July 14 and 15 (Days 195 and 196) - Sage stomping, lightning storms, new friends

My plan yesterday was to re-bird Arapaho NWR refuge in the morning and then head to Steamboat Springs in the afternoon/evening to meet Sonia. This was going to be a challenging day, but as you will see, circumstances beyond my control forced an alteration of this plan. I was able to make it to the NWR early in the morning. There was no shortage of birds, and despite the fact that I did not find the target bird of Greater sage-grouse, it was a really nice morning of birding in a truly beautiful place. It is clear that this refuge in under visited, and I really hope it stays that way into the future. I would like to return here with my real camera at some point as I think I could really do some photographic damage. Here are a few samples from today. Some of these would have been killer with my 500/1.4/1DIV. I just need more/better pixels on the subjects to get sharper images and more detail.

American avocet

Wilson's phalarope

Canvasback with chicks

The plan for the afternoon was to cruise some of the back, dirt roads en route to Steamboat Springs to look for Sage-grouse. These detours were to take me through the Coalmont area where there are several well-known Sage-grouse leks. I was hoping that I might kick one up off the road as I biked along. This ride was quite pleasant, but as I started later in the day than normal, thunderheads started to build to my west as I crept along these back roads. By the time I climbed this road up this hill (see photo below), there was quite a bit of thunder and lighting in my vicinity. 

32 miles + 3 from a second loop at NWR for 35 total

Photo of the hill that yesterday was getting peppered with lightning

Just as I reached the top and was deciding what to do, CRACK! - right behind me. A large lightning bolt hit way too close for comfort. There was a house about a quarter mile behind me back down the hill. I quickly scampered down to the property. I had planned to shelter in the garage until the storm passed. However, a large dog started barking as I approached the house. The owner appeared in a few seconds, calmed the dog down, and asked if I needed a place to ride out the storm. To make a very long story very short, Becky and I really hit it off, and after 1.5 hours of chatting, I asked if Sonia and I could camp in her yard for the night (Recall that Sonia was coming to meet up with me today. It was just as easy for her to meet me here as in Steamboat Springs). Becky said it was no problem at all. We could sleep in the house, and she even offered to make us dinner! It turns out that one of the best-known Sage-grouse leks in the state in actually on her property. Becky and her husband Pat watch the birds out of their living room window! I figured that I could bird the area around her house both yesterday evening and again this morning. I thought this would give me a great shot at actually finding the Sage grouse. This was the first time I have had to ditch into a random person's house this year. Becky and Pat were incredibly friendly and showed a level of hospitality that would have impressed a close friend let alone a complete stranger. It was a truly incredible encounter.

Sonia and I spent lots of time both yesterday (after the storm cleared) and today stomping around in the sage. Despite incredible effort, we were unable to turn up a grouse. Becky, a fairly accomplished rider, even joined us on horseback. She says she regularly flushes grouse as she rides around her property. However, today was not our lucky day, and even the presence of Lucky, Becky's dog and sidekick, was not enough to kick up a grouse from the seemingly endless sage. When all was said and done though, I think I will remember Becky and Pat just as much as any bird I'll see this year. Sometimes when the birding slows down a little, its good to put the focus on people instead.

Sage.....

 and more sage!

Sonia, Hondo, Becky

Better kisser than Sonia! 

Sonia tackles the sage

Becky on Hondo, Lucky

A morning in the sage

I did observe a life mammal yesterday when a badger came running across the top of a hill where I was birding. I was able to snap a few quick photos of the beast before it disappeared into its hole not to be seen again. I took a few another photos yesterday. I am VERY pleased with the Rock wren - mainly because of the rock! 

Swainson's hawk

Rockin' Rock wren!

After today's morning romp in the sage, I hopped on the bike and pedaled the ~50 miles to Steamboat Springs. Sonia left at about the same time. She reached Steamboat Springs well ahead of me and anchored in a cafe to work while she waited for me to arrive several hours later. Highlights of my ride included 2 Bald eagles and my first moose of the year! We spent the afternoon hanging out, eating, and doing errands in Steamboat Springs. Tomorrow we will head to Craig. I will leave very early and try to make a few stops to look for Sharp-tailed grouse. Sonia will work from Steamboat in the morning, then head to Craig in the afternoon to do more work and wait for me. We've got this down to a science at this stage. Hopefully I'll have some good news on the bird front. I figure that Greater sage-grouse and Sharp-tailed grouse will be 2 of the hardest birds for me to find for the rest of the year. At this stage I would totally settle for one out of two! 

49 miles from Coalmont to Steamboat Springs today

July 14 (Day 195) - All's well. More updates to come.

Hey everyone, it's Sonia. Just a quick note to let you know that Dorian is fine. There was a little change in his plans; he'll tell you all about  that later today. However, it did mean that he didn't have access to internet last night and since I'm with him, it meant that his normal backup blogger (me) wasn't able to update either. Looks like we may need to call someone up from the minors to backup the backup. :)

Colorado is absolutely beautiful and I'm so happy to be able to spend some time with Dorian here. My trip west was loads of fun. I have this funny little app on my phone called "Roadside America" which highlights all the weird and hilarious roadside attractions that don't really make the typical travel books. Think "Worlds Largest Ball of Twine" kind of stuff. Here's just a sample of what I saw as I trekked across the country.

The HILARIOUS Hillbilly Garden in Calvert City, KY.

Probably the best roadside attraction to date.

Read more about it here

The Awakening Sculpture in 

Chesterfield, MO

Random World's Largest Czechoslovakian Egg in Wilson, KS

...the Czech capital of Kansas (go figure).

World's Largest Easel in Goodland, KS

to represent the Sunflower State

Giant Campbell's Soup Can in Fort Collins, CO

And finally, Dorian 

...the BEST roadside attraction of all!!

Stay tuned for a long blog update from the biking birder later on today. 

July 13 (Day 194) - 500-species plateau reached!

Today was the first leg of the retooled route that would take me west through Northern Colorado instead of Southern Wyoming. This route would be more bike friendly, and if today is any indication, be much birdier than the route that paralleled I-80 through Wyoming. There also are any number of spots along my Northern Colorado route where I can try for Greater sage-grouse and Sharp-tailed grouse, two species that are sure to give me headaches for at least a few days each. Today was the first of those headaches as I searched unsuccessfully for Sage-grouse this afternoon.

66 miles to from Laramie, WY to Walden, CO

plus 14 around Arapahoe NWR this evening = 80 miles total

Hosts Don and George from Laramie - 

Messi jersey did not do the trick today!

The actual ride today was very pleasant. The first 30 miles or so were very flat as I cruised across the valley floor where Laramie is located. There was a moderate climb midway, and then some rolling up and down until I reached Walden. I was able to cover these 66 miles in exactly 5 hours; This put me into town in time to find a TV and to convince the bar staff to show the World Cup final instead of Nascar (barf). I spent the middle part of the day anchored to the TV hoping that Germany would somehow find a way to squeak by Argentina. I had to wait until the very end of added extra time, but a gorgeous goal by Germany sealed its World Cup triumph and avoided the dreaded and dreadful penalty kicks. My personal feeling is that they should run over time like the NHL: play until someone scores and then that's it (i.e. golden goal). If players don't want to play for 5 hours, then score a damn goal earlier in the game! Deciding these games on penalties is criminal. Thankfully we avoid this today.

Ride out of Laramie

Mid-morning climb!

After the soccer, I headed out to the Arapaho NWR to look for Sage-grouse. There is a very nice and lightly used auto loop through a portion of the refuge. This is where I focused my efforts this afternoon. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of birdlife I found this late afternoon and evening. On my way into the refuge I had an adult Bald eagle on one side of the road at the same time I had an adult Golden eagles on the other. It was really cool. There were any number of large ponds on the auto loop, and these held all sorts of birds. American Avocet, Killdeer, Wilson's Phalarope, Willet, Green-winged teal, American Wigeon, Redhead, Lesser scaup, Ruddy duck, Northern shoveler, Gadwall, Cinnamon teal, Northern Pintail, Black-crowned night-heron, and American white pelican were all observed along my route. I also had a Peregrine falcon eating a female Lesser Scaup, lots of sage thrashers, and several Vesper sparrows. Blackbirds were also well represented as Red-winged, Brewer's, and Yellow-headed constantly buzzed about. It was a really nice afternoon of birding since their were so many birds! I was able to add Eared grebe for year bird #499 right as I arrived, and I added California gull for #500 right as I left. These were "free" birds that I knew I would find at some point. It did feel good to final get to 500, but I am so focused on Sage-grouse right now that I am not going to spend too much time celebrating this very significant milestone. There are always more birds to find!

Eared grebe #499

Eared grebe

California gull #500! Woo hoo!

American avocet chick

Adult American avocet

I scared the Peregrine off this Scaup kill. It was

right in the middle of the auto loop road.

Arapaho NWR

Tomorrow I will spend the morning searching the Walden area for Sage-grouse. Right now the plan is to move to Steamboat Springs in the afternoon, but I have to see what happens in the morning with the grouse before I make a final decision.

Sonia will meet me tomorrow so stay tuned for more from her. It will be great to have her around the next few days. She really helps to keep my spirits up when they might otherwise sag.

July 12 (Day 193) - Laramie bound, Colorado calls again!

Yesterday's day off was very welcomed and helped to recharge my batteries enough to tackle a moderately difficult ride today. There was intermitant rain throughout the day, but at no point did the precipitation alter of affect my plans for the day. I had a fairly steady climb of ~3500' for the first 45-47 miles or so. This kept me going slow enough to do some roadside rubbernecking as I cruised along. I was able to see several more McCown's longspurs perched on fenceposts, and I had a single very large, presumed female Prairie falcon perched a top a telephone pole. For those that don't now this interesting tidbit, female birds of prey are larger than their male counterparts. This size discrepancy can be seen in the field by experienced eyes. Otherwise the birding was fairly slow as I made my way west to Laramie. I am staying with a blog reader, Don Jones, and his Dad, George Jones, who reached out to me when they heard that I would be rolling through Laramie. If I'm coming your way and you want to host me, just drop me a line. Just think, when you go to sell your house you can claim that Dorian Anderson of Biking for Birds fame once stayed at your house! This will undoubtedly drive buyers wild and ensure you the highest possible price for your property.

Google won't let me use the bike feature since

I rode on the interstate for 8-9 miles today!

Google d/n generate elevation profiles for car trips.

I will spend the night here in Laramie and head towards Walden, CO tomorrow. I am going to try to get a very early start so as to cover the 66 miles by the time the World Cup final starts tomorrow at 2pm. Check in time at my motel is 3pm, so I am going to have to break out my best charm to talk my way into my room an hour ahead of this time. Should all else fail I imagine there will be somewhere in town where I can catch the first half. It's not like the Rockies have such a loyal following that they can't be bumped off a TV at a local bar in favor of the soccer. I will be routing for Germany, for the record. 

The area around Walden looks very good for Greater sage-grouse. I will spend some time in the late afternoon and evening tomorrow looking for this would-be life bird. As per usual, if anyone has any information or advice on finding this bird around Walden or Arapahoe NWR, I would love to hear it! Should I miss the bird tomorrow, I can spend some time in the morning on Monday searching for it before I ride to Steamboat Springs in the afternoon. 

Queen Sonia and Maggie went to Rocky Mountain NP today where they were lucky enough to see a Black bear from the courtesy tram! I have not seen a bear this year so I am a bit jealous. There was a bit of a low point today when I saw a dead badger on the road. This is an animal I have never before seen alive in the wild, so it was a bit off-putting to see a dead on lying lifeless in the road today. Maybe I'll get lucky and find one of these at some point this year. Fingers crossed......

I spent a bit of time yesterday reworking what I think is a very nice shot of an American tree sparrow that I took on January 3 while snowed-in in Massachusetts. I have a tendency to crop my images a bit on the tight side so I wanted to loosen the frame up a bit. The color also struck me as being a bit too warm (yellow), so I tweaked a few other parameters to make the image "pop" a bit more. I love taking pictures, but I also love the ability to revisit the original files at a later date and tweak them when I learn new processing techniques or when my taste for a particular image changes. Everyone's taste is a bit different as well!

old

new

July 11 (Day 192) - Law and Order SVU, Deadliest Catch, and a new potential route west

First things first: we did INCREDIBLY WELL with the fundraising the past two weeks. During this period you donated over $6,500! This means Victor Emanuel Nature Tours will donate the full $2,500 match amount. This puts us at over $23,000 for the year! I want to thank everyone who made donations during this period or at any time in the year. Just remember, it is never a bad time to donate, so let's keep this momentum going through the summer. I also want to give a special shout out to VENT for their participation in this phase of fundraising. It's really great to see a eco/nature tour company backing conservation efforts! If you're looking for a tour anywhere in the world, definitely give VENT a really, really, hard look. You won't be disappointed.

I spent the entire day watching television and resting my sore ass and legs. I watched 7 episodes of Law and Order SVU and 3 episodes of Deadliest Catch (my 2 favorite shows). I spent most of this time fiddling online, and I think I have come up with an alternate route to Salt Lake that will permit more actual birding and cause less stress than the Southern Wyoming route I proposed a week or so ago. This route should take me through some prime Greater sage-grouse and Sharp-tailed grouse areas. There are also more towns along Route 40 in Colorado than along Interstate 80 in Wyoming. I think Route 40 will be more interesting than the interstate. For all these reasons, I think this will be a better route. 

Sonia and her friend Maggie showed up here at around 5:30pm. The two of them are on a short 6 day road trip of their own. They drove from Nashville > St. Louis > Salina, KS > Cheyenne. The family with which I stayed last night graciously offered to host all 3 of us tonight, so we have spent the afternoon and evening chatting, eating, drinking, and laughing with them and some of their local friends. It has been an absolutely perfect of rest. Tomorrow I will ride the ~55 miles to Laramie while Sonia and Maggie will head south to Rocky Mountain NP for the next 2 days. Sonia will drop Maggie off at the Denver airport on the morning of the 14th. She will then drive west to meet me on that night. Given the route change, this will probably happen in Steamboat Springs. Sonia will follow me west to Salt Lake over the course of the following week. At that point she will head south to Las Vegas and then onto to LA to stay with her family for a few months. I will head north towards Idaho before cutting back a bit to the east into Jackson Wyoming where I hope to bag Great gray owl, Black-backed woodpecker, Trumpeter swan, and Calliope and Rufous hummingbirds. I could also look for sage-grouse in Jackson should I still need it at that time. I expect to get Sagebrush sparrow somewhere in Western Colorado, and Sonia and I will take some nice hikes in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest to look for Black rosy-finch. I should get Chukar on Antelope Island in Salt Lake, and I might be able to tick Gray Partridge in Northern Utah or Idaho.

Me, Queen Sonia, Hostess Jolene, Host Ted, Daughter Emily, Friend Maggie

OK, that's it. Its Sonia time! I'll be back on the road tomorrow to Laramie. I'll check back in when I arrive.

Lebron back to the Cavs - YYYYYEEEEEESSSSSS!!!! I can dust off my James Cavaliers jersey I bought several years ago! I retired it when he signed with The Heat. I will definitely be on the Cavs bandwagon next year!

July 10 (Day 191) - Really getting tired of the bike, a quickie with Nebraska, cow wrangling

Maybe it's because I have biked for 191 days straight, maybe it's because I have biked a very large number of miles this week, or maybe it because my cell phone (aka my lifeline) has not worked since I entered Wyoming, but I am at my breaking point with the bike. I really want nothing to do with it for an extended period of time. My legs are tired, my arms and wrists hurt from the pounding doled out by the predominantly dirt Wyoming roads, and my ass feels much like that of the Brazilian soccer team after the Germany match. I thought the cell reception problems that plagued me last night would vanish when I got to the "big city" of Cheyenne; This was not the case. My phone has been rendered useless. The Pony Express is a more efficient method of communication at this juncture. This makes biking around an unfamiliar city a royal headache as I much keep finding places with internet access as issues arise. I can see that the Wyoming crossing is going to be beautiful but also very challenging. There isn't likely to be be much support (people, stores, food, water etc). This will make the crossing more stressful than it will be enjoyable since I must be constantly aware of where I will find food, water, and shelter. Hopefully some interesting roadside birds will surface to distract me from the pain I am sure to experience and the long distances I am sure to curse. The good news is that Queen Sonia will arrive tomorrow night, and she will provide much needed moral support during the next week or so.

47 miles today

Today I moved west a short bit from Pine Bluffs to Cheyenne. Since I skipped Nebraska yesterday, I biked the extra mile back to the east into Nebraska from Pine Bluffs so that it would be officially included in my big year. From the WY-NE border I saw a meadowlark on the Nebraska side; Hence I officially birded Nebraska in 2014! I spent a bit of time on dirt roads looking for Sharp-tailed grouse during the first half of the ride to Cheyenne. As the wind picked up and the whole ride was uphill, I abandoned the dirt route after about 15 miles to get onto paved roads and save my body. Needless to say, there was no birding being done along the I-80 service road.

Just a quick visit!

Since tomorrow is Friday in Cheyenne, I am hoping to find a Rodeo or something to do in the evening. I have never been to a Rodeo before, and I imagine no official visit to Wyoming is complete without bucking broncos and whatnot. I know for a fact Queen Sonia likes the rodeo! She's gonna kill me for these photos.......

Yee haw!

I did have a great evening tonight with my hosts. Their two teenagers are lots of fun, and they even showed me how to wrangle cows in their backyard. They have offered to house Sonia, her friend Maggie, and me tomorrow, so there will certainly be more cow wrangling in the future! There is some big thunder forecast for Wyoming tomorrow, so tomorrow will be a very lazy and much needed off day (minus cow wrangling!). I think it will function well to recharge my batteries, both physically and mentally.

C'mon, moooooooooooove cow!

July 9 (Day 190) - A hard, thundering ride to Wyoming!

First, if anyone has any good leads on Sharp-tailed grouse or Gray partridge in Wyoming, Idaho, or Utah, please hit me up at bikingforbirds@gmail.com. I may as well try to crowd source some of this since I have a really knowledgable readership!

I had originally planned to ride from Sterling, CO to Kimball, NE today. However, this plan was jettisoned when I felt really good during the first half of my ride. I decided instead to detour through the northwest corner of the eastern unit of Pawnee National Grassland and ultimately head for Pine Bluff, WY. I had planned to ride from Kimball through this area of Pawnee and onto Pine Bluff tomorrow. This would have been a bit of a circuitous route, but it would have made for a 70 mile day today and a 57 mile day tomorrow. This turned out to be a very painful 95 miles today that combined elements from both days.

What I had planned for today

What I had planned for tomorrow.

This is very circuitous but would have given

more time in the "grouse zone"

Sharp-tailed grouse sightings in Pawnee from eBird

What I did today to combine the above 2 days.

93 + 2 unmapped for a very painful 95 miles.

Everything was generally fine until I arrived at the "Grouse Zone" (GZ, hereafter). I had a nice southeast wind that helped to push north and west. I spent some time riding the roads in/around the GZ, but saw zero signs of the birds. I decided to take a walk through what I thought looked like good habitat since this strategy worked so well for the Prairie-chicken. It was not successful today. More troubling than the lack of birds was the quickly gathering storm clouds to the north. Lighting a started as I hustled back to my bike. I needed to get the hell out of here - fast. The wind switched and the storm decended onto the GZ and me. The wind hammered from the north at 25-30 MPH as I limped west. I was hoping to get out from under the storm, but dirt roads do not permit rapid escapes. The storm was on top of me almost immediately. There was a lot of lighting, some it of quite close. I wanted to take a video but I figured I needed to keep moving. Plus, it would have given my mom a heart attack ad I am not ready to be rid of her just yet. The big issue was that there wasn't any shelter so I just ha to keep moving. F-bombs were being yelled at no one in particular as I tried to stay on the bike amid the the wind and rain. It was a profanity performance worth of any mid-90's gangster rap album. I did take several photos with my phone, but since I do not have any cell reception in Pine Bluffs, I can't get them from the phone to here. Sorry, I'l add 'em when I gots 'em!

This storm really cut my time in the GZ down, and it made the afternoon totally miserable. Even after the rain abated the wind kept coming from the north. This made the last leg of my trip very difficult. My legs were totally shot when I got into town. I was expecting a bit more civilization, but I will have to settle for what's here (which isn't much - ugh). Wyoming is notoriously windy, so I am going to have to be very careful in planning out my rides in the next week. I am going to have to start very early on days with west winds, and I will try to ride extra distance on days when I get east (tail) winds. Anyone know about Sharp-tailed grouse along the I-80 corridor?

I do not know what to do tomorrow. On one hand, I am a day ahead of schedule since I am in Pine Bluffs tonight. I could go back up to the GZ tomorrow, but after my experience there today I may take a pass. It's 22 miles just to get back up there, much of it along uphill, crappy dirt roads. I could instead head 40 miles west to Cheyenne and hunker down for a rest day until Queen Sonia arrives on the afternoon/evening of the 11th (Yay!). I have averaged about 77 miles a day for the past 8 days (616 miles total!), so I have certainly earned a day off. I just don't know what to do about this damn grouse. It is going to be one of the hardest birds I could possibly find for the rest of the year; Nonetheless, it's a bird into which I should sink sometime.

Queen Sonia at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Boston.

We took this photo as a joke. She said this would

be the creepiest photo a person could EVER put up on a dating site.

P.S. - We have no idea whose grave this is!

Lastly, on an unrelated note, I want to thank everyone for the nice emails and blog comment that I receive on a daily basis. I wish I had the time to respond to every one of them, but with 95-mile rides, lighting, and so on and so forth, I don't always have to time/energy to respond to most of them. BUT PLEASE, keep them coming! I do read every email and comment. I normally do this when I am stopped at the roadside catching my breath, hydrating, or snacking. Notes and emails from blog readers are some of the only communications that I have on these long days by myself (minus those I have with magnificent Queen Sonia!). I will say that marching around on foot in the GZ today was not much fun - even before the storm. It was hot, windy, and totally birdless. This is an instance where company would have been awesome. Not everything I am going to do this year is going to be enjoyable at the exact moment I do it, but all of these exercises will eventually constitute what I hope will be a really good story at year's end. Knowing that you all are following along and enjoying my efforts really helps me keep going on tough days like today!

IN unrelated new, I guess we have a World Cup final of Argentina vs. Germany. I'll be pulling for Germany since I will forever route against Argentina after the "Hand of God" goal that buried England in the semis in 1986 (my dad is English so I route for them in addition to the US).  I am sooooooooo glad the World Cup is going on right now. It helps distract me from the pitiful seasons that the Red Sox and Phillies are having. Both teams are 40-51 and 10 games back of their respective division leaders. At least I won't be wed to playoff baseball come October!

July 8 (Day 189) - Back to Sterling, tired of motels and bad food, my costs for the first half, Ferruginous hawk for #498!

First, a huge thank you to Victor Emanuel Nature Tours for their incredibly generous match offer. We easily surpassed the $2,500 match amount! I will get the exact numbers this Friday, but we should be well over the $20,000 mark! Thank you to everyone who donated!

Today I rode the ~85 miles back to Sterling, CO from Wray, CO. This ride was very low pressure because of the Greater prairie-chicken triumph at the end of the day yesterday. Had I not found the bird last night, I would have been back at it this morning in the sand-sage and long grass. Who knows how much time I would have pushed into this now hypothetical bird hunt, but its a moot point at this stage!

The forecast called for east winds today, but it seemed to blow from every direction but east. This made riding a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. I was wiped out after the 85 mile ride. I have been averaging ~70 miles a day this month, and I can certainly tell that my legs are getting really tired. Unfortunately, I am getting killed on lodging expenses at the moment. There are no birders, no cyclists, and few Best Westerns out here to help defray lodging expenses. The Sterling Best Western where I stayed on my first pass through this area is very nice and apparently very popular as it was full when I arrived. I simply must get to real city (i.e. Cheyenne) where I can find a free place to stay for 2 consecutive nights to rest. I am not going to pay twice to sit in a motel room and do nothing. 

The cost of staying in motels is further compounded by the fact that I must eat all my meals at "restaurants". In areas this remote, this often means eating at 7-11 and gas stations. Frankly, it sucks, and it is getting very, very old. Real food today was several miles away, and I just did not have the energy to cover that distance this evening. Because of this, dinner was a can of Spaghetti-Os, a terrible double cheeseburger from the nearby gas station, and a pint of ice cream. I would kill for a good salad and a nice pasta dish, but I'm not going to plunk down $30 after tip on top of $70 for a motel room (that's probably worth a whole lot less). I'm paying for motels the next two nights as well. That'll be five nights in a row, the most expensive stretch of the year so far. The prairie-chicken is turning out to be very expensive, both energetically and financially. 

Since we're talking about money, and we just passed the halfway point of the year, I'll give everyone an honest look at my monetary outlay so far. So far, this year has cost me about $6,500 since January 1. This covers my meals and snacks, lodging, bike supplies, and so on and so forth. People must remember that I need to eat 2-3x as much as a normal birder/person so food is a huge part of this outlay. Lodging is the #2 expense. The bike is not counted in this $6,500. It and all of the accessories originally cost me around $2,500. I have several bills that need to be taken care of each month. My cell phone doesn't count towards the year total since I'd pay that anyway. Sonia has been kind enough to take care of my health insurance (her company offers partner health insurance). I also have my share of our storage locker in Boston for which I paid Sonia before I left (~$600). We had some various other expenses (van rental e.g.) that totaled several hundred dollars. Basically to date, I have spent about $10,000, and if my spending rate stays consistent with the first half of the year, I should come in at around $17,000 for the whole year. I'll also need to fly home which will cost around $500. So that's ~$17,500.  My goal was to keep everything (including capital expenses) under $20,000, so I have a a small cushion at this time. It is worth highlighting that this budget is achievable only with the help of Best Western. They have provided around $3000 of support so far; This projects to $6000 for the whole year. $20,000 isn't cheap, but for an experience such as this, I think its decent value. Camping would bring this number way down, but for reasons I've discussed, this just isn't viable for me as a single cyclist/birder/camper. The way to really do this on the cheap is to have two people do it with camping. That way they can share the weight of the cycling/birding/camping gear between them where as I would have to carry it all myself. Plus, blogging would take a real hit with camping! This is not an exchange I want to make as the blog is such a HUGE part of my year.

There was a bit of very good news on the bird front today. In the last mile of my ride I saw an interesting hawk circling over Route 6. I skidded off the road to grab a nice look at a dark phase Ferruginous hawk for year bird #498! I frantically got the camera out and grabbed a few quick shots as the bird flew higher and higher on what I presumed was a rising thermal.

Underwing

The bird was so high it was tough to

get an upper wing shot. This is the

best I could muster. 

Tomorrow I will head to Nebraska where I will spend the night in Kimball. The following day I will ride through the northern bit of the eastern unit of Pawnee National Grassland where I will try for Sharp-tailed grouse. This is an incredibly long shot, but given how well bird finding has been going of late, maybe I'll get lucky once again! I will spend the night of the 10th in Pine Bluff, WY before I head to Cheyenne for the nights of the 11th and 12th. I will get to see Sonia on the night of the 11th! She'll disappear to Denver and Rocky Mountain NP for a few days with a friend before she rejoins me on the 14th/15th somewhere in central WY. She'll be around for at least a week at that point - yippee! 

July 7 (Day 188) - Why didn't the chicken cross the road?

Internet kicks back in - hooray!

10 prairie chickens per square mile. This is a number that I wish I had known before I made the trip to Wray.  I will explain.

Looking at eBird, I can see that there are lots of Greater prairie-chickens sightings in and around Wray, CO. However 99% of the recorded sightings are from the lek season that runs from late March to early May.  A lek is the method through which many species of grouse select mates each spring. Basically, grouse converge on specific sites where male birds strut their stuff and where female birds select mates based on these displays. Each species of grouse has peculiarities unto itself, but the displays that males put on are spectacular across the board.  The beauty of leks from a birding standpoint is that they happen like clockwork in the exact same spots each year. Observing displaying birds on lek is as simple as showing up – literally. The mating rituals are incredibly odd and intoxicatingly beautiful. I have attached a few videos of mating displays so folks unfamiliar with these behaviors can get an idea of how cool they are. This is why there are no sightings outside of lek season; No one bothers to look for these birds off-lek. After the lek breaks-up, individual birds disperse into the surrounding habitat to nest and raise young. During this time they can be incredibly hard to find.  A lek may have upwards of 40 birds in one spot, but after the birds disperse, their density drops, as estimated for prairie-chickens around Wray, to that 10 birds per square mile as referenced above. I will return to this number in a bit, so stay tuned!

Greater prairie-chicken lek

Greater sage-grouse lek

Here is a photo of the area that I birded today.

What you can see is that there is lots of high grass that makes spotting birds on the ground all but impossible. I figured that if I were to make enough passes through this type of habitat on my bike, I might be able to flush a bird and see it in flight. This is the strategy I employed this morning. I had been pointed to CR (that’s County Road) 45 as a good starting point. I had passed over this road yesterday during the heat of the day, so I knew the road was passable and what to expect habitat and terrain-wise. I wanted to get there before sunrise which meant a 3:30am wake-up (after an 11pm bedtime, UGH). I arrived at the spot at 4:45am for 5:30am sunrise. I immediately heard Ring-necked pheasant for year bird #496. I heard lots of these over the course of the morning, but I was unable to grab a view of one. I’m sure I’ll get on at some point. I spent the morning riding this and several other county dirt roads with zero success on the Prairie-chicken front. It started to get really hot at 11am, so I shut it down, rode back to town, ate a whole pizza at 7-11, checked back into my hotel room since I would need another day to find the bird, and immediately passed out for the next 3 hours.

Today's wanderings - I rode the stretch along

Route 385 4 times!

I woke up and put in a call to a local rancher about the birds. He is the largest landowner in the area, and he was nice enough to grant me permission to roam where I wanted on his lands. He is somewhat of a local expert on these birds as many of the big tour companies visit his lands to see the Prairie-chickens during lek season. It was he who quoted me the 10 birds per square mile figure. Given that there are several leks of 30-40 birds a piece in this area, and these are spaced a few miles apart, this 10 birds per mile after dispersal sounds totally reasonable to me. Just for fun, let’s unpack this number a bit.

A square mile is 27,878,400 square feet (5280 x 5280).

This means there is ~1 bird in approximately 2,787,840 square feet of suitable habitat.

I figure that if I walk through the grass, I need to be @25 feet from a bird to flush it. Given how long the grass is, there is little to no chance I will be able to see a bird on the ground where I expect it to be. I arrived this 25 feet based on the fact that I needed to be 10 feet from the Dusky grouse to see it move, 25 feet from Montezuma quail to flush it, and 40 feet from the Gunnison sage-grouse to flush those.

To make the math friendly, let’s just assume I need to be 26 feet from a bird to flush it. This means that at any point, I have a 52-foot flush radius from me. If I were to walk 1 mile in the grass, I would effectively cover 52 x 5280 or 274,560 square feet of habitat.

So, for every mile I walk in suitable habitat, I have a ~10% chance of flushing a bird (274,560 square feet covered divided by 2,787,840 square feet per bird = 0.1 birds). This is the calculation I was doing in my head as I dismounted my bike and began my afternoon foray into the sage with the permission of the rancher. 

I walked around for 2 hours without seeing a hint of a Prairie-chicken. I had set 8pm as a hard departure time. I arrived back at my bike at 7:20pm after covering what I estimated was 4 miles of habitat. At this stage I was beat. The birding spot was ~14 miles from my motel , and I had already traversed this and additional distance 3 times today. I would still have to cover it once more to return as the sun set in another 1.5 hours. I knew I had the morning tomorrow to search for the birds, so I decided to shut it down for the night. Then I remembered my mantra of using every minute in good habitat. I decided to make one more pass through a bit more habitat that I had not yet covered. BANG!!! I flushed a single bird at 7:40! I got a brief but serviceable look at my 17^th life bird of the year and bird #497 for 2014! I was not able to get a photo, but even I am going to miss some! It flew up and over a hill about 100 yards away. I trotted over the hill, but was not able to find the bird visually. I started clapping my hands and BANG – the bird went up again about 50 feet from me this time. I again got a fair look, but then it was gone for good. I would have loved a longer look at a sitting bird, but I guess I'll have to come back during lek season to get it! When all is said and done I will have pushed over 300 miles on the bike into this one bird! Sometimes the odds don't mean a thing; This bird was shear determination. 

Pawnee > Sterling - 65 miles
Sterling > Wray - 97 miles
Wray birding - 74 miles
Wray > Sterling - 86 miles (return trip less b/c I took birding detour on outgoing trip

Total for this bird: 322 miles!

Oh, and for those that were wondering. The distance at which I originally flushed the bird? 25-30 feet, just as I predicted!  Given that I walked less than 5 miles total, today’s find was a very lucky one. Yeah, the distance biked in suitable habitat heped raise my total chances, but I still cannot actually believe I found this bird today.

Lastly, the donation match has been extended through to today so today is the LAST day! If you have been thinking about donating but haven't done so yet, please do consider donating now. Victor Emanuel Nature Tours (VENT) is matching the first $2500. With the match I am really hoping this will put me over the $20,000 mark. Remember, 100% of donations go to bird conservation. The birds thank you for your support!!!

DONATE BY CLICKING HERE

July 7 (Day 188) - Quick update

Hey all, it's Sonia again (try not to be too disappointed, now). Good news, I found the Prairie chicken. Bad news, ummm...well....

I kid, I kid. This is just a quick note to let you know that Dorian is ok. He's in an area where the internet is really spotty, so even though he has his update written he is not able to post it. He should find somewhere to get connected tomorrow so he can update everyone. Until then, enjoy this video...

Funny Bird

July 6 (Day 187) - To Wray for the big prairie-chicken hunt!

The internet at my hotel is beyond atrocious. I am sitting in the office typing this. I need to go get dinner before this tiny town shuts down - if it isn't already, since its a Sunday.

Today I biked 97 miles from Sterling, CO to Wray, CO. I spent a few hours during the middle of the day biking through what looked like good prairie-chicken habitat. Although I did to see anything in the 98F midday temps, I got a good lay of the land so that I know what to expect when I get back out there very early tomorrow morning. This whole venture feels a bit half-baked, so I am not expecting much. Who knows, maybe it will work out, but it will be an expensive miss if it doesn't ( > 300 miles for one bird!)

97 hot miles today

As I said yesterday, I am meeting Sonia in/around Cheyenne on the 11th, so I have a bit of time before then. This is as good as use of it as any, I suppose. Sonia is actually driving to California where she will spend the 2nd half of the year. She is going to escort me across Southern Wyoming where there is no support (water, food etc) and onto Salt Lake where we will spend a day or two. This will work just like Texas where I will carry my full load and see her when I arrive at my destination each night. We might probably be forced to camp one night in south central Wyoming where there is one particularly desolate 110-mile stretch between Rawlings and Rock Springs. This area is supposed to be really hot and windy, so I am a bit nervous about it. July is shaping up to be my heaviest month of riding so far this year. This is in large part due to my decision to try for the prairie-chicken these 2 days. If I miss I will stay here again tomorrow and take one more crack at the bird on Tuesday as I head back north. 

The only bird of note today was a single Upland sandpiper observed about 8 miles north of Wray.

If anyone has any off-lek experience with prairie-chickens in Wray, I would be very interested to hear about it - ASAP!

That's it for today since the office closes soon and I need to go find food.