Ospreys, Flycatchers With Forked Tails, and The Manatee Inhales

Good day to you birders. How have you been handling November? Hopefully you are getting sparrowed enough to properly cope with SWAD (Seasonal Warbler Affective Disorder, which seems to only strike birders). Of course, some places are stiill blessed with some warbler diversity, but most of us are drowning in the brown/gray/white sea of Yellow-rumped Warblers that has flooded much of the United States. 

Attempting to escape SWAD, I have been birding a bit locally...my last year bird was a Harris' Sparrow, which I finally nailed on my third attempt...an inspiring Zonotrichia to be sure...photos to follow.

I rewatched The Big Year with Booby Brittany last night, so she could potentially understand my addiction better. Well, as Bostick puts it...its more of a "calling". If you are a birder (or just have the shame of personally knowing one), it's worth watching, although its leaves a lot to be desired. Still waiting, as always, for the Christopher Guest movie.

Right. Here is the last of the Everglades shots.

Florida is blessed with a plethora of Osprey. Flamingo, in Everglades National Park, is a great place to watch them close up.

Ospreys rank in the top 10 species that nonbirders ask me about. This is one of the few relatively noticeable birds someone will notice on a drunken river trip.

Ospreys lack the humungo feet of eagles, but look at the length of those talons! Who knows how many fish have met their fate in the grips of this bird.

Less than a mile outside Everglades National Park, I looked up and saw a couple Scissor-tailed Flycatchers (year bird) perched on the power lines. This is a young bird, lacking the insanely long tail feathers of an adult, but an adrenaline-producing site nonetheless.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is a rare but regular visitor (even uncommon?) to south Florida. I also saw one in the Everglades on my previous trip, so it seems to be a good place to find them.

Perched with the Scissor-tails was a Gray Kingbird, which seemed quite late to be remaining in Florida (this was on October 16). Note the deeply-forked tail and excessive drabness. They do have a red crown, but they keep it well-hidden most of the time.

Just the slightest tinge of yellow on the underwing.

I was pretty pleased to run into this bird. I can now claim that I have seen three (3) Gray Kingbirds...this is a great number, because I expected to come back with none at all.

Although the water is murky, manatees are easy to spot at the Flamingo marina. These amazing, incredibly fat creatures are unwary of people here...you can stand right above them on the docks. A tiny calf was among the adults while I was there.

A young Green Heron borrows a pose from the bitterns.

The Everglades are not a "must" for birders (unless you are crazy enough to look for flamingos), but they have many area specialties and are definitely worth checking out.  Hopefully, I will have the sense to go during the dry season next time.

I Don't Believe In Lying Back

"The horrible reality of suddenly being stone broke and homeless is more than most people in this country can handle. They will literally seize up and go mad. Your everyday Nervous Breakdown is nothing compared to the hopeless Craziness of a man who woke up in the morning as a Prince and went to bed as a Toad.

That is a guaranteed overweening shock to the Central Nervous System; if you don't go insane from suddenly having to see everything in the world from a point only two inches high, your brain will be churned into cream by having to crawl, head-first, with your eyes open, down a muddy hole in the ground, just to have a place to sleep.

Nobody could handle a situation like That. It is Unacceptable. It is worse than any dream that ever happened in the worst and most tortured hallucinations ever suffered by the most pitiful LSD victim. ... I spent a lot of time with Allen Ginsberg, and I have swapped gruesome tales over whiskey at night with William Burroughs, and neither one of them ever even mentioned a vision so horrible as being instantly changed from a rich and powerful human like Donald Trump into a common leaping toad."

- Hunter S. Thompson

Despite what assholes like Timothy Geithner claim, the recession is not over for a lot of people. Times are still tough, you know what I'm saying? Bad finances can lead to wallowing in a pit of despair, visions of a fate with No Fun.....the solution?

Gonzo birding. There, I said it. Has anyone ever combined these words before? I think that this is so......but I'm taking full credit. Who can stop me? With the financial behemoth known as The Human Birdwatcher Project behind me, I don't think I can be stopped. So welcome to the bright and explosive birth of the Gonzo Birding Movement.

Some well-read people can infer what this means. Gonzo Journalism was/is a movement that began with the late Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, where instead of attempting to objectively describe the action from a distance (which is, ultimately, futile), the journalist becomes directly a part of the story. Of course, anyone familiar with HST's knows that this is just the beginning....Hunter's "work" was hardly anything like what has been done before or since. Combining politics, prose, punditry, violence, and vast amounts of drugs, Hunter made a cocktail for immortality among writers around the world, not only in what he wrote, but how he lived.

But chances are you already knew that, didn't you? I feel like its necessary to rehash these points once in a while though.....it's kind of a bummer having all of your favorite writers be dead. At least that's not my case for music.


A Sanderling at Florida's Sanibel Island. Sanderlings are found at beaches on every coast in the U.S., and are generally the birds you see "chasing waves" in small flocks while feeding on the shore.

Isn't it great to know that you are witnessing history? The entire face of birding will be changed once Gonzo birding take root. Together, we will make birding fun again......we will no longer be policed by records committees or driven by nothing more than lists. We will no longer dress exactly like everyone else. We will no longer deny that we are nerds. We will no longer let this be the sport of aging privileged white people. We will no longer settle for just watching......



A young Wood Stork stretches out in the rain. Everglades National Park, FL.

Finally, Here's a great interview with Ian MacKaye (from Minor Threat, Fugazi, The Evens, etc), someone who has probably directly or indirectly influenced a great many of you whether you know it or not. Check it out!

The Sound of Young America