The Big Easy

For those foodies out there who have been not getting enough lately about the food part of this travel adventure, my wife and I had a blow out meal at Cochon here in New Orleans. My morning started at a small country restaurant near Tallahassee, Florida where I had a simple grits, biscuits and 2 eggs over easy breakfast. Sitting at the counter next to me were 2 older black men drinking coffee and talking about food. They started out discussing some friend milking his dairy cows and how they don't drink milk anymore. That led to how they ate as kids--lots of greens and not much meat. Then they moved onto venison sausage and how good it was because it was such a lean meat which brought them to how pork was bad for you, but putting vinegar on your pork reduced its impact on your health.

So what did my wife and I chow down mostly on last nite at Cochon (french for pig)--several kinds of pork dishes. Our good friends, neighbors and world class chefs, Ben and Karen, set up the reservation for us, which meant we broke the cardinal rule of over-ordering to begin with, and then the kitchen sent out more dishes to try. We started with the wood-fired oyster roast, and the fried alligator with chili garlic aioli. Both were superb. We thought about trying the fried rabbit livers, but fortunately did not order them because the kitchen sent out an order of fried boudin sausage with pickled peppers plus the warm hog head cheese with field greens. I thought the head cheese was by far the best I have ever eaten.

We ordered a cucumbers and herbs in vinegar dish that we thought might be a palate cleanser, but the vinegar and hot chili pepper dominated the cucumbers. It was quite good nevertheless. The evening's small plate special was first of the season crawfish in a gratineed kind of dish that we thought was a bit rich and did not work very well.

The pork dish of the nite was the paneed pork cheeks with cane vinegar glazed beets, kumquats (sliced razor thin and fried), onions and herbs. Wow was this amazing! I think Ben (who has pig daddy on his license plate, and loves all things pig) would have really enjoyed this dish. It might have been the best pork dish I have ever eaten.

By now we were quite full, but we still had a lovely piece of grilled redfish to eat, and a boucherie plate of various kinds of pork cold cuts produced by Cochon's butcher shop. The fish was light and went down easily. Unfortunately we did not do full justice to the boucherie offerings because we had hit our stomach limit. The pork rillettes were yummy. The different cold cuts were all unique and good, but Ben's porchetta is even better. While we left some of the boucherie on the plate, we did manage to finish up a fine bottle of '07 pinot noir from Sanford that was recommended by our very helpful waitress.

In honor of Karen (pastry chef without peer), we did try the lemon-buttermilk pie with strawberries and vanilla whipped cream. It was a bit sweet for our taste but well made. We both left the table feeling like you do sometimes after Thanksgiving when you loved all the food too much.

We are headed out the door to make the 500 mile trek to Austin to see our friends Craig and Renee. I will be getting some good home cooking there--the first in a month. Stay tuned!

End of 10th Week

So 10 weeks are now in the books on this grand travel/birding adventure. I have spent the past 2 days in Florida trying to pick up some more key birds here before I move on to Texas. The picture above is of a common myna (another Florida specialty) that I found scavenging food at a McDonald's where I stopped to get an egg mcmuffin. On Wed. I started early at a spot I had hit the day before to look for sparrows and short-eared owl. No owl, but I did see 3 clay-colored, and 2 grasshopper sparrows, plus a blue grosbeak--all new year birds.

I next went to a place called STA 5 which stands for storm water treatment area 5. It is about 20 miles south of Lake Okeechobee. I arrived about 10:30 AM and had the place to myself. It was a great wetland that provided another new bird for the year--fulvous whistling duck. There were also 2 snail kites gliding over the marsh, several northern harriers doing the same, ospreys, a bald eagle, lots of common moorhens and purple gallinules, huge numbers of american coots, and ibis and herons throughout. I also saw 2 purple swamphens, a so-called exotic that looks similar to a purple gallinule. This bird is not on the ABA countable list at this time, but it is expanding its population here in south Florida, so it may eventually be accepted.

At lunch time I noticed a small place called Dixie Fried Chicken that had a window sign for frog legs. I thought maybe they were locally sourced from the wetlands in the area, so I decided to try some. Unfortunately, they did not seem that fresh (the leg meat was not very moist), so I will not be recommending the frog legs at Dixie.

Last nite I spent the evening with 2 very good, long time friends who live in Avon Park. They have a 20 acre orange grove that made it thru the very cold weather that Florida had this winter. We caught up on our lives, and plan to bird together in April when I return to Florida.

This morning I drove over north of St. Petersburg to check out shore birds, and mainly to search for the few remaining budgerigars. The budgie is the small parakeet that many of us owned or a friend owned when we were kids back in the 50's and 60's. At one point there were 20,000 wild ones living in the greater St. Petersburg area. But competition for nesting sites with house sparrows and starlings has all but eliminated the budgie population. It was raining hard and windy when I was looking for the budgies, and alas I came up empty on them. I did see a couple of American oystercatchers, plus several other shorebirds.

So I ended the week with a 155 birds which beats by 2 birds the year's highest weekly total back in week #1. With 5 more new year birds, the YTD total is now 383. I am heading to New Orleans tomorrow to pick up my wife and have a fine dinner in the city. On Saturday we will drive to Austin to stay with good friends there, so no birding for the next couple of days. Next week south TX is back in play. Stay tuned!

Day 68--Barred Owls

Quite a bit to catch up on tonite. The past 3 days combined capture the nature of birding. On Sunday I spent the day driving back down towards San Francisco, including a swing back out to the northern Cal coast to try once more for rock sandpiper and/or tufted duck. I stopped at Castle Rock to scan it for the canada geese (aleutian form) that stage there each March before migrating north. The rock is far enough out that at first you don't realize what looks like a rocky surface is in fact 1000's of geese. As for the 2 target birds, I did not find either but I did find an elegant tern at the Humboldt NWR, which was a surprise to see one this early in the year (they breed on an island nearby). So Sunday was a "miss" but still productive with a new bird for the year.

I spent the nite in Santa Rosa and was thinking I was pretty fried between the all day pelagic trip and then driving all day on Sunday. So I planned to sleep in and then go straight to the airport. But the universe sometimes works in unusual ways. I awoke at 5:30 AM because an alarm was going off in the motel room next door but no one was in that room. Since I was awake, I decided to drive over to Lake Merritt in Oakland to see if a tufted duck that was reported there several weeks earlier might just still be there.

I began to walk the long perimeter of the lake, enjoying red-necked and eared grebes, common goldeneyes, lots of scaup, and the early morning walk. About 3/4's of the way around I approached a large group of scaup and notice there were 4 canvasback ducks in with them. And then, boom, there was a duck with an all black back (scaup have a grayish back). Could it be a tufted or was it just a ring-necked duck. It was in fact a fine looking male tufted duck with a gorgeous tuft adorning its head. So I made the effort and was pleasantly surprised to find a tufted. Goal accomplished after several days of looking. On my way back to the car I also did see a single ring-necked duck.

My flight from SF back to Miami proved to be my first bad travel experience of the year. The plane had mechanical problems, so instead of leaving at noon, we finally got off at 6:30 PM. Arriving in Miami at 2:30 AM was not great but I did get to bed for awhile before getting up at 7:30. I had an address about 20 minutes away where red-whiskered bulbuls had been seen recently. I jumped out of my truck (great to be driving my own vehicle again), and walked down the street. Within minutes I noticed some monk parakeets and white-crowned pigeons--both new birds for the year. And then bingo there they were, 2 bulbuls sitting on the telephone wires.

So it was not even 9 AM and I had 3 more YTD birds, what a fantastic start to the day. I then drove about 20 minutes to a location that has had lots of wintering sparrows lately. I found none but did see some painted buntings and common ground doves. I headed on down to Everglades NP to see if I could see swallow-tailed kites. The day had turned nicely sunny, temp in the low 70's. I drove all the way down to Flamingo at the end of the park road and sure enough, 3 kites were kiting about. This bird flies like a kite does in a nice breeze. Plus it is so nicely colored--check it out at wikipedia.

I then stopped at Mahogany Hammock on my way back out of the park where I snapped the pictures above of an adult barred owl, and one of its owlets. I had just seen on my last blog post a comment from a neighbor who told me he had seen barred owls down by our creek, so Perry these pics are for you! I also saw a brown thrasher--both are YTD birds. Next stop was the Anhinga trail to see what might be lurking there. I found 2 more new birds for the year--an american bittern skulking thru the reeds plus a northern parula (a warbler for you non-birders).

I finished the day at dusk on the edge of the park looking for raptors and owls. After so much success today, I was not surprised to see the run come to an end. Plenty of raptors but no more owls. I think 1 type of owl per day may be an unstated limit. So for the week the bird count is up to 121, and the YTD count is now at 378. Tomorrow I will be trying for a few more target birds for south Florida before driving up to Avon Park to spend the nite with some very good friends. Stay tuned!

Laysan Albatross--Yes!

Oh Yea, that's what I am talking about! Today's pelagic trip out of Newport, OR was a big success making for another red letter day, but I am a bit ahead of myself. First, if you are a regular follower of this blog, you will notice a new element at the top. I have added a map of the US showing where I have been so far. Green lines mean I drove to those places, and blue lines mean I flew there. The numbers provide the sequence of my bird hunting. I will update this going forward. Now back to the birding.

Yesterday was much more of a mixed bag. I certainly scoured every rocky coastal area, and numerous jetties in vain to locate the elusive rock sandpiper. On one jetty I rock hopped to the point of near injury on the slick rocks not to mention the serious workout that resulted--my arm and torso muscles are sore today. I did see 27 birds for this new week, one of which was a new year bird--black scoter.

This morning dawned clear and probably reached the mid 50's on land, but with the wind on the ocean, it still felt pretty dang cold. 27 birders, 4 guides and 2 crew of the The Misty left dock at 7 AM, and headed out to sea. We were ticking off birds right from the get go on our way out of the harbor, but not a rock sandpiper among them on the rock jetties. We were actively finding birds well into the early afternoon. The 2 photos above are of a black-footed albatross flying (the dark bird in that photo), and sitting on the water. This will have to substitute for a picture of the laysan since I was unable to get a good shot of it. Taking pictures on a bouncing boat is not an easy task.

We saw about 10 of the black-footeds and 2 different laysan. We also saw ancient murrelets--about 20 in all. Cassin's auklets, marbled murrelets, black-legged kittiwakes, and thayer's gulls were new birds for the year. The laysan and the ancient are also life birds for me--thus making today more like a double red letter day.

Coming back in from Perpetua Bank was surprisingly birdless according to Greg Gillson, our main guide. He and a few birding friends run The Bird Guide which specializes in doing several pelagic trips each year out of Newport. Most of the trips are in the late summer, but they run this 1 winter trip to pick up the winter specialties of the area. Most of the birders on board were from Oregon and Washington. Unfortunately, one woman spent the entire trip throwing up even though it was not a rough sea. If I ever end up spending 11 hours on a boat feeling like she did, I would probably give up pelagic birding.

So the week list is now up to 47 birds, the YTD list is at 368 and the new lifers is now at 12. I am driving down to California tomorrow to catch my plane Monday AM back to Florida. Greater flamingo has been found there while I was out here, so maybe I can see one when I return to Florida. Stay tuned!

Not Oyster Catcher

Today marks a first for this big year. I did not see a new bird for the year, nor a new bird for the week. I am pretty sure that is a first! I did have a nice 30 minutes of birding this morning in a small marsh outside of Crescent City, CA. I hit a small pocket of high bird activity. The birds were actively getting their breakfast so they did not care about a human standing in their midst. There were many ruby-crowned kinglets along with a couple of golden-crowned kinglets. A winter wren was working thru some moss on a tree trunk not more than 10 feet from me. A wrentit decided to sing for a few minutes out in the open. Some yellow-rumped warblers were flitting thru the trees. Spotted towhees were calling and a downy woodpecker was working a dead tree. The chestnut-backed chickadees were chattering away.

The rest of the day proved to be a futile effort to find rock sandpipers, wandering tattlers or black scoters. Maybe tomorrow will change that. I did see a sign for Clausen farm-raised oysters. I stopped in and picked up a couple of dozen to have for dinner in my motel room. The photo above shows some of the oysters and a bottle of Navarro pinot gris which went very well with the shellfish. If Ben and Karen are reading this, this one is for you!

I am not in Oregon this week just for the hey of it. I am going out of Newport on Saturday on an all day pelagic boat trip. Is a laysan albatross, or something even rarer in my birding future? Stay tuned!

March 3--2 Good Days of Birding

The last 2 days of birding have been quite good. I have been in northern California working my way from San Rafael thru Ukiah to Crescent City. Tuesday began with rain, so I decided to get a slow start including a swing thru St. Helena in Napa Valley to stop at Taylor's Refresher--one of America's top hamburger joints. It has been around for a long time, and has opened 2 more outlets recently in San Francisco and the town of Napa.

I ate here for the 1st time a few years ago, but that day I tried the ahi tuna sandwich. Yesterday I went for the classic burger with cheese and bacon. Taylor's burger comes cooked to order--medium rare in my case--on an egg bun with special sauce, lettuce and tomato. I also got the beer battered fried onion rings which were quite tasty. While I prefer a toasted bun, I would rate the burger as very good--a definite encore kind of burger.

From there I drove out to Point Arena under sunny skies to try to see a laysan albatross that has come into Pt. Arena cove every winter for over 15 years. Albatross's spend almost all their time at sea. It is highly unusual for an albatross to do what this bird has done for 4-8 weeks each winter for so many years. I tried to see this bird a few years ago with no success that day, and yesterday I also came up short. I did get to see a fine sunset before driving back to Ukiah. On the way out I found a group of bushtits--a new bird for the year. I took the top picture above which is typical of the northern Cal coast. I also stopped in at the Goldeneye winery in Anderson Valley to taste the just released 2007 pinot noirs. They were good enough to ship home a 1/2 case.

This morning dawned clear. I stayed in Ukiah overnite because I wanted to check out Lake Mendocino this morning for a possible tufted duck. A few years back I found 5 mixed in with a large number of greater scaup. Today I found all of 7 scaup and no tufted ducks. There were many birds along the lakeshore. I heard what sounded like the soft tapping of a sapsucker, and with some searching I located a fine looking male red-breasted sapsucker--another new bird for the year.

I then drove 3 hours thru some magnificent scenery including many huge redwoods to the Eureka/Arcata area. Birding at several locations generated 4 more new birds for 2010--mew gull, golden-crowned kinglet, wrentit and townsend's warbler. I finished the day here in Crescent City--not much of a place that snugs up against one of the most beautiful coastlines you can imagine. The sea lions pictured above were in the harbor.

So the bird count for the week is now up to 131, and the YTD total has reached 361. Tomorrow I will continue to work my way up the coast, seeing new places and lots of birds including hopefully some new ones for the year. Stay tuned!

Beautiful Marin County

I came up to the SF Bay area to bird and see a friend who lives in San Rafael. Unfortunately his father needed emergency surgery back in Boston, so my friend and I did not get a chance to see each other. I did get to spend some time with his long time partner--a really good woman that I always like visiting with.

Since my friend was back east, I did bird yesterday, mostly at Point Reyes Nat'l Seashore. It was a sunny day in the low 60's, and being a Sunday, it seemed like every bicycle club in the north bay was out taking advantage of the good weather. I saw 14 new birds for the week, and 1 for the year--a fine looking male sharp-shinned hawk that landed in a tree right next to me. The sharpie brought the YTD total to 353 on the last day of February. You may remember that at the end of January the YTD total was 247. So in February another 106 new birds were added. And in March the number of new birds for the year will continue to slow down. That said, I feel good about having seen 353 different species in 2 months.

Today I birded in Petaluma, Bodega Bay and Pt. Reyes. It was cooler, windier and overcast. I was mainly trying to find either a pacific golden plover or a wandering tattler. There were no plovers to be found, but I did get a picture of a marbled godwit (see top photo above). And all the wandering tattlers had wandered away from their normal haunts. I did see 18 more birds for the week, and 2 were new birds for the year. Whimbrels were found on a jetty where the tattlers should have been, and a glaucous-winged gull was flying around where I tried to locate the plover. This is how it goes with birding. You may not find the bird you want, but you find others instead.

On my way down the coast from Bodega Bay to Pt. Reyes I stopped in at the Hog Island farm raised oyster operation. It turns out that they have a picnic area right on Tomales Bay where people in the know bring wine and food to eat with the totally fresh oysters. The oysters come in 3 sizes, and you buy them by the dozen, or in even larger quantities. They give you shucking knives, lemon and hot sauce. I had no wine or food with me, but I did spring for a dozen of the freshest oysters I probably have ever eaten. A couple sitting at the next table were well into what appeared to be 4 or 5 dozen oysters. If I lived nearby, I would make this a regular stop on a sunny day!

I did enjoy driving thru Marin county. It is very green right now because rains have finally come to a drought stricken northern California. When the hills are green here they remind me of parts of Scotland which I love to visit. The other picture above was taken for that reason--it looked like the coastal highlands area of Scotland. Tomorrow I will move further north in California on my way to Oregon. I am going to bird in some places I have never birded before. Stay tuned!