Extra! Extra! Read All About It - Sat., Oct. 12

Once again, I headed out to Mitchell Lake Audubon's wetlands to do my 10K (6.2 mile) Volksmarch. At 8:30 a.m. the temperature was quite warm and humid with no breeze. Thunderstorms were predicted for early afternoon (50% chance).

Yellow jacket nest (click photo to enlarge for greater detail)

The first third of the walk is pretty boring, but once the path reaches the polders (ponds), many more birds appear.

Juvenile white-faced ibis and blue-winged teal.

Black-necked stilt

Two American avocets and a black-necked stilt.

Where I walked...this is between two ponds.

At one point, two caracaras (Mexican eagles) circled over me and I was able to capture one of these magnificent birds in flight.

Caracara, AKA Mexican eagle.

Butterflies in abundance right now

As I walked, I noticed the following sign, "Area Closed." Hmm, why would that be? Keep reading to find out what was happening.

 

Area closed for these folks.

I used my telephoto to take photos of the birdwatchers.

But what are they doing?

Whirring Common Whitetail Dragonfly

Flower on the right has a butterfly on it.

American white pelican in flight

American white pelicans

Aren't they amazing? They're huge.

Getting ready to fly off.

As I was walking along one of the ponds, a number of kids and adults were out pruning back shrubs, trees and vines. The goal: a better view of the birds from the road around the wetlands. They were from a local 4-H club. I thanked them for volunteering their time.

A basket of colorful work gloves for the 4-H volunteers.

The hunt for the Roseate spoonbill was a success today. At the Visitor Center I was told to look for the Roseate spoonbills hanging out with flocks of egrets; the spoonbills would be the pink ones. My photo isn't great because they were way on the other side of lake and I had to zoom in on them. But they are spoonbills!

Great egrets and Roseate spoonbills

Pelicans heading my way!

Scissor-tailed flycatcher

Two Caracaras.

American avocets and black-necked stilts.

A beautiful fluffy feather.

Plant ready to bloom at Visitor Center.

Back at the Visitor Center, I asked why there was a closed area. They told me the people are participating in "The Big Sit 2013!" an annual, international, non-competitive birding event. The object is to tally as many bird species as can be seen or heard in a 24-hour period. Big Sits are happening all over the world this weekend. You learn something new every day.

For those of you who haven't seen the comedy, "The Big Year" with Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black, Bob and I highly recommend it. The movie is about bird watchers competing to see who can see or hear the most bird species in one year's time. And, yes, there really is a Big Year competition every year.

Next Saturday the Audubon Society at Mitchell Lake is having their Fall Festival with booths and information. Maybe I'll head over there. That afternoon, they'll be having a raptor show too. Cool.

This evening Bob and I went to our RV park's Steak Night. The park sets up big charcoal BBQs and everyone brings their own meat to grill. You pay $3.50 per person at the door for the rest of the meal: salad, salad dressing, baked potato with the fixin's, dessert, and iced tea or water. We grilled cod in tin foil which was very tasty. (I put a thin layer of mayonnaise on both sides of the fish and sprinkled ground cumin and garlic salt on it.)

We sat a table with three other couples who travel together. They are on their way home to California at the end of a 90-day trip across country, down the East Coast, and now across the southern states. Wow! 90 days to see the entire East Coast. That's a pretty quick trip.

Our forecast is for 30-60% chance of thunderstorms and heavy rain for the next five days. We just had some heavy rain roll through and it sounded great on our 5th wheel roof. We'll see if the weather allows us to walk tomorrow.

Enjoy your Sunday. Travel Bug out.

A Teaser - Sat., June. 22

Caracara feasting on a red fox corpse.

Double-crested cormorants.

American white pelicans.

American white pelicans in flight.

As I was doing my 10K (6.2 mi) Volksmarch around Mitchell Lake Audubon Society this morning, Snelling texted me to start work at noon today. Texting back, I told her I was four miles into a six-mile walk and I would not make noon as I needed to finish my walk, then shower. (It was already 10:30 a.m.!) She told me I could be a little late. At 12:30 p.m. I got there for training. Luckily, the exhibitor check-in registration is really easy.

I'll tell you more about that when I have more time to write. Sunday I work 12-1/2 hours, Monday 11 hours, Tuesday 4-1/4 hours and Wednesday 8 hours, then back to my part-time job at the RV park on Thursday and Friday. Whew. No rest until NEXT weekend.

On a different note: Our hearts go out to all the people in Calgary, Kananaskis and across southern Alberta who have been impacted by the massive flooding. We hope you, your loved ones, and pets are all okay. The videos we saw were incredible!

That's it for the next couple of days. Don't worry if you don't hear from me, I'll be busy earning some wages. Yay!

Travel Bug out.

Gate Guarding -- Wed. & Thurs., May 2-3

Ingram, Texas to Cotulla, Texas:

Wednesday morning we got up, prepped the 5er for the road, then took the Escape along the North Fork of the Guadalupe River. The morning was cool and overcast. Here is a pictorial of our drive:

We saw a herd of either axis or fallow deer with fawns. They took off when I tried to get a picture, but I sort of captured one under a tree...

Axis deer just to right of tree

North Fork Guadalupe River downstream from picnic area.

North Fork Guadalupe River upstream from picnic area.

North Fork Guadalupe River upstream from picnic area.

We then drove out past Armadillo Junction RV Park (where we were staying) to a church youth camp because Bob wanted to show me this cool swimming hole he found while out for a walk.

Swimmin' hole at a church camp.

Swimmin' hole at a church camp--other side of river.

After our exploration of the Ingram/Hunt areas in the Hill Country of Texas, we took off for Cotulla, Texas, where we are assigned to a gate starting Thursday (not Friday as originally planned). Our route took us from Kerrville south on SR 173 through Bandera ("Cowboy Capital of the World") to I-35; then south to Cotulla.

We didn't know where we were going to stay for the night. We got in touch with the company we're working for. They told us they were using an RV park about 20 miles out of town and said we could spend the night there and they'd hook us up to a generator. So that's what we did. The site was about 1/4 mile off the highway and protected by a gate. It was very quiet back there. 

When we first arrived and parked the 5er, Bob opened the door of the 5th wheel, then went to talk to one of the guys we'll be working for. Next thing we know, Bowie darted out the door and under the 5er. Oh, cr@p! He's an indoor only cat. I should mention that the field we parked in was full of weeds with thousands of burs. Bowie did not want to move because he realized burs are very painful. Hero Bob got down on his hands and knees and pulled Bowie out by the scruff of his neck. Bob came out with burs in his palm. Ouch! 

The escape artist safely secured, I set about removing burs from said cat. I used Kleenex to protect myself from the sharp barbs. Some of the burs had worked their way into Bowie's skin. He was good about letting me remove them.

I also used tweezers to remove pieces of burs from Bob's hand.

We saw our first roadrunner as it was getting toward evening. 


After our 5er was settled into the grassy field, we went to meet the people whose place we would be taking at the gate. They are going to their granddaughter's high school graduation. They told us about the job and showed us what they do. I asked Sharon what kind of animals they saw across the street on the ranch. She said when they first arrived, they saw big exotic animals which she thought were wildebeest. They seem to have moved away from the gate when all the big rigs started arriving.


On the drive toward our gate we saw a Caracara (in the falcon family). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Edition describes the Caracara as follows: "An omnivorous raptor, it feeds on small vertebrates as well as carrion. This bird, magnificent in flight, is the 'Mexican eagle' of the flag of Mexico. The Mexican peso coin shows the Caracara hacking a wriggling rattlesnake to death with its beak."


We told the people we're replacing we would be back in the morning around 10:00 a.m. to take over the gate. 

The time was going on 8:45 p.m. and I told Bob we needed to get into town if we wanted to get dinner. We ended up having a very good dinner at Dairy Queen. In the dark, we drove around town to locate the post office, Ace Hardware, grocery store and restaurants. We never did find the laundromat. I will refer to the map our friends Dave & Doris gave us. (They gate guarded in Cotulla in the winter.)

Both of us slept well last night. This morning, we pulled the 5er over to our gate and saw Barry and Sharon off. They gave us some more instructions and were gone.

Bob took the day shift from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Night owl (me) will work 4:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. We are 10 miles out of Cotulla. Our site has four oil pads (most have one). The oil company is almost finished at the first pad. I think this is considered a busy gate.

The temperature today must have been close to 100 with a hot breeze and blowing dust. During the day we saw some summer tanagers. Late afternoon, just before it started getting dark, I looked across the road and saw three Springbok antelope. I got photos from a distance. 

I also took some photos of our rig at the gate.

At dusk, I examined a woodpecker-type bird in a mesquite tree. It looked exactly like the Gila Woodpecker, but the Audubon book says they don't nest this far east. The closest second choice I could find is the Golden-fronted woodpecker which is common in this area, but the bird I saw just didn't quite match.

When it got dark, fireflies came out! I haven't seen a firefly since we were on St. Lucia.

Around 8:30 p.m., lightning lit up the sky to the north. It looked like lightning that started on the ground and went up into the sky. Truckers checking in here were commenting about it. They were afraid we were going to get rain. Rain would turn all the dirt and sand roads into a big, messy mudhole. They don't want to drive in it.

Bob is sleeping and I'm guarding the gate. We have three motion sensors (two in front for incoming vehicles and one inside for outgoing vehicles) that let us know when a truck is coming in. Sometimes I think I hear a truck coming, but I've had a lot of false alarms. I have to wait until the alarm sounds before I head outside. 

However, on one of my false alarm trips outside at 12:15 a.m., I saw an armadillo! 

It's been an exciting first day for us and the cats too. Bowie adapted to the alarms pretty quickly but Sunnie is a little freaked out by them. I have a feeling he'll get used to them soon enough. Right now Sunnie is hunting bugs; he especially likes flies, but moths will do.

It's 1:15 a.m. now and you can tell I haven't been super busy by how long this blog is! I will write again as I have time and internet connection. 

The internet and cell phone coverage here is not great. We get kicked off the internet frequently and it is very slow...it was almost impossible to connect and stay on during the day. (Tonight it got faster.)

That's all I've got. 

Travel Bug out.