"Beep Beep!"

Friday, we decided to just take a drive on the county roads to see what we could find bird-wise. Every once in a while it's good to get away from the city traffic and the speed demons. We cranked up the air conditioner and drove to Chapman Ranch area. Once off the highway, onto the farmland roads, if we see one vehicle besides ours, we're lucky. We saw a lot of blackbirds, grackles, doves on the power lines. The oil wells that look like dinosaurs, pumpjacks; some were operating while most were dead on their platform. Driving down one road, heading away from the morning sunlight, I spotted a couple of hawks. One white tailed hawk that is quite prominent year 'round in our area. The other, sitting pretty and actually giving me time to turn the camera back on and focusing through the windshield, a beautiful Red Tailed Hawk!! Of course I only got one of it perched on the power pole...then, it flew off and soared at a far distance. While it was flying above, I didn't make use of the zoom since it would have hit the car windows.

Red Tailed  HAWK

WHITE TAILED HAWK
yes, the tail is WHITE...the dark you're seeing is the wing feathers
....the red tailed hawk flying away

We ended up driving clear to Highway 77/interstate 69 and drove into the little town of Bishop Texas. We pulled into the small city park there in hopes of seeing something on the lake. 

I wasn't wanting to open any windows and I wasn't about to get out of the car just then - not to scare away what we spotted in the parking lot. A roadrunner!! It was scurrying away so quickly, I barely found it in the viewfinder before it crossed the street and disappeared!!

"Ow, ow, ow! This blacktop is so darned hot...gotta get off it...now!"

"Ahhhh, grass! Cooler on my bare feet! Now, get across the street...the shade of that oak tree over there, yonder, looks mighty inviting!!"

If you're on the highway and Roadrunner goes beep beep.
Just step aside or y'might end up in a heap.
Roadrunner, Roadrunner runs on the road all day.
Even the coyote can't make him change his ways.

Roadrunner, the coyote's after you.
Roadrunner, if he catches you you're through.
Roadrunner, the coyote's after you.
Roadrunner, if he catches you you're through.

That coyote is really a crazy clown,
When will he learn he can never mow him down?
Poor little Roadrunner never bothers anyone,
Just runnin' down the road's his idea of having fun!


Needless to say, the lake was pretty empty of birds. Two Killdeer, domestic ducks, one Neotropic Cormorant, and two egrets.