Sunday, April 27, 2008

Home

Back to North Carolina and it is still raining!

Peach anyone?

Rain

We are just outside of Greenville, SC and it is pouring down rain. It was
raining when we left Texas and it has rained most of the way home.

We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, filled the truck up with petrol and added some oil. Headed home.

Slept in at a cracker barrel in georgia at exit 18. Slept good. Its raining again... Rained all day yesterday.

We are in Georgia.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

New Orleans

We decided to take 10 through New Orleans. It was raining so we couldn't
see great. We did see a lot of damage on the East side. No shots fired.

Louisiana Visitor Center

We stopped by the Louisiana Visitors Center at the Atchafalaya Basin. This
is the nations largest swamp, covering nearly 1 million acres. Lisa would
not ride the turtle, so we took a picture beside of him.
This was an awesome visitors center, located off the 18 mile Basin Bridge.
They even had a talking turtle and raccoon. How cool is that?

Fins Up! Jimmy Buffett live from Frisco, TX.

Mississippi here we are

Trash can - jumbo size

Cajun Tails

We are going to give the Cajun Tails a thumbs down. Very slow and food not
so good.

crawfish cocktail

Here at at the Cajun Tails Restaurant.

Lisa looks like O, she will not even look at them.

Gotta keep'm down in LA

All the gravesites have stones on top.

Welcome to Louisiana

Departing

We birded this morning for a couple of hours and got 10 species of warblers
at Sabine Woods. We left at 10:40am headed for NC. It is raining so that
makes it a little easier to leave.

Breakfast

Breakfast on the beach just down from Sea Rim State Park.

Got an email from Doug, he is already back in Canada!

A bit of birding at The Willows and Sabine Woods and it all comes to a
close.

Put the candle in the window, I'm coming home.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Had a recount. 15 warblers after 5pm today! 83 species total for the day.

Sabine Woods

Here was the scene at Sabine Woods tonight. It was packed with both people
and warblers.

We found 13 species of warblers after 5pm. How cool is that?

People were stacked 5 deep at the dripper watching the birds.

Unfortunately sometime tomorrow we will have to start heading home...

Sea Rim

Yup, same beach we got stuck on. I'm not sure what that says.

We had an awesome day today.

N29.66267
W94.08916

Heading to the beach at Sea Rim. May not have service tonight...

Several lifers at Anahuac. Several administrative tasks done. Off to Sabine Woods in search of warblers.

Lunchtime view at Anahuac

A few birds at Smith Oaks, but not many. Headed off to Anahuac.

Up

Up and headed out looking for warblers at Smith Oaks Santuary at High
Island,TX.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

pepe's feet

Pepe should've used a little Ocean Potion sunscreen today out on Bolivar
flats.

We were out for about an hour and we both got too much sun.

Great birds at Bolivar flats including long bulled curlew, american
avocets, tons of plovers and sandpipers. No frigatebirds though... :-)

We talked to some guys fishing at Bolivar today in the inland waterway.
They were using 20lb class tackle which I thought to be big. They said
they catch catfish and "bull reds" aka redfish aka red drum. How wierd is
that? Catfish and drum at the same spot.

packed

Smith Oaks at High Island,TX was packed tonight. There were people
everywhere, too many people because with people come bozos.

We did see quite a few birds after dinner though. The rookery is full.
All the rookery species have chicks now including roseate spoonbills.

Sapsuckers

All the yellow-bellied sapsuckers around here don't get to eat like this!

Current

We are at Smith Oaks at High Island, TX.

Lisa is making dinner then we will go out birding here.

There is a Bigfoot TC here as well.

I might should have put on sunscreen out on the flats today. Me arms are
looking a little red.

And now the rest of the story

Next door to the Firehouse Grill is the Gilcrest Volunteer Fire Department
(VFD).

Think about it. The Firehouse Grill burned and was next too the fire
depqartment!

Special, you won't see this

I guess it got a little too hot at the Firehouse Grill. They had a bad
fire! This was in Gilcrest, TX inbetween Bolivar and High Island.

Midday

Went to Bolivar Flats, lots of shore birds, teaming with peeps. Great looks
at reddish egrets. Headed to Rollover Pass.

Mornin

Got up this morning and had a conference call then we took off for Bolivar
Flats.

We missed a couple roads and ended up on the street level of Houston which
was a barrel of monkeys. We finally got turned around and back on the big
roads.

Minor run in with a fruitcake old dude who thought he needed to be in front
of us on the ferry. But, then a frigatebird flew over and made it all
better. Did you catch that? A magnificent frigatebird! How cool is that?

At a wal mart in wharton,tx. Off to high island,tx and bolivar flats tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

In search of white collared seedeater

We are in Zapata. Didn't first time around.

Pizza Hut was too much so we are eating there and then will try again. If
no luck we'll go to San Ignacio.

El Rio RV Park

This morning we went to the old El Rio RV Park. We are now off to Zapata in
search of the white-collared seedeater.

Up

We are up an getting ready. Slept great with the A/C here last night.
That was only the fourth time we've used hookups and twice were here at
Falcon Dam State Park.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

camp spot

It is 96 degrees here so we went to Falcon State Park.

Full hookups here including power! The A/C is working and it feels good.

salenino

The view at Salenino. We didn't see many birds here...

We did see a couple coming to America. Sucessfully I might add.

Midday update

We are headed to Roma. Doug, that we met last night, joined us on our bike
ride this morning and asked if he could follow along today. We have crossed
paths with him several times over the past week at different birding
locations. Doug is here from Canada on a birding trip.

Hawk Watch tower at Bentsen

All went well last night

Camp

Camped at Bentsen.

Met a couple of interesting people tonight while looking for owls. We just
got in.

Also met a Border Patrol guy. He was very nice.

Only heard eastern screech owl, saw common nighthawk, and heard common
paraque. A three nightjar day! Got a chuck wills widow earlier. Even a
perched photo! How cool is that?

Monday, April 21, 2008

Short term fix

Duct tape! I left a hole in the middle so it would still vent.

Snowbird campground behind us

Oops

Looks like we've lost a cap off the vent for the black tank.

Any negative implications of this?

Bensen State Park

We are at Bensen State Park making dinner. It is very hot outside so we
are planning to go in in a little while.

Santa Ana was a little slow but we did see the groove billed anis and black
crested titmouse plus a bonus kentucky warbler!

Did I mention it was hot?

Hawk watch tower

At Santa Ana NWR. It is about 5? stories high.

Allen Williams Santuary is Pharr

It was definately a special place. He has worked very hard to create bird
habitat.

We met him after a little while. 40s dude, clean cut pretty boy. Very
nice guy.

Also found out Bentam Basham had been there the night before...

Santa Ana NWR

This should be great if the cloud cover will hold.

Up and off in search of parrots

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Edinburg Wetlands

Edinburg Wetlands in Edinburg, TX.

Another meeting

Tonight while we were watching the green parakeets I noticed a car that
went by a couple times. It came back and parked about ten spots down at a
strip mall we were parked in.

A young guy and girl jumped out and started looking at the parakeets too.
After a few minutes he came over and asked if I spoke spanish. My spanish
is non-existent so he communicated in English. We communicated semi ok.
He called his girlfriend over who spoke very good English to translate.
Robert and Ingrid were from Montery Mexico where he worked in a bird
santuary.

They didn't know where NC was so we showed them on a map. They couldn't
believe we drove this far to look at birds
.
It was pretty neat chatting with them.

police thing

We've seen a couple of these odd police things around Mcallen tonight. The
only other time we've seen such was by the border patrol.

camp spot

Sams club tonight is Mcallen,TX.

Green Parakeets in Mcallen

This could be the most memorable moment of the trip.

We positioned ourselves on 10th Street inbetween Dove and Violet streets,
about a half mile stretch. It looked like a huge area to look for
parakeets. After about 10 minutes the birds were everywhere by the
hundreds. We estimate 2000 by the time we left.

chiggers

When they put a sign up like this keep your butt off the ground.

This was at Edinburg Wetlands in Edinburg, TX.

In search of green parakeets in mcallen

spread

The spread at Bigos. Limes, beans, pica de gallo, spicey sauce, cheese
stuff, and tortillas. Then they brought lunch!

guess what we found...

Yup Bigos restrauant. In Brownsville, TX no less.

We almost got more than we bargained for here. They don't speak english...
Lisa trying to order sweet tea was priceless.

the resacaca

At Sabel Palm

rio grande

Our first looks at the Rio Grande this trip. Not a single bird though...

Rio Grande

Today begins our birding along the Rio Grande river. We'll be on the river
for about 3 days.

Sabel Palm

A pic of the burnt area from the fire at Sabel Palm.