House Sparrows

 

 

 

Really really clean house sparrows.

 

 

When we were kids in California

 

 

We didn’t’ get to see cardinals.  They weren’t there.  They’re a southern and eastern thing.

 

We can see them every day here in South Texas though.

 

 

And they still seem special.

 

Hummingbirds

 

 

She thinks we don’t know where she is.

 

These little migrating miracles.

 

They can flap their wings 50 times a second.  Their hearts can beat 1,200 times per minute.  Bulking up for migration, they can consume up to 3 times their body weight every day.  Then they fly 500 miles nonstop straight across the Gulf!

 

A hooded oriole

 

 

 

In the thicket behind our house.

 

A citizen of the southwest, from South Texas to California, the hooded oriole eats insects, nectar, and fruit, so we don’t see it at feeders, unless it’s plundering a hummingbird feeder.

 

Rufous Hummingbird

 

 

A female rufous.

 

Both the male and female aggressively defend feeders, as long as they’re here, and chase even larger hummingbirds away.

 

So here it is, the fearsome rufous.

 

Hummingbirds

 

 

The fall migration has begun.  We’re got half a dozen hummingbirds visiting the feeders each day.

 

Four different kinds: the resident buff-bellied which are here all year, black-chinned, rufous, and ruby-throated.  These would be the ruby-throated:

 

 

 

 

It’s a nice day

 

 

…for a walk in the park in town.

 

 

And the reason we’re in town is to see the dentist.

 

 

I preferred the park.

 

August

 

It’s still hot, but it has cooled a little.  The daytime highs are now more like 95 than 100.  It’s too hot to do much outside in the middle of the day, but know what I’m going to miss as the weather cools?  Opening the door in the morning at 80 degrees.  80 degrees just feels so warm and comfortable when I open that door, having had the house at 65 degrees all night for a cool good night’s sleep under a down blanket.  Stepping out onto the deck at 80 degrees is like being wrapped in a warm blanket or slipping into a warm bath.  It feels so good out there in the morning and again in the evening when it drops below 90.

 

So, when the midday temperature is more comfortable, I’ll be missing that warm morning weather hug when I open the door.

 

 

I miss Mary Gustafson

 

 

It’s not that we were close.  We were friendly acquaintances.  But she was always there.  She was a solid birding resource, working all over the valley protecting birds and habitat.  Visible.  Available.  I could call her, and she would help me through difficult I.D.s, and with recording unusual sightings.  We would run into each other out watching birds from time to time.

 

Then I heard she died.  I didn’t even know about her health issues until after the fact. 

 

This spring, I ran across this memorial at the National Butterfly Center.  I wasn’t expecting it.  I was just out for a walk to the river.  It struck me out of the blue.  It brought her right back to my thoughts.  I’m glad it’s there.

 

I love the quote about why she spent the last ten years helping out the Butterfly Center as a volunteer: 

 

 

“Because butterflies are good bird food.”

 

Her sense of humor.

 

Tri-colored Heron

 

 

Like a great-blue heron, but different.

 

It’s about half the size of a great blue.

 

And it’s not ubiquitous.  It prefers coastal marshes in the southeast and along the gulf coast.

 

The ubiquitous

 

 

Great-blue Heron.

 

 

 

 

What is this?

 

 

A flock of birds flew in

 

They were big, and really busy, circling, diving, climbing.  What are they?  We get a clue from this one.  That tail.

 

And that shape.

 

These are frigatebirds.

 

Dropping in to the Birding Center for a quick visit.

 

 

A snowy egret

 

 

 

 

I think his hair is on fire.

 

Another milestone

 

 

This weekend, Austin moved into a dorm room to begin his studies at Arizona State University.

 

 

We weren’t there, but Matt and Lindsay were.

 

 

Judy and I remember how hard it is to let go.

 

NFL

 

 

The Denver Broncos did well last season.  They made the playoffs.  Maybe they’ll do even better this year.  We don’t get many television broadcasts of Broncos games down here in the Valley, so if we want to watch them, we have to buy the NFL Sunday Ticket package.  That lets us watch every out of market game.  $350.  Pretty steep, but okay.  We’ll do it.

 

But wait, to buy the Sunday Ticket package, this year we have to subscribe to YouTube TV first.  Okay.  No problem.  How much is that?

 

What?  A thousand dollars a year to subscribe to YouTube TV, so we can then pay $350 for Sunday Ticket?

 

Okay.  We can listen to every Bronco game on the Sirius XM radio that we already have in the cars.  That will have to do until the playoffs when every game is televised.

 

The Three Amigos

 

 

Firebush, Lantana, Esperanza.

 

 

But the Lantana is looking a mite peaked.

 

A little dry perhaps.  Maybe it needs more water…

 

Home again

 

 

I don’t know why several of the vertebrae in my neck crumbled, but the surgeon rebuilt and fused them all together almost ten years ago.  I don’t know why, since then, there has been no further degradation, but I’ll take the good news.  There have been no discernable changes in the x-rays.

 

Judy’s knee on the other hand.  It was first replaced in 2020, then the revision was done last year.  She has full use of it; we walk, hike, and go up and down stairs together.  But it still hurts.  The doctor found nothing structurally wrong with it today, which is a good thing.  We’ll try some more physical therapy for more strengthening and range of motion and see if that helps.

 

 

There is a lot of cotton in the fields up around Corpus Christi that is ready to harvest.

 

It’s Ortho Day

 

 

Today, Judy and I drove to Corpus Christi for orthopedic follow-up appointments tomorrow.  Knee for her; it has been about a year since the revision.  Neck for me; it has been many years since my neck surgery, and I’m supposed to follow-up from time-to-time to make sure everything is still in alignment.

 

When we got here this afternoon, we were able to pop over to the Birding Center in Port A to see the flamingo.

 

 

 

A wandering lost flamingo, but he looks pretty comfortable here.

 

Wait

 

 

 

That’s not a lizard.

 

That’s a skink!

 

Well, technically, a skink is a kind of lizard, and they eat the same stuff as other lizards, but they look so different.  Smooth and shiny, more like a salamander than a dull dry lizard.