Finding the Birding Groove at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge

I have never experienced such a good place to introduce birding to kids as the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Florida's Sanibel Island. This was our third spring break visit to Sanibel in four years. Every year we bike half the Refuge's wildlife drive loop. This year coincided with a time when T was showing even more interest in birds. He is six, way into nature, has a growing interest in birds and just got some kids binoculars that work really well for him.

Osprey on nest platform along the Rabbit Road area bike trail.

We picked a morning that would include low tide.  Thus many of the wading birds would be feeding in the exposed mud flats and shallow waters. Our full group went- Hillary, her mom, me, T, H, and Hillary's sister's family of four. The place we stay is an easy 1.5 mile bike ride from Ding Darling. So we warmed up on bird watching by stopping and watching the Ospreys and their nest on the nesting platform along the bike trail. It takes a while to successfully look through binoculars and get the desired bird in your view. So this was good practice for all.

T watching the birds at the first stop on Wildlife Drive.

Once we got to the refuge we biked right onto Wildlife Drive. We passed a Little Blue Heron just off the drive.  I didn't announce its presence as parents and kids were busy chatting and I knew there would be plenty of birds ahead. Sure enough we got to the first viewing area and saw scads of birds on the large open water and exposed mud flats. After viewing a few herons and such, we made our way over to the spotting scope that a Refuge volunteer had set up. While H was looking through it, T somehow saw a different bird flying far away along the edge of the mangroves. He said, "there's a Roseate Spoonbill!" He had been looking at the bird book before, so I assumed that he recognized it from the book. The Refuge volunteer glassed the flying bird and said, "you're right, that is a Roseate Spoonbill!  I haven't seen one of those for several weeks."  T, of course got a quite a thrill out of that, mentioning it several times over the next few days. 

"Squishing" for fiddler crabs along Wildlife Drive.

Once again the rest of the group got ahead of me as I scanned for more birds.  T was hanging with me and his six-year old attention span was reaching its limit. I was little surprised, actually, but the bumpy road turned out to be his chief complaint.  He proclaimed he was not going any further. So we took a break.  After various attempts to take his mind off the road and how far we were from the rest of the group, I suggested he go search for fiddler crabs long the water's edge.  He walked down to the muddy area and quickly delighted in his ability to drive fiddler crabs out of their burrows as he stepped along side them.  He walked back and forth a few more times and was ready to go with  his attitude and attention rejuvenated. 

From here on T was really getting in the groove of wildlife watching.  I was teaching him more about recognizing key field marks for identifying birds.  What size is it? What shape and color bill does it have? What color are its wings, its belly, legs, etc.  As he was already studying the different parts of birds in first grade, he was really primed to recognize field marks.  Plus, his young eyes mean he can see really well.  The sign posts of birds commonly seen along different sections of Wildlife Drive were helpful too. 

Of course it was the alligator sighting on our way back that was especially exciting.  T asked for my phone and took about twenty pictures of the sunning alligator, a spider on its web, and his alligator-mimicking dad. 

Finding an alligator was of course a major goal for the kids.  So I called Hillary and H who were already at the visitor's center.  They rushed back to see it much to the delight of H. The pressure was off now, we saw an alligator. 

A long time (1 hour? maybe 1.5 hours) after T proclaimed he was not going any further, we made it back to the visitor center near the beginning of Wildlife Drive.  At that point T realized that he left his helmet back at the cut-off trail where we saw the Pied-bill Grebe.  Without a better option handy, I told him to wait for me at the bike racks while I took the 20 some minute round trip to retrieve his helmet.  When I returned I found him recording what we had seen in his journal.  What a wonderful scene to return to! 

Thinking we were mostly done for the day, we headed back to our place.  But T was completely in the bird watching groove by now.  We stopped again to watch the Ospreys on the nesting platform for about 10 minutes.  We watched a few of them circle overhead and got a great view of the distinct shape of an Anhinga flying overhead. Then we spotted a Great Egret and a Night Heron (yellow-crowned, if I remember correctly).  From too tired to go any further, to totally grooving on finding birds, it was a morning to remember.  What a treat to see T experiencing the rush of bird watching that birders live for. 

A Delightful Fall Color Commute

I heard the distinctive crunch of leaves as Theo steered his bike through the crisp fallen ash leaves on the road to school. It brought back memories of past years biking with him in the fall. To kids in the back yard it is the joy of jumping in a pile of leaves. To kids like Theo biking, it is riding through the leaves that get whisked to the side of the road by passing leaf blowers, whoops, I mean cars.

Here are a few pictures from the second leg of my commute, from Theo's school to work.

Bikepool for Saturday Soccer

This is Theo's first real year of soccer. Real in that they practice one night a week and have Saturday morning games at various parks. Last week a friend commented to Hillary that with Theo's interest in soccer, soccer mom-dom (and thus a soccer mom car) are in our near future. Yes, it is a matter of when. But so far we are managing well.

First, thanks to our friends Rolf and Renata, whose son plays on the team, and gave Theo and Hillary a ride to last week's game at a park far away from our house.  Today's game was at Minneapolis' Sibley Park which is within easy Kangaroo biking distance at just 2.3 miles away.  We even did a "bikepool", picking up another one of Theo's teammates.  This bikepool doubled as a daddy Saturday morning "spin class".  This spin class was less a cardio workout and much more a leg strength workout.  With the help of the 1st graders' budding math skills we calculated that I was pedaling about 380 pounds.  Whoa.  

Theo showing his friend the gears and the hydraulic brakes of the Winther Kangaroo before their soccer game.

The bikepool ride seeded some questions.  On the way home from soccer Theo's friend Hanif asked, "why your family hates cars".  A bit surprised by the impression that we hate cars, I responded that it's not that we hate cars, in fact we use cars often, especially when they are the better way to get around.  He had noted that his family uses cars everyday to go most everywhere.  I acknowledged that many people need to use cars because their work is far away and not conveniently reached by public transportation, for instance.  But then said that our family doesn't need a car for most of our trips.  Then Theo chimed in with the distinctive stream-of-consciousness style of a young kid, "We can take a bike, a bus, a taxi.  Cars create pollution.  Look at all these cars just parked on the street, sitting here, nobody is using them.  If we want to go camping, we can rent a car.  If we need to go farther away, we can take an airplane."  Gotta love hearing your 6-year old make such a rational argument for not owning a car.  Admittedly, this is the same kid who also occasionally asks, "Why can't we get a car?".

But the big news of the day is that the Brackett Rockets won their soccer game.  They dug out of a two point hole and won 3-2 to remain undefeated.  Go Rockets!

Young Bikers Spreading their Wings at Chautauqua

The second week of August took us back to the long-time Holdsworth summer vacation spot, the Chautauqua Institution in western New York State.  It was my 40th year there (I missed one while doing research in the Brazilian Amazon). After many years of flying from Minnesota to Cleveland, and then driving with Hillary's family to Chautauqua, the recent jump in airfares (and the need to purchase a 4th for the first time) made us rethink our plans.  We decided to rent a car and drive the 900 miles (~16 hours) there and back.  In my humble opinion, I think the trip went well. Henry, however, exclaimed many times on the way there that "this trip is taking too long!"  The trip home was easier and we'll likely do it again.  Driving to Chautauqua again brought back vivid memories of my family packing the family station wagon (and a large trailer in some years) and driving the 8 hours from eastern Pennsylvania to Chautauqua.

Three years ago I wrote a Riding Phrius post in which I reminisced about biking as a kid at Chautauqua.  I also looked forward to the time when our kids would experience that freedom.  Well, this year's trip was the beginning of that time!  Last year Theo rented a bike and began to master using his brakes as he navigated the hills of Chautauqua. But this year I saw the beginning of Chautauqua biking freedom in him.  One of his 7 year old cousins led him and his other cousin the ~3/4 of a mile to Boys and Girls Club on their bikes. No parents involved.  He tested himself on the hills.  He comfortably biked ahead of us in the quiet streets mostly minding the rules of the road. Meanwhile, Henry finally mastered peddling a tricycle. What a great week of daily riding for the kids. Here are a few biking pics from the trip.

Henry, Theo and their cousin Louisa rev their engines in preparation for Children's School.

Theo showing off his rental bike. Louisa sporting her Papa's childhood bike. Theo wishes he had one like it.

Heading along the lake to the afternoon session at Boys and Girls Club.

Parking amongst the mob of bikes.

Theo running into the Girls Club where his Group 1 started their afternoon session.

Bike, bus taxi... The making of multi-modal children

There have been lots of great Riding Phrius quotations from the kids this past year. They show how facile the boys have gotten at considering and choosing amongst all the transportation options we have. 

Bonding with Henry on the bus. 

While returning from the Fulton neighborhood’s Fourth of July parade last year I was riding our Winther Kangaroo trike, Hillary had Henry on the Bobike and Theo was on his bike.  We were riding along the Hiawatha Light Rail Train (LRT) in Minneapolis when Theo exclaimed, “I know, Mom, we can catch the LRT, put our bikes on it and then ride the last bit to our house!”  Great idea, Theo.  Why didn’t we think of that? 

“I want to go to the Minnesota Zoo.  Let’s rent a car!” - Henry.

“We’re going in a rental car?  Yay!” - Henry

Henry inspecting our rental car during a Wisconsin X-C ski weekend.

“Let’s ride our bikes!” - Theo

“I want to ride my bike” - Henry referring to what is actually a small tricycle that he will sometimes ride for mile-long trips. 

“How about we borrow a car?” - Theo.

“How about a taxi?”

“What, we’re taking a taxi instead of a bus?  Taxis are expensive.  I used to think they were a dollar a ride”. - Theo

Some readers of Riding Phrius have joked that Theo and Henry will want to drive big SUVs when they turn sixteen.  That could be, but hopefully our kids are gaining a deep experience of using a variety of modes of transportation.  I hope this experience will help them adapt in this rapidly changing world where transportation choices have important environmental, social, and economic implications for individuals, communities and society. 

As I was writing this I found this interesting Grist post on the decline in driving by young people. 

--> Theo and I showing off our ski boots and skis after  carpooling with friends to the MN Youth Ski League in Theodore Wirth Park.

A pedal-powered Saturday

It was a gorgeous Saturday in the Twin Cities and a great day to be pedaling around.  We made the most of the day with some gardening, a trip to the Midtown Farmer's Market, and a side bike trip to check out a beautiful street mural done by a friend.  Here are a few pics.

 

To make way for a new ironwood tree in our yard, we moved Theo's beloved white currant bush to a another spot.  Here he is pedaling it across the yard in his tractor wagon.  That rig comes in handy!

With the currant transplanted we caught the tail-end of the Midtown Farmer's Market.  We saw this super figure puppet show by two guys from Open Eye Figure Theater.  They have this fun, whimsical stage built on the base of a Burley kid bike trailer! 

 

Here are the artists riding away on their tandem with the theater trailing behind. They said it is especially good for promoting Open Eye Theater at large festivals...and for lunch money.

With both kids needing a nap, we extended our route to check out this beautiful street mural.  This shows a part of it at 19th Ave. S. and 34th Street, right next to the Corcoran Park building in south Minneapolis.  Henry was asleep in no time, but Theo was up long enough for the mural and to spot the ice cream truck ahead of us.  After three blocks in hot pursuit we caught up to it. Mmm... popsicles.

The middle of a long nap for both boys in the Kangaroo.  I guess we should have kept Theo strapped in!

Busing and Triking it to Church

A few years ago, like many parents with young children, we started attending church. While not in our neighborhood, we were drawn to Plymouth Congregational Church on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. It offers probing, progressive preaching, a deeply engaged congregation, wonderful music and youth programs and much more.  Theo and Henry really like to go to church school and Hillary and I get a peaceful, reflective hour together in the service. 

So how does a car-free family get to a church that is 4+ miles away?  Usually by bus. Two buses actually.  We can hop on the #21 heading west and pick-up the #18 heading north up Nicollet Ave.  If we are lucky it is a 30 minute trip.  If not it can be 40 minutes.  Sundays aren't great bus days, with lower frequency even on busy routes. Luckily, if the bus connection is bad, we can usually find a taxi waiting in the K-Mart parking lot and get a $5 ride the last mile, a convenience that's especially helpful in the winter.

And as of yesterday, we added a door-to-door taxi ride to the mix.  Yes, we are usually pushing the bus schedule.  Yesterday was the day we completely missed it.  In frustration Hillary suggested we just go home.  But Theo's tears over missing church school, as well as our own desire to go, led to Plan B.  So we called a taxi and $14 later ended up getting there earlier than if we had caught our bus.

Here are some images from a recent Sunday when we took the bus.  And then an earlier Sunday when we biked.

Train-obsessed Henry checked out The Polar Express from the church library to read on the ride home. The library is a favorite stop for the kids.

One advantage of a bus and kids- no car seats!  They love looking out the windows and always want to sit "up high" for better views. Sometimes one or both fall asleep on the way home.  The bench seats can be an advantage in this situation. Another perk of the bus, Hillary and I can take turns reading the Sunday paper.

On mild spring and fall Sundays we will occasionally bike to church.   We can cruise westwards on our nearby bike highway, the Midtown Greenway, and then do the last mile or less on Nicollet Ave.  A few weeks ago when Hillary had to work, I did my first solo trip to church with Theo and Henry in the Kangaroo. 

Theo looking ahead on the Midtown Greenway.

"Stop it with the camera" he is probably thinking.  Soon he was blocking my camera view with a book.  This was a beautiful day to do this ride. 

A favorite destination after church school- the church courtyard with its fountain.  Theo and Henry love chasing each other through the bushes and jumping off walls.

Ok, solo church dad looking a little disgruntled, but all in all this was a great church outing with T and H via the Kangaroo.

Theo's first fish and other fun at Powderhorn Park

Today we loaded up the Roo trike with the boys and fishing poles and biked to Powderhorn Park for "Take A Day Off".  This was a great event to get city kids and families engaged in outdoor activities.  It was co-sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Minneapolis Parks and Recreation, and REI.  It was fun to see some colleagues from DNR there and spend a relaxing few hours in the park canoeing, playing frisbee, trying archery, and fishing.   After many failed past attempts, Theo caught his first fish today- a yellow bullhead.  He was very excited, as were we.  Here are a few images from a very fun mini-adventure.

Alleycat: "I'm a Cheetah!"

Theo's favorite way to get in his daily dose of 30 Days of Biking is what we now affectionately call "Alleycat".  Alleycats are informal bike races typically in urban areas.  I have a work buddy who first told me about alleycat races, but I have never done one.  Last year Theo and I started doing "preschooler alleycats" - minor bike chases in the alley behind our house.  We do circles and figure-eights around trash cans between our neighbors' garages.  It has actually proved to be a great way for Theo to advance his bike skills and learn good lessons from a few "soft knocks".  Hillary caught us on video and in photos during our post dinner Alleycat the other night.  Theo was so fast that he declared, "I'm a Cheetah!" Here are some of the photos:

Confessions from Riding Phrius and Support of Fellow Car Freers

I started our Riding Phrius blog to share the day-to-day joys (and challenges) of a young family living car free. It has been a gratifying means to share our experiences with family and friends and hopefully many others. But on Friday morning I got an especially gratifying comment from Henry's teacher. "Andy, I love your blog, it has helped inspire us to remain car free." Henry's teacher and her husband recently had a baby. They were on the verge of buying a used car. In fact they were so close that her husband found a car, went to the dealer the next day expecting to buy it only to learn that they had just sold it to somebody else! So car freedom, desired or not, prevailed. I am really glad that Riding Phrius can help inspire and confirm the unique quality of life that comes from being car free.

I must confess that Hillary and I have had many discussions in the last few months about the emerging constraints of not having a car. Believe it or not, we have been "Riding Phrius" for over 8 years! Neither of us thought we would go that long. We knew that as the kids got older and more and more involved in activities, the desire to have easier access to a car would increase. Hillary would really like to be able to get out of the city more regularly to visit regional parks and friends. Theo recently announced that he wants to do a kids cross-country ski race next year. There is this awesome Minnesota Youth Ski League that Theo could join to really learn how to ski, but it meets at a park on the other side of Minneapolis. (Note: we could actually get there on a single bus from our neighborhood to the park, but it would be a 50 minute ride-- kind of long to do every Sunday with kids, especially if we want to get to church or anything else that day). And the kids are getting bigger and heavier to pedal around in the Winther Kangaroo. Theo is riding much more, but not in the winter, or the pouring rain, or when the trip is longer than a few miles.

If an HourCar hub was near us on Lake St... if we still had a closer car to borrow...if the recent winter hadn't been so snowy and long....we might feel this less. Still, I think those days when we need to make those longer trips inside and just outside the city are relatively few in number, like maybe 20 extra days a year? To own a car for those extra days, would compromise so many of our prime biking days. We would lose many more biking days to driving short trips around town simply because a car was right in front of the house. We would lose out on so many days of short bike trips and the attendant surprises - a fresh breeze, a glimpse of a flying Cooper's Hawk, bike to bike conversations with the kids, etc.

The draw to have a car is so strong. Cars are embedded in American culture and individual identity. For most people, whether it be a sports car, a hybrid, or an SUV, their choice of a car sends important messages about them. They like speed, they want to be green, they want be seen as "outdoorsy". NPR's Marketplace just noted this in the beginning of a series that will be exploring the costs of car ownership over the next few weeks. I look forward to hearing that discussion.  Here is the kickoff, that I paraphrased in this paragraph.

Kids biking Seattle's Seward Park

It is always fun to bike in new places, especially when it is one that is mild and snowfree in December.  We are in Seattle to celebrate the holidays with Hillary's sister and family. This is the wonderful family that blessed us with the gift of the Winther Kangaroo trike.  Thinking ahead to our visit they recommended we bring a helmet for Theo to wear so he could experience Seattle from two wheels with his cousins. 

We threw two bikes in the car and headed to Seattle's Seward Park.  We walked through the gray Seattle morning, freshened up with spurts of light rain.  Theo appreciated having a bike with larger wheels so he could go faster, or at least not have to pedal furiously like he does with his own bike. 

 T and S having a blast chasing each other along the perimeter route of Seward Park.

Embracing the wet- puddles, long puddles!

  

Taking a break to build a stone fort along the shores of Lake Washington.

Bike walk week with a little birder on a bike

Being three days into Bike Walk Week in the Twin Cities,  I was feeling bummed that my schedule had prevented me from biking yet this week. But at last yesterday morning I was able to bike with Theo to school and then to work.

It is such a treat to ride to school with Theo.  He is so excited about being able to ride his bike without training wheels  This morning's ride was through beds of fragrant, fallen catalpa flowers.  Later we collected a bike windshield-sized catalpa leaf that we propped up in his basket.  He thought that was funny. And he gained an impromptu show-and-tell item for school.

 

Note the binoculars ready for action...

Dad, look at the birds!  (They were starlings, but so cool nonetheless.)

Winter wash and winter fun

The radio host foresaw the weekend scene as he predicted our first thaw in over a month. Above freezing temps would send many to wash the salty winter grime off of their cars. I joined the carwash line to do the same for the Roo. Anyone who has biked through the winter in a snowy place can attest to how hard it is on your bike. Salt, sand, and road grit all conspire to gum up the chain and eat away at the metal parts. My 2-wheeled winter bike (affectionately called "INDY", short for "It's Not Dead Yet") now has its fenders permanently rusted to its frame. And that is nothing compared to the issues that have caused several bike mechanics to shed blood while removing winter-seized parts. Leery of the havoc that this winter may be wielding on the Roo, I wanted to wash and dry it and thoroughly oil the exposed bolts to prevent corrosion.

Thankfully, the Roo has fared very well this winter. There was a little rust on the edges of a few threads - hopefully we can stay ahead of this. It's a huge advantage having an enclosed hub to keep water, salt and grit off the most critical moving parts.

We made the best of the above average temps over the three day MLK weekend. Theo and Hillary took the bus 1.5 miles to sled and ski with Theo's buddy Nolan. We rode our bikes 1 mile to skate at Matthews Park with friends (that's Henry's red hat poking above my back.) Thanks for joining us Xena! Henry and I took the Roo to pick up groceries at the food co-op and to pick up storage bins and odds and ends at Target. As usual, we got the best parking spots in the lot.