Jan 31, 2018 - Corpus Christi birding

The Lunar Eclipse at 6:30 am

We set our alarm for 6:15 so we could step out of our room walk ten feet and look in the west part of the sky and watch the earth's shadow slowly work its way over the moon.  The Blue Blood Moon was spectacular and behind us dawn was starting to break and the east part of the sky was a rainbow of reds.  Then the sun rose out over the water and then the moon suddenly disappeared.  We took some more photos of the spectacular sunrise.  We then decided to go for breakfast and get our lunch.
The Beach
Our first birding of the day was to walk the beach early in the morning after breakfast to look for peeps and other shorebirds.   We saw many Laughing Gulls, Herring and Ring-billed Gulls.  The only peeps were Sanderlings.  We walked up the ramp to the Lexington Arlington Aircraft carrier museum to look over the bay and we saw Cormorants and Brown Pelicans.  When a fishing vessel returned to the dock, it was followed by a whole bunch of Brown Pelicans, flying around and some in the water.  We had hoped to find more on this beach but did not.

We checked out of this motel.  We asked the hotel staff if the hotel was flooded as a result of the September hurricane.  The fellow said no one was allowed on this flood plane for a week after and the rooms facing the ocean were flooded.  Our room was one of flooded ones and this hotel only re-opened in December and everywhere in the neighbourhood new roofs were being nailed on or had new roofs or dumpsters for construction material in front.
Blucher Park
From here we packed up and drove to Blucher Park.  Now Blucher Park in April five years ago when Colleen and I were there was very birdy with so many birds to see in this tiny city park.  In January, today  Blucher is much more quieter, no other birders, we were the only ones and we found we were outnumbered by street people just waking up.  They were there last time but we had lots of birders in there also.  We discreetly did not go into bushy areas as we knew a street person or two were just waking up.  We were fine and saw the Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Yellow-throated Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and lots of Northern Mockingbird.   Then four policemen on bicycles showed up to talk to us.  They were very personable with us and asked us if we were fine.  We said yes.  Yes there were street people but no one was bothering us even with our binoculars and cameras etc.  The police spoke with us a bit and we could see some street people clearing out of the area and some that did not.  We are probably talking about 8 people.  We felt safe, and the whole area is kind of sketchy and it was like that five years ago.  Anyways we stayed another hour birding there hoping to find some other bird but did not.  We knew that birding in January in winter was going to be very different from birding during migration in April.  We were very happy with what we saw.

We headed out of the downtown core to visit the Corpus Christi Botanical Gardens.  Colleen and I had visited this place last time and it was good.  We saw Least Grebe, probably the best  bird of the day, Kiskadee, Couch's Kingbird, Tri-coloured Heron, White-faced Ibis, and several ducks.  We had great looks at the Harris' Hawk across the pond.  Barbr spotted the Least Grebes.  There were American Coots nearby and all we could see of the Least Grebes were their backsides and they were close to us.  So Barbr spotted them once they turned around a bit.  So that was a great find.

We walked on the trails a lot today so we were tired.  We had a lovely picnic lunch at the Botanical Gardens, by the parrot alley with their many squawks.  At 2:30 pm we started on our 182 mile drive to Alamo, Texas in the Rio Grande and arrived in Alamo just after 6 pm.  Along the state highway we saw lots of hawks and two Crested Caracaras!   Barbr was happy to see them.   After this we stopped at Walmart to pick up some things for breakfast for the next while and tomorrow's lunch.

We ate in our efficiency unit with prepared food we picked up and we are tired now and we are critiquing the news channel here. Did I say that it was 79 degrees today, it was beautiful.
We are still up and working away on our stuff and it is getting funnier, I don't think we know our names never mind the names of the birds.

are at the silly stage right now, so I had better quit.

Jan 30, 2018 arrival in San Antonio with Colleen, Barbr and Barbc and drove to Corpus Christi

Neither of us slept well last night.  It is hard to sleep well when one knows one has to get up really early.  I set two alarms for 3 am.  Barbr was up at 1am and Barbc was up at 3 am with the two alarms going.  We were at the airport at 4 am in Ottawa and there was no snow so it was going to be a good day!   We left on time on each of our two flights: Ottawa to Chicago and then Chicago to San Antonio.  We met up with Colleen at the airport and got our car, loaded up and drove to Corpus Christi.  We are staying on the beach at the Quality Inn and had an excellent catch of the day supper, fresh grouper for Colleen and self and Barbr had chicken.  It is about about 60 degrees and we walked the beach for about an hour when we arrived.  One can see the cleanup going on and our restaurant this evening had a temporary entrance.  They are slowly recovering after the Sept hurricane.

At the airport, we saw the Loggerhead Shrike looking around.  Plus the ubiquitous Boat-tailed Grackles were everywhere.  We saw huge groups of European Starlings flying around and a couple of Brown Pelicans.  Along the beach we saw mostly Laughing Gulls in all ages.

Also just in the brush along Dolphin Beach here, we saw five Meadowlarks larking about.  I have never seen Meadowlarks at the beach!   So while we were really just walking out our stiffness we did have our cameras to take some photos.  The warship is an aircraft carrier and just about 100 yards from our hotel room patio overlooking the beach.  It is lovely here and the water is pretty strong.  Maybe it is the tide coming in.

After supper we walked out on the beach and took photos of the Full Blood Blue Moon and there is an lunar eclipse at 6:30 am tomorrow.  Colleen is keen to see this and will wake us up....
So while waking up in a cold snowy Ottawa, we are in a mild climate on the beach that is just great.

Here are some photos from today.

TEN DAYS TO GO!!

OK it was 7.5 degrees today and like a wonderful spring day in January!!  The skaters were out on the canal and I would have been there too but I had something indoors booked already so did not go.  When Norm and I were driving back from the cinema - we went to see "The Post" with Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks - good, there were still skaters on the canal and it was evening.  So a nice Saturday for a change.  Anyways, I am looking forward to warm temperatures - anything over 7 degrees is wonderful to me and probably double digit temperatures by midday and great birds.  I am not sure if I will see some new birds on this trip but there will be plenty of birds to see, that is one guarantee.

I have to pack yet and organize stuff here, so it will be on the plane when I am going through a mental checklist, that is in addition to the paper list, that I will be excited .  There is always something forgotten at the end, but nothing that can't be purchased!!!


So this is what I will be leaving a lovely land of snow and ice but this season is just too long for me and many of my friends.

 Barb Robertson took this photo and thought it looked like a polar bear!

After the freezing rain, the fields were lovely in the sunshine, kind of magical.