A birding day with Jon. We didn’t go after a big day. We went after interesting birds. There have been a couple surf scoters on the water southeast of Kingsville. There has been a brant hanging out with a flock of snow geese in the same neighborhood. Both are good birds for Texas. One, the brant, is a lifer for me. On the way there, the purple sandpiper on the jetty at South Padre came up in conversation. (Jon hears about any unusual birds around.) A purple sandpiper? Another good bird for Texas, and also a lifer for me. Our fifty mile drive turned into a one hundred fifty mile drive. We were there by 10am. A purple sandpiper hanging out with a pack of ruddy turnstones at the very end of the jetty. It was cold and windy. We walked halfway out. It was wet and slippery. Waves were blowing over the rest of the jetty. Jon told me about a tropical parula in McAllen sixty miles inland. At that point, sixty miles to a life-bird sounded like a much better idea than two hundred dangerous yards to a life-bird, so off we went. We found the park where the tropical parula was supposed to be. We found two of them! Found other cool birds too, like plain chachalacas, white tipped doves, buff-bellied hummingbirds, golden fronted woodpeckers, green jays, long billed thrashers, a few warblers and gnatcatchers, and a black crested titmouse.
We didn’t go after a big day. We went after interesting birds. Altogether we listed seventy nine birds though; one of them a life-bird for me. Dark to dark. A four hundred eighty mile day.
