The Last Birding Report for 2003

For the holidays, Santa sent Tom, Lindsay and I to Texas! What beautiful weather we had there. Though I’ve always thought Christmas would be lovely with snow….it was nice to have some 75 degree weather to prepare us for some nasty winter days back here before the season is over!

On Christmas Eve, Tom, Ginny (Tom’s mom) and I went for a drive in Kerrville, “adventuring” I like to think! A day or so earlier, Tom had picked up a birding guide for the area that listed good places to bird locally. We decided that we would head over to the city’s water treatment facility. We soon found that we weren’t going to be doing any birding or anything else near that facility! Security was tight…we couldn’t enter the facility, nor could we spend much time even outside of it, as there were cameras, etc., keeping an eye out for suspicious activities. Another reminder of how the world has changed since 911. However, never to be discouraged from birding, we drove on and ended up on the Guadalupe River just outside of town. Though we didn’t observe any new species, we did enjoy seeing a lot of different birds that day: cardinal, bluejay, cormorant, mockingbird, mourning dove, blue heron, red tailed hawk, pie billed grebe, mallard duck, and some sort of diving duck. A nice birding adventure for just a drive to town!

On Christmas day we traveled to the Gulf Coast for a visit with my sister and brother and their families. On the drive from Austin to the coast, we saw some sandhill cranes!! On the 26^th, my sister Sue, Tom and I went for a drive along the coast between Freeport and Galveston. We observed many shore birds that Tom and I have yet to identify….they are difficult little things. The great egrets, ibis and blue herons were all quite plentiful, we also saw a few kingfishers. It was a very nice day for a drive along the coast. I wish we had had more time to do some serious birding….but maybe in the spring!

American Kestrel

The year wouldn’t have been complete without another visit to our favorite birding area, Thorn Lake. Tom and I drove out there on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve. It was pretty desolate and deserted, as far as wildlife is concerned. We saw a few ducks and canada geese, and that was about it. I look forward to springtime for this area to become alive again with herons, turtles, frogs, ibis, egret, etc. As we drove away from Thorn Lake, just north of Fay Lake, we observed an american kestrel perched on a telephone wire. When we first saw it, we were looking at it from a distance and at an odd angle, and we just assumed it was something we had seen before, but as he turned, I could see his beak and I immediately told Tom it was a hawk or something of the sort because of the shape of it’s beak. We were able to observe the kestrel for some time and he had moved to where we could see his colors and markings, and could make an identification. An interesting and lovely bird! As we continued our drive home, we drove by the area that we usually see many sandhill cranes….but there were none this day….I guess they’ve all gone to Texas for the winter! Around that same area is a pond that we usually see swans in….and the swans were there…but that was about it.

What a great year of birding Tom and I shared in 2003! We’re looking forward to 2004 and adding to our adventures!