A score of a score and two of birds!!!

A mis amantes de las aves, con salsa de naranja,

This missive is fired your way from... wait, guess where we are!

• There are many many many bugs. Most of them bite, and some of them are big enough to make a man tremble in his boots.
• The weather has ranged from windy and hot, to raining and hot, to the old Donner and Blitzen.
• Everybody around us has funny accents. 
• There's a guy across the way in our campground named, "Danny Bug".

What did you guess? If you guessed Alaska, you would be incorrect. Since when is it hot in Alaska? I mean, it will be in a few years, but not so much yet. If you guessed anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon line, then you would be close. We're in Texas, just outside Austin!

The last few days have challenged our bird-finding powers. Wind and rain are nemeses of The Birder, and we've lived through more than enough of those since leaving Colorado. Oh, and we drove, like, 1,000 miles and had to get the oil changed on our truck. Oh yeah, and we also broke some the safety equipment on our towing system pulling out of a Dairy Queen, for a snack that will turn out to be one of the more expensive Blizzards in the history of all mankind. Aside from that, though, it's been great!

To give you an idea of the experience, we recorded this sound file this morning, as we found Bird #398, a Golden-cheeked Warbler. Turn up your sound and click this link for a taste of our morning... you can hear the rain, then the thunder, then at about 13 seconds in, our target announces to the world that today is a wonderful day:

But, the exciting news is that we have ID'ed our 400th bird! After 5 more today, we sit at 402 for the year, which, as of tonight, is tied for the highest count in eBird this year in the country!!

The weather forecast for the next few days includes a number of storm fronts moving through, including more wind and rain. While this is annoying for me, it also could create terrible conditions for migrating birds, causing them to take shelter on land so that we can see them. The Gentle Reader may find taking advantage of the misery of wee little birdies to be a bit selfish, but to that I say, "Hey, dude, don't hate the player, hate the the game!"

Half a day around Austin tomorrow, then we head toward Houston for the Boomin and Blooming Festival and hopefully a view of a Greater Prairie Chicken, then over to the Galveston area.

Happy weekend to you,
Me