Texas Big Year

Caddo Lake SP—D Day -1—December 31, 2018—Tomorrow is the day we kick off our Texas Big Year.  Hopefully we can get an owl or two to start it off with a hoot!  But this blog is about today.  The morning started with rain still falling.  It rained most of yesterday afternoon, all night and until about 8 this morning.  We headed to Marshall to get our propane tanks filled before the cold sets in again.  A short visit to Walmart for some groceries and to fill up the gas tank, then get the propane and finally, I found a hearing aid office to check on my left hearing aid which is not working.  Unfortunately, we were not able to fix it so I guess I will have to wait until I get back to Georgetown to get it fixed.  Then we headed back to the campground for lunch.  We used the newly renovated showers that were just completed at the park then headed out to do some birding.

Once again we went to the Caddo Lake NWR nearby.  We planned to do some serious sparrow studying there.  Deb is trying to get sparrows down and that is no easy task.  While there we had the chance to study Swamp Sparrows, something I rarely get to do in central and south Texas.   Today, with the sun out, birds were pretty active.  The refuge produced 21 species: Sparrows—Swamp, Chipping, Field, and White-throated—Warblers—Orange-crowned, Yellow-rump, and Pine—Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird, Eastern Bluebird, Purple Finch, Eastern Phoebe, Cedar Waxwing, Northern Flicker, Carolina Chickadee, House Wren, Hermit Thrush, Carolina Wren and, a real plus for me, Eastern Towhee.  Where I live we rarely get the Eastern Towhee.  Instead we get the Spotted Towhee.  In a short drive into neighboring Marion County added Red-shouldered Hawk, American Crow, Piliated Woodpecker and Dark-eyed Junco. 

We then went to a local Mexican Food restaurant.  They were closed and only taking take out orders which we did.  Now its time to get ready for tomorrow and our drive to meet Betty Gullette and Peggy Harding for the Tanaha CBC which kicks off our Big Year.