A Little Fall Birding

Know what makes me cranky? The bird that got away. Case in point, a beautiful bird, that flew all the way to California from the high arctic where Narwhales blow bubbles under the ice. That bird is an Ivory Gull, that flew into Pismo Beach just last weekend.

Not to whine, but I should have leapt into my car, picked up birder buddy Don and zoomed down to Pismo Beach. We could have seen that high arctic gull that only once before has ever entered California.

But Nooooo - like a jerk, I skipped the opportunity, thinking I would drive down to see the bird on Thursday, Veteran's Day. No dice - the beautiful Ivory Gull skipped off to heaven only knows where, Wednesday. The horror!

Beautiful gull, seen here thumbing its nose bill attardy birders, such as me, who did not see it
So, as a birdie boobie prize, yesterday Don and I picked up buddy Teressa and we all headed to Fort Mason in San Francisco. Fort Mason is a pretty spot on the bay, right across from Alcatraz. There were loads of other birders when we got there, who just like us, were looking for a less rare vagrant, a Black-throated Blue Warber, an Eastern species.

A Black-throated Blue Warbler - another no-show for the week
No dice. Skunked by the Black-throated Blue, last seen yesterday, Wednesday afternoon. Still, we all had fun looking at the more cooperative, and easier to see birdies. And I enjoyed photographing the more cooperative birds that bopped cheerily around the trees and shrubs. There were Varied Thrush, several Pygmy Nuthatches and a Northern "Yellow-shafted" Flicker that may have been a bit lost. I managed a few shots of some Pygmy Nuthatches and even shots of the teeny little Brown Creepers that worked at 'de-bugging' the bark of a vine strewn tree.

Brown Creeper, living up to its name - being brown, and creeping
Looking a lot like a bit of Bark
Around midday we drove north to Petaluma in search of Pacific Golden Plovers. I've seen them before but they were still a 'lifer for me, because the place I saw the lovely little Plover below was the Isle of Hawaii - therefore those birdies didn't count as North American seen birdies.

My Pacific Golden Plover that didn't count, yet was still rather a beauty
We saw several beautiful, golden hued Pacific Golden Plovers at Schollenberger Park. I didn't take any photos there, but we saw Mute Swans, Blue-winged teal, Mallards, Black-bellied Plover, and other species as well. Nice stop, and the Golden Plovers did bring my total for lifers in 2010 up to 18 birds.

Up one lifer for 'moi', we headed south to visit Don's daugher Rose, at her work place, a veterinarian clinic. I can't believe I was so taken by the critters at the clinic - adorable lizards, loads of exotic birds and so help me, FERRETS! I didn't think to take Rose's picture. Rose promptly brought out a beautiful ferret for me to play with. HEAVEN! I would love a trio of ferrets for pets, but the timing at this point of my life sucks so no ferrets for me. Still it was fun getting to hold a particularly cuddly one.

So we all out for a nice lunch with Rose & her fiance Nate (really sweet guy, Rose knows how to pick 'em). I chatted with Rose who is chock full of pet helpful knowledge and we talked 'critters' all through lunch. It was nice getting in a visit, hadn't seen Rose in ages.

Following lunch, Don, Teressa and I headed back to Fort Mason for another shot at the Black-throated Blue Warbler, but it was no where to be seen. A Townsend's Warbler took pity on me and bounced around in the sunlight, allowing to take some so-so shots of it.


Townsend's Warbler

The Townsends hitting a more classic pose
BONSAI!
Sooo that was that for the day! On the drive back to Don's place, before I took off for home, I spotted the only Barn Owl I've seen this year. It sailed by over my car on the freeway. I took that as a good omen for my drive home and it was.

Halloween at the House that Fear Built

The Winchester Mystery House
Halloween is the night you collect that candy, give out that candy, or go out and get yourself spooked. This year I decided to go with the latter. So Halloween afternoon I drove on down to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.


One Big-arse sprawling house
The Winchester house is one of the most haunted houses in the United States, so naturally, lacking any common sense at all, I decided to take the Halloween night flashlight tour of the grounds. I arrived early in the afternoon so I started off the ‘festivities’ with a free, self guided walk about in the Winchester estate gardens. The grounds are lovely and filled with loudspeaker talks that give a good overview of the grounds. I must admit, it being Halloween, it wasn't the lovely flora that I was thinking on, but my upcoming nighttime flashlight tour.


my daytime view of the house
So as dusk fell, ghouls & ghosts of the human Halloween costumed sorts, as well as half the cast of Rocky Horror Picture Show and the odd Show White and Roman soldier gathered for the sold out flashlight tours. When it was my group’s turn, we met our sexy black cat costumed guide - named Claire - for the evening. Claire, a twenty-something year old, told us she has worked at the Mystery house for six months, and has led tours only a couple of months. She promised us plenty of ghost stories - most of which happened either to her or to the hapless guests on her tours. So after warning us no photography was allowed, each of us fiddled around with our souvenir Flashlights. Note, the photos below are lifted off the web and can't begin to capture how delightfully dark and creepy tour was or how astounding the Winchester House is after dark.

The first thing we all learned was in her later years, Sarah Winchester, the owner of the huge mansion, had bad arthritis, and could barely lift her feet more than a few inches. So she had many staircases removed and replaced with low rising steps. So we were led up to the second floor we found the stairwell doubled back on itself over and over, over and over until I felt like I might meet myself coming back the other way. I include a photo below but it doesn’t properly show off how low the 3 inch high stairs are or how the passageway winds back and forth, back and forth.


The low & flat stairs are interesting to navigate in the dark by flashlight
At the top of the stairs, we were in a teensy area, where I first noticed the weirdest thing about the Winchester House - it was chock full of windows, doors, sliding openings, none of which make any sense; windows open into walls, doors go nowhere, there were often what looked to be little atriums - maybe 3 by 3 feet - that didn't contain anything or serve any purpose - they were just there. A window at the end of the room that looked down into the kitchen below - not a sweeping view of the kitchen, but a lopsided peek over a stove ventilator - it served no purpose. There is a spot with a window face down in the floor in the middle of the room! That's the whole point of the house architecture - no point at all. A pure case of what happens when someone has more money than God and spends their cash building with no goal other than to never stop building. Note: Sarah earned a thousand bucks per day back when 1K could have kept a whole family alive and well for a year.

Soon we entered a tiny little 12 x 12 ft room where Sarah held a séance every single day and where loads of bizarre things happened. Next we were gathered round in Sarah's bedroom, where Claire, standing by Sarah’s bed, looked into the doorway behind the rest of us and jumped! She thought she saw a face in the doorway behind us. She was noticeably freaked as she told us about the bedroom and its bizarre occurrences – think floating orbs and transformed spiritualists – freaking is apparently a Winchester House tour guide's occupational hazard, not covered by OSHA.


Sarah's comfy bedroom - featuring her death bed
We moved onto another area with a wall featuring row after row of stained glass web windows - 13 in all - Sarah had a ‘thing’ for the number 13.


Winsome by daylight, creepy as hell by moonlight
Claire said that once, while in the servant's quarter’s area of the Winchester House, and while alone a co-worker left to get something. Claire was changing out some light bulbs. She felt uneasy, and had that creepy feeling she was being watched. She hoped her co-worker would hurry up and return. Then, a voice behind her head shouted her name. She jumped, turned and - no one was there. Since then, Claire never feels good about being in the servant’s quarter’s area. Can you blame her?

That wasn’t her first weird Winchester experience though. You see, when she first began working at the Winchester house, she often heard co-workers swapping creepy tales on their paranormal run-ins at the mansion. Of course, sensibly, Claire did not believe a word any of them said. Then after closing late one night, she was closing out her cash register in the gift shop. As she worked alone in gift shop, she could hear someone going up the stairs to an office, her boss’s. Then she heard steps coming down the stairs, then back up again and down. Obviously her boss had forgotten something and kept climbing up and down the stairs.

Then a voice behind her shouted, “LISTEN!” She turned around to see no one was there. Later on, her boss and some other people came into the shop – they’d been at some other area of the property – no one was in or near the supervisor’s office or the staircase.

That was Claire’s turning point, when she turned from normal skeptical non-believer, to what most of us are – unwilling and living with the knowledge that there is some SPOOKY arse shite going on.

When Claire told us the story of her night at the gift shop and the disembodied voice behind her back, she said after some consideration, she wonders if the voice wasn’t telling her she ought to listen to her co-worker’s ghostly stories and take them serious. Isn’t that creepy?! Really, you must hope you remain untouched by such certainty in the world of the paranormal.

Let's see... what creepy stuff happened during our Halloween night flashlight tour? Well, several people got freaked by cold spots creeping up their sides. One girl noted “of course it’s cold; we’re wearing fishnet stockings and hose!”

Another girl quipped back, “I’m wearing jeans and my leg is just as frozen!”

And it was too!

As for my own experience, as I often do on tours, I was practically glued to my namesake tour guide. Claire. At one point I trotted after her and the two of us alone arrived, in a stairwell area ahead of the others. While we waited for the rest of the group to catch up – there were a dozen LOUD and insistent knocks on a wooden door we stood by. Quickly, Claire swung the door open. No one was there. We both stared down the long, empty and creepy hallway behind the door. Claire swung around to look at me and demanded, almost defensively, "Does that grab you as... weird?"

Uh…. Yes!

No wonder Claire grew increasingly unnerved during the tour. Later, at the highest point of the building, we were in the very room that Sarah Winchester was accidently trapped in during the 1906 earthquake. We were all able to climb out onto a balcony, overlooking the gardens I toured earlier in the day. Later we were back downstairs and in a kitchen - the one that was used prior to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and one that was used afterwards. Yes, there was more than one kitchen. In fact, here are the Winchester house's famous over-consumption statistics: 2,000 doors, 1,257 windows, 40 stairwells, 40 bedrooms, 47 fireplaces, 17 chimneys, 13 bathrooms (but only 1 shower) , six kitchens, three elevators, 160 rooms, 47 fireplaces, 2 ballrooms, and more than 450 doorways and a b'jillion turrets. Oh, and the parquet floors are to die for - ok, not literally, but they are majorly awesome!


This organ is famous for playing itself.
Claire also told us that participants on her tour have on two occasions saw ‘the thin man’. Once he walked up some stairs and disappeared right in front of  her tour participants. Another time the 'thin man' stopped to lean on a pole and again, disappeared. Another ghost seen wandering around the halls at Winchester house is handyman in coveralls, who busies himself with various unearthly chores.


One of 40 staircases
The last room of the tour contains loads of beautiful Victorian furniture and a rocking chair that is often seen to begin rocking on its own accord. At the end of the tour I decided someday I must return for another go. Halloween or the 10th of May. The Winchester Mystery house is deliciously spooky. If you want to learn the history of the place, pluck up your courage and click here.

A Little More Spooky Shite

Only one other spooky event for myself and of the light weight sort. Earlier this year visited a friend at her beautiful old Victorian home. Her home, conveniently enough came with a small boy's spirit. Perhaps he died in the home, but no one has looked up any history on the house yet. Also, the spirit of a deceased buddy hangs around my friend most of the time, I reckon for old time's sake. So, going in I always know there are two friendly spirits and one dear, live friend at the old Victorian. Anyway, I was being treated to a tour of the home and wondered if the two - no longer alive - friends would put in a visit. They didn't - not directly - but when we were in the rear of the house, a light bulb overhead exploded with a loud pop. I was startled and freaked. My friend wasn't so I told her when spirits are attempting to materialize they must absorb warmth. So the light bulb might have blown up as one of the household ghosts suddenly absorbed the energy of the lit bulb - or perhaps it was just an old bulb - you never quite know with these things, Oh well! Either way, no doubt, the timing of the bulb's explosion was creepy.

Earlier this month when I was visiting nephew Kirk and his family, Kirk and I visited a couple of old mansions. At one, I asked a visitor center guide if the mansion was haunted. I was joking - kinda - but am glad I asked, because it opened up the topic of 'spooky shite' with my nephew.

Kirk, has loads of spooky shite that happened to him over the years and I'll relate what I can recall here. This is GOOD spooky shite folks!

The Brooklyn Hag

Ages ago, Kirk was lying in his Brooklyn bed and the torso of a creepy old woman floated into his bedroom window. Long stringy hair flowed from her head and needless to say, she was terrifying. Kirk did the traditional Brooklyn dive under the covers and the creature disappeared. Some time later, Kirk visited with his southern born Grandmother and told her of the incident. His grandmother responded in the matter of fact way as if nothing more than a firefly flew into Kirk's room.

"That was just a Hag", she said.

Kirk couldn't believe the casualness of her response. He told me, "It was like 'Oh yeah, we see those floating around, choking people hags down here in the South every once in a bit - no biggie'.

The MoMA Elevator Ghost

Kirk once worked as a docent at New York City's Museum of Modern Art. He was often there at odd hours and behind the scenes. This was back when Mrs. Rockefeller, was still alive and he saw her occasionally and thought her a very nice woman. Several times while docenting at the museum, Kirk said he heard wild laughter from a back elevator and even saw a man in an old fashioned outfit in the elevator. It kind of weirded him out, and he didn't quite get why. Then one of his fellow docents told him, the man in the elevator was the ghost of a man who was once accidentally locked in the elevator over a weekend - he died in the elevator and now occasionally haunts it.

The Dictator's Daughters

Kirk went to a large Baltimore University and a couple of his classmates were a pair of scary young women, granddaughters of a major, bad arse, third world dictator. No one messed with the girls because they were voodoo witches and could throw a wicked jinx on whomever they chose. You don't believe in voodoo do you? Of course not! Rational people do not - at least not until you see it in action for yourself as did Kirk. First up, the girls did not mess with Kirk. They came into his room once and saw an incense burner, which Kirk got from his grandfather, my father. It was of foreign origin as soon as the girls spotted it they freaked.

"Where did you get that? Whom are your family?" they demanded to know.

After unsuccessfully badgering Kirk, they fled - couldn't get out of the room fast enough. My family isn't exactly voodoo central so the incense burner was just that - an innocent incense burner. That is, at least as far as we know. Bwah ha ha ha ha!

One of Kirk's classmates was a straight up, East coast Muslim sort with the bow tie and neat clothing. He was boyfriend to one of the dictator's granddaughters and had carelessly shirked the girl off. Big mistake. Apparently his insulted ex took her revenge on him. Kirk said the guy went overnight from being Mohammad Straight-laced to the hippy-dippy guy in blue jeans with the sole goal of making money and giving it to his ex. That was some whammy she threw on his arse! It resulted in a complete change of personality that everyone noticed and couldn't believe. And who were the spooky granddaughters? Should I tell you? Hell NO! Don't want any voodoo doll out there with my name on it. I have trouble with the voodoo story, but that's because I've yet to have first hand experience with such goings on. That's all that stands between you, me and believing in 'stuff' you know - experience.

Tomorrow is Halloween. There will be fear... BWAH HA HA HA HAAAAAAA!