Steve and Judy's Travels!

How many birds are still out there when it’s too hot to be out there?

I decided to give it a test.  I drove to a county outside of my normal range.  Frio County, south and west of San Antonio.  The biggest city in Frio County is Pearsall, population less than 10,000.  There are a few other towns in Frio County, but not many.  Most of them don’t have stoplights.

Not much in the way of birding hotspots.  I looked on google earth ahead of time and picked out a few places that looked like they might have birds though.  I got to a spot outside Pearsall before dawn, parked at the side of a dirt backroad for the morning chorus, and started counting the birds I could hear.  I picked a place with no houses around so I wouldn’t bother anyone when I played a few bird calls out loud to encourage any silent birds, birds that are normally only active at night, to say something.  The great horned owl call worked.  Two of them answered.  I heard a pauraque.  It was hard to hear anything else for the cardinals and mocking birds, but I managed to pick out a few. A whistling duck flew over.

Moving quickly, I drove back into Pearsall to a cemetery in the morning light.  That time from before dawn to about 9am is most precious.  It’s the morning chorus, the time that birds tend to be their most vocal and active.  Found some doves.  Purple martins and a chimney swift.  Moved to a city park.  Scissor-tailed flycatchers and western kingbirds.  Moved on to the fishing pond.  More birds.  Common ground doves and a yellow-billed cuckoo.

After nine or so the birding slows down, and the weather warms up, so I spent more time in the car and toured the entire county to make sure I covered all the different kinds of habitat available, getting out to walk around and check out each promising spot.  It turns out the habitat doesn’t change much in Frio County.  Scrubby brushy ranchland.  It’s the parks and cemeteries in the little towns that have the big trees and bushes that are attractive to a lot of birds.

I proved it was pretty hot out for birds.  It was pretty hot out for me.  It was 114 degrees at 4pm when I called off the count for the day.  Hadn’t seen a new bird in the last couple hours.  By scouring Frio County from dawn to hot afternoon, I totaled 52 species.  Yup, it’s too hot to be out there, but the birds still are.  I had left the air conditioning set on 80 degrees in the house.  It felt cold inside when I got home, so I turned it up.

It was a nice house for us.  Big yard but we didn’t have to mow the lawn.  We had a Japanese gardener.  His name was Kaz.  Dark skin.  His hands looked tight and smooth, like dark leather.  That’s what I remember about him most, his hands.

As a single-digit boy, I used to follow Kaz around and talk to him.  I remember him being pleasant enough, but he didn’t say much.  Never volunteered anything.  Answered questions but never asked them.  I guess he wouldn’t make a lot of conversation with an 8 or 9 year-old boy though.

The time I’m remembering was less than 10 years after World War II, and now it occurs to me to wonder if being a Japanese gardener is what Kaz aspired to.  Had he always been a Japanese gardener or is there a chance he got stuck into a stereotype.  Did he used to do something else before the war and that option was no longer available to him, and he quietly filled the role that was still accessible.  So many stories and possibilities of other people’s lives that we’ll never know.

This is how we spend our day; waiting at the front window for her return.

The ultimate test to see if the sleeping bags have been successfully decontaminated would be to sleep in one, right?  So here it is, ready for a good night’s sleep, on top of our bed at home last night.

And today the results are in.  Success!  The sleeping bag wasn’t annoying at all.  Very comfortable.  A little warm for inside the house, but comfortable again.

Judy doesn’t have to be subjected to this part of our drama.  She’s off visiting family in Southern California.  Barbara and Susie.  Vista and Riverside.

…drinking my three 18-ounce bottles of water every day.

But Judy’s kidney doctor says to divide your pounds of bodyweight in half and drink that much in ounces.  Bummer.  I’m only drinking 54 ounces of water, and my target is 80.  80!  That’s more than a half-gallon!.  I could do that once, no problem, but two and a half quarts of water, that’s an awful lot of water to get down every single day!