Andrew's Blog: Birds & Music

I done been Falcated!

2012-01-31T16:01:00.001-08:00

I saw some terrific birds out in California on this trip. Biggest highlights were FALCATED DUCK and ARCTIC LOON followed by California Condor, Thayer's Gull, Spotted and Short-eared Owl. This is my full trip report. Pics at the bottom...

JANUARY 16 – I've had an exciting start to my California trip! On January 13 we drove from Mountain View to San Luis Obispo on Route 1 along the coast. We stopped in Monterey where I was excited to find a RHINOCEROUS AUKLET in the harbor. Also had nice looks at many Mew Gulls; a species I've had little experience with so far. Somewhere near Big Sur we pulled over to check out the scenery and I was extremely lucky to glance up the slope behind us where an adult CALIFORNIA CONDOR was perched! This wasn't my first encounter with a condor; back in 2008 I had a brief view of one flying by in almost the exact same location. Very nice, slightly distant views this time around. The bird waited until I had my camera ready, then lazily flew off. Yellow wing tag was #22 I believe. Truly impressive. I also had a couple GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROWS here which were my first in several years. Now for the really exciting part... yesterday morning I was able to see the ARCTIC LOON (Life Bird) at San Simeon Lagoon in San Luis Obispo county! Beautiful looks at close range in great light. Dosen't get a whole lot better and I was able to get some really nice pics. I've also made some progress identifying THAYER'S GULLS in a couple different plumages. There was a nice adult right at San Simeon, first time I've been confident about finding that bird on my own. Noah and I checked some spots along the coast on our way back and found a few shorebirds; Black Oystercatchers, Black Turnstones, Long-billed Curlews, Snowy Plovers, etc. My year list is now at 85.
January 24 – Got home yesterday evening from California. It was a great trip with lots of birding highlights. On January 17 we visited Mill Valley, CA in Marin county. At the end of Elinor Road there was a trail that Noah and I had been on a couple years ago. This time we found a single SPOTTED OWL sitting in a bay tree directly over the trail. So much easier this time. Varied Thrush and “Sooty” Fox Sparrow were other nice finds along the trail. The following day we drove all the way up to the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge where we had the amazing, continuing, celebrity FALCATED DUCK (Life Bird) near the viewing platform. What a bird! I really wasn't prepared for just how cool this bird was. I'd seen some pics online but hadn't looked it up in a field guide because I didn't expect to go see it. It's plumage was impeccable; even in dim light the head had this beautiful purple sheen when I looked through someone's scope. The bird was actively feeding and my own pics don't do it justice. Other notable birds present were two CACKLING GEESE (not Richardson's, probably Aleutian, so a new subspecies!), a drake EURASIAN WIGEON, wonderful looks at Cinnamon Teal and the most Greater White-fronted Geese I've ever seen at one time. That evening we stopped on Skaggs Island Road by the north bay and were treated to an impressive show with at least 10 SHORT-EARED OWLS, White-tailed Kites and Northern Harriers all cruising the fields in great light. Most were too distant to photograph but we had really great looks. Great end to a great day of birding. Picked up a few more new year birds during the rest of the trip. On January 21 we found a flock of SURFBIRDS, Black Turnstones and Sanderling in “the cove” just south of Davenport, Santa Clara county. My year list is now at 128.

Falcated DuckArctic Loon

California CondorSpotted Owl

California, Mew & Thayer's Gulls

Cruising the left coast

2012-01-31T14:29:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from our recent trip out to California

Great Bear played the fabulous Contra Carnivale dance weekend along with our good friends Elixir

Hehehe!

An incredible highlight of the trip for me was watching the Elephant Seals near San Simeon

Amazing animals...

The males were so huge! Easily the size of our minivan. The pics don't quite do them justice

Bubbles!!!

A return to the nameless cove The lighthouse at Pigeon Point

My first post of 2012

2012-01-16T12:05:00.000-08:00

Hello friends. Yikes... January is almost over and I haven't put up a blog post yet! 2012 is off to a good start for us. The new album is coming along splendidly. Finished mixing a couple weeks ago and working on the artwork right now. Photo shoot with the band tomorrow. Also we're busy getting our Kickstarter rewards made up. Took a great trip out to California for a couple weeks. I'll post some of those pics separately I think. Been able to do some birding too which has been great. Year list is off to a good start. Booking shows for later this spring. Reading a cool book called Life of Pi right now. Almost done with it. Life is good and busy. So... more soon but I gotta run now.

Kailyn's awesome victory dance...

2011-12-24T05:55:00.000-08:00

Reflections on the Dietary Habits of Noah VanNorstrand (Vol. VI ~ 2011)

2011-12-15T09:30:00.000-08:00

There's excitement brewing in the air. An unexplained anticipation that you can almost taste. Everywhere you look people are preparing for the big event; bustling about in the most merry-iest of manners. In can only mean one thing... it's time once again for Reflections on the Dietary Habits of Noah VanNorstrand (Vol. VI ~ 2011)!

I'd like to begin this year's selection with a breakfast suite. Noah's ambition was without bounds this particular spring morning at The Mountain House in Boone, NCHis mood was a bit more down-to-business at Absolute Bagel in
New York CityThough it seems his enthusiasm returned in force with his plate of fried donuts at The Ram's Head Tavern (I'm pretty sure) in Annapolis, MDThroughout our travels we often have the privilege of sharing a meal with certain close confidantes. In this case, one Chris Miller lent his assistance with a dish of ice cream in Key West, FLMr Michael Hamilton arrived just in time for some Thai curried duck in Akron, OHBryce Carlberg and Tony Hernandez could only watch as Noah downed one of his classic plain cheeseburgers (with cheese)
here in Lexington, KYThe aforementioned Chris Miller was joined by the one and only Dana Billings to cheer Noah on with his hotdog at Casey's Diner in Natick, MABack to some solo shots... these gourmet potato chips came from none other than The Gourmet Chip Company in Asheville, NC (I know two pics from the same state is kind of cheating but we spent a lot of time in North Carolina this year)This next shot is pretty self explanatory: The Cookie Cabin on the top of Mt Lemmon, AZBut not every meal ends so well, such as this outing at a Denny's outside of Sacramento, CAThe "piece de resistance" was this delicious Ethiopian masterpiece, with plenty of injera of course, here in Denver, COI'd like to dedicate this final parting shot to all the unsung, unknown, undocumented but no less delicious meals that Noah has had on the road this past year...
If your appetite hasn't been satiated yet, check out some of my previous Reflections on the Dietary Habits of Noah VanNorstrand

Volume V ~ 2010
Volume IV ~ 2009
Volume III ~ 2008
Volume II ~ 2007
Volume I ~ 2006

St Vincent, Paul Simon, Decemberists, Wilco

2011-12-10T06:39:00.001-08:00

Here are a few of my favorite songs by a few of my favorite bands off of a few of my favorite albums of 2011...

Elk River Falls

2011-12-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry about my lack of posting recently. Over Thanksgiving weekend GBT played for Turkey Twirl II in North Carolina. We had a really great weekend and got to hang out with some terrific folks. But then I left my camera and laptop at the hall and I just got them back. That's my story anyway. So here are some pics from our gang's little afternoon trip to Elk River Falls...

Me, Tracy, Logan, Systke, Jesse, Ian #1, Ian #2 and Noah

Little Brown Bird Bonanza

2011-11-16T09:33:00.001-08:00

My trip report from Arizona...

November 15 – Finally on our way home today. Noah and I arrived in Phoenix, AZ on November 8 and drove down to Tucson that afternoon. Very early on November 9 I met local bird guide Stuart Healy in Sierra Vista and we headed out for some targeted birding. My focus for this trip was on sparrows and flycatchers. We started out in the San Rafael Valley right at dawn, checking the wire fences for sparrows as they came up out of the grass. We had wonderful looks at Savannah, Vesper and Grasshopper Sparrows. It took a little searching but eventually we had roughly six BAIRD'S SPARROWS (Life Bird) join the others on the fence! Spectacular looks in the early morning sun. I really enjoyed this bird; even more than I thought I would. With my first main target out of the way we spent some time looking for other interesting open country birds. No luck with Sprague's Pipit though while we were looking we found another beautiful and very cooperative Baird's Sparrow. We waited around for a long time before we had a flock of CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPURS (Life Bird) fly over. Definitely a “better view desired” species. I heard them call and noticed their flight pattern but it was an exceptionally bad and brief look. A very pale and distant Merlin was a nice find here though. On our way out of the valley we made a more-or-less random stop to investigate some habitat along the road. There was a lot of activity in the area including a nice GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Phainopepla and another one of my main targets BLACK-CHINNED SPARROW (Life Bird)! This was a nice surprise and I had some great scope views. Next we headed to Patagonia Lake State Park. The wind had begun to pick up and things got more difficult to track down. We did have a flock of LARK BUNTINGS (Life Bird) along the entrance road. After a long time searching Stuart eventually found a pair of RUFOUS-WINGED SPARROWS (Life Bird) hunkered down in the bushes. I had fantastic looks at them but only managed some mediocre photos. Then we switched our focus to flycatchers and walked the birding trail up along the creek. Pretty early on we found two GRAY FLYCATCHERS (Life Bird) but after a couple hours of looking we still couldn't turn up either a Dusky or Hammond's unfortunately. On our way out, feeling somewhat defeated, we had a fantastic consolation bird: a male BLACK-CAPPED GNATCATCHER (Life Bird) in with a group of titmice and nuthatches. I honestly felt a little out of my league distinguishing this bird from a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. The visual differences were very subtle and I wasn't prepared to know what to look for in this plumage. Fortunately the bird was very responsive to a tape, called often and gave unbelievably close views. That evening Noah and I drove around the eastern portion of the Saguaro National Park and I was able to add Rock Wren, Brewer's and Black-throated Sparrows to my list. The next day I met Stuart in Sonoita and we attempted to “clean up” some of the things we missed the day before. Started out by thoroughly birding Pena Blanca Lake. On our way we happened across a pair of CASSIN'S KINGBIRDS which was nice. At the lake we added some birds for my trip list including 15+ LEAST GREBES, Lincoln's, Lark and White-throated Sparrows but unfortunately, still no luck with the empids. So it was back to Patagonia Lake. Pretty remarkably, Stuart was able to get a CASSIN'S SPARROW (Life Bird) to come out in the open for some good looks. I know this species is supposedly very easy in the spring but I was excited to add it to my sparrow bonanza. We spent the rest of our time together diligently looking for my missing empids with no luck. Pretty frustrating, though again we had a nice consolation with an ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER (Life Bird) that posed for some pics and called a few times. BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLER and LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCH were nice as well. On November 11 Noah and I met up with mom and Dave and we decided to drive up Mount Lemmon. New birds for the trip were a CACTUS WREN on the way in a McDonald's parking lot, a surprise CANYON WREN along the road and great looks at YELLOW-EYED JUNCO. The weekend passed by uneventfully in birding terms. On November 14 Noah and I took a morning birding detour / scenic route back to Phoenix. We began by trying (unsuccessfully) to get to the Sweetwater Wetlands and we pulled over in Christopher Columbus Park just to check Noah's iPhone for directions. I happened to look over the hedge row and found a pair of ABERT'S TOWHEES (Life Bird) right there, next to the car! Unfortunately they flushed when I walked over toward them and I never did get a pic but it was a good start to the day. Other birds in the hedge row included more LAWRENCE'S GOLDFINCHES and Orange-crowned Warblers. After that we drove out toward the Desert Museum, west of Tucson. We spent some time just hanging out in the habitat. CURVE-BILLED THRASHERS were pretty easy to find. It took a while but I finally had some good looks at GILDED FLICKER (Life Bird), my last North American woodpecker, not counting Ivory-billed of course. Already doing very well, our final day still had a couple more good birds like wonderful looks at a Peregrine Falcon, another flock of Lark Buntings and just to round things out, several SAGE SPARROWS. That evening, back in Phoenix I had a mysterious NIGHTHAWK species flying around over the neighborhood we were staying in. I didn't have bins with me and didn't hear it call so I really have no idea which one it was, though I suspect Lesser is probably more likely. Oh well. I ended the week with 108 species, including eleven lifers. But the number I'm most excited about... 20 species of sparrows plus 4 towhees! I love being able to focus on one family like that. My year list is now at 366.

Cassin's Sparrow

Curve-billed ThrasherYellow-eyed JuncoCactus WrenBlack-capped GnatcatcherAsh-throated FlycatcherLark BuntingGilded Flicker

And my personal favorite... Baird's Sparrow

Ptotally Pterrific Ptarmigans

2011-11-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Final day of our very successful Colorado mini-tour. Noah and I have been out here for about a week now. We played in Denver, Boulder and Fort Collins. Got to reconnect with some old friends as well as do some birding! On Friday we ventured all the way up to Guanella Pass where, after a long time searching (and a substantial amount of huffing and puffing at 11,ooo ft) I found a group of five WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN! Such amazing birds. Life Bird #600 though that does include 40+ species from our trip to Europe last February. Anyway, here are some more pics...Noah and Carolyn on top of Guanella PassA pair of Golden EaglesMy first ever Big Horn Sheep!Off to Arizona tomorrow! Woohoo! Hey... major thanks to Paul Somlo and Gail Barry for their generous help with logistics and hospitality this week. Couldn't have done it without you!

Texas Birds

2011-11-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

My trip report from Texas last week...

On October 31 Noah and I took off for a brief visit to the Rio Grande. It was a long drive but we did have some great birds. We started out in San Ygancio looking for seedeaters. Unfortunately we couldn't find any but down along the river we had some nice common valley birds like GREAT KISKADEE, COUCH'S KINGBIRD, GREEN JAY, INCA DOVE, PYRHULOXIA, ect. There were tons of sparrow, the majority of which seemed to be Lincoln's. NEOTROPIC CORMORANTS were side by side with Double-crested down by the water. A nice, non-breeding FRANKLIN'S GULL flew past us a couple times. This was almost a lifer since my only sighting of this species was back in 200_ of a bird in upstate New York! After a while we had an adult GRAY HAWK sitting in a tree and an enormous kingfisher perched on the American side. I had to wait till the bird flew across the river into Mexico before I was 100% sure but it was indeed a RINGED KINGFISHER (Life Bird)! Although somewhat distant, we had good looks and got to hear it's amazing call. We continued down the valley, adding HARRIS'S HAWK, CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN and Sandhill Crane. A stop at in Zapata still didn't get us any seedeaters but I did have a nice GREEN KINGFISER making this my first ever three-kingfisher day! Also in the area was a lovely VERMILLION FLYCATCHER. Late afternoon we headed to Bentsen RGV State Park. Spent most of our time waiting for a Black-vented Oriole that has been in the area. No luck there but it was still a lovely evening with lots of nice birds. LEAST GREBE and CAVE SWALLOWS gave us some nice looks. PLAIN CHACHALACAS were of course all over the place. Had both CURVE-BILLED and LONG-BILLED THRASHERS, WHITE-TIPPED DOVE and BLACK-CRESTED TITMOUSE on our short walk into the park. As it was getting dark we heard multiple calling EASTERN SCHREECH-OWLS and saw several COMMON PARAQUES. The next morning we looked unsuccessfully for Green Parakeets in McAllen and spent a little time at Santa Ana NWR. Nothing too exciting but OLIVE SPARROW and COMMON GROUND-DOVE were nice. On our way out of the valley we were treated to brief looks at a beautiful WHITE-TAILED HAWK. Back in Austin that night I happened to SEE(!) a small owl fly into a tree outside the house we were staying at. It stayed put so I went and got Noah's iPhone. Almost immediately after playing their call I had at least four different EASTERN SCREECH-OWLS responding. A couple of them flew right in and I even got some decent looks at one that perched in the light of the neighbor's garage door. These were my first looks at Eastern Screech-Owls in probably about 10 years! The curse has been broken! Final new year birds of the trip were an unexpected pair of MONK PARAKEETS at the airport! About 100 birds for the trip so far. Year list is at 325.

Mountain PloverGreat Kiskadee Plain ChachalacaGreen JayAnd some non-birds...

Andrew & Noah's KICKSTARTER project

2011-11-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. Okay, here it is... our first Kickstarter project! And in just the first day we've raised almost $2000! Pretty exciting. Check it out...

Robots in Texas

2011-10-30T20:58:00.001-07:00

This just in... the much-feared pseudo-psycho-alter-ego contra band GIANT ROBOT DANCE was once again spotted on the move, this time staging an invasion of a quaint, unsuspecting Texas hill country town by the name of Austin. Casualties are unknown at this time.At it again... Compressor, Trombot, The Vortex, Thumper and Aaron...-bot I guess. But this time they were joined by the mistresses of misery, sirens of pain, enchantresses of agony, muses of no-mercy... Beth and Rebecca MolaroAhhh...... Paul! Look out! It's attacking you! Paul... don't just stand there Paul! Run away! Ahhhh............Michaela and Kyra Hawkins ladies and gentlemen... in case you needed any more proof that we are in every way, bad influences...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The past couple weeks...

2011-10-21T12:22:00.000-07:00

Just got time for a quick post. I've really enjoyed being home the past couple weeks. Feels like I've been able to reconnect a bit. Sarah and I helped out with this year's Phylla Mae Fall Fest. I really enjoy going to dances when I don't have to play. I love dancing of course but I also enjoy just hanging out :-) Anyway, the band was Magic Foot and they were terrific! Noah, Kailyn, Dana and I spent a few days this week at Wilburland doing the final tracking and editing on the new Andrew & Noah Band album. It's sounding so good! Can't wait to get it mixed and released. It's a big project for us. A big band, big songs. Kailyn did a terrific job with her songs. And Will was awesome as always. We've been working Will pretty hard. This was after a particularly long session... Thanks Will. Hey, have you seen Sarah's sexy new haircut...Yeah, I know! Anyway, home for a few more days then off to Texas, Colorado and Arizona. Looking forward to seeing Gillian Welch and David Rawlings on Sunday night in Ithaca. Much love and congratulations to Travis and Ashley who are tying the knot out in Ohio this weekend! That's all the posting I've got time for right now.

California Celtic Fest and more

2011-10-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this at about 4:00am on my red-eye flight back home from a pretty awesome week out in California. And I'm listening to Beck sing Golden Age. Good song. Anyway, The Andrew & Noah Band played at KVMR's Celtic Fest up in Grass Valley last weekend. Sweet gig! It was something of a catch-all festival. You had your Irish bands and your Scottish bands of course. Bagpipes, accordions, fiddles, flutes, harps, bodhrans, etc. Lots of lovely accents. The unavoidable Celtic nyckelharpa player. The obligatory Celtic djembes. The essential Celtic Grateful Dead covers. Not to mention all the Celtic paraphernalia... Celtic broad swords, long swords, short swords, fake swords, real swords, curvy swords, daggers, battle axes, cross-bows and face glitter. Then there were Celtic faeries. Celtic elves. Pretty sure I saw Peter Pan at one point. Celtic pirates, wizards, ninjas, hobbits and bellydancers. Celtic fire-breathing dragon?Check. How about giant Celtic wolfhounds?Check. Then there was a Celtic stilt juggler...Celtic knights in armor, working on their skills...And Celtic fencing! Not to mention copious Celtic libations. Basically, it was like a regular music festival... in Narnia. But we had a great time! I actually flew into San Francisco a few days early and got to hang out, get some work done, go birding. Caught up with fellow Ashokan alum (and founding member of The Young & The Restless) Alyssa BusseyAnd I got to see ROBERT PLANT, for FREE(!) at
Hardly Strictly BluegrassActually, the pic above is of the Del McCoury Band / Preservation Hall Jazz Band set which was good. And M Ward was pretty good too. But Robert Plant & Band of Joy... wow! Such a great performance. Of course, having Darrell Scott, Patty Griffin and BUDDY (frinkin!) MILLER as your backup band didn't hurt. Buddy Miller is so awesome. The whole set was great. Okay, here are some more CA pics...The Celtic four-piece Andrew & Noah BandOur dueling keyboard players: Dana and RachelGot to catch up with my cousin Elaine. We had a terrific sushi dinner and talked politics and religion for a couple hours. Felt really good.Also got in some decent birding on this trip. Saw three birds that I'd only seen once before: Tricolored Blackbird, American Dipper and Hermit Warbler. Trip list came to 90 species. So yeah, it was a really nice week. Looking forward to getting home though. My next flight should be boarding soon. So tired. Wanted to say THANKS SO MUCH to Susan and Lauren for their hospitality and generosity. Absolutely couldn't have done the trip without their help. Oh, one more thing. Saw these in a grocery store...Halloween-themed corn chips. That's like the stupidest thing I've ever hear of. Just sayin...

Recent Travels: SC & VT

2011-09-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

Some pics from recent travels...GBT played Moondance a few weeks ago in South Carolina. We had a morning off so Noah and I decided to hike up to the top of Table Rock And as we were leaving we found this awesome Eastern Box Turtle crossing the roadSo cool! I love turtlesNoah and I also got to visit the great state of Vermont for Youth Dance Weekend. It was a last minute scramble on the part of the organizers to get a venue lined up when the road to the camp where they usually have it was washed out. So glad they pulled it together because we had an amazing time. A couple pics of the gang The lovely ladies of AnadamaMe, Mary, Max and Noah

Twenty-Four

2011-09-28T20:00:00.000-07:00

And now, apparently, I'm twenty-four. Birthdays are kind of weird for me. I don't know why. It's not like I'm particularly shy or anything. But I get all nervous and jittery when people wish me happy birthday. I don't know how to react or something. Twenty-four. What kind of things do twenty-four-year-olds do? I'm not sure. Things are good. Life is good I mean. Kind of unbelievably good. I have to remember that. But sometimes I feel like I'm getting pulled in a lot of different directions. The travel and general schedule can get heavy. Always running, always planning so far ahead. My life is so great but sometimes I feel like I'm not really living it. Like I'm watching it happen. Taking notes or something. Twenty-four now. Am I really doing what I want to be doing? Yes. Is my life everything I want it to be? Yeah, pretty much. Except when screw things up or get in the way. Does that mean I'm just not very ambitious? Am I just coasting? Or stuck in a rut and I don't even know it? Sometimes I can't tell. Sometimes. I get a little scared when I think about all the days that go by, and I haven't really done anything. Couldn't tell you where the hours went. I've grown more distant this year and less in touch with God. As long as I'm being honest. I like myself less now than I did a year ago. Don't laugh as much. And I suspect that's affected the people closest to me. It's hard to know what to do with a day, or how to act, when you're out of touch with God. His plans are always so right. Mine suck. I know that. So... twenty-four. I love my wife. I love good food. I love old country songs. I love watching Chimney Swifts fly around as it's getting dark. "We live in a beautiful world... yeah we do, yeah we do" I love God and I miss him. I miss knowing that I'm doing the right thing. Plans plans plans. I need to plan less. I need to love more and plan less. I need to know who I am right now. Where's my heart right now. Less planning. Less about where I'm going to be or what I'm going to do. Not like I don't have a lot to look forward to. And I'm excited about all that. Excited about the band and the new album. Excited about going to Costa Rica. But right now, this moment, am I okay? I'm twenty-four years old and I'm forgiven. Joy and peace and love. All is well.

Summer Sunday Fun Day #3

2011-09-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated our final Summer Sunday Fun Day of 2011 with a trip to The Great New York State Fair. Saw some cool animals like this tortoise...and this Macaw...and this super cute bunny rabbit...Got to catch one of our favorite street performers, Hilby the Skinny German Juggling Boy...And enjoyed some super awesome chocolate milk...Other favorite fair food... roasted corn with garlic salt, a fried sugar waffle and some chocolate Dippin' Dots (aka Ice Cream of the Future of 1986). And to top it all off we saw a Common Nighthawk on our walk back to the car! After we got back, we (and by "we" I mostly mean me) decided it would be a great idea to watch everyone's favorite romantic vampire drama Blade...

Apparently there's some discrepancy of opinion on the worth of the time we spent watching this excellent cultural landmark of a motion picture. What can I say... I like my Snipes Wesley. But then again, what does a panda know about cinema...

Summertime

2011-08-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Hello friends. Sorry I haven't really posted anything for the past month or so. I've been having a great but very unusual summer. I was gone for almost six weeks with just a couple quick stops at home. Ashokan, Pinewoods, Kanack, Wilburland, etc. Been having an awesome time. So many great friends, great music and dancing, singing songs late at night, being continually reminded of how fortunate I am and how incredibly charmed my life is. But it's also been tough being gone for so long. Anyway, I finally got home a week ago and I've been re-adjusting and settling in a little. Catching up on booking stuff. Watching lots of X Files with Sarah. Took a trip to the zoo! Don't really have any pics from Ashokan or Pinewoods unfortunately but here are a couple pics from Fiddle Camp at The Kanack School of Music in Rochester Yesterday Sarah, Dan, Anna and I celebrated Summer Fun Day #2 up on Lake Ontario. First we went swimming (of course). Then we played a game of Bohnanza which ended in an unprecedented FOUR-WAY TIE!!! Then we had dinner at Rudy's Lakeside fish fry in Oswego followed by epic ice creamAnd we finished up by watching Young Frankenstein. So there you go. Yesterday I got up to Sylvan Beach on Oneida Lake to see the LITTLE GULL that's been there all week. Some of my best looks at this species Oh, one last thing.... check out the new GBT music video for Mr. Plow (shot at Groove 2011 by John-Michael Seng-Wheeler and featuring special guests Nils Fredland, Chris Miller and Dave Casserly)...

Kicking off summer

2011-07-04T07:36:00.001-07:00

Sorry I've been incommunicado for the past few weeks. Crazy busy with a lot of different projects. Things have been going mostly okay. I already miss being home though. Anyway, here are a few pics...

Got to visit the beautiful state of Kentucky last month when GBT played DanceTrance. Great seeing so many friends there. They did a spectacular job with the hall...

And I got to make some new friends as well...

Isn't she beautiful? Can't wait to go home :-)

Last week I kicked off my summer at Ashokan Western & Swing Week. It was pretty awesome but I burned the proverbial candle a little too long at both ends. Anyway, I love this pic of Junior and the girls (left to right: Chloe, Cerri, Eva and Katie)

Chris and I did a little version of Katy Hill at a staff concert. Kinda fun...

Last weekend GBT and Nils played for Janet Hasley's 80th birthday bash! Janet is, by a fairly healthy margin, our number one fan. I suppose her only competition might be our own Grandma. In any case, it was a lovely afternoon celebrating a very special person

"Rawr!" is NOW AVAILABLE!

2011-06-13T12:32:00.001-07:00

That's right folks... after a nearly six year recording hiatus The Great Bear Trio is back with a new album of all original contra dance music! Check it out on CDBaby or iTunes

Caller vs Contra Dancer

2011-06-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Some tunes I've been digging lately...

2011-05-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

Just an update...

2011-05-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful Memorial Day weekend here in upstate New York. This week Sarah and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! It's wild to think about how much has happened in the past three years but on the other hand, it doesn't seem like that long. We both had hectic weeks so we couldn't take a trip anywhere this year but we did get a way for a night at The Lincklean House in Cazenovia and had a great dinner at this Mexican place in Chittenango. Sarah got me A Guide to the Birds of Costa Rica so I can start studying up for our trip next February! I didn't get to see much migration this spring but I've still had a couple nice birding days. Might try and get out to see some breeding birds in June. Of course things are busy getting ready for Groove next weekend. We had our last "committee" meeting a couple nights ago. Hoping the weather cooperates. And pre-production for the new A&N Band album is coming along really well. Gotten in some good rehearsals this month. The songs and arrangements are starting to take shape. More on that later I guess. Think I'm going to go get some lunch now.

SHOCK-N-STOCK

2011-05-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

Made it back Monday night from an epic weekend! Giant Robot Dance and Perpetual eMotion played in NYC on Friday and Saturday with Will Mentor and Nils Fredland. That was CONTRASHOCK. Then on Sunday we all drove down to Glen Echo, MD and met up with Swallowtail for the ultimate finale: CONTRASTOCK. The whole thing was crazy, exhausting, ridiculous and awesome!

One of the really surreal parts of the weekend was playing in The NYC Dance Parade. Ballroom dancers, ballet dancers, belly dancers, hip-hop dancers, tons of different ethnic dancers, zumba dancers, stilt dancers, at least one pole dancer AND... contra dancers! Giant Robot Dance and Perpetual eMotion both piled on to a flatbed trailer pulled by PeM's awesome old Volvo with a kicking solar powered sound system!
Before the parade... Dan and Noah tying down the drum setGetting things set up... just don't forget about Michael...GRD's horn section on Saturday nightSarah, Paul and Stacy (where is your hand Stacy?)Dan, me and ChrisThe Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo ParkThe 14-piece all band jam at the end... and then... Nils...
went CROWD SURFING...

Thanks to MJ for this pic

Come To The Groove!

2011-05-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the skimpy posting lately. Need to get my little camera fixed. Things have been good here for the most part. I was really sick last week which was a bummer. Fever, major sore throat, etc. But I started feeling better on the weekend and I'm doing great now. We've been getting busy with preparations for THE GREAT BEAR GROOVE DANCE WEEKEND! Coming up soon! For any of you folks who are thinking about coming we made this little video especially for you...

We've also dived right in on our next recording project. Rehearsals have been going really well and we have studio time booked starting in June! More on that later. But spring has finally caught on here. Sarah planted our onions a couple days ago. The garden is looking terrific. I had year bird #200 this morning: a nice male Magnolia Warbler. Might be able to get out a bit more next week. I guess that's all for now :-)

Happy Easter

2011-04-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone. I had a really nice weekend. On Friday and Saturday I got to sit in with Nor'easter for a couple dances in the area. Great to see Cedar and Max again. Check out their website if you get a chance. I hear an album might be in the works for later this summer. Speaking of new recording stuff, I dropped off the final duplication master of Rawr! (GBR CD006) with Pat yesterday. I'm so happy with how this project turned out. You can get a sneak peek of the first three songs on our Bandcamp site www.andrewandnoah.bandcamp.com Check it out! Noah, Dana and I are getting together to do some planning for the next A&N Band album next week. I know it's a pretty quick turn around between recordings but I'm so excited to be in the studio again with the band. Yesterday I met Jay and we did some birding around Cayuga Lake. Wonderful day with the obvious highlight being an amazing and totally unexpected MARBLED (frickin) GODWIT at Montezuma...

What an awesome bird! #325 I believe for New York State. We saw a bunch of other nice stuff and I added twenty or so new birds to my 2011 year list. This morning I played in church. It was a fun band; eight people and it wasn't too clunky. And Sarah made a couple delicious chicken pot pies for dinner. So, that's my weekend :-)

Chris & Kitkat: a love story

2011-04-05T10:50:00.000-07:00

Once there was a boy named Chris. Chris loved traveling around playing his saxophone for people. But he was lonely. And even though he had lots of friends, nobody really understood him on the inside. Then, one day, at a gas station in North Carolina, he met someone very special...Kitkat and Chris were inseparable. They had so much in common. Sometimes they would go to the park and talk for hours together about the meaning of life...Or go see a movie...Or visit historical jazz landmarks...Chris and Kitkat loved sharing a beer sampler now and then...And they bonded over their mutual fanatic devotion to international folk-music superstars Andrew & Noah... stalking their merch table, buying dozens of identical copies of their albums and signing up for their mailing list over and over again...What could be sweeter than two soul-mates enjoying a little
sax on the beach?And they say that, somewhere out there in this big old world we live in, Chris and Kitkat are still together, living life to the fullest, cherishing every moment together, riding the wheel off into the sunset. THE END.

Southeast Tour... almost done!

2011-04-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Well folks, Chris, Noah and I are are nearing the end of our big southeast spring tour. We've had 20 shows in 21 days so far. Chris heads back to NYC on Thursday but Noah and I are meeting mom in Richmond for the Springforth Dance Weekend before finally flying home next week. It'll be just a couple days shy of a month on the road. Things have gone really well though. We had a couple sets at The Suwannee Springfest in Live Oak, FL. Awesome festival; lots of great music. A few cool bands I'd never heard before: Surprise Me Mr. Davis, The Holy Ghost Tent Revival, The Galen Kipar Project. And Tornado Rider's live show was pretty awesome I gotta say. David Grisman's current lineup was pretty decent, Donna The Buffalo was great, nice to catch a few songs from Jesse McReynold's set of Jerry Garcia covers. Festival highlight for me was Danny Barnes... electric banjo and drums... hillbilly punk blues... AMAZING!!! Then there was some absolutely terrible jam-grass that I never need to be reminded of as long as I live. But all in all we had a great time. We've been filling the days with lots of dances and house concerts. Having fun, seeing friends. People have been really supportive and generous. Can't wait to go home though. Sarah and I have been watching old X Files together recently online. I'm almost done with season two. What a great show! Aliens and monsters and cover ups. Just saw this really freaky one about a cannibalistic town in Arkansas. Oh, hey... speaking of freaky... want to see some pics of these iguanas we saw down in the keys?And this is a pretty cool pic of an alligator...And this is a piece of pancake shaped like a whale (thanks Dana)...

Florida Birding

2011-03-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

Here's my trip report from Florida. People pics coming soon :-)

March 28 – About two weeks ago Noah, Chris and I began our big southeast spring tour. We started in Atlanta, GA and drove to Florida. On March 18 I got up early and drove out to Osceola National Forrest where, after some searching, I found a very cooperative pair of RED-COCKADED WOODPECKERS. Beautiful birds. I watched them for quite a while, had really nice looks, got to be more familiar with their call and even took a few decent pictures. Eventually a third bird was seen as well. Other fun southern species seen that morning were Brown-headed Nuthatches, Yellow-throated Warbler and White-eyed Vireo. On March 20 I found a pair of LIMPKIN and a few MUSCOVY DUCKS (Life Bird) on a small pond in Boca Raton. I guess the Muscovy Ducks in Florida are countable. But the biggest birding highlight of the trip came on March 21 when I took the Yankee Freedom II out to the Dry Tortugas! MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRDS and Black Skimmers were at the dock in Key West, Northern Gannets and Royal Terns were seen on the trip out. Soon after we entered the National Park I had my first looks at SOOTY TERNS (Life Bird) and BROWN NODDYS (Life Bird). The boat went by Hospital Key fairly close and slow so we had pretty decent looks at the MASKED BOOBY (Life Bird) colony. Even got to see a Frigatebird attack a Masked Booby briefly! And then as we got a little closer we had our first looks at the enormous Sooty Tern colony with thousands of birds in the air at once. It was an amazing experience. The terns and noddys swirling around like crazy, the frigatebirds just hanging in the air completely motionless. We landed on Garden Key and got to explore Fort Jefferson looking for migrants. Right inside the fort I had my first looks at a GRAY KINGBIRD (Life Bird) catching flies in tops of the trees. Lots of Palm Warblers were in the lawn and I had my fos Northern Parulas, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush and Black-and-white Warbler near the fountain. The coolest land birds for me were two CHUCK-WILLS-WIDOWS flying around inside the fort! These were my first ever looks at this bird which means that King Rail is now the last “heard only” species on my ABA Life List. Finally, as we were on the boat leaving the park we passed a channel marker that had three BROWN BOOBYS (Life Bird) perched on it. It was a wonderful day of birding and I can't wait to go back. The next day I had a Cape May Warbler on Marathon, terrific looks at a Merlin on Big Pine Key and a Great White Heron on Key West at sunset. On our last morning in the keys I had a couple Common Mynas in a parking lot on Marathon. My first SWALLOW-TAILED KITES of the trip were seen along the highway on March 24. My last memorable birding experience for this part of the trip came yesterday when Noah and I went with some friends out to the beach near St Petersburg. On our way out I briefly caught glimpses of a couple parakeets and possibly a parrot as well perched on telephone wires. So on the way back we stopped and I had my first good looks at a pair of beautiful BLACK-HOODED PARAKEETS which were life birds for me but I guess not countable for my ABA list. My North American year list is currently at 161.

Red-cockaded WoodpeckerMerlinLimpkinNorthern GannetMasked Booby
(notice the dark secondaries!)Brown BoobySooty Tern Sooty Terns w/ Brown NoddyBush KeyMagnificent Frigatebird Gray KingbirdChuck-wills-widowBlack-hooded Parakeets

Europe IV: Birding Trip Report

2011-03-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

I know this is much delayed but for anyone interested, here's my birding report from our trip to Europe last month. Pics and species list is at the bottom of this post.February 20 – Sarah and I have been enjoying the first few days of our trip to Europe. We arrived in Munich on February 17. CARRION CROW (Life Bird) was the first bird of the trip, followed by GREAT TIT (Life Bird) and ROOK (Life Bird) on the train ride into the city. We spent a little time birding in the late afternoon around the English Garden. We added a nice variety of common woodland and water birds including EURASIAN BLUE TIT (Life Bird), EURASIAN NUTHATCH (Life Bird), COMMON BLACKBIRD (Life Bird), COMMON POCHARD (Life Bird), EURASIAN COOT (Life Bird), TUFTED DUCK and BLACK-HEADED GULL. The last two weren't life birds but it was the first I've seen more than one at a time! There were also lots of GREYLAG GEESE (Life Bird) and BAR-HEADED GEESE but I'm not sure if they're countable or not. On February 18 we explored the grounds of the Nyphenburg Palace. We had a bit of a hike to get there and on the way we found some really nice stuff. Highlights were a single, fairly distant MISTLE THRUSH (Life Bird), a pair of LONG-TAILED TITS (Life Bird), EUROPEAN GREENFINCH (Life Bird), COMMON CHAFFINCH (Life Bird) and a few GOLDCRESTS (Life Bird) visiting a feeder with Great and Blue Tits. On the pond directly infront of the palace we had three beautiful RED-CRESTED POCHARDS (Life Bird); definitely one of our favorite birds of the trip so far. Such amazing color on the head! We had a pair of BARNACLE GEESE fly over here and we saw them again later on once we were inside the palace. GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER (Life Bird) and a couple MARSH TITS (Life Bird) were new in the woods and we had a frustratingly brief look at a COMMON BUZZARD (Life Bird) as well. I also saw a Treecreeper right before we left but I have no idea which species. On our way back, near the Botanical Gardens on Menzingerstrasse we were extremely lucky to see a female EURASIAN SPARROWHAWK (Life Bird). It was a brief look but a really terrific find. Our last new bird of the day was another favorite, a group of five EURASIAN JAYS (Life Bird) that posed nicely for some photos in a bush (though lighting was pretty terrible). Yesterday we took the train to Salzburg and this morning I got up early and hiked around Moenichsberg a bit. Mostly tits and nuthatches though I did hear and see a SONG THRUSH (Life Bird) which was nice. It was doing an alarm call that sounded like electric sparks of some kind. Before we left Salzburg we visited the castle and I was very happy to find a pair of EURASIAN JACKDAWS (Life Bird) and a probable Peregrine Falcon. So cool to see these birds flying around the walls and towers. Our trip list is up to 33 species and most of them have been lifers! My newly created Clements World List is now at 572.

February 27 – Sarah and I arrived back in Austria yesterday afternoon after a wonderful side trip down to Venice, Italy. We left Vienna on February 23 by train and transferred to a double decker bus in Villach. I saw a lot of tantalizing birds from both the bus and the train but looks were usually too brief and distant to clinch an ID. As we were approaching Venice though I did pick out a flock of NORTHERN LAPWINGS (Life Bird) close to the road and what I believe was a PYGMY CORMORANT (Life Bird)! Sarah saw this bird as well. It flew up out of a ditch and we both had a couple seconds to view it before it was out of sight. It was obviously a cormorant by shape but it was hardly any bigger than a Great-tailed Grackle and looked to me to have an odd stubby little bill. From the bridge over the lagoon I managed to pick out a COMMON SHELDUCK (Life Bird) and once we were in Venice I had wonderful looks at YELLOW-LEGGED GULLS (Life Bird) all over the place. On February 24 we took a morning ferry ride out to Lido and along the way I had my first GREAT CRESTED GREBES (Life Bird), Black-necked Grebes (I guess the same species as Eared Grebe?) and tons of beautiful, breeding plumage Great Cormorants along with the ever-present Yellow-legged and Black-headed Gulls. Lido itself was a little disappointing. We hiked around the beach and north end of the island. I saw and heard a WREN (apparently still considered the same species as Winter Wren by Clements) as well as my first EUROPEAN ROBINS (Life Bird) which were easily one of my favorite birds of the trip. Also had a large flock of European Goldfinches, many COMMON WOOD-PIGEONS (Life Bird), Common Blackbirds, Hooded Crows, Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tits. During the ferry ride back to Venice I briefly saw a gull fly directly over head that had absolutely pure white wing-tips. Unfortunately by the time I got on this bird and grabbed a couple quick photos it was pretty much out of sight. Still, I think I can be fairly certain it was a MEDITERRANIAN GULL (Life Bird) based on general size, shape and lack of other possibilities. Sure would like a better look though someday. On February 25 we took another ferry ride to the island of Sant'Erasmo. Along the way we saw some spectacular breeding plumage Great Crested Grebes. I picked out a large, pale plover on one of the sandbars we passed. Managed to get a few distant, fuzzy shots... it was probably a European Golden-Plover but I'm not certain. As we got closer to the island LITTLE EGRETS (Life Bird) began turning up as well as my first definitive GREY HERONS (Life Bird). We walked around the island for several hours and really enjoyed being out of the city for a change. EURASIAN KESTREL (Life Bird) and DUNNOCK (Life Bird) were both seen well. There were several interesting birds that we saw fairly well but still can't quite identify: a nearly featureless songbird, reminded me of a phoebe, that I think may have been a Black Redstart; a distant, tiny, yellow finch that I think was a Serin; several bland, striped field birds that were probably pipits but seemed too small; two very distant curlews (large size, down-curved bills) but I can't rule out Whimbrels unfortunately. A nice surprise was a COMMON SANDPIPER (Life Bird) along one of the canals. On the boat back to Venice we had a couple pairs of LITTLE GREBES (Life Bird) that capped the day off nicely. Yesterday, February 26, I saw and, thankfully, photographed a COMMON CHIFFCHAFF (Life Bird) in a small park right before we boarded our bus back to Austria. I initially identified it as a Willow Warbler but details of the face pattern and behavior, as well as the time of year, seem to point to Chiffchaff. During the first hour of the bus ride I had another flock of (presumed) Northern Lapwings, a possible Shag and a very probable Green Woodpecker but as is usually the case with birding from the road, I just can't quite be certain. I have had many more, half-way decent looks at Common Buzzard though. My World List is now at 588. FINAL EUROPE ENTRY: Late in the afternoon on February 27 we visited a park in Graz where I had a couple new birds: a pair of BRAMBLINGS (Life Bird) and a more definitive, though still brief and distant look at a GREEN WOODPECKER (Life Bird). Really enjoyed watching the Bramblings chase each other around. Such a pretty shade of orange. Also saw my first Eurasian Tree Sparrows of the trip and another, still inconclusive look at a Treecreeper species. My Clements World List is now at 590.

FieldfareRed-crested PochardGreat Crested GrebeGreat CormorantBlack-headed Gull Mediterranean GullYellow-legged Gull European GoldfinchEurasian JayEuropean RobinGreat Tit

SPECIES LIST

Mute Swan
Greylag Goose
Canada Goose
Common Shelduck
Gadwall
Mallard
Red-crested Pochard
Common Pochard
Tufted Duck
Common Merganser
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Black-necked Grebe
Great Cormorant
Pygmy Cormorant
Little Egret
Great Egret
Grey Heron
Northern Harrier
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
Common Buzzard
Common Kestrel
Eurasian Coot
Northern Lapwing
Common Sandpiper
Mediterranean Gull
Black-headed Gull
Yellow-legged Gull
Common Wood Pigeon
Eurasian Collared Dove
European Green Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Winter Wren
Dunnock
European Robin
Common Blackbird
Fieldfare
Song Thrush
Mistle Thrush
Common Chiffchaff
Goldcrest
Long-tailed Tit
Marsh Tit
Eurasian Blue Tit
Great Tit
Eurasian Nuthatch
Eurasian Jay
Common Magpie
Western Jackdaw
Rook
Carrion Crow
Common Starling
House Sparrow
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
Common Chaffinch
Brambling
European Greenfinch
European Goldfinch

Europe Part III: Venice

2011-03-05T14:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, after a couple days in Vienna with Gabi we took a train/bus ride down through the mountains to Venice. One of the coolest places I've ever been. The view from the Rialto bridge was stunning...Our hotel room was the middle left window We were just a couple minutes from San Marco We were there just before Carnival started so masks were out in forceSometimes it was really crowded but other times we had the place to ourselves

Everything about the place was so unreal. No cars, just boats and gondolas. Tiny, narrow streets. Amazing churches. It was sooo beautiful! Here are some more pics...

Europe Part II: Vienna

2011-02-28T10:41:00.000-08:00

After visiting Peter's family in Murzzuschlag, Gabi, Sarah and I went on to Vienna. It was bitterly cold but we had a wonderful time. Seeing St Stephen's Cathedral (or as Gabi called it Stephansdom) was one of the only times that a building literally took my breath awayA view of Vienna from the "top" of the steepleWe also visited the Hofburg; the former imperial residence and political center of the Austrian monarchySaw some cool stuff that we couldn't take pictures of; the Empress Sisi museum and the Lippazaner stables for instance. The whole experience was pretty wild. Here's Gabi and Sarah in front of the HofburgThis dude looks seriously worriedMore pics...Possibly the most surreal moment of the trip: eating sushi in Vienna while listening to a VERY cheesy classical guitar play Jambalaya and House of the Rising Sun

Europe Part I: Munich & Salzburg

2011-02-21T12:49:00.000-08:00

Hello there folks. Sarah and I are almost done now with our trip to Europe. And I've got quite a pile of pics I've been waiting to upload. So I'll start at the beginning. We arrived in Munich on February 17. Took us a little while to get over the jet lag; we mainly just crashed at our hotel room and did a little birding in the English Garden (more on that later of course). The next day we went to the Nymphenburg Palace... Now I know mid-winter probably isn't the best time of year to visit but it was still spectacular. We did lots of walking. Also, their subway system is pretty awesome. This is me, somewhere on the palace grounds...We met Gabi and Peter in Salzburg on Saturday. It's been great to see them again. We first met Gabi back in highschool. She was a foreign exchange student and lived with the Zieglers for six months or so. And she's been back to visit us a bunch of times. So the main purpose of our trip was to visit her! Salzburg was wonderful of course. Beautiful, old city. We visited the house where Mozart was born. And this crazy science museum. But the real highlight for me was seeing this awesome castle overlooking the city...

Gabi and Peter in the courtyardA view of the city from the castleAnd some other pics... here's Gabi with Austria's most widely-recognized marsupial... Peter, Gabi and me I've got lots more but the internet is being kind of slow right now. So I'll post again soon...

"Rawr!" preview

2011-02-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

Coming THIS SPRING...

The Great Bear Trio's highly-anticipated, all new, all-instrumental, epic contra dance album...

Rawr! (GBR CD006)

Andrew VanNorstrand: fiddle, acoustic and electric guitars, banjo, bass
Noah VanNorstrand: fiddle, mandolin, didgeridoo, drums and percussion
Kim "Mama Bear" Yerton: piano

- WITH SPECIAL GUESTS -

Nils Fredland: trombone
Chris Miller: tenor and baritone saxophones

1. Cosmic Tim
2. The Gardener
3. Mr. Plow
4. Weedwalker / Winchell's Falls
5. Jay's Daze
6. The Carry On
7. Kim's Jig / New Room
8. Drima
9. Le Tuna de Sandwich
10. Lake City / Monarch
11. Benton's Hallucinations

Count down to #600

2011-02-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

And while I'm in a birding mood, this is an update on my North American Life List. I'm currently at #550 so here's my "count down" to #600...

Bullock's Oriole
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Bell's Vireo
Abert's Towhee
Calliope Hummingbird
Hammond's Flycatcher
Lesser Nighthawk
Scott's Oriole
Tropical Kingbird
Zone-tailed Hawk
Blue-throated Hummingbird
Gilded Flicker
Dusky Flycatcher
Scaled Quail
Short-tailed Hawk
Cordilleran Flycatcher
Gray Kingbird
Hepatic Tanager
Dusky-capped Flycatcher
Connecticut Warbler
Cassin's Sparrow
Pinyon Jay
Red-faced Warbler
Elegant Trogon
Lark Bunting
Le Conte's Sparrow
Common Poorwill
Gray Flycatcher
Virginia's Warbler
Elf Owl
Black-chinned Sparrow
Ringed Kingfisher
Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Sharp-tailed Grouse
White-eared Hummingbird
Sprague's Pipit
Botteri's Sparrow
Varied Bunting
Greater Shearwater
Kirtland's Warbler
Long-tailed Jaeger
Cory's Shearwater
Audubon's Shearwater
Black Rail
Yellow Rail
Mangrove Cuckoo
Bicknell's Thrush
Black-capped Petrel

These, barring any real rarities, are the most likely new species that I'll see in the ABA area (basically North America north of Mexico). There's a handful of common western species (like Bullock's Oriole, Bell's Vireo, Hammond's Flycatcher), a few Arizona specialties (Elegant Trogan, Red-faced Warbler, some hummingbirds), a few Florida specialties (Short-tailed Hawk, Mangrove Cuckoo, Gray Kingbird and Black-whiskered Vireo), a few Texas birds (Ringed Kingfisher and others), a bunch of random not-that-rare western-ish-type stuff (Lark Bunting, Northern Pygmy-Owl, Pinyon Jay, Le Conte's Sparrow, many more), some Atlantic seabirds (Greater, Cory's and Audubon's Shearwaters), some tricky eastern species (Connecticut Warbler, Bicknell's Thrush) and 20 or so others, mostly western and/or pelagic birds. I'm hoping for about 20 new birds this year and maybe I'll make #600 in 2012 or 2013. Click here to view my life list.

Hoary Redpoll pics

2011-02-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

This afternoon I spent some time with the redpolls at Beaver Lake Nature Center near Baldwinsville, NY. There were roughly 30 Common Redpolls and in with them was this female HOARY REDPOLLFemale Hoary Redpoll, upper right birdCheck out those undertail coverts!Now here's another female redpoll that I watched for a while...I first noticed it when it was the only female redpoll around and it looked promisingI should mention it DID NOT look this pale to me in real life. The photos make it look much frostier than it appeared to me at the timeA shot of the undertail coverts. Clearly a different individual than the "real" female HoaryFemale redpoll in question on the right, male Common Redpoll on the left. Doesn't stand out so much in this lighting. This is more what it looked like to me through binoculars Not sure what I think about this bird. The bill / head shape don't really stand out to me. I was never able to reliably pick it out once the flock returned. Like I said before, the photos look more like a Hoary than the bird did. On the other hand, the clean white rump and very limited undertail streaking seem good for Hoary. Send me an email if you have any thoughts. I have very limited experience with this plumage. Here's a final shot...

Snow Ball and more

2011-01-31T09:10:00.000-08:00

For the past couple weeks Great Bear Trio has been out of hibernation and roaming the snowy countryside of New England...Checking out some Heavy Metal Boss distortion mandolinMom and David jammingBecky made us some darn good cookiesMom trying out concertinas at The Button Box Rachel and Jonathan had us over for dinner one night...
They seem to be doing well...Me and JennaMy WINNING bananagram...I also got to do a little (frigid) birding out on Cape Ann. Highlights were a stunning drake KING EIDER, a few Iceland Gulls, great looks at a Peregrine Falcon, Black Guillemots, Great Cormorants, Harlequin Ducks and more. My year list is currently at 80. This is a view of Thatcher IslandThe Snow Ball in Peterborough, NH Thanks to all our wonderful hosts: Peggy and Alec, Will, David, Becky, Ted and Krista, Chris plus Heather, Jenna, Nils, Amy and August!

Club Passim on Concert Window!

2011-01-23T09:03:00.000-08:00

Some friends of ours, Dan Gurney and Forrest O'Connor, recently started this great new website called Concert Window. They have a deal worked out with the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge, MA where they stream shows live for FREE! So check this out...

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25 8:00pm EST

Andrew & Noah VanNorstrand
with Matt Glaser, John McGann,
and special guest Chris Miller

Watch the show LIVE, for FREE, anywhere in the world...

Tell your friends!

January news

2011-01-23T06:14:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's January 23rd already and I still haven't posted my first blog of 2011! Sorry about that everyone. Things have been very good here. A little on the busy side but that's okay. At the moment mom, Noah, Sarah and I are traveling in New England for a couple days. That'll probably be a separate blog post though. Last week we had a nice string of shows with the Andrew & Noah Band. Rachel couldn't make it unfortunately but Dana, Chris, Kevin and Kailyn were all sounding terrific. It's so awesome to play with these folks. Our sound is starting to gel a bit now and I'm really excited about how things are coming together. Chris actually organized an Americana showcase at this awesome venue in NYC called The Living Room. The lineup was us, The Sweetback Sisters, The Jenkins Sisters, Margaret Glaspy, Stephanie Coleman and Cleek Schrey. It was a wide range of folk / roots influenced, somewhat acoustic music. We're all coming from similar places musically but everyone has branched way out in different directions. It was a great mix. And while we were down in the city we went to the CD release concert for Abigail Washburn's terrific new album City of Refuge. You really should check it out. I've been a fan of her's for years now and I think this is easily some of her best stuff...

In other exciting news, I have a brand new pair of binoculars! EL 8x42 Swarovision by Swarovski So far I've only had a chance to use them a little bit at the bird feeders back home but they are absolutely amazing. I tallied up an after-the-fact year list for 2010 that came out to 418, give or take a few. It was a great year overall; I had 29 life birds in 2010, bringing my ABA North American life list up to 550, as well as 29 new birds for New York State. Some of my favorite birds from last year were Black Rosy Finch in Utah, Violet-crowned Hummingbird in Arizona, various parrots in California, Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks and lots of other cool stuff in New York (Barn Owl, Manx Shearwater, Wilson's Phalarope, Worm-eating Warbler and more). Recurring nemesis birds were Northern Goshawk and Least Bittern; haven't gotten a satisfying look at either in many years. My 2011 year list is off to a slightly slow start with 50 some species and a handful of nice finds. Still missing most gulls, finches, owls, shrike, typical northeast winter stuff. I have had the chance to see some Evening Grosbeaks though...

Never get tired of those. Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll leave you with a track from one of my recent iTunes discoveries, Boubacar Traore...

Reflections on the Dietary Habits of Noah VanNorstrand (Vol. V ~ 2010)

2010-12-17T12:50:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen... the moment you've all been waiting for... the most highly-anticipated event of the year... I give you... Reflections on the Dietary Habits of Noah VanNorstrand (Volume 5 ~ 2010)! It's been a wild 12 months since our last report and you'll all be pleased to know that my dear brother has not gone hungry while on the road this year.

Noah seems pretty pleased with himself and his chimichanga here in central TexasThis breakfast panini could barely contain it's prodigious mushroomy goodness at The Green Salmon in Yachats, ORThe first in a trilogy of burgers, Noah was in high spirits here at Flo's Cafe in Grand Coulee, WAThe mood was more apprehensive for this late night run to a Steak 'N Shake in Atlanta, GAAnd by the time we reached The Haunted Hamburger in Jerome, AZ things had gotten down right spooky!Nothing that a little vinegar pie at The Look Out on Clinch Mountain, TN couldn't fixNoah was pretty fascinated by his dish (pineapple curry perhaps?) at Thai Siam in Salt Lake City, UTI was honored to capture this emotional moment when Noah was reunited with his favorite teriyaki tuna in Rollings, MT (special thanks to the Gustafsons!)The Asian-chicken salad at The Main Street Cafe in Berea, KY was no laughing matterAn angelic pot-luck brunch in Lawrence, KS was the location of this stunning portrait This apple-hummus-veggie sandwich came from Noonie's Deli in Middlebury, VT and it was really delicious but Noah wouldn't know because he would only pose with it (dweeb)

Now those of you who are familiar with this annual summary know that I do not shy away from the graphic, gory details of my dear brother's culinary explorations. I have prided myself on taking a journalistic approach, fair and balanced, detached, almost scientific at times. But occasionally a man cannot help but be shaken to the very core. On our recent trip to Louisiana... I have seen things no man should see. Such flavors, such sauces, such unbridled appetite. The way he would look at a bowl of jambalaya. The gumbo dripping off his chin. It was just too much to bear. I can not bring myself to to describe... the internet can not handle images of this intensity. So I must leave this final entry to your rampant imaginations...

If you are still hungry for more check out ROTDHONV Volume I (2006), Volume II (2007), Volume III (2008) and Volume IV (2009)

En-Wy-Seee

2010-12-10T08:32:00.000-08:00

Soooooo..... Noah, Sarah and I just wrapped up a couple terrific days in New York City. We played a couple shows, hung out with friends, tried not to spend all of our money. Actually got in some nice birding as well. Here's my little report...

December 6 - Sarah and I drove out to Sunken Meadows State Park on Long Island and we easily relocated New York State's first HERMIT WARBLER (Life Bird); a lovely fall female that had been found just a few days before. We both had terrific, point-blank looks at the bird as it hopped around on the lawn. I took a couple crumby pics before my camera batteries went dead. It was very cold and windy so we didn't stay terribly long. We weren't able to find the reported Loggerhead Shrike at Jones Beach but we did see a juvenile GREAT CORMORANT (State Bird) near Robert Moses State Park. Our luck continued the next day, December 7, when we ventured into Central Park and saw the well-staked out VARIED THRUSH (State Bird) next to the restrooms in the northeast corner of the Ramble. The bird was very cooperative and we had wonderful looks.

Yeah, yeah, I know... nice birds, good for you, whatever weirdo... and usually I can spice up the rest of these posts with some humorous pictures of Noah doing something, or eating something, or... something. Well, as you may have gathered, my camera died and I didn't get new batteries until yesterday :-( So just more boring text for you all this time around. But we did have a great time. Played a couple shows with Chris and Dana. Also had Chris's friend Shawn sit in with us on bass. We made a couple visits to the amazing and awe-inspiring Vanessa's Dumpling House on the Lower East Side. Unreal! We ordered all the food we could eat and then some for like $10. Dumplings were great but the sesame pancakes... that's where it's at! Kind of got carried away with this place a bit. Anyway, we walked around a bunch on Monday, did a little Christmas shopping. Spent some time at Housing Work's Bookstore and Cafe. They had a great selection of used books, music and other stuff. And it's a good cause. Got myself a Lyle Lovett album for the road. And we re-watched one of my absolute all-time favorite movies ever The Royal Tenenbaums. I just so love that movie. Luke Wilson is awesome. I think I identify most with Ben Stiller's character though. Anyway, it was a fun stay. We played in Priceton on Wednesday and Philadelphia last night. Tonight I get to go dancing in Glen Echo to Sarah's calling and the fabulous Glen Echo open band. And then we play Bethlehem on Saturday. I need to finish up my Christmas shopping when I get home. And put up our tree! And work on the new GBT album with mom and Noah. Hmm, yeah. Okay, gotta run.

Trad vs Modern

2010-12-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

Lawrence of Kansas

2010-11-22T07:46:00.000-08:00

GBT played in Lawrence, KS this past weekend with Nils. Had a great time despite not feeling so hot on Friday and Saturday. Kansas was my 40th state! Still missing Rhode Island, Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada and Hawaii. It was wonderful to see so many friends in a brand new place! Before we made it up to Lawrence we got to visit Byron Berline's Double Stop Fiddle Shop in Guthrie, OK...

I love OklahomaThe EPIC BEARD CLUB at Pilgrim's ProgressionOn Sunday afternoon, Nils decided to call the infamous Chorus Jig. Now we all love playing Chorus Jig. Really. At least sort of. But in any case, by the end of the tune Noah had drool all over his fiddle...

Wingman

2010-11-17T09:06:00.000-08:00

"Hi, my name is Chris. This is my friend Noah.
He holds our drinks while we dance."
Thanks to Alex for her cooperation on this post.

BLACKPOT!!!

2010-11-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

Got back late last night from a week of crazy good food, music and dancing in southwest Louisiana. Noah, Chris and I had a set at the Blackpot Festival in Lafayette. The whole thing is hosted by our good friends The Red Stick Ramblers. During the day on Saturday folks bring their big black pots and set up for an all out cajun cookoff. Mmmm... Rosie and I took turns stirring the étouffée at Chas's house

What is the best way to cook turtle?That Chris... he's a keeper ladies...The Water Tower Bucket Boys (and Clelia)Me, doing my best Steve Riley poseWeebee shows us how it's done

Who me-tah? No... U-TAH!

2010-10-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

So I'm not going to take credit or responsibility for the title of this post. All Noah's idea. Anyway, got back last night from a wonderful extended weekend in the Beehive StateOn our first day we did a little sightseeing up at Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake (which, incidentally, also happens to be the name of a killer song by Band of Horses)On Saturday we visited the very impressive LDS Temple in
downtown Salt Lake City

Monday was a surprising success for birding! Noah and I headed up Route 150 east of Kamas, UT with a dancer named Peter Bergonzi to do a little hiking and enjoy the scenery of the High Uintas. At our first stop Noah spotted one of my most sought after mammals: a Pika! And it was every bit as adorable as I had hoped. At the Mirror Lake campground I had a pair of AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKERS (Life Bird) drumming away near the shore. Had several frustratingly close looks but all brief and generally obscured by braches or in bad lighting. Still, it was great to finally see this species. Other birds of note in the area were Gray Jays and Mountain Chickadees. On our way back we stopped at the overlook on Mount Baldy Pass. Elevation here is roughly 10,700 feet. A fairly large flock of calling PINE GROSBEAKS was a nice surprise. I mentioned this to Noah and he asked if all the birds were Pine Grosbeaks. I took a second look at the tree that moments before HAD been full of Pine Grosbeaks and instead was now full of BLACK and GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCHES (Life Bird)! A flock of roughly ten plus birds that briefly perched in an evergreen then flew down to the rocks along the ledge where we were standing. The majority were Black and this may very well be my favorite bird of 2010. Stunningly handsom. They were very cooperative and gave great looks at pretty close range. I even got some lousy pics through my bins...

The view from Mount Baldy PassThe aptly named Mirror LakeMore of the beautiful Utah scenery...Thanks SO MUCH to our hosts Lori and Gary and all the terrific folks who helped put on the weekend. I'm home for a couple days now catching up on stuff then it's off to Ohio for a cousin's wedding then off to Blackpot!

Check these folks out...

2010-10-15T15:08:00.001-07:00

Mike & Ruthy Sahara Smith The Secret Sisters

Nothing Under My Skin

2010-10-09T09:00:00.001-07:00

For some cool art and other random stuff check out my sister's Tumblr

www.nothingundermyskin.tumblr.com

Happy Fall Fun Day!

2010-10-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

I had a most wonderful day yesterday. The weather was perfect and I had no preconceived plans or obligations to do anything in particular. So after church Sarah and I met up with a bunch of old friends from high school and went apple picking!

The gang (we missed you Chelsie, Anna, Cara, etc)
After the apples we went for a walk up to Tinker's Falls Then we all headed back to Ziegler's for a card game and apple crisp. It was so great to see friends again and just enjoy the day. Once folks had mostly gone home Chris, Sarah and I watched Throw Down Your Heart which is Bela Fleck's award winning film about the banjo in traditional African music. I'd been meaning to see it for a long time and it was totally fascinating. Here's the trailer...

Jetstream duo music video

2010-09-30T06:18:00.001-07:00

Nothing to shade my eyes
I don't hide the sun
And I don't rest my feet
Until the day is done
When I look to the sky
I see a jetstream
People travel same as I
But I'd rather dream
Nothing but a song
Nothing but a prayer
And I have had
Heartaches to spare
'Cause I keep thinking of
Hair as red as the rose
So my heart is a slave
As my freedom grows
People ask me why
I ran away
I just ask them how
How could you stay
'Cause my home has no roof
It has no walls
But the horizon is wide
And the sky is tall

Arizona - Hummers and Flycatchers

2010-09-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

September 20 – This morning I went out for a little light birding with Jean Ellen Wilder at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ. Shortly after arriving we located our target bird, a beautiful young male VERMILLION FLYCATCHER (Life Bird) perched low in a tree by the parking lot. I've been waiting a long time to see this bird and he was extremely cooperative and easy to photograph. We walked around the ponds for a while and saw a possible Rufous Hummingbird and an unidentified bunting. Finally we found a little mixed flock of songbirds in a hedgerow that included a BRIDLED TITIMOUSE, a Verdin, lots of Lesser Goldfinches and a single, fast-moving LUCY'S WARBLER (Life Bird).

September 22 – We spent the past two days in southeastern Arizona, staying overnight in Tucson. Yesterday, we visited Madera Canyon for most of the morning and early afternoon. We had a very pleasant time with some nice birds and other wildlife, including my first tarantula! Hummingbirds were plentiful at the Santa Rita Lodge. Lots of Anna's, Rufous, Broad-tailed and BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRDS (Life Bird) were visiting the feeders with smaller numbers of BROAD-BILLED and MAGNIFICENT HUMMINGBIRDS, some of which were still in terrific plumage. Also at the feeders were Mexican Jays, Arizona and Acorn Woodpeckers, Lesser Goldfinches and Bridled Titmice. We drove up to the top of the canyon and hiked up part of Old Baldy Trail. Along the way I had several small mixed flocks of birds that included Hutton's and PLUMBEOUS VIREOS (Life Bird), Orange-crowned, Townsends, Nashville, Wilson's, Black-throated Gray and GRACE'S WARBLER (Life Bird) plus several pairs of PAINTED REDSTARTS and an Olive-sided Flycatcher. Today I went down to Patagonia with Sky and Anne Hilts. The weather was oddly cool, misty and even rainy so that might have affected some of what we saw. We missed the Starthroat (seen the day before) at Patton's hummingbird feeders but we did have a terrific showing of VIOLET-CROWNED HUMMINGBIRDS (Life Bird); I think at least four different birds. BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRDS were more numerous here than they were in Madera. It was great fun to watch all the action at the feeders for a while. There was a BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK that visited one of the feeders as well. This wasn't a “new” lifer; supposedly I saw one several years ago in Washington but it was a bad look and I probably shouldn't have counted it. Along Blue Haven Road and at the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve I had a couple flocks of long-awaited LAZULI BUNTINGS (Life Bird), nice looks at a soaring adult GRAY HAWK, Lincoln's Sparrows, a cooperative female MACGILLVARY'S WARBLER (Life Bird), several CASSIN'S KINGBIRDS (Life Bird) and a VERMILLION FLYCATCHER. I didn't even realize it until I got back and checked my lists but CANYON TOWHEE was also a Life Bird for me. Maybe the best find of the day was a single THICK-BILLED KINGBIRD (Life Bird) at the well-known “Roadside Rest” area, along with my first male Western Tanager. We spent some time looking for sparrows and buntings in the Kino Springs area but our only other exciting birds of the day were a juvenile GRAY HAWK and a well-hidden Black-bellied Whistling-Duck. Both yesterday and today we had several silent and unidentified Empid flycatchers; probably at least one Hammond's but I guess I'll leave that for another time. I ended up with 81 species for my week in Arizona and eleven lifers!

Vermilion Flycatcher
Violet-crowned Hummingbird

Arizona (non-birds)

2010-09-26T18:21:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is pretty late but I've been on the road and haven't had a chance to post. Last weekend GBT played at the 5th annual Pickin' In The Pines Bluegrass Festival in Flagstaff, AZWe shared the stage with one of my favorite modern old-time string bands The Freighthoppers The Santa Fe Solution... Erik-with-a-K, Laurel, Leticia (aka "Iceberg"), Karina and special guest Didge-DudeIceberg and Didge-Dude bustin some serious moves

Oh, and BTW everyone has to see this...

Goldenrod

2010-09-16T17:21:00.000-07:00

Some quiet words and a long embrace
With dirty hands and barefoot grace
You kiss me only to say goodbye
No matter how I try

Sometimes I think I have seen the face of God
When the hills shine with goldenrod
When a cool wind scatters the white milkweed
And when you are near me

I'm sorry but there is something I need to say
Two weeks from now I'll still be here and you'll be far away
And I can't let you go so soon
It's just too soon

High Times in Spokane

2010-09-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

Noah and I have been enjoying the past few days staying with Judy and Rick in Spokane, WA Got to do a little birding yesterday. Here are some pics...

My first Life Bird of the trip, a Cassin's VireoFound a flock of Mountain BluebirdsAnd some of North America's cutest birds: Pygmy Nuthatches Red Crossbills were a nice surpriseThis very tame Coyote was at Turnbull NWRMore wildlife (note the very interesting behavior of this individual)Last night we met up with some friends for a game of Settlers of Catan: Cities and KnightsWe played the game upstairs in a corner of the beautiful Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane

Big Sky Country

2010-09-14T08:33:00.000-07:00

Noah, Sarah and I spent a wonderful weekend full of music and dancing on Flathead Lake in western MontanaThis was for the 27th annual Bear Hug Mountain Festival. We met up with our friends the Gustofsons from Orgeon; Pam, Sage and Tara drove 11 hours to make it there! There was some pretty serious hula-hoop action going on On the last day we psyched ourselves up and went for the coldest swim of my life The viewA highlight of the weekend for me was jamming on some western swing tunes with Clem and Pam SmallsAfter the dance camp we headed up to a cabin in the woods for homemade pizzas cooked in Quincy's homemade pizza ovenQuincy, Dan'l and HelenOur wonderful hosts Rick and Judy

Labor Day weekend

2010-09-07T06:46:00.000-07:00

Birds first this time: Yesterday I saw a juvenile RUFF at Montezuma!!! This was a life bird for me and one I've been hoping to see for a long time. It's a beautiful and fascinating shorebird from Eurasia. I had great looks despite two Peregrine Falcons that kept flying around stirring things up. Too far away to really photograph unfortunately.

In other news, our good friend Gabi is visiting for a couple weeks from Austria. We all went for a beautiful hike at Filmore Glen State Park near Moravia on Sunday. Here's a pic of the Ziegler girls:
Anna, Sarah, Gabi and Becky

It was a great Labor Day weekend. Got to hang out a bunch with Dan. We all watched Pirates of the Carribean II: Dead Man's Chest a couple nights ago which reminded me of this classic YouTube video...

STATE of afFAIRs

2010-08-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Dan and I hung out for a couple hours at The New York State Fair. We saw lots of cool stuff. Here's me with the annual butter sculptureThis year's Beatles-themed sand sculptureDan in front of some kind of weird inflatable iguana/dinosaur thingAnd we saw tigers...And a giraffe...And at the circus and got to see two camels, two lamas and a horse do a dance routine!It was a beautiful day and the crowds were intense. Here we are enjoying a hard-earned chocolate milk after waiting in line for at least 20 minutes

Fiddle Camp pics

2010-08-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hey all. So quick birding update. A couple days ago Jay McGowan and I did some shorebirding at Montezuma NWR. We had a nice variety at the Knox-Marcellus Marsh (viewed from Towpath Road). Highlights included two HUDSONIAN GODWITS, two RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, over ten(!) BAIRD'S SANDPIPERS and a good assortment of more expected species. Also had three young Peregrine Falcons chasing each other around and five Sandhill Cranes. The godwits just dropped in for a couple minutes before flying off again; I think it was my first time seeing Hudsonian Godwits in flight. It's been a few months since I've done any real birding so it's nice getting back into it. I'm out of practice though; made a couple pretty stupid calls.

Anyway, last week Noah and I were on staff at the Kanack School of Music in Rochester for Fiddle Week. We had a great time! Here are some pics...

Noah, me, Jenna, Donal and MollyMolly rocking out at the staff partyThe terrible trio (be afraid!)
((no seriously... be very afraid!!!))Noah (aka "Captain Awesome") with his group TEAM AWESOME performing their modern masterpiece "The Epicly Awesome Awesome-Song"My group: Daphne, Hassler, Erica and RachelGood times at Ben & Jerry's after camp

"Chocolate, Banana, with Sprinkles.... yeah"
~Jenna Moynihan

Musical Musings

2010-08-12T08:38:00.000-07:00

Been a busy busy week! And very hot. But things are good here. I'll try and fill you in on some stuff. So, lets see... I guess we'll start back a couple weeks. The A&N Band played a fun show on the Arts Quad at Cornell University. Here's a video of one of Noah's new tunes called Griffin Road

I came home for a couple days then headed back to Ithaca for some recording. Laurie Hart asked if I would add some guitar and bouzouki to the next installment of her trad Scandinavian music series (Volume 2 I believe). I had a great time playing with her and hanging out at WilburlandThen our friend Chris Miller came up from NYC to visit for a few days. Chris is a wonderful sax player and we had a terrific time swapping tunes. Look for him to make some appearances with the A&N Band later this fall and winter!I've recently been listening to the new Punch Brothers album Antifogmatic and it's been a really good experience for me. I'll give you some background. Punch Brothers is the latest project of mandolin genius, Nickel Creek front man and former child-prodigy Chris Thile. For many years Thile's work has been a more-than-major influence on my own music. He's amazingly talented, creative, prolific, astoundingly accomplished on his instrument, looks a ton like a certain Pacific northwest vampire you may have heard of. Nickel Creek's Why Should The Fire Die? is still one of my favorite albums of all time. And for a long time I measured my own musical relevance and success in relation to Thile and perhaps even let him dictate my tastes to a certain extent. Not entirely healthy to say the least. But recently things have been changing. A couple years ago I started to try and expand the music that I was listening to beyond Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Edgar Meyer and company. I was just feeling that the pool of music I was drawing from was much to shallow and I really needed to digest some new sounds and ideas. So I started trying to get my hands on some more vintage swing and country. Both of these genres have really gotten under my skin and I find myself reevaluating much of what I thought I knew about "good" music. Different kinds of music have different reasons for sounding the way they do. They have different purposes and appeal to different people at different times for different reasons. So I get all that. But still I find that, if only for the organization my own personal internal music library, I need to define what makes music "good" verses bad, mediocre, forgettable, etc. I find myself caring less and less about technical ability and accuracy. While I can still totally appreciate difficult and intricate music I get bored very quickly with musical gymnastics just for the sake of showing off. And similarly I'm beginning to very much dislike solos in general. To me playing a solo and playing lead are very different things. A solo can be scripted or improvised; same with playing lead. But a solo detracts from the rest of the music to focus on one person while a good lead player doesn't need to walk all over everyone else in the band just to be heard. Even when you're in the spotlight you should still be thinking about how to make the rest of the band sound as good as possible. I mean, music is made to be listened to right? Not to be admired for it's technicalities. Otherwise the audience might as well just sit and read some hard or complicated piece of sheet music and not be troubled by whether it sounded good or had any kind of emotional connection. That's another thing I've found; I really like music that sounds like it was made by and for real live human beings. Stuff that on some level describes what it's like to be alive in the universe. Not to say I only like acoustic or unaffected music. Some of my absolute favorite records are highly produced alternative rock and electronica. But something about them speaks to me, makes me feel a certain way, makes me want to move or react. Could be the lyrics or the beat; a beautiful melody or a particularly creative use of sampling, etc. No, I think it's more an issue of intention. Musicians have to ask themselves "Why are we playing this?" and not "What are people going to think of it?" Because if the answer to "why" is anything like "so people will like me and buy my record" then it's almost certainly going to sound like forced, pandering, soulless crap, no matter what the genre. And nobody's truly concerned about what people will think of their music, they're worried about what people will think of them for playing their music, which to me is another one of the poisonous seeds that kills artistic creativity. I'm beginning to rant a bit. So let me get back to the Punch Brothers album Antifogmatic. It is of course an amazing record with flawless playing, astounding arrangements, boldly pushing the boundaries of the "genre" (is it really a genre now... acoustic alternative bluegrass chamber music?), impressive in every sense. But only being impressed gets old after a few songs. To be fair there are some good songs on the album too. Thile and friends are all jaw-dropping players but I knew that before I even got the plastic wrap off and while I wasn't disappointed by what I heard, I also wasn't really challenged, surprised or even engaged. And the funny thing is, that makes me feel so good! To finally be able to say "I totally appreciate this music but I don't particularly ever want to sound anything like it" is like shedding a huge weight for me. I have other values now; I realize they might change again over time but for right now I like them very much. This is fun stuff to discuss so send me a line if you have anything to add. And I do recommend you check out Antifogmatic and hear it for yourself...

Summer IV: Lips, Tomatoes and Dreams

2010-07-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Last week Dan and I drove out to Lewiston, NY to see my absolute favorite rock band of all time THE FLAMING LIPS! Lewiston and Youngstown are in a beautiful part of the state, right on the Niagara River below the falls. We got there, ahem, substantially early, ahem ahem, (I may have perhaps over estimated our time needs just a tad) so with 4+ hours to kill before the gates opened, we decided to visit Fort NiagaraTurns out visiting Fort Niagara is REALLY expensive. Like $28 just to get in and walk around. And history is lame anyway. So we went back to the Artpark and watched tour boats going up and down the riverThe Lips put on an awesome show. Wayne has always been and will always be my personal hero. They played a decent mix of stuff from their most recent couple albums. I like the tracks from Embryonic much better live but I kind of expected that. Confetti cannons, crowd-surfing space balloon, giant mirror balls. Best moment of the show for me was a beautiful and pretty emotional rendition of In the Morning of the Magicians, my favorite song off of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Certainly one of the best shows I've ever seen...So then we all went to Falcon Ridge, had a great time, hung out with friends, played with the A&N Band and GRD, danced to Notorious, sat in with an extra expanded 11-piece Clayfoot Strutters, pioneered new personal highs of grossness in both the mud and sweat departments. Noah, Rachel and Kailyn went on to Ashokan. Dan and I made it home Sunday night. Sarah had yesterday off from work so we actually got to spend some time together which was truly wonderful. Weeded the garden, went to the bank, got caught up on stuff at home. Lunch was especially noteworthy...That's an heirloom striped-German tomato with mozzarella and fresh local basil on Sarah's homemade whole wheat bread, sprinkled with a little salt and pepper. WHOAH! Then in the afternoon we had another totally mind-bending experience...

What a movie! Christopher Nolan is a frickin genius. Dreams within dreams within dreams. Everything about this movie is amazing. I can't wait to see it a hundred more times. We capped off our big day by visiting Sarah's family. Anna just got back from her internship in California. Becky, Gretchen and Alan just got back from scuba diving in Bonaire. And Grandma and Grandpa are visiting for a couple weeks. We shared stories, looked at pictures and had a great dinner (with delicious fresh-out-of-the-garden roasted potatoes). Yum

So to sum things up...

Things are good :-)

Summer Part III: Random pics and stuff

2010-07-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

The summer continues to motor right along for me. Got back from Grey Fox a few days ago. Del was awesome (as always). Been having a terrific time playing with the band this summer. We've got a bunch of new material that's really exciting and we're off to Falcon Ridge this weekend. Here are a few random pics...

Rachel and Kailyn modeling their respective parasols Noah briefly considered a new style of headwear from a
vendor at Grey FoxWe really enjoyed visiting Middlebury, VTBefore Grey Fox Sarah and I spent some time vacationing with her family up in the Adirondacks. One day we rented this big pontoon boat and did some exploring around Cranberry Lake. This was the much fabled jumping rock...And these were the equally much fabled Chocolate Chunk Pancakes... This is just a shot of a totally happening jam session back at Ashokan a few weeks ago. The gal in tye-dye is Eva Frishberg; a terrific songwriter and guitar player from New Orleans. Think she's got an album coming out soon (?) with her dad Jonno (who's playing the accordion)Sarah, Dan and I have been really getting into the German board game Alhambra. We picked up the "Big Box" edition (which contains all FIVE expansion packs) at our favorite game store in the universe, Goody Goody's in Saranac Lake, which apparently does not have a website I can hyperlink :-( Anyway, so far we've made it through the first two expansions. The original game was a blast to begin with but I'm loving the additional strategies that we're adding on now. There's a gazillion pieces and cards and rules but it's not really all that complicatedThis evening Sarah and I used a gift certificate for our anniversary (back in May) to have dinner at the Elderberry Pond Restaurant. It was a wonderful evening. The food was terrific; local, organic, delicious and free! I had a sirloin with pesto and Sarah had sea bass with blackberries. If you've got a minute and live in the area, check out the Elderberry Pond website. They've got a really neat vision for the place. After dinner we were treated to one of the more spectacular sunsets I've ever seen in central New York. Here are some pics...Doesn't do it justice, but pics rarely ever do

Summer Part II: Ashokan and Wisconsin

2010-07-06T11:19:00.001-07:00

Back last night from a wonderful 9+ days of music and dancing! I got to hang with a bunch of friends at Ashokan last week which was awesome as always. Check out Facebook for pics. Jon Gersh also posted a bunch of pics here. Below is a little video of me during one of the staff performances...

The song is called Poor Rebel Soldier and I learned it from my good friend John Rossbach. The banjo tune at the beginning and end is one of mine called A Song For Reverend P.D. Midgett III and it's on our new album All The Good Summers.
After Ashokan I drove to Newark and then flew to Wisconsin; GBT played for the IndepenDance Daze Weekend and we had a great time. Lots of friends, great dancers, beautiful place, etc. My first time in Wisconsin! Then yesterday I flew back to Newark and picked up my car, drove to Ashokan and picked up a bunch of gear that I left there, had a late lunch with Jay and Molly then drove home. Would have been a much more tedious car ride if I hadn't had my brand new 4-disc Ray Charles box set! Woohoo! Anyway, now I'm just trying to get everything set for the rest of the summer. Really looking forward to Grey Fox and Falcon Ridge. Maybe I'll see you there???

John-Michael just sent me the finished version of the Great Bear Groove music video we shot last month. Check it out...

I'm totally stoked about the way it turned out. Share it, post it, forward it, then get your butt out on the dance floor this summer! And actually, along those same lines, did any of you catch the NPR piece on Youth in Contra Dancing? Another totally "share" worthy link. Okay, I need to go vacuum and clean the house up a bit. It is soooooo frickin hot :-/ Uhgg... I think one of Dr VanOrstrum's Famous "Elixir of Love" Milkshakes might be in my immediate future...

Summer Part I: Oklahoma and Mandolins

2010-06-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Summer is off to a busy start. GBT returned to Oklahoma City a couple weeks ago for the Flamingo Fling. We all had a terrific time. I actually had the opportunity to assist with a bird banding session while I was out there. It was my first time actually handling wild birds; totally awesome experience and so much fun! Here I am checking out a Carolina Wren...We had a nice variety of birds in the nets: Cardinals, Orioles, Buntings, etc. The most exciting one for me was this Yellow-breasted Chat, a life bird and a long-time nemesis...I know, I can't actually count a bird taken from a net but I went out later in the morning and had them singing in the bushes and doing their ridiculous "floppy" flight thing. What a great morning! Okay, so moving along now... Noah and I were recently in NYC and while we were there we met up with our friend Margaret and went mandolin shopping at the legendary Mandolin Brothers on Staten Island. Here we are playing some tunes...Ohhh, I loved that guitar. Here are some more pics...He eventually settled on a very nice Collings MT A-model. Woohoo! So that mostly brings you up to date I think. I'm off to Ashokan Western & Swing Week in a couple days. Be good to each other everyone :-)

Get your GROOVE on...

2010-06-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the first (annual?) Great Bear Groove Dance Weekend. It was such a blast! Here are some pics...

Our dance hall, Fallbrook Lodge, is in a very scenic location Tunescape, rocking the dancersThe dancers, rocking to Tunescape Our dear friends, Callie and Linnaea (we'll miss you!)Our crazy, freaky, fiddling bear mascotBryce and Dan de-lighting a Christmas Tree for decorationsMore pics...

We are currently trying to get the hall reserved for next year; I'll let you know asap if Groove 2011 is a go. Thanks so much to everyone who came! It was an awesome weekend.

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks

2010-06-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, the trips I had planned to Fort Drum and the Adirondacks didn't end up working out so I wasn't able to add significant numbers to my month-of-May list after I got back from Long Island. I have had several good birds over the past week though. On May 28 I headed out to the Montezuma area, particularly looking for late songbird migrants on Howland Island. No luck with any of my target birds, but the 10+ singing Cerulean Warblers were a real treat. Before heading home I met Jay and Perri McGowan at the Visitor's Center and we had our bird of the day: a breeding male RED-NECKED PHALAROPE (my fifth phalarope of the month)! I can't remember if I've seen this plumage somewhere else; certainly my first for New York. We watched the bird for twenty minutes or so before it flew off. I was very happy with this find but my best bird of the month came on May 31, which also happened to be Memorial Day. Late in the afternoon I got word that 5 BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING-DUCKS (State, Region and County Bird) had been found in Brewerton, resting on a dock on the south side of the Oneida River just west of Route 81. I raced up there at about 6:00 PM and easily found the birds; first kind of crumby looks from across the river, later beautiful looks from the lawn right next door. Jay and Tom Johnson were there when I arrived. Tom said he'd seen five Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks the previous morning near his folks house in Pennsylvania. They took off and flew north; the same birds? The Brewerton ducks flew off to the north shortly after I left at 7:00 PM and have not been refound. So for the month I ended up with 234, easily passing my goal of 225 but with lots of frustrating misses. Jay got in a couple more trips (Fort Drum and the Adirondacks) and ended with a very impressive 253! I brought my New York State list up to 317 and my North American Life List up to 530.

All the Good Summers NOW AVAILABLE!!!

2010-06-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to announce that our new album...

All the Good Summers

is NOW AVAILABLE!!!

Check it out on iTunes
or at CD Baby

Download it, Facebook it, write some comments and/or reviews, play it for your friends, request it on your local radio station, post it on your blog, call your representatives, bake it into a batch of brownies and give it to Sting next time you see him...

This video was put together by Becky Ziegler. The song is called Elinor and it features some lovely vocal work by Noah's wife Kailyn Wright.
Hope you enjoy it!

Long Island Birding

2010-05-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

Jay McGowan and I decided to take a couple days and visit Long Island to look for state (and life) birds we were both missing. We left early on May 23 from Dryden and made it to the city by mid morning. Our first stop was at the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn where we immediately had MONK PARAKEETS (Life Bird) flying all around us. We watched them for a while and got some photos before moving on to Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. There, we easily found our main target bird, two young BARN OWLS (Life Bird and State Bird #300); one in the nest box at Big John's Pond and the other outside, perched in the reeds. Wonderful, long looks from the blind especially of the bird outside who woke up and climbed around for a while. More highlights from JBWR: a cooperative WHITE-FACED IBIS (my second for the state), two more WILSON'S PHALAROPES (third and fourth for the month(!); my first male and another female) and a bunch of new state birds: Clapper Rail, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, American Oystercatcher, Boat-tailed Grackle, Forster's Tern and a pair of flyover BLACK SKIMMERS. We were a bit surprised that we missed Little Blue and Tricolored Herons. After that we drove farther out Long Island to the the south side of Sag Pond (not sure what the full name is) where a Wilson's Plover had been reported the previous day. No luck with that bird but we did have terrific looks at more state birds: LEAST TERNS and PIPING PLOVERS along with a nice assortment of other shorebirds, many in beautiful breeding plumage. That evening we visited Shinnecock Inlet and birded Dune Road a bit. Nothing much new but we did have a terrific look at a calling Clapper Rail right by the side of the road and good numbers of Common Eider still out in the bay. On May 24 we got up early and headed to Cupsoque to seawatch for a couple hours. We had our first SOOTY SHEARWATER (State Bird) within just a few minutes. Also had some extraordinarily distant WILSON'S STORM-PETRELS (State Bird), Parasitic Jaegers, many Gannets and a flyby breeding plumage PACIFIC LOON (also my second for the state)! In the marsh at Cupsoque we heard and saw both SEASIDE (State Bird) and SALTMARSH SPARROWS (Life Bird) though the terns were a bit too distant to tackle. After that we left the beach and headed to a brushy area near Eastport (?) where, after a long search, Jay finally picked out the VERY distant song of the previously reported young male BLUE GROSBEAK (State Bird). It eventually flew right in and we got decent looks. Then back to Cupsoque at low tide for another look at the terns. On a tip from some other birders we decided to walk way out on the mud flats for a closer look. After searching a while we did pick out a very definitive and beautiful ROSEATE TERN (Life Bird) among the many Common Terns. We watched it for a little while but decided to head back to shore because of the rising tide. Then we drove back west to Jones Beach where, again after some searching, we found a stunning pair of GULL-BILLED TERNS (State Bird) in one of the parking lots. The presumed female would sit and wait while the male would forage. Once he caught something (usually a little crab like creature) he'd quickly fly back and feed the female. We had a wonderful time watching them do this and got lots of nice pictures. Finally, we ended our day with another seawatch, this time from the beach at Robert Moses State Park. Picked up several more Sooty Shearwaters and another Parasitic Jaeger before Jay spotted a MANX SHEARWATER (Life Bird) quite close to shore. It was a brief but tremendous look at an awesome bird. On our last morning we tried for a pair of Summer Tanagers reported in Forest Park. Couldn't find those birds unfortunately but we did have a singing WHITE-EYED VIREO (State Bird) and a singing Canada Warbler on our way out. Still missing Little Blue and Tricolored Herons, we made one final stop at Jamaica Bay but didn't have anything new. Here are some pics...

Monk ParakeetBarn OwlPiping PloverBlackpoll WarblerLeast TernCommon TernForster's TernGull-billed Tern What a great trip! I addition to my five life birds(!), I added fourteen new state birds and brought my month-of-May list up to 231. Here's Jay and me in Central Park just before heading home

Birdathon 2010

2010-05-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hi folks. Been a busy week of birding for me here in central New York. On May 15 I joined Bill Purcell, Kevin McGann and Chris Spagnoli for the annual OAS Birdathon. The weather was cool and quite windy but we still had a decent day. Highlights included a calling NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL on Salt Road (doing just the “saw-whet” squeal thing... still never heard the typical tooting song), at least two singing SEDGE WRENS in West Monroe, a calling WHIP-POOR-WILL and two BRANT in Constantia, the resident RED-HEADED WOODPECKER at the end of Nine Mile Point Road and 25 species of warbler including my first ever female CAPE MAY WARBLER. We ended our day with a total of 143 and came in first place in the competition. My month-of-May list is now at 190 and I've still got a handful of “easy” migrants to get (Lincoln's Sparrow, Swainson's Thrush, Bay-breasted Warbler, etc). Here are some of the prettier birds I saw this week:

Scarlet TanagerA leucistic Canada GooseNashville WarblerNorthern ParulaProthonotary WarblerBlack-throated Blue Warbler

Basin Birding

2010-05-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I met Jay McGowan for a somewhat leisurely-paced “big day” of birding in the Cayuga Lake Basin. We started a little before 6:00 AM on Beam Hill with a nice assortment of woodland birds including a bunch of recent migrants that I was still missing. I got a little more familiar with the song of Canada Warbler, a bird I've only rarely heard before. Once it was a little lighter we went to the Hawthorn Orchard outside of Ithaca. There was a lot of (mostly warbler) activity as soon as we got out of the car. We had terrific looks at many species and even got some decent photos of Blackburnian, Tennessee and two Cape May Warblers. While scanning the lake at Meyers Point Jay heard a singing Orchard Oriole, another species I have very little experience with. After some searching we eventually found the bird, a young male, and had really nice looks. This was only the second time I've seen this plumage. We continued up the lake to Montezuma. At the Visitor's Center we found a beautiful breeding-plumage female WILSON'S PHALAROPE (my second in a week!) and heard that a Laughing-type Gull had been seen just a few hours earlier. We picked up many ducks and other “common” marsh birds during the afternoon. A pair of Sandhill Cranes on Carncross Road was a treat as well as a lingering Snow Goose near the mucklands and a singing Cerulean Warbler at May's Point. We headed down the west side of the lake and continued to pick up new birds like a small flock of Surf Scoters, eight Upland Sandpipers at the Seneca Fairgrounds and a nice breeding-plumage Horned Grebe (my first in a long time). At one point we found a large flock of Bonaparte's Gulls resting on the water and were able to pick out an adult LAUGHING GULL (NYS bird) with them. We continued to fill in holes in our day list for the next few hours then took a break around 9:30 PM while the wind was calming down. Finally, we went back out to try for owls on Hammond Hill. One stop was pretty unproductive but a second stop (in the main parking lot?) had several calling Barred Owls as soon as we got out of the car. After listening a while longer we also heard several intriguing single toots that we eventually decided must be Northern Saw-whet Owl. I've yet to hear a convincing “typical” song for this species. We ended the day with 156; I believe my highest single day total yet! This morning Jay and I again went out, this time to West Danby where, after a hefty hike we had some long, very rewarding views of a singing WORM-EATING WARBLER. This was almost a state bird for me (heard one briefly several years ago up at Sunset Bay Park on Lake Ontario... probably shouldn't have even counted it). Later on in the morning we also picked up a singing Prairie Warbler and had terrific looks at a Wilson's Warbler. I had sixty-three new birds bringing my NYS month-of-May list up to 173. Here are some recent pics...

Ring-necked PheasantPileated WoodpeckerSandhill CranesCape May WarblerTennessee WarblerWorm-eating Warbler Wilson's Warbler Jay with a gosling

Wilson's Phalarope

2010-05-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

This morning I found a beautiful breeding-plumage female WILSON'S PHALAROPE in a small marsh on the south side of Route 41 a little west of Central Square. Bill Purcell and I had good but distant looks for some time but shortly after Bill left (about 9:30 AM) the bird unexpectedly took off, circled over head several times and departed to the north. This was only my third ever Wilson's Phalarope; my first for Oswego County and Region 5. What a treat! Here are some truly awful and pathetic photos of an amazing bird...

My NYS month-of-May list is now at: 110

Birding: May 1

2010-05-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

Terrific day of birding around Oswego County. Lots of FOS birds for me with the obvious highlight being an adult GOLDEN-WINGED WARBLER at Sunset Bay Park up on Lake Ontario. Derby Hill was also great with many hundreds (if not thousands... glad I wasn't counting!) of Broad-winged Hawks and an assortment of other raptors: one dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk, several Bald and one Golden Eagle, one Peregrine Falcon, many Osprey, Red-tailed and Sharp-shinned Hawks, etc. Final total for the day: 87!

This month I'm trying to fill in some holes on my New York State list. Here are my main targets:

ANDREW'S MISSING LIFE BIRDS:
Roseate Tern
Cory's Shearwater
Greater Shearwater
Manx Shearwater
Black Rail
**Curlew Sandpiper
**Ruff
Dovekie
Monk Parakeet
Barn Owl
American Three-toed Woodpecker
Bicknell's Thrush
Yellow-breasted Chat
Saltmarsh Sparrow

ANDREW'S MISSING STATE BIRDS:
Ross's Goose
Barrow's Goldeneye
Northern Bobwhite
Spruce Grouse
Eared Grebe (bvd)
Northern Fulmar
Sooty Shearwater
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
Great Cormorant
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Yellow-crowend Night-Heron
Black Vulture
Clapper Rail
Piping Plover
American Oystercatcher
Marbled Godwit
Laughing Gull
Least Tern
Gull-billed Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Black Guillemot
Western Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Boreal Chickadee
Yellow-throated Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler (bvd)
Kentucky Warbler
Henslow's Sparrow
Seaside Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Blue Grosbeak
Boat-tailed Grackle

Sweet Sunny South... 2010

2010-04-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

Finally back home this week. Yesterday was a marathon of overdue contracts, unanswered emails, missing W9s, booking flights and other such glorious details. But I think most of it is sort of under control now. Sure was a crazy trip. Feels like ages ago when we left for Oregon. Things are good though. I've been reading more lately. A couple short books: Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach and Company by Samuel Beckett. Really liked them both. Weird though. Skimmed through Life List by Olivia Gentile and now I'm into a collection of works by John Keats which is terrific. Never read much poetry before. BTW after a slow few months I'm starting to really get excited about birding again. Sarah and I saw a few neat birds down south. Highlights were SWALLOW-TAILED KITE (seen briefly along the highway in SC), Wilson's Plover and Least Terns (Wrightsville Beach, NC), a female RED-COCKADED WOODPECKER, many Red-headed Woodpeckers and Bachman's Sparrows (Green Swamp, NC) and my first warblers of the season: Hooded, Prairie, Palm, Pine, Black-and-white and Northern Parula. Also heard both Whip-poor-will and Chuck-wills-widow. I'm thinking for the month of May I'm going to see how many species I can find just in New York State. There are a handful of lifers and a bunch of potential state birds that I'm missing just because I've never taken the time to look for them. But yeah... back to the trip. Lots of terrific friends, good tunes, dancing. Here are some pics...

Noah got a heart-shaped sticky note make over by Hannah Brooke at Hotel Hagen in Atlanta, GASarah, Bryan and ChelsieLeast TernWilson's PloverWe got to see some really neat courtship behavior with the terns. A male would get a little fish and make a huge racket until he got the attention of a female, then he'd give her the fish and fly off for another! We saw something similar with Arctic Terns on our honeymoon in Maine a couple years agoA dance party in Berea, KYA slug... yep, just a picture of a slug... so, yeah...Howard, Bryce and Nichole... thanks so much for everything you did for us over the weekend!

Adventures in Oregon

2010-04-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

What a great week it's been! Last weekend GBT played for Cascade Contras which is this great camp put on by the people at The Eugene Folklore Society. Lots of friends, food, music and dancing. Before camp we played a house concert hosted by Bo and Diane. Wonderful folks; they took very good care of us while we were there.

The view from Sky Camp

Mom doing what she does best

George and Randy cranking out tunes

After camp Noah and I hung out with the Gustafson family for a couple days. Among the many awesome things we did was visit the now infamous salamander pond...

Sooooooo cool...

Our guides... Sage and Tara

Yesterday we decided (fairly spontaneously) to go and visit the coast. What an awesome day...

Whales!

Anemones!

Thanks so much to Pam, Scott (not pictured in case you were wondering), Sage and Tara for a totally amazing day!

Houston airport... 2:00 AM

2010-04-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

Contra Prom 2010

2010-04-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Hi there people. Hope you had a great Easter weekend. Saturday night was the 2nd Seventh Annual Syracuse Contra Prom and man did we ever have a great time! Noah and I sat in with our friends Eric MacDonald and Brendan Carey-Block from Matching Orange. Everyone looked terrific and the hall was packed...

Megan and Andy (btw love the shirt man)Kailyn, Libby, Jon and NoahOur friend Zebulon (aka little Johnny Rothwell)
Today Sarah and I are just getting caught up on stuff. Noah and I leave for Oregon on Wednesday I think. I'm looking forward to heading out west again but I sure did enjoy being home for a couple weeks. Hey, personal milestone: I passed 10,000 songs on my iPod! Not sure what the magic song was but my recent favorite musical discovery has got to be Fleetwood Mac...

Wildflowers

2010-03-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

Along Route 37 between San Antonio and Corpus Christie.
Pretty amazing...

Deep in the Heart of Texas

2010-03-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of our Texas tour. Once again, I want to say thanks to all of our super-generous, amazing friends who drove us around, fed us, danced and listened to us, gave us money and told us stories. It's been a great trip. Here are some pics...

Noah, Kendall and me... looking toughIs that not a frickin huge, beautiful hunk of cheese or what???Hi there NoahWhile driving down to Aransas Pass, Kendall took us to the mother of all gas stations, the restiest stop on the open road, the Taj Mahal of Stop-N-Go's, the most famous facilities in all of Texas, I'm talking about the one and only Buc-ee's!
And I must say, that's an awful lot of trail mix...Sunrise in Port Aransas Our friends John and Amy. John makes these amazing jellies out of mesquite, prickly pear, and other crazy southwest stuff. He also whipped up some killer breakfast tacos with papaya smoothies and real homemade tamales on the side. Oh yeah!Today Noah and I visited Enchanted Rock near Fredericksburg. It was a fun (and very windy) afternoon jaunt

Where Is My Hairbrush???

2010-03-20T22:12:00.001-07:00

Classic...

Loops

2010-03-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

Wow... so I finally got around to looking up Perpetual E-Motion on YouTube. Very cool stuff...

Check out their website for more music. And, and on a slightly similar note, I found this awesome tour video from one of my absolute, ultimate, favorite-ist bands of all-time: the wonderful, beautiful, fantastic and amazing St Vincent...

New Neighbors's new album

2010-03-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

A quick plug: our friend Dana Billings, who plays drums in the Andrew & Noah Band, is also a member of the fantastic Ithaca-based alt-rock group New Neighbors. Check out their new free EP and upcoming album Bookfight.

My 200th post... Joshua Trees

2010-03-11T09:58:00.000-08:00

Wow... 200 posts! That's kind of crazy. Thanks to all you folks out there reading this. It's nice to be able to share what's going on in my life with you. Noah and I finally got to San Antonio after a pretty brutal delay in Chicago. Watched a lot of The Office. I mean a lot. And I usually do pretty darn good with eating while I'm traveling. You know... smallish, cheapish, greenish. I try and do a good job anyway. Well I totally screwed up today. $12 for the grossest grilled cheese and onion rings I've ever had. At least I didn't finish it. Getting a little sick of airports in case you were wondering. We caught a red-eye home from California a couple days ago. It was so great to see Sarah, even for just a few hours. I am such a lucky guy. Unfortunately I've come down with this head/chest cold that's got be feeling kinda crumby. Do you still use silent letters in fake words? Like the "b" in crumby? Maybe it's just crummy. But you know what I mean. My ears are all messed up from the flight. I should probably go to bed now. Oh, I wanted to post a couple more pics from the southern CA trip. Noah and I got to visit Joshua Tree National Park which was awesome...

BTW Bullet the Blue Sky is a great song. More pics...

Totally surreal: groovin' across the desert to The Horseflies...
Okay, going to bed now. Bye.

Parrots!

2010-03-03T22:04:00.001-08:00

Noah and I are currently traveling around southern California, playing some dances and doing a little birding. This morning we tracked down a mixed flock of parrots in Los Angeles. I'm no expert at parrot identification but we had at least four or five different species. It was so much fun hearing them and watching them fly around. For more info check out the California Parrot Project website.

Red-crowned ParrotLilac-crowned Parrot Red-lored Parrot White-fronted Parrot?Red-masked Parakeet?My personal favorite: Rose-ringed Parakeet

Good times in MASS

2010-02-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we played a couple gigs in Massachusetts. What a great time! After playing the Greenfield dance on Friday we actually got to go dancing on Saturday night......to the phenomenal music of ELIXIR!!!Emily, Kailyn and NoahWe also visited a Thrift Store in Turner's Falls where Sarah picked up this one-of-a-kind dressAnd we made a couple trips to one of my absolute all-time favorite places... The Montague BookmillOn Sunday we played a show at the legendary Club Passim in Cambridge with our friends Matching Orange. We got a couple video clips but I don't have time to upload them right now. Off to California tomorrow afternoon (if the weather doesn't get too crazy)

Ale Moller Band

2010-02-08T06:25:00.000-08:00

Awesome New Coat and more

2010-02-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

It's been a fairly cold winter here in upstate New York. Things warmed up a bit last week but got very cold again over the weekend. I'm staying warm though in my brand new coat! Here's the story:

I bought an awesome new coat a couple weeks ago because I lost both my other coats. I would bring my coats with me but not wear them. My awesome new coat is green and warm and fuzzy on the inside, water repellent on the outside, it's totally awesome and was on sale... everything a coat should be! Then I relapsed into my old habit of bringing my awesome new coat with me but not wearing it. Then I LOST my awesome new coat and was totally bummed. But then my awesome wife FOUND my awesome new coat and now I'm happy again. The end.

Okay, that should bring you up to speed. So for Sarah's birthday last week we went out with our friend Dan for Indian food at our favorite place: Sahota Palace in Liverpool. Dan had never had Indian before but it got his stamp of approval.
Giant Robot Dance was out on the loose last weekend down near Baltimore, MD for the MidWinter Ball. We had a great time reuniting with our old colleagues R2-D2, Bender, The Robot from Lost In Space, Seven Of Nine and of course, our friend and mentor, Optimus Prime...

Nailyn

2010-01-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

In case you haven't heard, Noah and Kailyn got married a couple weeks ago! Here are a couple pics taken by our friend Morgan Marshall...It's been good to be more-or-less home this month. December kinda stressed me out. Been spending time with Sarah, getting caught up on booking stuff, working on album artwork and press pics. Still haven't really been able to get out birding very much yet. Had a nice trip to NYC recently where I got to play guitar in a jazz/folk trumpet ensemble. And Noah and I are headed to Maryland this weekend for a gig with the 'Bots. Hey, time for another random product endorsement...This stuff really is tasty! We got some for Christmas. Actually we got a lot of chocolate and candy this year... I wonder where it all is now? Okay, I should get back to work now. Bye :-)

Yellow-throated Warbler and other stuff

2010-01-14T08:34:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you but for me 2010 is off to a good start. Noah and Kailyn got married last weekend. The new album is mastered and sounds pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I'll probably be working on the artwork and website for the next month or so but it's coming along. Also trying to get caught up on booking stuff that's been on hold since Christmas. We've got some fun trips coming up this year but it sure takes a lot of correspondence to make it all happen. Birding has been off to kind of a slow start but yesterday I was treated to excellent looks at my first YELLOW-THROATED WARLBER for New York. I got a couple kind of crappy pics through my bins...That was a fun bird to see. Wish I'd had a nicer camera with me. Anyway, last night Sarah and I had our friends Megan and Andy over for dinner. We tried this awesome recipe for Peanut Tofu stew with Kale out of our new Moosewood Cookbook. And then we played a board game. I've been really enjoying board games lately. We started playing Settlers of Catan a few months ago but there are a lot of different ones that are also fun like Alhambra and Ticket To Ride. I think the one we played last night was called Power Grid and you had to supply a bunch of cities with power using different resources (coal, wind, nuclear, etc). And of course different resources are more or less expensive at different times during the game, different power plants are more or less efficient, certain places have higher transfer costs, etc. It was quite fun! Hey speaking of fun we also just got Chuck: Season 2 on DVD. We're kind of hooked on that show. I guess that's about it for now. I'll try and post again sometime next week.

Petits Toasts

2010-01-04T11:03:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a great holiday season. I got home last night from another wonderful weekend at Ashokan. Sarah and I spent Christmas day with Beck, Anna, Alan and Gretchen; it was so much fun to just relax and be home for once. Sarah got me an awesome present... cheese! A whole selection of different cheeses; some we'd tried before but some were totally new. And what could possibly go better with special fancy-shmancy cheese than Petits Toasts?! They're so cute and French and tasty. I think the Stilton has been our favorite so far but they've all been good. So what else has been going on here... oh, I went to see Avatar last week. Wow! Pretty darn frickin wild movie. We tried to see it in 3D but we couldn't make it to any of the showings. It was still amazing in regular old-fashioned 2D. Is that what regular movies are in? 2D? I never really figured that out. Anyway, this afternoon we're having a little bachelor party type thing for Noah. Sledding, pizza (plus Fritos and Reeses) and Sherlock Holmes. Their (Noah and Kailyn's) big day is coming right up on Friday! So now I'll have six sisters I think. That's cool! Or maybe it's seven. Not sure what my relationship with Dad's wife's daughter's partner is exactly. Tomorrow I head back down to Ithaca for some final mix stuff and mastering with Will and Dana. And I'm supposed to start working on album/website artwork stuff too. I'm a bit behind on booking stuff for the summer so I'll need to get busy with that as well. So I better be going. Take care... I wish you all the very best in this new decade!

Reflections on the Dietary Habits of Noah VanNorstrand (GUEST EDITION! Vol. IV ~ 2009)

2009-12-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

Tis the season folks... our annual Reflections on the Dietary Habits of Noah VanNorstrand. Let's get things going here with a classic cheeseburger and fries in the fair city of Washington DC But wait, what's this? There's been a new development... it appears that the lovely and talented miss Kailyn Wright has entered the fray! Here she is, helping herself to a bit of Indian curry in Oklahoma City, OK And what do you know? It looks like mom's sampling some of the delicious breakfast spread down in Tampa, FLOf course Dave isn't far behind in the breakfast department with his hearty bowl of oatmeal in Homer, AKSarah's contribution: this extremely tasty veggie panini courtesy of some hole-in-the-wall in downtown Montreal, QC
Ohhh... what can I say... I love my Cholula! This breakfast burrito was consumed by yours truly at The Cowboy Cafe in Wickenburg, AZ
Well, I hope you've enjoyed this Guest Edition of Reflections on the Dietary Habits of Noah VanNorstrand. I'll try and be more stringent with next year's report. In the meantime please feel free to refresh yourself with ROTDHONV Volumes I (2006), II (2007) and III (2008). One final parting shot of our fine subject, heartily endorsing some kind of Venezuelan dish at an eatery in Elkins, WV

Thursday

2009-12-10T13:23:00.000-08:00

This morning I decided to run a little promotion thing for the GBT / Andrew & Noah group on Facebook. A free CD for our 1000th member and whoever invited them to join. And WOW... people really got into it! So congrats to our 1000th member: Art Lane from Reno, NV. It's a very snowy, blustery afternoon here. I went to put snow tires on our car a little while ago but there are these little metal rings from the inside of the tire and two of them came out. And I'm missing a third. So not really sure what to do about that. I'm guessing blogging won't help but hey, you never know. Sarah and I went Christmas shopping earlier today. We were actually able to get a lot of things crossed off our list. Probably shouldn't go into specifics in case this information should fall into the wrong hands. I'm kind of itching for a birding day. Not very likely to happen anytime soon but I do miss it. And hey, my new Year List starts in just 21 days. I did get some new music this week. Sarah introduced me to Patrick Watson. Beautiful stuff. Kind of like a combination of the best parts of Doveman and The Books. Check out this video...

Folk Alley: Artist of the Month

2009-12-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, check this out...

Please help us spread the word!
Visit www.folkalley.com/openmic/tellafriend
Thanks a lot to the people at Folk Alley for selecting us.

Thankful

2009-11-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for my family. For my close family, my extended family, my in-laws, my brother and his soon to be in-laws, all my friends who might as well be family. Especially my wife. I am thankful for music. For the expression of any and all emotions through a song. I am very thankful for my instruments. My still kind of new fiddle, my electric guitar "Jenny" and my banjo uke. Thankful for all those people who love and support me where ever I go. Who put us up in their homes, feed us, drive us around in their cars and stay up late dancing :-) Thank you for these little windows into your lives. I am thankful to have a job, and even more thankful that I can make a living doing what I love. I pray I never take that for granted. I am so thankful for birds because watching and studying them gives me a glimpse into an infinitely diverse and beautiful natural world that far too few people get to experience. I am thankful for turtles too, just cause. I am thankful for good food, fresh air, hot water and ice cubes. For forgiveness and a fresh start to every day. I am thankful for a God who "sees the depths of my heart and loves me the same." Have a very Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

California Cranes

2009-11-21T13:53:00.000-08:00

On the final day of our recent California visit Jim and Susan Stratton took me out to watch the Sandhill Cranes come in to roost near Lodi. It was an incredible evening, watching these beautiful birds flying over Mount Diablo. Another California birding highlight: this Ferruginous Hawk south of Sacramento was my 450th bird this year! My entire North American life list was only at 450 before 2009. I doubt I'll ever see such a high percentage of my life list in a single year again and I want to say a special thanks to Jim Stratton for chasing this bird down with us.

Tidings of Cactus & Canyon

2009-11-18T05:10:00.000-08:00

Hi folks. Sorry this is such a late post. Noah and I have been hard at work on the new album ever since we got back from our Arizona / California trip. All the basic tracks are done and we've just got a few final overdubs and edits before we move on to mixing. Anyway, things have been good here. Last night Sarah and I made a really tasty veggie pizza. Eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, onion and mushrooms! Seems like a nice day today. It looked cool outside this morning with all the frost. I'm in a pretty good mood overall. GBT plays in Colorado this weekend but it's just a short out-n-back kinda trip. Oh, and I think I'm having dinner with dad tonight. Okay... now let me see if I can pick out some pics from AZ.

This was my first visit to a "real" desert and I absolutely loved it
That's Vulture Peak in the backgroundWhile staying in the Flagstaff area we visited the ancient cliff dwellings at Walnut Canyon Passing through Sedona we made a stop at Ye Olde UFO Store A beautiful hike in Oak Creek Canyon On our last day in Arizona we woke up early and drove up to see the sunrise at THE canyon... what an amazing experience!