A week in the life of Michaela & Danielle: June 12nd 2013

Here is the second day of the week installment.

After yesterday's interesting night, I put the girls to bed in our room.  Danielle was first to sleep and Michaela followed only 10 minutes later. After posting yesterday's blog I returned to this sight. While Michaela and Danielle often snuggle and hug during the day, I was surprised as they are like oil and water at night.

Michaela woke around 8 and went downstairs to watch cartoons.  Breakfast was not until I woke Danielle at 10 and was light with three kiwi.  The girls helped peel the fruit and were wonderful the next two hours watching cartoons as I met with someone about the bird club.

The weather forecast included a chance for severe thunderstorm, hail, and a possible tornado but we packed up anyways for Whitewater State Park.  We stopped at Kwik-Trip in Lewiston for the girls favorite convenience store food, mozzarella filled bread sticks. A banana each and a shared apple rounded out the Quickie Mart meal.

We arrive around 1:15 for the 1 o'clock program...oops! Luckily the short program was interactive and she was wonderful at engaging the girls' thoughts. I found the skull and bones program interesting and I was amazed at how much the girls new about animals, especially Michaela. With skulls in hand they focused on teeth, especially the incisors and canines, to determine whether the animal was a herbivore, carnivore, or omnivore.

Their attention did not last however as they were very excited about swimming with life jackets at the beach. Even though 80s were forecasted, an overcast sky and winds had it feeling closer to 65.  We were all quite cold in the spring fed stream, but the little American Toad tadpoles (just likely a guess based on size) were quite entertaining.  The girls carefully caught many, and their actions were quickly turned into the activity for all most other kids (and adults) at the beach.

Drizzling rain started shortly after we left the park around 4:30. The girls hopped in the bath to clean and warm up as soon as we got home.  They washed each other's hair and checked for ticks before drying off for supper.  Salad and left-over noodles were any easy and quick meal.  With the sun shining, contrary to the weatherman's predictions, we found a blanket and headed into town for Concerts in the Park after a grocery store stop.

At the grocery store we ran into Danielle's teacher, who said "Danielle, we missed you the last week of school!"  Oops, somewhere we got bad information and Danielle missed the last two days of school.  We will have to stop by in July when summer school is in session to pick up remaining materials.

The Winona Community band played a handful of songs while we ate raspberries.  The nearby playground seemed to lure the girls away however. You can here a song end in the video above. The concert started at  8 and we were late getting home tonight.  A slice of lemon-poppy seed cake for dessert and off to bed they went.  As well as last night went, tonight was just the opposite. A bit of anger from both resulted in Michaela sleeping downstairs and Danielle in our bed.

A week in the life of Michaela & Danielle: June 11th 2013

I figured it is time to take a break from posts on birding, so today is hopefully the first day of a week long diary following Michaela and Danielle's daily activities.

Michaela went to bed last night in our bedroom closet while Danielle was in bed with us.  By morning Michaela had moved to the living room couch, but forgot to bring either a pillow or blanket and was sleeping like a  curled-up pill bug.  The girls haven't slept well or in the same spot since we rearrange the house to sell. Last night just happened to be weirder than usual.  Breakfast was fruit, donuts, and juice and we enjoyed a couple of cartoons and a bit of garden work during the morning.

We packed the car for a day of errands and drove over Stockton Hill, grabbing lunch at Taco Bell before stopping at Family Video.  The girls were allowed to pick out one movie each, and we found out that Family Video awards free rentals for grades. It would be a wonderful treat for Michaela if we can find her report card.

We planned to quickly returning a "Home for Sale" sign at Ace Hardware. It was too easy to buy something that looks right, only to realize after getting home that it the sign was one-sided rather than printed on both sides.   It was time to return the sign after having it lay around the house for the past couple of days. While I was signing for the 2 dollar credit the sign the girls were looking at the miniature train diorama. I've been to this store a dozen times but was blind to the "Find Waldo" sign until they pointed it out. Luckily the girls had done this before, told me where Waldo was last time, and informed me had to find him. Ten minutes later we found that Waldo happened to be camping in the woods. A store employee kindly turned on the power and we watched the trains and emergency vehicle flashing lights before heading out.

The next stop was to return a handful of due items at the Library. The girls quickly ran to the children's video section and each picked out a Dora DVD. Once that regular activity was finished they followed their normal schedule and went to the computer game station.  As they played I found a couple of field guides for later and we were off to HyVee to pick up groceries for supper.  

Three hours after leaving home we returned ready for an excited adventure using the field guides, but plans changed as a message on the answering machine informed us of a house showing later tonight. Michaela colored a picture and Danielle played downstairs allowing us to pick up the house. An hour later and we were ready to start cooking! 

The girls had picked out mushrooms (Danielle) and broccoli (Michaela) for supper, which we paired with pasta and Parmesan. The girls helped wash and cut the vegetables, reluctantly taking turns for what they deemed a very exciting activity. Both girls stopped at least once and looked at their fingers where it "felt like they were cut" but luckily neither was bleeding. They were proud of the fresh colorful dish which was followed by Lemon Poppy seed cake for dessert.  

I hope the house did not smell too strongly of broccoli during the house showing, but we will likely never have the opportunity to ask that question. We stepped out of the house and visited neighbors when the realtor showed up and returned home after an hour for a second round of cake before bed. 

We are tentatively planning on visiting Whitewater state park tomorrow for a nature program and swimming before Concerts in the park, but of course plans may change if mother nature does not cooperate.

Danielle's end of School Year

Danielle finished preschool last week, with Michaela going one week longer.  Danielle woke up early (around 7 when Michaela wakes up for school) this past weekend, but the past two days she is back to sleeping in until 9-10.

A week ago one of Danielle's schools had a end of year preschool picnic.  Each family brought a dish to share, the kids played, and it was nice seeing everyone before the summer began.  The weather was not cooperative, much like the rest of the past month, and it rained the night away. Michaela and Danielle avoided the rain by using their umbrellas and didn't play nearly as much as the other kids.

For whatever reason I felt inspired to get the girls to play, so I stole their umbrellas and we played tag long enough that they quit worrying about being wet.  We all had wet feet after getting home that night.

In search of shorebird photos with Danielle

Danielle thought being up high would allow her to spot birds (for me) better.

For the past two weeks I've checked the flooded Bartlet Lake Road or read updates about the shorebirds on Facebook almost daily. On Monday this week I even took off my shoes and walked through the water to check the other side of the road. With clear skies forecasted I planned on taking photos of the reported birds this morning after dropping Michaela off at school.

For some reason, Danielle woke up early this morning.  She would not snuggle in bed with Christine nor fall back asleep, but that is not surprising as she hasn't done either lately with the earlier sunrise. Instead Danielle got Christine out of bed and wanted to drop off  Michaela.  Danielle has attended school four days a week the past year, with Thursday being her day off so I knew there was no hurry once we dropped Michaela off. Based on last week's adventure when Danielle liked a cattle egret I figured she  would be game for birding this morning.

To my surprise, the road was open this morning and we were able to drive to the boat landing.  Only a handful of shorebirds remained, which was dramatically less than Monday wen the picture below was taken. I suspect traffic on this narrow road will push these little birds elsewhere in the near future.

Mixed flock of sandpipers (peeps).

Danielle was a trooper and spent the first half hour sitting on my lap watching Dunlin and taking pictures.  With limited assistance she looked through the viewfinder, put the focus area on the birds, and snapped decent photos.  She started to get cold however and we walked back to the car.  After talking Christine into taking the camera from us and I put Danielle on my shoulders and we went searching for the small flock to show "mom" what we found. We spent almost another hour exploring the snails, birds, and air bubbles trapped in the asphalt before heading home. After transferring the photos to the computer I'm glad we talked Christine into taking photos, as she got awesome photos of a handful of species (at least in my opinion).

Enjoy the photos below. All of the large photos are Christine's from this morning, with a few of the smaller thumbnails being mine or from Monday's wet foot day. Flickr just recently changed their storage allowance.  I'm using Flickr's links of full-sized photos on this blog for the first time.  I hope it works.

Dunlin

White-rumped Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper
 

Semipalmated Sandpiper
  

I am not sure if the bottom right photo in the semipalmated Sandpiper group is accurately identified. I originally identified this bird as a white-rumped sandpiper based on the narrower body and fine streaking along the chest and sides (which was corroborated by two local birders), but after reviewing the 700 photos today and looking through the O'Brien Shorebird field guide I'm leaning toward semipalmated Sandpiper.

I spent a couple of days with excellent birders the past week, and the days were a ton of fun with all the birds seen and heard. Their easy going personalities were quite enjoyable and I thoroughly enjoyed learning from them in the field. I was reminded during these forays that there is always more to learn. I'm hoping a shorebird expert can give me the nuances of shorebird plumages on this identification.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Neighborhood kids

We are blessed with wonderful neighbors.  Many of them have kids that love playing with Michaela and Danielle, which means that Christine has turned into a community mom figure. This weekend she had an impromptu picnic when the neighbors were putting in a new front door.  The umbrellas protected the kids from the warm sun. 

Our great friends little girl is at our place after school a couple days a week, with a variety of normal activities planned for various weekdays.  Today we came home right after school. The girls played on the neighbor's playhouse as I mowed the backyard. Afterwards all the girls came inside to play a game on Kinect.  Below is Michaela playing a boxing game for the first time.



With the summer nearing we are going to make sure to enjoy out neighbors and friends before we move.  We will miss them.

A new pet and more birds

Michaela and Danielle have repeatedly asked to get a horse and farm when we move. Christine and I have been unsuccessful in changing their minds, instead we've attempted to redirect with promise of a Beta fish. 

After a busy week I had the entire day to spend with Danielle.  I slept in her bed and watched cartoons in the morning and brought her to return keys and credit card at work one last time.  

Afterwards we stopped at a favorite birding location and happened upon 6 Cattle Egrets. I did not have my scope with at the time, so I quickly took identifying pictures and turned the Jeep around. To our pleasant surprise there was a 7th cattle egret that was right along the road on the way out. Of course we stopped for pictures. Our favorite photo was when it shook its feathers and appeared as a fluff ball. This was the first time Danielle or Christine had seen a Cattle Egret and they both thought it was extremely cute. So much so, that Danielle decided it would be fun to have one for a pet. I was elated to hear anything other than a horse, but this option didn't sound better and somehow we morphed Danielle's two pet requests into a flying horse.  Christine and I both agreed that if she could find a flying horse we would work something out as a pet.

With this close encounter finished my desire to observe the other 6 egrets in a scope waned and we made alternative plans for the rest of the day. We checked other birding location for shorebirds before returning to the cattle egrets.  Danielle was very interested in looking at the birds today, so I set the scope up at its lowest level and let her find them.  She identified a red-winged blackbird, duck (mallard), and something else (coot) for me after I started her off on a Great Blue Heron. Christine snapped this picture below on our walk back to the Jeep.  

We picked Michaela up from school and told her we had plans this afternoon as a family.

First we stopped by the golf course driving range and hit a bucket of balls. A junior golf bag just for the girls clubs was a hit, but neither girl seemed interested in hitting or putting in the heat. Next we went shopping for a picnic. The girls picked out fruit, sandwiches, chips, and drink. We had an early supper at Farmer's Park in Stockton. Rough-winged swallows appeared to be nesting in the old railway bridge and kindly posed for a few snapshots. I even took a nap while the girls played and we all returned home tired for bed.

This past week I've spent a fair amount of time out birding.  The woods are loaded with migrating Warblers and I suspect I'll try to get out in the coming days as much as possible. Earlier Christine and I observed this Great Egret struggle with his meal.  

On Wednesday I road with three excellent birders for a county big day. We tried to tally as many different species of birds within Houston county in one day.  We started at 1:30 in the morning and ended at 9 at night, finding 155 different birds along the way.  It was the first time I have done anything of the sort and thoroughly enjoyed the day. I found it particularly awesome asking the other guys about different sounds during the dawn chorus as birding at that time of day was almost completely by ear.

Melting Snow and Migrating Birds

We made a mad dash to Kansas City in order to look at elementary schools this past week, but were dampened by the May snowstorm and returned impressed with both districts we looked at.  When we returned to Winona the ground was covered in snow.  Sun appeared  late Saturday morning, so I grabbed the camera and binoculars and went searching for birds.

Spring migration is often the best opportunity to observe birds that breed and reside further north, offering individuals the chance to see them along their journey.  Warblers are some of the most colorful birds of North America, and many birders love their migration. Unfortunately the number and diversity of warblers is not great yet here, but recent reports indicate they are close!  The highlight of the past two days were the cooperative thrushes, with the Veery and Gray-cheeked Thrush being quite friendly and photogenic. I put on quite a few miles, sat in mud taking pictures, and enjoyed seeing over 100 species the past two days.  Below are photos for everyone to enjoy.

Veery

Gray-cheeked Thrush

Orange-crowned Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Northern Waterthrush

White-crowned Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow

Swamp Sparrow

Ruby-crowned Kinglet