Lower Rio Grande Valley

No, the recent tornados that caused so much damage in Texas didn't carry me away, but being in the Rio Grande Valley definitely makes me feel like I'm not in Kansas anymore.


I'm afraid I was a little off on my estimate of how many new lifers I would have by the end of the week. Instead of having around 510 within a week I ended up with 520! Actually, I finished posting my last blog at around 5:00 in the evening and by 8:30 I had eight more lifers! I knew it was possible to get that many but I didn't know it would be that easy. I went to Laguna Atascosa NWR and as soon as I got out of the truck I was finding new birds. It seems as though I crossed some sort of line somewhere and found myself in another country, or planet maybe. It seems like all the birds are different from the ones just a little north.



Great Kiskadee at Bensten Rio Grande State Park.



Bobcat at Santa Ana NWR



Texas Spotted Whiptail, Santa Ana



Groove-billed Ani, Santa Ana



Clay-colored Robin, Santa Ana



Ferruginous Pigmy-owl at Bensten Rio Grande State Park. He looks like he's offering you some of his dinner.



Black-bellied Whistling-duck, Laguna Aatascosa NWR



Green Jay, Laguna Atascosa



A terribly shy Barn Owl, Laguna Atascoa.



I had to hang out the window of my truck to photograph this Coyote at Laguna Atascosa. Evidently she thought it looked pretty funny.




These least grebes were at Sable Palms Sanctuary. If you look closely you can see one of the little ones riding on it's mothers back. I think it's getting a little to big for that.



At Santa Ana I met a couple guys. Chad from California and Steve from the Huston area. Chad even bought me a "500th bird" pin to commemorate my recent achievement. Thanks again Chad. They have a pin for 600 too. Interesting.


At Bensten I met Greg and Gary. They are from the Atlanta Georgia area. Greg works for International Expeditions and he is just full of information. I tagged along with them for a while and got some great tips. He told me that if I went on some pelagic tours (for seagoing birds) . I could break 600 on this trip. Could it really be possible? I'm going to have to check it out.

Here's a link to my online lifelist that you can check out if you want to. I will update it as often as I can. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pJQ2RUBJzY2rh9XKfysIVYg


From here I continue up the river. I have a lot of places to check out yet. Originally I thought I would be out of Texas by now, but It looks like I'll be in the state for a while longer. Even without the truck delays, I don't think I could have been out of here before May. It's quite a place.


I'm in a hotel room in McAllen and I'm going try to find a good church again this morning so I better get going. Thanks for looking and keep praying.



Steve

High Island to South Padre Island

Here I am at a library in Port Isabel, TX. I started out this last section at Anahuac NWR. There I got a few photos and picked up two more life birds, leaving me with one to go for 500. I added number 500 a Snowy Plover, just this past Sunday at Bolivar Flats, South West of High Island. So Let the celebrations begin!! Maybe we could make the day a holiday or something! Maybe not, but it is a goal achieved. I'm now at 503 anyway and I hope to be at around 510 in a week or so. I plan to go to the Lower Rio Grande Valley starting tomorrow and there are more new birds for me in that area than I can shake a stick at. Actually I'm pretty sure I could shake a stick at pretty much anything. I mean, if you aren't overly particular about the aim of the stick, it seems like almost anyone could. Clearly I don't understand that figure of speech so I don't think I'll be using it anymore. Anyway there are a lot of new birds for me to see there.


High Island was nice. There weren't as many birds there as there would have been if the wind wasn't blowing straight in off the gulf. The birds that migrate in at night just keep going inland. If there was a storm or if the wind was blowing out over the Gulf, the birds would be exhausted hen they got here and just stop to rest in the first available land. They also have a easy to photograph rookery though so there was something to do there.






The rookery was at the Smith Woods Sanctuary. Most of the birds there were Great Egrets and Roseate Spoonbills. I love Spoonbills so I had a good time there.




Another attraction at the sanctuary was in the parking lot. A couple of mulberry trees grew there and some of the the most colorful birds around just loved them. These are really small trees or you could even call them large shrubs, but at one time you might find a half dozen Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (like the one above), or a couple Orioles, or a Painted Bunting (like above) or some Scarlet Tanagers, or Summer Tanagers, or Indigo Buntings... It was an amazing display.


It was nice to have my 500mm f4.5 lens with me for places like this. It let me get some good shots and it was kind of neat to stand around between birds and chat with the other "big lens guys". I sort of feel like I joined a club or something. It doesn't always happen that way but I did get to know a couple guys there, Jacob from New Mexico and Bill from Virginia.


Down the road from there is Bolivar flats. This is a great place for shore birds, like my number 500 bird the Snowy Plover. This isn't much of a shot but it was very early in the morning and I didn't have much light. It's good enough to document the event though.

I drove on from there and found a church called Clear Creek Community Church. It was a large contemporary church but it had no singles ministry and no one to go out to dinner with. I guess you can't win them all.

From there I camped at Goose Island State Park. I stayed there a two night and did some birding in the area. I saw 14 different warblers in one day and that's pretty good for that area. I also met a nice couple who seemed to know a lot about the birds of the area. Some birders you meet act as if they don't really have time to answer your bird questions, but after talking a bit this guy actually asked if he could help me find the birds I was looking for. He was a gold mine of information. We must have talked more that an hour. I hope I can remember half of what he told me. He recommended a book and when I asked where I could get a copy his wife went out to the car and got one for me, free of charge! She said she could get another one because she knows the author. Clearly it's not what you know, but who you know. Thank you Martin and Sheridan.

Here are some shots I got in that area.

This is a Black-throated Green Warbler. It was at Paradise Pond in Port Aransas.


This is just to show you what a lot of the trees in the area look like. I don't think these long horizontal branches would make it through a Michigan Winter.

Earlier today I was on South Padre Island. The convention center there has a little birding area set up with feeder... and a guy at High Island told me it was the place to go. I did get some nice shots,

like this Scarlet Tanager, but it was really windy and there aren't that many birds there. I think I'll wait to see what the weather is like tomorrow, and if it's anything less than great, I'll move on to the Rio Grande. After my talk with Martin I see that there aren't any birds in this area that I won't see down there. Actually, most of what I see here I could find in Michigan. There just easier to photograph here.

So until next time take care. So far so good on the truck but keep praying.

Steve

Back On Track

I'm off and running again. It's sort of strange and a little hard to get back into the swing of things. I guess I got soft sitting around the motel room.

I missed the chili cook-off. I guess I got the directions mixed up or something. After driving in circles for a while I went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for the afternoon. and I ended the day at the Congress Street Bridge to watch the bats come out. It turns out that the construction of this bridge is just right for these Mexican Freetail Bats. They roost there durring the day and come out by the millions at night. After the pups are able to fly in the summer they estimate there are over two million bats there. They say it's quite a spectacle when they all come out in one big swarm. It can draw quite a crowd of people. It was too cold the night I was there, so they came out in more of a trickle. I guess I'll have something to go back for.

From Austin I went to the Canyons of the Balcones NWR. I had stopped there before but I wanted to go back and try to find the Black-capped Vireo that nests there. They have a little covered deck set up near a good spot for them which I stopped at once that evening and twice the next day. I heard some but I wasn't able to see any. I talked to the guy at the headquarters and he talked me into trying one more time. I went back and found a couple there along with one of the wildlife biologists of the refuge. As I walked up he was just offering to take them on a little tour into an off limits area. I was invited too. It looked like we would get skunked again but just as we were giving up we heard one and the biologist played a tape recording he had. Two birds responded and the male circled around us, from bush to bush, for a couple minutes. These guys like to stay low in the brush and they don't come into view often. I got lucky in a lot of ways here. I was able to get a few shots, and a couple of them were actually quiet good.

This is an image I cropped out of a larger photo. It's probably my best shot of the outing. I wish I could have gotten a shot that looked like this without cropping but I guess you can't have everything.

At the Wildflower Center I got a tip that the flowers East of town were blooming nicely so that's the next place I went. It was a good tip. I thought the flowers there were much better than in the Hill Country to the west. Maybe it's just that I needed to wait a bit but I had a much better time over the last few day to the east of Austin than I did to the west. Here's a few examples.

I found a lot more open space here, more variety (I was getting a bit tired of Bluebells), and I also liked the addition of cows. The calf above is looking at a cattle egret.

Just this morning I had a good time photographing some very cooperative Dicksissels. I don't know why but these guy would fly right up to me.

Now I've moved on to the Gulf Coast. I'm writing this from a library in a town just to the east of Huston. I can't seem to remember the name of it right now. From here I plan to work my way down to Brownsville and my emphasis will be birds again. My life list is at somewhere around 497. I wanted to break 500 on this trip and it looks like it will be pretty easy to do that within the next few days.

That's it for now. Keep the comments coming. I'd like to hear from some of my new friends too. This isn't just for the folks back home you know. Keep praying.

Steve

Ecape from Austin

Yes it's Saturday and I'm still in Austin. I just got my truck back yesterday night. In an effort to remain positive I won't say it was a nightmare but it was a very "interesting" experience. It took a day or so to get the first part they tried, that was wrong, and then another day or so to get the second one, and that was wrong. The third one they managed to get that same day and it was wrong. Then they finally ended up sending the old one out to be rebuilt. I was told that the shop that does that kind of work was backed up two weeks. The guy at the regular repair place knew the guy at the rebuilding shop so he pulled some strings and got it done in one day. If he hadn't, I'd still be stuck. The good part is that the warranty company did cover it and the repair place covered my deductible. It was quite an experience.

They say that Austin isn't a bad place to be stranded, but I always thought I would have my truck in just a few more hours or the next day, so I spent a lot of time hanging around the repair place or waiting for a phone call or something. There were a few times when I could have done something else but I didn't really know where to go or how to get there on the bus. I did spend a lot of time watching TV. I've had plenty of that for a while. And I spent a lot of time online while I had internet access. The internet at the hotel I was at was pretty fluky. It stopped working for me by Thursday. Wednesday I had good access so I had myself a Lost marathon. I watched five episodes online and one on TV. Now I'm all caught up. I'll probably have to wait a while to see more of them so please be careful not to tell me anything about what you see on upcoming episodes until I've had a chance to see them :-) Last night I went to dinner with the church singles group and later today I plan to go to a singles chili cook-off. Tomorrow I plan to go to the same church I went to last week and after that I'll be back on track and on my way.

Sorry I don't have any photos for you right now but I wanted to catch you up on my situation while I could. I'll post some more when I can. Thanks for looking and keep praying.

Steve

Waiting in Austin

What a day it's been. I'm sitting here in a motel room that I walked to from the place my truck is getting worked on.

I stayed at McKinney Falls State park last night and got a few shots.


this one is of the falls,


and this one is a field just outside the park. It's also very near the State Park Headquarters so I suspect that they planted it for tourists like myself.

I expected to hear from the repair place early this morning so I didn't really go anywhere. Finally I went to the garage at about 10:30 and they said they would know by about noon. I basically drove in circles until mid afternoon and went back there again. They finally told me that the parts themselves would cost less than $1000... by five dollars. You can imagine how much it costs with labor. Then they said they would start on it first thing in the morning so I thought I would stay in the State Park again since it's right on the edge of town. On my way I got a call saying that they wanted my car tonight. So here I am in this motel. Not the best day of my trip. But wait, it could have been much worse.

Back in February (January?) I bought an aftermarket warranty on this truck. After thinking about it, it seemed like a mistake so I tried to cancel it. I didn't get any confirmation on that so I called back and discovered that I hadn't followed the procedure quite to the letter so the cancellation didn't go through. I tried it again just a few weeks ago and I assumed that I had it canceled. This morning I thought about it again and called them back just to make sure. After a little work I found someone who was able to confirm for me that my account was still active!

I dropped my truck off with my warranty info and told them to call me if they had any trouble. I haven't heard a word.

I'm a little afraid to start celebrating just yet but it looks good. I could end up paying just a small deductible. I would also have to continue paying for the warranty, and that won't be cheap, but it would still save me hundreds of dollars. Keep praying.

Speaking of praying and celebrating... I did find a nice church for Easter Sunday. I went to a singles Bible Study and went out with a small group of them afterwards. I didn't have to eat Easter Dinner alone. I even ran into one of the singles, Mary, the next day, and had lunch with her. It was another answer to prayer.

In the mean time I'll be sitting around the hotel room until tomorrow afternoon. I hope I don't go stir crazy. I'll let you know how it all turns out in the next post. Thanks for looking.

Steve

Deep In The Heart Of Texas

Here I am in Austin Texas. It's a cold (upper 30's) rainy (a little hail too) day, perfect for getting a hotel room and catching up on my blog. It's really the first rainy day I've had on the trip, so I can't complain. I've decided I need to slow down a bit. I was really getting burned out before. I put the camera away for a while and now I feel quite a bit better.

Because I heard that the wildflowers were blooming a little earlier than previous years I decided to head to the hill country west of Austin before I went to the coast for some more birding. The flowers here are beautiful but I didn't really find the open hillsides full of color that I had been hoping for. The flowers are more often in with some scattered trees or shrubs and the really frustrating thing for me was that they are almost always on private land surrounded by "No Trespassing" signs. It seems like some of these ranchers here would wise up and see that there is money to be made here. Charge us tourists a few bucks to come and take pictures of their flowers. Oh well I'm sure they have their reasons for keeping it all to themselves. Anyway that's not to say that I didn't get any good shots.

I got this Black-chinned Hummingbird at a State Park Near Austin.


This Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (Texas State Bird) was along the road near that same park.






The blue flowers are Blue Bonnets. They are what the area is primarily known for. My hope is to get to some other places next week and find more of the other flowers that bloom here this time of year. One thing that could hold me back is my truck. I took it in for an oil change today and I had them check it out since it acted up on me last week. They found a bad "idler pulley", I think that's what they called it, and another big problem. The seal on the other back wheel is leaking and it's starting to make a grinding noise back there. They were unable to get prices on the parts because of the holiday, so I will have to wait until Monday just to find out how much it will cost. He said it could easily be over $1000. Yes that will hurt. One guy suggested that I just go buy a new one. He said they were "just giving them away these days". Yeah right! What will I do? I have no idea. I will pray and I'll ask you to pray too. It's worked before. I'll let you all know what happens Monday.


I go a more pleasant surprise this particular morning when I found a herd of these deer. I think they're called Fallow Deer. They were running wild here but they aren't native to North America. I think they are from Europe, or Asia maybe. Anyway it was quite a surprise.


This lovely scene was near a National Wildlife Refuge northwest of Austin. I added another life bird there, the Golden-cheeked Warbler. If it works out I would like to get back there and try to photograph one. They also have Black-capped Vireos there. That would be another lifer.

It's time for bed now. I need to get up early for Easter church service tomorrow. I hope things works out as well for me this week as they did last week. Thanks for looking and keep praying for me and my gimpy truck.

Steve

Ocala to Pensacola

I'm afraid I don't have time for a regular post but I thought I would post some photos anyway. Maybe I'll be able to add some comments later. Right now I've got to go out and try to find a mechanic open on Sunday morning. That's right, another problem. Now it will barely stay running at an Idle. A few days ago I had a bolt fall out of my brake calipers. This is getting to me. Please pray.

OK. That was Sunday before I got out to my truck. Now it's Monday night and things seem quite different. I started my truck that morning and it ran pretty much like it always has. No sign of the trouble from the night before. I don't get it, but I'm grateful. Then I found a Church that was very similar to my church back home. I even went to a singles class and got invited to a cookout that afternoon. I met a lot of nice people and had a great time. It was really no big deal for any of them but for me it was a huge blessing. It was just what I needed. If any of y'all are reading this... thank you!

That was in Pensacola, FL and now I'm at a KOA near Lafayette LA. I hope to be in Texas tomorrow. I didn't stop much in the "in between" states because I really wanted to be in Texas for the month of April for the wildflowers. The birds should also be good then.

Now on to explaining all these photos.

I'm not as good with Florida flowers as I am with Michigan flowers but these are definitely in the Pitcher plant family. I think they might be called Trumpets or Cobra Lillys. They're a couple feet tall! I found them in an incredible boggy meadow in the Apalachicola National Forest. It had at least three different kinds of pitcher plants, at least two kinds of Sundew, and possibly two kinds of butterwort (two different colors).


Here's one of the Sundews. These long thin leaves could be up to a foot long. Maybe more.


Along with flowers I shot some butterflies. I did some experimenting with flash on this one. I used to know the name of this one. If you figure it out please leave a comment.

I did a fair amount of reptile and amphibian photography too. Here's a pair of Cricket Frogs in the Apalachicola NF.


Here's an Eastern Spadefoot Toad that I almost stepped on at my campsite in the Ocala NF.


I can't remember where I found this Florida Cottonmouth. It was on a white gravel road somewhere.


This Dusky Pygmy Rattlesnake was also in a road. This time it was in the Apalachicola NF. Not to worry. I used a long lens and stayed well out range.

This Yellow Ratsnake was on a paved road in the Ocala. I don't know why it has it's body all kinked up like that but I though it looked interesting.

This glorious specimen is a Rough Green-snake. I picked it up off a road in Ocala NF.


This is either a Five-lined Skink or a Broadhead Skink. Can you help me out here Roy?

It was easy to shoot this Barred Owl from my truck while it checked me out.


This Limpkin made me work for the shot at Ocala NF


This marginal shot also took a lot of work at Apalachicola NF. It's a Red-cockaded Woodpecker. Do you see the distinguishing white check patch?

I better get some sleep now. Thanks for looking and keep praying.

Steve