Birding Etiquette

 

You can count a bird if you can see it.  My friend Jon tells me the bird doesn’t even have to be alive to count it.  Even if the bird is dead on the ground that means it was there.  There is one bird that the only Texas record for it is from a dead bird.  It was in Texas for a little while anyway.

 

I take that to mean that if I’m driving down the road and find a Ruddy Duck stuck in the radiator at the end of the day, I can count it.  Not only can I count it, but if it’s still there the next morning, I can count it again.  A Scarlet Tanager died in a tree at the Birding Center.  Jon got a Scarlet Tanager every day for two weeks!

 

So I wonder…..  how much of the bird do you actually have to see to make the call?  If there is an unseen bird in a bush and a Cardinal sticks his head out, you don’t have to see the whole bird to make the call.  It was a Cardinal.  So you don’t have to see the entire bird, and the bird doesn’t even need to be alive, you just have to see enough of it to be able to make the call.

 

Three days ago I was walking on the boardwalk at Charlie’s Pasture.  I saw a feather.  I know what bird that feather came from.  I don’t need any more information about that bird to make the call, so I’m making it.  Roseate Spoonbill.  Not only that, I’ve gotten the Roseate Spoonbill three days in a row now…

 

 

Christmas lights

It’s not like the old days at the house, with Christmas lights
http://steveandjudystravelblog.blogspot.com/2002/12/christmas-house.html

and yard trains…
http://steveandjudystravelblog.blogspot.com/2000/12/trains_13.html

But our lights, and Ron and Linda’s lights are up. Palm trees and Christmas lights:

Charlie's Pasture

Port Aransas was a great place to bird already, with the Birding Center, Paradise Pond, and Jetty Beach. This year the city added another habitat, the boardwalk out from Charlie’s pasture. It’ a three-mile round-trip walk through the Laguna Madre mudflats.

What would you get.

 

…if you combined James Taylor, a police megaphone, and the world’s coolest mechanical drum machine?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZx9K5Mm8Yg

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving

An early dinner at Bear and Shortie’s. Deep fried turkeys. Bring a dish. A good time was had by all.

What a difference a day makes

From one day to the next.

A new arrival at our house

It’s a Droid.

Blackberry

Sad telephone news. Judy’s Blackberry phone leaped off the hood of our car for no reason while we were going down Highway 361 at 60 mph. We went back and retrieved it, but it got run over by three cars, a pickup truck, and a fifth-wheel trailer before we could get if off the road. I don’t think it’s ever going to work again...


The battery is gone.

Annie meets the Christmas Flamingo

Saturday

The clouds parted:

Weather

The storm is in its final stages. We got 7 inches of rain so far. A little more and we’ll be done. Clear weather tomorrow.

Along the way
Scissor-tail flycatcher

Thursday

 

Annie is back!  Regardless of what her blood chemistry says, she’s back at full speed; eating, drinking, running, playing, sleeping, digging crabs on the beach; all with enthusiasm.

 

And the coots are back.  We’ve been cootless until this morning.  It was nice to see them paddling around the pond.  We don’t know if it’s the same pair as last year yet, because they haven’t actually knocked on the door demanding food, but they might be last year’s coots.  One turtle is back too.  We tossed some dog kibble out on the water and he came right over.  Nessie, the grass carp, lurks just below the surface in the shallows.

 

Smooth weather today, but there is a big storm coming.  Strong thunderstorms.  Not cold; 70 degrees.  Heavy rain.  Predictions of up to 6” of rain.  Accumulation in the ponds tends to run about 4 to 1, so if it rains 6”, the pond water should rise 2 feet.  Judy put a 1 foot stake in the ground at the water’s edge.  If we get the predicted rain, the top of that stake should be a foot underwater.

 

Got the rain gauge out, the chairs all put up, the leaky slide closed, the awnings all retracted.  We’re ready.  In the meantime, Tropical Pie Night at the Welcome Center, compliments of Susan and Carol.  Key Lime, Mandarin Orange, Lemon Merangue, and Grapefruit Pie.  It took two trips down the pie table, but we got to sample them all.  Dessert before dinner.  Don’t need much dinner after that.

 

 

The pelican commute

Texting

 

Early on at the conference they told us that the more technologically advanced accountants text.  I don’t text.  I have email and I’m always at my computer, so why do I need to text?

 

So there I was in class, cellphone in my pocket, sound set to stun (silent), time on my hands, thought I’d try some out-of-sight under-the-desk texting.  I sent a couple notes to Judy.  It’s tedious, texting with a telephone keypad, but it works.  I put the phone away.

 

Later, my attention was drawn to a beeping noise.  I checked; it wasn’t my phone.  I looked around.  Took me a few minutes to spot the person with their hands down low, typing furiously away on a full smartphone keypad.  That person’s hearing must be even worse than mine.  That telephone was not set to run silent.  Every out-of-sight under-the-desk keystroke was accompanied by a distinct audible beep.

 

Maybe accountants shouldn’t text after all.

 

 

Blog

 

We get to track which blog pages get looked at the most.  Not the most altogether, but out of the last 500 pageloads.  The current leader?... one of the first video clips we did; all the way back in July.  No references to it since then, but it’s still at the top of the pack.  Feeding the turtles.

 

http://steveandjudystravelblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/turtles.html

 

We expected to see turtles when we got back to Gulf Waters, but not so.  None.  No turtles in the pond.  No turtles knocking on our door in the morning for food.  No coots either.  Guess all the turtles and coots flew north for the summer.  We’ll just have to wait for their return.

 

 

Life on the beach

The sights and sounds

Life bird

Heard he was there while we were still in Florida. He waited for us to get back to Texas. Today we drove to 75 acre lake at Choke Canyon State Park. At the southwest corner of the lake, other side from us, walking on the plants on the surface of the water, black and chestnut bird, yellow underwings, yellow shield on his forehead. Northern Jacana.

Tropical bird. Rare for the U.S. He doesn’t come here every year. 200 mile round trip for us.
We didn’t get a good picture. Here are a couple pictures someone else took though:

Our pond

Four Long-billed Dowitchers and a Dunlin doing their best sewing machine impression.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Sunny. 78 degrees. Light breeze.

Mrs. Grackle enjoying the spilling-pot fountain.


Mr. Grackle.

Home again

Back to the beach. Our spot on the pond. Glad to be here.

Port Aransas to Port Aransas, by way of Colorado, West Yellowstone, Glacier, Jasper Alberta, Dakota Badlands, St Louis, Key West, and Orlando.

9,830 miles.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00046ff7cac9ae98ff560&ll=36.527295,-107.841797&spn=31.646879,78.662109&z=4

Tuesday

Back to Texas. We didn’t drive all the way home today, but almost. We stopped for the night in Victoria. It will be a short day tomorrow and we’ll be back on the beach.

A blue-sky day. Basically sea level. We got above 100 feet in elevation today, but that was on top of a bridge.

9,745 miles.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00046ff7cac9ae98ff560&ll=30.145127,-94.394531&spn=33.924854,78.662109&z=4

Along the way:
That bridge we like so much, the one across the Atchafalaya; there is a rest area in the middle, and a dedication:

The Atchafalaya Elevated Expressway.

Louisiana

 

You get a little way away from the coast and the craziest thing happens; the temperature drops right down into the sixties at night.  Brrr.

 

We blasted west ahead of the hurricane.  Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana.  The 30 mile bridge across the Atchafalaya.  We thought we were choosing between a hurricane to our south and a heavy rainstorm to our west.  We were ready for the rain.  The rain hardly happened.  It was a cloudy tailwind day (we got 9mpg).  Easy driving.  We ended up well north of the freeway, north of Lake Charles for the night.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00046ff7cac9ae98ff560&ll=30.145127,-94.394531&spn=33.924854,78.662109&z=4

 

Watching the weather channel, Pensacola (where we were last night) is getting hammered.  It’s not a big hurricane, but even a tropical storm is still a lot of weather. 

 

Go Broncos.

 

 

Sunday

Awake early. On the road early. North on the Florida Turnpike. North on Interstate 75. West on 10. Great roads in Florida. No frost heaves.

Keeping an eye on the sky. There’s a hurricane a’comin. It’s projected to make landfall at Pensacola Tuesday. That’s where we are now. We’ll be long gone by tomorrow night and the hurricane won’t even make landfall until a day after that.

We’re keeping an eye out and timing our run, anyway.

Along the way:

Been looking at the weather maps. There are storms ahead of us too. 9,025 miles into this trip. We’re this close. 720 miles to go to Port A. C’mon weather. Give us just a little bit longer…

Kissimmee

Finished the conference today. It was a good. It inspires me to work more on our processes; optimizing and documenting them, and improving the equipment we use. Time for some dedicated scanners.

Annie’s blood chemistry is still off, but she seems much better. She runs and plays again.

Along the way: the bagworm moth. The female covers herself with bits of whatever is handy before she hangs herself upside down from a branch.

Tomorrow, we start the trek back to the beach; the Texas beach. We’re 1,200 miles away.

October birds

 

What a great birding month we had in October.  143 birds.  Several of them were unusual for us.  5 were lifers.

 

1		Canada Goose		Missouri
2		Wood Duck		Illinois
3		Mallard		Illinois
4		Mottled Duck		Florida
5		Wild Turkey		Tennessee
6		Pied-billed Grebe		Illinois
7		MASKED BOOBY		Florida
8		BROWN BOOBY		Florida
9		Brown Pelican		South Carolina
10		Double-crested Cormorant		Illinois
11		Anhinga		Georgia
12		Magnificent Frigatebird		Florida
13		Great Blue Heron		Nebraska
14		Great Egret		Illinois
15		Snowy Egret		South Carolina
16		Little Blue Heron		South Carolina
17		Tricolored Heron		Florida
18		Reddish Egret		Florida
19		Cattle Egret		Florida
20		Green Heron		Illinois
21		Black-crowned Night-Heron		South Carolina
22		Yellow-crowned Night-Heron		Florida
23		White Ibis		South Carolina
24		Glossy Ibis		Florida
25		Roseate Spoonbill		Florida
26		Wood Stork		Georgia
27		Black Vulture		Tennessee
28		Turkey Vulture		Nebraska
29		Osprey		South Carolina
30		SNAIL KITE		Florida
31		Bald Eagle		Missouri
32		Northern Harrier		Florida
33		Sharp-shinned Hawk		Missouri
34		Cooper's Hawk		Florida
35		Red-shouldered Hawk		Florida
36		Red-tailed Hawk		Missouri
37		American Kestrel		Georgia
38		Merlin		Florida
39		Peregrine Falcon		Florida
40		Clapper Rail		Florida
41		Common Moorhen		Florida
42		American Coot		Illinois
43		LIMPKIN		Florida
44		Sandhill Crane		Florida
45		Black-bellied Plover		South Carolina
46		Wilson's Plover		Florida
47		Semipalmated Plover		Florida
48		Killdeer		Illinois
49		Spotted Sandpiper		Florida
50		Solitary Sandpiper		Florida
51		Greater Yellowlegs		Florida
52		Willet		Florida
53		Lesser Yellowlegs		Florida
54		Whimbrel		Florida
55		Ruddy Turnstone		Florida
56		Sanderling		Florida
57		Western Sandpiper		Florida
58		Least Sandpiper		Florida
59		Dunlin		Florida
60		Short-billed Dowitcher		Florida
61		Laughing Gull		South Carolina
62		Ring-billed Gull		Illinois
63		Caspian Tern		Florida
64		Royal Tern		South Carolina
65		Sandwich Tern		South Carolina
66		Black Skimmer		South Carolina
67		Rock Pigeon		Missouri
68		White-crowned Pigeon		Florida
69		Eurasian Collared-Dove		Nebraska
70		White-winged Dove		Florida
71		Mourning Dove		Missouri
72		Common Ground-Dove		Florida
73		Yellow-billed Cuckoo		Georgia
74		Eastern Screech-Owl		Florida
75		Great Horned Owl		Florida
76		Barred Owl		Georgia
77		Common Nighthawk		Florida
78		Chimney Swift		Illinois
79		Ruby-throated Hummingbird		Florida
80		Belted Kingfisher		Nebraska
81		Red-bellied Woodpecker		Tennessee
82		Downy Woodpecker		Illinois
83		Hairy Woodpecker		Florida
84		Northern Flicker		Nebraska
85		Eastern Wood-Pewee		Florida
86		Eastern Phoebe		Illinois
87		Western Kingbird		Florida
88		Scissor-tailed Flycatcher		Florida
89		Loggerhead Shrike		Florida
90		White-eyed Vireo		Georgia
91		Yellow-throated Vireo		Florida
92		Philadelphia Vireo		Georgia
93		Blue Jay		Missouri
94		American Crow		Missouri
95		Fish Crow		Georgia
96		Tree Swallow		Florida
97		Northern Rough-winged Swallow		Illinois
98		Bank Swallow		Florida
99		Cliff Swallow		Florida
100		Barn Swallow		Florida
101		Carolina Chickadee		Illinois
102		Tufted Titmouse		Tennessee
103		Red-breasted Nuthatch		Georgia
104		White-breasted Nuthatch		Georgia
105		Carolina Wren		Missouri
106		Ruby-crowned Kinglet		Illinois
107		Blue-gray Gnatcatcher		Florida
108		Eastern Bluebird		Tennessee
109		Swainson's Thrush		South Carolina
110		Hermit Thrush		South Carolina
111		Wood Thrush		South Carolina
112		American Robin		Illinois
113		Gray Catbird		Georgia
114		Northern Mockingbird		Illinois
115		Brown Thrasher		Georgia
116		European Starling		Missouri
117		COMMON MYNA		Florida
118		Cedar Waxwing		South Carolina
119		Northern Parula		Florida
120		Black-throated Blue Warbler		South Carolina
121		Yellow-throated Warbler		Florida
122		Pine Warbler		Georgia
123		Prairie Warbler		Georgia
124		Palm Warbler		Georgia
125		Black-and-white Warbler		Georgia
126		American Redstart		Georgia
127		Ovenbird		Florida
128		Northern Waterthrush		Florida
129		Common Yellowthroat		South Carolina
130		Summer Tanager		Georgia
131		Eastern Towhee		South Carolina
132		Chipping Sparrow		Illinois
133		Northern Cardinal		Illinois
134		Indigo Bunting		Florida
135		Red-winged Blackbird		Missouri
136		Western Meadowlark		Nebraska
137		Brewer's Blackbird		Nebraska
138		Common Grackle		Nebraska
139		Boat-tailed Grackle		South Carolina
140		House Finch		South Carolina
141		American Goldfinch		Illinois
142		House Sparrow		Illinois
143		EURASIAN TREE SPARROW		Missouri