Since we last posted, which has been quite awhile, we’ve done nothing but chase birds – in the Rio Grande Valley and the Texas coast. A lot of that has to do with the fact that both those locations are pretty hurtin’ for landscapes. There were some on Padre Island National Seashore, but the rest of the Texas coast is crowded , developed, and not very clean. We’re up at Galveston now, and that’s the worst yet.
We watched the movie The Big Year a couple weeks ago and then read the book. Now Alice is accusing me of becoming a birder. She thinks I’m ready for binos and a floppy hat. Wait. Was that a Yellow-breasted Chat? I’ll be right back…… No, just another condor.
We tried to spend the month of April on the coast to coincide with the migration and that has worked out pretty well – until recently. The big birding place is High Island, near the Louisiana border. When the migrating songbirds fly north over the Gulf, this is the first land they come to. Normally they stop here for a few days before moving north. When there are storms and a north wind they’re pretty tired and more of them stop. We’ve had a week of strong south winds and these birds are headed for Oklahoma – whether they want to or not. The radar shows them passing right over. There were a couple of storms when we were farther south and I got some birds out of them, but that’s it. We’ve got three more days though.
We did take a couple days and go up to San Antonio to visit the Alamo that John Wayne made famous, and spend a day on the Riverwalk. I’d always heard that was really neat, and it was. Good people watching. Most of it was built by the WPA during the New Deal. Another one of those government programs. I’m surprised they still use it. The Rio Grande may not have had water, but we got to float the San Antonio in the tour boat. Go big or go home. We missed the bluebonnet bloom, so we came back down to the coast.
We rented a beach house and are looking forward to spending next week with Shannon. From there it’s over to Louisiana for about a week, and the run through tornado alley and home. I’m not worried. We’ll just hide in the cramper…
Hmmmmm I think he is a birder!!!!!!! When you are thumbing through Sibley’s instead of talking to your wife . . .
Scarlet tanager
Sora
Black and white warbler
Indigo buntings
Kentucky warbler
Northern parula
Least bittern
Clapper rail
White-tailed kite
Prothonatary warbler
Roseate spoonbill
Reddish egrets
Eco porn: Spoonbills mating
Galveston Bay sunset
APBENGEY BLOG 