2009!

Happy New Year! May you all have a wonderful, happy, and successful 2009!

May your next bird be a lifer!!

Wordless Wednesday

New York City on December 30, 2008

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to everyone out there!

Nasty East Coast Weather

This week we are in New Jersey. And the weather sucks. It snowed on Friday, then it turned to rain, then it turned to sleet. Woke up Saturday to an RV encased in ice. Fun. We're at Bill's sister's house in Glen Gardner and as of right now, we may not be able to leave until Spring. Today is Sunday. Yesterday it really didn't do anything precipitation wise, but early this morning it started the rain/sleet thing again. Bill is now on the roof trying to get the ice off. The water pump doesn't like the cold, either.

I really don't remember this kind of weather when I lived here. I guess that's because I didn't do a lot of driving then. Or something. Mostly I think it's the changing weather patterns. At least in Alaska we didn't get the ice. Snow I can deal with. The real funny thing is the other day, a weather person was predicting "frigid" temperatures. In the 20s. Believe me, 20s are not "frigid." Negative 20s are frigid. Oh well. I guess it's all relative. All I can say is 2 more weeks and Florida here we come!!!

On the bird front, everybody seems to be laying low these days. As we drove up the road the other day, there were a lot of Juncos along the sides. There was also a small flock of chipping sparrows next to the RV yesterday morning looking for breakfast. They didn't stick around long. And I finally saw a cardinal. A male cardinal. It's not that I've never seen one before, it's just that they are so beautiful in their bright red (oh, it was a male), especially against the fresh white snow. Very Christmasy, if you know what I mean.

So, if all goes well, we will be moving on to Pennsylvania this week. We are going to spend time with both sets of parents before leaving for Florida and points south (and warm). We may need to rethink Montana, too. It's very cold and snowy there now too. Arizona? New Mexico? Argentina? I'll keep you posted.

Socorro, New Mexico and the Festival of the Cranes

Here are pictures from the Bosque Del Apache NWR where the Festival of the Cranes was held in November. Check out Bill's blog for better pictures. I'll add more when I get a chance.

Bird List: Snow Goose (duh!)
Sandhill Crane (would have been a wasted trip without seeing at least one of these),
Canada Goose
American Crow
American Widgeon
Northern Pintail
Northern Shoveler
Northern Harrier
Gamble's Quail
Chihuahuan Raven
Brewer's Blackbird
Red-Wing Blackbird
Western Grebe
Bufflehead
Bald Eagle
Mallard
House Sparrow
Killdeer
Great-Tailed Grackle
American Coot
Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Hooded Merganser
Pied-Bill Grebe
Red-Tailed Hawk
Ring-Neck Pheasant
White-Crowned Sparrow
Greater Roadrunner
American Kestrel
American Robin
Canvasback
Western Meadowlark
Black Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
House Finch
Northern Flicker
Ross's Goose
Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Not a bad list. I'm sure there were lots more, but like I stated before, LBJs drive me nuts! I'm not as confident in my birding abilities here in the Lower 48. But I'm working on it.

It's raining today, after 3 days of very cold weather, even for an Alaskan. Cold enough to keep you indoors anyway. Mall doors. :o)

Out of Flagstaff

The first thing we did on our way out of Flagstaff is stop at the Meteor Crater. Neither of us had heard about this until Cheryl's husband Michael said that we really needed to see it. And he was right. Thank you Michael!

Meteor crater is just that. A meteor had at one time, million of years ago, hit Arizona and left this large crater. It was really neat to take the tour and learn all about the history and the natives in the area and what they thought of the crater. And it was really cool.

Then we went to Petrified Forest National Park. We didn't have a whole lot of time, but it was really neat to see. Hopefully one day we will go back and really take a look at the history and all that went with it.

Next, Socorro, New Mexico and the Festival of the Cranes.

Back to Flagstaff

So, while we were in Flagstaff, Arizona (the place where it snowed on us), we took a side trip to Sunset Crater. This is a volcanic crater. You never really think of Arizona as being volcanic in nature, but there are a lot of volcanoes there. The mountains that surround the area are actually volcanoes. Pretty cool place. There are lava flows the cross the road and then there is one place that you can actually walk through it. It reminded me a lot of Hawaii, except it didn't have that "tropical" feeling.

One of the other places we visited was Wupatki National Monument. Let me tell you. Being an Anthropology student, the place had me. I could have spent hours there. However, they are no longer doing any archaeological digs there do due its being sacred to the Native Americans whose ancestors lived there. Doesn't matter though. I still could have spent a lot of time there. We were losing light, though and had to get back to the dogs. Oh well.

Next installment...what we did after Flagstaff. Stay tuned...