Llano

We like how well spaced the sites are at LLano.

From: Steve Taylor [mailto:steve@taylorroth.com]
Sent: Saturday, May 06, 2006 9:51 PM
To: spt@thetaylorcompany.net
Subject: llano

Port aransas

From Junction to Port Aransas. We still have work to do, but we scheduled a break from client appointments so we could come down to the beach for our anniversary. It’s funny. Beginning ten or fifteen years ago, my standard for any new technology at work has been: “Will it work from a beach chair in Bermuda?” I’ve always said that facetiously, but at the same time believed that technology could make us independent of location. Now, years later, I find myself in a motorhome in a park on the beach, sitting at my computer, taking care of work. Yeaa technology.

Rags report

Much as we love the cat, it requires a lot of accommodation to travel with him full-time. We tried leaving him with Becky and family to see if it made our lives easier, and it did. It made our lives easier, but not Becky’s. Her other cats are not happy to have him there. The hissing and spitting hasn’t let up. Now we’re going to look for another place for him, maybe a place without so many other cats.

Night birds

There are not as many birds calling at night as during the day, but there are at least three. We hear the skreek of the common nighthawk, the eerie pulsing staccato of the lesser nighthawk, and the chuck-will’s-widow. The chuck-will’s widow. Strictly nocturnal. Identified him by his call. It wasn’t too hard, the call is distinctive, and there were about fifteen of them scattered around. Their calls sound something like this: Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. Chck-woo-woo. They NEVER get tired! And regardless of where you are and where you shine the flashlight, they’re always just in the next tree or bush. We finally did see one, eye glowing orange in the light. Another fluttered overhead in the dark. New bird.

Junction

East. Nothing but east. Five hundred miles east to South Llano River State Park outside Junction, Texas.

Staying at Llano is like waking up in the walk-in bird aviary at the San Diego Zoo, except it’s bigger, it doesn’t have any fences, it has more birds, and we don’t have to leave. Nonstop cacophony of bird calls, heaviest in the morning, but continues the entire day. So many, we can’t sort it out well enough to even guess how many different calls, most of them exotic for us. We’ve got black vultures soaring smoother than turkey vultures, wild turkeys wandering about among the axis deer, little scalloped inca doves, golden fronted woodpeckers, brilliant red and black vermillion flycatchers, the females with their pale salmon bellies, purple martins, black crested tufted titmouse, tiny verdin, blue-grey gnatcatcher, black and white warbler, yellow breasted chat, bright red summer tanager, clay colored sparrow, field sparrow, black throated sparrow, northern cardinal, blue grosbeak, indigo bunting, and ridiculously bright painted buntings everywhere, the females looking like large sparrow-sized chartreuse parakeets. Three new birds for us, the ruby throated hummingbird, bell’s vireo, and chuck-wills-widow.