The other day, I was sitting in the park around the corner from RAPTOR. Not a great day weather-wise, but a nice place to get my paperwork done before picking up the birds for a program.
There were plenty of birds to listen to....towhees, cardinals, a parula, and the high thin whistle of broad-winged hawks. If you think you've never heard a BWHA, think again. You might have just thought, "Oh, that's some songbird". Their call is very un-hawk-like:
So I'm enjoying the avian ambiance when I notice something on the roof of the shelter at the end of the parking lot.
Huh. Too big to be a leaf. Looks....sort of bird shaped.
Aw, hell. Is that a hawk???
(For the record, it really and truly did look like a headless hawk)
I squinted hard. And then my mind turned it into an injured broad-winged hawk. A hawk that needed my help, by Gawd!
I took a few photos of it, then got out of the car to plan my next move, namely how to get on the roof.
I was just about to try and drag a picnic table across the lawn when I stopped. Wait....it didn't have feathers. It had a .....husk.
Oh snap. It's corn.
I was about to risk life and limb to climb onto a roof to rescue corn.
If you don't remember it, just think back to before Tom Cruise went bat-shit crazy permanently.
Well, it's a good segue into my post tonight.
Muddlety Magic:
So, Saturday of the festival was Muddlety, my absolute favorite trip of all. For a refresher on my first day at Muddlety back in 2009, go here.Seriously. Go read that post. You'll understand the title of this post better.
This time around, we got Julie as our guide (plus Rudy, who comes up in a later post) and Geoff Heeter. Click here for an interview with Geoff.
The weather was fantastic. The group was fantastic. The guides were fantastic. The birds were fantastic.
I guess you can see a theme here, right?
Blah blah blah.
It's hard sometimes to really convey the wonderment of this place. It's not only birdy, it's also full of butterflies and very cool flora, and if you're lucky you might get a bear. Bear. BEar. BEAr. BEAR!!
:)
I was yet again verklempt. Choked with emotion, holding back tears all day. This special place just rips me apart on the inside, and as it goes through me, sews me up again into something new.
I warned Beth R. that I would be a mess, and she warned me that she would be a mess.
And she gave the quote of the day: "YOU VERKLEMPT ME."
Let's run through some photos. And you may notice a lack of bird photos. Well, I'm still working on my new camera. There are too many settings. And the camera has a higher IQ than I do.
We couldn't have asked for a better day.
Geoff Heeter, our host with the most.
(This is his Serious Birder face. I was so shocked to see him actually being serious, I had to get a photo of it)
Rudy, who is nearly 7 feet tall, avoids Warbler Neck all together by just laying down....
Beth Russell has spent five years trying to get a look at a Cerulean Warbler. Here, Julie is trying to call one in....
And finally, down the road.....we got it.
When we got back on the bus, I made Beth do the Life Bird Wiggle, which she did...with some extra "White Girl From Philly" Flare:
We flushed a turkey from her nest along a hill side, so Doug and Julie hopped up the rocks to take photos of the thirteen eggs, well hidden in the brush.
Where lunch is served.
British Soldier Lichen (and a bit of deer fur stuck to it)
Everyone jumped out of the bus to take photos of this...a pile of coyote scat covered in butterflies.
If you don't know about why butterflies do this...the males need certain minerals to complete their reproduction cycles, and this is why you will find hordes of them at puddles of mud and piles of poop.
Slow motion video of the butterflies getting their tasty on:
The largest Tulip Popular tree in West Virginia:
Geoff loves this tree.
SEVENTEEN of us. Scattered between the Farmhouse, the hotel, a motor home and two separate cabin rental places.
Most of us were there all week, but we had some stragglers.
Beth R. and Doug came in Wednesday night, so Thursday morning found us Birding by Butt on the Opossum Creek property. After getting my lifer Black-Billed Cuckoo:
(thank you, Julie!).....the three of us decided to go see this cool flower that Nina had found earlier in the day.
We hadn't even gotten to the top of the driveway before the shenanigans had started.
For the record, I wasn't really sure that Doug knew what he was getting into. He's a friend of Mary's and has heard all about this festival for years, and while he's a grown man and can take care of himself, I still worried. I mean, the Flock can be pretty raunchy and off-color, if you know what I mean.
Turns out, I didn't have to worry at ALL. He fits right in. Beth was slinging jabs at him and he was batting them back at her like a pro.
They actually made me blush a few times, and we all know how impossible that is.
Oh, yeah. The flower.
So there we are, trudging up the hill to find this tiny yellow flower. A yellow lady's slipper, to be exact, a small, pretty, native orchid.
I've seen lady's slippers before, but I wasn't sure if Beth or Doug had. So I tried to describe it. And unfortunately, I compared it to a scrotum. Well, you'd have thought the two of them were gonna die.
Now, look at this photo....it does look, well, sack-like, right?
So yeah. The fact that I said the word "scrotum" was enough to keep them going until we actually found the thing.
A very small, but gorgeous flower.
Then.
One of them (not sure who) said that the curly thingies on the sides looked like peyos (also peyot, payos, payess, peyess) on a Hasidic Jew.
And then it began again. They lumped it all together and came up with a combination that I am frankly afraid to type.
During the commotion, Beth decided to toss her camera down the hillside. When we had all wiped our eyes and took some deep breaths, Doug did the chivalrous thing and went in after it.
I really don't remember what he was doing as I took this photo, but I remember laughing hysterically about it. Remember, this was mid-week already. I was hung over and running on about 3 hours of sleep a night.
And as her camera was being retrieved, Beth got to hold Doug's big huge long lens.
Is it really necessary to add that this sent us around the bend once again?
Ooooh, two-handed hold there, Beth? Wowsa.
So it's begun...the New River Bird and Nature Festival. It's only day one, so we don't have a bounty of hilarious stories and photos yet.
It's been a long day, so for tonight I'm going to just show some people photos, so you all can see who's here:
(I don't have photos of everyone yet....and some of the ones I do will get me in trouble)
After taping my camera together since the last time it was broken, I really thought I could get by with it. It still took photos. The camera was just ugly. Then, the last straw: The shutter button fell off. I tried to repair it with rubber cement, but the mojo was gone.
So goodbye Dear Sony, who got me through 2 NRBNF, and 2 trips to New Jersey, countless bird walks around here, and some good years with the girls.
But I shall not mourn. Because I got a new one.
A Nikon P500. This is a point and shoot camera that thinks its a DSLR.
I still have to figure out all the settings, the bells, the whistles. But I'm very happy with it.
36x zoom. Crazy macro. It's just overwhelming.
Here are some preliminary shots:
(We haven't had any sun for about 2 weeks, so the light has been BLAH.)
The beginning of a serviceberry
Blue Jay (from about 30 feet away)
Peek-a-boo carpenter bee on the mailbox
Jake, my favorite Starbucks barista
The girls at the end of the driveway (they were about 100 feet away)
Kermit
Spring-Beauties
Garter snake, I think....he didn't want to be photographed
Honey bee on grape hyacinth
And a Prothonotary Warbler, singing his bright yellow butt off at Lake Isabella.
SWEET SWEET SWEET SWEET!!!
This is my third attempt at a post. The first two times, I was trying too hard and it came out stiff and unnatural. And boring.
Spring is here. Time to talk about the New River Bird and Nature Festival, and all that comes with it. I could write in a professional and solemn style, but who are we kidding here?
Sure, it's about the birds. Glorious warblers and thrushes and sparrows and some raptors thrown in and so many others. Lots of birds. LOTS.
Sure, it's about the guides. World-class guides. Both "big" names and local experts.
Sure, it's about the food. Hot breakfasts packed with protein (BACON!), spectacular dinners, cold but yummy lunches perched on a rock in the middle of nowhere. All of it is good.
But what's the real reason I go to this festival every year? What's the cherry on this fantastic sundae?
Though the beginning of The Flock was on the shores of New Jersey back in 2007, the ball really started rolling in 2009 when we all signed up for our first New River festival. Stayed at the Farmhouse, keeping late hours and peeing in raspberry canes. Gossiping into the cold night air on the front porch swing with Laura.
And this year, the group grows more. It's going to be insane fun, even more laughter, even more people to love. Hear that fizzing sound? That's the promoters taking lots of Alka-Seltzer.
There's so much that I have written about this festival. So if you want the real dope, go to this list of NRBNF posts. And if you want to join us this year, it's not too late. There are, as of right NOW, five spots left for each trip. And lodging options are still open....a few, anyway.
I'm not one for maudlin and weary posts about what I did or did not accomplish in the previous year. I usually just list what I did and move on to the next circuit around the sun.
As I celebrated my 38th birthday at the beginning of the year, I found myself frankly shaken by the number. Thirty eight? WTF? When did this happen? I feel like a 20 year old. This is wrong. Someone made a mistake.
But there it is. If you're born in 1973, it stands to reason that in 2011, you would be seeing forty not too far down the road. My fellow Flock members and anyone else reading this blog are free to roll your eyes, and call me a baby and tell me to put on my big girl panties.
But.
You were here once, weren't you? Approaching forty and wondering how it could have happened? Feeling a bit like time was running out to do something crazy, maybe?
That's how I feel. Now, I certainly don't want to "revisit my high school days" or even think about them very much. I think I would rather have too few hormones, like now, instead of having too many like back then. Remember what that was like??
My thirties have been really good. I got two great kids out of it. I discovered birding and RAPTOR. I have made the closest friends I have had since high school. Closer, even. (We know how fickle teenagers are)
So no whining there.
Even though forty is lurking over the next rise in the road, am I sad? Bitter?
As I reflect, my gut instinct is to say NO. For the reasons I stated above, and for so much more.
So I'm 38. Big deal. It's how you feel, right? And since I border on grossly immature, I'm ahead of the curve. I'm already cantankerous, so I don't have to learn as I go.
Yeah, my knees aren't as quiet as they once were. My ability to stay up all night, while not completely gone, is a bit diminished. I fell asleep sitting up the other day, a la Grandma. My boobs don't look anyone in the eye anymore.
I find myself saying things like, "Just because your best friend has a phone doesn't mean YOU get one" and "Because I'm your mother!" and "Geoff, pass me the Geritol".
(Geoff, to give the man some street cred, still calls me his trophy wife. He's a big fat liar, but it's the thought that counts.)
I'm not letting all this stop me, though. In fact, I'm better than I've ever been. I'm still fun enough to be enjoyable, but I have all this responsibleness that will keep me out of jail, most of the time. I still make friends easily, but the friends I am choosing now are stellar, steadfast and true.
So this was less of a bitch-fest and more of a thinking out loud post. Thanks for reading through it.
Next post: Preparing for this year's New River Bird and Nature Festival, which fits neatly behind this post, because the Flock makes me feel young and free and giggly and sloshy. Paco! More vino, por favor!!
