The weather today was overcast, and overall the winds are expected to rise, so we took full advantage of what may be our last snorkeling – once again with Captain James out to Looe Reef. Met another nice batch of eager snorkelers and divers, including a family from Montana with the son stationed in Germany with the army, quite an Anglophile (loved Bath – so it was fun to tell him we lived nearby for a few years). We found the visibility and lighting not as good as yesterday, but have uploaded many photos for your viewing pleasure, plus some really good videos. The last one in this series was actually from yesterday, showing the hammerhead shark trying to keep other smaller sharks from stealing his dead fish. We actually found some rare fish: ocean trigger ... read more

Another busy day in Paradise! We were up early to get to the snorkeling boat by 9:30. Lots of people on this boat – like 50 – and it was all snorkelers. A bit like the party boats in Aruba – with less beer. The crew was very nice. We went to Alligator Reef with Sundance near Robbie’s on Upper Matecumbe Key. Visibility was excellent. Depths were 8-15. At that depth one can’t see the tiny fish and recognize them, but there was enough. The sea was an amazing turquoise and very calm. You can see the names of the fish, and 2 laughing gulls (the dark headed one is an adult). One of the funniest things - soon after we got in the water, we saw a stick. David dove down to get it, and ... read more

Here’s the wrap up for our birding adventure to South Texas. It was well worth it! Our visit added 47 to our “Big Year” list – and just over 100 in total for the adventure. We had to return the car by 1 pm, which was unfortunate, as our flight didn’t leave till 4+, but we had plenty of time to return to the very first Hotspot we visited in Harlingen before, eager to snap our most elusive bird – the small Green Kingfisher. Nope. It remains a challenge for the future. In fact, that place felt much more deserted of birds than that first visit – tho we got up to 11 species eventually. The find of the day was the JAVELINA!! He was slurping up the seed under the feeder with great abandon. For ... read more

Monday – guess what we did? Yes, spent ALL day in the great outdoors. We probably arrived at the Esterro Llano State Park around 10, and left at 5:15. It was a cool drizzly/misty day, but we managed without putting the umbrella up 99% of the time. We found a whopping SIX new birds for us – which is astounding with the diminishing returns of already finding so many. And we chatted with people from all over the USA. One man, part of a group obviously, said his “ABA” list – evidently any birds in North America numbered over 750. We kept our bragging quiet. We are small fry! What did we eat for lunch? You guessed chicken salad?! You would be right. But for dinner we found a TX-based barbecue where they serve brisket, pork ... read more

Friday was another full day of birding, birding, birding. But we started in a most odd place – Brownsville Landfill! We were hoping to find 3 rare birds: the Crested Caracara, the Chihuahuan Raven, and the Tamilapas Crow. Sadly, we only found thousands of gulls and long-tailed grackles and the Crested Caracara – phew, not a complete waste. The man who checked us in (usually weighing the vehicle upon entering and exiting) advised David to not leave his wife up there. And David was pooped on within minutes – a very lucky event? And one that was fortunately not repeated. Then we drove about another 45 mins to South Padre Island. This very long and thin island (3 roads wide) has many high rises and fancy accommodations, but the birding center was on the lagoon side ... read more