Multitasking.

 

…our way south.  Nueces County, where Port Aransas is, Kleberg, Kenedy, then Willacy.  Willacy County where we have 99 birds.  All we need is a Black-bellied Whistling Duck.  A Killdeer would do it.  We don’t have that bird in the county either.  How hard could it be?

 

I had a couple new places in Willacy County to try on the way back to Sandpipers; places we hadn’t been before.  A pond right off Farm Road 490 I didn’t know was there before.  Gulls, Snowy Egrets, a Least Tern, and some sandpipers.  No whistling ducks.  We drove the back roads past agricultural fields.  Surely we could spot a Killdeer in the open fields.  We got herons egrets, doves, flycatchers, Lark Sparrow; even Horned Larks.  No whistling ducks.

 

We drove west until we crossed into Hidalgo County.  That’s it, the end of the search for this trip.  Then I remembered the shape of Willacy County.  It’s odd; kind of like Nebraska.  It sticks out on top.  We turned north and crossed right back into Willacy.  One more pond to try; just north of Delta Lake.  We’d been there before, but it was dry.  Maybe it had rained since.  Maybe there was water in it for ducks.  We got there and it still looked dry.  We cruised it anyway, and there, standing in a tree, four whistling ducks.  Black-bellied Whistling Ducks.

 

Willacy County.  100 Birds!

 

Now we’re settled back in at Sandpipers.