Feb 10 We started today at Estero Llano Grande. There’s a Wednesday bird walk and we arrived just in time to join. It was rather cold and windy, which presumably kept crowds down. In fact, there were only 2 others on the walk and five park staff/volunteers. Lots of good stuff from the deck included [...]
Feb 9 Today got off to an earlier start as we wanted to be at Bentsen for the 8AM feeding as the Rose-throated Becard was most regular at that time. We arrived a few minutes before 8 to find the visitor center closed. We went to the self-pay station and were walking in when the [...]
Feb 8 Today we started by driving around Zapata a bit but never quite found the seedeater spot (and I didn’t really care so didn’t look too hard). Eventually, we headed off to Falcon State Park and arrived at about 9:30. After checking in and finding out the staff didn’t know much about the Roadside [...]
Feb 6 Today was mostly a travel day. We left for the airport a little before 6. Other than the taxi driver being too busy talking to actually get on the pike, no issues getting to the airport and then getting through security. Both my mother and I got patted down and I had my [...]
I spent a week in January 2009 (from the 10th to the 16th) in South Texas. This trip was by myself and covered from Zapata to Brownsville looking for birds with some butterflies and dragonflies thrown in. I had originally planned on heading as far east as Laguna Atascosa and South Padre Island but ended [...]
Here’s a few notes about the trip (travel, car, hotel, food) and then complete lists of what I saw. Travel I flew on AirTran from Boston to San Antonio. Although San Antonio was a bit of a drive, round-trip was about $250 and Mission and other nearby airports were all well over $500. I also [...]
Thursday, January 15 Today was the last morning of birding before I headed back to San Antonio. As I planned yesterday, I started by heading to Anzalduas. Or at least attempting to. I turned down the marked road and shortly found a giant dirt levee. Figuring that was wrong, I backtracked a bit and continued [...]
Wednesday, January 14 Today started with the weekly bird walk at Estero Llano Grande. I joined the walk as it heads into restricted areas of the park, which is where all the rarities have been seen. We ended up missing all of those, but it was well worth it anyway. The deck by the visitor’s [...]
Tuesday, January 13 As I noted in yesterday’s post, I scaled back today and headed to Resaca de la Palma. This is a brand new state park (open about 5 weeks) that has been getting good reviews. On the way over, I had noticed a birding trail sign right by the hotel, so I took [...]
Monday, January 12 Today I planned on spending the morning at Santa Ana NWR and then heading over to Bentsen for the afternoon butterfly walk. That proved to be a good plan. I reached Santa Ana at 8 and checked in at the visitor center. I was going to pay cash, but when I mentioned [...]