Steve and Judy's Travels!

 

The count keeps creeping up.  We started the month at 292.  We started this trip at 302.  We ended today at 312.  88 species to go to get to our target count, a lot of migration to go, and we can finish off the weekend with another full day of birding tomorrow.

 

I added our birding spots on the island to the trip map.

 

April Migration trip map

 

Birds of the day.

 

Least Tern.

 

Greater Yellowlegs.

 

So we think the skimmers look fast?  Not when they’re asleep.

 

Indigo Bunting.

 

Orchard Oriole.

 

Long-billed Curlew.

 

Great Kiskadee.

 

Painted Bunting.

 

Grackles with attitude.

 

(As always.)

 

Marbled Godwit.

 

Prickly Pear cactus about to burst into bloom.

 

Full bloom.

 

 

 

Who would think that this sparse scrubby flat coastal plain habitat would be ideal for ocelots?  Well, actually, there is a national wildlife refuge, Laguna Atascosa, a few miles from here that protects the last few remaining ocelots in the United States.

 

This wasn’t in the wildlife refuge though, we were just driving down a back road and this big graceful cat with a long tail loped across the dirt road and disappeared into the brush on the other side.  No time for a photo.  Just a stunning surprise.

 

Did get a photo of the elusive least bittern.

 

 

And a lesser nighthawk.

 

Purple Martin.

 

Northern Parula.

 

 

Easier to get close to a great-tailed grackle.

 

 

It’s April for the height of migration.  Drove all the way to Brownsville today.  An hour away.  We’re at Tropical Trails RV Park.  That puts us within striking distance of South Padre Island for migrants and Oliveira Park for parrots.

 

April Migration

 

They tell us this park was a lot busier in March.  Winter Texans.

 

It’s a big park, but not many people here now.

 

We ended the month of March at 292 species.  We should add a bunch in April.

 

 

Country western meets hip hop.  A catchy tune.  A clash of cultures.  Lil Naz X.  A cowboy and a horse, a fast car, bingo, Snapple, gratuitous line dancing, and Billy Ray Cyrus.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7qovpFAGrQ

 

 

Trouble putting it all together?  There’s more.  The movie version.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2Ov5jzm3j8

 

Context and character development.  Motivation.  Time travel.  Old meets new, and even a nod to NASCAR.  It all comes together.  As Joe Bob would say all those years ago, “Check it out.”

 

 

Could there be a faster stationary bird than the black skimmer?

 

Not the black bellied plover.

 

Not the yellow-bellied sapsucker.

 

Not the yellow-rumped warbler or the white morph reddish egret.

 

 

Hands down.  Fastest stationary thing out there.