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Sunday birding

Not a bad day birding. 66 birds, and we were home for lunch and football.

1 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck wood stork anhinga pond
2 Greater White-fronted Goose sandia roads
3 Snow Goose sandia roads
4 Ross’s Goose sandia roads
5 Gadwall sandia roads
6 American Wigeon sandia roads
7 Blue-winged Teal hazel bazemore park
8 Northern Shoveler hazel bazemore park
9 Green-winged Teal hazel bazemore park
10 Redhead sandia roads
11 American White Pelican sandia roads
12 Brown Pelican sandia roads
13 Neotropic Cormorant wood stork anhinga pond
14 Anhinga hazel bazemore park
15 Great Blue Heron sandia roads
16 Great Egret hazel bazemore park
17 Snowy Egret hazel bazemore park
18 Cattle Egret wood stork anhinga pond
19 Black-crowned Night-Heron wood stork anhinga pond
20 White Ibis hazel bazemore park
21 Roseate Spoonbill hazel bazemore park
22 Black Vulture sandia roads
23 Turkey Vulture hazel bazemore park
24 Osprey sandia roads
25 Harris’s Hawk sandia roads
26 Red-shouldered Hawk wood stork anhinga pond
27 Red-tailed Hawk sandia roads
28 Crested Caracara sandia roads
29 American Kestrel sandia roads
30 Common Moorhen wood stork anhinga pond
31 American Coot sandia roads
32 Sandhill Crane sandia roads
33 Killdeer hazel bazemore park
34 Black-necked Stilt hazel bazemore park
35 American Avocet hazel bazemore park
36 Greater Yellowlegs hazel bazemore park
37 Long-billed Curlew hazel bazemore park
38 Marbled Godwit mustang island. packery channel
39 Least Sandpiper hazel bazemore park
40 Long-billed Dowitcher hazel bazemore park
41 Wilson’s Snipe sandia roads
42 Rock Pigeon sandia roads
43 Eurasian Collared-Dove sandia roads
44 Mourning Dove hazel bazemore park
45 Inca Dove hazel bazemore park
46 Golden-fronted Woodpecker hazel bazemore park
47 Downy Woodpecker sandia roads
48 Eastern Phoebe sandia roads
49 Say’s Phoebe sandia roads
50 Vermilion Flycatcher sandia roads
51 Great Kiskadee hazel bazemore park
52 Loggerhead Shrike hazel bazemore park
53 Green Jay hazel bazemore park
54 Marsh Wren hazel bazemore park
55 Ruby-crowned Kinglet sandia roads
56 Swainson’s Thrush hazel bazemore park
57 Northern Mockingbird hazel bazemore park
58 Common Yellowthroat hazel bazemore park
59 Lark Bunting sandia roads
60 Savannah Sparrow sandia roads
61 Northern Cardinal hazel bazemore park
62 Red-winged Blackbird sandia roads
63 Eastern Meadowlark sandia roads
64 Great-tailed Grackle sandia roads
65 Brown-headed Cowbird sandia roads
66 House Sparrow sandia roads

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Jury Duty!

  It happened.  I finally received a jury duty notice in the mail before the actual date-to-appear, and, at the same time, we’re actually in the state.  So tomorrow morning, Monday, bright and early, I get to show up at the courthouse in Corpus Christi to do my civic duty.   Here’s hoping this is not just a sting operation to bust all the slackers who have previously received jury duty notices and failed to appear…   I’ll let you know…    
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Rain and Kayaks

The kayaks can live on the top of the car. No problem. If it rains a little, that’s not a problem either. There are cockpits for the rain to get in the boats, but the cockpits are small compared to the volume of the boats. It rains a little. The rain stops. The water evaporates. No problem. We have cockpit covers to keep the rain out, but we don’t use them. They only work until the wind blows. We’re in Texas. The wind always blows.

It would really have to rain a lot for something to go wrong. I mean, how much rain would it take to fill the boats with so much water the front saddles sagged, shifting the weight forward, crushing the front saddles all the way, and collapsing the rack down onto the top of the Jeep?

Of course, if that did happen; if it rained say 9 inches, those would be some heavy boats.

Those boats would be too heavy to even lift off the car. A person might have to figure out some way to siphon out the water so they could take the boats down to dry out…

The kayaks, the kayak rack, and the Jeep all survived.
All’s well that ends well.