I Used to Hate Birds

On Thanksgiving morning my friend and I headed down to Coos Bay for a few days of exploring and getting completely soaking wet.  Since the Lesser Black-backed Gulls seen recently near Creswell were directly on the way I decided to stop and check them out.  You like bad photos right?


Both the adult and the 3rd year are present in this photo.  Thankfully scope views were far better than what you see here.  We continued on towards Coos Bay but there was no shortage of distractions along Highway 38...


Near the town of Drain is this random roadside attraction that has mostly burned down.  After doing some research, it seems it was attached to the Road Kill Grill that burned down in October, shutting down the highway for awhile.  There was an attached house that also burned.  Sad.

View of Elk Creek from bridge near Elkton




Eventually we made it to the coast and the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.  We hiked in on the short but tiring John Dellenback Dunes Trail and enjoyed amazing views…

It has taken almost a year for me to erase the piles of pain and fountains of frustration that I felt on that dark and gloomy day in late December of 2013.  Time heals most wounds, though, and recently I felt an urge.  An urge for revenge.  A rematch of the Taken for Granted Challenge! 

The sun never rose on December 22, 2013

Yes, my buddy Nate of This Machine Watches Birds and I will be battling again on December 6th, to see and photograph five predetermined birds in our respective counties.  Last year we chose the birds.  This year we are letting Seagull Steve choose.  The power has gone to his head and now Nate and I are getting scared.  ANYTHING can happen.  Stay tuned.

This is the last bird I saw during last year's challenge.  She is my friend, but useless to the TGC.

My worst failure last year was not losing dreadfully by finding only one bird on my list, Bushtit, but rather getting frustrated too early on.  This year I need to head out with unwavering optimism fueled by pop …

Thanks everyone for the kind words on my anniversary post, and for taking my silly survey!  I'm sure you are all curious about the results... Survey says!


Well, it turns out that out of 21 respondents, 18 like my blog!  Yay!  As for favorite headers- wow, there was a wide variety of responses:

The Cinnamon Teals won by a narrow margin, beating the Snow Bunting by one vote (3-2).  Thanks for playing everyone!  Except the person who doesn't like my blog and thinks all the headers are stupid.  That person can... I don't know.  I'm not good at threats.   The survey is now closed but I hope to come up with another silly one soon, because that was fun.

In other birding news, a new Taken For Granted Challenge occurred yesterday!  Well-known Arizona baller Laurence of Butler's Birds took on the lesser known Hoosier Greg of Greg and Birds fame.  It sounds like both competitors fought hard and well, but in the end... Well, you can check out their stories for yourself.  Let i…

Borrowed from another bird blog.  Apparently there's a demand for this type of image. Wtf.

Yesterday "i used to hate birds." turned a whopping five years old.  That's like fifty in blog years.  Maybe more.  I consider quitting the blog game every once in awhile, but then I remember my Ukrainian fans and just cannot let them down.  Yay spam!

I'm not going to spew sentimental emo yammerings like last year, don't worry.  This year, let's take a journey.  A journey in BLOG HEADERS.  Oh yes, I have saved most of them.   Be sure to take the quiz at the end! 

2010:


2011:


2012: