Subject: High speed birding
Date: Jun 21 10:24:09 1999
From: leerentz - leerentz at ix.netcom.com


I recently completed a mad-dash cross-country road trip from
Shelton, WA to Cleveland, OH and back using a route through
Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota. Much of the trip I
drove 75mph, so my birding was limited to big, easily
identifiable birds and medium-sized roadside birds (I'm not
good enough to do gulls at a glance). I birded safely most
of the time, but while dreamily looking around the prairie
in North Dakota, I very nearly ran over a female mallard and
her three fuzzy young. I swerved, sent the fuzzballs
tumbling and nearly rocketed off the road into a prairie
pothole. All of us survived, however, and I promised myself
to be more alert. 800+ miles a day, however, does not lend
itself to alertness.

Although high-speed birding might seem like a silly
exercise, it does help keep the mind occupied on a long
trip. It also is a good way to reinforce quick ID abilities
for a very modestly skilled birder like me. Here is my
list, which includes only the species I could ID from the
freeways:

Common loon
Western grebe (okay, maybe it was Clark's; I zoomed by too
fast)
Pied-billed grebe
American white pelican (soaring together in perfect harmony
and fishing on prairie pothole lakes)
Double-crested cormorant
Black-crowned night heron
Great blue heron
Great egret
Mute swan
Canada goose
Mallard
Gadwall
Northern pintail
Northern shoveler
Ruddy duck
American coot
American avocet
Killdeer
Black tern
TV
Bald eagle
Red-tailed hawk
Dead owl squashed on road, species not ID'd
Osprey (2 locations on nest atop power pole along roadside)
American kestrel
Ring-necked pheasant
Rock dove
Mourning dove
Common nighthawk
Belted kingfisher
Red-headed woodpecker (what a flashy dresser!)
Eastern kingbird
Tree swallow
Cliff swallow
Barn swallow
Blue jay
Black-billed magpie
American crow (or could it be Northwestern crow near
Shelton?)
Common raven
American robin
Northern cardinal
Red-winged blackbird
Yellow-headed blackbird
Western meadowlark
Brewer's blackbird
Common grackle

That's it! Okay, I agree it's not a very interesting list,
but warblers and sparrows are hard to see while driving,
especially with my aging eyes. And for those on the list
who want their birds without environmental politics, I left
out the conservation lectures I could give, relating to
places I saw on my trip, concerning filling prairie
potholes, excessive roadside mowing, the Garrison Diversion
Project, delisting of the bald eagle, and terribly thin
midwestern coffee (which is probably environmentally
friendly, since it uses about a tenth the normal amount of
coffee beans). Of course, driving cross-country at 75mph in
a big van is not exactly an environmentally friendly
exercise.

Lee "Lister" Rentz
lee at leerentz.com

"All lists, all the time"