§ South Bay Sunrise...

§ Lost...

So...early on a mild morning this week, I found myself driving just before sunrise, to see if I could find two birds for the week. One, I've seen before, but never got a decent photo of it for my photo framed walls. The other, a rare bird, one of which I've never seen before, that was sighted in a small community between the interstate 69 Corridor and Portland, Texas. [this photo is of some of the oil refineries along the outskirts of the city...just before the sun came up.]

After trying to find the 'one that got away' without a good photo, and not finding it...I left that area and headed to my other planned destination...When i got to the highway sign that said "Bayside" I veered to exit, and crossed the railroad tracks, to come up on a street sign that shows me Highway 136...but the sign also showed me a two-way arrow!!! 🡸136🡺 Hmmmm, I guessed I could go either way and get heading in the right direction!! I turned right. Driving through the "Hub" of Woodsboro, Texas. Nuttin' there but worn down business establishments. I really wanted to "get out of Dodge" and onto the farmland where the 2nd rare bird was last reported seen. It's about 20 miles between Woodsboro and Portland...with Bayside in between.

Driving for what seemed an eternity, I finally spotted another highway sign that told me I was on FM1360!!! I knew I was headed in the right direction 'cause the car's navigation system showed "South". But, 1360...a FM [farm to market]?!! "Must be a highway 'spur' that'll eventually get me ON State Highway 136". Or, was I lost?!! This accompanying photo is about the time I said "I feel lost and all alone...who will rescue me?"  Eventually, after seeing near the entire route nothing but farmland and plowed cotton fields, I came to an end...finally the highway heading into Portland and then, over the causeway to Corpus Christi, and home. I did see cotton...lots of cotton. It looked like snow!!



...Altho I didn't find the rare bird in any of the plowed fields as reported, I DID FIND a gaggle of Snow Geese...another species I've been hoping to find...chasing reports of them also ... for over six years' time frame. And in the 'flock' of geese, there were some rare dark morphs...a slate blue-gray species. I got pictures for my bird photo blog.



So, all in all, the day wasn't a total loss.