Over the weekend I was able to present along with my friend Peter Nichols on county birding and increasing your species counts. We each put in 20 hours of research and prep time to create the slides and content. It was very well received by the audience of just over 100 people.
I was very happy with how it went and humbled to be able to present to such a large audience and along with notable birders such as Bob Janssen, Kim Eckert, and John Richardson. Additionally found great education in listening to Karla Bloem and Steve Stucker during the day.
This build up to the presentation along with nasty spring snow storms coupled with an Easter Weekend heavily restricted my bird activities for State Park visits. I'm hoping to get out this coming weekend, but even that is in question with barely tolerable weather on the back side of the current snow storm that is dropping inches on us as I write this post.
My patience is nearly at an end, but I can at least say on presentation day last Saturday I was able to squeeze in some birding at Carpenter Nature Center and nearby spots to pick up several FOY birds like Fox Sparrow, Brown-headed Cowbird, Wilson's Snipe, Common Loon, Horned Grebe, and Pied-billed Grebe.
The wind was insanity out of the north stealing the warmth from your very soul, but still several of us birded anyway. It wasn't a State Park to contribute to that year long effort, but we still snagged some species tried to eek out an existence.
I'll be looking forward to this weekend but with snow blanketing many areas I'm not sure what I'll be able to get done. I may have to target the next weekend and hope the weather shifts enough to get some melt going. I need open ground and hiking time to build up my long hike endurance. Getting into May with the plans I have for 20+ parks in a week or so is not going to go well without some endurance built up.
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