Blogs from Texas, United States, North America - page 9

About a mile from Blackjack I was looking for another historic marker; and found the Town of Griffin Historic Marker on county road 4716. I did not see the Griffin Cemetery. Nearby Griffin I saw a private ranch and then an old building. Also nearby Griffin (County Road 4722) was a very nice expensive ranch with large stadium floodlights. I think they had their own private rodeos there. I liked their fence that looked like the fence had very large barbed wire. According to TSHA (Texas State Historical Association) Griffin was established by Issac Kendrict in 1853. Later in 1853 the post office opened under the name of Troutman until 1855. In 1855 the post office name was changed to Griffin; after Kendrict's home town of Griffin, Georgia. The post office closed from 1867 to 1876; ... read more

It was hot and humid here, but that is life in Nacogdoches. Since all Texas festivals were canceled last year due to Covid, this years Blueberry was larger then normal. Parking was hard to find so I parked at a business that had an "open" sign. Nearby was the Old Nacogdoches University Building (chartered by the Republic of Texas). I saw an old friend and we had a nice chat about East Texas history. They had a piano downstairs that was played by Chico Marx when the Marks Brothers performed at the Nacogdoches Oprah House in the 1920s. Upstairs they had old photographs and other artifacts from the US Civil War. During the US Civil War the Old University Building served as a hospital. I finished a nice tour of the Old Nacogdoches University Building then ... 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