TODAY is the day! My owl book (A Charisma of Owls) is out today! This is the first book which I have made any major effort to promote, and I need to do more. It’s tiring. I know my books won’t sell just because they exist. Sigh. So, I am actually having an event to promote this one. Below is my “ad” for the event. I hope somebody shows up or I will have to eat a lot of cookies!
What’s Happening – BOOK LAUNCH PARTY
for A CHARISMA OF OWLS by Lynn E. Barber
When – Saturday, February 7 at 2 pm
Learn a few things about owls, see beautiful pictures of owls and hear stories about owls, hear Lynn read a few words from her new book, maybe, buy a signed copy of her new book, and most importantly, eat some of Lynn’s cookies
Where – Peace United Church of Christ, 1530 Grand Ave., Schofield (park in back; go to upstairs fellowship hall)
I love to write. I love to write about birds and I love to write rhymes. And that has mostly been the extent of my writing in the past. Although I have never written while being specifically mindful about it, I think of myself as being mindful, although I don’t actually know for sure what that means.
For the past 5 days, I most happily participated in an online free “course” just finished yesterday, the “Mindful Writing Challenge,” that has given me a much better idea about it. In fact, it helped me write paragraphs and whole essays that surprised me. After you sign up for the course, you get a link each day that you can click on whenever you want to listen to that day’s session. Beginning with about five minutes of guided meditation, the formal part of each day’s session only lasts fifteen minutes, but of course one can continue writing long after the online session ends. This course immediately helped me to get away from my constant production of rhymes. I wrote prose about all sorts of topics, not just birds. I am not being paid or rewarded or coerced into writing this, but I definitely recommend Nadia Colburn’s “Mindful Writing Challenge (nadia@nadiacolburn.com) for all writers or would-be writers or people who might want to move from a practice of meditation to writing something.
After the five sessions are all over, there is of course the possibility of paying for additional inexpensive sessions, but I did not feel pressured to do so. I may sign up for more. Whatever I do, this course helped me feel more excited about the process of writing, not just about the outcome of the process.
Of course, the outcome is also important. I refer you to my published books, including the one just published.
A CHARISMA OF OWLS (available now from me, see my “shop” page)
I am currently in a whirlwind of trying to figure out how best to tell the world about my new owl book. I almost forgot that I need to update my blog site!
Drum Roll — my book is scheduled to be published on January 27, 2026, which is 26 days away! It is now possible to order copies from me and from the usual booksellers. Books from me, of course, can be signed and additional notes to the purchaser or an intended recipient can be added. I will have copies of the softbound copies by the publication date, with my hardbound copies probably arriving later. To order from me, you can call me at 682-365-6531, or you can go to my “shop” page and then to my “cart” page. If you have any questions, please call or text me.
Pine Siskins arrived in great numbers in our central Wisconsin yard along with a huge snow we had a few weeks ago, and have mostly stayed around, even when most of the snow melted. Yesterday we received nearly 3 inches and the Siskins were again famished. Some even hopped on my hand to eat seeds today, as a couple of them had done after the last snow. There is something amazing in having a wild bird sit on your hand. Previously I have had Black-capped Chickadees (many years ago in WI) on my hand, and when we lived in AK, Common Redpolls and Steller’s Jays did so. I guess it takes a combination of birds hungry enough to forget to be afraid, and warm enough weather so I can stand to stand motionless outside for long enough for them to find me and my offering.
My box of softbound/paperback books has arrived! I have shipped out a couple and sold a couple in-person, and am open, of course, to taking more orders. I am currently charging $15 each for signed copies, which includes postage. My hardbound books are still being printed, but I assume they will arrive soon, and I am charging $23 each. I realized yesterday when I did a mailing that postage is more than I realized for books, so I expect I will raise the price at some point. Email orders to dalybar@aol.com or call me at 682-365-6531.
Please consider ordering a copy from me (signed, soft or hard cover; email me at dalybar@aol.com to inquire about ordering from me) or order from Amazon.com (also can order eBook there). Also, please let EVERYONE you know know about this book. Thanks!
I am at the end of the second day of a 3-day trip to Sax-Zim Bog, a mega birding hot spot a bit less than an hour out of Duluth. I went there last year in early February and had planned to join this year’s Wausau Bird Club trip there which begins tomorrow, but their schedule wasn’t quite right for me.
Although I enjoy wandering the roads here to see what birds are around, my real goal is owls, and in particular, this year I mainly wanted to see a Boreal Owl. A few days ago, they had apparently been numerous east of the Bog, but reports had dwindled. My only previous Boreal Owl sightings were in Alaska when we lived there. My second most wanted bird for this trip was Great Gray Owl, which I saw last year here, but just cannot get enough of.
While there were a few Great Gray Owl reports in the Bog yesterday, I did not see one, and there were no Boreal Owl reports there yesterday. It all changed today. In addition to a very cooperative sleeping and then hunting Great Gray Owl that someone else found and reported and which I visited three times from late morning to late afternoon, there also was a Boreal Owl sleeping and then waking less than a mile from the Great Gray. On my way back to my motel, I found another Great Gray Owl on my own. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!
The first six photos are of the huge (over 26 inches long) Great Gray Owl that I just could not resist.
The three photos below are of the very tiny (under 10 inches long) Boreal Owl.
Sometimes my birding and my rhyming get mixed up with each other. Yesterday I went to a neighborhood in Wausau where a winter-open creek (Bos Creek) appears from somewhere. All I know is that each winter since we moved back here in 2021, Mallards have congregated there along with a few American Black Ducks. Yesterday’s goal was to add a Black Duck to my year list, which I did, even though I had to stand outside for a minute or so in the 1-degree weather to do it, peering down at the creek, and trying to pore through the nearly 100, or maybe more, Mallards to find one. It turns out that there were at least two of them, so similar and so different from, a female Mallard.
I added American Black Duck to my year list and went on to other birding and then to chores. But in the middle of the night (early this morning), I awoke, thinking of the Black Ducks and then thinking of the old children’s song, “Little White Duck” (there are a bunch of You Tube versions of it online if you are not familiar with it). I couldn’t get the new words that came to me out of my mind. So I got up, and wrote it down. Here is my oh-so-creative “new” song:
There’s some little Black Ducks, sitting in the water, some little Black Ducks, doing what they outer.
They swim with the Mallards at little Bos Creek. Each so black with a bright yellow beak.
There’s some little Black Ducks, sitting in the water. Quack. Quack. Quack.
While we do not seem to be getting quite as much snow as was forecast, it definitely has been snowing for hours and hasn’t yet stopped. No new winter birds have yet arrived in our yard. Maybe they are waiting for more snow. Mostly it’s American Goldfinches and Mourning Doves for now. The goldfinches (often over 30 of them) have been crowding around the feeders.
The doves (sometimes over 40) hustle around ground, or perch in the spruce tree, waiting for the snow to stop.
Waiting, waiting…
Right now, however, everybody has departed from our yard, spooked completely by a Cooper’s Hawk that barreled through the yard in hot pursuit of one of the doves.
Sometimes birding is not about chasing birds, or even about seeing them, but is about watching for and waiting for them. Right now, while we still have the residents, such as Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, most of our summer birds have left for southern climes, not knowing we were going to have a mild fall, and basically no winter yet.
Our normal wintertime birds are mostly somewhere north of here in Canada, with only a few having finally drifted down to the northern part of the state recently. Although we’ve had a few light snows, right now there is no snow on the ground. It’s mid-December in central Wisconsin!
So birding now is more about watching squirrels eat bird seed in my yard than it is about watching birds.
Winter is coming they say- it’s supposed to dip below zero (degrees F) at night two days from now and to barely rise above it during the next day. And maybe there will be an inch of snow. Slowly, slowly. Maybe more birds will arrive soon…
