Steve and Judy's Travels!

  We’re not very good with sparrows.  Usually we can identify the most common sparrow wherever we are, but get confused by anything else.  Lost Maples was different though.  The most common sparrow there was Chipping Sparrow.  Other sparrows we identified were:  clay colored, field, vesper, lark, grasshopper, Lincoln, and song.  Eight sparrows.  That’s a very good sparrow count for us.   Paradise Pond tonight: #497, worm eating warbler.   Sand Fest is back.    

  We’ve moved beyond the pain.  We’re still packing and ripping.  It just doesn’t hurt to rip the gauze out any more.  We’re taking that as a good sign.  The tissue has regrown to the level of the skin around it.  The hole has shrunk to a diameter smaller than a dime.  Good progress.    

  Full migration mode.  A field of indigo buntings; forty at least.  Painted buntings.  Eastern and western kingbirds.  White eyed, warbling, and red eyed vireos.  Swainson’s thrush and brown thrasher.  Northern parula.  Tennessee, hooded, blue winged, and cerulean warblers.  American redstarts.  Summer tanager, scarlet tanager.  Rose breasted grosbeak.  Orchard and Baltimore orioles.  Common Yellowthroat.  And Dickcissels.   Three lifers.  #494, dickcissel.  #495, blue winged warbler.  #496, cerulean warbler.   In the picture, all those blue dots on the grass are indigo buntings.  There is a painted bunting red dot in the middle, but you can’t see much of him.    

  But when it’s this busy, I really need to have a telephone and there is no cellphone service at Lost Maples.  Travel day.  We’re back at the beach.  Gulf Waters.  Port Aransas.    

  The part of the trail we walked yesterday was the easy part.  The black capped vireos are on the plateau at the top of the steep part of the trail.  We walked past all the other birds singing until we heard the bird we were after.  The black capped vireos were singing like crazy.  That didn’t make them easy to find, they stay low and in cover, but we got them.  #493, Black Capped Vireo.  We also got a walk through oak and maple forest canyons.  27,000 steps on Judy’s pedometer.   The birds didn’t hold still for any pictures, but the landscape did.  Love this place.