5 new birds for us!

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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 loin, etc, by the pound with sides. Dozens of cars were in the drive through and it was all very tender. Leftovers so we can skip the chicken salad until Wednesday.

The birds we found today were:

Fulvous Whistling Ducks – at last!! We’d been hunting these guys all over, and they were always “here yesterday.” Not as fun as our favorite black bellied whistling ducks with their pink stockings, but lovely.

An Eastern Screech owl. How this man found him in the tree is beyond us! But he kindly invited us to look too.

The Common Pauraque – certainly not very common – a female on her nest, and a master of disguise!!!

The Elegant Trogon – not even listed in our Eastern Bird Book because this is usually from Mexico to Arizona. She was amazing, but the male is even more brightly colored. Elegant indeed. Perhaps even “haughty.” She reminded me of a grand dame attending a ball at Downton Abbey.

Olive Sparrow – not very exciting but a new one for us.

The Yellow-faced Grassquit – we didn’t get a great photo, but the horde of birders (including the guy with 750) were MOST impressed to find this. not good enough a photo for our audience - but needed as proof.

Also, rabbits, squirrels, a nutria!! and an armadillo digging for grubs.



The many other sightings were all old familiar friends, much appreciated and admired.

All in all, a very satisfying day. We must have walked about 3-4vmiles, which is not very far when you think it took so long - but one mostly walks 10 steps and stops to look, and sometimes I, Jean, plunker down in my portable chair. Also, there were some "blinds" at this place, to hind behind at the feeders. David has the patience of Job getting good photographs. Birds are not very patient, by comparison.

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