§ A book, a bird, and a blog....

After cleaning the entertainment center, and re-doing the bedding in the master bedroom, I was thinking since it's so hot outdoors, I will probably play at doing a new sketch. I have one in mind, but have yet to begin with drawing any lines. But, for the past few days I've been reading my new book that arrived from Amazon. Naturally, it's about birds. More so the  other several different species of Caracara birds. A couple of weeks ago, when I left while the sun was rising over the horizon, and the dew was still on the wild grasses in the field; I spotted the Texas species of the Caracara [one I haven't seen in a several months in the wild]. Then, the next day, my ordered book arrived! Ironic. It really will be an interesting book for me. I will learn about a whole 'nother genus of the raptor family on the Falkland Islands. From the writings of Darwin when discovered while on the ship, the Beagle, to the new century!  [pronounced as in carrot...cara cara]

I also failed to mention when I was searching at AT HOME for throw pillows for the master bed, this store was filling the shelves with HALLOWEEN already. You know me. Oh boy, like a kid in a penny candy store!!!! They had out on display two witch dolls. One, I bought. Also, a Halloween gnome. Yep, bought that too. And, last year, at the very same store, they had their black artificial trees [like Christmas trees] for 90% off. It's been sitting here at home for nearly 6 months now, and I am anxious to decorate it. I will probably buy from Dollar Tree when they stock Halloween stuff. But, the anticipation is great 'bout now.

Here are the Crested Caracara of Texas [also Old Mexico].

The two parents [orange skin around the bill]...the lone adult male...and a juvenile [still with pink skin around the bill]!

...and to continue showcasing my Trolls...

↓ My 29th Troll Share ↓

TROLL DOLL COLLECTION Holiday Themed Santa circa: 80s

§ I wish NOT on my Worst Enemy!

Still bored. Working on the puzzle from hell a few minutes at a time. I tellya, being that it is 5D, I wouldn't want this for my enemy!! What a pain. I see a piece, think it's fitting for the place I think would fit, pick it up, and the whole design changes in front of my eyes. It's like I want to pick up my puzzle table and toss the whole shebang out the window. Then, again, I will keep complaining about it, and finish it...but, never again. On any "D puzzle" from now on, I'll pass.

Bud finished one of his Texas whiskey bottles the other day. I loved the shape of it...glass, and shaped like a royal crown. I got the sticky label off, soaked it in soapy water, rinsed it out, and filled it to the brim with clear, clean water then, added blue food coloring.

I've been crocheting a bit here and there. I have done ten more new pansies for my afghan. I think that makes 34 left to do, then crochet them all together. Maybe by September or October if we are to remain in lockup, I'll have it done.

Speaking of September...I've been shopping online for gaiters. Do you know what gaiters are? Not gators, but gaiters. It's what Nancy Pelosi wears to match her outfit. A face mask [usually for skiers or hunters.] I found some really pretty ones [who said I couldn't make a fashion statement like so many others are these days?!!], but the delivery dates for the ones that are pretty were all way beyond September into October! I don't think so. So, I spent a couple hours on the phone, searching and found three --buy three at that price and no shipping charges. They're to be delivered within a week's time [as I type this up...I may have them already by the time this is prescheduled to post].

Went for another joy ride over the past week...to Joe Fulton Corridor. This is an area between the river and the ship channel. Behind most of the oil refineries. There is a lot of standing water in this area after heavy rains, so I thought I'd find some birds...hoping to see the Wood Storks that return to this part of Texas in June/July. I didn't see any birds but red winged blackbirds and a couple of stilts in this part of my drive.  And being a Sunday morning, early, I was very surprised to have such heavy semi-truck traffic on their way to or from the loading docks at the port o'call or at the refineries.  There is no place but one [at the river bank] to safely pull over and off the road.  Believe me, those trucks slow down for no-one.

I did see lots of cattle on the hill tho.


I drove on...back on Carbon Plant Road, and saw one caracara...a juvenile bird.



Juvenile Crested Caracara

I then hit Tule Lake...still only a stilt or two and some swallows. So, I ended up at West Guth Park and walked there a bit. Very humid and by the time I arrived it was getting hot too. I saw parakeets, curlews, ducks, seagulls and more. I watched some men playing a round of disc golf...

and then noticed as I climbed the hill back to the car a lot of people congregating with no masks and groups of more than ten. Time to get out of harm's way. I headed for home and made a pumpkin pie with crust from scratch.  While it was baking in the oven, the scent made the whole house smell delicious.  Besides Blackberry pie being my favorite, I think pumpkin is my 2nd choice.  But if given an ultimatum, I think I'd have to sample BOTH!

§ Birding Texas 101

Y'all know by now, that when I take my day trippin' travels and share photos, my main purpose is to head to my destination to tally my steps for the day and to take in some birding. Well, over the last year, I have taken, literally, tens of thousands of photos of birds. Some, I have shared on my bird photo blog, while others,  saving them for record keeping. My record keeping is just that...each photo is dated, so when I go back into my archived folders, I know which birds are in my area in that month. Some migrate of course, while most are year 'round residents of South Texas. I thought I'd take one photo from each month's photo record and publish them on Day Trippin' for a change of pace. These frames were added before I changed the template, eliminating my blog's sidebar, and redesigned the frame to a simpler one. [I also have chosen twelve for 'nature' of each month in 2019 to be published at a later date]. Here goes. Birds for the month of:

January 2019 - Brown Pelican



February 2019 - Crested Caracara



March 2019 - White Winged Dove



April 2019 - Reddish Egret

[below, is a white morph, there is a dark morph also which is aptly named and more common.] This particular white morph is in breeding colors. Note the pink and blue on the face...just when breeding. Also, the open wing stance is called a canopy and is believed they do this when hunting for food to shade the water surface for better visibility.  Guide books and websites will tell you this is the only bird that will canopy when feeding, but I have seen egrets doing the very same, and have recorded it with photo proof.  Did the egrets evolve to this behavior also?

May 2019 - Chipping Sparrow



June 2019 - Fledging Northern Mockingbird



July 2019 - Northern Cardinal in molt.  Molting takes place after breeding and takes weeks to regrow new feathers.



August 2019 -Tri-colored Heron



September 2019 - Great Blue Heron



October 2019 - Summer Tanager

This is a female, the male is all red. Sometimes sighted are dappled yellow, orange and red...the dappled is anywhere from 1 year to adult plumage.

November 2019 - Green Jay

Interesting fact - I kinda secretly tend to call this the "mockingbird of the jay family". If not careful, you may think you hear a hawk [or several other bird calls, sometimes it sounds like a cat's meow] calling from the trees, then to discover it is the green jay!!  They are only seen in South Texas, rare sightings.  Mainly a bird of Old Mexico.

December 2018 - Herring Gull

Herring Gulls are one of few gulls that have yellow eyes. There are literally dozens of different gulls around Texas, and sometimes, if lucky, a rogue from another part of the States or Caribbean will visit. At first, they're difficult to ID at times unless you know specific anatomy and colors to associate.  For instance wing markings, eye color, leg color, size, breeding colors, bill shape and markings, like the ring billed gull.  Guess what?  It has a ring around its bill!

[Corpus Christi had a Bar-Tailed Godwit show up in our parks and bay area... from Britain, a few years back.  And birders were literally FLOCKING -pun intended- to our town with tripods, cameras and binoculars; from all over USA and close by foreign lands.  Of course, I was too]  Bud, at times, went with me to help locate it among the local godwits ... and once he made reference to the showing of so many 'crazy' bird watchers it was like the movie [based on a non-fiction book of the same title] The Big Year -starring Steve Martin and other well-known names.  It was, and oftentimes is just exactly like the movie.  If you've never seen the movie it's a good one.  Fun, funny, educational, well written and directed.  And if you do decide to watch it, you will see a bit of me in it too.  Not physically, but me as one of those fanatic birders.

§ Part II

This is the 2nd part...the part where you say Life is a Beach!! Before I get to the shore, I wanted to finish a bit where I was tallying up my step count at the birding centers...

How I long to be on the OTHER SIDE. These views are from Leonabelle....as I  made use of my zoom lens, looking toward Charlie's Pasture North....we still are barricaded from entering there...but I can dream on and remember all the water fowl seen here a couple years ago along the 3 mile boardwalk. From a Distance:

...and I happened to see a lot of water fowl at Leonabelle's too! All in one spot!! Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Tri-colored Herons, Grackles [they're everywhere!], Ibis, Blue Herons, seagulls, Dunlins, Sandpipers, stilts, and more that I can't recall.

. . .

I love it when on the shore, the surf pounds hard on the sand...and ships are tussled gently on the waves. At least standing and watching on firm ground...not out ON the ship, where it's up and down bow and stern, rolling port then starboard...nope.
When I arrived at the beach, the previous night's forecast called for extreme high tide. Well, they were correct. The tide was so high at this time of day that the area where we normally  park vehicles was under water. There was no way to even walk up to the ship channel jetty! But, oh the birds were loving all the fresh food right at their dining table, with no work involved. Just open the jaw and chow down!!

...on any given day without high tide this that is under water is where we park vehicles and the jetty is accessible! [you can see the jetty at the far distance - the dark horizontal 'line'].  I parked near the edge of the access road,  in a 'dry' spot, and walked against the sand dunes along the water's edge. Watching the waves, viewing ships going up and down the channel, birds feeding, and other vehicles trying to get through the tidal pools with their 4WD machines. Most stopped, parked where I did, others turned around and left.

I took my lensball with me in my pocket. The ships and channel were too far away to get good, close up images of ships, I tried with the stand. Then, ended up walking back toward the jetty as another ship made its way through the water, and instead of using the crystal pedestal I did a hand-held shot...

Tho quite uncommon to see this bird by the sea in our area [I see them in trees or along power lines or in flight]; especially a rare sight on the beach, I think it too was in search of some carrion from the water!! Can you guess what bird this is? Is it an eagle? A hawk?




...well, it is an eagle [but not the American eagles, more a cousin to the eagle as we know them and falcons; buzzards...it is Old Mexico's National Bird....the Crested Caracara - which in Spanish, caracara means "face-face".  The crested part of the head feathers rise when threatened/angered or oftentimes in flight.


Read more on the bird HERE