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Map

We bought a map with stick-on states back in 1992 when we got our first motorhome, the 19’ El Dorado. We’ve been sticking new states on it ever since, every time we go to a new one in the motorhome. We’ve carried the map with us in the El Dorado, the Jamboree, the first Bounder (Shamu), the diesel Bounder, and now the Monterey.

We’re westerners. We took care of all the western states right away. Then we got all the southern states. We haven’t added many states lately. The last one was in 2004, when we went to Michigan to pick up the diesel Bounder. But now… we got a new state this last trip: North Dakota. Here is our updated map. I suppose it should be a digital map now, after all these years, but I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. So, in the meantime, here is a photographic update of the primitive map.
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More Techno

And Judy’s new HP Mini. This will run the navigation software while we’re driving the coach, without being a giant distraction on the dashboard. It has campground software on it so Judy can research possibilities on the fly. It will be online as we’re driving (using the Mifi), in case Judy needs to look anything up.
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FW: Techno

Check out the little goodie on the left side of the table. That’s our new Mifi. It’s from Verizon. No more air card plugged into the computer. This is a secure Wifi for up to five computers.

The speed is pretty good too.
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Along the way

There are chores to do each day. After driving, we have to scrub the bugs off the windshield so we’ll be able to see to drive the next day. In fact, we have to clean the bugs off the entire front of the RV. If you don’t get them off the same day, the temporary collection becomes a permanent collection. I do it with a brush on a long pole to reach all of the front of the motorhome, and a bucket of water. In the winter sometimes there is barely a bug. Summertime, it can be a big job. Here is the “before” picture during grasshopper season in the Dakotas.

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Unlocated bird

Sometimes we identify birds by sight. Sometimes we use other clues. Bird calls are an important identifier. Sometimes calls are the only way to tell two closely related birds apart. Sometimes the call is the only clue we get. But there are different kinds of calls. There are songs, calls, chip notes…

Guidebooks will describe the standard song and the standard call. If you’re not totally familiar with a bird, though, it’s hard to translate a written description into what your ear hears.

Our birding software will play the song of each bird for us. That’s better, but that’s only the song. The song is a great recognition tool in the spring. Birds sing their songs to establish territory and attract mates. By mid-summer, the birds are pretty much through with their songs though. The rest of the year, sometimes birds sit and make a sound over and over that is not a song or a call, just a repetitive note.

Here is a bird sound from a recent walk that is just a repetitive note. It went on and on. I only recorded a little.
Buried in the brush. Never seen. Just heard. I take this to be the call note of a Townsend’s Solitaire. I would describe this sound as a metallic “doink, doink, doink”. The book describes the call note of a Townsend’s Solitaire as a clear soft whistled heeh, though. What do you think? Based on this note, can anyone make the definitive call for me?