Addition by Subtraction and then More Addition

Queridos amigos amigables,

I reach out to you from Laredo, Texas, with tales of joy and dismay wrapped in a single day, like an overstuffed messy burrito from that little shop in the Mission; you feel bad and a bit guilty at first, but then you can't wipe the smile from your face as you dig in, even if you can wipe off the guacamole. And thus, similes and sentence length have been stretched to their limit, like the tortilla wrapping that burrito. 

You may wonder what all this has to do with birds, and I will get there eventually. Just like you eventually get to that bit of tortilla and sour cream that is wrapped in the bottom of the aluminum foil encasing your burrito.

The day began with a sad, sad email from a volunteer at eBird about our putative Hook-billed Kite. Her dagger:

"The bird at the bottom is a Broad-winged Hawk without a tail, and I have to say it is a very odd looking bird!"

This made us sad, like when you discover that, despite clearly asking for extra jalepeños on that burrito, that there are actually NO jalepeños. Bummer! No Hook-bill!!

We considered drowning our sorrows in a pitcher of margaritas at lunch, but decided to stay frosty. We might be needing our senses, like when your burrito has a beautiful garnish of cilantro and crema, and that spicy chipotle chicken, and yet the mariachi band is approaching.

This turned out to be the right decision. Unlike tipping the mariachis.

Driving west from McAllen, we took a left turn at San Ygnacio in our umpteenth attempt to find White-collared Seedeaters. You see, we have looked and looked and looked for these damn birds, and have struck out every time. And this isn't walk-in-a-manicured-park-in-perfect-weather birding. This is usually 90F-and-90%-humidity-walking-through-overgrown-area-on-banks-of-Rio-Grande-under-watchful-eyes-of-Border-Patrol birding.

While other visits have been unkind, today was different.

No kidding, we parked, walked down the hill to the banks of the Rio, paused to listen, and heard the birds calling. We walked 100 yards down the trail, looked up, and there was our first Seedeater!

Was this Birding Karma paying us back?

Like when that little place in the Mission apologies for forgetting the jalepeños and brings you a free side of guacamole.

Salud,
Me