Day 10: Life Indexes

One element of my satisfaction index is the temperature differential between Alamo,Texas and Albert Lea, Minnesota, divided by the amount of money it costs to live in Alamo, minus the heating costs of the unoccupied house, plus the number of sunshine hours, multipled by avian encounters. It is overcast right now, but we should hit 80F. The forecast high in Albert Lea today is -2F. If this holds, plotted out on the existing line graph, my life may hit a year-to-year high today.

Day 9: Santa Ana

L.Berg

The photo above is for our birding companion from Munich (good eyes). It's a flock of Blue-winged Teal and  either a Cinnamon Teal or a Blue-winged / Cinnamon hybrid. I'm still voting Cinnamon. Auf Wiedersehen.

Day 8: Winter Home

Lorna is out on a guided birding outing. I'm taking a break from the birds, at least for this morning. 

The following is where we are living. It is not a "resort", at least in the manner of basking around a swimming pool drinking tropical fruit rum drinks ... resort. There are 9 units surrounding a courtyard/garden. The innkeepers home is also attached, but they have a large private yard on the backside of the units. There is a permanent resident above us and the innkeeper's adult daughter lives in one unit. The remainder of the residents are mostly birders who tend to return every year for varying lengths of time. 

This is home, Apartment One of the Westmor. The actual Alamo Inn is at the end of the square (see arrow last photo). The plants in front of our door have been selected for their butterfly attractant qualities and scent. My inner gardener escaped for a while yesterday and the innkeeper and I cut the plants back a little to regain some control.

Some shrubs from the garden.

The view of our Honda and the square, looking toward the Alamo Inn.

Day 7: Progreso, Estero Llano Grande

Morning - we went over the border into Nuevo Progreso, Mexico. We bought spices, honey and coffee beans. Progreso is a city that makes me very sad. Enough about Progreso.

After lunch we went to Estero Llano Grande State Park. A good day. We saw the usually group of suspects, plus a Black Phoebe. Even the rumored presence of a Black Phoebe had the birder set all a-twitter. The Black Phoebe illustrates that a relatively common bird that drifts out of it's normal range, overnight becomes a wonderful and prized bird to score. Actually we scored two of them, although they were hesitate to pose for pictures. Alas.

Blue-winged Teal

Pauraque

Inca Dove

Northern Pintail

Green-winged Teal

Kiskadee

Ringed Kingfisher

Great Horned Owl

And on the way home we stopped at the Blue Onion and had a great meal. Lorna had a Abbey Belgian style ale and I had a West Coast IPA. Actually two, 

Drunken Poet's Dream

Day 6: Bensten State Park:

Here's one for Ian Harrison, who is indifferent to ducks, but gets moist at the mere suggestion of a raptor.

Coopers Hawk

And one for me, a knockout bird lady.

More later, I gotta go sit in the sun.

Day 5: Frontera Audubon Center

A beautiful day. It was born a cool morning and grew up into a clear sunshiny day. We took a break from birding for a while and went to the Don-Wes flea market. We only bought essentials; Lorna picked up a deep bag for her yoga mat and I bought a vintage Pabst Blue Ribbon bottle opener.

An open note to Pence: I miss you, man. I wish you were down here. It ain't the same without you. 

After lunch we went to the Frontera Audubon Center in Weslaco. It's a small refuge, an old estate in the middle of town. There wasn't much there except a hundred Turkey Vultures, but it was a gorgeous day to be out. I am still a little puzzled how that many large birds finds enough dead things to eat. In town. If I was an old dog I wouldn't spent too much time laying in the sun.

Shortly before we left the center we joined a cluster of birders who were looking at a small mixed flock of warblers - Wilson's Warbler, a Black and White, a Black-Throated Green (a new one for me) and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. I can take pictures of things that stand up (or swim) out front and don't move too much. Nervous, twitchy little bits of feather fluff hiding a twiggy bushes are generally beyond my skillset. So, here's some trees. The sound of the wind rustle in high palms is just magic. Look at the pictures and squeeze your ears real tight and you can probably hear it.

Gungle

After we returned to Alamo, I sat out in the sun and smoked a spicy maduro torpedo. Later a neighbor joined me and we test fired the new bottle opener on a handful of assorted Minnesota brewed IPAs. It seemed to work pretty well.

Screw You, We're From Texas

Day 4: Delta Lake

We started our outing at the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands. There wasn't much afoot , er ... a-wing. I did see a Clay-Colored Robin and some other small flitting birds I couldn't I.D. It was another cold, misty day and while I was hiding in the car getting warm, Lorna saw a Lesser Goldfinch, so all was not lost.

In late morning we left to see what we could see at Delta Lake, up north of Elsa. At first it seemed like it was a bit of a bust, but then we found the channel linking the two lakes which proved to be a motherlode of shorebirds, vultures and various herons and egrets (sorry, I didn't get a good shot of the Snowy Egret)

It seemed like a pretty satisfying outing, and then as we were headed back south, Lorna spotted about fifty Sandhill Cranes feeding out in a field. A full day.

The small shorebirds can be difficult to I.D. Easy for me; I just call them all "peeps".

Black Vultures, postively creepy birds, just hanging out, waiting for something to die.

Roseate Spoonbill (young bird)

Common Egret

Great Blue Heron

Sandhill Cranes

Driving In Texas

It is a state law in Texas that a driver is actually required to attempt to pass the car ahead of them at all times, irregardless of conditions. Most drivers, particularly those in pickups, the vehicle of choice, seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere as fast as is humanly possible. Or sooner. A couple of times last winter, pickups honked at us for no apparent reason. Then it dawned on me, they had seen my Minnesota licence plates and they knew what I was capable of doing. They were merely preemptive honks. Texas driver, “When I retire, I’m going to move to Minnesota and drive reeeal slow.” (apologies to Al Batt)

Day 3: Santa Ana

Cold for the locale, about 45F and damp when we were out. There were birds of course, but I'm only posting the Olive Sparrow because it may be the first time I've seen one. I do not maintain a formal lifelist, which most birders seem to do. If a rare, beautiful bird manages to get in front of my binoculars I appreciate it. I just don't like running someplace to cut a rare bird notch on a list, then immediately begin searching for the next notch.

Day 2: Estero Llano Grande

Yesterday was very hot, today cool - a humid 55F with winds gusting to 37 mph. Nevertheless, your intrepid birder was out on the search, braving the elements. And she took her husband with her.

Least Grebe

Least Grebe

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

Ring-necked

 
Be well, stay warm - Gunnar