Ready, Retooled, Renewed

An Update
The ol' steed got an upgrade, new spokes,  new tubes, and a tune up.

Even better,  I got some birding accessories.
The Scope on the bicycle handlebars is a Roxant, 12-36 X 50, and came to me as a Christmas present from my parents with an attachment that will allow me to take pictures through the scope with my cellphone. Both are available on Amazon, and are relatively inexpensive. The clamp came as an after accessory from my Dad. Quality wise, the setup works for what it is. There's some chromatic issues with the image, but I've seen worse out of more expensive glass. With it, I checked out some little brown jobs that turned out to be some lifer sparrows (Vesper to be exact), so it's pretty much the best Christmas present ever. Now I have a reason to check out some of the ducks on Agricola Rd here in polk county. Terns on buoys at Lake Hollingsworth are no longer a mystery. I took the picture above on a Sunday morning excursion to see the terns. I scoped a couple of Forster's and some Royal's. Didn't get to all the buoys either, will have to work harder next time. Excitement builds as I continue to bird. There's big things planned for next year, and it will take a lot of work to make them all happen.
The Lowdown
I'm ready for next year, it's tomorrow after all. I'm ready to see new birds, and some of the regulars as well. I'm also ready to go new places, more to say about that later.
I'm retooled with necessary gear. It's hard to bird without optics, and this new scope will do the trick for helping me see new things, and document them as well. I also hope to retool and review what I'm using as well.
I'm renewed in my purpose for birding. The world has so many wonderful things to see and understand. I want to share them with my kids, who will add their own perspective, and find their own purpose for enjoying creation, and all the lessons it's here to teach us. I want to share what I'm learning, that there is beauty in odd places. There's so much here to see and do!

Come with me to the future!
Let's go see some birds!

Actually Rode my Bike... Twice Even!

Two Sundays in a row, I woke up before dawn.

The first Sunday morning heralded the day before the beginning of school for E (Kid #2) and also the end of a small vacation. We were out of town at the beginning, and visiting with my parents at our house the rest of the time. I needed a break from the break. I needed to see something green.
I always attempt self improvement, sometimes it works better than others. One of my more recent efforts involves becoming physically fit by riding my bicycle to work. Because of the vacation, I haven't been riding to work, but I have done a lot of walking, hiking, swimming with the kids, and other stuff to maintain what I've accomplished. On Sunday morning, the bicycle called to me.

"Go to Holloway Park," it said. "You'll gain blog material."

Hey it worked! I had fun riding there because the exercise I have been getting made the trip quick and easy. That increases the chances I'll keep getting up early on Sundays to do this trip. I also managed to see a few birds, 23 species to be exact, including some (like Laughing Gull) I hadn't seen at Holloway park in a while.
Sky was overcast, temps still warm. The dawn was gorgeous. First order of business was to ride my back down the dirt road to the area where people park who want to do the running trails. Looking over the grass fields for Killdeer and Eastern Meadowlarks, I only managed to spot various Grackles, and the Ospreys on their nests over on the ball field lights to the north of the park. No Killdeer, no Meadowlarks. I did spot one nice looking American Kestrel, and some Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks going to roost. After rechecking the birds around Lake Ann, I parked the bike against the fence and locked it up. Holloway has a "no bikes on the trails" policy, and I respect that.

Walking the trails revealed nothing highly unusual. There were higher than normal numbers of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers about, and that was about the only sign of migration I saw. There was a late seasoned Great Crested Flycatcher there that came out while I was pishing at the local Tufted Titmice. I hopped on the bike at about 5 to 9am, soaked in sweat and dew, and mashed pedals back home, happy to see birds, and to pedal my way there and back.

The next week I repeated, only instead of going out into the field first, I parked, and walked the trails first, the first thing I saw heading into the park was an Eastern Bluebird. I glanced briefly at the pond, confirmed it was still there, then beat feet. There's a couple of places at Holloway that I'm convinced are magical. I think that the next time I'm there, there will  be some heavy activity. There's the Poplar tree that I saw a mimid trifecta in a while back (Brown thrasher, Northern Mockingbird, and Gray Catbird all eating the same thing from the same tree!), and there's also the line of cypress trees that seem to offer so much at the right time. This time, there was still very little sign of migration. The weather was just too clear I think. Gnatcatchers and a Northern Parula were all that was there to scratch the listing itch. The bird watcher in me though noticed a change on the local birds. They were looking very frazzled. The Tufted Titmice were missing tail feathers, and mockingbirds all were very gray and worn looking. Cardinal tails could barely be called tails, and the Boat-Tailed Grackles could barely be called that. Soon they'll be full on no tail grackles.

I took the trip around the parking area on bike, still no Eastern Meadowlarks, no shrikes, couldn't even scare up a Killdeer. That day, I did see Barn Swallows for the first time at Holloway. That's one of those birds that's been on my list of  "I ought to be seeing these here, and I haven't yet". So are Chimney Swifts. Soon they'll be gone south I suppose.

I mashed pedals hard on the way home, burning off energy and stoking the thirst to keep up this trend.
We'll see how it goes tomorrow.