Did I mention that there are quite a few snakes out here? Non Birding Bill doesn't care much for birding with me, but in new areas I think he worries about me doing something foolish and needing supervision and will usually tag along on my birding adventures. He really doesn't like snakes which there are quite a few of around here one in particular which is quite poisonous, but feels morally obligated to make sure I don't get too close to any. I think, he thinks I will lean in to get a photo and get bit.

Because Non Birding Bill had the brilliant idea of getting airline tickets that left at 6am I didn't sleep since Thursday night until Saturday night (except a couple of hours on the flights interrupted by babies traumatized by the popping ear experience).

Have already seen birds not typically found in Minnesota including boat-tailed grackles on the deck, mockingbirds on the telephone poles, fish crows in the Walmart parking lot, brown pelicans along the shore (I've never had a brown pelican barf on me before, maybe that will be a goal for this trip), laughing gulls and herring gulls all over the freakin' place, a towhee outside our bedroom window, and what I'm pretty sure were glossy ibis flying over the house last evening.