Texas bird photo tour update
Texas is working us pretty hard! Click through to my
Texas photos on flickr to see a few "scenics" from the funnier moments of our trip.
It's Thursday night. Since arriving last Saturday evening, we have been to both units of the Martin Refuge (private refuge for photography, with a dozen or more separate photo blinds maintained year round with water, feed, & hidey bushes so the birds get used to being up close), Frontera Audubon twice, Allen William's back yard habitat / refuge in Pharr twice, Estero Llano Grande in Weslaco, and the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands.
Oh! And the Inn at El Canelo ranch. And a friend's yard to see parrots. And the sod farms in rural Weslaco. That's nine separate locations, some an hour or more apart.
We've been outside, in the car, or in our hotel room for 90% of every day, with short lunch & dinner breaks. Three cheers for Taco Palenque!
We've logged at least 70 new "year birds" for 2008 (only one life bird - the Red-crowned Parrot) and enjoyed ourselves immensely, but we are all starting to look like Bill does in this photo. A little bedraggled. A little fried. A little "stick a fork in 'em, they're done".
But wait! We've got two and a half days to go! Tomorrow we're off to Laguna Atascosa NWR in the morning and South Padre Island nature preserve (also known as the convention center!) in the afternoon, to see some migrants, some coastal birds, some new habitat.
Saturday we are making a pilgrimage to Sabal Palm Grove, which may become forever inaccessible if the Border Fence is built. I'll be posting a whole essay on that topic later, but for now, we are going to go pay our respects to this little oasis which may be bulldozed or permanently walled off from the U.S., in case we never get to see it again.
Sunday, if American Airlines manages to get their grounded planes back in the air, we're flying home around 5 pm, so we get to bird in the morning before we go.
You can keep up with our adventures in Texas by visiting Bill's Texas 2008 flickr photo set. Bill posts a few photos every night - I am busy knitting on Sock Madness, Round 3, so I can't really post for the next couple days.
Oh yes. This is what we crazy birding / photography people think of as a vacation. We're having an absolute blast in Texas! See you all soon.
Edited to add: P.S. - I have read the answers to my photo quiz - thanks for playing along. Everyone is sort of close, so I have to do some judging. Which will have to wait til I'm home. But I haven't forgotten you and your prize, oh contestants. We'll just have to wait til Monday for a winner.
Texas photos on flickr to see a few "scenics" from the funnier moments of our trip.
It's Thursday night. Since arriving last Saturday evening, we have been to both units of the Martin Refuge (private refuge for photography, with a dozen or more separate photo blinds maintained year round with water, feed, & hidey bushes so the birds get used to being up close), Frontera Audubon twice, Allen William's back yard habitat / refuge in Pharr twice, Estero Llano Grande in Weslaco, and the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands.
Oh! And the Inn at El Canelo ranch. And a friend's yard to see parrots. And the sod farms in rural Weslaco. That's nine separate locations, some an hour or more apart.
We've been outside, in the car, or in our hotel room for 90% of every day, with short lunch & dinner breaks. Three cheers for Taco Palenque!
We've logged at least 70 new "year birds" for 2008 (only one life bird - the Red-crowned Parrot) and enjoyed ourselves immensely, but we are all starting to look like Bill does in this photo. A little bedraggled. A little fried. A little "stick a fork in 'em, they're done".
But wait! We've got two and a half days to go! Tomorrow we're off to Laguna Atascosa NWR in the morning and South Padre Island nature preserve (also known as the convention center!) in the afternoon, to see some migrants, some coastal birds, some new habitat.
Saturday we are making a pilgrimage to Sabal Palm Grove, which may become forever inaccessible if the Border Fence is built. I'll be posting a whole essay on that topic later, but for now, we are going to go pay our respects to this little oasis which may be bulldozed or permanently walled off from the U.S., in case we never get to see it again.
Sunday, if American Airlines manages to get their grounded planes back in the air, we're flying home around 5 pm, so we get to bird in the morning before we go.
You can keep up with our adventures in Texas by visiting Bill's Texas 2008 flickr photo set. Bill posts a few photos every night - I am busy knitting on Sock Madness, Round 3, so I can't really post for the next couple days.
Oh yes. This is what we crazy birding / photography people think of as a vacation. We're having an absolute blast in Texas! See you all soon.
Edited to add: P.S. - I have read the answers to my photo quiz - thanks for playing along. Everyone is sort of close, so I have to do some judging. Which will have to wait til I'm home. But I haven't forgotten you and your prize, oh contestants. We'll just have to wait til Monday for a winner.
posted by spinnity at 4/10/2008 09:47:00 PM
6 Comments:
Quite an adventure you are having. I guess you have missed the crazy Texas weather being reported. I was about to send email wondering what you'd do about traveling back to CA if American is still screwed up. You may have to rent a car. What fun!! Mom
Those cactus are crazy-aggressive, even the ones that look all sweet and fuzzy - they're still pokey! Bill looks like he's having a fantastic time ;)
Good luck with round 3 of Sock Madness!
I'm really enjoying seeing the photos every night. I keep refreshing my Flickr home page in anticipation of new images from TX. Thanks for sharing and blogging. Good luck with the next rnd of Sock Madness. Stay cool!
Glad you're having fun! Sounds like an active but relaxing time.
Sounds like a whirlwind of a fabulous birding adventure! By the way, I've awarded you the "You Make My Day Award." You can check out the details on my blog, and thanks for making my day! =)
Oh, you are a twitcher! We're more into plants but anything nature related is good! Does this mean I can bug you about what sorts of birds we have here? :-)
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