The Listserv Blues

Well I did it again and I wasn't even trying! I rattled the hornet nest again and got some birders all shook up over a post I made in regards to Al Schurmacher's posting on his 4 day tour of Minnesota.

Some birders probably will say "sharing bird sightings is wonderful" or "we need more birders like Al to share their daily sightings" Blah Blah freaking blah!

Let's get to the heart of the matter should we? First of all sharing is great but also sharing can be a freaking waste of time if you share sloppy information! Sloppy information? YES (oops I am yelling/shouting) YESSSSS some bird information can be worthless if you do not put the right subject line on your email. For example; suppose you are a average birder and likes to see new birds but overall you are not a serious lister or a chaser by any means. You read an email about a 4 day trip some birder took in your state. You begin to read about all the common birds that birder saw and in the mix of all this clutter you see that this birder spotted several wonderful birds you would of liked to see and more importantly they were found minutes from your house! But there is a problem you noticed in this email, there are no dates, locations, directions and now you were left wondering when did he see these birds, where did he actually see these birds and ect.

You see sharing is great but again it can be frustrating stuff to read. For example: how many times you read these types of emails " I want to report this "X" (insert any accidental bird here) but I cannot give the location because the home owner doesn't want birders to come over to see it for privacy reasons" Very frustrating email to read!

OR

One of these type of posting on the listserv: " Hey I have a Boreal Owl nest in my nestbox! I put up several nest boxes up this past winter in Cook Co. and if you want to see it, well you can email me and I will charge you X amount of money to see this owl " Very frustrating email!

OR

This type email: "I took a bird hike today and saw a Robin, Chipping Sparrow, Goldfinch, House Sparrows, Cardinals, Starlings, Mallards, Canada Geese and blah blah blah and OH I forgot, I saw a Sissor-tailed Flycatcher in Big Stone Co. Cheers!" What in the fuck is that? You telling me all the other birds were worth mentioning first and the Sissor-tailed Flycatcher was a second thought? Where in Big Stone Co.? When? Is the bird still there? Was it associated with any other birds? What FREAKING day did you see it? You asked all these questions because the subject line to the email was "What a wonderful day for bird watchintg" NOT "ALERT: Sissor-tailed Flycatcher in Big Stone Co."

What are these people sharing? I mean I would love to bump into one of these meatballs in Minnesota and say "hey I was walking around in your neighborhood and saw several species of birds and when I came to your house I was admiring your gardens. You have a really nice yard. Oh before I go, I saw a Violet-crowned Hummngbird at your hummingbird feeder. Oh it was so beautiful and it hung around long enough for me to take some photos of it. I noticed you were home at the time but I didn't know if the hummingbird was rare here in Minnesota, so I decided not to bother you." Oh sweet justice would that be.

Come on people and stop using the "stupid me" card or the "ooops I did not know" card! If you live here in Minnesota for 4-5 years and are actively submitting your sightings on the MOU listserv, you cannot say "Gees I did not know they were rare in your area" That is weak shit! Hell I never lived in Wisconsin but IF I did, I have a damn good idea what is rare and what is not rare! I would know what is out of range and what is not for most, if not all the birds in the state. So the lesson is: If birding is your main hobby, its something that is part of you and if you move to a new state wouldn't you get books about the birds in your new state? Would you look at the range maps in the National Geographic or in Sibley's to see what birds to expect to see at each season in your new location? Is it really that difficult to do a little homework on the side. Hell get a extra Nat'l Geographic Field Guide and put it in the washroom in the magazine basket next to the toilet. So everytime you sit and do your thing, pull out the book, read it, soak it in and learn what birds exist in your state. It's not that hard.

I guess that in itself seperates the experience/elite types from the "Gees I did not know" types!
It's about dedication, a urge to know more, time put in the field and ect.. I know -- I know " I am no longer going to post my sightings on the MOU listserv because of jerks like you!" I can easily excuse the novice birders on the listserv because I scan through their postings but there is NO excuse to those birders that have been around long enough to know that EARED GREBES are not common birds to NE Minnesota! HELL they are not even common in FREAKING Wisconsin nor are WESTERN GREBES! Unbelievable! Also Ferruginous Hawks are casual birds in western Minnesota and if that birder would of looked in any field guide you would of noticed that range maps do not even shade into Minnesota borders!

Well I will have to wait and see how MOURC votes on these bird sightings. Here is my predictions on all these sightings "No" "No" and "No" because I doubt anyone kept notes or took notes on these sightings.

Oh before I go and end this rant, I have one question to ask all of you 170 birders that visit my blog each weak, Are female Brown-headed Cowbirds really that hard to identify in the field?

Take care and LATER!

Sax Zim Winter Birding Festival

On May 9th I headed up to Meadowlands to meet with the developement board and owners of local businesses (Wilbert's Cafe, Rocket Saloon, Country Market). Also in attendance were two woman who represented Floodwood and a area artist. I gave same presentation to the group and after the presentation we chatted about ideas to get this festival off the ground.

Finally towards the end of the meeting we set the date for the festival for February 16-18th 2008! I will help in creating field trips, getting leaders and finding speakers for Friday night and Saturday night. I will also aid them in other areas as well - if needed. I already contacted Bill George, president of the MOU and presented the same situation about how the MOU helps with the Salt Lake Weekend and see if the MOU will get on board to help the folks in Meadowlands.

You see the folks at Meadowlands have very little cash to get this going. The people on the board are not birders but a elderly group with a lot of pride and love for the area they grew up in. They recognize the fact that there is a drug problem in the area and they are using what little money they have to get police in the area to patrol the area to make their community safe. They want to add some lightpole banners with birds on them to show off their wildlife they have in the area. They want to help the young children in the area by creating fun activities to keep them busy. These people will greatly benefit from the profit they hope to make from this winter bird festival.

Here comes my rant !!

I met with this group twice now and I got to know them and they got to know me. One of the ladies even baked me chocolate cookies and put them in a nice tin bin to take home! I know them by first names now and got them interested in birds by fielding questions they have about birds. OK here it comes --- Pam Perry was head of a group called "Friends of Sax Zim Bog" she had other goverment people ( DNR, Forest Service) on board, she had a few local birders on board and some birders from the Twin Cities. They met with the Meadowland's Developement board and local business owners on how to make there area bird friendly, what to stock in your stores that will attract birders and ect.. Pam Perry had Sharon Stiteler (birdchick) give a presentation to the business owners that they should think about selling this, doing this and that blah blah blah -- After all these presentations they left town and NEVER went back to help these elderly ladies and give them direction! Remember they are not birders and this is all new to them!! This Sax Zim Group was suppose to launch a checklist for the area, they wanted to create wide out areas on certain roads to pull off on, they wanted portable restrooms in the bog and ect.. They NEVER tried to get grants for these projects except the checklist was done by Kim Eckert with help from me and other birders. The DNR had Mark Stensaas (who hired me to help) to create a brochure for the Sax Zim Bog area. All these projects are dead! The group folded for whatever reasons and left the people in the community hanging!

It still pisses me off that you get a group of elderly ladies all excited on how they can bring extra money to thier community and then leave them without any directions on how to achieve that goal! When I made my first presentation to them before I left for Colorado they asked me if I was going to stick to my guns and help them with these ideas and I said "YES" because one of the ladies said they were left with a bunch of ideas and NO HELP from the other group they met with!

So here is the update on what is going on in Sax Zim Bog:

-There will be now 4 bird feeding stations for visiting birders to visit. there will be drop boxes at these stations where birders can donate money to help these residents pay for the feed. I will be posting directions to these bird feeding stations this fall.

-a bird feeding station between Floodwood and Cromwell and also the woman in Floodwood prints the local newspaper and she is doing her part to bring bird watching as a way to get more business in that area. She was amazed on how many birders visited Hedbom Logging Rd last winter!

-There will be some deer ribs hung on McDavitt Rd, Owl Ave, Arkola Rd and Admiral Rd in the winter.

-Meadowlands sewage ponds has offered to build a viewing platform for birders and also the manager of the ponds will open the ponds during the birdathon if contacted. So birders do not have to walk along the barb wire.

-There are two places "Lady Slipper" and the Pruhommes who have rentals for visiting birders to lodge at.

- Winter Bird festival

* Also I have talked about the logging issue and they agree there is to much logging going on and hopefully more talks will follow on this subject. Remember these woman have sons, son-in-laws and family who are connected to logging.

So all in all I NEVER tossed a bunch of ideas at them and left it to them to figure it out. I came back to help them out and give them direction and by doing that more people get more interested in birds and more ideas are created during these talks. YES I am proud of myself and I am doing all this for FREE and giving back to a area that has done so much for me. Done for me? Hell yes! I made about $9,000 guiding birders in Sax Zim Bog during the owl irruption. I brought in a bunch of birders to the country market in meadowlands and heard about the problems they are facing. When I got an email this spring about how the business in meadowlands missed us birders, I had to meet with them and help them out. Meeting the community leaders was the best damn thing I ever did. I met some amazing woman and I ate some best damn chocolate cookies ever made!

Later

Western Strays and Doggie Stuff

Morgan Park mud flats are quite extensive this year with very low water levels along the St. Louis River. Last year the mud flats were only about 5 -10 yards our from shore and this spring the mud flats extend at least 50-60 yards out from shore.

Today I saw a Marbled Godwit and a Wilson Phalarope foraging for food near the water edge. These mud flats should continue to be worth checking each day during May for western strays and for Whimbrels. Its been several springs since Duluth had a decent report of Whimbrels in the area and also Red Knots.

Yellow-headed Blackbirds are pretty kool birds and I love thier calls. In fact before I seen the bird I was hearing it and for some stupid reason I thought it was a Caspian Tern calling until my brain kicked in and I looked up and right above me was the blackbird!

I hope to get better photos this June in Manitoba this year and this was the best I could do in the lousy light.

I am guiding some folk out tomorrow. They travelled all the way from Spain! They own a very nice hotel in the pyrenees (spelling?) mountains. I have some photos of it and it looks like a place where the rich and famous would go to. The hotel is almost built into the mountains and all the rooms have large views of the valleys below and of course the mountain views. I am picking them up at the Cotton Mansion Bed & Breakfast. I plan on wearing my old baggy jeans with holes in the knees and my raggy shirt so they can feel sorry for me and tip me big time! LOL kidding!!!!! I will wear the typical running pants, sweatshirt and of course my sandals! They are going to sit and ride in my environmental friendly GMC Yukon XL 4X4 which is the same size as a full size Chevy Suburban! I am also proud to admit that my Yukon is on the top ten list for the most expensive SUV to drive because of the price of gas it takes to fill the tank! It cost anywhere $45-55 to fill the tank full. Its my global warming machine

Talking about global warming, Monica and I met our neighbor's cousin who is going to install air conditioning in our house. So by June 1 we will have central air conditioning but since we piss people off with our huge gas sucking & C02 emitting SUV, we are also going to get a energy efficient furnace. Since we already use natural gas to heat our house and force air system in our house 1/2 the work is already done to install the air conditioning unit. Since the weather forecasters have predicted that this summer will be a hot one, the Hendrickson family will be cranking the air conditioning on this summer!

My neighbor is single woman who raised two daughters. The daughters are gone now and she works full time as a eye doctor assistant. She is gone 9-10 hours during the day and leaves her black lab in her kennel outside all day. The kennel is located in the back of house in constant shade and sits on a cement floor. Her last dog died of kidney disease and I knew it was because the dog basically lived in the kennel and held its piss and shit till her owner let out each night. Eventually the kidneys failed. So she got a Black Lab to replace her last dog.

I always come home each day fro mwork around 1-2pm, so I offer to take the dog out of his kennel and let her dog, "King" play with my dog "Bear". She was really happy that I was willing to do this and Bear is realy happy to play with King. These dogs get along really well and all they do is chase each other around, wrestle with each other and smell each other's asses. The photo above is Bear trying to push King out of his kiddy pool. The odd thing about young King is that last fall he got his testicals removed and for some reason he is horny and wants to get it on with Bear! Bear keeps telling King that his ass is off limits but King keeps trying. Bear nips King's ears and when that doesn't work Bear kicks him or falls to his side. King is only 1 1/2 years old and after several days of play King is getting the message that Bear is not interested in sex. All Bear wants to do is play chase and wrestle.

The other day King got so aroused that his penis was erected out so much that poor ole King couldn't walk with out whimpering. In fact he couldn't walk period! So I had to slowly walk him back ot his kennel and let him relax in the cool shade. Finally his doggy manhood shriveled up and he was all better.

Yep that's what my blog is all about -- Dog sex episodes and some spattering of bird sightings!

To Much Going On May 19th

Big Horn Sheep along Highway 50 just west of Royal Gorge near Canon City. I can basically say if you are heading to Colorado in April this stretch of highway you are guaranteed in seeing these sheep or along highway 70 near Idaho Springs.

Well I learned a lesson about scheduling trips, DO NOT schedule anything in May! Is it just me but Minnesota has to many freaking bird festivals! On May 19th you can sit on David Sibley's lap at the Detroit Birding Festival or you can shoot over to Ashland Wisconsin and sit on Julie Zickefoose's lap or you can go and sit on Laura Erickson's lap at the Ramsey MN. Birding Festival. Then there's the freaking St. Louis Co. Birdathon sponsored by Hawk Ridge! Hey IF you want to sit on my lap, I have a Lake Superior Boat Trip from 8-12:30pm going on and you can read more about these boat trips by going to my website but I am not a author! Sitting on well known author's laps is something I came up after several visits to Birdchick's blog. Basically after every birding festival Sharon Stiteler attends, Sharon has photos of herself sitting on some author's lap. Jealous Mike? You bet I am! LOL

So if I do not get 6 more people on the May 19th boat trip I will cancel the trip and do a big sit instead and break the record and be really REALLY famous and then everyone will want to sit on my lap! I have place all figured out and my big sit will have nothing to do with the freaking birdathon. Hell, since they have a new rule in place that you do not have to there on Sunday with your totals in hand, I might just call in some high number to win a prize! You know a coupon at Wild Bird Store or a fancy Hawk Ridge T shirt! Maybe a free cup of coffee and a sweet roll at the Coffee Cabin

Nice place to live! This is a old home or some building in the Pawnee Grasslands. Pawnee Grasslands is a wonderful place to bird but if you hate dry winds and dusty roads then this place will be like hell to you.

Well the best thing about May 1 is Little League Baseball! I am coaching my son's team and after 3 years of coaching the minors the organization finally gave me decent ball players. I am totally convince that parents toss their kids in sports without asking the child to see if he or she is interested in playing baseball, basketball or soccer. Manyy times I had kids that were bored to tears with the sport their parent enrolled them in. These kids rather stare at the sky, play in the sand in the infield, chase each other around or pick the dandelions in the outfield rather than learning how to play baseball!

This year I got kids who want to play, parents who want them to play and finally I have talent kids that are coachable!! Young parents listen up do not sign up your kids to play sports if they are not interested! Do not think of your son's or daughter's team as a day care center where you can drop them off and let the coaches baby sit your kids! Coaches have no tolerance for kids who think team sports is just one big recess session!

So bring on May and Little League Baseball!

OH last weekend I was in Inner Grove Heights at Smiley High School. My daughter had a basketball tournament. She plays on U13 league and is enrolled in a mid AAU division. First game she scored 8 pts and 6 rebounds and the second game she did not feel good. The third game on Sunday she scored 5 pts and pulled in several rebounds. I was a proud daddy! I just hope the Duluth School system doesn't try to make Duluth into one high school! That would easily prompt us to send our kids to Marshall High School (My old high school) and pay the $9500 per year tuition or send her to Wrenshall or Proctor. I can see two high schools ( one in east side and the other in west side) but not one high school!

Birds? Well if you been reading the MOU listserv there are no migrants around and everything is coming in small trickles! Last weekend there were only 2 species of warblers seen on the Salt Lake Weekend! I finally have Chipping Sparrows and a White-throated Sparrow in my yard!! I have Tree Swallow nesting in one of my boxes, a Am. Robin on eggs in our apple tree. I might have another pair of chickadees in my other boxes but not sure on that.

There are tons of places all along the St. Louis River for shorebirds and birders there is a huge mud flat near the WLSSD Miller Creek mouth that looks real good for shorebirds. Also the boat launch at Park Pt. and Herding Island have huge mud flats. We'll see if they produce any shorebirds this spring.

That's about it

later