No knitting... we've been birding!

Spouse-o and I have been off birding and/or working lately, so I'm afraid there's very little knitting going on here. We spent last weekend at the Audubon Kern River Preserve near Isabella Lake, 50 miles east of Bakersfield, California. The trip was organized by Bob Power, birder & teacher extraordinnaire, for his Palo Alto Adult School class in beginning birding. Most of the birders were new-ish, but very motivated and very well trained through Bob's class.

We stayed in a lovely motel called the Sequoia Lodge with a moose, loon & fish theme to the decor. Breakfast and lunch every day came from the Golden Trout Baking Company. The area is just beautiful and looks like a great place to go rafting, fishing, hiking... The weather ranged from perfect to beastly hot, but cooled off every evening.

Our trip lists are posted online at BirdWalker, in case you want to know what kinds of birds we saw, but I think a little visual might give you a better idea why this trip was so great:

          

I know. They're all birds. But I love them. For all the photos from this trip, see the birdWalker photo index. And, if you like the photos, please drop by my spouse-o's blog and tell him so!
[All photos copyright Bill Walker, 2005. Please ask for permission to use them elsewhere.]

I learned several important lessons on this trip.

• It's time to cut the apron strings. So much homework goes into planning a successful birding trip. For ten years, we've been letting our birding guide friends do the work. But we should do it. By ourselves. In 2005.
• Anything that doesn't kill you, makes you a better birder
• It's easier to get up at 5:30 if you are in bed before 10:30
• When they say fire danger is high, it's no joke. See next post.

[Obligatory knitting content] I had hoped to knit a bit on the Summer Sweater on the trip, but our cars were just packed with birders and I didn't feel like I could take up the extra space with my knitting. But I did make about 3 inches of progress on the way home. I'm now nearly done with the sheer portion of the front & ready to crank on this project to ensure *any* summer wearing time for this awesome-looking sweater.