2023 – Year-In-Review

January

We started the new year celebrating our 40^th anniversary.  For us, a great way to celebrate any milestone is a trip!

We made our 6^th trip to Costa Rica.  We had a little trouble getting there due to a nationwide failure of the FAA NOTAM (Notice to Airman) system that had grounded all US flights. But eventually we made it and amazingly so did all our luggage.

Scarlet Macaw

February

We have a wonderful Nature Preserve close to our house where we volunteer regularly.  The Preserve is not open to the public except for special occasions but since we volunteer there we are able to go out when ever we want.  It’s a beautiful area with lots of birds. 

We spent February visiting all our favorite birding spots, including Hill Country State Natural Area where we saw this beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk.

Red-shouldered Hawk

March

We took our first camping trip of the year in our travel trailer to S. Llano River State Park.  It’s a very nice park that is only about a 2 hour drive from our house.  We both came to the conclusion that camping was not as much fun as it used to be with crowded parks, unable to get reservations, etc.  We returned home and put our trailer up for sale.  We have never regretted it. 

After we took our trailer to a consignment shop, we realized we didn’t need a F350 diesel anymore either.  We headed to our favorite Ford dealer and picked up a little something to take home. 

Ford F150

Another milestone was celebrating 13 years of retirement (for both of us).

April

No trailer? No problem! AirBnb’s are everywhere and we found a fabulous place to stay in Rockport.  We stayed in a cute, very comfortable cottage in Rockport and found it was more convenient than staying in Goose Island State Park.

We hit all our favorite birding hotspots and restaurants and had a wonderful time. We got to see the final group of Whooping Cranes as they headed north for the summer, as well as the arrival of migrant birds from the south. 

Whooping Cranes

Kentucky Warbler

May

In May we celebrated Mark’s birthday in beautiful Alaska.  We had perfect weather and both thought it was our best trip to Alaska, so far.

 

June

We decided to make a trip to Wisconsin this summer.  We had a great time visiting factory tours and birding. 

Trumpeter Swan

July

With no plans for my birthday this year we spent the month enjoying being home. Mark gave a bird talk at our local library and we spent many hours birding at all our favorite spots close to home.

With my birthday gift card I treated myself to a little yarn shopping.

August 

We took our second trip to Colombia. Our first trip to Colombia was in February of last year.

Everything went smoothly and we saw plenty of birds. 

September

We were home from Colombia for only a couple of weeks before heading to Ecuador.  This was our third trip to Ecuador.

Andean Condor

Andean Hillstar

Yellow-tufted Woodpecker

October

After back-to-back trips we were happy to stay home for a little while. With nice weather we enjoyed hiking and birding a little closer to home.

November

Well, I guess it was bound to happen sometime.  After 13 years living in the hill country it finally happened.

Yep, that is the airbag on top of the dash.

We hit our first deer.  And not just any deer.  A very large non-native Axis deer. About $25,000 of damage, and we don't have the truck back yet!

Dec

Our last trip of the year was to Rockport.  We stayed in a different AirBnb.  It was very nice. 

Unfortunately, our favorite seafood restaurant closed this year due to the owner retiring (Shempy's). We still had other favorite restaurants and didn't go hungry!

Birding was a little slow but we went to our favorite birding hotspots and had great looks at some wonderful birds. 

Great Blue Heron displaying

Least Bittern

Rockport was a great trip to end our 40th anniversary year.

After seven weeks and still not getting our new truck back, we decided to replace our older Ford Escape, with a new one.  We had been enjoying some of the features on the new truck and got even more advanced with the Escape.  It almost drives itself (under certain circumstances)!

Ford Escape

Mark says the "driver assist" is a little weird!

He seemed to get used to it pretty fast.

We had a very fun, busy year and are not slowing down next year!