One hour at the Birding Center. The best bird for me was the King Rail.
Year-bird.Habitat(s):
freshwater
Number of Species: 38Checklist:
Gadwall – 4
American Wigeon – 25
Blue-winged Teal – 100
Cinnamon Teal – 2
Northern Shoveler – 50
Northern Pintail – 15
Green-winged Teal – 75
Canvasback – 1
Redhead – 200
Ruddy Duck – 3
Pied-billed Grebe – 2
Brown Pelican – 2
Neotropic Cormorant – 6
Double-crested Cormorant – 1
Great Blue Heron – 3
Great Egret – 5
Snowy Egret – 15
Tricolored Heron – 3
Black-crowned Night-Heron – 50
White Ibis – 5
Roseate Spoonbill – 80
Turkey Vulture – 1
Northern Harrier – 1
King Rail – 1
Common Moorhen – 25
American Coot – 75
Black-necked Stilt – 6
American Avocet – 30
Long-billed Dowitcher – 200
Laughing Gull – 15
Ring-billed Gull – 2
Caspian Tern – 1
Forster's Tern – 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – 1
Northern Mockingbird – 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler – 6
Palm Warbler – 1
Red-winged Blackbird – 25
Purple Sandpiper
The elusive purple sandpiper. Two hundred miles from our house. It took three trips to get him. Turns out he’s not very purple and he doesn’t even like sand. He likes to hang out with ruddy turnstones on rocks. Here he is on the Jetty at South Padre Island.
South Texas
Javelina Glamour Shots.
Numbers
Did you ever notice how much more powerful the minus sign is than the plus sign? You add a plus sign to a number and nothing changes. It doesn’t matter how many plusses you add, still nothing changes. But add one minus sign and everything is different; totally opposite. Add another minus sign and it all changes back. Every minus sign has an effect. Now that’s a powerful modifier. Not much to report. Nice weather. Lots of work. The Park is full. The Great Backyard Bird Count Starts Friday. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/
Javelina
Here is what he looks like when he’s right-side-up.