Category Archives: Southwest trip

Drive-thru Birding

The nasty Texas weather continues for a few more days but the forecast is good. 

We took the van out today, in 34 degree/misty weather to check out Anzalduas Park, a favorite local birding site. Here are a few photos from the van:

House Finches are supposedly rare here but these apparently didn’t get the memo.

Vermillion Flycatchers are delightful to watch was they forage and return to their starting point.

This Fox Squirrel was fun to watch on a rainy day.

Other encounters were a Cooper’s Hawk, dozen of Scaup and Coots, 15 Killdeer, some meadowlarks, and Least and Pied-Billed Grebes. And we stayed warm with the heater blasting.

Finally – Warm birding

After delaying several days for dangerously frigid weather, we got the van dug out and started and launched Sunday in -13 degree weather (we hit -21 on the road that morning) and after three long drives and motel stays, headed to Fountainbleau State Park in LA where we are resting for a day.

We’ve been out on a couple of walks and I’ll be posting a few photos tomorrow. It"s fun to run a camera with warm fingers.

Winter Trip Plans

We are planning to stay at one place this winter for about six weeks since we’ll be returning early to go on a birding trip in late March. We have reservations in the Rio Grande Valley at a funky little RV park called Americana The Birding Center RV Park.

I have stayed there before and while not really into all the “activities” offered, I like the fact that you can bike to the Bentsen- Rio Grand Valley World Bird Site and it’s a short drive or a day trip to eight others:

It’s easy to get up to Salenino and Falcon Lake State Park and dozens of other RGV hotspots. Sitting here in cool rainy Vermont, I’m getting itchy.

Here are some shots off the web of the park — it’s old school and very birder-friendly.

 

Park entrance

Tree-lined streets offer shade and onsite birding.

The pool is a popular gathering spot

The park, like most, has modest wifi. It is strongest here.

While we will miss hitting Arizona and California this winter, we’ll see how ‘staying put” works out. Stay tuned.

 

 

 

Service Please!

While the weather in Vermont has been cool and rainy and not conducive to camping, we are becoming impatient with the delays and lack of progress in getting repairs estimated and begun. Pete’s RV in South Burlington has not distinguished themselves so far, setting an inspection date and then waffling for three weeks or so. It is a tough time of year to get work done since there is a lot of dealer prep and prior service commitments after a long winter. But …..

There are two problems. The first is the serious damage to the awning caused by a “dust devil” in New Mexico that I first mentioned here.

The awning remains strapped in place with canoe straps after being manually retracted with the help of three wonderful campsite neighbors – in mid-March.

The good news is that the insurance appraiser looked it over a month ago, sent me a check and someday, we hope to just replace most of the unit. Progressive Insurance has been excellent.

The second incident, completely my fault, occurred in Texas as we went for one last look at the Whooping Cranes – which had departed for parts north. I turned down a narrow road which had a “Men Working” sign at the turn but it wasn’t obvious, until after a quarter mile, that the road was closed off due to paving — and there was no turnaround. Rather than backing all the way to the main road, I tried to turn around on the road, misjudged and got the back wheels down off the pavement. The rig was hung up big time and after call to AAA and a wait, a big tow truck (which luckily happened to be in the general area) showed up.

We were lucky to have a monster tow truck with an experienced driver available.

The driver winched the rig, ever so slowly, getting it turned and out — but we knew there was damage. I could drive it back to the state park and over time to Vermont without the propane or the black water system available.

There’s a leak in the black water tank and other damage that needs to be identified. Come on guys, let’s get with it.

Meanwhile, I’m  birding locally and waiting, and still wondering what possessed me to try that U-turn on a narrow road. My co-pilot Sally’s  intuition said, Don’t do it!”  I wish mine had.

Peeps

While staying at Galveston Beach State Park on the way home, we walked the beach several times seeing hundreds of shorebirds — mostly peeps — but a number of Ruddy Turnstones, Willets, and Laughing Gulls as well.  Here are some of the peeps that I saw one evening.

Sanderlings are fun to watch as they run back and forth with the waves.

Who’s the guy in the mirror?

A banded Piping Plover — did not see the bands until processing the photo.

A Willet and Sanderling for comparison.

These tiny shorebirds, often in big skittish flocks, are a joy to watch, especially when you know that you won’t see them again until this summer in New England.

Heading Home

While in California, I learned that my dead MacBook battery was going to be a $750 repair so I am limping home using just the cord, which is touchy. So blogging is slow since I can’t pull off the bird photos easily. (End of whine.)

I found some loose tubing hanging down and have determined it is a break in the propane vent line which has shut down the system. No big deal at the point and we will fix it at home.

However, we were hit with a “dust devil” while parked in New Mexico with the awning out. It came out of nowhere on a hot sunny afternoon and in seconds, nearly destroyed the awning. Neighbor campers helped Sally and I removed broken supports and manually retract it so that I could tie it up for the journey home. We were too concerned to get a “before” picture but here’s the wonderful trio that worked an hour or more to sort things out.

After stops at [Seminole Canyon SP](https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/seminole-canyon) and [Falcon Lake SP](http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/falcon), we are settled at [Goose Island State Park](http://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/goose-island) in Texas, seeing some good birds including some early warblers.

The game plan is to stop in Louisiana next week and start swinging north with an ETA of the 11th or so. Starting to get itchy for the Green Mountain State.

La Jolla Cliffs

We stopped for a brief visit, with many many tourists, in the beach town of La Jolla to look at the Brandt’s Cormorants nesting there. They pack the rocky cliffs oblivious to the folks gawking at them.

Among the other birds we saw were two Heermann’s Gulls.

A number of Harbor Seals entertained the watchers.

About time to turn the van around and move eastward.

Red-Shouldered Hawks

We have been visiting friends in San Diego who live right next to Balboa Park and have parking available — and nice birding from the backyard. One of the favorites is a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks who live nearby and call to one another throughout the day. Here are a few shots I took of these handsome birds.

On The Beach

South Carlsbad State Beach is a wonderful camping site — very popular and almost impossible to get into.

I made reservations months ago for a beachside site. Here is what we see out our windows:

We have watched California Grey Whales migrate north along with pods of porpoises. The birding has been nice (Pacific Loon is a new life bird) as has been the chance to see Robb, Mary, Dane and Maeve down in Del Mar. We’ll be here several days more and then hang out in the Del Mar driveway (hookup, hot shower, great hospitality.)

Spotting Borregos

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park takes its name from 18th century Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and borrego, the Spanish word for bighorn sheep. On our last day there, we took a hike up the Palm Canyon trail to check out wildflowers and do some birding.

We spotted this hummingbird hawk moth along the way.

Further along, we saw a hiker intently watching the far hillside and found she had a group Bighorn Sheep in sight. There were about nine, mainly ewes and youngsters, far across the draw.

Returning, we ran into a larger group, being gawked at by the many weekend hikers. There were a couple of big guys with this crew.

In spite of the Saturday crowds, it was a great finish to a week-long stay. Next is the Pacific Ocean and sea breezes for a new set of adventures.