We had planned to go to Sault Ste. Marie this weekend to look for
those good winter owls.  However, we STILL hadn't recovered from
our mutual illnesses and we didn't look forward to a 20 hour
round trip drive over a two day weekend.   So we decided to chase
the Great Gray Owl in Iowa, the one that AJ [CompuServe
cyberbirding buddy, Ann Johnson] was going for.

After making arrangements to meet AJ at Owl Ground Zero at 3pm on
Saturday afternoon, Kate and I headed west from Chicago.

Life was good - it was a beautiful day, temperature in the 60's,
perfect for a road trip.  As we crossed the Mississippi, we saw
several Bald Eagles.   You can't beat a day that has Bald Eagles
in it somewhere.  Along about noon, we came to Dyersville, Iowa
and pulled off for lunch.   What a magical place this turned out
to be. 

I have a deep, dark secret.  I have a collection of about 300
die-cast metal cars, trucks, military stuff, etc. -  Matchbox,
Hot Wheels, etc.  After we got into birding, this hobby got
back-burnered. But evidently, the fire didn't die.  For the one
place
that I've always wanted to go, the Mecca of this addiction, is
Dyersville, Iowa.  For there, amidst the hog farms and corn
fields, aside from the "Field of Dreams", is the Ertl Toy
Factory.  Oh, bliss, oh joy.

As we pulled into the local Hardees, I noticed an Ertl factory
outlet across the street.  As we stood in line waiting for our
hamburgers, I agonized over whether we should stop in or wait
until the next time.  I couldn't wait.  The toys were calling out
my name.  As we pulled into the lot and entered the holy place, I
was...well, um...like a kid in a toy store.   As I walked around,
Kate could tell where I was by the occasional "cool" or "neat" or
"oh, wow!" that she heard.

Ok, I got two fire trucks, four helicopters, 2 pieces of
construction equipment and Kate got a toy for our 3 year old
nephew.  (Is there some irony here...I'm not sure).  Anyway, we
lightened our wealth a little in favor of the local Iowa economy.

On to meet AJ at a spot north of Parkersburg and west of
Waterloo, Iowa - in the northeast quarter of the state.  The
hotline directions were perfect and as we drove down the dirt
road, we could see a cluster of cars parked at the end of the
road.  And there was AJ and some of her Iowa birding buddies
looking at us with their binoculars.   After introductions all
around, we proceeded to wait at the spot that was most reliable
for the owl.  And we waited.  And we waited. 

We did see a flock of Pintails fly over several times.  We heard
a Blue Jay.  A Red-tailed got us excited for a moment.

After a while, AJ, Kate and I took a walk and that brought us
Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, BC Chickadees, WB Nuthatches and
Juncos.

We arrived back at Owl Ground Zero and continued to wait.  And
wait.  And wait.  A Cardinal piped up.  Someone said we missed a
Tree Sparrow.  Dang!

As the sun set, we heard several Great Horned Owls start to call
and a couple of Barred Owls called back and forth to each other. 
This was very neat.  When Kate and I were on the road, we were
listening to bird tapes, getting more excited about spring.  One
of the sections of the tape played Barred Owls calling to each
other and I mentioned to Kate that it would be cool to hear that
someday.   Wish answered - we did, that evening.  But no Great
Gray. 

Since I had brought my computer along, and we wondered what WAS a
new Iowa bird and what wasn't, I whipped it out, fired it up and
checked out my Avisys database and updated it ON THE SPOT, on the
hood of my car.  Pretty cool, huh.  I'm so high tech, I don't
even bother writing the birds down....I just enter them in the
computer in the field.

Sorry to keep you in suspense.  No Great Gray Owl.  We waited
until everyone else had left, hoping that we could be the people
that everyone else hated by seeing the bird after they had left. 
But, our deviousness did not pay off. 

However, we did meet some great Iowa birders (almost as many as
the number of species we saw), enjoyed some spectacular weather
and got to hear some great Barred Owl action.   And I got a
shopping bag full of toys.  Life is truly good.

So I added 11 birds to my Iowa list.  Which is now up to about
18.  Am I reportable yet? 

We headed off to lodging in Waverly, Iowa, had dinner, talked
about Jim Bangma <G> [another CompuServe cyberbirding buddy] and
planned our day tomorrow looking for Golden Eagles in the
northeast corner of Iowa.

Sunday, February 25

We headed off for the far northeast reaches of Iowa in search of
Golden Eagles.  We followed AJ which proved to be a challenge. 
She is ~very~ quick away from a stop and I found myself striving
to keep that Iowa "Empid" license plate in view all the time.

Iowa, by the way, is a darned pretty state.  The weather was
nice, the scenery was neat, the road was rolling and we were on
our way to see a Golden Eagle.

As we were driving along, Kate called out "Red-headed
Woodpecker!"  I didn't get more than a glance at it  as I reached
for the headlights to flash at AJ to get her to stop.  Then Kate
casually mentioned that it was the wooden kind that was nailedto
the tree.  So does it count?

At Waukun, Iowa, we decaravaned and AJ guided us to the likely
places for the desired bird.  We drove along A26 and stopped
several times and scanned the skies.   More beautiful scenery,
but no Golden.  We did see two Bald Eagles.  One was an immature
that was trying to yank an already well devoured hunk o' animal
from the ice in a lowland area.  We had great looks at him and
payed particular attention to the talons on the bird.  Not
exactly a critter one would want to meet if one were a small
mammal or fish. 

Another eagle, an adult was munching on a fish that was at least
as long as the eagle.  We were trying to figure out how the eagle
got this giant fish from the Mississippi, which was a good couple
of miles away.  He didn't feel like talking.

We continued driving around on some pretty serious dirt roads and
picked up Horned Larks and, whew!, Tree Sparrows.

We checked the Mississippi for ducks and picked up some
Goldeneye, Coots, Common Mergansers, Bufflehead and Lesser Scaup. 
But couldn't find any early Tundra Swans.  We finished up the day
trying another spot for Goldens, but no luck.  We did spot a
couple of Wild Turkey's along a ridge. 

AJ headed back to Owl Ground Zero and we headed back to Chicago.

Ok, so we dipped on the owl and the eagle.  But we DID manage to
get my Iowa list up to a rompin stompin 33 birds. 

And I got some great toys. 

And Kate got a lot of shut eye (she pretty much can't stay awake
when riding in the car).

Jim Frazier