Notes - May 16-18, 2014

It was a weekend celebration of birds and beer with fine weather and good people.

#todo - finish editing, including more info about bird species observed.

Fri eve, May 16 & Sat, May 17, 2014

• North Coast Open birding event.
• Urbanites team
• try to see as many bird species as possible within the Toledo city limits between 9pm Fri and 9pm Sat
• we began Fri eve at Swan Creek Metropark. we birded the park from 9:00 p.m. to 9:20 p.m., when the park closed. that was end. then home and bed.
• i left home on Sat at 5:30 a.m. Places that we visited:
  • we began Sat morn at Ottawa Park at 5:40 a.m. where we saw the Blue-winged Warbler
  • next, Woodlawn Cemetery
  • checked farm field along Hill, near Westwood, for HOLA
  • Swan Creek Metropark - PROW and Red Headed and Pileated woodpeckers!
  • UT Medical Center hospital land. We got lucky to see a Black-billed Cuckoo fly in front of my vehicle and land in a small tree.
  • Some of us checked a farm field at Hill and Byrne while others viewed the Peregrine Falcon at the University of Toledo clock tower
  • Cullen Park in Point Place
  • Detwiler Marsh
  • Manhattan Marsh
  • Walbridge Park where we saw at least 15 White Pelicans!!!
  • International Park where we ended our day around 8:15 p.m.
• After birdwatching, we dined and shared info with other teams at Blackberry Corners, located near Metzger Marsh.
• i arrived home around 10:40 p.m.
• great day as always.

Comments from a Facebook posting about our team birdwatching day:

The Urbanites had their best year ever, smashing our old record of 110 by finding 115 species of birds within the city limits of Toledo in one 24-hour period.

Friday night at Swan Creek before the park closed. We knew it was going to be a great run when we nabbed American Woodcock, Common Nighthawk and Sandhill Crane in those first 20 minutes!

Swan Creek was also phenomenal Saturday afternoon with good looks at Pileated Woodpecker, Red-headed Woodpecker and Prothonotary Warbler, plus we heard a Barred Owl call about 8 times in a row! That was the first time we ever found an urban Pileated on the NCO, and the only owl our team has scored since our first year in 2008.

At University of Toledo Medical Center [we] found a Black-billed Cuckoo. The other big wow of the day was the flock of about 20 American White Pelicans at the overlook at Walbridge Park.

Sun, May 18, 2014

• Brewpalooza
• at JP's "country estate"
• 9 brewers shared beers for tasting
  • "Dark Eyed Junco" Imperial Breakfast Stout
  • "B.A.S.S. ale v2" Triple Black IPA
  • Belgian Dubbel
  • Red IPA
  • Ginger beer
  • Berliner Weisse
  • Extra Special Bitter (ESB)
  • Pale Ale
  • Whole hopped IPA
• food paired with the beer
• we judged
• medals awarded
• our Dark-eyed Junco Imperial Stout won the top frog medal
• great beers. creative. fabulous tasting. ideas for our future beers.
• also, very good food on hand.
• we chatted about beer, beer, and food.
• we sat around a fire.
• great time.

A glass of our 'Dark-eyed Junco' Imperial Breakfast Stout along with the first bottle capped that we will save for later and some poetry about the junco from the book The Cuckoo's Haiku, written by Michael J. Rosen and Illustrated by Stan Fellows.

#bird - #beer - #blog_jr