But I had good reason to drive to Alice. That’s where the Jeep is. The Jeep went dark on that pre-dawn birding trip two weeks ago. (We were listening for Common Poorwills.) When we finally got towed for repairs, it was to a Jeep Dealer in Alice. That’s where the Jeep has been for the last two weeks; at the Jeep Dealer in the South Texas town of Alice, 75 miles from Port Aransas. The good news in all of this was that our intermittent starting problem had turned into a permanent starting problem which could be diagnosed, and that’s how we ended up in the red rental car. We made the drive yesterday. It was good to get back to the Jeep, although things were still a little complicated. The rental car was going to cost us $90 a day, but the Jeep dealer volunteered to put it on his bill at his rate of $35 a day. That didn’t seem like much until the dealer had to backorder a part and we ended up in the rental car for two weeks. Glad we weren’t at $90 a day! Anyway, when I went back in the rental car to get the Jeep, I couldn’t, because the dealer didn’t know how much to charge me for the rental car until I turned that in first and got a ride back. When I got back, he still didn’t know how much to charge me because he had submitted the paperwork to the warranty company for the Jeep repair but hadn’t heard back from them yet either. We decided I could pay the whole thing and when the Warranty Company sent him a check, he could reimburse me. We didn’t really want to drive to Alice on a work day, but it was good to be driving back home. The only thing that would have made the drive back home better would have been if we were driving home in the Jeep. When we went to pick up the Jeep, of course I tested it and it started. After we transferred everything out of the rental car into the Jeep, returned the rental car, got a ride back to the dealer, paid the dealer, and got back in the Jeep to leave, it wouldn’t start. We lost ground. Now we’re back to an intermittent starting problem. The dealer quickly got us back into the rental car and on our way. We can look forward to one more trip to Alice in the near future.
This is a terrible place
This is a terrible place to try to concentrate on work. We did the Big Patio Day on the weekend. We spent a lot of the day outside and watched birds on purpose. So Monday, it’s back inside to get some work done. Except I think I did a Big Windshield Day while I was at it. Last week we had hummingbirds swirling all around the coach and the feeders. This week, it’s Orioles! Six or eight orioles at a time swirling around the coach and yard.
Baltimore Orioles galore.
and Orchard Orioles.
Yesterday
Yesterday was nothing. 22 birds. Today… from the patio…. 45 species!
1 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
2 Blue-winged Teal
3 Brown Pelican
4 Double-crested Cormorant
5 Great Egret
6 Snowy Egret
7 Little Blue Heron
8 Cattle Egret
9 Green Heron
10 Roseate Spoonbill
11 Turkey Vulture
12 White-tailed Hawk
13 Crested Caracara
14 Crested Caracara
15 American Coot
16 Killdeer
17 Spotted Sandpiper
18 Greater Yellowlegs
19 Lesser Yellowlegs
20 Laughing Gull
21 Franklin’s Gull
22 Least Tern
23 Forster’s Tern
24 Royal Tern
25 Rock Pigeon
26 Mourning Dove
27 Chimney Swift
28 Ruby-throated Hummingbird
29 Red-eyed Vireo
30 Purple Martin
31 Tree Swallow
32 Northern Rough-winged Swallow
33 Cliff Swallow
34 Barn Swallow
35 Wood Thrush
36 Yellow-throated Warbler
37 Northern Waterthrush
38 Kentucky Warbler
39 Common Yellowthroat
40 Savannah Sparrow
41 Blue Grosbeak
42 Indigo Bunting
43 Red-winged Blackbird
44 Great-tailed Grackle
45 Orchard Oriole
White-tailed Hawk
Red-eyed Vireo too tired to fly
Wood Thrush
Wood Thrush with his buddy the Kentucky Warbler
Annie, too tired to fly.
Big Day
Judy and I are otherwise occupied, so Jon went on a Big Day without me a couple days ago. Last year our record was 191 birds. This time, he got 192!
In the spirit, Judy and I decided to do a Big Patio Day. The result, 22 birds:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Osprey
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Least Tern
Forster’s Tern
Black Skimmer
Mourning Dove
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Waterthrush
Hooded Warbler
Indigo Bunting
Great-tailed Grackle
Here is the Indigo Bunting.
Weekend at Bernie’s
Judy got tired of being shuffled from place to place, so she kicked her drug habit at 6:00 this morning. She’s down to Advil and is much more conscious and conversational; conversations she’ll even remember.
Bad news though. It has been 48 hours since the surgery. We took off the bandaging. There are At Least 4 stitches. Maybe even 6! I might have to be nice to her all the way through Tuesday.