The hawk watchers

Still hawk counting at Santa Ana, had a good day today lots of Broadwing hawks migrating north.

Ken is now known as the Beige Creeper, the last two days he has creeped down the bank to get photos of the birds in the ditch, there's been a Wilson Snipe, Solitary Sandpiper and today a N. Water Thrush. The hawks can flying high and can be just specks in the sky and are hard to spot.
We have to remember to look over our heads too as they can sneak down out of a cloud.

Sometimes it's good to sit and look up.

More tomorrow.

More hawks

Thursday evening we were invited to attend the Santa Ana volunteer recognition banquet.

There were about 80 volunteers, the parks all have this program and it is the volunteers that make our park system run, they work in the visitor center, give the walks, the talks, water the plants, trim the paths and keep the parks clean etc.

The banquet was potluck but the park furnished the meat with was BBQ Nilgai and wild pig taken from the refuge system.

The volunteers were honored with certificates and gifts according to their hours served.

This is Gene Wilhelm our hawk watch leader who has put in more than 6000 volunteer hours, he is honoring us his hawk watch volunteers. Ken and I received certificates for our 50 hours of time and a pin. They had door prizes too, lots of them and I won a set of butterfly note cards.On the road called Military Highway near the refuge we spotted 10 Swainson hawks sitting in this sod farm. We have learned many birds like sod farms especially after a fresh cut and watering.
Yesterday on the way home from the hawk watch also off of Military Hwy we got to witness our first cane burn being started, we've always seen the smoke in the fields but have never reached the field in time for the burn as it goes fast.
You can see the tractor starting the fire in this pic.

We also have learned many hawks can be found at the burns, we did see one at this burn amazingly flying in while it was still burning, guess they like their meats BBQ'd too.



More later, we have a wiener roast tonight with our friends from the RV park the last of the season as many are leaving next week, we may too.
Have a nice weekend!!!

More from hawk watch

We have been spending the last couple of days at the hawk watch and chasing birds at Estero Llano SP. I should have started taking a pic of the official tally days ago, today's should be a good one, we missed the big broadwing hawk kettle but we got to watch this beautiful bird give us an aerial demonstration. It's our first Swallowtail Kite.
I also spotted the King Rail at Estero this afternoon while Ken was waiting to get a photo of the Clay-colored Thrush.
We also had some excitement on the levy today, the several border patrol officers stopped and hunted around and found some drugs stashed in the trees, it is very common I hear to find drugs in the parks.

Update on watch

Another day at Santa Ana's hawk watch, believe we've missed only one day in the week that it's been going on.

The last two mornings started out cool, in fact Sunday morning it was down to 38 so we waited for the morning to warm up some before we went, the birds don't fly until the air is warm enough for some thermals. (We stopped to pick up the cherry pies at McD's.)Marg is showing a passing visitor the chart of raptors we are watching for.

About 20 mins before our 1 o'clock stopping time, we spotted 2 huge kettles of turkey vultures and Swainson hawks, everyone is trying to count them.
They looked like a tornado of birds coming at us out in the distant sky.
I believe we ended up with nearly a 1000 birds in that 20 plus mins.
We decided to stop at Estero Llano SP on the way home to see if we could see the King Rail that is there. We didn't see it but we ran into several of the birders from the hawk watch there looking for the same bird.

They knew about the hummingbird nest and took us over to see it thru their spotting scope.

We have a new neighbor, a Mexican 10 stripe squirrel.

Many of our human neighbors have left for home.

Spring has sprung??

Happy Spring Equinox
The citrus blossoms are spreading their fragrant scents around the valley just a great sign of spring to enjoy, wish I could share it with you.
Our first day of spring was rainy, but we went to the hawk watch as it wasn't raining here and watched for birds between the rains. We saw our first Hook-billed Kite from a distance but it counts as a siting and we are to bring cherry pies to the group as it is a lifer for us.
We have a BBQ this afternoon at the clubhouse furnished by the owners of the park as their appreciation of us choosing to stay at their park, should be fun.
Came the Spring with all its splendor,
All its birds and all its blossoms,
All its flowers, and leaves, and grasses.
Longfellow from Hiawatha

What's happening????

The park had a little St. Pats party last night complete with entertainment after the pot luck dinner with a Irish flavor.
All dressed up for the occasion.

Our plans for today were canceled, probably for the best, we were going to take tour to Mexico to go shelling on an island but with all the problems going on there it was canceled.
We were invited to join our pegs and jokers group for lunch today at a pizza place in Harlingen, we first stopped at Ramsey to feed the birds and go for a walk. We spotted the Verdin, Olive Sparrow and White-eyed Vireo and took pics of the flowers.
Tuesday we did the Hawk count, it was a good day we were busy spotting and counting the migrating Turkey Vultures, we counted 1135 of them. We did see a few hawks to count too.


Here's the Mexican saying of the week taken from the La Fera paper.
A Caballo Regaldo No Se Le Miran los Dientes.
Translation: You don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

St. Pat's Day

Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are callin'
From glen to glen, and round the mountainside.

But come ye back, when summer's in the meadow,
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow...

Then I'll be here, in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh, Danny boy, oh, Danny boy, I love you so.