Day 31--Grand Canyon Next

Today was both a birding and driving day. I was up by 6 AM and birding at 7:30 in search of the always difficult to find leconte's thrasher--a bird of the low desert chapparal. There is a location about an hour southwest of Phoenix that is the right habitat for the leconte's. I spent 3+ hours looking for it, but the only thrashers I found were a sage and a crissal. It was a beautiful morning to walk around in the desert, so missing the bird was not so bad, and I did see 3 new year birds.

Then I drove up to Flagstaff to visit with a friend of mine. She has lived in Flagstaff for several years now, and I try to stop in to see her whenever I am in northern Arizona. We caught up on our lives, and had a good meal at a place called Salsa Brava. From the name you would be correct in assuming that it serves Mexican food.

I then drove on up to the Grand Canyon to be ready to bird here tomorrow, picking up 3 more birds for the year list. It was near the end of the day, and I snapped the picture above of a single mountain that you see as you approach the park on Hwy 64. The day's birding provided 9 new birds for the week list, and 6 new birds for the YTD count. Today I added a new feature on the right hand side of the blog. I have listed all the January YTD birds seen. And tomorrow may give me a condor. Stay tuned!

Rufous-backed Robin (Yes)

Perseverance paid off today with the sighting of the rufous-backed robin (see above) at Boyce-Thompson Arboretum. This is a life bird for me, and since it is a rarity here in the U.S., this was a good pick up for my big year. My picture of it is not the best since the bird rarely came fully out in the open, but at least you can get a sense of it, particularly its rufous back.

There was a couple from Illinois also looking for it. Unfortunately, the wife was not feeling well and went back to her car before the bird showed up. The husband did get some good photos, but he had already seen this bird whereas his wife had not. I left before I found out if he was able to get his wife back out to get a look at the robin so that she could add it to her life list.

Earlier in the day I had some other good sightings enroute, including the dark morph of the red-tailed hawk which is called a harlan's hawk. I saw 2 of this form within a mile of each other, and tried to get a picture but to no avail. Most hawks are fine with cars driving by, but when you stop to look or photograph them, they generally skedaddle.

I also was able to go to Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix to have dinner. This place consistently gets glowing reviews, which means that it is always jammed. It is in a small, old brick building in downtown Phoenix, and only seats about 45 people at a time. It became so successful that it opened a bar next door to manage the customer process. That process involves people beginning to show up over an hour before the 5 PM opening time, forming a somewhat ill defined queue. The bar opens at 4 PM so that you can get something to drink, and even some antipasti while you wait. About 4:45 people form a more obvious line based on their arrival time. At 5 PM sharp they open the doors and let in the first 45 or so people. They also give out 3 reservations each night for parties of 6 or more, and the waiting list for that begins 30 days out.

Tonight was the longest line I have seen in my few visits here. Those who do not make the 1st seating give their name to the hostess who then tells them how long their wait will be based on where they are in line. At that point they wait outside or in the bar, throw up their hands and leave frustrated, or if they are locals, they leave and come back at the time the hostess told them they would be seated.

I just missed the 1st seating, and was told it would be an hour and 15 minute wait. I had struck up a conversation with a young couple while waiting from 4 to 5, so I got us all a bottle of zinfandel to share while we waited to get in. Sure enough, at 6:15 we were seated together at the bar. The couple had never been to P Bianco, so they were excited to try it out. Usually you get 1 pizza per person, but they ordered 3 for the 2 of them, and ate almost all of them. They had been to Italy and felt like they were back there again. Having lived in Italy for a year, I have the same feeling about Pizzeria Bianco. The picture above shows the wood fired oven with a pizza cooking inside.

So after 2 days this week, the weekly total is up to 70 species. 6 new species were added to the YTD total, one of which was also a life bird for me. Between the birding and the pizza, I would call this a red letter day. Tomorrow I am off early to try to find what was for a long time one of my nemesis birds--the leconte's thrasher. Stay tuned!

Day 29--Beautiful Arizona

One reason I am in Arizona in January is because I love birding here. I find the desert/mountain areas in southeast Arizona to be one of my favorite places to spend time hiking and birding. Plus for a birder this area has so many birds to look at, including a regular dose of rarities. The rarity of the moment is the rufous backed robin, which unfortunately eluded me again today. Nevertheless, I had a good time birding.

One of my favorite birds is the loggerhead shrike (see above), and there were many out hunting today. I found 58 birds to start this 1st day of the new week. 8 of these were also new birds for the year, so now the YTD count is at 235. Tomorrow I try again for the robin, and get to eat pizza at one of the very best pizza places in the country--Pizzeria Bianco. Stay tuned!

Day 28--Arizona

Well, after a quick swing thru Florida, I am now in southeast Arizona. I birded in both Miami and the Everglades yesterday before hopping on a plane for Arizona. I added 6 new birds for the week but no new birds for the year yesterday. I did enjoy my stroll down the anhinga trail in Everglades NP, and even snapped a couple of pictures there of an anhinga and a wood stork (see above).

Today I wrapped up the last day of week 4 here in mixed fashion. While I saw lots of new birds for the year list--no surprise since this is my 1st visit during this big year to AZ--I also was skunked on a key bird down here, the rufous backed robin. There have been a couple here in SE Arizona for a couple of months, but I was not able to locate them at 2 separate sites. However I did get some very good, close looks at 2 crissal thrashers--and got a photo of one (see above). This was a huge surprise since in the past I have never been able to get near a crissal thrasher--they run and hide generally when they realize that you are close by.

At the first location south of Tucson I ran into a woman bird guide I know here who was also hunting for it with 2 friends. After 3 hours of searching on my part, and at least an hour on theirs we came up short. This bird is known as a skulker which means it hides well in the canopy of the tree in which it is feeding, or in the brush as it hunts for food. So I drove up to another location near Superior, AZ called Boyce-Thompson Arboretum. It is an Arizona state park, and is a lovely place to bird. Today though it was raining which made it hard to find birds. The rufous backed robin likes to eat various kinds of berries. Mockingbirds and hermit thrushes do also. I saw plenty of them eating myrtle berries at Boyce-Thompson, but no rufous backed. So tomorrow I will make a second effort to find the elusive robin.

On the food front, I did get a chance to eat lunch at IN-N-Out Burger. I think this is the best large chain hamburger operation in the country. Unfortunately for most of us it is only in CA, UT and AZ. They offer 3 meal choices--a burger, a cheeseburger or a double cheeseburger. It comes with lettuce, tomato and their special mayo type sauce. You can add a slice of raw onion. It also comes with fries and a drink. You can "upgrade" your drink to a milkshake. It reminds me of McDonald's when it first began back in the 50's in southern Cal, which was after IN-N-Out Burger began in southern Cal. I remember as a child growing up in Columbia, MO, that we all thought it was a big deal to go out to dinner once a month at our local Mickey D's. McDonald's has changed alot since the 50's but it appears that IN-N-Out Burger has stuck to its very simple menu. I am always amazed at how busy the outlets are no matter what time of day it is, and how diverse the customer base is--all ages and ethnicities.

Well, week 4 is in the books. I am getting into a rhythm of getting up early, birding or traveling all day, and getting to bed earlier than when I am home. I finished the week with 88 species seen. I added 25 new birds this week bringing the YTD number to 227. Stay tuned!

Arizona (No), Florida (Yes)

It is day 26 late in the evening, and I am not in Arizona yet because at the 11th hour last Sunday nite (it was actually just that, 11 PM), I decided to take a detour into south Florida to try to pick up the 2 life birds that I missed the 1st week of January. And I am very happy to say that this morning I picked up first the La Sagra's flycatcher that has been hanging out at Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne for the last week or so. And as has been the pattern so far this year, I was joined by birders from Boston (MA), Seattle (WA), and Jonesboro (AR). For all of us it was a life bird (again for non-birders, that means the 1st time you see a species). One or two La Sagra's show up in Florida annually.

Then I made a few stops in route to another key location where I was able to see (picture above) a red-footed booby. In December this bird was brought in injured to the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station, a rehab center here in Miami, and then was released after it recovered. The bird continues to return at times during the day when the rehab center feeds its injured birds, and this now healthy booby is still taking advantage of the food available. The red-footed booby is normally seen only occasionally in the Dry Tortugas which are located 70 miles west of Key West, Fl. While checking out the booby, I also met 4 birders who are "snowbirds" here in Florida.

I finished up my day having dinner at a cuban restaurant which proved to be a good "local" food choice. I had a perfectly seasoned piece of grilled red snapper accompanied by some delicious black beans and a seasoned rice. I finished the meal with a tasty flan.

I will be birding here again tomorrow, and then I will head over to Arizona in the evening. The bird count for the week is now up to 58 species, the YTD number is now 212, and new life birds YTD are up to 5. Stay tuned!

Matt's Bar

I had thought I would not be blogging again until tomorrow, but here I am because I wanted to share my lunch experience at Matt's Bar located here in Minneapolis. This is the first burger joint from the book Hamburger America that I have visited as part of this grand travel adventure. I was curious about it because it makes a burger called a Jucy Lucy. Matt's has been making this burger since the 50's. What is distinctive about it is that they take 2 thin burger patties and place a hunk of cheese in the middle creating a formed 6 inch wide double patty with thin edges and a big hump in the middle.

The burger is cooked on a griddle that is at most 2' X 4', and resides at the end of the bar counter just as you come in the door. I was able to sit right next to the burger man and well "grill" him on the burgers. The burgers are made to order and, surprisingly to me, cook on the griddle for about 15 minutes, creating a cripy exterior, but in the center where the cheese hunk has melted the meat is still pinkish. You can get your burger with extra cheese on top but the griddle man suggested that might be overkill. It comes on your basic hamburger bun, untoasted, and you can have pickles and either grilled onions or raw onions. The grilled onions are rehydrated onions that are then cooked on the griddle. I noticed that he would occasionally place a finished burger on top of the onion pile to let some of the meat juices to drip down into the onions.

The grill guy told me that Matt started using rehydrated onions near the beginning because he just was not going to cut up that many onions everyday. On a good day Matt's will cook up 600 to 700 burgers almost all of which are Jucy Lucys. At one point there were easily over 20 burgers on the griddle. Right next to the griddle is a 2 basket fryer that keeps going pretty much full time. In the 30+ minutes I sat enjoying the cooking operation and of course eating a Jucy Lucy, I saw only one piece of chicken breast cooked up for a non burger fan, and only 2 regular burgers.

The finished burger comes to you wrapped in a piece of paper. It is suggested that you give your burger 3-4 minutes to cool off a bit so that the melted cheese does not burn your mouth or squirt onto you shirt. I also observed that once the griddle man turns the burger for the 1st time, he sticks a knife into the center to reduce the possibility of a cheese explosion happening. The fries are nice thin ones poured into the fryer out of an unlabeled brown bag removed from the freezer next to the refrigerator that holds the preformed burgers.

So by now you are wondering was the visit an eating success. I would heartily recommend that any hamburger lover who happens to be in Minneapolis should drop by Matt's for a Jucy Lucy. I was there about 12:30 today and all the booths and tables were already full even though the bar only had been open 30 minutes. I saw lots of smiling faces. As I was about to leave, a woman asked me about my travels, and then apologized for butting into my conversation with the burger man. I told her that was no problem--that Minnesotans were just curious and very nice people. As I drove home I had a smile on my face also. Tomorrow Arizona, stay tuned!

Great Gray Owl (still not)

Yesterday began early again. We were out and driving at 6:15 AM in order to be at our first birding location by dawn at 7:30. We decided to go to the northeast of Duluth in the same area that I visited last Wednesday in search of the spruce grouse. This is another place in which the great grays have been seen lately. We scoured the back roads but to no avail. We did run across a guy and his dog out early hoping to see a lynx. As we were starting to head back towards Duluth, we ran into 3 birders up from Wisconsin that we had seen several times over the previous 2 days. They also had been in pursuit of the great gray and like us had been skunked.

We drove back into Duluth to look for the elusive bohemian waxwings that had been seen along West Tischer Rd. This is a fairly long road with alot of the mountain ash which has berries that the birds like to eat. We had stopped the day before and asked an older woman if she had seen any of these birds in her tree. She had feeders hanging at her home, but she told us she had not--did not know what the bird even looked like. Well yesterday morning about 10:30 a group of 10-20 were feeding at her tree (so much for "local intel"). The photo above captured at some distance a few of the bohemian waxwings as they sat in an adjacent tree (click on it to enlarge). If you look closely you will be able to pick up the rusty color of the birds undertail coverts.

Flush with the success of the waxwings, we drove back up to Sax-Zim bog for one more try for the great gray as well as common redpolls and a blackbacked woodpecker. The weather unfortunately was turning a bit nasty--mixed rain and snow--so the roads were not great. We saw more northern hawk owls, a boreal chickadee along with lots of black-capped chickadees and pine siskins, but by 2 PM when we needed to begin our journey down to Minneapolis we still had no great gray, redpoll or blackbacked. This is part of birding--you don't always get your bird no matter how hard you try.

We survived the drive back to the twin cities area. We passed 5 cars that had slid off the road, 2 of which were lying upside down. We actually drove past Minneapolis to the town of Northfield to pick up my daughter who attends St. Olaf College. It was warm enough there that it was raining--a very uncommon occurrence this time of year in Northfield. We went back into Minneapolis to have dinner at a place called Azia--a fusion restaurant. It was the best meal we had in the northland, but it was mixed in quality. The appetizers and dessert were quite good, but the entrees left a lot to be desired.

So yesterday's birding added 3 birds for the week and 1 new species YTD. My friend from Missouri is already on a plane for home, and I am not birding today. I leave early tomorrow for Tucson, AZ. This will produce a new range of birds. Stay tuned!