New River, here we come! (next year)

For some time now, I'd been debating about whether I could manage another birding festival for the spring migration. Birding festivals ain't cheap, and I knew I couldn't do the fall migration this year because I'll be in Texas at my parents' 50th anniversary party. (I'm still hoping to get in a little birding time, as it's the same weekend as the Rio Grande Valley festival, but we'll be in San Antonio so I don't know what the birding will be like.)

I was thinking about Cape May in the spring, as I'd done the fall migration there last year. However, some members of the Flock started cheeping about going to a new place: New River Gorge in West Virginia. A bunch of emails, a couple of OCD planner-types, and some thorny algebraic calculations later, we've managed to figure out how a bunch of us can go to the festival!

You can find information on the festival here. The coolest part? Let me show you:

Yes indeed, Julie Zickefoose will be there! I had the birding experience of a lifetime last time I birded with Zick, and this time she'll be accompanied by hubby BT3, the darling children!, AND... CHET BAKER!

No, not THIS Chet Baker:

THIS Chet Baker:
Offisa Pupp!

Details to follow--but boy-oh-boy am I excited!

For Dr Zaius

Bloggy hero Dr. Zaius has been asking for more Niblet photos, so I asked Niblet and he was kind enough to pose a little bit for me last night. He's apparently been taking dance lessons.

Thanks to my ballet class, I can now stand en pointe.


Not to mention how well I dance the cha-cha.


Keep your eyes on mah badonk-adonk-donk...

And who is his teacher? Surely not...

Clawsie!

Still having the dumb, needing your help

I got a bunch of great responses to my random question about who your favorite singer is. So many choices!

So--let's narrow it down a bit. First off--my top three choices, from my list of (counting)13 singers: Barbra Streisand, Alison Krauss, Joni Mitchell. In that order. Ella Fitzgerald made the list, along with people like Sinead O'Connor, Chrissie Hynde, Shelby Lynne, Tricia Yearwood, Rosemary Clooney, and Karen Carpenter.

Now--your replies, with vote tallies:

WOMEN with 2 votes:
Ella Fitzgerald
Joan Baez
Barbara Streisand
Celine Dion

WOMEN with 1 vote:
Maria Callas
Eva Cassidy
Etta James
Grace Slick
Judy Collins
Emmy Lou Harris
k d lang
Billie Holliday
Christina Aguilera

Not a bad list at all. Good work, people! Now for the gents, none of which received more than one vote:
Josh Groban
Geoff Tate (Queensryche)
Waylon Jennings
Ray Charles
Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Nusrat Fata Ali Khan
George Michael
Barry White
Luther Vandross
Johnny Cash
Ray LaMontagne
Justin Nozuka
Michael Buble
Jack Johnson
Jason Mraz
John Denver

Not a bad lineup there, with some really distinctive voices and great song stylists.

SO--I'm going to do a poll! I'll put it in the sidebar for a month. For the women, I'll do the top four vote-getters. Then everyone can just vote and we'll see which singer tops the pops!

Now for the men, I'll need some help--as no one got more than one vote, and I didn't have any male singers on my list so my vote doesn't count, I'll ask everyone to vote for their top male singer from the list above. Go to it, people! When I get four top vote-getters, I'll do a male singer poll too. Until then, it's LADIES' NIGHT! Oh yes the music's right, oh yes it's ladies' night, oh what a night! (oh what a night)