Inaugural Podcast

Here's my inaugural podcast. Enjoy.

Rocket Man

~Kirk

80 birds and counting

I'm off to a good start this year. Yesterday I hit the 80 bird mark. On my way in to work Monday I spotted an American Kestrel on the phone line on Norell Ave. That same drive I saw two Sandhill Cranes fly from the pond across from the entrance to the nature center and head in the direction of the prairie or Alder Bay on Terrapin Lake. It wasn't a great view of the cranes but good enough to count.
Yesterday (wednesday) I checked the bird feeders before leaving work and there were several fox sparrows.

78-80
American Kestrel
Sandhill Crane
Fox Sparrow

Ballooning In the Desert

We woke up at about 4:45 am to head to the deer valley airport for a hot air balloon trip. We met up with the crew and other passengers and then headed out into the desert.

At the site the crew readied the balloon on an old cloth billboard to keep it clean. The basket on this one was very large. It can hold 16 people plus the propane gas tanks.


The balloon in the foreground is the one we got into. At this stage it is attached to the basket and they are blowing it up with two large fans.


This photo really gives you and idea how monstrously huge the balloon is. Look carefully inside and you can see two tiny people standing in there.


Now we're cookin' with gas! As they ignite the burners the balloon starts to stand up and it tips the basket up with it.


Here Chelsey and I are all loaded in. The balloon is still tied to the bumper of a truck and with the weight of a dozen people they need to fire up the burners a bit before we take off.



Liftoff! We gracefully rise above the desert. You can compare the size of the shadows of the two balloons.


A few blasts of the burners and we rise higher.

Check out our little shadows. Chelsey took this one and it is a nice shot of the balloon but my eyes always land on the straight as an arrow hillside below the balloon. It is part of a flood mitigation project. There are a lot of them in the area. The flood waters from the mountains apparently go straight through phoenix on route to the river. Excellent planning huh?

The view from the balloon. Anyone think they can fly? Chelsey and I both had this really strange feeling like we wanted to jump out of the basket. Not that we would. The desire to not forcefully hit the ground was a whole lot stronger. Weird though. It wasn't so much a desire to jump, I think more the desire to fly. Maybe we need to take up hang gliding?


Hmm, should a tear in the balloon make us nervous?

Wow, my chin looks huge. I trimmed the beard just days before this. The more I look at this photo the more it look like I'm wearing a rigid underwater diving suit. Very odd.

With time running out we picked a landing site. Our pilot could see this big open area. Looks good right? It is a new construction site. It has two things going for it. 1) No Cactus. 2) It looks flat. Notice I said, looks flat. Looks can be deceiving from this height.

Here's one of many, many drop offs at the site. We had a fun ride when we landed. We didn't stay in one place.

Here's our drag marks. We jumped the ledge in the background and then jumped another 6 foot drop off just to the right of the photo.


Safely back on the ground.


Mom and Dad with the big ol' balloon deflating in the background.

How did they know to dress to match the balloon?

We had a great time that day and when it was all said and done we had to decide how to spend the rest of the day. I looked at my watch. It was only 8:30 in the morning. We still had a full day ahead.

~Kirk

Arizona Birding

What can I say? The birds in Arizona were fantastic. Even Chelsey thought some of them were cool.

When I first arrived in Arizona at the Kierland Villas I took out my binoculars and immediately spotted Great Tailed Grackles, a Green Heron, a bunch of Yellow-Rumped Warblers (Audubon's), Mallards, House Finches, Starlings and a Black Chinned Hummingbird. The birds in bold are new for this year.

Here's a shot of Chelsey and I at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. On Tuesday, Chelsey, and my mom came along as I met up with birder Jane Wicklund for some serious bird nerd fun. There was a threat of high winds that day so we started early and were able to catch some great sightings before it got too windy. Here's my list from that Tuesday.

On the way there I saw a Turkey Vulture and a Gambel's Quail.

As for new birds at the arboretum:
Gila Woodpecker
Pied Billed Grebe
Cooper's Hawk
Inca Dove
Broad-Billed Hummingbird
Anna's Hummingbird
Costa's Hummingbird
Black Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Bell's Vireo
Verdin
Hermit Thrush
Phainopela
Yellow Warbler
Spotted Towhee
Abert's Towhee
Black-Throated Sparrow
White Crowned Sparrow
Lesser Goldfinch

That's a pretty good list for one day. We saw one other bird that Jane said was a ruby crowned kinglet but since I couldn't verify it I didn't include it on my list. It was fun to watch people from the Pacific Northwest go all crazy about the northern cardinals. They are pretty amazing. I guess we tend to take them for granted.

On the way home from the arboretum I spotted a Killdeer on the side of the road.

Back at Kierland I saw two Golden Eagles flying over the golf course. I also saw Common ravens. When we went to Taliesin West I saw more gila woodpeckers and house sparrows but also a Curve-billed Thrasher which was fun. I went on a short stake-out at the hummingbird feeders by the pool back at Kierland but apparently no one bothers to fill them.

Once the rest of my family went back home, Chelsey and I headed off to Sedona. We stayed at Lo Lo Mai springs. Our cabin was just feet from the springs and the pond it feeds and I had some exciting new species. I immediately zoned in on a completely bizarre looking duck . Turns out it was a Mandarin Duck. They commonly escape from private collections and zoos. It was incredible and seemed to be hanging out with a couple of Wood Ducks. There were a bunch of mallards and a green heron as well.

At the Tlaquepaque shopping area in Sedona I spotted a couple of Cedar Waxwings.

In our adventures around the Sedona area we checked out Tuzigoot National Monument which is pretty much a waste of time.

It is as exciting as the photo looks.

There are far more interesting locations where you can see similar things. As far a birds I did add a Brown Crested Flycatcher though I must admit it was a difficult ID. I'm pretty confident though.

Far far more exciting was our last day in the Sedona area. I woke up and peeked out the front door to see who was in the pond. To my surprise there was a male Northern Pintail in breeding plumage. Nice.

Here I am ID'ing some Violet-Green Swallows along Oak Creek Canyon.


At Montezuma's Well I saw some great birds and this site was interesting even if you are oblivious to birds. I'd say it is better than Montezuma's Castle and did I mention that it is free?

In the "well," which is a limestone sinkhole, I immediately spotted a Cinnamon teal. Marvelous! The color on the male was wonderful. There were some mallards of course as well as a pair of American Wigeons. I spent a good deal of time looking at the swallows and determined they were Northern Rough-Winged Swallows. Trying Chelsey's patience, I ID'd a Rock Wren and then had a nice short conversation about birds with the ranger. She seemed to indicate that the rock wrens and canyon wrens look the same to her but I found that a little hard to believe. In all of the drawings I have, the canyon wren has a very distinct white throat but maybe not in this part of Arizona?

She indicated that a pair of black hawks were in the area but I didn't see them. I also ran out of time to track down a canyon wren. Oh well.

From Montezuma's Well we headed straight to the airport and I watched the entire way for a road runner. Pretty much everyone else in my family has seen one down there but my record of failure continues unbroken now for two years. I guess seeing something like 47 other species of birds makes up for it!

Here's the birds listed out. Only new ones here:
(Lifers are noted with a * 22 species are listed here for the first time)

39-40
Great-tailed Grackle
Green Heron

41-50
Yellow-Rumped Warbler (Audubon's)
Black Chinned Hummingbird*
Gambel's Quail.
Gila Woodpecker*
Pied Billed Grebe
Cooper's Hawk*
Inca Dove*
Broad-Billed Hummingbird*
Anna's Hummingbird
Costa's Hummingbird*

51-60
Black Phoebe*
Vermilion Flycatcher*
Bell's Vireo *
Verdin
Hermit Thrush
Phainopela*
Yellow Warbler
Spotted Towhee*
Abert's Towhee*
Black-Throated Sparrow

61-70
White Crowned Sparrow
Lesser Goldfinch*
Killdeer
Golden Eagle*
Common raven
Curve-billed Thrasher
Mandarin Duck*
Wood Duck
Cedar Waxwing
Brown Crested Flycatcher*

71-76
Northern Pintail*
Violet-Green Swallow
Cinnamon teal*
American Wigeon*
Northern Rough-Winged Swallow*
Rock Wren*

Addendum
When I returned to work on Monday morning I taught down at the Science Museum and they had a spotting scope out so you could look for Peregrine Falcons on the High Bridge power plant smoke stack. I focused and zoomed in the scope and tally ho! There was a bird perfectly perched. That brings the yearly total to:

77
Peregrine Falcon*

Birds 21-38

The bird counting continues for 2007.

On February 17th I spotted European Starlings in the parking lot of Petco in Maplewood. I'd seen birds in the distance I was pretty sure were starlings already but this day I got a nice up-close view.

On Wednesday February 21st we had a big warm-up and I saw a flock of mallard ducks in a little pond just outside of Woodland Elementary where I was teaching an after school club. The school is very close to the Mississippi and I had seen ducks flying around the week before. I'd also seen ducks flying in Roseville several times but this was a great species confirmation as I could see them up close just like the starlings.

On March 5th I found a flock of Tree Sparrows at the north end of the restoration pitcher prairie at the nature center. I noticed they seemed to be feeding primarily on ragweed seeds which surprised me. They fed from the ground, standing on the foot or two of snow and the seeds were easily accessible.

On March 9th, Julia and I pulled over the car just south of boot lake on Norell to check out a few birds that quickly took off from the side of the road. Fellow naturalist Paul had stopped the day before and saw Horned Larks at this location. Sure enough, the birds flew away and then circled back, landing thirty feet or so up the road from us. With our binoculars we could see the "horns" as well as the yellow breast and black strip of the Horned Lark. Very cool. This was a "lifer" for me as I'd never seen one. I quietly said, "Tally Ho!" as a tribute to Roger Tory Peterson.

On Saturday, March 10th I drove to work a little early to stop near May Town Hall to check out a flock of birds we keep seeing while we carpool. It turns out it is a mixed flock of tree sparrows, juncos and house finches. Someone spotted Lapland Longspurs in this location but I did not see any. The female house finches are similar in appearance. These were my first house finches of the year so they go on the list as well. Strangely, looking in my Sibley book where I write down the birds I see I noticed I haven't bothered to record the house finch yet as an official "life list" bird so this sighting will become my official one.

On March 17th I was in South Dakota for a funeral and the birds were incredible. Unfortunately I was unable to ID many of them as it would have been grossly inappropriate to do so. I did spot my first red-winged blackbird of the year as well as a rough-legged hawk. I saw some waxwings, probably cedar but without a good look though binoculars it was impossible to tell. There were THOUSANDS of geese there migrating. The small flocks were 200 birds, the larger ones were in the thousands. It was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen . There were Canada geese as well as many white geese that were probably snow geese but they were so high up I couldn't tell if they were Ross's geese. None of them were on the ground so that made it hard to get a good look. There were a couple of lakes a few miles off the highway where you could see thousands of geese coming in for a landing like a giant tornado but since my sister-in-law was driving and everyone wanted to get home we didn't pull off.

On March 20t I heard Sandhill cranes and other naturalists spotted them but by the time I ran outside they were gone. I did manage to spot three female purple finches at the feeders though.

March 22nd proved to be a fun day boiling down maple syrup at work. I heard and saw lots of red-shouldered hawks in the woods as I collected sap. I'd already seen some this year but it was still fun. As I came back to the building I was excited to hear the first phoebe of the year! What a great sign of spring. When I heard it again after lunch I waited by the front door and sure enough it landed in a tree near the emergency exit to the upstairs classroom. We've had phoebe's building nests above the door for a few years so I wonder if it is the same male returning to his territory?

On Friday morning I headed down to the Minnesota River to go birding. In the "Bass Ponds" just east of 77 just outside the Black Dog Preserve I spotted Ring neck ducks, American Coots and Gadwalls. Continuing up river I thought I saw a Savannah Sparrow just past the power plant but I won't count it because I can't be sure of the ID. I Spotted a Fox Sparrow at the small park just before 35 W who's name eludes me. Not much of a park.

Since I had more time I drove over to the Minnesota Wildlife Refuge and saw a sharp shinned hawk chasing song sparrows so that's two new species for the year right there. I also saw hooded mergansers. Not new for this year I saw crows, a bald eagle, downy and hairy woodpeckers, chickadees, red winged blackbirds and cardinals.

As I was driving home I spotted a Turkey Vulture over the Mississippi just of 5 near Fort Snelling. That put me at 47 for the year and I thought that would be it but while picking up Joy for lunch on Saturday the 24th Chelsey spotted a Great Blue Heron fishing near her apartment. Very nice. That's 38 and I'm off to Arizona.

European Starling
Mallard Duck
Tree Sparrow
Horned Lark
House Finch
Red-winged Blackbird
Rough-legged Hawk
Purple Finch
Phoebe
Ring Necked Duck

American Coot
Gadwall
Fox Sparrow
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Song sparrow
Hooded Merganser
Turkey Vulture
Great Blue Heron

Edwards Campaign Goes Carbon-Neutral

First John Edwards declines to debate in the Faux debate (see previous post) and now he announces his campaign is going carbon neutral. Part of the letter he sent out reads,

...today I have also directed the campaign to purchase carbon offsets that support alternative energy production to neutralize the global warming impact from our travel and office energy use.

I find this so interesting. Where was Al Gore with an idea like this back when he won? I might have voted for him at the time had he shown any spine when it came to the environment.

Is Edwards really that progressive or just trying to lure me in with a hot topic like global warming?

~Kirk

Dems Dump FOX

Sweet, sweet victory.

Note that the article has this "don't piss off Murdoch" bend at the end. If a news source is unbiased why should you have to go out of your way to not piss off the owner?

Here's the NY Times piece.

~kirk

Enjoy. . . .

My Open Letter To Chairperson Tom Collins

This is my letter to Tom Collins, the chairperson of the Nevada Democratic Party.

I encourage everyone who reads this to send a similar letter. His email address is tcollins0622@cox.net.

~Kirk

---

Dear Chairperson Collins,

In your March 7th letter posted on the Nevada State Democratic Party website you state that "Our objective in hosting the August debate with FOX has not been to endorse the FOX News Channel."

However, that is exactly what you have done. By working with FOX News you endorse them as a legitimate news source and you lend them legitimacy they do not deserve.

They are not a legitimate news source and they do not deserve the support of the Democratic party in any way, shape or form.

As a democrat, I ask that you and others re-consider the decision of the Nevada Democratic Party to endorse the legitimacy of FOX news.

I am not a Nevadan but your actions affect all democrats.

Thank you,

Kirk Mona
Minnesota Democrat

What's not to like about chocolate?

EPA cites chocolate factory for smell.

~Kirk

The First 20 Birds of 2007

It has begun! I have started counting birds in 2007. I have a three month head start on last year (not that it will help.) The first ten birds I spotted were rather predictable. On new year's day I saw only two kinds of birds. I spotted crows and rock pigeons. No huge surprise there.

Returning to work the next day a quick visit to the feeders gained me white breasted nuthatches, black capped chickadees, American goldfinches, red-bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, and hairy woodpeckers. While talking to Tom Anderson in his office a pileated woodpecker flew through the woods. That made nine. I didn't spot any birds then until Thursday morning while walking the dog. I purposefully went down an icy alley when I heard birds. There was a huge flock of house sparrows in some mulberry bushes one block east of my house. So, it took me four days to get ten birds.

1-10
Crow
Rock Pigeon
White Breasted Nuthatch
Black Capped Chickadee
American Goldfinch
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
House Sparrow


For Festivus, my family bought me a pair of binoculars which should be really nice to use. I haven't done any serious birding with them yet but what I have seen so far makes me excited for the year.

Starting on the second ten, I saw a blue jay along Square Lake Trail and a cardinal at Tamarack Nature Center on January 8th. On January 11th I saw a bald eagle at Keller Lake. January 15th I spotted a Pheasant at Lake Elmo regional park and then January 16th a Junco in the corn fields south of Warner along Manning Ave. I've spotted Canada geese several times.

On the 20th Bekah pointed out a flock of Turkeys just south of Warner bringing the total to 15. On the 25th I spotted a brown creeper (finally) and I confirmed that the birds I see almost every day along the highway are in fact red-tailed hawks. I figured they were but no fair counting them on an assumption.

I spied a Mourning Dove at Boot Lake on Feb. 8th. Finally, bird 20 arrived on February 15th as I drove to Marine Elementary for an outreach program. As I passed through the tunnel and under the railroad tracks I saw a bird flit across the road. There was a flash of a white rump and with a second bird I spotted the red breast. I had heard robins hang out along this stretch of road all year because of the springs that keep water open. it was nice to have number 20 be a nice old friend like the robin.

11-20
Blue Jay
Northern Cardinal
Pheasant
Junco
Canada goose
Turkey
Brown Creeper
Red-tailed hawk
Mourning Dove
American Robin

Saturn

Last night was cold and clear so I finally got outside to do some astrophotography with my telescope. Saturn is a great target this month. The image above is a composite of about 20 images from a quicktime movie captured with a the Phillips SPC900NC web camera I got for my birthday. I stacked and averaged the images to bring out detail. This was my first attempt.

Ideally, once I get the hang of this I'll stack about 200 frames to make final images which should give me greater detail than this. Through the scope with my eyes I could clearly make out the cassini division which isn't visible in the photo. I'm guessing this may be a focusing issue. It is extremely difficult to focus the image and the cold wears my patience thin. Look forward to better images this spring.

I hope you enjoy my first attempt at photographing the ringed planet!

~Kirk

On Rationality

Last night I caught a little bit of the show Wife Swap ( or maybe it was the other one) Anyhow, there was this christian family that traded places with a pagan family. The pagan family believed in fairies. They prayed to them, spoke to them, worshiped them, made them baked goods, etc.

When the new mom came and read the "house rules" book about who they are and what they do she kept on saying "Oh they're crazy." I don't disagree with that and I'm guessing most of America that was watching was thinking the same thing. "Anyone who believes in that is nuts!"

What strikes me is that reasonable people can look at a pagan religion and see people who believe in talking trees, spirits, and magic and they can instantly see that it is a bunch of hookum. However, these same people see absolutely nothing wrong with believing that 2000 years ago a god impregnated a virgin and the resulting kid (who could walk on water by the way) was killed and then magically came back to life. You want talking to trees? How about the burning bush? Believing is spirits and magic? Heck, christians believe that they can commune with spirits by magically turning bread into the flesh of a guy who died thousands of years ago. They also turn wine into his blood. By magically combing these elements in a ritual, their soul is cleansed of sins.

Yes, yes, this is totally rational and every other religion is crazy.

Vision

A few years back I wrote the following:

1. seeing meaningful vision/values based change in youth as the result of powerful outdoor experiences that help them examine life/ecology and self.

I wrote that in response to the question, "What is your number one motivator at work?"

I need to re-examine everything I do. I've lost sight of this a little over the years as what I do becomes more about work and less about a vocation. How do I create powerful outdoor experiences? I think I'm doing okay with that but what bothers me about my current work is that it isn't as powerful as the adventure education. When I did adventure ed. I would see life change in hours. When everything went right the kids who left were different from those who came. Usually this shift was about self confidence. Studies show that this new self confidence lasts at least a year but for some kids you see that it will last much longer.

I think the effect is more subtle in any kind of environmental education or natural history program. Insted of a profound difference in how they view themselves, which is so personal, they may have a new appreciation for birds or something like that. That's cool and all but because it isn't really a change in self it isn't as intrinsically powerful.

We tend to teach natural history instead of environmental education. I'm proud of that fact but again, it is easier to see the change in an EE class versus a straight up natural history lesson. I think in truth the two can't be teased apart. I prefer coming at a subject from a natural history approach because I can get the group to fall in love with the subject and then they want to save it instead of telling them they are destroying something when they don't even care about it. If someone is falling in love with something that is a profound personal change that will affect their lives.

Bah. I need to examine all three parts of this but my brain isn't up to the task right now.

That and it is hard to affect change in the world when all of your programs get canceled because there isn't any snow.

~Kirk

Click-Hold contextual Menus in Firefox 2.0

Here's a little geek trick for all my Macintosh buddies. I just downloaded Firefox 2.0 (my browser of choice) and I was frustrated beyond belief that I could no longer click and hold on a hyperlink to make the menu pop up where I select "Open link in new Tab."

I have to hold down the control key when I click. I know most PC users can use a right click (or is it left?) for this but most Mac users do not have a multiple key mouse so this new "feature" drove me crazy.

Here's the solution.

Type the following into your browser address field:
about:config

A large list of variables will appear. Scroll down to ui.click_hold_context_menus

By default it will say this variable is set to false. Click on the word false to change it to true and now your beautful hold click contextual menus are back where they belong.

Geek on.

~Kirk

Angular Dimension

No, angular dimension is not some alternate reality nor is is a bad new wave 80's band. Angular dimension is the measured size of an object in the sky as expressed, typically, in arcseconds or degrees. In english, "How big does it look in the sky?"

One of the hard things to express to groups sometimes is how big or small stuff is in the sky. A great example is the Andromeda Galaxy. It is 2.5 million light years away and 220,000 light-years wide but how big does it look to us? It is one thing for me to say that is it somewhere around two to three degrees wide but even better to compare it to something we know.

I've often told groups that the moon is only 1/2 a degree wide so they can imagine how big Andromeda would look if only it appeared brighter in our sky.

I wish I always had this photo on hand to show them. Wow.

Minnesota Gears up to be #1 in Wind Power

It seems things may really come together this year to reform state policy on renewable energy. In Minnesota, renewable energy means Wind.

As part of the agreement between then Northern States Power (now Xcel Energy) and the state, money went to build the first wind turbines in exchange for being allowed to have dry cask nuclear storage on the banks of the Mississippi at the Prairie Island nuclear power facility. That was a devil's bargan but at least it kick-started the wind industry in the state.

Now, new proposals in the legislature would force utilities to be 25% renewable by the year 2020. The current goal is 10% by 2015. Increasing to 25% means, according to a StarTribune article, "about 5,000 [more] megawatts of renewable generating capacity to Minnesota's electrical grid. Most of it would probably come from an estimated 3,000 new giant wind turbines dotting farm country" According to the same article we're at 6% renewable now. 25% would be the highest state goal in the country.

Reading the Minnesota senate Energy, Utilities, Technology and Communications Committee Update, I see that on January 16th they had an information session with various interest groups presenting. Tucked in at the end was this gem. "Jay Lofgren, Boise Cascade, asked that the committee define renewable energy as broadly as possible and that members not enact a mandate." Hmm, Boise Cascade? The timber company? I read this to mean they want to consider forests a renewable resource and they have plans to turn Minnesota forests into biomass fuel. Someone please tell me I'm wrong.

Also, the cry from industry for there not to be a mandate is pathetic. "We the people" will stop using mandates when industries do the right thing all on their own, which is to say, never.

"The market" has no morals. We, the people of the nation, do and we have government of, by and for the people (with nods to Lincoln) that is there to set a course for the better future we seek to live in.

I'm happy to see the Minnesota legislature is doing just that.

~Kirk

What Serenity Character am I?

Your results:
You are Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command)
Dependable and trustworthy.
You love your significant other and
you are a tough cookie when in a conflict.



Zoe Washburn (2nd in Command) 90%
Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 80%
Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 80%
Wash (Ship Pilot) 75%
Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 55%
Inara Serra (Companion) 45%
River Tam(Stowaway) 40%
Derrial Book (Shepherd) 20%
Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 15%
A Reaver (Cannibal) 5%
Alliance 5%

Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test

Hasn't Bush Heard?

Hasn't Bush heard? Neo-conservatism is dead but he refuses to believe it. He's going to send 22,000 more troops into Iraq but insists it isn't an escallation. He calls it s "surge." When pressed, Condoleezza Rice said it was an "augmentation." There is clearly no plan to remove these troops and prior surges into baghdad eariler this have failed.

Give me a break.

I went out last night to protest at University and 280 which is right outside Coleman's office. Starting at 6:00 we had a surge of our own as we filled one whole side of the bridge. Given the awful weather it was a pretty good showing. There was a real lack of good large signs however which needs to be addressed. The bulk of the crowd left within 30 minutes which is okay since the real goal was to get a crowd on TV. This protest site happens to be just down the street from Channel 5. They used some quick shots of the crowd on the 10:00 news to show that opposition to Bush's plan.

There is a larger rally tonight but unfortunatly I cannot attend. :(

~Kirk

Final 2006 Bird Tally

Here is my final bird tally for 2006. This was the first year I'd decided to count birds. I ended up having a lot of fun. The total was 126 birds though I know I saw more kinds of birds than that these were the ones I was absolutely sure about. I'd feel like I was cheating myself if I counted otherwise. I'm pretty sure I say a grey jay and I probably saw a rough-legged hawk. I also might have seen one more kind of cormorant but, again, they aren't on the list. I also saw more gulls than in any other year and I was only able to ID two of them. I have the ring-billed gull and the black headed gull. I had the western gull on the list temprorarily until I realized I was deluding myself about a positive ID. Gulls are an extremely weak point in my bird identification skills.

2007 will be a harder year in a couple of ways. I'm probably not going to be able to go to arizona and I saw twenty-two species there. Twelve of them are species not found in Minnesota. Likewise, I'll not be going to Washington state so the American Dipper, Caspian Tern, Tufted Puffin, Pelagic Cormorant, Stellar Jay, Pigeon Guillemot, Clarks nutcracker, and the Oregon Dark Eyed-junco are not within my grasp. Thats eight more to make up. Of the twelve species I saw in Norway, the only one I might see here is a mute swan but I don't count captive animals so that's out. All told, if I want to keep up with the 126 total I need to spot thirty two more birds in 2007 within the state Minnesota. Ouch.

Here's the 2006 list (essentially in cronological order)

1-10
Black throated sparrow
Great tailed grackle
Killdeer
Great egret
Great blue heron
Mallard duck
Violet green sparrow
Mourning dove
White crowned sparrow
Gambel's quail

11-20
Verdin
Great horned owl
Cactus wren
Curve billed thrasher
Cliff swallow
White breasted nuthatch
Ruby crowned kinglet
Western Bluebird
Yellow rumped warbler (Audubons)
Anna's hummingbird

21-30
Common Goldeneye
Common loon
Wood duck
Wild Turkey
Red bellied woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Hairy woodpecker
Brown creeper
Northern cardinal
American robin

31-40
Blue jay
American goldfinch
Dark eyed junco (slate colored)
Pileated woodpecker
Black capped chickadee
Purple finch
Red shouldered hawk
Bald eagle
Hermit thrush
American crow

41-50
Eastern Phoebe
Cedar waxwing
European starling
Bufflehead
Ring necked duck
Canada goose
House sparrow
Fox sparrow
Turkey vulture
Hooded merganser

51-60
Ring necked pheasant
Brown headed cowbird
Tree swallow
Yellow bellied sapsucker
American coot
Osprey
Red-tailed hawk
Eastern bluebird
American woodcock
Eastern Towhee

61-70
White throated sparrow
Tufted titmouse
Red breasted nuthatch
Yellow rumped warbler (Myrtle)
Chipping sparrow
Barred owl
Barn swallow
common raven
common grackle
Common yellow-throat

71-80
Rose Breasted Grosbeak
American Kestrel
Rock Pigeon
Baltimore Oriole
Eastern Meadowlark
field sparrow
Northern Waterthrush
Green Heron
Eastern Kingbird
Song Sparrow

81-90
Scarlet Tanager
Chimney Swift
House sparrow
Mourning Warbler
Great Crested Flycatcher
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Sandhill Crane
Yellow Warbler
Steller's Jay
Oregon dark-eyed Junco

91-100
American Dipper
Clark's Nutcracker
pigeon guillemot
caspian tern
double-crested cormorant
brown pelican
belted kingfisher
pelagic cormorant
tufted puffin
Eastern Wood Peewee

101-110
American Redstart
House wren
Ring billed gull
Chestnut-sided warbler
Blue-grey gnatcatcher
Red-eyed Vireo
Magnolia Warbler
Connecticut Warbler
Black and white Warbler
White Pelican

111-120
Solitary Sandpiper
Magpie (european) [Skjœre]
Great Crested Grebe [Toppdykker]
Greylag Goose [Grågås]
Grey heron [Gråhegre]
Carrion Crow [Kråke]
Mute Swan [Knoppsvan]
Robin (european) [rødstrupe]
Pied Wagtail [Linerle]
Great tit [Kjøttmeis]

121-126
Tufted Duck [Toppand]
Great Spotted Wodpecker [Flaggspett]
Black Headed Gull [Hettemåte]
Golden Crowned Kinglet
Pied billed grebe
Trumpeter Swan