Calliope Hummingbird

After a quick stop to pick up Subway sandwiches for a later picnic lunch, Lorna and I headed to Bentsen State Park with friends Brian and Jutta Plath. We sat, we waited, we walked - we walked five miles according to Jutta's cellphone app. (My phone only has birding apps .... which I cannot actually see.) The walking was extra; the important part was the sitting, talking, waiting for the Calliope Hummingbird to appear. Eventually we saw the bird just as two women walked up. They checked it off their "list", turned and walked back to their car. Life ain't fair. But then they missed two hours of Brian and me exchanging stories and lies. The Hummer was a male, just coming into breeding plumage. It was life bird for all of us.

The Calliope is the smallest bird in North America, 3" long, weighing 'as much as a ping-pong ball', and it really should not be in southeast deep Texas. Sometime birds have their own maps and evolution has her own purposes.

Here is a photo of a Black Phoebe that I shot as we walked out of the park. It is a Mexican and West Coast bird, another bird that is probably pushing its range into the Rio Grande Valley. Not a "lifer" for us, but still a very good bird. Like an Eastern Phoebe in a tuxedo.

Lifers may be good, but life is great. - Gunnar