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.

Hardly chilly

John is winging his way to Newfoundland. Hope birds are too. Today, there is snow there, tomorrow, almost certainly rain. The rest of his stay will be in the 30's with little or no precipitation. Not bad for January.

Minnesota needs some good storms before the Sax-Zim birding festival in February. Hawk Owls are sparse this year. There was a festival a few years back that was cut short by weather but at least there were Hawk Owls. We'll just have to take whatever the fates want to offer us. Northern Lights would be nice.

It is sunny and 60 degrees here in Southern California. The Allen's Hummingbird is spitting and popping his creds. The House Wren and Orange-Crowned Warbler are looking for rentals. I'm just glad to be home.