First Shoveler of the season

Well it finally happened! I had to whip out the old snow shovel and push all the slush around my driveway. All I could imagine while doing it was adding some form of alcohol to the slush and whipping up some exotic frozen cocktail with a little umbrella.

I'm soooo often envious of the folks in MN with all the bird life out there, especially owls...but then winter rolls around and I think about all the snow. Don't get me wrong I love snow, but I hate shoveling especially all the ice. I'm hoping for nice fluffy snow this weekend so I can roll out my bad ass snow blower. Mr. Winter bring it on!

Birding survey ticking down

I'm running a survey on my site to see how many people go birding with their significant other (SO) and to date the results are pretty much split down the middle.

12 people have voted:

6 answered that they 'Never bird with their SO

2 answered 'Once in a while'

3 answered 'Often'

1 person took the Fifth (we are investigating the legality of this action....)

Please click away and let me know what your birding household is like.

Admitting you're a birder

I read somewhere a couple of weeks back that birding is now starting to overtake hunting and fishing as popular hobbies. I think part of the reason for this is that birding can be done anywhere as long as you have a view of the outside world. It's funny because for some reason many people I have met don't consider themselves birders, yet they watch backyard birds all the time - they even call me on the phone to help them ID the little brown bird with the cute little white neck (any takers on this ID?)

Being a birder is something that becomes an integral part of your life and it is hard to separate that from other activities. I often find myself bird watching as I pack the groceries in the car after a long and arduous shopping trip. I have also been known to swerve a little off the road (honestly just a tad) as I strain my head forward to get a better look at a red tailed hawk zooming over my car. These are all signs that you are in fact a true birder - just admit it! By the way, I read a great post a little while back that listed all the signs that you may be a birder if... Anyone have the link for me?

Have a good one and enjoy the birding!

Christmas lights vs. Owlcam

As you may be able to guess from the title of this post the owlcam lost out to Christmas decorations this weekend. My owlcam arrived late on Saturday at which stage we were ready to head off to our fire department Christmas party. Sunday I felt less than Olympic when I was woken up by my bubbly 3 year old at 6:30. Yes, 6:30 am! As I was getting (rolling/stumbling/rumbling/grumbling) out of bed I heard that my son was also ready to party with dad...ouch. Sadly the day didn't get any better after that. I spent much of the day sitting on my roof clipping xmas lights onto the gutters. Let's just say this activity should NOT be attempted with a hangover. Another strange thing I learnt about xmas lights is that they are part of the Velcro family. I rolled them up and stuck them all in a bag last year and spent the better part of the day untangling them - good times.

I did play with the owlcam and I was amazed at how small it is. I was expecting a small camera, but I was still surprised by the size (or lack) of it. I managed to get it fired up with the 300 feet of cabling and everything worked correctly. The camera is color, but the colors are way off. This is not a major issue for me as the only reason I like the fact that its color is because I will be able to tell whether it is a red or gray Screechie.

I did make a quick trip up to the box to drill a hole to run the cabling out of the box. Sadly the owl box was totally vacant! This makes me a little apprehensive about my chances of attracting an owl. Am I being silly?

Oh, another fun activity that I was involved with on Sunday was doing the final leaf clean up. I dumped most of the leaves around the owl tree. Many of the successful owl box land lords recommend this as it offers some padding for falling owlets. Jees, I really am going above and beyond the call to attract these owls......