Do you ever watch the television show, Survivor?

  

Twenty or so contestants are divided into tribes, stranded on an island, provided minimal resources, and left to fend for themselves.  They work together, but once every three days they go to Tribal Council and vote one person off, until there is only one survivor left.  Survival skills are a factor.  Physical prowess is important to win challenges and be safe from being voted off.  And strategic thinking helps.  It's fun to watch.  Mostly.

 

The show is generally not about survival of the fittest.  Many times, strong physical players are voted off early because they might be a threat later on; players that are well suited to the challenge and might have gone down as some of the best players in the history of the game had they not fallen victim to a group of physically weaker players banding together against them, before they then turn on themselves in the end.

 

I enjoy Survivor all the way up until the end.  After 39 days, the final episode is settled by the last two or three players remaining, pleading their case to the jury for why they should win the million dollars; the jury consisting of the last 8 or 10 people that got voted out.  To make it to the end generally requires deception and hurt feelings.  At the final tribal council, the last players remaining, one at a time, often get gutted in front of everybody by hurt players looking to inflict maximum damage in turn for their betrayal.  The winner each season gets a million-dollar check, but I doubt many of them get to walk away feeling very good about themselves.  I don't enjoy that part.  I wish there was a way to change the dynamics and make the ending more of a celebration of a game well played.

 

The producers of the show put together the cast of characters for each season.  They don't know how the season will play out, but they can be sure to set up enough conflicting characters, enough of a dysfunctional family, that there will be plenty of drama.  I think I'd rather see a competition between stronger players well suited to the challenge.  Maybe one time they could select a group of Army Rangers to compete against a half dozen Marines, and a team of Navy Seals.  There might not be as much whining about being cold, wet, and hungry.  Actually, they probably wouldn't be nearly as cold, wet and hungry, being capable of building their own decent shelters, and better at understanding the resources around them.

 

I don't know how I could get what I would prefer out of the show without ruining it for everyone else and destroying its ratings though.  Survivor has been on for 40 episodes, over the course of 20 years, and is still highly rated.  I guess the show I just put together in my head would be the most boring, single-season, reality show ever.

 

 

 

Sometimes I wonder

  

Have you ever noticed that sometimes there are flies in the desert?  Who would expect that flies would like such an extreme environment?  Well, that's not what I'm currently wondering about.  When I am hiking in the desert and there are flies, I wonder if I'm swatting at the same six flies the whole time, that are just traveling with me, or are there that many flies every six feet?

 

 

 

 

Sunday

  

But I'm home now, writing about Saturday.

 

Loved the birding at Kickapoo Cavern.  I added two birds I had missed at two other places.

 

Del Rio to Kickapoo to Home

 

There is a bird blind with a water feature.  There are trails through good scrub and oak/juniper habitat.  Spent five hours there.  Found a bunch of good birds.  Surprisingly, I got the bird there that I tried for and missed at Blue Creek Trail the morning before.  Gray Vireo.  It came to the water feature at Kickapoo instead of me trying to chase him down through a gravel streambed for a mile.  Number 397.

 

The next bird, the Golden-cheeked Warbler, I missed the first day of this trip at South Llano River State Park.  Most of my looks at year-birds this trip have been fleeting, or have been heard-only like the Band-tailed Pigeon.  I got the pigeon very early in the morning on the first-light hike I made out of Chisos Basin in Big Bend.  I was stopped by the sound of a distant Great Horned Owl, calling even though it was a little light for that.  As I listen though, I realized the cadence was wrong.  A couple more hoots and I recognized the sound of a pigeon; kind of a moaning sound they make.  I played a tape of the Band-tailed Pigeon's call and it matched exactly!  That was my one and only contact with that bird this trip.

 

Anyway, the Golden-cheeked Warbler not only finally appeared for me but posed for as many photos I wanted to take.

 

 

 

Golden-cheeked Warbler.  Bird Number 398 for the year!  A very satisfying trip.  I don't know what the next two birds will be; there aren't any new birds in my immediate vicinity.  Wait.  Wood Stork.  That would be good.  I haven't seen one of them yet this year.  I know where to find them up near Corpus in the middle of summer.  Shouldn't be hard to find one more after bird that.  I've got six months to put together a plan…

 

 

 

Kickapoo Cavern State Park

  

A side-trip on the way home.  It was productive.  Birded there until after lunch.  When I finished, I drove another 350 miles home, so it's late.  Well, it feels late.

 

Del Rio to Kickapoo to Home

 

More tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Blue Creek Trail

  

One more bird before I go.  The Gray Vireo is known to live along the Blue Creek Trail.

 

Blue Creek Trail

 

Bright and early, on the trail.  It's a dry creek bed.

 

An abandoned ranch building along the way.

 

 

 

And more great scenery.

 

 

 

 

This hike under the watchful eye of the Chihuahuan Greater Earless Lizard.

 

 

I gave it two hours, saw and heard lots of other birds, but came up empty on the vireo count.

 

Tonight, I'm in Del Rio.

 

Big Bend to Del Rio

 

The bird count is holding at 396.  I've got one more spot near here to hit tomorrow morning on the way home.

 

 

 

Thursday

  

On the trail to Laguna Meadow.

 

I waited to start until I didn't need a headlamp so I wouldn't have to carry it all day.

 

 

 

 

 

Supervised enthusiastically by Mexican Jays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chisos Basin Trails

 

Up early and back down by noon.  I scored pretty well on the birds.  A swing and a miss on Cordilleran Flycatcher, but I saw Hutton's Vireo, and heard Black-chinned Sparrow, and Band-tailed Pigeon.  396.  That's about it for big bunches of birds though.  I've got one more bird to try for tomorrow morning, gray vireo, then it's a travel day back toward home.  I might end up in Del Rio by nightfall.

 

 

 

Wednesday

  

The internet signal evaporated.

 

Hiked into Boquillas Canyon.

 

Just a little climb to start, but the rest of the trail was easy.

 

 

 

 

Under the supervision of a Yellow-breasted Chat.

 

Had it all to myself.  Except for Raul.

 

He was there tending the tourists trinkets the residents of Boquillas del Carmen across the river leave out.  The border is closed here, but no problem.  He rides his horse across the ankle-deep river crossing and no-one hassles him.

 

Target birds, 0.  I just hiked up to the canyon because I wanted to.

 

Big Bend

 

Spent the rest of the morning in the vicinity of Rio Grande Village.

 

Got the Scott's Oriole.  Went back to the Sam Nail Ranch in the afternoon where I got the Plumbeous Warbler after all, and got a good look at the Varied Bunting too.

 

393 Birds.  Progress.

 

Tomorrow.  Off at first light to hike the Laguna Meadow trail.

 

 

 

1950 anyone?

  

 

 

The Fort Davis Inn and RV Park.

 

Fort Davis area

 

At Davis Mountains State Park and L.E. Wood Picnic Area, 8 target birds.  Saw the:

Elf Owl

Western Wood Pewee

Cassin's Kingbird

Bushtit

Hepatic Tanager

…and added a bird that wasn't even on the radar, a Broad-tailed Hummingbird!

 

Most of these birds were easy; they came to me at bird blinds.  (It's much too hot here in West Texas to walk in the sun for very long except in the early part of the day.)  Even the bushtits came rummaging through the blind, traveling in a little marauding pack as bushtits do, without visiting the feeders at all but just making a spectacle of themselves. 

 

The hummingbird is different.  At the picnic area high in the mountains, it roared past on screaming wings as only a broad-tailed hummingbird can do.  I didn't need to see any identifying marks; that wing screeching is characteristic.  The owl adventure did not go at all as planned.  It was a stakeout.  Sunset at 9pm, so I was there by 8:30; the little owl, according to local knowledge, scheduled to poke his head out the nest cavity in the utility pole at 9:15.  By 9:30 it was pretty dark.  By 9:50 it was too dark to see.  I had my eyes fixed on that pole the entire time, and I can testify that no owls went in or out of that hole during that time.  The owl had been reported feeding babies there a few days earlier.  Perhaps the young owls fledged and the hole is now vacant.  However, while I was still sitting there, knowing that the owl stakeout was a bust, I heard the distant calling of an elf owl.  That counts!  Elf owl!

 

Missed the:

Gray Flycatcher

Hutton's Vireo

Scott's Oriole

 

No problem.  I can try again tomorrow morning before I head to Big Bend.  New count: 390.

 

 

 

South Llano River State Park

  

I had 5 target birds.  I found 3 of them:

 

Bell's Vireo

Common Poorwill

…and Black-capped Vireo

 

Missed the Scott's Oriole and Golden-cheeked Warbler.

 

The Poorwill is cool because it's a night-bird.  All you have to do is wait until it gets dark and listen.  It has a distinctive repetitive call and knows how to use it!  The Bell's Vireo is easy because it came to me and chattered to get my attention.  The Black-capped Vireo was harder because I had to hunt it down.

 

Current count, 384.  Now I'm at Fort Davis.

 

2021 West Texas Trip

 

 

 

 

Time for more birds

  

When last we left off, we had just finished our spring migrant trip.  It was May 6, and our year-count was at 377.

 

Since then, we've gone to East Texas and picked up:

 

Red-cockaded Woodpecker

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Fish Crow

and Red-vented Bulbul

 

Now our count is at 381.  Only 19 birds to go!  I've gone off in the car to find some.  Judy stayed home.

 

Tonight, Junction, Texas.

 

2021 West Texas Trip

 

Tomorrow, Fort Davis!

 

 

 

The groomer strikes again

  

 

 

Pride Month and the Fourth of July!

 

 

 

Late bloomer

  

Even in this plant hardiness zone, the crape myrtle goes bare in the winter.  Every spring it fools us into wondering if it's dead.  It waits until late May to put out leaves.

 

Then we wonder if it's every going to bloom again.  Now, middle of June, it's just starting to put out flower clusters.

 

It will bloom by July.

 

 

 

So

  

Do you ever think about railroad sidings?

 

Not the big rail yards, but the ones we see along highways while driving.  There will be a main line with occasional sidings next to it.  Sometimes there will be trains pulled over on a siding, waiting for another train to pass so they can proceed on a clear track.  Sometimes there is just a line of rail cars parked there.

 

I notice that the two tracks always seem to be on different grades; one is always lower than the other.  My guess is that it's a safety issue and the lower track is always the siding.  If cars are left unattended on a siding and the brakes fail, don't want to take a chance on them rolling downhill to the main line and causing a crash.  They're less likely to roll "up" to a main line track if the siding is lower.  I googled it to see if I was right.  I like to arrive at my answer before I start the fact-finding.  Google says the sidings are lower because they don't have to hold as much weight as the main line, so they put less rock ballast under the siding track and using less ballast saves money.

 

 

 

 

Together again

  

 

 

 

One more from yesterday

  

A late arrival.  (The picture, not Christie.)

 

 

 

 

And now for something perfectly normal

  

It's Becky's birthday.  All the family that gathered yesterday, plus a few friends, are congregating today at Becky's house to celebrate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I got to be there to help sing happy birthday via duo call.

 

Happy Birthday, Becky!

 

 

 

Really

  

 

That's what killdeer nests look like.  A little pile of stones.

 

With eggs in it.

 

It's hard to see, even when you know it's there somewhere.

 

Airport and airplane day today.  Now I'm in Phoenix too with Judy, Matt, and family.