Deep in the Heart of

Texas! The whole nerd gang is in Texas this week - enjoying the Texas Hill Country and beyond. We rented a house in San Antonio. We have Hill Country to the north and flat cattle and oil fields to the south. Lori and I have a list of target birds to knock out on this trip. The 2 big ones are Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo which can only be seen in this area. Lori researched the accommodations and timing. I researched the birding locations and target list.

We headed north to a famous Texas State Park in Hill Country for our 2 targets. Lost Maples is on every birder's agenda. We left super early and drove for over an hour to get there by 7:30 AM. We were quite disappointed when the wind started to howl and rain started to fall.. The place was deserted - no rangers, no other birders, just us. We were under dressed and had no idea where to go for the birds. Luckily, we found a bird blind to give us some relief from the wind and rain while still allowing us to see some birds.

Bird Nerds in Bird Blind - Lost Maples

Eventually, we had to venture out of the blind to go after our target birds. Here is Di freezing her ass off.

Diane - Lost Maples

Luckily, I brought a rain coat - or what I thought was a rain coat. It turned out to be a poncho which proved difficult for binocular or camera use but at least I didn't get wet.

Ponch Linda - Lost Maples

The rain passed quickly but the wind and cold stayed. We hiked up the trail in search of Golden-cheeked Warbler. We were not disappointed. We heard 2 of them singing and then we saw one! Wow. I know it doesn't look like "wow" in these photos but considering the crappy photographing conditions, these are not bad.

Golden-cheeked Warbler

Golden-cheeked Warbler

I'm not spoiling the surprise by telling you that better photos are coming but I am being rushed out the door now to go horseback riding. I am not getting on a horse, the other girls are going. Connie and I are going shopping. More to come. . .

LA Boobies

Di wanted me to title this "Wanna See Our Boobies?" but I think it would send the blog into the porn section!  You might remember a post from 2 years ago about a Brown Booby that showed up in Cape May and hung around on a buoy for a few weeks. (Don't worry, another one showed up this year and got counted for the stupid contest)  If not - here is the link to that post.  If so, you will also recall that Boobies are very rare in NJ. Well, they are very rare in California too.  However, 2 types of Boobies are here now - a Masked Booby which is from the tropics and Carribean is doing it's best impression of the Brown Booby by sitting on a buoy in the LA harbor and allowing the dolphin and whale watching boats to get really close.  Check this out. The bird is named after the mask that can be seen around the eyes and base of the bill.

Masked Booby

This guy even mugged for the camera by waving at the passengers on the boat!  Hi there.

Masked Booby waving at the boat

The funniest part of the Masked Booby sighting is that Barbara found coupons for the boat trip and got us booked for Sunday at 3 PM.  We showed up to the dock and stood in line with the normal type of people and families who would sign up for a dolphin/whale watching trip but could see that a few other passengers also had binoculars and cameras.  It turns out that I knew another guy on the boat! What are the chances that a NJ birder that I met in a field in the Pine Barrens was on the same boat?  Crazy right? We just kept shaking our heads and laughing.

The Gang

We also had a great captain - Captain Chris who expertly maneuvered that boat  around the buoy for great photo opps. He also took us out and found Black-vented Shearwaters which was another lifer for all of us.


There is another type of Booby here in LA too - at least 4 Blue-footed Boobies have been hanging around on a jetty and are easily seen from shore.  Photo opps were not as great since we couldn't get close.  Here are a few so-so shots. I hope you can see the blue feet in the photos.

Blue-footed Booby - middle bird with white breast

 Here is another Booby (left) scratching his neck with his big blue paddle foot.  The middle bird is also a Booby but his head is tucked under his wing.  The big bird is a Pelican.

Blue-footed Booby

More to follow. I gotta catch a flight to San Francisco.