Today we practiced unhooking and Anne got her first chance to drive the Birdmobile. Chuck is giving her an 'A' so far. It is a challenge to hook up and unhook utilities, because there are so many steps. We're working on a check list.
Yesterday we found another life bird for Anne. It was Bachman's sparrow and was a challenge because it was not singing. We were just travelling in the dirt roads through Apalachicola National Forest, stopping periodically to check for birds, when Chuck spotted it and we identified it. It was right where the books say it should be: in pine woods with thick understory.

His work as an announcer at Saratoga raceway is described. They say he has a "polished, articulate speaking voice that's easy to listen to and understand."

Friday Feb 24 MH is giving me some final lessons: writing and answering email, reading and writing blogs, et. You have all been a big help, Mark D, John, MH, Anne, and all. I really appreciate it and think I will be able to use this nice computer much better.

We all (Bob and Cathy, Mary Helen, Tony, Margaret. Anna and Emily, John, Kristy, David, and Karen, and Dad and I), left Siesta Bay for Captiva Cruises and left on a catamaran for Gasparilla Island and the town of Boca Grande. The day was perfect, warm, sunny and the breeze delightful to breathe. When we landed Norb rented a six-person golf cart, and the others rented two four-person carts, and with Bob Hoffman at the wheel we drove down Gulf Road into a world we never knew existed. The houses were elegant beyond belief, all along the coast. We stopped at the South Beach Park. John and Kristy sat at a table outdoors at the South Beach Bar and Grill.

Definition - twitch - to seek out a rare bird based on a telephone or internet message (hotline) system.

We twitched successfully this cool and foggy morning in Apalachicola, Florida. A fellow birdbrain, no birder, reported a current sighting of a tropical kingbird at Water and I Streets on January 20. We saw the message on the 21st, but had other plans for yesterday. Chuck reviewed the literature and decided that while it was possible we might find this bird in south Texas, it was by no means certain. So, we decided to make the forty mile trek this morning. The weather forecast was poor. Fog, cloudy, and a chance of showers. We might as well be in the car, and the coastal road looked interesting.

When does a nemesis bird cease to be? When it is spotted! The red-cockaded woodpecker was a nemesis bird for Anne. Chuck had seen it as a youth. For the past five years we have increasingly tried to find this bird when we were within its range. We failed in N. and S. Carolina and south Florida. We were in luck last evening in the Apalachicola National Forest which supposedly has more of these birds than anyother place. Hurrah.

Of course once a nemisis bird is defeated it is no more. We found another pair this morning in the Ochlocknee State Park where we are staying.

We got our exercise this morning, first jogging, then hiking and birding all morning, and then paddling the lovely Wakula River this afternoon. This 75 million gallon per day stream is fed by a large spring and is clear and a constant 72 degrees F. We saw mostly the usual critters, osprey, egrets, alligators, and turtles. This morning's walk was more rewarding with, besides the woodpecker, a great horned owl and a group of pileated woodpeckers.

A conservative praises a new book by Alan Dershowitz, ahihc reframes some of the debate about civil liberties in an age of terrorism.

"Jurisprudence to prevent terrorism"

I see that the embattled president of Harvard has resigned. Chicago is looking for a new president. the Harvard students loved this guy and he was critical of grade inflation. Also he is an economist (something dear to Chicago's heart). Maybe chicago should consider this guy--although he might be too ambitious for other things to consider the job.

February 20, 2006
Ochlockonee State Park, Sopchoppy, Florida

Arrived here last evening. Lovely park in pine flatwoods on the shore of a river of the same name “Ok-LOK-nee”. It is situate between the large St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge to the east and the Appalachicola National Forest to the West. The Gulf of Mexico is nearby to the south and Tallahassee is 25 miles north. We are in that part of Florida where the state runs east and west. We are about 35 miles from the Central Time Zone which crosses Florida (really).

As with Cedar Key, the coast line here is a bit indefinite. The land is largely swamp and marsh with pine islands and oak hammocks. The rivers wind and branch as they approach the Gulf and make all of the coastal area islands. Eventually ponds are scattered across the land and finally the land is scattered across the bays and Gulf waters. Beaches are rare and much of the “coastline” submerges at low tide. There is no shortage of wetlands here, it is the drylands that are precious and being lost to development!