birds and a recipe

So I grew a lot of dill.  And here is a recipe I came up with to use a very small fraction of the tremendous volume of dill taking over my garden:

Mango Arugula Salad with Lemon Dill dressing ( fancy title for easy but freaky good food)
Serves 3-4

2 cups arugula (baby or whatever you like, add more if you want)
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/2 cup cucumber, seeds and skin removed,  diced
Ripe mango - the yellow creamy kind (not the green kind), diced

Dressing:
Juice of one juicy lemon
at least 2 very large Tablespoons of fresh dill (I used about 3 Tbs), finely chopped
Really good olive oil
Generous sea salt and pepper (tsp each)

Whisk together the dressing toss with the salad. Serve. Yum.

In addition to making fabulous salad, I went bird watching at Fort Morgan, AL and Daphine Island using the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail for my guide. I have done this route before and this time of year it should be full of birds. The weather is such (excellent, winds from the south) that the birds are not stopping.

Here is my bird list in the order I spotted them.  If I saw a species at an earlier location I did not note it at later spot.  (For example cardinals, mocking birds, and blue jays were every where. No need to keep writing them down.)

Entrance to Fort:
Swaison's warbler
Brown thrasher
Peregrine falcon
American oyster catcher (fishing pier)
Northern gannet (beach)
Laughing gull (everywhere)
Mocking bird
Brown pelicans
Cardinals
Common loon
Snowy egret
Cattle egret
Brown headed cow birds
Eastern king bird
Blue jays

Next I took the ferry to Dauphin Island and started looking around Fort Gaines and Pelican Point:
Herring gull
Rudy turnstone
Royal terns
Scissor tail flycatcher (!, note that this supposedly rare species has been seen by me twice, once at Ft. Morgans in the fall and now again at Ft Gaines in the spring. humph. )
Yellow-rumped warbler

Next I went to the Shell mounds:
Yellow bellied sapsucker
Red bellied woodpecker
Northern water thrush
Hooded warbler
Black and white warbler
White-throated sparrow
Lincoln sparrow (going out on a limb with this one)
Common grackle
Carolin wrens
Great blue herons (nesting)
White eyed vireo
Chimney swifts


At the Airport:
Mottled duck (looking lonely)
Reddiish egret (fabulously good looking but I had not time to get my camera)
Willet
Redwing black bird
Song sparrow (definite)

Lastly, I found the Goat trees:
Yellow vireo
Cedar wax wings
Northern parula
Red eyed vireo

Also noted in several spots:
Double crested cormorants
Morning doves
Eurasian collared doves

About 44 species, give or take.  Considering it was a crappy bird day (few warblers during migration), not too shabby considering I was by myself. If the weather keeps up being fabulous I will have to go back to knitting. 

Lastly, I would like to note that I miss my cats.  They are home in New Orleans while we are here in Alabama and the fact that I miss them  acutely is making Steve think I lost my mind. Which I probably have.

birds lately

I am in Alabama and here is a list - not complete - of the winter birds I have seen over the holiday week. Mostly the usual suspects but a few new ones for me.

1. Bonapartes gull - out on the pass with some
2. Skimmers
3. Sanderlings
4. Savannah sparrow or possibly a song sparrow
5. Common loons
6. Cormorants - a lot
7. Least terns
8. Royal tern
9. Many ospreys
10. White pelicans (on Mobile bay)
11. Carolina Wren at the outside bar at Pirates Cove

I know the winter ducks are here and I have even seen a few when we were out in the boat. But I couldn't get Steve to slow down enough for an id.

edited to add

12. White throated sparrows
13. Tons of pine warblers
14. Gold finches

Funny. I tried last winter to get the gold finches with thistle but none came. This year, here they are messing with my mind by looking all pine-warblery and eating the sunflower seeds.

more birds in the yard

Yesterday I was able to observe this warbler close enough to make an id without binoculars and he was cooperative enough to allow me to run inside get my camera and change lenses so I could then take his picture. Also showing up in the yard: three orchard orioles.

So it looks like I got the little flickr slideshow of my knitting picture set to run. I need to add more finished objects. I have more listed on raverly. I am "SeymoreMonkey" there, too.

Here are some more pictures of Pirate's Cove over Spring break two weeks ago. The place was hopping. They had music and were running around like crazy making cheeseburgers. It was three deep at the bar. You can also see that Steve and Elaine were quite happy to be at the Cove, however, Sue and Gayle don't look as impressed. I am sure they were tired from our 2 mile Spring Walk in Fairhope that morning.....

Birds in the yard

Here's a few yard birds I managed to photo despite the crappy rainy weather. White throated sparrow likes the bird feeder. Loon liked the rain. The wren was singing in between showers. A vireo flew into the windows on the porch while I standing there but he was ok. No time to get my camera before he flew away. Too bad.

pirate's cove

Lets start this off by saying that my computer at home doesn't work so I have to write at work. This is not a good idea since I should actually be working. The problems at home with the computer are long running and ongoing and, as a result, my work computer has ton of photos on it that are personal.

For example, these photos are of Pirates' Cove (or is it "Pirate's Cove"?) in Alabama. They were taken back in January on a day with decent weather. You can get there by car but it easier and faster to go by boat from Orange Beach. From our place it takes about 5 minutes. Pirate's Cove is great. During the season they have bands. They have a white sandy beach that you can pull your boat or jet-ski up to. They serve a mean cheese burger. The Bushwacker works its magic efficiently.

And they have a lot of dogs. If you don't like dogs do not go to Pirate's Cove. If you have issues with dogs eating your food, do not go Pirate's Cove. I personally love the giant mastiff who has never met people food she doesn't like.