Birthday and owl

It was a beautiful day, temp was perfect 73. We did go to town for a paper then a short walk thru Ramsey Park, the flowers are gone as expected but there were still a few butterflies.

Then back for the party. This is Peggy Murrey the birthday lady.
This is part of the band, Richard, he and Murreys have been friends for many years and it is his birthday also and they have been celebrating it together in this way for several years.
The band played for a couple of hours, they are very good especially the Conjunta music.

We walked to our dock after the party, Ken feed the goose and gulls and I heard the owl.

We found it, I got a few pics not the best with my little point and shoot but Ken went and got his big 500 lens and took several shots. We learned about another owl in the area, there is a screech owl in a neighbors box, he invited us to check it out when ever we wanted as the owl wasn't in the box today.

The neighbor is a wildlife agent and invited us to a bird banding tomorrow am at the wildlife management area just down the road from us. How cool was that coincidence.

More birding tomorrow!!!!

Back to Birding

(This is an Audubon Oriole, at the feeding station mentioned below.)

We are feeling better, the weather is better so we are getting out again and doing some birding.

Before the weather got sunny we did get out Thursday to see the movie Cloudy with Meatballs, also attended the Audubon meeting it was about hummingbirds of Texas, there are 17 variety that visit the valley, we've seen only 3 the Buff Bellied, Ruby-throat and Black-chinned.

Saturday, we got up early to join the Audubon group on their monthly outing, we car pooled to Zapata, Falcon Lake State Park and a spot on the Rio Grande River which also had a couple living in a bird sanctuary that had a big feeding station set up where we could just sit and watch the birds. There were 3 variety of Orioles, Altramira, Hooded and the Audubon and 4 species of doves, White-tipped, White winged, Inca and ground and the usual feeders Green Jays, Kiskadees, Black-capped titmouse, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Orange crowned Warbler, Common Yellow throat and Red-wing blackbirds.There were 18 in our group, veteran birders, new birders and a couple along for the ride.

We saw 60 plus species of birds on the trip, 32 of which were at the feeding station.

This is Pyrrhuloxia easily confused with a female Northern Cardinal.

This is a Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, we were to look for the Black tail Gnatcatcher it was spotted but I didn't see it.

We spotted 3 new birds to add to our list, an Audubon Oriole, Audubon Yellow-rump warbler and a Short-tail Hawk.

These two Curved-billed Thrashers are regular visitors to our feeder.

These Altramire Orioles will visit our feeder occasionally.

A Buff-bellied Hummingbird at our feeder. We were hoping to see several more at the feeder since most of their nectar flowers have been killed from last weeks freeze.

Have a birthday party to go to this afternoon , a big bash with a band, BBQ meats and whatever the rest of us bring. I have to finish my card and wrap my gift better get on it.

Happy Birthday Elvis

Elvis would have been 75 Jan. 8, in celebrating his birthday a little town, Los Fresnos, holds a Music Festival.

Simon Vega, the originator of this festival served in the Army with Elvis and has created a small museum 'Little Graceland' with his personal photos and collected memorabilia.

The sun was out, temp was a little warmer so we checked out the Festival.

We noticed as we were walking in most of the car licenses were Canadian or out of state.

Here's one of the Elvis Impersonators, he was pretty good.

There were two stages and the entertainers alternated the stages, there were 10 entertainers we listened to 5 of them not all were Elvis impersonators we heard a Neil Diamond and a Marty Robbins impersonators both very good. Along with the music there was a car and motorcycle show and a kids play area, it cost $5 ea for the festival and we thought it very entertaining. We didn't stay but a couple of hours as it was getting cold again and Ken still isn't feeling very well.
This is Bill Brooks he impersonates both Elvis and Marty Robbins, I thought he was the best.
I'm adding Little Graceland to my should visit list .

Cold and Colds

The cold front has arrived!! This morning we were sitting out enjoying 60 degree weather and this afternoon we have our furnaces running.

It is going to be below freezing for a couple of nights and the high Friday and Saturday only in the 40's.

People are covering plants, farmers rushing to pick more of their citrus crops.

We could even have some sleet, schools could close and people are warned to just stay home if that happens.

This weather is hard for people here, many do not have heat in their homes so shelters are opened for them. There have been many home fires with the improper use of space heaters.

We both have colds, Ken seems to have it the worst and has taken to bed.

So we will test our little furnace and hopefully when the weather gets better next week we will be feeling better too.

Stay warm and safe!!

Birthday ride

Sunday we were invited to a birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse for our friend Norma, they are from MO too. As you see she had a good time as we all did.

We were e-mailed the results of our bird count, we saw 6070 birds Sat.

Today on our drive to town we saw a stream of hawks heading for Mexico, this is same area is where we saw the last huge stream birds heading south.

We had a cool 52 degree day with brisk breezes, tomorrow looks warmer at least that is what the forecaster is saying.

Another Christmas count

We were up early this morning to join the Christmas bird count in Harlingen, we were paired up with Norma again and another winter visitor birder.

We are given a certain area to cover to count all the birds we see so we could have say 4000 red wing black birds which may be close to our actual number for them today.We saw 53 different species, we'll get the total tally later when Norma transfers the numbers to the official paper. We saw two new birds for us today, the Lesser Scaup and the Sprague Pipit.
I didn't get many photos of the birds today but did get this White tail Kite flying.
Ken got a few photos, believe he got some good ones of the Sprague Pipit.
We saw a hummingbird visit our feeder yesterday, it was a Buff-bellied, nice start to a New Year of birding. (Didn't have the camera ready.)

Blue Moon New Year's eve

Blue Moon, guide us through the shades of darkness as we welcome 2010 under your brilliant light.

(We won't see another New Year's Blue moon til 2028)
Our infamous Arroyo City line dancers gave a demonstration then the Circle L band played the New Year in.

Cutting the rug.

The New Year's toast.

Not everyone made it til midnight to share in the toast and black eyed peas.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. Ben Franklin