Hugh Rose and Judy Kolo-Rose in spring birding plumage.At times our home becomes an important stopover place for traveling friends. In this way Indigo Hill is very much like a very birdy patch of habitat that birds use in migration. Just last week we had Ohio birding fixtures Hugh Rose and Judy Kolo-Rose with us for two nights. They not only were great company, they filled the feeders and did the recycling! It was a relaxing visit with a bit of birding, a bit of cooking, and a lot of yakking.
Later in the week Jeff Gordon stopped by en route to see a friend in Columbus, OH. Jeff is one of BWD's field editors, the creative force behind the JeffGyr blog, and the sonorous baritone voice featured on several of our This Birding Life podcasts.
On Saturday I got a call from the peripatetic maven of nature sounds, Lang Elliott, saying he was passing our way headed back from Kentucky to upstate New York. Of course we'd be happy to see him By "we" I meant me, the kids, Jeff Gordon, and Chet Baker. Zick spent most of the week in Boston giving talks and visiting family and friends herself. Lang arrived late Saturday night and we stayed up later than the toads just talking about whatever. I even recorded a few short interviews with Lang for the podcast.
Lang Elliott and Jeff Gordon hanging at Indigo Hill. Those are root beer bottles.Listening to Jeff and Lang talk about everything from sound recording technology to crawfish toads to ivory-billed woodpeckers, I felt dang lucky to have friends with such giant brains who share my passion for birds and nature.
So thanks to all our visitors this past week. Looking forward to seeing you again, soon!
You're the host with the most,B. Sorry to have missed it. On the other hand, it was nice to be the visitor for once! So, do we need more root beer?
ReplyDeleteToads are already awake in Ohio? I am soooo jealous. They are still buried in mud along with the spring peepers, wood frogs, and all like that there here in New England.
ReplyDeleteAnd you have yaks and Jeff Gordon and Lang Elliott! I want your life.
Yes, we're completely OUT of root beer.
ReplyDeleteHey, hi, Jeff—if I'd known you were in, I might have stopped to say "hi." Jeez, I think it's been, like, four years or so!
ReplyDeleteDG
Yes, definitely fixtures... we enjoy making ourselves "at home" and pulling our own weight, so to speak! We had a truly wonderful time and ANY time you would like help around the farm, please count on a couple of able-bodies... just give us a call!
ReplyDeleteJ & H
I guided Lang Eliott out a few years ago. I took him out in early spring season to listen for Boreal Owls and Great Gray Owls. At one our stops we had a singing Great Gray Owl on one side of the road singing away and a opposite of the road we had a very loud Boreal Owl singing away.
ReplyDeleteMike Hendrickson
I get to meet the Kolo-Roses when I bird with them (and BOTB) at the OOS meeting in May. After hearing their names dropped so many places, I can't wait for the fun.
ReplyDeleteI heard a trilling song on my lunch time walk today and tracked it to a vernal pool. American Toads were singing (loudly) and I could watch them puff out their throats and make little ripples shimmy around them as they sang. I wanted to tell them that they had duckweed on their backs, but didn't want to embarrass them.
~Kathi, burping as she passes the root beer
BOTB, will you visit Indigo Hill sometime again? I promise to have plenty of "root" beer.
ReplyDeleteYou had Lang Elliot in your kitchen?? I'm so jealous. I've heard him on bird CDs for so many years (especially eight hours a day, five days a week at the bird store), I've wondered what a regular conversation with him would be like.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear him tell a dirty joke.