Birds: Sandy Pond

Yesterday Jared Caster and I took a trip up to Sandy Pond in northern Oswego county. We spent four hours out on the sand bar and had sixteen species of shorebirds! Wasn't great lighting for my camera (the Western Sandpiper especially doesn't look nearly as bright as it did) but I did manage a few pics:

American Golden-Plover

Red Knots

Western Sandpiper

Ruddy Turnstone

Stilt Sandpiper

It was a great day to be out birding. I've picked up five new year birds this week bringing my 2007 North American year list up to 314!

Very Virtuous Vermont Vacation

I just got back yesterday from a nice vacation with the Zieglers and the Culattas. We rented a neat old house on the bottom of Lake Champlain in Vermont. Had a great time! Here are some pics...

Me and Sarah

Me and Dan

Me and Turtle

Did some kayaking, swimming, hiking, eating, reading, general frolicking, etc. We also went to the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury. We went through an undisclosed (ie very substantial)quantity of 'Vermont's Finest' by the end of the week! There's nothing like an ice cream trip to W.A.G.S. for a good afternoon cool-off. In addition to 67 bird species, we also saw a cool tree toad (pic1 and pic2) and a very active honey bee hive. But in the category of merry-making, nothing really compares to taking annoying pictures of Dan (pic1, pic2, pic3, pic4). Another highlight of the week was visiting one of my all-time favorite lunch places: The Park Squeeze in Vergenes. Awesome food. Really, really awesome food. So, I'm back for a week-and-a-half now before running off to Arkansas, Texas and Colorado. Cow-a-bunga everyone!

My Summer Reading

Hello again. Hope you're all having a great summer. Things are good with me. Quite good actually. I've been working a lot recently. Doing lots of driving. This weekend I put on 757 miles going to and from various gigs! Sarah and I are getting a little busier with wedding plans as well. We started looking at some honeymoon options over the weekend. The plan is to spend some time on the coast in Maine and New Brunswick but there's still a bunch of details that need to get worked out. I've been reading a bunch of fantasy novels this summer. I finished my second run through Lord of the Rings in July. A week or two later I got into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Then I read this book called The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I had never heard of it before but I guess it's pretty well known. It was great! Thanks so much to Linda for sending me a copy. And finally, I just finished my second run through The Golden Compass on Saturday night. I think I'll try and finish the next two books in the series before I start anything else. Really interesting plot. So that's what I've been reading. I have had a little birding time lately and I'm hoping for more this week. Migration's getting underway so I need to try and pick up a few of the birds I missed this spring. My camera hasn't been feeling well for a while so I don't have any new photos :-( Maybe a new battery will help. More soon I hope.