Early Birthday Road Trip
No pictures yet, I’ll work on adding some in the morning.
It was overcast all day. A long gray road trip… The Wildlife Refuge was almost empty of birds. The most common birds were ibis, I also saw a couple Mississippi KItes and a Crested Caracara. All day all I really saw in the sky were the Black Vultures.
I drove down to Surfside. The beach was treacherous with soft sand. I didn’t see and shorebirds on the beach. I saw one Brown Pelican land in the waves…
Next stop the Nash for lunch. I sat and watched a bunch of Sand Hill Cranes out in the Prairie, the first I saw. It was strange, I spent almost an hour on the prairie and didn’t hear a sound other than the few cars that passed by. No birds, not even the dozens of Sand Hills. Never in my life have I been around Sand Hill Cranes and they haven’t made any sounds.
From the Nash I headed north, thinking about Brazos Bend… Passing the turnoff only to see miles of construction on the road with flagmen… Home it was…
I’ll add pictures to this after I upload some…
I went down to the refuge on Sunday, and found the same thing you did: gray skies, empty ponds. In a fit of inattention to detail, I left home without a card for my camera, and actually turned around at one point and came home to get it. I could have saved myself the trouble, although I did find a native dandelion blooming, so the day wasn’t photoless!
I am glad to hear about the sandhills. I’ve been looking and looking for some, but the only ones I’ve seen have been flying high. I can admire them, but I’d love to get a decent photo.
Linda, I feel your pain. I was amazed at the lack of birds almost everywhere I went. Even the raptors weren’t lining the electric wires like normal. I don’t know that I even captured a shot of the sand hills, they were soooo far away.