Sand In My Shoes

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This is just a quick primer to let you know who will likely be at the Seymour reunion besides us McClellans.

Alan’s (grandma’s brother) kids : Sandy, Joanie and Denny, Chuck.

Clete’s (grandma’s brother) kids: Bob and Becky-hosts, Jenanne and Mike, Laura and Scot, Colleen and Jeff, Jim (no spouse), and Alice.

Here are a few photos from Rita’s funeral to help you know who’s who. I don’t have photos of everyone and I don’t know the names of everyone’s spouses.

I’m sure the picnic will be fun!

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An Adventure with Chris and Alex

Our Wildside Birding Tour “ME: Mountains and Coast June 2026” began by meeting the guides, Chris Brown and Alex Lamoreaux at the Bangor airport hotel, the Aviator. We also met the twelve other birder participants.  We immediately loaded up into two vans and headed out for our first hotspot, Essex Woods, not far from the airport.

Here we saw forty-one species of common eastern birds, and while the other birders were very pleased with the sitings, we were not as excited. It was then that we  realized that these birders were mainly  from western states and had rarely or never seen many of the species that we take for granted here in Wisconsin. That meant that most of our birding would be the same as it was at home. It still gave opportunities for photography. 

We got back in the van and someone reminded Alex that we needed to eat lunch. We stopped at a filling station and foraged for out of hand fare. We loaded up into the vans with our lunches and headed for Camden, stopping at a few spots on the way. 

When we got to Camden we ate lobster at a lovely harbor-side restaurant. There were old fashioned sailing vessel moored in the harbor. They looked old, built of wood, with tall wooden masts and canvas sails. The number of ropes coming off of each master was staggering. One of the larger ships was docked near the restaurant and appeared to be an excursion boat. What a show it would be to watch the sailers at work with all those lines. We took a walk around the harbor and saw the lobster boat, the Periwinkle, that would take us out on the ocean the next morning. It looked too small for sixteen birders plus the crew. 

June 2nd, 7:30 am, we boarded the Periwinkle, starting the first leg of our pelagic tour. Dad was prepared with a patch behind the ear. We found no ginger. candy to bring so went without. So far, so good. We left the harbor and circled around a few tiny rock islands, watching the seabirds.   

Chris spotted the best bird of the tour! A Thick-billed Murre! Chris’s eBird comments:”Floating with a Black Guillemot at (43.9075480, -68.8853019), close to where checklist is plotted. Smaller murre with thin white line at gape of mouth. Basic plumage with a white throat; likely an immature. Good spring for them in Maine. Photos.” My photo was out of focus but still showed the bird.

We finally started seeing the bird we came for: the Atlantic Puffin. We had driven to Maine in 2024 for this bird but didn’t see it. Here we saw a whole colony of Puffins!!  They nest in burrows on the rocky islands. Also nesting were Double-crested and Great Cormorants.

We saw six species of terns. These were hard to tell apart and difficult to identify, especially at a distance. The guides are experienced and can easily tell them apart. We had Common Tern, Forster’s Tern, Least Tern, Arctic Tern, and Roseate Tern for smaller terns, and Caspian Tern for large terns. The  Least Terns did not come close to the boat.

Other Seabirds included Common Eider, Common Murres, Black Guillemots, and Razorbills.

 The ride was pretty bouncy but Dad did great. The guys who ran the boat were friendly and helpful.  In all the pelagic trip gave us five life birds! The remainder of the trip was on land. 

The next day started at Starbuck’s for breakfast. This Starbuck’s had an old flooded quarry right next to the parking lot. And this quarry had a nesting pair of Peregrine Falcons. Alex got them in the scope and made this video of the female feeding the chicks. 

    We stayed near Portland, visiting natural areas nearby. One of our most difficult sparrows to find (and ID) is the Saltmarsh Sparrow. Nelson’s Sparrow is so similar to Saltmarsh Sparrow that it used to be considered the same species. We have searched for this sparrow on every one of our eastern trips and failed to find it. Alex helped us see the field marks that separate the two. 

We birded the shoreline and saw the adorable Piping Plover.

Day 4 was all common Eastern species. Nice but nothing exciting.

Friday we were in the van at 5:30 am. The destination was Mt. Washington, New Hampshire to look for the Bicknell’s Thrush and the Black-backed Woodpecker. As luck would have it, the only road to the top of Mt. Washington was the site of a road race on that day. So we went to the next mountain over. 

We needed high elevation to get the two target species. So we stopped to grab the usual gas station lunch and started up the mountain. We got to the top at 7:22 am and birded a rocky gravel road for nearly eight hours.  At the top was a series of seven wind turbines. They made the sound of an airplane overhead but without the engine. 

Alex’s description of the route- “From (Highway) 26 to turbine facility, and back. Starting at 1,361ft and climbing to 3,265ft elevation at the entrance to the turbine facility. Focused on the higher elevations first, and later slowly cruised the road up and down, listening out the windows. Distance is one-way.” The red marker shows the highest point of our route. The pale spots on the map are the wind turbines.

This was the most difficult day of the tour. There were no restrooms or benches, we just hiked up and down sections of the road all day. We did get good looks at the Black-backed Woodpecker and the Gray Jay as well as a number of warblers.  The biggest disappointment was not seeing the Bicknell’s Thrush. We heard it several times but it wouldn’t show itself. We can count it as a lifer but it was not a satisfying bird.

We were all happy to climb into the van and drive to the next city for our overnight stay. 
Saturday took us to Essex County in Vermont. Here we saw a variety of eastern birds. Nothing exciting for us but the people from the western states were seeing a lot of birds for the first time. We returned to New Hampshire, birding small spots along. the way. One spot had a Snowshoe Hare.

On Sunday we drove back to Bangor Airport. We stopped to bird along the way. We had good looks of the Black Tern who chooses inland lakes for nesting.

We arrived at the airport around ten am for our late afternoon flight. The flight to O’Hare was delayed by an hour and we only had a short layover before our flight to Milwaukee. But, after running to the gate of our connecting flight, we found it had been delayed also. So a lot of hurry up and wait. Fortunately our car was in the Milwaukee airport parking ramp so the final leg of our journey was easy.  It’s nice to be home.

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If you have been following livin_on_the_ham you have had a few brief glimpses of some of the locations we went to. We drove to Estes Park, Colorado primarily to see the Yellow Grosbeak. This is a Mexican species that rarely visits the US. It had been routinely visiting a feeder at a suburban home there.
The homeowner was welcoming all birders to view the bird from her fence line where it’s favorite feeder was clearly visible. Many birders from around the country had already visited the yard, some having to wait for hours or visit many times to finally see the bird. We were very fortunate. As soon as we parked the car on the roadside, another birder approached us, taking us to the feeder immediately where we had good looks.

We spent all of the next day, August 7th, in Rocky Mountain National Park. We had been there before but had only driven through. This time we had more time to enjoy the scenery from the pull-offs. We didn’t do any major hikes. Dad did a short hike and found the White-tailed Ptarmigan-with three babies. We were at 12,000 ft and every little thing I did made me feel out of breath. We had hoped to see the Brown-capped Rosy-Finch but failed. Wildlife at the park included the North American Elk, otherwise known as wapiti, moose, mule deer, Yellow-bellied Marmot, and the Pika.

After Rocky Mountain National Park we drove straight through to Tucson. We put the car in long term parking at the Tucson airport and met our tour group at the hotel across the street from the parking lot. There were eight other birders in the tour.

The tour was billed as ” Arizona: Sky Island Specialties”, lead by Alex Lameroux and Chris Brown. Author Deirdre Rosenberg describes the Sky Islands in her article “The Spectacular Madrean Sky Islands”. “Stretching from southern Arizona and New Mexico into Mexico, this archipelago of roughly 63 independent mountain ranges contains an array of distinct biomes, as the elevation changes from desert floor to subalpine ecosystem. Here, weather from the temperate Rocky Mountains to the north and the subtropical Sierra Madre Occidental to the south collides, producing particular conditions, with each range a microcosm unto itself.
“The Sky Islands are a rich crossroads, where temperate and subtropical species intermix and find refuge among the forested mountains, foothill grasslands and valley deserts,” says Emily Burns, a program director with the conservation group Sky Island Alliance.
This convergence of climates creates one of the most biodiverse areas in the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, with unique habitat in every range. More than 7,000 plant and animal species flourish here, including the planet’s northernmost jaguars and smallest owl, the Elf Owl.

The map shows all of the birding locations we visited. The red flags are established “hotspots” and the blue flags are brief stops. We started in Tucson on the 10th of August and finished there on the 17th. We saw a total of 207 species on the tour, 17 of them were Life Birds!

Birding began immediately after we met with the tour guides, Alex and Chris. We did some local Tuscon spots. Then we drove north to the Saguaro National Park and saw the beautiful cacti.
After a quick dinner of tacos we drove up into the hills and saw the Western Screech Owl. We heard the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl but it wouldn’t come in for a visual.

Keeping up with the tour was demanding. We began at 6 am every day and some days went until 10:00 pm. We stopped for meals and bathroom breaks and a certain amount of time was spent driving to the next spot. Dad and I were familiar with a lot of the birds. We had visited the area twice before, each time in April. The birds we needed for our life list weren’t there on those trips so coming at a different season was ideal. Speaking of seasons, this is considered monsoon season in the Southwest. Most days were in the low 100º’s with thunder storms in the afternoons. After a cool Midwest summer I looked forward to some warm sun. But in that latitude you need to wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants to protect yourself from sunburn. One afternoon there was a thunderstorm while we were at a hummingbird spot. There was enough covered areas for us to keep mostly dry but when we went to drive down the mountain we found the only road flooded! Fortunately we were able to drive through it.

On the whole trip we saw thirteen species of hummingbirds. The White-eared Hummingbird and the Berylline Hummingbirds were lifers. There are tons of bird photos but I only selected a few for the blog.

We drove home through New Mexico and stopped at Santa Fe. We had fun looking at the shops and had lunch in a nice restaurant on the square. After that we pretty much drove straight home with one motel stop. We had a great time but were really glad to be home.

p.s. A series of all the bird photos from the trip is available at https://ebird.org/tripreport/401786?view=photos. Dad and I put in most of the photos.

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May and early June have been a busy time in the garden. Old plants were removed, along with fresh healthy weeds, and existing plants evaluated. Most of the perennial Blanket Flowers had died and needed to be replaced. The Chives and Alium seem to be doing great. I added some Chives and pepper plants this spring simply to annoy the deer. In late April they had already chewed on the wild Iris. But once I installed the motion-sensitive sprinklers the deer have stayed away.

Finally, as May drew to a close, we got some blossoms.

The kitchen garden is finished. We found a trellis we couldn’t resist and planted a Clematis to climb on it. Nasturtiums are planted around the edge. The tall plants are Brown-eyed Susans. On the far right is a Lupine.

The South Garden

The patio garden.

The Mother’s Day baskets add a lot of color! The plants with the narrow leaves are Liatris, a prairie native. They will have a lavender flower. The Lupine is blooming in the background

I planted seeds also so I can have Poppies and Bachelor’s Buttons.

My job now is to keep watering everything! I guess that will keep me home all summer.

Dad just finished mulching everything today. I found a very nasty type of weed the seemed to come out of nowhere. I had to cut them off and carefully apply Round-up. The other weeds I can just pull.

Now I can get back to counting seagulls!

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Rest in Peace Rita.

I thought you might enjoy seeing the program for Rita’s funeral. St. Anthony’s is a beautiful old church in Dubuque. Doug met us in the parking lot.

After the funeral we all went over to Moracco Restaurant for the funeral lunch.

The night before the funeral Dad and I stayed at a B&B called Four Mounds Inn and Conference Center. We had a large Craftsman style mansion all to ourselves. We think we might stay there before or after the Seymour Reunion, which is on Sunday, June 29th.

The Inn is located on the bluff and looks down on the river. It was very quiet there and also pretty birdy. It is surrounded by woodland.

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We had a great visit with Jessica, E, Max and Briana last week-end. We arrived mid-afternoon on Thursday after an easy 6 hour drive from Sheboygan. E had a brand new flat top cooker and was getting ready to cook a stir fry. The weather was summery and we enjoyed the warm breezes. On Friday Dad and I did a few birding walks nearby. Griffy Lake was nice but there were no new migrating birds yet. Jessica came home at noon and we started watching the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament. Oregon and Michigan State played at noon, followed by UCLA vs Wisconsin. Jessica had big plans: if Wisconsin won she wanted to go to Indy to see the next Wisconsin game live!

That evening Max and Briana and Briana’s two cats came over. The cats are spending spring break with Jessica. Both kids were getting ready to go to Florida for spring break. Briana is flying and Max is going by car with a bunch of kids. I hope they have fun and stay safe! Briana is all set to start her job as a nurse at a children’s hospital in Indianapolis but not until summer. She even has an apartment reserved. That night we watched a very silly movie that I had never heard of-“Hundreds of Beavers”. It’s a very Jessica movie. Over night the wind picked up and we had a serious thunder storm. Not a lot of rain but a lot of thunder, lightening and wind. There were a lot of downed sticks in the morning and the cars were full of tree buds.

As you know, Wisconsin did win against UCLA and by 11:30 Saturday we were at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, waiting to go through security and settle down to an afternoon of basketball. The first stop was to buy some Badger gear-we didn’t come prepared for this. Then we circled the interior food vendor area and ran into this photo op. We found some food and got into our seats in plenty of time. It was fun watching the pep bands and the cheerleaders and Bucky! We seemed surround by Michigan State fans.

from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Indianapolis

The teams were well matched, and Michigan state was always just ahead of Wisconsin for most of the first half. Wisconsin pulled ahead with a modest lead shortly before the end of the first half. The second half was very exciting with the score always within a couple of points. But the Spartans Justvcouldn’t win over the Badgers! There was a lot going on the whole time. Bucky was so much fun to watch. During media time-outs the Jumbotron cameras focused on people in the crowd and sometimes applied silly Snap-chat filters. It was hilarious.

After the game we had dinner at a brewpub and then E & J took us to see Monument Circle, a few blocks away. (drive by)

(photo by alexeatswhales wikipedia)

Mid-morning on Sunday we headed back to Wisconsin. It was an uneventful drive. We started out with fine rain but by the time we got to Illinois it was snow. But the roads were OK and the traffic kept moving so we were home in time to see the end of the Wisconsin Michigan game. The players were playing their fourth game in four days and appeared tired. Wisconsin couldn’t quiet get the job done.

We were tired too! It was a great week-end!

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Our January Visit To Marge

We were all settled in at home in front of the fire and enjoying a good old-fashioned Wisconsin winter when we got a call from Michael Kathrein. He wanted to inform us of Marge’s status after her medical proceedure to treat blood cancer. CAR T-cell therapy, which stands for “Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy”, is a treatment where a patient’s own T-cells (immune system cells) are genetically engineered in a lab to recognize and attack cancer cells by adding a special receptor called a chimeric antigen receptor, allowing them to specifically target and kill cancer cells when reinfused into the patient. This is considered a form of immunotherapy. 

After her hospital stay Marge was required to quarantine due to her compromised immune system. A friend from Madison came to stay with her for two weeks after her release from the hospital, buying groceries and taking her to her appointments.   

When her friend went back home Michael stayed with her for a week. But Michael had a few other pressing matters to attend to. He and his family had to evacuate from thier home due to the the proximity of the Palisades Fire. Brookes parents’ home is in the Pallisades, so they had evacuated also. Brooke took the kids to stay with her parents at thier condo in Santa Barbara. Sadly thier childrens’ school burned down. Michael was on the team to relocate the school temporarily. Fortunately, thier home and the home of Brooke’s parents were spared.

So it was at this point that we spoke to Michael. He wanted us to know what was going on with Marge but it was clear that they had no care plan set up for the next couple of weeks. Eric and Jonathan were probably expecting to take off of work but that was not a good situation either. So we offered to fill in for a few weeks until they could come up with a plan. They were all very relieved. 

On 1/17 we packed up and took off, flying Southwest out of Milwaukee. It was an uneventful flight and we got into San Francisco at 1:40 pm. We were so grateful that Eric could pick us up. We just looked for a guy who looks like Reed driving an expensive car. On the way to Marge’s we took the scenic route, right past Eric’s condo.

When we got to Marge’s Jonathan was there too, so we had a nice visit with everyone. Most of the time we spent haning around the house. There is a path behind Marge’s house that circles a few school and social work buildings plus a small retirement community of tiny houses. She enjoys walking the path and it is of course very familiar to her. The birds in the yard and on the path were numerous and very vocal. the crows and the California Scrub Jays were the noisiest. I found Marge’s hummingbird feeders and got them set up outside the windows. It didn’t take long to get a customer. The default hummingbird there is Anna’s Hummingbird.

The appointments Marge had were right in San Francisco. On Sunday the appointment was for an infusion, which can take up to three hours. Fortunately we were able to walk to the Golden Gate Park, a few blocks away. This park is huge andset up like Central Park in New York City. We only walked a small portion of it and had to concentrate not to get lost. We found some birds and enjoyed watching park goers skating, playing tennis, running, walking. There is every sort of activity available at the park and we were just at one end of it. 

The routine at home was pretty quiet, the side effects of the treatment were fatigue among other things. Bill cooked dinners, of course and I helped in the kitchen as I could. We shopped for groceries and did other errands. I helped Marge with a few online banking transactions. 

Temperatures were in the low 30’s in the early morning but warmed up as the day went on, usually to high 50’s or low 60’s. Every day was usually sunny. Marge had three days of appointments in a row, each one was an hour’s drive from her house. I stayed home for most of them, birding the neighborhood and the area behind the subdivision. 

Birding hotspots near Marge mostly consisted of marshes and wetlands. There is a wastewater treatment plant nearby with some nice lagoons full of waterfowl and herons and shorebirds. Other spots were pull-offs from busy highways that had short trails near streams or stream beds. A lot of birds seen from these spots were distant and hard to identify if they were small. We saw a lot of species but no lifers.

On Saturday and Sunday Eric came by, bringing Cole with him. Cole had just celebrated his 5th birthday and brought his brand new little bike. He had so much fun riding around the path that Marge usually walks. On Sunday Eric brought Quinn (2)  also. There is a preschool playground in the area behind Marge’s house and we had a lot of fun with the boys there. 

We finally had a free day and went to the coast, to Kronkite Beach, where Jonathan sometimes surfs. He was sure we would see gulls there. It was a pretty spot but there were no birds at all.

When we talked to Jonathan he mentioned a lot of spots, some birdy and some scenic within an hour’s drive.We were only an hour from Point Reyes National Seashore but Marge didn’t want to go. I politely persisted and Marge said we should go without her. She had everything she needed at home and wouldn’t miss us. It was a beautiful lday trip. The skies were clear and it was warmer than most days. It is a very big area and we did a lot of driving. The first destination was Limantour Beach(the red marker on the map below). It was the only ocean beach where we saw any birds. We had Surf Scoters, Loons, Grebes, and shorebirds.

After that we drove back north and around to the south western tip.

Here there was a lighthouse on a rocky outcropping. From the veiwing area we saw Gray Whales breaching. They were only visible for an instant and impossible to photograph. Also, far below us was a colony of Common Murres. There were at least 2000 of them all crowded together on the bare rocks. This is an image from eBird so you can see what they look like.

It was a beautiful drive back to Marge’s. I’m so glad we didn’t go all the way to California and not see the ocean. 

The next day we met with the manager of the in-home care-givers that Michael recommended. Marge insisted she didn’t need this help but without the means to get groceries and get to appointments she did need something. We explained that the boys could not relax unless they knew she had this service at home. She finally relented. She had a friend coming to stay a week later so she only needed the care-giver for a week.

We drove to Sausolito and to Tiburon which is on Richardson Bay. The map gives an idea of the general location. Here we finally saw some gulls. There are so many west coast gulls that we never get to see so I was very excited. The tide was out so the shoreline was exposed and full of little shorebirds, mostly Least Sandpipers. While we birded Marge walked on the trails. We had lunch in Tiburon at a restaurant on the wharf with outdoor seating. As we waited for our food a Red-shouldered Hawk flew overhead. 

That was our last bird list. Later that day Reed stopped by for a visit. It was very nice to see him again. He’s familiar with the park where we saw the gulls.. He is now a symphony goer and we talked about the search for a new conductor for San Francisco Symphony. He’s doing well. Early the next morning we got a Uber to the airport. We had breakfast and enjoyed a lovley Mimosa. It was a long haul with a long layover in Denver. But it’s a nice airport and we settle in until our 7:10 flight. Our car was waiting for us in the parking ramp at MKE. By 11:50PM we were home. It was so good to be home and in our own bed!!!! 

The link below shows an eBird trip report, including all of species we saw and the attached photographs.

https://ebird.org/tripreport/328187

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We had a great week-end on the shores of Lake Michigan! I thought you would all enjoy the collection of photos. Send more if you find any.

The resort hotel room was clean and quiet. We had a full breakfast in the restaurant with a view of the beach. We enjoyed seeing our old birding buddies in the nature preserve area.

Waukegan beach was much nicer than we imagined it would be. The entrance was manned by several policemen rather than a lone teenager. The north parking lot only had a few cars and there were only about four other parties widely spaced along the beach. The porta-potties were freshly sanitized and the handwashing station had plenty of soap and water.

The beach itself was beautiful. You all know exactly what it looks like. There were no sharp rocks at the waters edge and it was shallow enough for wading. We had an officer drive by in a golf cart-a friend of Roger’s as it turned out.

In case you are wondering about the simple cookies I made, they are the Italian Ciambelline Campagnole or Country Ring Cakes. They are simple to make and easy to take along anywhere. They are not very showy however.

Heat the oven to 325º. Mix equal parts sugar, red wine and olive oil. I used 3/4 cup each. Add flour until the dough comes together but is still very soft, but not too sticky. Here I used about 4 cups. Let the dough rest 20 minutes. Take a chunk of dough and roll it into a snake about 12″ long. Twist the snake around itself then form a ring and pinch the ends together. Arrange on a greased cookie sheet. I used a silicone pan liner. Bake until they are slightly browned on the bottom. Some people make this with white wine. There are other variations using cinnamon or anise or the addition of raisins or other dried fruit. I kept mine simple.