Soy Un Observador

Im a birder baby, so why don't you kill me?
I'm a birder, I'm a winner; things are gonna change, I can feel it.

Winter Birding

Winter biridng is fun because you never know what you might find in one of those big flocks of birds. A Rusty Blackbird in a huge flock of blackbirds, or a Greater White-fronted Goose hidden in the hundreds of sky rats. Who cares if Sibley doesn't think you saw the "Greenland" race....you know you did. His glasses wearin' ass can't imagine what your 20/20 vision is capable of. Scoters at your local pond. Crossbills at the cemetary. A Snowy Owl! Who knows? So get your long johns on and get out there and find a winter jewel.

Oh shit.

I had a shitty day. I found the source of the stinky smell in the house the last couple of days. The sewage was backing up out of the basement toilet. I sucked it up in the shop vac, emptied it, did it again, pulled out the shit covered toilet, ran a 50 ft. auger took it back, ran a 75ft auger, got sewage all over me and everything else, tried not to vomit, ate lunch, did it all again called in help, made more of a mess, cried, hosed out the basement, hosed out the shop vac, scrubbed the toilet with a brush and now I am done at 9:30 pm. I will spare you a photo. I had a shitty day.
There was a bright spot however. At one point while emptying the shop vac out back I heard a weird bird and took note but kept working. Then I saw it...Yellow-bellied Sapsucker!!! Woohoo! That is a new yard bird after 8 years! It stuck around sucking down honeysuckle berries and I got a really nice look.

My chin is cold...

I regretfully cut off my Kimbo Slice beard in a fit of mania and am surprised to find my chin cold. Driving up 275 past new richmond 4 Black Vultures flew overhead in what looked like a WWII Marine Corsair formation. Nice to see something you don't see every day. Hopefully my big giant beard will grow back quickly. It is also shocking to see how plain and fat I look in the face without a beard. I need to try and remember to sign up for the "big fat loser" show. I was going to go on a bird count on the 20th but it looks like I will have to go to Chicago instead. Did I forget to tell everyone I turned 40 on November 11th this year? Probably didn't forget to tell everybody, I probably just forgot that I told everybody. I have Alzheimer's or ADD but I get confused lose focus and can't remember which one.
I got an ear infection or something the other day and was in alot of pain for a while. I went to the doctor with pain but it was ok. While I was there I got the flu mist vaccine. The next day my ear felt like I was being stabbed in it...the ear so I got into a specialist and she couldn't see in the ear because the canal was swollen shut. So she performed medieval torture on me and I left the office vomiting and crying like a baby. After days of vicodin and cipro I am starting to feel better ear wise but through all this I got the flu and have been runny nosed and nauseous on top of it all. My calf muscles feel like I tippy-toed up all the stairs in the Empire State building.
We did manage to go cut down a Christmas tree yesterday but unfortunately there was no birds in it to watch.

Thanksgiving

I would like to give thanks that turkeys taste so good. Are we supposed to not eat birds if we love birds? My wife saw a hummingbird outside my office window. It was a chickadee. I was watching the LPGA championship and they put the camera on a couple of ducks going across the lake and it was Black-bellied Whistling Ducks! That is a lifer for me. Every bird is common wherever it lives. A few moments later they showed a Little Blue Heron by the lake and the announcer said they needed to hurry and get their ball away from that pterodactyl. What a jackass. So many jackasses.

Liam and Prince hard at work at Pin-up Reptiles

I

am going to eat some chickens.

STILL FAT!

Sorry Scott. As you probably guessed I am not going to make it to a cross race this year. I don't even have the guts to call you and tell you in person. I thought it would be easy to get in shape for a race a year away, and maybe it is but I did not succeed. What can I say....I am a fat no good lazy bastard. I have been losing weight lately (295 now WITH 5lbs of beard and hair!) due to diet change and portion control. I at least feel hope now. I officially recommit to another race in 2010. I know you are thinking "yeah right", but what can I do other than try again. Birds.

THIS IS THE BATHROOM!!

That is what I yelled after Liam took this picture and then I kicked him into the hallway. This is about 2.5 lbs of hair & beard from a few months ago. I look like a castaway now. Bird.

WHITE-THROATED WALK

I decided to take a short stroll home vs. catching a ride on this glorious Fall, Veterans, 40th Birth, day. While "strolling" past a thicket of honeysuckle I heard an unfamiliar chip note and stopped to pish..uh hem...for birds that is. Turns out it was White-throated Sparrows. I have not been birding and it is the first time I have seen them since last Winter. Glad I walked. The pishing also attracted a mockingbird, cardinals, chickadees, finches, squirrels and the glaring staring suspicious neighbors. Also had a Red-shouldered Hawk land nearby my front yard yesterday and then give me a nice flyover followed closely by a marauding mockingbird. I am getting the itch. No, not jock or 7 year....the itch to get out and do some birding. A trip to Los Angeles should be in my near future and that will be some great Winter birding!

Your annual dose of me reliving the glory days of 22 years ago!

(my sister asked me to post it again...really.)

LONG TIME

it has been since posting. I imagine nobody is looking anymore anyhow. If there happens to be anyone out there who cares.....I apologize.
I didn't make it out to Cape May this fall : (
Yesterday afternoon I had 2 Cooper's Hawks and one Sharp-shinned Hawk fly directly over my yard. This morning a Red-shouldered Hawk.
Video is of a Red-tailed Hawk release at Cape May this year.

BIRDS AND STUFF AGAIN

I have been very busy and also have had a ton of computer problems lately. I am possibly going to Cape May mid October.

So, what do you catch in mist nets when you are trying to catch bats?

screech owls

baby screech owls

kingfishers

and Wood Ducks

Go figure.

KENTUCKY RAPTOR WEBSITES?

Does anyone know if there is a good website with information on the raptors of Kentucky?

ALOT OF HAWKS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

a wonderful day in the neighborhood, would you be mine, could you be mine, won't you be....my neighbor. Are you kidding me? A big slab of sweet ass Angus steaks from my neighbor again. We had a cookout Saturday night and the steaks were awesome.

gorgeous '08 100% het Clown Ball Python 272g

available $200

Jawa guarding Helix control

yummy

I have been seeing a good many hawks in the neighborhood lately. fun.

I am trying to go to Cape May, NJ for hawk migration. we will see. i hope so!

BITTERN OVER THE HIGHWAY

Went to Chicago over the Lumber Day weekend. I visited the 135th st wetlands. It was a bit far for the binocular but I did see 41 Great Egret, 16 Great Blue Heron, 1 Northern Flicker and a bunch of mallards and Blue-winged Teal. Also 2 Osprey. There were Killdeer and a few other fall sandpipers I couldn't make out at the distance I was. (20 feet). On the trip I also saw a Harlan's Hawk at Cooper's Hawk grove. The highlight had to be the bittern I saw awkwardly flying down I-65. I'm fairly certain it was a Least Bittern judging by the size. We had just gotten back on the highway where there was lots of wetland area and there it was, unmistakeably bittern, with an awkward woodpecker/tern-like wingbeat. If you think I was startled imagine how he felt. Something must have startled him pretty good to get him flying down I-65 at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I am sure he was a bit lighter than before he took off anyway!

And finally....

We always find funny things to talk about...

Yikes!

They're looking at you J.B.!

Hurry up Ryan...there's traffic coming!

The most disturbing reference to a "Donald Duck costume" ever....

That's all I got to say about that!

If that's all it takes....

1) you fly for free and if everyone on the list comes, your cost is projected to be $29.76. I will pitch in $4 and Ryan is good for $0.76.

2) I will sweeten the pot: we'll bring loads of banana bread, zucchini bread, and homemade canned salsa

3) Scott won't hold it against you that you haven't lost any weight (but he DOES CARE DEEPLY about you!)

4) there are 2 great bands playing that week--

The "Eagles" (hopefully they'll make a surprise guest appearance!)

And "Seether"....

Man, I hope to never handle a bird like this one again! Although, the Denmark band from an eyrie in Greenland was pretty freaking cool!!!

YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN THAT

like....we all pitched in and it is only going to cost you $25, or, my wife is bringing loads of banana bread or Scott doesn't care that you haven't lost any weight.

Another perk of living in a close knit neighborhood. A jar of grape gold! Words can't describe!

This is not a Silverfish. The correct common name is House Centipede.

Day 2 plea to E2: mid-OCT is peak Peregrine week!!!

Wouldn't E2 look great (much better than Malarky!) with a Second-year Peregrine in hand???

My ploy to make Eddie come to Cape May...

I am going to try and post photos from Cape May regularly until Eddie agrees to attend this year's pilgrimage....

Remember how much fun you had, despite the rain/fog last year?

CINCINNATI ZOO

Took the kids to the Cincinnati Zoo a couple of days ago. At first I was upset to find the entrance closed with a sign directing us to the crappy vine street entrance and overflow parking lot. Well, that was because they redid everything and made the Vine St. entrance the new entrance which used to be the old entrance and is now the new main entrance. It is very nice and I was happy.

New entrance at the Cincinnati Zoo

Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches! Yay!

Landmark Blaze



Koi

Magnolia flower

The End

RENOVATION

I am renovating our 1920's craftsman style house and worked on the porch entrance yesterday into the night. I did finish the section I wanted to. 600lbs of Tennessee flagging and a broken back and sore legs later I have this. It will eventually continue down with a stone step into the sidewalk and patio created with the same stone. This is the start of the project. I got all of the stone from Ohio Valley Stone Products. They were very nice and helpful and the prices are very affordable. Far less than at a big box or local nursery. If you need stone I highly reccomend them. They ROCK!!

Laying out the patern in the driveway

Wood frame in place on old crappy entranceway

plastic and sand in place. I could have used one more bag of sand.

Stone set with gravel grout. The pattern had to change due to bad template placement on driveway.

Does anyone know what this is and how to get rid of it....it is ruining my yard

Cool Pictures

Striped Owls?

AFP/Vanderlei Almeida

American Kestrel

photo by Scott Somershoe

HOLY MOTHER MAY EYE

it was hotter than a June Bugs a$$ on the 4th of July! I just got back from Kentucky Dam Village @ Land Between the Lakes in Western you guessed it Kentucky. It was Awesome!! basketball shoes. Birding was nice with plenty of herons, gulls and Osprey. Some of the birding highlights included Acadian Flycatcher, Barred Owl (seen), Blue Grosbeak, Prothonatary Warbler and a completely unexpected Mississippi Kite!! I met up with a friend to look for Bachman's Sparrow(not found) and on the way to said bird saw a bird and said "That is something good!" We were on highway 68 in Trigg Co. heading West towards Cadiz, Ky. The bird flew over and landed in a snag just off the highway so I said "pull over, pull over, PULL OVER you dumba$$!" Plain as day an Adult Male Missississsissippi Kite!! I have caught sight of one before but this was an awesome look and a bird that was not mentioned on my checklist AND a total surprise making it my favorite sighting of all time! converse shoes. sports shoes. tennis shoes. chuck taylor wears nice athletic shoes.
The trip was a family reunion of sorts paid for by the love(money) of a passed uncle. Grandpa rented us a ski boat and we went tubing. It was fun and you would have laughed to see my fat a$$ pulled ever so slowly through the water bouncing the tube in frustration screaming "GO FASTER!" "YOU ARE RUINING MY VACATION!!" "COME ON, GO FASTER!!" until I was hoarse, anything I could to get my wife who had never driven a boat to go faster. It didn't work.
The kids had a blast. So did I. converse shoes.
We also got to see a nice Bison heard a Five-lined Skink and Southern Leopard Frogs (I assumed they were Northern but they were not. I went herping briefly the last night there and was rewarded with a juvinile Copperhead which I touched a few times trying to get a better pic but he just wouldn't coil up...he just wanted to get away as fast as he could.
Maybe someone (Shane) could i.d. these plants? converse shoes
Remember, you can click on the pics to get giant sized images!
converse shoes

Bumpalos at the Elk & Bison Prarie where many Blue Grosbeak were seen.

Cool "pitcher" flower in numbers behind cabin

Unknown(by me) plant behind cabin


Southern Leopard Frog (I think you can see the light spot in the center of the tympanum in this pic)



Copperhead!

The Bison heard. a grosbeak.

Insert Prairie plant name here found at Elk & Bison Prarie

LAND BETWEEN THE LAKES

KENTUCKY. Man I love it here. Have seen Prothonatory Warbler, Osprey and kingfisher already without looking. Going to find Bachman's Sparrow in a minute. I will let you know if I find it. It is super cool here!

OUT OF TOWN

I am out of town until Monday. I will report from field if I can. If not I will when I get back. I did get a real nice sharpy glide over my front yard yesterday!

VOTE TODAY!!

Hair

or No Hair

Vote buttons are on the sidebar.

PEOPLE FOOD

Can't "they" make a people food like they make dog food?! I would love to have one and only one thing to eat that gave me the perfect amount of calories and nutrition. Surely they can do that, right? I hate eating and choosing what to eat and making mistakes and going to the bathroom. What a hassle.

I WENT GOLFING!

for the first time in 2 years!! I love to golf more than anything else I do. I love the sport of golf but I also love the fact that you are outdoors in a beautiful setting for 4 hours. And then on top of that golf courses are bird magnets. We played at Lassing Point one of the nicest courses I have played. It is a registered National Audubon bird sanctuary or something to that effect and it is loaded with birdies. One of the coolest things is that Green Herons are always around. You see them at the lake and flying overhead several times during the round. Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows and even Purple Martins. Eastern Kingbirds, Killdeer, pewees, wrens, sparrows, robins, blackbirds, jays and more! A few years back there was a Wild Turkey that had gotten used to the golfers and would jump right up in your cart with you to see if you would give her any food. I shot an 86 which I figured wasn't to bad since I hadn't even had a club in my hands for 2 years, used someone elses old clubs and Intech barely golf balls and warmed up for zero minutes.
P.S. I lost only 2 more lbs. I should have went to the gym instead of my daughters b-day party.

STORMS & BIRDS & SNAKES

A storm rolled in early this morning. I went outside to take the dog out and the wind was really howlin'. The nighthawks however were still flying and "peenting" overhead. I don't imagine they were eating. Maybe they are still displaying and making babies. Seems late but I guess not? The snakes are late too. They are still breeding but still no ovulation.

Lemon Blast breeding our pastel het Clown

YUM-O!

Still no birding. The neighbor boy did say he saw a white bird with black stripes fly by today. I promptly ridiculed the hapless 10 year old until he cried.

Our neighbors gave us a big hunk o' meat last week. I dug it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge 2 days ago and then unwrapped it today to find a huge ribeye boneless loin. I cut it up today into 2 big chunks for beef tips and 12 big ribeye steaks! They also gave us a plate of sirloins that we ate tonight....they were fabulous. Our other neighbors gave us broccoli and green beans from their garden! nice.

12 ribeyes!

All wrapped up and ready for Elle's b-day party Saturday!

I should have been a butcher....you know, like the guy in "Gangs of New York" If you don't think that was a good movie watch it again...you didn't get it. I know it sucks that Leonerdo Cappuccino was in it but you can overlook that.

We are trying to remodel our kitchen on a shoestring budget and we are going with stainless steel appliances of course. My sister is remodeling hers right now by chance as well and passed along her nice gently used stainless oven and we were able to pass ours on to our neighbors who had a super old broken one. We trade and give and get food and help with all of our neighbors and it feels like a nice tight knit family community looking out and helping each other. It feels like that is the way life and humanity should work.

I HAVE NOT BEEN BIRDING

but I am going to write stuff anyway so if you don't like it you can go read one of the popular bird blogs and read about titmice wearing Santa hats or cute bunny rabbits. I do watch birds everyday but I don't go birdwatching everyday.
Twitter? I don't get it yet. I can't figure out what it is that I must be missing. I kinda get Facebook but it is way too much work. I suppose if you are sitting in an office all day for 8 hours with 4 hours of work to do it would be really great.
Back to birds for a minute. I have been noticing Red-shouldered Hawks everywhere. I don't think there has been an increase in the local population but is more likely that I am identifying them vs. just saying " I wonder what that was...probably a red-tail"
Last night I think there was a raccoon/opossum rumble in the hood. It sounded like alien vs. predator.
I can't believe professional wrestling hasn't died out yet. I fear what that says about our society. Did you see Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler" ? Holy smokin' hot naked woman!! I fear what talking about hot naked women on a birding blog says about me as well.
I need to keep tropical fish again. I miss it. Maybe start a Siamese Fighting Fish fighting ring on the side? I used to breed Angelfish and Guppies when I was young. I would like to breed angels again and maybe "show" Betta. I would like to fight in the UFC also. There is just too much to do.
If you walk around talking out loud on your bucktooth headset thingy...stop. Why does everyone wear rubber bracelets these days? Aren't they stinky and uncomfortable?
Malibu Shark Attack premiers on SyFy this Saturday!