Still Celebrating – Rockport, Texas Day 3

The next day we made it out to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.  We've been visiting Aransas for 40 years now and have always enjoyed it. Except when the mosquitos are trying to carry us away!

It was a good day for birding and we saw plenty of birds.

The very first bird that we saw was this fierce little falcon, called a Merlin.  They are known for being much tougher than their small size would indicate. Their main prey is shorebirds and small songbirds so things were pretty quiet in this vicinity!

Merlin

The refuge had received far more rain than we'd seen in our part of Texas, and all of the fresh water lakes were full. 

Blue-winged Teal - male

Redheads and American Coots

We saw what must have been the same three Whooping Cranes that we'd seen the evening before. The next day it was reported that the final family of Whooping Cranes had left the refuge. Hopefully we'll see them again next year. 

Whooping Crane family

Lunch was at Shempy's.  It's a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that has wonderful fried shrimp.

We had another relaxing afternoon of reading in the backyard then a short drive out to Goose Island and Linda Castro Nature Sanctuary. We continued to find migrating Warblers here and there, but not the large numbers we had hoped for. They were still fun to watch. 

Hooded Warbler

Kentucky Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler 

Prothonotary Warbler squabbling

Next - A return to Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center

Still Celebrating – Rockport, Texas Day 2

On our second day we headed out to the Leonabell Turnbull Birding Center in Port Aransas.  We always visit here at least once on every trip.

We saw almost 70 different species of birds on this trip with 10 being lifers for this location.

The weather was perfect.

It was fun to see American Avocets in both their breeding plumage (most of the birds) and their non-breeding plumage (only a few).

American Avocet - Breeding Plumage

American Avocet Non-breeding Plumage

The Birding Center seems tailor-made for bird photography, with the ability to get close to the birds with the sun at your back. We always get a lot of great pictures. 

Black-necked Stilt

Forster's Tern

Laughing Gull

Snowy Egret

We saw three different Rails while we were there. Rails are notoriously sneaky birds that spend little time in the open. But the long boardwalks and grassy edges makes it a little easier to find them.

Clapper Rail

Sora

Virginia Rail

There is (was) a very nice birding boardwalk close to the birding center called Charley's Pasture.  It was destroyed by hurricane Harvey but is slowly being rebuilt.  There is a very short boardwalk completed now and hopefully more will be completed in the coming year.

Long-billed Curlew

Another birding site in this area is called Holt Paradise Pond.  We always stop there but this day there was a barricade across the entrance with a closed for construction sign.

After a nice lunch at Arandas Mexican Grille, we enjoyed an afternoon of reading in our backyard.  That evening we headed back to Linda Castro's and Goose Island where we saw a few more migratory birds using water features. 

Hooded Warbler

Northern Parula

Swainson's Thrush

Our final stop was at Big Tree (part of Goose Island) where we had three Whooping Cranes fly over. Our understanding is that this was the last family group remaining on the peninsula. All others had started north. 

Next - Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

Still Celebrating – Rockport, Texas – Day 1

In keeping with our plan to celebrate our 40^th anniversary for the entire year, we headed to the Texas coast. 

This trip had been planned for a while but it was going to be an RV stay, at Goose Island State Park.  Since our travel trailer has been sold (it took about 5 weeks), those plans were cancelled and Mark started looking for an Airbnb in Rockport.

Rockport is about a four-hour drive from our house. We weren't supposed to arrive at our Airbnb until 4:00 pm, so we decided to make a stop at Lake Corpus Christi State Park.  Note to file: Do not go to a popular state park on Easter Sunday!  The park was packed with families having picnics.  We spent only a few minutes in the park and got back on the road. 

Since we were still a little early we decided to have an late lunch/early dinner in Rockport.  The only restaurant we could find open on Easter Sunday was a Chinese buffet.  We have eaten here a couple of times and it was very good.

We didn’t have any trouble finding our Airbnb.  It was a very cute little cottage about a block from Aransas Bay. 

One bedroom, two full baths, two screened porches and a nice back yard.

Living room/Kitchen

One of the bathrooms

An enormous shower!

Porch #1

Porch #2

After getting settled in we headed out for a little birding.  Our first stop was the nearby Linda Castro Nature Sanctuary where we saw some nice birds.

There is a small water drip at this location and we saw a couple of warblers taking advantage of it. 

Black-and-white Warbler

Northern Parula

There is a large pond at this reserve, and we enjoyed seeing a couple of species of colorful dragonflies. 

Eastern Amberwing

Red-tailed Pennant

Of course we had to drive out to Goose Island for a little birding before the sun set.  Goose is only a few miles from Rockport.  We didn't have a whole lot of light left but we still found a few birds. We started at a bird feeding area where we saw a Brown Thrasher, uncommon at this location.

Brown Thrasher

Down at the beach area we saw the usual gulls and waterbirds. The common Laughing Gulls had regained the black hoods that they lose during the winter, and a couple of birds were showing a pink blush on their breasts which is an indication of breeding season. 

Gulls, Terns and a Pelican

Sunset over Copano Bay 

Next - A trip to a birding center

Why not? It’s Truck Month!

We took our first camping trip this year out to South Llano River State Park.  It’s only about 1 ½ hours from our house but it is one of our favorite parks. 

Getting reservations in a state park, or any park, has become a challenge in the past couple of years.  Reservations must be made months in advance if you want to stay more than one night in a single spot, even if it’s during the week. 

We had hoped to be able to take some spur-of the-moment trips and have been discouraged with not being able to just load up and go. 

Plus, the parks are always busy, and not just on the weekends. Crowded, loud parks have never been fun for us. 

We enjoyed our few days at S. Llano but when we returned home we  both decided that camping was not nearly as much fun as it had been when we were working or when we were full time RV volunteers. 

So, the decision was made to sell our travel trailer.  We took it to a consignment place close to our house. 

We are a little sad to have that part of our lives over but also a little relieved to not have to think about getting difficult reservations, getting the trailer out, and crowded campgrounds. 

So, what’s next?  Lots of airbnb’s and many trips planned for this year. 

If you’ve ever seen a Ford commercial you will know that It’s Truck Month! I think every month might be truck month here in Texas. 

With no real need for a F350 diesel, we called up our favorite Ford salesman and took a couple of test drives. 

This one came home with us: 

It is a smaller F-150, but a Lariat which is a step above the XLT trucks that we've always owned. It has some nice features like heated and cooled seats, several cameras which provide a 360 degree view around the truck when parking, a giant 12" screen for navigation, ten(!) different driving modes. It is a Crew Cab, 4WD which is just about all they sell here in Texas.  We've started volunteering at a nearby nature preserve with some very rough roads and actually need 4WD for the first time in our lives.

We think that this will be a great travelling vehicle and just what we need for future road trips.

Costa Rica - Final Day

Friday, January 20, 2023

I went out with Johan at 5:45 to try for a final hike, while Teri decided to stay back and start packing. We walked some hotel trails, finding both Black-billed and Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrushes which we’d been missing up to this point. We also got a quick look at a Buff-fronted Quail-Dove, the last "lifer" of the trip. Most fun was watching a group of three Spotted Wood-Quail scratching and feeding from a distance of no more than ten feet away.

Black-billed Nightingale-Thrush

Spotted Wood-Quail

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and were in the car at 8:00 for the trip into San Jose. The drive went smoothly and we arrived at the airport around 11:00.  We said our fond farewells to Johan and headed inside. We were at our departure gate in less than 10 minutes and had plenty of time to relax before the flight. Teri did a bit of souvenir shopping at the airport as we'd not had many opportunities while we were out on the road. 

We left on time to Miami at 1:30 and we arrived at 5:30 EST.  Immigration went pretty quickly as did bag pickup and drop off, but the wait to pass back through security was over 30 minutes with a "special" inspection of our carry-on containing all of my camera gear and the binoculars. The whole thing seemed a bit absurd but we had plenty of time for our connection and were in our next departure gate with almost two hours to spare. Travel days are definitely the least fun days of a vacation!

We landed a bit after midnight in San Antonio, caught an Uber to the La Quinta where we'd stayed the night before our trip and where we'd left our car, and checked in for a welcome night of rest before heading home the next morning. 

Teri's purchased souvenirs:

We were surprised when Johan dropped us off at the airport and gave each a Costa Rican flag pin and a beautiful Toucan magnet!

Final Thoughts:

It was a wonderful trip for our 40th Anniversary!

Costa Rica never fails to come through with great birds, great lodges, and amazing guides. This was our second trip with Costa Rica Focus and they get an A+ for everything. From assisting us during our ridiculous first travel day with the airlines shut down to making all of the arrangements to, most importantly, hooking us up with Johan who was just a delight to travel and bird with. We'd never travelled with a full-time guide in Costa Rica before, but we'd certainly love to take another trip with Johan!

For the trip we saw 308 different species of birds, of which 13 were life birds, meaning species that we've never seen before. I got photos of probably half of the species, though I haven't really counted them.

This was our sixth trip to Costa Rica and we've spent a total of about eight weeks birding the country. While there isn't the potential for hundreds of new birds like there is in many other countries, we've come to think of Costa Rica as our favorite country for tropical birding because of the easy access (usually!), amazing number of excellent birds and birding sites, opportunities for photography, and friendly people. No doubt we'll be back! 

Costa Rica - Day 9 Part 2

Thursday, January 19, 2023

We headed to an area near the Savegre Lodge where we'd stayed on two previous trips. Just down the road from the lodge is the Waterfall Road, which is also the access road to the Truchas Reales (Royal Trout) Farm.  This is a dirt road that runs alongside a river and through some beautiful forest. 

We immediately started seeing some high-elevation species like Black-faced Solitaire, Collared Redstart, Flame-throated Warbler, and Spangle-cheeked Tanager. It was a beautiful walk on a nice shady road/trail and is probably my favorite type of birding. 

Black-faced Solitaire

Collared Redstart

Flame-throated Warbler

Spangle-cheeked Tanager

At 12:30 we went to a small local restaurant for lunch. We all had pizza which was very good, and I finished with a piece of lemon pie that was identical to what we’d call Key Lime Pie. 

We then drove up to the Batsu Gardens bird photography site which Teri and I had visited in 2018 when it was brand new. The gardens had grown in some but it was pretty much the same. The site has a fruit feeding area with perches that are perfect for viewing and photography. 

Acorn Woodpecker

Baltimore Oriole

Golden-browed Chlorophonia

Rufous-collared Sparrow

Silver-throated Tanager

In addition to birds coming into the fruit feeding station, there were plenty of feeders and flowering plants to attract hummingbirds.

Lesser Violetear

Scintillant Hummingbird

Volcano Hummingbird

We also saw both male and female Slaty Flowerpiercer. They are considered "nectar thieves" as instead of feeding down the throat of a flower and spreading pollen from plant-to-plant, they pierce a hole at the base of the flower and drink the nectar that way. The male and female are different colors, but they share the distinctive Flowerpiercer bill shape. 

Slaty Flowerpiercer - female

Slaty Flowerpiercer - male

After a couple of hours at Batsu Gardens we went back to the Waterfall Trail and birded it till dark. We saw a pair of American Dippers which are odd birds that walk underwater on the riverbed, probing the gravel for insects. They are always found near fast-moving water. 

American Dipper

Another bird found in this habit is a small flycatcher called the Torrent Tyrannulet. These streamside birds seem to share the same gray color scheme. 

Torrent Tyrannulet

We'd had a big lunch and were still pretty full so stopped at a tiny local place for a cup of hot chocolate and an artisan roll. We ended the night with owling back a Dantica Lodge, finally calling in a Bare-shanked Screech-Owl which just flew past us into the tree behind. We heard it a couple of more times but never really got good looks. Oh well, maybe next time!

Next time: Our last day, final thoughts, and souvenirs.