July 3, 4 and 5 (Days 184, 185 and 186) - UBER blog w/ Pawnee recap!

As per usual, Sonia did a fantastic job on the blog in my absence. I particularly liked the pirate-laced commentary at the end. There was indeed lots of "booty" to be found on the grasslands of Pawnee these last few days. Without further ado, I will recap a busy 2 days out on the prairie!

On Thursday, July 3, I rode the ~42 miles from Ft. Collins to the Crow Valley Recreation Area and Campground. Here I met Chris Rurik of Brown-capped rosy-finch fame from last week. We were joined by Lori Potter and her husband Eric Perryman. All 3 of these folks had brought bikes with them, and the four of us soon set off for an afternoon of bike-birding. As we pulled out Chris commented that we looked like the peloton from the Tour de France! It was a lot of fun birding with a group of people on bikes. This was the first time this year I have been joined by multiple people on bikes at the same time. We also joined a bit later by David Wade in his car. This worked out really well as David was able to reach and scout a few spots that we would have had trouble reaching on bikes. The five of us spent the afternoon checking a couple of spots that were rumored to hold McCown's longspurs, Chestnut-collared longspurs, or Mountain plovers. On this particular day, we were able to find 2-3 female McCown's longspurs (#493); The other sought species remained notably elusive. We did see hundreds of Lark buntings and Horned larks, and we had a handful of grasshopper sparrows as well. It was a very nice day out. The five of us all camped at Crow Valley that night. We spent the evening swapping bird and life stories. I crashed very early as I was totally exhausted after a long day of riding. It is worth noting that all riding done in and around Pawnee is on dirt roads.

80 miles on 7/3

Lori, Eric, Chris the Giant

The Peloton in action!

July 4th turned out to be the tale of two days. The morning was again spent with David, Chris, Lori, and Eric. On this day we spent the entire morning on the Pawnee Grasslands Birding Loop. We leisurely cruised around the prairie diligently scanning for the two species we missed yesterday, Chestnut-collared longspur and Mountain plover. Bird activity came and went, and there were some stretches that were straight devoid of birdlife. It is really amazing that in a seemingly homogenous habitat that there can be such localized pockets of bird activity. We found one such pocket of Longspur activity on the backside of the auto loop. Here, numerous male McCown's were making display flights. I have seen this species on my 2 previous trips to Pawnee, but today's views were just outstanding. Here is a male taking off to start his flight!

Male McCown's longspur

A bit beyond this area, David spotted bird in the road that looked suspiciously like a female Chestnut-collared longspur. We all got a quick but inconclusive look at the bird before it flew off. We went over a swale, and I spotted a bird that looked like a(nother?) female Chestnut-collared. We all pursued this bird onto the prairie on foot where Chris spotted a male Chestnut-collared singing from a very low bush (#494). It was soon joined by the presumed female that David and I had suspected. We had decent looks at this beautiful little bird as he belted out song for us! It was a great find for the morning. It was also a great display of teamwork! 

Male Chestnut-collared longspur

Horned toad attack! 

NOOOOOOOO!!!!! ITS ALIVE!!!!!!!

We spent the rest of the morning looking for the plover without success. We did have very nice views of several Burrowing owls and only my second Prairie falcon of the year. We returned to camp and had a nice lunch. At this time, this first wave of assistance had to take off. I spent the next 2 hours catching up on sleep in the shade before the second help wave in the form of Bill Schmoker appeared.   Bill and I spent the afternoon birding separately but stayed in close contact in case either one of us stumbled onto a Mountain plover. Some gnarly weather moved in around 4pm, but I was determined to bird on. I knew I could probably find plover on the Santa Cruz flats in Arizona in November should I miss it here, but I really wanted to take care of plover business today.

Pawnee thunder - I actually really like this iPhone 

snap for some reason.....

As 6pm approached, I had not had a whiff of a plover. Mountain plovers like fields with a mix of very short grass and bare ground. The problem is that this winter was an incredibly wet one in these parts, and as a result the grasses are much fuller this year than others. This means there is less plover habitat this year than others at Pawnee. I started to head back to camp for dinner. I reached an intersection about 3 miles from the paved road. Instead of heading directly to the paved road, I decided to take a detour onto a less-than-outstanding dirt road and take my chances with it. Just as this road was about to rejoin another paved road where my revised birding loop would end, I spotted what I thought was the best plover field I had seen all day. BOOM!!! Not 20 seconds into scanning it I spotted a very distant Mountain plover, then another, and another (#495). By the time I had walked into and scanned the field further, I was able to find 4 of the well-camouflaged little shorebirds. I had worked all day to find this bird and right at the end my hard work and diligence had been rewarded. 

The perfect plover field!

One thing I have learned this year is that you have to be completely relentless when you are in suitable habitat for a particular sought species. Many birds like mountain plover, ptarmigan, and Gunnison sage-grouse have such specific habitat requirements that it is imperative to bird like there is no tomorrow once you reach the proper habitat. I have not been doing much "general birding" recently. Instead, I have been acutely focused on getting into the best habitat for specific species. Most of these species are impossible to see in anything other than perfect habitat, so when you reach this habitat you have to bird it sun up to sun down. 

Bill and I rendezvoused back at camp where I shared the news with him. He was stoked for me. He then single handedly cranked out a dinner that was worthy of the huge appetite that I had worked up on the big plover hunt. We spent a fair amount of time talking to 2 birders camping next to us, Bruce and Cathy Bosley. I again crashed fairly early. Needless to say I slept like a rock. 

Western loop (left) in morning,

eastern loop (right) in afternoon,

62 miles total - most on dirt roads

Bill, Bruce

After breakfast today I escorted Bill, Bruce, and Cathy back to the plover field where we immediately found the birds. It was great to share these bird with others since others have shared so many birds with me this year. Bill, who is a very accomplished photographer, was kind enough to take some shots of me as I pedaled about this morning. 

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful as I made my way east to Sterling CO. Wait, what the hell am I doing heading east? Well, I am not 100% sure. I have a bit of time in hand before my next scheduled visit from Sonia, so I am going to take a crack at Greater prairie-chicken near Wray, CO. The exact way this is all going to unfold I am not sure yet. Being that I have been without internet access for the last two days, I have not had a chance to fully think this plan through. I just decided to go for it this morning. I will sort out the logistics tonight and on the fly tomorrow. I figure that this detour will also give me a bit more time to look for Ferruginous hawk and Ring-necked pheasant. It may also give me a very outside chance at Sharp-tailed grouse. The point is that I am going to kind of play around for 4-5 days just to see what I can turn up while Queen Sonia makes her way west. Most of these potentially interesting birds will be seen on the move, so by covering a lot of ground, perhaps I can find a few of them. There is also something in me that wants to see at least a part of the plains on this trip. I will certainly be able to do this in the next few days in Eastern Colorado and Western Nebraska! Who knows how this will go from a bird standpoint, but I think I will enjoy it however it all shakes out.

The view for most of today

 65 more miles today

I had two fun run-ins with roadside Swainson's hawks today. The first was on a nest with young and the second was eating a prairie dog! Yum!

July 4 (Day 185) - Stories from the Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July, all! It's Sonia again. I hope all of you have found a way to spend the holiday relaxing and enjoying the company and surroundings around you. I had an absolutely blissful day. It was spent in the company of an intimate group of friends here in Nashville. We sat around a campfire listening to the beautiful sounds of some exceptionally talented musicians as fireworks went off overhead. It sure seems like it's' a requirement for everyone who lives here to be able to sing, play an instrument and write music. Here I was with a group of friends and yet I felt like I was at a concert. I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't think to take any pictures, so you'll just have to envision it for yourself. It was perfect. I'm actually preparing to leave Nashville next week and I have to admit I'm going to miss it dearly. The past 1.5 months here have been so fulfilling. I have so many wonderful friends, both old and new, who have opened up their homes and lives to me with such warmth and kindness. This is a chapter of my year I will forever hold dear to my heart. Thank you Nashville.

I did speak with Dorian briefly this morning, but I wasn't able to connect with him again in the evening so I only have his voice message to go by. From what I've heard, he's had a fantastic time in Pawnee. He has received incredible support and companionship from two different groups of people who have camped and hiked with him over the past two days. I know some details on what he did/did not find, but I won't spoil it for you since Dorian will fill you in tomorrow.

I'll leave you with some photos and memories from last year's Fourth of July celebration with Dorian. We spent about 10 days up in Newfoundland, Canada where we got to celebrate both Canada day and the Fourth of July. I seriously think this was one of the best trips Dorian and I have taken together. My two favorite memories are 1) the hours spent overlooking a massive seabird colony in Cape Saint Mary's and 2) the time spent watching puffins walk around us in Elliston. Below are a few photos from the seabird colony in Cape St. Mary's. It's located on the eastern side of the island and it's the largest bird colony in Newfoundland. We're talking about 60,000+ breading gannets, murres, razorbills and kittiwakes. It's located at the end of a mile long walk and as you take that final step to look out over the colony, it looks as if the world drops off. It is SPECTACULAR! Dorian spent hours upon hours photographing while I spent them simply sitting and watching the wildlife show taking place in front of me. We also experienced one of the most incredible displays of honesty and care from the employees working the at the nature center. The first time we went to the colony there was horrible dense fog and we couldn't see more than 10 feet in front of us. Since we weren't able to see the colony on that day, we decided we would return a few days later when the winds were predicted to shift. In the rush to leave, Dorian had accidentally left behind his backpack in the parking lot. It wasn't until the following day that he realized he had left his bag which carried his scope and a couple camera lenses. He thought these would clearly be lost forever, but I kept telling him to keep faith. Newfies were some of the nicest people I have ever met, so part of me felt like someone would have found the bag and returned it to the nature center. And whatta ya know, that's exactly what happened. There are so many good people in the world.

View of the colony from a distance 

(these are all photos Dorian took)

Northern gannets beaking in between taking 

turns watching over the nesting eggs 

View of the common murre colony from a distance

The second set of photographs below are from the puffin colony located in the funky little town of Elliston. It's significantly smaller than the colony in Saint Mary's, so it's a much more intimate experience. We sat on the grassy island where the birds nest and puffins were literally walking within 5 feet from where we were sitting. On top of that, we were surrounded by an ocean filled with migrating whales. Again, I just sat for hours alternating between watching the funny little puffins in front of me and the whales breaching in the background. This was such a peaceful place. Oh, and Elliston also happens to be located very close to Bonavista where you can find THE BEST fish and chips at a local dive restaurant called Little Diary King. I still have dreams about that meal. 

The puffin colony from a distance. 

Note, this is NOT Dorian's photo, just pulled from the web.

Some of Dorian's incredible photos of 

the Atlantic puffins. I pretend that the bird on the

left is him and the one on the right is me 

(awe, how cheesy, I know)

My favorite headshot he took

Hopefully these stories and photos give you a taste of what our Fourth of July was like last year, as well as demonstrating what Newfoundland has to offer. If you haven't been, you must move it to the top of your travel list. It would be a crime for any birder, nature lover or outdoorsman to miss visiting this place.

Thanks for sticking with me while Dorian has been out of contact. It's been fun. Tomorrow your regular scheduled program will resume. I'm sure you'll get some great stories from Dorian as he updates you on what he has been up to the past couple days. Goodnight all.

July 3 (Day 184) - Camping in Pawnee - Sonia talks about new experiences

Well how about that?! Looks like the ptarmigan gods heard our prayers and threw in a brown-capped rosy finch for fun. Hasn't Dorian had some great days since we last talked? I'd say my blog posts are his good luck charm. I couldn't be happier for him. Thanks for cheering him on, everyone!

The happy ptarmigan dance

In case you haven't figured it out, it's Sonia here. As Dorian mentioned in his post last night, he's camping out in Pawnee National Grasslands for the next two nights. Looks like you're stuck with me for back to back posts.

 [manacle laugh, manacle laugh]

Actually, I thought it might be fun to tell you about my introduction into the birding world. Dorian first took me birdwatching in Central Park during the middle of winter. It was about a month into our relationship and I was still trying to figure out this hockey loving, scientist DJ who likes to...um...bird watch? I thought it was a line, but it was at least a creative one so I went with it (I mean, all the cool guys use science and birdwatching as pick up lines, don't they?). I honestly was confused at first because I couldn't imagine what kind of birds would be out in the dead of winter, but I thought what the hell. Two awesome things ended up happening that day: First, as we were walking around the ramble we turned a corner to overlook a lake. When we looked down there were about 40 Northern shovelers bunched together doing what they do best, shoveling. It was a pretty spectacular scene. The sun was still pretty low so the light really hit the birds perfectly to give the green of their heads this incredible shine. I sat there for a while watching them move counterclockwise together as a perfect unit. That's honestly the only time I have ever seen that many shovelers in the same place doing this, so I feel fortunate that this was my first birding memory. Sure beats a bunch of dirty pigeons eating out of a garbage.

The group of shovelers we saw was double this size

Photo Dorian took of a Northern Shoveler 

dorianandersonphotography.com

The second encounter was like a scene straight from an episode of birds gone wild on Nat Geo. We were standing near the boat house and Dorian was showing me a building where some Red-tailed hawks nested. As if on cue, one of the birds came flying down straight towards us. It swooped down, grabbed a pigeon about 10 feet in front of us and carried it up to the tree over our heads. The pigeon was fighting to get out of the hawks claws, but all that flapping was in vain. To get the pigeon to calm down, the hawk placed the its neck between the "v" of couple of tree branches. Once the pigeon went limp it began ripping it up piece by piece, devouring more than I thought possible. I know it's a gory memory, but as a novice birder it was a lot more excitement than I thought could be possible when bird watching (little did I know that there would be countless painful hours ahead of me, looking for this kind of sparrow and that. Talk about exciteme... zzzzzz...). I don't admit this to Dorian, but after that little jaunt through Central Park I was a bit hooked. From that moment forward I wouldn't be able to walk through a park without looking up and wondering what exciting things were happening above my head. I really thrive off new experiences, so this whole new world of birding was fascinating.

Photo Dorian took of a Red-tailed Hawk

eating a squirrel (on a different day)

Close up shows the blood evidence around the beak

Speaking of new experiences, tonight I was introduced to the incredible world of sailing. A friend of a friend is a sail maker here in Nashville (I know, what a cool job!). Her name is Deb Pincus and she runs her own business called TC Sails. She has an incredible reputation in the sailing world as being excellent sail maker, not only in Nashville but throughout the States. She was even asked by the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St Louis to make the sails for an installation that went up this past May. I'll be passing through St Louis later this month and I think I'm more excited about seeing this installation than I am the famous Arch.

Installation entitled "Lots", designed by Freecell Architecture

You can read more about it here

Close up of the sails that Deb made for the installation

Anyway, Deb had repaired a sail for someone at the local Yacht Club and asked if my friend and I would like to tag along. It doesn't take much to get me to go sit by a lake and watch a bunch of sailboats go by, so I jumped at the opportunity. Long story short, what was supposed to be a simple 20 minute hoisting of a sail turned into 2 days of overhauling the line used to hoist the sail (called the halyard). While this was a bit of an unexpected repair for my friend, it was an incredible introduction to mechanics of a sailboat for me. I learned how to run a new halyard from the front of the boat up to the top of the mast and down through its main shaft. After that, we attached the sail and got it positioned for the owner for his next venture out.

 Deb sewing the old halyard to the new halyard

before we strung it up through the mast

Crew getting ready to hoist the sail

Once this was done, a sailboat owner across the dock, Rick, was kind enough to offer to take us out sailing on his boat. While I have been on a sailboat before, I've never actually sailed. I got my first lesson as we let out the jib (sail at the front of the boat) and I learned tacking (moving the jib from one side of the boat to the other). This may be incredibly amateur for an experienced sailor, but I was a really impressed by just how much was going on... and we only had one sail up! Needless to say, I had and incredible time working the boat and learning the very basics of sailing. Side note: Deb also made a sail for Rick's boat and it has won 4 separate sailing competitions.

My view 

Hard at "work"

My friend, Maggie, after the Captain told her

he was going to keelhaul her....

and then explained what keelhauling meant

The award winning sail that Deb made
for this particular ship

Of course, no good conversation about sailing can go without including this clip from my favorite comedy: 

Bob Sailing

Aye, that'd be all fer now, ye wretched landlubbers. Hoist yer grog and tap yer hogshead as we all be hopin' our young lad finds whate'er booty he be lookin' fer in da open seas er Pawnee National Grasslands. Aaaaaarrrrrrrgggggh!

July 2 (Day 183) - Getting ready for Pawnee

Today I rode from Boulder, CO to Ft Collins, CO. I had to make a big detour this morning to look for my bike lock. I must have dropped it at some point last night since it was nowhere to be found among my stuff this morning. I figured it was worth the effort to look for it, but I was not successful. I guess that's another $35 out the window - ugh. I should be OK without one for at least the next few days. The ride after the lock search was fairly uneventful bird-wise as I was focused on people today. I met my friend Monica in Longmont for ice cream. Monica was a postdoc in the the lab at NYU where I did my PhD. She lives in Longmont now where she works as a scientific writer/editor. The evening was highlighted by a visit with Tai, a postdoc and friend from MGH/Harvard who is now a professor at Colorado State Univeristy in Fort Collins. He studies RNA, specific small-RNAs that help regulate different aspects of gene expression levels. You can check out his lab webpage here. I am staying at his house with him and his wife Brooke.

Monica and me at Dairy Queen

Revisiting my science days in Tai's lab

Can I count these?

I am currently scrambling around trying to get tomorrow and Friday organized. I will almost certainly be without internet access both of those night, so maybe Sonia will put something up to keep everyone entertained. I will be camping at Pawnee National Grassland where I will be looking for a number of prairie species. A number of folks will be coming with me to bird and hang out, so it should make for a fun couple of days.  

I am still trying to sort out what is going to happen after Pawnee. I may head right to Cheyenne or I might detour into Nebraska to look for Greater prairie-chicken and a few other species. I need to think about this right now, so I have to cut this short. It is near impossible to ride, bird, organize, blog, and sleep efficiently in one day......

Lastly,  I want to remind everyone that the match period for donations is still open. Victor Emanual Nature Tours (VENT) will match up to $2,500 dollars of donations made between June 23 and July 7. We have made nice progress so far, but if you have been waiting to make a donation, now it the perfect time. Once again, thanks again to VENT for stepping up with such a generous offer!

July 1 (Day 182, part 2) Flammulated owl, Dusky grouse!!!!

I am writing this midday when I should be riding, so I am going to keep the details to a minimum. Last night's owling adventure was an incredible success. Joining local researchers Christian and Allison, we spent 5-6 hours crashing around the mountains west of Boulder in the pitch black searching for Flammulated owl. We found a total of 7(!) Flams (#491), and I had amazing looks at two of these. This was only the second time in my life I have ever seen this incredibly shy little owl. The first time was in Arizona on my VENT camp in 1991!

Here is the biking I did yesterday and a representative idea of our hike. Like I said, lots of it was off trail so this is just to give you an idea. It also took a hell of a lot longer than 3 hours....more like 6.

Biking 25 miles total - 22 mapped
+ 3 to sports bar for World Cup (ugh....)

I climbed about 2000' on this hiking loop.

For those thinking about it, this is NOT to 

be undertaken casually. This is a tough hike - bears

and mountain lions not withstanding.

Christian warned me ahead of time that we would be doing some very challenging bushwacking on some very steep slopes. Given this, and the fact that I had to do a fair bit of hiking to even reach the owling area, I opted to leave my camera at home. I figured I might hear the bird, but I assumed seeing or photographing it was out. Plus, without a real flash, a lack of IS on my 400 5.6 lens, and a tripod, there would be a very low upper bound on the quality of photo I could get anyway. After doing the bushwhacking, I can state with certainty that leaving the camera was the right move. It would have been nice to have it when the owls appeared, but you can't have it all. I was able, in a desperate but shrewd maneuver,  to "Digi-binoc" a record shot of one of the owls. I used my iPhone to take a picture through my binocular lens. That I was able to do this at all shows you how good the look we had was!

Night bushwhacking. This was one of the few places

I could see far enough ahead to take a photo.

Digi-binoc'ed Flammulated owl!

However, Flammulated owl was not the only bird that I was able to add to the year list last night. We actually had two separate under-foot run ins with Dusky Grouse (#492)! We found a male and later a female roosting on the ground as we were bushwhacking our way between owl haunts. These birds were incredibly lethargic and permitted very close approach. I was able to take several photos with just my iPhone. 

Male Dusky grouse

Same male grouse

We bushwhacked right through thick stuff like this.

Female Dusky grouse

Here is a better shot of a female Dusky 

Grouse I took in Rocky Mountain NP a 

few years back. I couldn't back up to

get more room around her!

This was a HUGE find as I was not sure where to find this bird along my route. These guys are widespread, but also fall into the "must step on" category in order to observes. Luckily we did just this last night!

It was a really nice night out.  I was wiped out when I got back here at 2:45am. I had probably hiked 8-9 miles with most of it in the pitch black and a good deal of it on poor trails or bushwhacking. We saw 2 very tough species very well. This excision will certainly rank as one of the highlights of the year when it is all over. A special thanks to Christian who organized the whole adventure. Here we are this morning outside his apartment. You can tell I just woke up.....

Today I will be making two personal visits to friends. One in Longmont, and another in my final destination of Ft. Collins. Tomorrow I will head out to Pawnee National Grasslands where I will be met by several birders for an afternoon of birding and a night of camping. It should be fun!

July 1 (Day 182) - Soccer and owling

I spent the afternoon relaxing and watching soccer. I am now going to look for Flammulated owl. This is going to be a very long night. I must leave right now to bike 5 miles and then hike the 3.5 miles to reach the spot where we will start our owing loop. We will start the 5-6 mile loop at 9pm. It will take about 4 hours to complete the loop at which time I will then have to hike the 3.5 miles back to my bike and then bike the 5 miles back to where I am staying. So that's 12 miles of hiking and 10 of biking to try for this bird. UGH. I am hoping to be back here by 3am, catch a few z's, and then head to Ft. Collins tomorrow. I will try to put up a more involved post at some point.

2:50am update: Just got back after bagging Flammulated owl! I saw two very well and heard 3 more. But wait, there's more! I actually got a second year bird on the night hike. You'll have to tune back into tomorrow to find out which one. I'll just tell you it was a good one!

June 30 (Day 181) - Neighborhood birding, Bank swallow, Ideas for WY, UT, ID

OK, I have to keep this quick tonight. I was spent the morning birding around Louisville, CO. It was a very relaxing ride on which I found quite a few nice birds: Yellow-headed blackbird, Pied-billed grebes with chicks, Wood duck, Swainson's hawk, Blue Jay, Bullock's oriole, American white pelican, and American avocet with chicks. The main attraction of the day though was swallows. I was able to sift through decent numbers of Barn, Cliff, and Tree to find at least a pair of Bank swallows for year bird #490. Needless to say, I did not even attempt to photograph these small but fast fliers. 

Most of the afternoon was spent trying to sort out how things are going to go in the next 2-3 weeks. Right now this is what I am thinking. Let's start with the birds that are left from the summer mountain section of the trip.

Flammulated owl - Going owling in Boulder tomorrow night with a local expert

McCown's longspur - Pawnee NG Thus-Sat (if necessary)
Chestnut-collared longspur - Pawnee NG Thus-Sat (if necessary)
Mountain plover - Pawnee NG Thus-Sat (if necessary)
Ferruginous hawk - Pawnee NG Thus-Sat (if necessary) - more chances for this elsewhere anyway
Ring-necked pheassant - Pawnee NG Thus-Sat (if necessary) - more chances for this elsewhere anyway

Trumpeter swan - Jackson/Tetons Wyoming

Chukar - Antelope Island near Salt Lake, could get along road as well

Gray partridge - Northern Utah, Southern ID - need specific spots

Ruffed grouse - I have good leads on this in ID, but could also get near Tetons

Dusky grouse - Maybe in Tetons, do I take 2 days to go up to Cub Lake in RMNP to hunt for this?

Sooty grouse - Oregon, could also get in northern Cali

Sharp-tailed grouse - very, very unlikely unless I go much further east than I had planned

Greater sage-grouse - Roadside somewhere, would really love to get a consistent spot for this on my route

Great gray owl - Jackson/Tetons Wyoming

Black-backed woodpecker - Jackson/Tetons Wyoming, OR as well

Rufous hummingbird - will get at a feeder somewhere

Calliope hummingbird - will get at a feeder somewhere

Varied thrush - Oregon, could also get in northern Cali

Sagebrush sparrow - will get somewhere along the road

Gray-crowned rosy-finch - this would be a miracle unless I could get into Washington (Mt Rainier e.g.)

Black rosy-finch - Utah near Mirror Lake - this is my only real shot at this bird, hence the loop into UT (I do not want to think about Sandia Crest unless I miss the bird during the summer)

A loop like this would give me good shots at most of these birds. There are 2 big questions. First, is how fast will bird finding occur? If I do this loop in 3 weeks and tick all birds I need, what do I do with the remaining month of August? Should I instead bow the loop out east into Nebraska and north into South Dakota to try to find Sharp-tailed grouse, Greater prairie-chicken, and Black-billed cuckoo? Even if I did bow the loop out to the east, each of these birds would be very difficult to find. It might be better to just move slowly the next 2 months and make sure I get all these species. If I happen to get them quickly, I can worry about what to do with the extra time later. Making it to the Northern Oregon coast to get Mew gull and Tufted Puffin is an possible option as well. I could get lucky with these grouse or they could take 4-5 days each to find. I just don't know. 

I will also be 100% honest and say that there is really something inside me that would love to make it to Seattle in August. I might be able to add a few species in that area (Boreal chickadee, Spruce grouse, Tufted Puffin, Mew Gull for example), but at least the first 2 of these would be very tough as they would require several days in the North Cascades. Gray-crowned rosy-finch could then be ticked at Mt. Rainier as I headed South. It would be REALLY REALLY cool to be able to reach all four corners of the lower 48.......

Point is there is a lot of planning that needs to happen these next few days. These next two months are very amorphous. Sept - Dec are going to be exceptionally straightforward, so its really the decisions that I make in July and August that are going to make or break the species count and potentially my body as well. If I could get all the species above, and if I could get some of the California pelagic species somehow, I think I could get really, really close to 600. 

Hopefully at least some of this makes sense, I know I rambled a bit......