and averaged about 8pts per game and just as many rebounds on her 7th grade team. I work with her all the time and she loves basketball. My son played basketball and carried his team by being the leading scorer on his team. He played during a halftime show at a high school event and scored 6 pts and got several loud cheers for his shooting skills and lay ups he made. So being gone and missing out on my daughter's basketball will damper my time out there and also getting my son ready for little league baseball.

You gotta love Pine Siskins! Every winter you can pretty much expect to find these birds at any feeder. Speaking of feeders, I just got an email from my friends in Meadowlands and there will be up to 3 bird feeding stations erected where birders will be allowed to come in and view the birds without some old hag running down her drive way telling birders parked on a public road they are not allowed to look at her birds. Those days are done! We will have our place to look at these birds in peace. Also I am working with the folks up there in getting a winter bird festival off the ground! This festival will be huge and I am glad the women & men of this community are getting me involve in helping them with it. I guess my personality and charm blends with these folks in "GOD's Country" aka Sax Zim Bog.

Later all!