Day 1-2 (kinda)

Day 1-2(ish):


I decided, instead of dealing with stupid NYC/NJ/CT traffic in the morn of Tuesday (check engine light went on Sunday night!!!... just a gas cap contact, whew!), I drove to Nanuet, NJ to see a good buddy Kenny who I go to festivals w/and hang out with from time to time. Arrived there (about 75min in traffic... yea, skip traffic.....) about 10:30 and we took in some jams, took in some DBs, and I crashed there.

I set out around noon, after going to the bank an buying a fireproof safe (marked as $40, night crew marked it $18... score!). And just like The Merritt and Hutch.... tree/construction/one lane shit.... so I stayed in Cleveland instead of Chicago. Especially since I would have gotten there by like 5am today (5/12). Motel 6, 5 mi from the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame and downtown Cleveland. I check out tomorrow (5/13) at noon..... on to North Dakota, with a stop at Indiana Dunes Nat'l Lakeshore in Indiana.

I was only about 3 hours in before some (some.... haha) storms rolled in (get ready CT!), so I pulled off I-80 in a place called The Village of Lighthouse. I made sure nothing would get wet, grabbed a snack, wrote in my journal/book, then heard the mojo....

This place was Cabella's, Bradely, Strong Rd, and Griswold all rolled into one. Bobolinks, Baird's Sparrow (lifer), RB Grosbeak, Field Sparrow, Yellow warbler, Catbirds abound.... but the best was a stunning..... stunning, female Prothonotary warbler who came to my pishing. She picked up my MoJo and refused not to chip and show off that blazing white undertail coverts. This was about an hour stop.

(Awesome little town......)

(Where the grassland and migrant birds were in PA)

I got back on the road, as soon as I jump back on I-80...more construction. Now in Ohio at this point, but I did see several Brewer's Blackbirds crossing the highway from grassland spot to grassland spot. A lifer for me! I noticed the smaller size of the grackles coming from the same areas. One nice point in traffic is when I watched an adult Red-tail devouring prey a top a lamp post.... going 1 mph, I got good looks!

40 Species so far... best being female Protho and HUGE 1st year Goshawk coming into a tree on the side of I-80 in the in the Poconos, PA.

Here for one more night.... off to see Cleveland!

-Brian-