Thankful

I am thankful for my family. For my close family, my extended family, my in-laws, my brother and his soon to be in-laws, all my friends who might as well be family. Especially my wife. I am thankful for music. For the expression of any and all emotions through a song. I am very thankful for my instruments. My still kind of new fiddle, my electric guitar "Jenny" and my banjo uke. Thankful for all those people who love and support me where ever I go. Who put us up in their homes, feed us, drive us around in their cars and stay up late dancing :-) Thank you for these little windows into your lives. I am thankful to have a job, and even more thankful that I can make a living doing what I love. I pray I never take that for granted. I am so thankful for birds because watching and studying them gives me a glimpse into an infinitely diverse and beautiful natural world that far too few people get to experience. I am thankful for turtles too, just cause. I am thankful for good food, fresh air, hot water and ice cubes. For forgiveness and a fresh start to every day. I am thankful for a God who "sees the depths of my heart and loves me the same." Have a very Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

California Cranes

On the final day of our recent California visit Jim and Susan Stratton took me out to watch the Sandhill Cranes come in to roost near Lodi. It was an incredible evening, watching these beautiful birds flying over Mount Diablo. Another California birding highlight: this Ferruginous Hawk south of Sacramento was my 450th bird this year! My entire North American life list was only at 450 before 2009. I doubt I'll ever see such a high percentage of my life list in a single year again and I want to say a special thanks to Jim Stratton for chasing this bird down with us.

Tidings of Cactus & Canyon

Hi folks. Sorry this is such a late post. Noah and I have been hard at work on the new album ever since we got back from our Arizona / California trip. All the basic tracks are done and we've just got a few final overdubs and edits before we move on to mixing. Anyway, things have been good here. Last night Sarah and I made a really tasty veggie pizza. Eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, onion and mushrooms! Seems like a nice day today. It looked cool outside this morning with all the frost. I'm in a pretty good mood overall. GBT plays in Colorado this weekend but it's just a short out-n-back kinda trip. Oh, and I think I'm having dinner with dad tonight. Okay... now let me see if I can pick out some pics from AZ.

This was my first visit to a "real" desert and I absolutely loved it
That's Vulture Peak in the backgroundWhile staying in the Flagstaff area we visited the ancient cliff dwellings at Walnut CanyonPassing through Sedona we made a stop at Ye Olde UFO StoreA beautiful hike in Oak Creek CanyonOn our last day in Arizona we woke up early and drove up to see the sunrise at THE canyon... what an amazing experience!

SE Arizona (birds)

October 28 – Sarah and I flew into Phoenix, AZ on October 25 in the evening. The next morning we got up early and drove down to Tucson where we met our hosts/guides Sky and Anne Hilts. When we arrived at their house one of the first birds we saw in their backyard was a COSTA'S HUMMINGBIRD (Life Bird) as well as many Phainopeplas and GILA WOODPECKERS (Life Bird) along the road and nice looks at a male Western Screech-Owl in their carport. The four of us got back in the car and drove down to Tumacacori to look for a reported Rufous-backed Robin. We stayed for about two hours with no luck but it was the middle of the afternoon and traffic was fairly heavy along the lane. I had brief looks at a probable Plumbeous Vireo, a possible Crissal Thrasher and a tentative Brewer's Sparrow but all of them were very difficult to see through the dense brush and I decided not to count them. A Townsend's Solitaire was a nice surprise though. Next we drove over to Patagonia to visit The Patton's yard and look for hummingbirds. We eventually found one male Anna's Hummingbird as well as a few Inca Doves, a beautiful male PYRRHULOXIA, a flock of GAMBLE'S QUAIL (Life Bird) and a BRIDLED TITMOUSE (Life Bird). There was also a RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER (Life Bird) in the area. At dusk we made another stop back at Santa Gertrudis in Tumacacori. We walked down to the Santa Cruz river and I noticed a small quail moving towards us. It was a female MONTEZUMA QUAIL (Life Bird)! The bird wasn't very shy; walked right up and crossed the road. Even got some decent photos. On our way out we saw and heard a second bird. What a sad sounding call. We all thought that was a fantastic end to our day. Up early again on October 27... had a VERDIN (Life Bird) and better looks at the Costa's Hummingbird in the Hilts backyard before heading off to Madera Canyon. Sarah and I hiked from Proctor Road up to the Santa Rita Lodge. We had lots of great birds along the way. Highlights were a very cooperative and totally stunning PAINTED REDSTART (Life Bird), many MEXICAN JAYS (Life Bird), Sarah's long-overdue first Acorn Woodpecker and flock of roughly eight more MONTEZUMA QUAIL! After a picnic lunch we stopped by Madera Kubo to watch the hummingbird feeders. Almost as soon as we got out of the car we saw our first MAGNIFICENT HUMMINGBIRD (Life Bird). We stayed for over an hour and saw many Mags, several female Anna's, a possible Blue-throated and at least one BROAD-BILLED HUMMINGBIRD (Life Bird) as well as lots of Bridled Titmice, a surprise CANYON WREN and a friendly ARIZONA WOODPECKER (Life Bird). We left Madera Canyon mid-afternoon and drove across the valley to Mount Lemmon. It was very windy and birding was a little slow but it was a beautiful night and we had a great time seeing all the different life zones. Pygmy Nuthatches and White-throated Swifts are always a blast and near the very top we finally found a couple YELLOW-EYED JUNCOS (Life Bird) mixed in with the red-backed Dark-eyed Juncos (which was a new subspecies for me as well). This morning we left Tucson and drove to Phoenix where we met up with Noah. Along the way we made a brief stop at Picachu Peak where we had a Rock Wren hoping around in the parking lot and at least one or two BLACK-THROATED SPARROWS (Life Bird) out in the desert. The trip's off to a great start! My year list is currently 443.

Montezuma Quailcheck out that back pattern!Painted RedstartCosta's HummingbirdMagnificent HummingbirdWestern Screech-Owl

Life Bird #500!!!!!

Yesterday Jay and I managed to find a single NELSON'S (SHARP-TAILED) SPARROW at Allan Treman State Marine Park in Ithaca. This was my 500th North American life bird and my 50th life bird this year! We chased the bird back and forth across the field for a while; eventually we got some pretty decent looks and Jay managed to snap this pic. It was a real treat to hit this milestone in New York. My year list is currently 424.

Ten albums I really like - Part I

Recently a friend asked me to recommend some good music. Kind of a weighty request and I've put it off for a while now. But I've finally decided to give it a try. First of all, a couple parameters... these are all more-or-less "modern" recordings (within the last 15-ish years I think) and all at least vaguely folk/trad/world music oriented (ieno Death Cab For Cutie, no DMB or Flaming Lips, no vintage swing or early bluegrass). I'm going to start with some of my favorite bands so great singer/songwriters (Gillian Welch, Mark Knopfler for example) and fantastic solo musicians (like Liz Carroll, Bela Fleck, Martin Taylor) are also excluded. What are your favorites?

Ale Moller Band - BodjalNickel Creek - Why Should The Fire Die?Solas - SolasHedningarna - TraBerroguetto - 10.0Tin Hat Trio - The Rodeo ErodedThe Freight Hoppers - Waiting On The Gravy TrainLunasa - The Merry Sisters Of FateThe Red Stick Ramblers - Right Key, Wrong KeyholeVasen - Gront

22

It's been a busy week! I turned twenty-two on Monday. That's old. Not like really old obviously but still, it's as old as I've ever been! Things are good. I'm pretty happy with how the whole 18-21 years went overall. Looking forward to whatever this next phase is. It was a great year for birthday presents. Various forms of chocolate and iTunes gift cards... my favorites! I've got some great new music now. Yo La Tengo, Iron & Wine, Rilo Kiley. Sarah got me the brand new Mark Knopfler album and Mom picked me up a four disc Delmore Brothers box set! Also spent some time with our good friends Gabi and Peter who were visiting from Austria. They headed home this morning. Noah and I spent the day in the studio overdubbing solos and stuff. The rough mixes are sounding pretty good. Pete's got some tasty piano licks, Kevin's groovin on the bass, Kailyn sounds great. Of course Noah's frickin' unbelievable. So yeah, I'm getting totally psyched about this album! Working at Wilburland is always fun too. And tomorrow I get to go out birding with Jay for a while. It'd be nice to see some shorebirds. Still missing White-rumped Sandpiper, Long-billed Dowitcher, a few other common-ish species. Okay, I think I'll got to bed now. Have a great day tomorrow everyone!