Are you a lazy birder? I can cut corners on occasion and this morning I paid the price. Let me back up to yesterday evening … a violent snow squall with 40 mph winds had settled over the Head of the Lakes (Duluth / Superior). The temperature had already fallen to 10F (-12C) and would reach -6F (-21C) by 6 am this morning with continued high winds.

The energetic birder would have remarked “dang the weather” and after watching two episodes of Coach Ted Lasso at 9:15 pm (official YouTube trailer) with one’s wife and visiting son / daughter-in-law headed out into the fearful elements to put the car in the garage (remote stand alone garage which is down the hill). Please understand I had purchased a six-pack of Diet Coke earlier in the afternoon, and the cool overnight temperatures for a car parked outside overnight would not bode well for the “Real Thing“).

Fast forward to 8:15 am this morning while out birding. I wanted a Diet Coke, and it did not look frozen. However extremely cold drinks under pressure can be deceiving. Screwing off the top of my coke, I suddenly has exploding coke all over the car. Remember how I said it was -6F outside? As my Coca Cola hit the “inside” of my car’s windshield, it froze immediately in scattered random splash marks on the “inside” of the frozen windshield … right in my field of view. The coke was in many other places, including all over me.

Quickly searching the car, I found a long-sleeved t-shirt I keep in my Subaru in case the mosquitoes are bad. Thankfully at -6F I knew the pesky bugs would not be a problem, and started to use the shirt as a towel.

Hmmm … I discovered a shirt/towel rubbed on frozen Diet Coke ice makes a smeary mess of the windshield. It was time to move onto the next phase of my cleanup operation. During the car’s defrost as high as possible I managed to soften up the Coke ice such that I could flake it off the inside windshield with my fingernails. Success!

Finishing the cleanup of the car I drove for about another 10 minutes to the Admiral Road Feeders in Sax-Zim Bog (I was the only car … midweek … late in the winter season … super cold). Shortly thereafter a Boreal Chickadee lands next to the frozen peanut butter (this post has a frozen food theme!). I press the shutter … nothing happens. In the viewfinder a message appears … simm card not present! Uff Dah! Did I mention I was a lazy birder? Yes, not only did not put my car away the prior evening, but I did not return my SIMM card to the camera.

If you know anything about chickadees, they do not tend to stay in one place very long. However, as part of my camera kit I always carry an extra SIMM card (insert in camera and format). Thankfully the lure of peanut butter brought the Boreal Chickadees back, and my camera was finally ready.

Are you ever a lazy birder??!

Boreal Chickadee Photos!