TREE TRIMMING

Well, now that Jay has a ladder to go with his chainsaw and all the leaves have fallen off, we've finally taken care of that tree that fell on Jay's workshop... Jay cut and tossed, and I stacked. Looks like it's time for another bonfire party!

Here are the before and after photos:

About a dozen White-throated Sparrows moved in the very next day... and they're still there as of today, March 10th. Guess we'll have to wait for them to move on before we can move the pile and burn!

MORE BIRDS IN TEXAS!

So, I did a little more birding this morning... I started at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. Other than having to constantly move to keep from being eaten alive by the mosquitoes (Who knew that south Texas in February was as bad as south Florida in July? Not me!) the place was great! The land is really gorgeous, all hiking trails around thorn-scrub and wetland habitats (which explains the mosquitoes) Since I saw so many new birds yesterday, there weren't as many left for me to find today (Granted, there are LOTS of south Texas specialties that I had yet to see, but most are RARE, OCCASIONAL, or just not around in winter), plus, it was really really windy (which makes birds a bit more scarce). Anyway, I saw a few new ones: White-tipped Dove, Le Conte's Sparrow, and Couch's Kingbird (heard, not seen). I had really been hoping for much more, in particular, the Groove-billed Ani, the orioles (Audubon's and Altamira), a parrot (I didn't care which one), and a better look at the kingfishers (I'd seen them before at Independence Creek in west Texas, but only as fly-overs). After 2 hours, I was sick of the mosquitoes and disappointed in my bird list (don't get me wrong, it was long, but they were all repeats of the last 2 days), so I high-tailed it over to Bentson State Park. It was still windy, very hot and sunny (and I forgot the sunblock), and required lots of hiking to get around. But it was worth it! After a disappointing 2 miles with nothing new (although I did see a Collared Peccary), I stopped into a bird blind with TONS of feeders on the other side. So I sat, because I was tired and it was nice to have some shade. I saw lots more Green Jays and about 4-5 dozen Red-winged Blackbirds (whoo-hoo, right?), but I wasn't ready to get up, so I sat some more. After about 15 minutes a bright orange speck caught the corner of my eye, I turned, and lo-and-behold (sp?), an Altamira Oriole!!! Hooray! After that I hiked along the thorn-scrub trail (and heard some Northern Beardless-Tyrannulets, though I didn't see them), then ran out of the park and back to the conference!

More Green Jays, just for fun. They are quite beautiful (and plentiful here).

Collared Peccary... eating bird seed. Surprisingly unconcerned by my presence...

The gorgeous Altamira Oriole!!

VALENTINE'S DAY IN TEXAS

Well, since I don't get to be a lovebird this Valentine's Day (I'm at a conference in Texas while Jay is home working and holding down the fort), I guess I'll just have to share some photos of new birds I've seen on my first trip here to the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

The 4th International Partner's In Flight Conference is in McAllen, TX this year (it's not an annual event, the 1st was in 1992, the 2nd was in 1995, and the 3rd was in 2002), an excellent place for birding! The conference sessions officially started today, but I showed up a day early to attend a raptor banding field trip and the opening reception. Bill Clark took about a dozen of us out to the sugar cane fields yesterday morning, where they had already burned and were busy harvesting. Raptors LOVE this! (So do vultures, etc.) As the big machines roll by and scare the small mammals out of the cane, the birds swoop in to reep the bounty (it's kind of like watching the fire-line in south Florida, as the egrets walk the line capturing every frog, snake, and grasshopper that tries to outrun the flames). I've NEVER seen so many raptors in one place, and there were lots of different kinds! The new one for me was the White-tailed Hawk, but the Crested Caracaras were pretty amazing too (I've never seen more than one at a time before this). Bill had captured a juvenile female White-tailed Hawk right before we showed up, so he hung on to her to show us.

We learned all about how to catch hawks, in a trap that looks like this, with a sparrow and a mouse placed inside for bait (the hawk's legs get caught in the string):

Since hawks have large talons and beaks, the safest way to handle them when trying to apply a band and get other measurements is to place them head-first into a large cardboard tube with mesh at one end. It looks something like this:

Here is an up-close view of her pretty face:

Here is Craig Farquhar holding her for a stock photo:

This is me holding my first raptor (and one of the rarest to be seen in the US at that!):

Here's a shot of some of the hawks, vultures, caracaras, etc. swarming over the fields:

I saw a couple other new birds out in those fields: Sprauge's Pipit and Horned Lark (sorry, no pictures).

After we got back to McAllen, I registered for the conference, then headed down to Anzalduas County Park to hunt for Green Jays and other new birds. I saw the Green Jays, but nothing else new.

This morning I started my day at the Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center here in McAllen. What an amazing piece of property! It's like a luxury resort for birds... there is food and shelter for just about every type of local bird (hummingbird feeders by the dozens, orange slices hanging from the trees, bird seed scattered on every available surface, bird feeders of every shape and size, misters, fountains, ponds, branch piles, and more plant species than I'll ever know!) I was able to spot 6 new birds: Great Kiskadee, Plain Chachalaca, Long-billed Thrasher, Olive Sparrow, Clay-colored Robin, and Buff-bellied Hummingbird. The first 2 species were all over the place, I didn't even have to hunt. I saw a pair of the thrashers flipping leaf piles under some dense trees, the Olive Sparrow was hopping around on the path, and the Clay-colored Robin was hiding in some bushes. I had to go back in the afternoon to find the Buff-bellied Hummingbird. I have pictures of the Kiskadee and Chachalaca (but they're not very good):

MARDI GRAS '08

Happy Mardi Gras! Vicksburg had their annual Mardi Gras parade today, so the Happy Hour gang gathered at Sandy's apartment downtown and used her balcony to enjoy an upper hand on bead catching (and tossing). There were a TON of great cajun dishes, hurricanes, and of course lots of beads. I had the best time tossing beads down to the kids! Maybe next year we'll get a Krewe together and make a float of our own...

Ready to head out for a day of celebrating!