Author: Steve

 

Maybe a year ago, how to segregate restrooms was a big deal.  There was lots of talk about how to identify which gender was using which restroom, and who should be accommodated.  Here is how they resolved the issue at the San Diego airport in California.

 

There are all the normal men or women restrooms, then there are these scattered about.  I love it.  Why make anything harder than it needs to be?

 

The sign for this restroom reads:  Anyone can use this restroom regardless of gender identity or expression.

 

 

He birds South Texas every day, so he knows where some of the birds I need are.  We met up in Corpus way before dawn and drove to the Guadalupe River Delta.  We missed the American Woodcock and the Short-eared Owl, but scored on the Sedge Wren, and a total surprise to me, a Winter Wren; all before sunrise.  This is easy.  497.

 

Drove farther north, on Jon’s hunch, to Powderhorn Lake.  Now in the morning light, we played call notes for sparrows and up popped Nelson’s Sparrow and Seaside Sparrow.  499 and it’s not even 9 O’Clock!  We’ve got lots of options to get one more bird.

 

Drove to the LeConte’s Sparrow spot.  Nothing.  Grasshopper Sparrow spot.  Nada.  Drove to a Barn Owl spot out by Austwell.  An empty barn.  Drove back to Aransas Pass, across the ferry to Port Aransas and back to the Birding Center for another try at the American Bittern.  Nope.  Not there.

 

Uh oh.  It’s starting to get a little desperate.  I’m running alternative scenarios through my head to get that last bird if we don’t get another today.  I could drive north tomorrow two hundred fifty more miles to Houston for one of three birds there: Red Vented Bulbul, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Red-cockaded Woodpecker.  I could drive home and catch a plane to Orlando for:  Snail Kite, Limpkin, or Florida Scrub-Jay.  I could catch a plane to Sacramento for Yellow-billed Magpie or California Condor.  Any one of those options are a lot of travel, but doable before the end of the year.

 

Three more possible birds to find here, Barn Owl, Ferruginous Hawk, and Cassin’s Vireo.  Drove to Chapman Ranch for the Barn Owl.  Barn Owls roost in abandoned barns during the day.  Again, an empty barn.  Down to two chances.  Picked the Cassin’s Vireo at Rose Hill Cemetery.  It is an unusual bird for here but has been seen with a mixed flock of little birds; sparrows and warblers.  Scoured the Cemetery.  Found the flock!  Scoured the flock.  Bingo!  Cassin’s Vireo!  Bird number 500 for the year!  Yeaaaa.  I predicted I was going to see 500 species in 2019!  It wasn’t a slam-dunk; it required a concentrated effort in December, and welcome assistance from Jon at the end.  Jon is a good birding friend though, so it felt good to finish with him too.

 

South Texas part of the trip map

 

Zero birds to go.  (And six Continuing Education hours.)

 

 

 

 

Drove to Riviera.  Missed on the Ferruginous Hawk and Fork-tailed Flycatcher.  The flycatcher left a couple weeks ago, but checked just to make sure.  From a distance I saw a big dark hawk with a red tail fly away.  That probably wasn’t the Ferruginous.  Drove to Goose Island.  Scored on the Whooping Crane at Big Tree.  495.  Spent two hours looking for the American Bittern at the Birding Center in Port Aransas.  I enlisted everyone on the boardwalk to help me find it.  Several people saw it yesterday, but none today.  Watched until it was too dark to see.  I don’t think it was there.

 

Spending the night in Corpus Christi.

 

South Texas part of the trip map

 

Five birds to go.  (And eight Continuing Education hours.)

 

 

 

 

… I spent eight nights in eight different hotels.  And I learned something.

 

I’ve rarely been comfortable in hotel rooms.  More often that not, I don’t sleep well.  I tend to wake up hot and sweaty in the middle of the night and have to toss the covers off, regardless of how cool I set the room temperature.  I take this to mean there is something too synthetic above or below me, or both, in the bedding.

 

Well, during the California trip, I slept comfortably two out of the first three nights.  I hadn’t been choosing hotels by type, I was choosing them by location; by where I wanted to start the next day. Those two comfortable nights were at La Quinta by Wyndham and Howard Johnson by Wyndham.  Something in common in those names struck me.  Wyndham has apparently bought up several hotel chains.  Could it be that they created a standard for bedding for all their hotels?  I tested the theory.  Every remaining night, except one, I slept at a Wyndham property.  Every remaining night, except that one, I had a comfortable night’s sleep.

 

So if you’re traveling, and you tend to have trouble sleeping comfortably in hotel room beds, I suggest you try Wyndham hotels.  They don’t always say Wyndham in the name, but you can google Wyndham properties and get a list of the Wyndham hotels wherever you are.

 

Merry Christmas!  (And thank you Wyndham.)

 

 

Mexican Duck at Salineno.  494.  Missed on the Seedeater.

 

South Texas part of the trip map

 

Six birds to go.  (And ten Continuing Education hours.)