Nine months along!

No, we are not expecting, but when we arrived home last week we found a bundle of 'joys' on our doorstep, shaky health, flaky finances, quaky car and broken blog. I am happy to say we are in the process of finding homes for all those problems.

John is getting over his cold. I have gotten inhalers for asthma. It seems to flare up rarely, maybe all the stress? The id theft was minor and months ago, so hopefully that will just go away with vigilance now that we have reported it.

The dealership just called to say the new transmission seems to have fixed the problem with my Rav4. The car would balk going in reverse up hill, not a good trait to have on a narrow mountain road with an ominous puddle ahead. At first, the mechanics swore there was nothing wrong with the transmission because no lights were lit up on their testing machines. They convinced us to replace the engine mounts, the clunking was still there. Now the clunk is gone. We just hadn't thrown enough money at the problem.

Last night, my email from Google said that a human had decided I wasn't SPAM. Nice to know. I am back in the blogosphere! Some of my recent posts will be out of order while I catch up.

Why the title? Our friend, Roy Poucher, did a big year in 1998 and came in fourth. Yes, that was the year Sandy Komito set the record. Roy blew out some car engines, his business suffered, he ate LOTS of meager meals, he went to some wonderful places and met wonderful people. Along the way, he met a girl who would join him at various hotspots and rare bird sightings. That made the grueling process a lot less grueling. Now that we are in the midst of a big year, we really admire Roy for hanging in there.

At the beginning of John's big year, Roy warned him that September (THE NINTH MONTH) is the month many big year pursuers drop out. John has been looking up some of the fairly common birds he has yet to get, kind of discouraging. It is tough to warrant traveling to a spot for one bird that you will see only if you are really lucky and the bird is still there. John does have some pelagics scheduled and a trip to Louisiana with Dan Lane of Wings. Maybe the coming winter will be more normal and drive out some of the birds we missed because of the mild winter that started the year. Maybe rarities will show up where ever we go. Maybe I will try to go along on most of the rest of John's search parties. I can help him see and hear, make sure he eats three meals a day, and that we have somewhere to sleep each night. Maybe we will keep plugging away until the end of the year.

Nome again

John had a great time on his second day of birding around Nome with the Wings tour group. Besides adding the Willow Ptarmigan, American Tree Sparrow and Fox Sparrow to his big year list, his tour group went out on the famous Nome highway.  Yesterday, I wrote about an incident at the Bristle-Thighed Curlew bluff years ago when curlews flew down to the van on the road so that people who decided not to climb the bluff saw them and the people that did climb the bluff did not. Well, this time, most of the group started scaling the hummocky tundra slope while a few stayed back at the van. Sure enough, when the climbing group was about halfway up, the non-climbers radioed that a curlew was flying about the van. Then it flew up the slope nearer to the climbers and they got fair looks. Some members of the group were satisfied and went back down. John and a few others stayed on the slope to try to get better looks and photos. They actually found the curlew again and got great photos. John is very happy. When he and I, did the climb several years ago, I saw a curlew flying away, at least, the guides told me it was a curlew, and John didn't see it at all. Now he has another ABA life bird.

The curlew bluff was at mile marker 72. They went out to 74.4 to see the Bluethroat, turned back toward Nome and at mile marker 42 got sort of looks at the Gyrfalcon on its nest. The best for John was the Arctic Warbler at 24.4 because everyone told John he was too early for it. 

For added fun, a really grizzled grizzly bear lumbered along down the creek next to the road. 

John has an ABA big year total of 526.

There's no place like Nome!

Finally, a long phone conversation with my husband, John, who is now in Nome, so I have something to blog about!

After Attu/Adak John was up to 500 species of birds for the year to date in the ABA North American Region. After Gambell (5/27 to 6/4) he was at 514 and after one day of birding in Nome his total is 519.

Gambell was COLD and WINDY. It's a village of about 600 Yupiks on the north end of St. Lawrence Island. The island is in the Bering Sea, 65 miles from Russia and 210 miles from Nome. Soft drinks and alcohol are banned there and the Wings tour group John was with were required to bring their own drinking water. The village is wedged between a mountain and the sea. Most of the coastal shelf it perches on is made up of rounded stones, pebble to boulder size. Very difficult terrain to walk on, so the tour group moved around with ATV's. They birded the drainage ditch, the little lake, the air strip, the boneyard (centuries of hunting) and the shore, then did it all again the next day.

Some of the highlights for John were - seeing all the species of eider ducks, comparing Common Ringed (asian) and Semi-Palmated (american) plovers side by side, the Red-Necked Stint and the Lesser Sand Plover. Truly spectacular were the thousands upon thousands of birds streaming past just offshore, heading north to their breeding grounds. As the group were gathering their gear for the flight from Gambell to Nome, a White-Tailed Eagle soared over and gave everyone a good view. A nice farewell.

Nome seemed almost tropical compared to Gambell. In one day, John added Sabine's Gull, Red Phalarope, Yellow Wagtail, Tundra Swan and Arctic Loon to his list, the last loon he needed.

Wednesday, June 6th, the Wings group will head out at 4 AM to see the infamous Bristle-Thighed Curlew. For those who have led a sheltered life, the curlews nest on top of a high bluff covered with spongy hummocks of tundra that John will have to scale with his bad knees. Once, years ago, the birds flew down to the tour van on the road below so the people who opted out of the climb saw the curlews and the climbers didn't. That's what makes birding so much fun!

Adieu Attu, off to gambol on Gambell

My husband, John, called from Adak to tell me about his boat trip to Attu sponsored by Z Tours. Since he was there for the birds, I'll tell you about the ABA area life birds he got first. Some of these birds we have seen on other  continents, but to count on your ABA life list you have to see them in the ABA area, which is the continental North America above the Mexican border. Since Attu is on the continental shelf, it counts, whereas Hawaii doesn't. On Attu, he saw the Common Snipe, Brambling, Wood Sandpiper, Oriental Greenfinch and Smew. At sea, he got the Red-Legged Kittiwake. On Adak, he got the Hawfinch and the Emperor Goose. So he is now up to 677 for his ABA life list.

Then there are the many additional birds John saw for the first time this year. Notable ones were 5 auklets, 3 albatross, 3 murrelets and 2 puffins.  If he is ever home long enough to make a species list, I will link it to this blog. For the year to date, he has seen 500 species in the ABA area. He would love to see at least 200 more by December 31st.

The weather wasn't bad on Attu, in the 40's but mostly clear. John said the water in the bay they anchored in was like glass. For ten days, they got off the boat and bicycled around the island looking for birds. Two days, John's bike needed repairs so he walked. The crew did a great job. Bill was the captain, his daughter, Colette, was the first mate, Nicole was the cook (really good cook) and Jake was the handyman/bike repairer and videographer. John of Z Tours and Isaac were the guides and there were 8 participants. A lady from Maine persuaded 4 friends to come with her so they really made the trip a go.

John was in Anchorage last night and today, May 28th, Memorial Day, joined a Wings tour flying to Gambell for five full days of birding then Nome for a couple more. John will fly to Chicago, June 8th, to do laundry at our son's home. The 9th he flies to Norfolk VA for a Brian Petteson pelagic the 10th. Then on and on.

I should be able to blog more frequently once John is back to regular cell phone coverage.

Aaaugh! Brain Freeze!

Spring is upon us, which means taxes and birding. So while John slogged through the taxes the last few days, I played travel agent and spent MONEY.

Today, I booked John with Larry Manfredi to the Dry Tortugas, April 21st-24th.

He had already paid Z tours for a boat trip to Attu from Adak. A Wings tour to Gambell and Nome starts the day Z tours ends. I got him on that today also. Here's hoping all the connections just connect and that the wind is from the west!

So today, I had to book flights for him from here May 8th to Anchorage to Adak and back and then the Wings tour and then to Chicago, where I will meet him June 8th. Where and when we go from there, I don't know.

I just got back from the post office where I mailed taxes and tour payments. John just left for AZ, TX and CO. I am supposed to meet him the beginning of April, tentatively in Missouri, then we will head for Florida and the Gulf Coast and eventually he will get back to California to head for Alaska. I will, well, I don't know what I'll be doing until I meet him in Chicago.

So my brain is in the deep freeze. I am going to pour myself a tall one and watch the Allen's Hummingbird build her nest in a potted plant under our patio roof. It is probably a good choice for her. Two years ago, a storm washed ALHU babies out of a nest. I only found one the next morning and placed it on the remnants of the nest. It successfully fledged. The next year, I watched a damned Eastern Fox Squirrel (introduced pest) trying to scare a ALHU mother off a nest. Later that day, the nest was gone. So, next to the house under the roof might be a good location.

Birding is good exercise for the brain, gets you out in the open air in exotic places, gets you running with a very nice crowd, and the magical life of birds, their all out, pedal to the metal, quest to survive and reproduce is good for your soul.