Last day in Austin

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We had an early morning start -- without even breakfast -- but were thwarted once again in finding this lovely and only-here-in-hill-country-Texas golden-cheeked warbler. We hiked for about 2 hours at St Edward’s Park, seeing our first cactus anyway. The ground around here is not easy hiking, with many outcroppings of rocks and loose rocks – not like walking thru our forests of Ohio or PA where you can really sneak up on birds. We DID HEAR a few of the golden-cheeked warblers though. I am proud to say that my knee is doing great – yes, I’m tired when climbing in the heat, but no hip pain anymore, and I can’t really say the knee is anything other than stiff.

We ended up at the Water Treatment Plant and were welcomed by a lovely Connie the security guard, and chatted with a nice family originally from Vietnam – a husband and wife with their first-year in university son who is at Cornell and majoring in ornithology. The parents know nothing about birds but are good sports driving him all over. It was fun recommending a visit some day to Magee Marsh in May (less than 2 hours away from our house), and to watch that crazy movie about birders, The Big Year.

So today we saw just a few birds: cardinals singing beautifully, simple coots, blue-winged teals, Northern Shovelers. A yellow-rumped warbler – they will be up in Ohio soon, as one of the earliest-to-arrive warblers. A tiny blue-grey gnat-catcher that will also be north soon. Exciting to see a 3-4’ snake on the path too. And a rabbit – we are getting so desperate to count any animal!

For lunch we ordered penang curry and Singapore noodles from the local Thai restaurant – and there will be plenty of leftovers for dinner.

Comments: Austin is crazy huge, with spaghetti junctions everywhere. We understand now why it’s called hill country, and some of the enormous expensive houses hanging on the cliff’s edges are incredible.

It seems to be a growing area too – we saw many new apartment buildings and condos with stickers still on the windows. We saw more people begging on the corners than in Akron even, although to be fair we’ve been driving around more than usual, just never in downtown Austin. In fact we’re not sure where it is, this place is so spread out!

We are finally including some photos. Of course I meant to name the one VIEW of Hill Country. And for those who are awaiting for photos of interesting food - that was some amazing sushi in TN of all places - the round things had CRAWFISH in them. Delicious combination.

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