April is POURING books and Woodcocks

So, I've more than made up for the bit of slacking I did in February on my reading NYR. I already have 2 books down for the month of April and against my better judgement, I just started a third :)

Book 1: A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

I have nothing but great things to say about this particular book. Bill Bryson tells the story of his experiences hiking the Appalachian Trail with his buddy, Katz. Bryson is quite funny and is really able to capture the essence of the AT in his book. It made me get the itch to go hiking and camping, which is exactly what I'd hoped it was going to do :)

Book 2: A Supremely Bad Idea by Luke Dempsey

This is also an amazing book. I literally could not put it down and finished the whole thing in just 2 days. It's all about the author, Luke, and his two wonderful birding pals, Don and Donna, who are quirky to say the least. This book has humor as well as great stories of birding trips across the US.

Book 3: Kingbird Highway by Kenn Kaufman

I've reluctantly started this book against my better judgement. Not only is it near the end of the month when I'd like to start a new book when May begins, I also have final exams coming up next week and several large animal experiments finishing up next week (which means lots of work to be done in the lab). I know I probably need to keep focused on school and lab, but this book has been burning a hole in my backpack since the day I borrowed it. I'm a mere 20-something pages in and it has already captured my attention. There must be strict rules in the next several days regarding how much work I need to get done before allowing myself to dive into this book.

And now on to the Woodcocks!

Two nights ago I was privileged enough to watch the displays of some male Woodcocks not so far from my house. Growing up in Wisconsin, I know all about Aldo Leopold and have read many parts of A Sand County Almanac (though not in it's entirety, a book on my list for this year), including his essay on the Woodcock. We showed up at the spot, explored the fields a little and the sound of spring peepers (frogs, Pseudacris crucifer) was deafening. We kicked up a pair of Wood Ducks on our way across the field and focused some attention on the wet area in front of us. Someone in the group thought he had heard a Sora calling, so we played the Sora's call on an iPhone and waited. Then it called back! :) We weren't able to get a look at it, but hearing it respond to the taped call was very cool!

The sun was setting rapidly, so we walked back across the field and could hear the lovely Woodcocks peenting away. We located at least 2, maybe 3 and got some 'alright' looks of them flying up into the air. The sun was fading fast, so none of the looks were 'great', but I could see their silouette in the air as they flew by and up into the air. The most surprising thing to me was just how fast their little wings were beating! It looked like an overgrown hummingbird beating his little wings so quickly!

Another trip to watch the Woodcocks and hopefully spot the Sora is on my to-do list in the immediate future.

Birds and Books

Alright, a dual purpose blog post :)

Part One: Birds

The 4 owl day I was alluding to in the last post didn't happen...it was actually a zero owl day :( But, on the bright side, it was a Red-shouldered hawk day! :)

For that trip, I headed over to Shiawassee for some birding with Blobbybirdman and our friend Bruce. Due to time constraints and Blobby's inability to follow the directions on his Garmin :) we didn't make it to the second destination of the day which is where we'd hoped to see long and short eared owls. Not only were we able to see a Red-shouldered hawk (a lifer for both Blobby and myself), but I also saw my first Red-winged blackbird of the season. I guess this was 3 weeks ago and by now they are everywhere, but it was exciting at the time :) We also saw a massive group of white-tailed deer - at one point I counted 50 together in a field, but as we drove on and light was fading, there were bunches more. I couldn't even fathom a guess as to how many there were...

In other birding highlights this spring, I took my first trip to Maple River SGA - about 30 min north of Lansing - where I saw many lifers: N. Shoveler, Am. Widgeon, Blue-winged Teal, N. Shrike and Eastern Meadowlark, just to name a few :) And finally, just this past weekend, I got a great look at a Greater Scaup (male and female), Rusty Blackbirds and Brown-headed Cowbirds, all lifers! There are many Lesser Scaup hanging out on my lake and Bruce tried hard the previous week to find one that looked like a Greater, but couldn't find any. He gave me a call Friday night and said he had some in close that he'd been watching and thought they were Greaters. I headed over to where he was and once I took a look into the scope and watched for a bit, the male stretched out his wings and I got a good look at the white on both the secondaries and primaries - a sign it really was a Greater Scaup :)

Part 2: Books!

As a part of my NYR I wanted to read 1 fun book per month this year. I did a good job in Jan and Feb keeping up, but I'm lagging behind a bit this month. I've got about 160 pages left to go in The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. It's an absolutely amazing book thus far. I had heard about the book for several years, and knowing it was a part of Oprah's Book Club actually made me not want to read it. However, I got the book for Christmas, so I decided to give it a go. Despite my thoughts that it was going to be a preachy, feely, lets talk about feelings (let's face it, Oprah-y book), it has completely surpassed all of those expectations and is really the most well written book I've ever read.

The basic plot includes the Price family moving from southern Georgia to the Congo in order for Nathan Price, father and preacher, to spread the word of the Lord. The book is eloquently written in a manner no other author I've read has replicated. The Price family has 4 daughters and each chapter (thus far) is narrated by one of the four girls or by the mother. Kingsolver is impressively able to give each girl her own 'voice' that is both unique to that character, and gives different points of view on their experiences in the Congo. I cannot stress how incredible Kingsolver is at differing the writing styles and personalities of the girls. Several times, I have stopped reading in the middle of a chapter, only to pick it up later and be delightfully surprised that I can tell exactly who is narrating the particular chapter. With that said, I've got some work to do to get through the rest of the book by Wednesday night :)

PS - I started writing this blog post on 3.19 and came back to it today 3.29 to finish. I'm not sure why the post is dated the earlier date and it seems there is no way for me to change it?

Gramps

I've recently come to the realization that my grandparents that have passed away are not coming back, specifically Gramps, my mom's dad. This may seem like a silly thing to have just realized at 25 years old, but it's true. I'm not really sure why this is finally occurring to me now, but I have an idea that it's because...

birds...


and photography...


...have come into my life :)

Gramps was an amateur photographer and a bird lover. Photography was something that I'd always intended to take up, but I never took the step to actually embrace. There were always excuses of insufficient time, money, equipment and experience. I also thrive on being with other people and photography seemed like far too much of an individual activity to invest any time in. And birding? Well, he wasn't a lister or anything, he just liked filling the feeders in his backyard and watching the birds that came to eat. I remember learning about Baltimore Orioles from him and how oranges are their food of choice.

Fast forward to 2008 and things began to change. It was then that I decided I needed to take control of my life and the things I do in it. It's not that I was passively floating through life before, but I was working hard to try to get into medical school - so I skipped all the fun stuff in hopes of realizing that dream. Long story short, I didn't get into med school (which was for the best, in hindsight). It took a bit for me to pick myself up and decide what to do next. In the fall of '08 I got the chance to move to MI for grad school and it was then that I decided to 'take life by the horns' so to speak.

I was realizing that there were many things I 'wanted' to do, yet I made no move to actually do any them. What was I waiting for?! They were all sitting there like empty promises to myself. So, in the midst of other things, like triathlons, a marathon, and a roadtrip to the mountains, also began birding and photography.

Gramps and I had a special relationship. I was the only grand-daughter on that side of the family, so from early on I was 'Grampa's Girl'. We saw G'ma & G'pa S quite a bit, but didn't spend a whole lot of time with them. Then Grandma passed away and we started seeing Gramps all the time. He signed my brothers and I up for golf, took us out to lunch, and - wow, this memory just came back to me - bought me my first camera. It was a Nikon film P&S, nothing special, but I was on the yearbook that year and he wanted to make sure I had a good camera for that :)

There isn't anything I wouldn't give to be able to sit with him and share the pictures I've taken and talk about the birds I've seen, and those I haven't seen yet. I inherited his lenses, so all the pictures I take are truely a tribute to him. But, to sit at his kitchen table again and look out at the birds on the back deck - I can't think of any better way to spend an afternoon.

Except, maybe, attempting a 4 owl day - details to come.

:)

Born Free in February

The second installment of my book reviews for this year is regarding the book Born Free by Joy Adamson. This book was just what I needed at this point in the year. I was feeling a need to let go of my relationship that had just ended, which is exactly what this book was about. Joy and her husband, George, lived in Africa and they came to be the sole caretakers for a lion cub they named Elsa. There came a point when they realized they must teach Elsa to hunt and live like a wild lion since they would not be able to keep her forever. Through a lot of hard work and patience, they - amazingly - were able to teach her to hunt and become aclimated to a wild lion's way of life. It is a truely touching story about letting go of their friend because it is what is best for Elsa. I finished the book in 2 days - it's a great story and the version I have had many photos of Joy, George and Elsa throughout their time together. There has been a movie (or several) made about this story and I have yet to see them, but this book is definitely worth the read!

Opening the year with The Historian

I've had the privilege to already read 2 amazing books this year. Going back several blog posts, one of my NYRs was to read 1 book for fun each month.

January was the month of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Now, I don't claim to be a literary genius in the least, but this book was a joy to read. It's a hefty text, weighing in at 900 and some odd pages, but every last one of them is worth it. In fact, I wanted more from this book! I was (slightly) disappointed that partway through the daughter's story trailed off. On the other hand, the story of the professor and his student and their search through history (yes - the book IS after all called The Historian) is riveting and addictive. It has the page turning characteristic of Angels and Demons with a scholarly kick. I felt a little like a lemming reading Angels and Demons because it had such a 'pop culture' feel about it. Reading The Historian made me feel a little more distinguished in my leisure reading, and I learned a lot about the history of Romania, Turkey and many other eastern European countries. Also, with the huge vampire kick that is going on right now ala the Twilight series (which I haven't read yet, but I think will give me the same feeling as when I read Angels and Demons) this is a refreshing look at the legend of Dracula and how it has morphed over the ages. In the end, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone and everyone. There is a little bit of heavy reading at parts - and since I wasn't familiar with the history of eastern Europe at all, it took a little extra wiki-ing for me to get through some parts, but it is definitely worth it!

Colorado Trip

I've been back from the conference in Colorado for about a week...and I'm SO behind in class and TAing! I'm getting things caught up and I think after this weekend I should be sitting pretty well.

Conference in a nutshell: Lots of amazing scientists, awesome new friends, gorgeous mountains and some impressive science. I think it was quite a successful trip overall.

I did have to pass on what would have been my first ice climbing outing this weekend. Since I was out of town all last weekend, have tons of crap to catch up on and didn't find it fair to ask my roommate to watch my dog (again) for the weekend, I had to skip out. Hopefully it won't be my last chance and I can try it sometime. Sounds like some of my friends are looking to hit the climbing gyms pretty hard soon, I can't wait. It might be time to go ahead and buy those climbing shoes and harness I've been keeping my eye on... :)

Ethics class is calling my name...

Movin' on

is tough. This is definitely the most broken up I've been over a breakup, ever. And I even knew it was going to happen. It's really frustrating. I'm not usually someone that can't control my emotions, but I'm finding myself letting it get the better of me. I'm getting sick of wiping up tears and blowing my nose, seriously! Hopefully, a week in Colorado, keeping busy with talks and posters, is just what the doctor ordered. I'm heading out EARLY on Tuesday morning - 3:30AM Michigan Flyer to the airport!! I've got lots to do tomorrow to finish up at work and packing. This 3 oz rule is really starting to tick me off. I don't even think they make contact solution in bottles that small! No to mention liquid foundation makeup! Gah! I'm annoyed. Maybe I should just go to bed... :)