More Stuff on the Colorado Trip

This is a photo of Cameo, Colorado and the main hiking trail that leads into wild horse country. YES on one of the boards posted you have a chance to view wild horses in this area. We were not looking for wild horses but we did have success in finding a wild Chukar.

The day we found the Chukar I could not stop without taking some photos of these red flowers that were scattered all along the sage brush habitat. I do not have a clue what the name is for these plants but they were some what impressive.

This is the first photo I took of my lifer Chukar. I did not spot this bird but instead one of my clients spotted the bird resting under one of the bushes on the rocky hillside. The second week we did not spot any Chukars but we did see a Black-throated Sparrow instead.

I really enjoyed guiding these field trips to Colorado. I know my route inside and out and I am some what worried about the future new owner of the OBServTours. Yep Bob is selling the company and I hope who takes over they keep me leading these trips. Bob told me not to worry because he is sure who ever the new owners will be they will keep me leading these trips. If not and the company is still in limbo then I will organize and lead a trip out here on my own. I know the route, lodging, restaurants, all the stops, people who own ranches and all the little things to run this trip. I will also do the same thing for the Manitoba/Churchill Trip. I would rather work for someone instead but maybe there is a future in leading trips to Colorado for myself. The only thing I would do different is add another day and break up some of the long driving between point A and B.

One of the most interesting conversations that came up is how most people on my trip agreed that there are some people who are really rank amateurs in the birding world but come off as "bird experts" thru their personal blogs they write numerous times per day. I know some here in my state that have blogs and thru their blogs they are on TV, radio, newspaper articles, write articles for WildBird magazine and even write books about places in Minnesota! All because they PR themselves so much the people in the media think they are "bird experts" and the idiots at Minn. Audubon even hired some of these so-called "bird experts" to be lead authors about bird finding in places like the Minnesota River Valley or along the North Shore of Minnesota! All because they have cute blogs and a bouncy go lucky personality! Of course these blog writers had records turn down by the state record committees, posted photos of birds and made huge identification errors on them (bird experts?), never found or posted anything on the listserv that is worth while to know about and also these bloggers hardly spend anytime in the field in Minnesota because they are to busy blogging about how wonderful they are as birders. To me this is really wrong and the one thing that really pisses me off about the hobby of birdwatching. I spent my entire life knowing and understanding the birds of northern Minnesota and also spent a great deal of my life in the field viewing birds and listening to birds. My reward for all that time in the field is getting hired by several out of state birders to help them find their target species. YES I admit Iam damn good at what I do and I am good at guiding because of the hard work I put into it and NOT because of some fucking blog. I did not had to sit on Ken Kaufman's lap to get noticed or hug every fucking famous author who wrote a book about birds and then photographed myself in the act of doing so!

I am tired of seeing people get labled as bird experts when they are not NOT! I am tired of seeing people get hired to write books they are not qualified to write about. All this reminds me of a very wealthy woman in SE Minnesota who some how rode along on birding trips with two other wll known birders in Minnesota. One of the guys was the MOURC chairman & hotline editor of the time and the other guy was his best friend and they accepted this woman on thier bird haunts in Minnesota. Eventually the rich woman bought one of the guys a new spotting scope! Well as time went on this woman travelled all over Minnesote with them and her list grew and then one day the birder who was the chairman of records committee in Minnesota, let this woman vote on birds submitted to MOURC even though she was not on the committee! This drew some out rage amongst some birders because she was not qualified in doing so and also these birders did not want this woman slapping her view points on thier record they submitted! Eventually she slipped back to her backyard in SE Minnesota because birders were tired of how she basically used her money to influence her position and place in the birding community!

Well I guess the answer is for me and others is to create a blog, PR the fuck out of it, kiss a lot ass at birding festivals, sit on laps of well known bird book authors and try to get gigs on local TV shows and radio and BS about birds. Also the most important thing I learn its not what you know -- its how much ass you kiss! Unfortunately I refuse to kiss ass to anyone and rather get my awards by finding my own birds and show people birds they cannot find on their own!

Yep I am in sort of pissy mood today!

Later.

More Colorado

Well I am back from Colorado and my family is very excited to have me back home. I was gone for two weeks guiding field trips in Colorado. During both trips I was able to show all the particapants all thier targets species and others! Each group had wonderful time and many lifers!

I also want to thank my two wonderful assistants, Jerry Jenkins of Va. Beach and Arron Decker originally from Hibbing, MN but lives in Va. Beach, Virginia. Terry helped during week one and Arron during week two. They were a HUGE help in loading luggage, driving the van during the long stretches between point A and B. These guys helped point out birds to particapants, help people in out of the van and did a whole lot of various chores and tasks which help me concentrate on the route and keeping people happy. Thanks guys!

I got a few lifers for myself! I was able to get a Black Rosy Finch and a Chukar during week one and during week two I was able to get Blue Grouse (female), Pinyon Jay, Gray Flycatcher and a Brewer's Sparrow. The group during week one saw 115 species and week two we found roughly 125 species.

Highlights during the two weeks in Colorado:

• White-tailed Ptarmigan at Loveland Summit


• Greater Sage Grouse at the Hayden Lek on Co. Rd 80 Rd.


• Sharp-tailed Grouse along Twenty Mile Rd near Hayden and also along Co. Rd 80.


• Chukar at Cameo


• Gunnsion Sage Grouse at Wauneta Springs Lek (Sisk-a Dee Org.)


• Lesser Prairie Chickens at the Campo Lek. * Only 3 males and one female. Also only one of the males goes to the public blind lek but SE of this lek is another lek with two males and female. The population must of took a huge hit during the winter storm. Elkhart Kansas had more birds (15) from what I heard from other groups.


• Blue Grouse was seen walking across the Twenty Mile Rd near Hayden.


• All three Rosy Finches at Crested Butte during week one and nothing during week two! You need snow to see these birds during April! Allan Park at Fawnbrook only had a group of 60-100 Brown-capped Rosy Finches during both weeks.


• Pinyon Jays at the Forest Informative Office along Hwy. 13 just before I-70 in Rifle. Just beyond the office is a area full of pinyon trees, trash, a shooting range and ATV trails!


• Gray Flycatcher, Juniper Titmouse, Bush Tits, Bewick's Wren and a Rock Wren were all seen at the above location.


• Say's Phoebe, Rufous-crowned Sparrow and a Black Phoebe were all seen last week at Tunnel Drive in Canon City.


• Sissor-tailed Flycatcher, Lark Buntings, Grasshopper Sparrows, Brewer's Sparrow, Loggerhead Shrike, Western Kingbird, and a Cassin's Sparrow were all seen along the county roads (G.J and 36) a few miles east of Campo.


• A brief look of a fly by Inca Dove was during week one south of the public blind in Campo. I made a error last week by typing Common Ground Dove when I meant Inca Dove.


• Western Bluebird, Lesser Goldfinch and several "Audubon's" Yellow-rumped Warblers were all seen at the Canon City Riverwalk.


• Ferrug. Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, "Harlan's" Red-tailed Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Prairie Falcons, and Golden Eagles were all seen in several places. The Harlan's was seen along Hwy 6 west of Holyoke.


• Great-horned Owl, Short-eared Owls (Campo lek area) and Burrowing Owls were seen in several places.


• Black-throated Sparrow was at Cameo.


• McCowen's Longspur, Chestnut-collared Longspur and Mountain Plovers were all seen at Pawnee Grasslands.


• Dippers were seen several places in the mountains.


• Thayer's Gull (2nd winter) and a Clark's Grebe, Horned Grebe, Bonaparte's Gulls, Franklin's Gull were all seen at Cherry Creek State Park.


• Townsend's Solitaire was at Barr's Lake State Park during week one.


• California Gull was at Bonnie State Park.


• Clark's Nutracker was at Monarch Pass.


• Red Crossbills and a Gray Jay was at the west summit at Rabbit Ears.


• White-throated Swifts along I-70 near Cameo.

Mammals:

Pronghorns, Elk, Coyotes, Mule & White-tail Deer, Black and Gunnison Prairie Dogs, Abert's Squirrel, Red Squirrel, Colorado Chipmunk, Wyoming Ground Squirrel, Rock Squirrel, Desert Cottontail, Black & White Tail Jack Rabbits, and Thirteen-striped Ground Squirrels amd Big Horn Sheep!

Scare:

I tried to do a U turn on the dirt road that leads south of the public blind in Campo and hung up the rear tires of the van and we had to walk out 5.5 miles out to get a cell phone signal. ( Thank God for Verizon!) We only wasted 2 hours but the the two hour walk was fantastic and the group saw several lifers! No one complained and once we got a signal I called the Campo Cafe and knew there would be farmers sipping on coffee and sure enough I was right! A nice guy name Jerry Fowler came and hooked up a chain and took one pull with his 4X4 truck and got me out in 2 minutes!

Interesting people:

During week one I met a woman who had nearly 800 birds on her North American list! I met another woman during the 2nd week who has been to Attu 22 times! YES 22 times! Also at the Gunnison Blind in the dark walked 4 people from Minnesota! (Ron Elperding, Herb Dingman, Rick and Jean Specht) We laughed when we saw each other and shared info. They were on a tour called Orni-Folks. They were packed in a 15 passenger van! Meaning 10 people were in the van with each bench seat there were 3 people sharing that seat. YIKES! My van had three benches with two birders per bench. More room for personal stuff and lots of comfort to sleep and stretch = happy birders!

Round One of Colorado

Well the first half of the Colorado trip is over as of today! I shown all the targets to the five birders that came along on this trip.

Highlights:

Gray-crowned Rosy Finch
Black Rosy Finch = LIFER
Brown-capped Rosy Finch
White-tailed Ptarmigan
Gr. Sage Grouse
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Gunnison Sage Grouse
Lesser Prairie Chicken
Gr. Prairie Chicken
CHUKAR = LIFER
McCowen's Longspur
Mt. Plover

Other Birds:

Scrub Jay
Stellar's Jay
Clark's Nutracker
Townsend;s Solitaire
Mt. Chickadee
Pygmy Nutatch
Sage Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
Common Ground Dove
Rock Wren
Thayer's Gull
Lesser Goldfinch
Red Crossbill
Ferrug. Hawk
Golden Eagle
Prairie Falcon
Mt. Bluebird
Western Bluebird
Burrowing Owls!!
Clark's Grebe

Mammals:

Elk
Pronghorn Antelope
Mule Deer
White & Black tailed Jack Rabbits
Black Tailed Prairie Dog
Gunnison Prairie Dog
Abert's Squirrel (? name )

People:

I ran into Paul Lehman (WINGS Tour) who came over to chat with me while we were guided out to the Gunnison Sage Grouse blinds. Paul gave me some info. on some areas we were heading towards. Paul's co-leader Gary Rosenberg was hding in the van and was acting like Gary Rosenberg! (shy and not very talkable)

The weather was cold, rainy, snowy, sleeting, foggy and windy! Today its 70 degrees and sunny! I will meet the other group this Monday and be home this Sunday. I will show off some photos until then.

Later!

You gotta love April snow. Yesterday Robins were probing the lawns, raptors were migrating overhead, juncos and fox sparrows were feeding under the feeder and the Minnesota Twins were on TV! Today we got 8 inches of wet heavy snow! Thank God I am leaving this Friday and head to warmer climates.

Our Siberian Husky, Mr. Bear loves the snow! Bear loves to run and slide thru the snow, eats the snow, piss & shit on the snow, lies on top of the snow, fetch snowballs or just sit on the snow and let the snow fall on top of him. We bought a harness so he can pull the snow on sleds and he seems to like that but today the snow was to wet and sticky for that. Mainly Bear likes to keep a look out for rabbits. He has his eyes on two rabbits that are hanging around our shed.

Our pond was almost thawed out. This is my favorite area of our yard. This area butts up against some state land and the woods are connected to a larger piece of land that heads down to the St. Louis River. In this area I had Mourning Warblers nesting and Redstarts nesting in the past. Right next to the pond I built a fire pit where many of my good birding friends in the past have dranked a few beers here with me. This might of been the spot where Tom and I talked about the calendar idea.

When I took this photo a snow squall just swept over our neighborhood. Some of you or maybe just 1-2 two of you reading this blog may of noticed our house is no longer white but a shade of green. Well the green is called "sage shadow". Nothing is more boring than white houses! When we bought this house 10 years ago, I told Monica that one day we are going to paint this house so other color than white! Well last summer we hired some professional painters and they finished the job in 5 days! This summer's project is something Monica wants bad and that is a brick patio with a wood deck connected to it. The kids want me to build a platform for their monster size swimming pool we bought last summer but our yard is void of any spot that is level, so I have to build a deck paltform for this pool. Hell the pool comes with a circulation pump and is 3 feet deep and I have to treat the pool with chemicals. The kids are getting so damn big that the good ole days of watching play in the plastic mold pools are over with.

Later!

What the F**k is a Bird Expert?

What in the world is a bird expert? So many people these days are calling themselves bird experts and I have no idea what a bird expert is. I know I am not a bird expert! I work for OBServTours and lead trip in Colorado and Manitoba and for some reason I still do not think of myself as a bird expert.

Some birders I know create bird calendars, write books and travel to all kinds of birding festivals are these people bird experts? Or do you have to write a bird guide like David Sibley or Kenn Kaufman to be called a bird expert?

Some people I know love being called bird experts and flaunt it all the time in their blogs. Many of these people are actually just budding birders who have a wonderful gift of writing or speaking about birds but actually spend more time behind computers, microphones, TV cameras then spending time in the field and learning about the birds they write about or talk about. I talked to a few people in the birding community and they get bothered seeing someone who knows very little about bird identification but they continue to write bird books and articles about birds and they get labeled as bird experts. I rather look up to birders in our birding community who spends a great deal of their time in the field and write bird identification articles. These people are not searching for fame recognition, applause from the birding community and always looking for ways to be in the public eye.

What is a bird expert? All I can say is that there are so many popular blogs out there trying their best to sell themselves as birding experts. For example, Tom Nelson "Ivory-billed Skeptic" of Minnesota is probably looked upon by a good number of people in the birding community as a Ivory-billed Woodpecker expert. Is he? Is the other guy (Cyberthrush)"Ivory-billed Lives" looked upon as a Ivory-billed Woodpecker expert. The answer is NO these guys are just sharing reports or giving opinions on IBWO searches, articles and other media reports on Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. There are also people on Bird Forum who discuss 24/7 all they know about Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and some of them probably think they are Ivory-billed Woodpecker experts. Then today on Sharon Stiteler's "BirdChick Blog" there is short media clip of herself getting interviewed on a Mpls. TV station. On the bottom of the screen a few times you can see that she refers to herself as a bird expert but if you scoll down on her blog when she was in Nebraska Sharon was asking her readers to share other field ID marks on a Greater Yellowlegs that she is not aware of. Bird Expert? What is a bird expert?

Then there are people who sit on our Minnesota Records Committee who might think of themselves as bird experts. The truth is there are some people sitting on the committee that have no business being on the committee but isn't all state record committees like that? There are always one or two people you scratch your head and ask "how in the hell did they get on?" There are some people on the committee that are very strong and know their birds and then are some who are just plain weak! I heard that some of the weaker links on this committee usually if not always look to see how the stronger committee members voted before casting their vote. Bird experts?

So far all I learn in all my years of birding is that anyone can be a bird expert as long as that person publishes something to sell to the birding community. ( books & calendars ) As soon as their books or calendars make it to the shelves then they can refer to themselves as bird experts. If that is the case then I will never be a bird expert because I cannot write and I can hardly keep this blog going. Tom Auer and I had this great idea of creating a bird calendar that depicts beautiful birding woman posing next to spotting scopes or posing in different seasons and landscapes. We would market these calendars to single bachelor birder types who are attracted to beautiful woman birders. Nothing skanky or slutty but something that would be good enough where these guys can hang these calendars in their cubicles/offices at work or home. Then after that we could branch out to videos like "Birding Girls Gone Wild". Seriously I have no desire to be a bird expert because all I want to do with this hobby is find casual or accidental birds in my local area here in Duluth, guide people from all over and show them birds, and lead my Lake Superior Birding Trips. I have no desire to write a book or a create calendar even though I know my calendar idea would be HUGE with all them single male birders.

Well that's about it.

Later