Along the way

  

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

 

 

Olive Sparrow.

 

 

Henry and Jesse.

 

 

And a Great Horned Owl.

 

 

Remaining count.  272.

 

 

 

Morelet’s Seedeater

  

The last time we saw this bird was in 2016.

 

We’ve been searching for, and missing this seedeater at least ten times in the last five years. We missed again at Salineno every day this trip.  We saw fifty other birds there; it’s a glorious place to bird; but every time, no seedeater.  Until this morning.  In the pre-dawn light.  One more try.  I was the only one looking today.  And the luckiest person there!  Success!  The Seedeater!

 

 

A quick glimpse.  A quick photograph, (and the best shot I’ve ever gotten of one).  A good get, because this is almost the only place in the United States to find them.

 

Back to the rig by 8:30 to pack up and move.  210 miles from Falcon State Park to Goose Island State Park.

 

Falcon to Goose map

 

As soon as we got set up here,

 

 

we drove over to the Whooping Crane Field by the Big Tree

 

Birding Sites Map

 

And spotted a pair of whooping cranes.

 

 

And a pack of sandhill cranes.

 

Sandhill Cranes are cool, but Whooping Cranes are special.  There used to be 20,000 of them, but with hunting and habitat loss, the population dwindled to a single flock of 15 birds in 1941.  The cranes migrate between the South Texas Coast and Northern Canada every year, so it took international cooperation to protect them.  They are still a rare bird.  There are a little over 500 of them now.

 

Henry, exhausted after a day of birding.

 

 

Species remaining for our count to get to 400.  293.

 

 

 

Salineno in the morning

  

 

Salineno Map

 

 

Very close to Falcon State Park.

 

 

But very different.

 

 

 

 

Birds remaining.  308.

 

 

 

How to camp in a pickup camper

  

Buy a pickup camper.  Buy a flatbed trailer.  Put the camper on the trailer.  Tow the pickup camper and flatbed trailer combination with your pickup truck.

 

 

That's one way to do it.

 

Birds remaining.  317.

 

 

 

Nature’s most perfect food

  

For an orange crowned warbler.

 

Marshmallows.

 

And no complaints from the verdin either.

 

Second choice, the homemade mix of chunky peanut butter/corn meal/lard suet paste.

 

 

Today will be our biggest day of year-birds.  A day-count of 67.  Birds remaining to get to 400 species.  333.

 

 

 

Javelina in the yard

  

 

Judy shooing javelina.

 

 

Javelina in the yard.

Attitude.

 

 

And a moonrise through the trees.

 

 

And a campfire.

 

 

 

2020 was a difficult year for so many.  Let's hope 2021 is better for most.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

 

Addendum

  

We've set a birding goal for 2021; a Texas Year.  How many bird species can we see in the state of Texas in a calendar year?  500 is possible, but that involves heroics.  We don't want to dash off for every rare bird, wherever in Texas they are, all year long.  We'll set a less-ambitious goal.  How many regularly occurring birds can we get?  We'll go for a species count of 400.