Birding

We go birding all day and end up with a bird list of 90 birds. That’s pretty good, but better birders go out for the same length of time here and see and identify more birds. Our friend Jon, for example; here is a recent bird list from him. Now bear in mind that he is a trained professional; a birding guide, but 159 birds in one day? That is amazing. > Location: Corpus Christi, Nueces County, TX, US
> Observation date: 2/17/08
> Notes: Corpus Area- ALL DAY
> Number of species: 159
>
> Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 15
> Greater White-fronted Goose 120
> Snow Goose 90
> Ross’s Goose 2
> Gadwall 20
> American Wigeon 12
> Mallard 1
> Mottled Duck 8
> Blue-winged Teal 35
> Northern Shoveler 40
> Northern Pintail 20
> Green-winged Teal 10
> Redhead 900
> Ring-necked Duck 25
> Lesser Scaup 5
> Bufflehead 5
> Common Goldeneye 1
> Hooded Merganser 9
> Red-breasted Merganser 2
> Ruddy Duck 6
> Common Loon 1
> Least Grebe 1
> Pied-billed Grebe 5
> Eared Grebe 6
> Northern Gannet 1
> American White Pelican 120
> Brown Pelican 45
> Neotropic Cormorant 12
> Double-crested Cormorant 75
> Anhinga 3
> Great Blue Heron 15
> Great Egret 12
> Snowy Egret 15
> Little Blue Heron 2
> Tricolored Heron 5
> Reddish Egret 8
> Cattle Egret 5
> Black-crowned Night-Heron 4
> Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1
> White Ibis 20
> White-faced Ibis 1
> Roseate Spoonbill 22
> Black Vulture 10
> Turkey Vulture 40
> Osprey 5
> Northern Harrier 4
> Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
> Cooper’s Hawk 2
> Harris’s Hawk 1
> Red-shouldered Hawk 3
> White-tailed Hawk 1
> Red-tailed Hawk 7
> Ferruginous Hawk 1
> Crested Caracara 4
> American Kestrel 12
> Peregrine Falcon 2
> Clapper Rail 3
> Sora 1
> Common Moorhen 1
> American Coot 225
> Sandhill Crane 27
> Black-bellied Plover 15
> Snowy Plover 2
> Semipalmated Plover 10
> Piping Plover 1
> Killdeer 15
> American Oystercatcher 2
> Black-necked Stilt 30
> American Avocet 35
> Spotted Sandpiper 1
> Greater Yellowlegs 12
> Willet 16
> Lesser Yellowlegs 2
> Long-billed Curlew 6
> Marbled Godwit 3
> Ruddy Turnstone 8
> Sanderling 35
> Western Sandpiper 100
> Least Sandpiper 75
> Dunlin 90
> Stilt Sandpiper 3
> Short-billed Dowitcher 25
> Long-billed Dowitcher 125
> Wilson’s Snipe 1
> Laughing Gull 225
> Ring-billed Gull 25
> Herring Gull 8
> Gull-billed Tern 6
> Caspian Tern 25
> Forster’s Tern 45
> Royal Tern 30
> Sandwich Tern 1
> Rock Pigeon 40
> Eurasian Collared-Dove 15
> White-winged Dove 35
> Mourning Dove 45
> Inca Dove 10
> Common Ground-Dove 25
> Greater Roadrunner 1
> Great Horned Owl 1
> Barred Owl 1
> Common Pauraque 7
> Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
> Belted Kingfisher 2
> Golden-fronted Woodpecker 14
> Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
> Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
> Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
> Eastern Phoebe 20
> Vermilion Flycatcher 3
> Great Kiskadee 12
> Couch’s Kingbird 7
> Loggerhead Shrike 5
> White-eyed Vireo 3
> Blue-headed Vireo 2
> Green Jay 7
> Horned Lark 9
> Purple Martin 5
> Cave Swallow 5
> Barn Swallow 1
> Black-crested Titmouse 2
> Carolina Wren 3
> House Wren 1
> Sedge Wren 1
> Marsh Wren 1
> Ruby-crowned Kinglet 5
> Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
> Eastern Bluebird 10
> Clay-colored Robin 1
> Northern Mockingbird 15
> Long-billed Thrasher 3
> European Starling 25
> American Pipit 10
> Sprague’s Pipit 3
> Orange-crowned Warbler 15
> Yellow-rumped Warbler 22
> Black-throated Green Warbler 1
> Pine Warbler 3
> Common Yellowthroat 5
> Wilson’s Warbler 1
> Olive Sparrow 1
> Chipping Sparrow 65
> Field Sparrow 2
> Vesper Sparrow 6
> Lark Sparrow 25
> Savannah Sparrow 115
> Grasshopper Sparrow 1
> Le Conte’s Sparrow 1
> Lincoln’s Sparrow 12
> Swamp Sparrow 1
> Northern Cardinal 25
> Pyrrhuloxia 9
> Red-winged Blackbird 200
> Eastern Meadowlark 35
> Western Meadowlark 7
> Great-tailed Grackle 325
> Brown-headed Cowbird 10
> American Goldfinch 6
> House Sparrow 35
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

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Medical

All our lives we pay medical insurance. It seems like so much more money going out than we ever see in claims. Today the balance shifted a little. First bill from the heart hospital: $80,000. Our share $800. Yeaaa medical insurance.

Life on the road

Day four. Help arrives. The part came in. The repair guy installed it. We have electrons. Our electrical house is back in order. This has not been a convenient time to be out of electricity; we’re at work. We’ve compensated, though. We’ve had an extension cord strung in through the dining room window from the utility post outside. The cord gets moved from room to room. First it runs the fan in the bedroom at night. Then it runs the coffee maker in the morning. Then it moves to the computer station all day for me to work. It works. The job is on schedule. It will finish up Friday. But now; now we’re back on shore power. A $25 part (plus $35 shipping to get it to us as fast as possible). We can run everything else at once again. We get to plug everything in to the proper outlets. We get to put away the extension cord. Life is good. Life on the road.

Life on the road

Flameout (without the flames). Total power outage. Sitting around Monday evening, big clunk, all the lights go out. Looked out the window to see how much of the park was dark and we were the only part. Went outside and flipped the 50 amp breaker; no difference. Still dark. Crawled inside the slide drawer cabinet underneath the coach to reset the inverter; that helped. Lights came back on. Checked the electrical status display. The shore power is on, but no amps are flowing. Doesn’t look like it’s a problem at the outside source, but just to check, I tagged down from our 50 amp plug to a 30 amp plug and connected it to the 30 amp socket at our electrical box. No difference. New problem. When I opened the outside cabinet where the electrical cord connects, there was that dreaded burnt electrical smell. Checked the power a different way. Started the generator. Watched the electrical status. No change. No connection to the power source whether it is shore power or generator. We have battery power, but no way to recharge the batteries when they run out, so we’re being very careful with the electrons we have left. We had a dark night Monday night. Tuesday, the mobile repair guy found the fried connector in the electrical cord cabinet. Ordered the part. Replaced the bank of house batteries. We knew that was coming; the batteries are two and a half years old. One was leaking. New batteries but still no way to recharge them, so another dark night. Wednesday. The part will be delivered tomorrow. Repair guy hooked up a battery charger for us today so we can use the juice tonight. Tomorrow. We’ll see. Life on the road.