Vacation

Let’s start with the important bit – our trip to Texas to see my grandson was great.

He is incredibly cute and already showing signs of superior intelligence 🙂

For a 16-month old, he has incredible walking/running endurance and I look forward to hiking with him in nature in the future.

Driving 3,900 miles was not without birding. DeeDee and I knocked off two more national parks on our trip, including Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona and Guadalupe National Park in Texas.

During our trip there, I saw a few “not in my backyard” birds – including the seemingly common Great-tailed Grackle. These Grackles, in my mind, are as numerous as California Scrub Jays – just sorta everywhere. But I don’t see them in the Bay Area nor in Gualala ! And man are they vocal.

Great-tailed Grackle

My first lifer of the trip showed up at Petrified Forest NP

#179 – Green-tailed Towhee

Green-tailed Towhee – Look at that mohawk !

A portion of the Painted Desert in Petrified Forest NP

Waking up the next morning to continue our trip to my daughters, I found another lifer in the motel parking lot

#180 – Western Kingbird

Western Kingbird – it was cold outside this morning, but not *that* cold !

When we arrived at my daughters house, I saw a few of the unique birds to the area I saw for the first time last year, including the Blue-jay and Northern Cardinal.

I also caught two more lifers in my daughters front-yard

#181 – Chimney Swift

Chimney Swift – many of them flying over our heads

#182 – Carolina Chickadee

Carolina Chickadee – I spent so much time watching him I waited until the absolute last minute to take a photo.

On our way home, DeeDee graciously allowed me to visit one of New Mexico’s biggest birding spots – Bosque-del-apache. Unfortunately, the way the driving went we arrived at 4pm – and it was hot and bright outside. Not usually the best time for birding – but the visitor center ( closed when we arrived by 5 minutes !) was clearly setup for birders. Numerous feeders were setup in the visitor center which kept some birds around. I honestly could have spent the entire 3 hours we stayed at just the visitor center birding – but we did manage to do a drive around the south loop of the park. I will have to come back next year at a better time of day and to do both loops.

I generated exactly 10 new lifers – and those are birds I actually photographed as new. I was running the Merlin Bird ID app – I could have added at least another 10 birds had I been able to see / photograph them.

#183 – Lesser Nighthawk

#184 – Franklin’s Gull

#185 – Curved-bill Thrasher

#186 – Phainopepla

#187 – Yellow-breasted Chat

#188 – Hooded Oriole

Terrible photo – but evidently pretty rare in this area. This female has been known to hang-round the visitor center.

#189 – Lucy’s Warbler

Lucy’s Warbler – notice the patches on her head.

#190 – *Wild Turkey

I’ve clearly had Wild Turkeys captured in the past, but somehow never counted. The image was taken in the Bay Area the week before my trip – however, we did see two females on the Bosque del Apache south loop.

#191 – Wilson’s Phalarope

#192 – *Yellow-headed Blackbird

I’m not sure if this counts – I didn’t actually see the bird while birding, but rather saw it as I was reviewing my photos from the trip. He was out by some egrets. Let me know if you would count him as a lifer.