Same Cars Same Clothes Same Desires Same Woes

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They Gave Me Some Beans For My Last Meal

My, what pretty slippers you have Wood Stork.  Your head looks like it could use some moisturizer though.

Hey kids.  It's kind of late at night to be posting blogs (on a Saturday night, no less), but I just got home from seeing Billy Bragg, Im drinking Famous Grouse scotch, and it just seems right.  Tomorrow I am finally breaking my official self-imposed birding hiatus to go look for an Ivory Gull that showed up at Pismo Beach last week.  This is only the second one ever seen in California, and they're really hard to find even where they're supposed to be (the highest of the high arctic).  

I am bringing extra underwear with me, because if I do see it, I will crap my pants.  I'm not joking.  Only a few pants-crapping birds show up in the vast state of California in a given year, and this may be the most pants-crappiest of them all.

Unrelatedly, here's some pictures from Florida that I took in October of last year. Absolutely crippling birding down there. Hope ya'll had a positive weekend.

White-eyed Vireo.  Gaze into its pale eye and you will know your destiny.

Loch Ness Monster?  Anhinga!

Tricolored Herons are one of the many colorful and beloved denizens of southern marshes.

Black Vultures (shown here) and Turkey Vultures are both abundant in Florida...probably because of all the old people. Zing!

So It Seems The Well Is Running Dry

A Red-shouldered Hawk suns itself at first light.

Do many of you write? For shits and giggles? Probably not. Those that do can probably can do it with some artistic bent, either for poetry, music, etc. I wish I could do that.....but I generally can't stand all the lyrics I write. If I write a whole song, I'll usually want to keep about two (2) lines out of everything. I'm just not cut out for it, I suppose.

And so I am relegated to BB&B and the birdwatcher niche. With extremely few exceptions, birdwatchers are pretty poor writers. And those that do write with some style and flair have to do it for the mass market, so it leaves you wondering about his/her potential....but in the end you feel cheated, because you know the work is neutered, to some extent. The octogenarian demographic is not an edgy one.

Of course, this allows us here at Team BB&B to grow and thrive so you are presented with the uberblog that you are reading right now. Surely, processing these golden words and looking at the flashy pictures is like getting a deep-tissue brain massage.



Flamingo, the "town" on Florida Bay in the Everglades, is a hotspot for southwestern birds. In a few days, I found a White-winged Dove, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and this Bronzed Cowbird all within a mile of each other. Weird.

When I'm searching far and wide for ideas of content to toss into here, I am always predisposed to the negative, i.e. news and research that points toward the idea that we are all doomed, rather than more positive anecdotes about how the Ruby-crowned Kinglets have arrived, and oh, aren't they lovely! Ostensibly, reading this blog can give one the idea that the great ornithologist Felonious Jive and I are mired in a deep malaise, which we are fated to be rooted deeply into for the rest of our lives. And you know....who am I to argue with that? I only have a vague idea of how you, my cherished readers, perceive me. I certainly feel an impending sense of doom, especially lately.....not quite like the bullshit-ridden apocalypses that many major and minor religions portend, nor any kind of bizarre Beyond Thunderdome scenario.....it's hard to put my finger on it.



Willets. Can't live with them, can't live without them.

But Jesus, who wants to read about that? I certainly don't. What a bummer. I think that since I've been sick lately my mind is more skewed that direction than normal. We should talk birds, really. I've still got scads of pictures from the fall tour that I can put up, and today we have a selection from the Everglades. Numerous signs warn you that vultures will vandalize vehicles if left to their own devices, but they left the Honda alone.....maybe they were waiting for bigger prey.....maybe a Hummer?

To be honest, the 'glades weren't quite as crippling as I imagined they would be....this can be chalked up to the rainy season I think. The huge (maddening?) concentrations of wading birds that is a part of Everglades lore were not quite there, as they were widely dispersed. When a lot of water is available, that means prey is not as concentrated as it is in the dry season....I would love to see what the place looks like in February or March. But with lifer White-crowned Pigeons, Short-tailed Hawk and Sedge Wren in the park, what am I doing complaining?



Black Vulture with Turkey Vultures sunning themselves in the background.