Travel Day

Wednesday.  We left our home in the Valley to rejoin our home at the beach.  Now we’re bihomal.

 

A few migrant birds in the neighborhood.  Five different warblers and a waterthrush today.

 

Tonight’s entertainment:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02CSMHKg7tc

 

 

I don't think I said what I meant to say

 

We didn’t see the Mitred Parakeets here at Sandpipers; they’re not here.  We saw them in October 2009 in South Miami, Florida.  We didn’t get to put them on the life-list then, because there wasn’t a spot to put them in the Thayer Birding Software.  Now, over a year later, using eBird, there is a place to put the Mitred Parakeet.  So we got a new bird without leaving Sandpipers not by seeing it here, but by recording something we saw a year ago.

 

 

Mitred Parakeet

Got another lifer today, without leaving Sandpipers. I got to thinking about exotic birds we’ve seen but couldn’t count because they weren’t listed in our birding program.

We’ve seen Great White Herons in the Keys. They’re white morphs of the Great Blue Heron. Mitred parakeets in Miami, they’re escapees that may have established breeding populations. It’s hard to tell with parrots because they live so long a few escapees can look like a breeding colony for fifty years, then die out. Wild Peafowl outside the Everglades. Maybe escapees, maybe an established population. Junglefowl in Key West. They’ve been there for years, but haven’t been studied and recognized as an independent population. Peach–faced Lovebirds in Mesa, Arizona. They look well established, but there is that problem with parrots again. They live so long.

Well, guess what…. Now we’re working with eBird, a different birding program. eBird lets us count the Mitred Parakeet. Another Life Bird!

Here is the reason

I didn’t send out any pictures of the White-collared Seedeater:

This is the best picture I got! He’s there on the right.

Judy pointed out this morning that this is our one-week anniversary in our new place. One week? That’s all? It already feels like we’ve always been here.

We hosted a housewarming get-together this afternoon. Judy spent the morning putting together a ton of food; pinwheel wraps, sausage in sauce, 7 layer dip, hot artichoke dip and toasted focaccia bread, fruit dip, plus, of course, the usual salsa and guacamole. We got to show off the house. 75 degree calm sunny weather, so it was comfortable to be inside or out. All the food got eaten. Nice neighbors. Nice neighborhood. That was fun.

And spring has sprung. Birds have been here the whole time, but suddenly the mockingbirds are singing every morning. We saw a scissor-tailed flycatcher yesterday.

A good investment

We have tried for the White-collared Seedeater before with little luck. It has been on our mind for years; to get it when the opportunity presented itself. Today the opportunity and the bird presented themselves.

For the last week or so there have been a couple seedeaters seen reliably at San Ygnacio, upriver from here. We got up at 4:30 to be there by 8am. We ran into Joel, the guy who has been reporting it every day and he led us right to it. Three white-collared Seedeaters in all! A nice long look at them.

An early start. 250 miles. A little tired tonight. Life bird. It was a good time and energy investment.

We didn’t get a good picture of him. Here’s a Black-throated Sparrow instead:

A few years ago

it would have been a big deal to buy a 32” Hi Def television. Now, this one was so inexpensive it’s just the one we bought to have something until we decide what we really want.

And what a difference five years makes! This picture is *so* much better than on the state-of-the art “HD ready” TV that came in our motorhome.

Day 3

 

Our television got delivered at eleven.  At noon the dish network guy put the satellite dish up on the roof.  Now we’re wired.

 

Judy demonstrated that the broiler and smoke alarm both work.

 

 

Day 4

 

Judy mowed the yard.  Brother Tom and Kathy came for a nice afternoon visit.