2021 Year In Review

This is the first year in the past 11 years that we have not done any volunteering.  Despite that, we stayed pretty busy this year.

January

In January we were still working on some upgrades on our new house. 

New water filtration system.

We put our HitchHiker up for sale.

We spent many amazing years in our HitchHiker.

(Green Lake Fish Hatchery, Ellsworth, Maine)

February

In February we had the heaviest snowfall in 30 years with single-digit temperatures!

We kept plenty of food out for the birds.

We put in a lot of time working in the yard. 

Grinding stumps.

March

We finally got our first Covid shot in March. 

 

I had knee surgery for a torn meniscus.

After all that snow last month we were noticing the driveway needed some upgrading. 

April

We got our 2^nd Covid shot right on time in April.

Mark ordered new kayaks.  His leaked and was replaced.  That one leaked also.  It was also replaced.  Third time’s a charm.  No more leaks!

We ordered a new travel trailer several weeks ago.  It arrived this month.  

We are still upgrading our new house. We decided to replace the flooring in the kitchen and dining area.  The existing flooring was new but was installed incorrectly.  

We went to Goose Island for our first trip in our new trailer.  The new kayaks went along too.

May

For Mark’s birthday we booked a cabin at the Utopia River Retreat on the beautiful Sabinal River.  The highlight of the trip was observing the Mexican Free-tailed Bats emerging from the Frio Bat Cave.

 

The sky was full of bats!

We had our second trip in the new trailer.  South Llano River State Park is a beautiful park in the Hill Country and only about 1 ½ hours from our house.

S. Llano River State Park

June

We had beautiful weather for taking the kayaks out on the Guadalupe River.

Mark plays disc golf about once a week. 

 July

We spent two weeks in Costa Rica for my birthday.  It was our 5^th trip and we went to some new areas.

King Vulture with Black Vultures

White-faced Capuchin 

Shining Honeycreeper

One of our favorite lodges is the Arenal Observatory Lodge.  We made sure to stay there on my birthday. 

Arenal Volcano

August

We took the trailer to Ruidoso, New Mexico.  We’ve been to this area many times and always enjoy the cool mountain air and the many hummingbirds. 

Our site.

September

September 28^th was the 1-year anniversary of our new house.  It is unbelievable that a year has already passed.  We have really enjoyed having a permanent home again.

We celebrated with a 2-week trip to Ecuador.  This was our 2nd trip to Ecuador. 

Yellow-throated Toucan

Glistening-green Tanager

Booted Racket-tail

October

Our October trip was to Davis Mountains State Park.  We’ve stayed here numerous times.  It’s a beautiful area.  

Not a lot of traffic!

November

Our November trip was to my favorite place in Texas - Goose Island State Park.  Because it was very windy, we were only able to go out in the kayaks one time.  But we went birding every day and ate at all our favorite restaurants.

December

December ending up being a relaxed month.  We got our first (and only) freeze on the 12^th.  It was a bright, sunny day so it wasn't freezing for long.

By Christmas day we were back into the low 80's.

Mark expanded my yarn barn and I did my best to fill it up!

We had a trip planned for December, but the birds did not cooperate!  If they ever show up where they are supposed to be, we’ll head on over to New Mexico.  Until then, there are a lot of areas close to our house for birding.

We participated in a Christmas bird count on December 28th.  Mark has gone on Christmas bird counts many times, but this was a first for me.  The count is for the number of species seen.

Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank M. Chapman, proposed a new holiday tradition - a "Christmas Bird Census" that would count birds during the holidays rather than hunt them.

Those original 27 Christmas Bird Counters tallied around 90 species on all the counts combined.

The 120th CBC took place from December 14, 2019, to January 5, 2020. That count occurred at 2,646 locations, with 81,601 volunteers in the US, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands. Volunteers observed a total of 2,566 bird species.

I got a few new magnets this year -  

This year was quite an adjustment for us.  We had some major changes but we are enjoying our new way of life. 

We are filling up next year’s calendar.  We’ll be hitting some of our favorite places, but we also have several new trips planned. 

Stay tuned.  You might be surprised where we go!

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