Hope you feel better soon Tony.
Greetings All:
A couple of nights ago somebody tried to access my house who shouldn't
have and as I was stumbling across my darkened living room, yelling at
them, I tripped over a low piece of furniture and went headlong ...
landing on a lot more of my body than I thought possible. I ended up
with rug-burn on one leg and shoulder, a bunged up set of hamstrings
on one side, and a bunged up back. Being in the getting on period of
my life I did not wake up feeling grand: I woke up feeling busted. I
woke up this morning still feeling busted.
How is this relevant to birding ... well, I'm getting there,
dagnabbit. The birders of my area have been finding all kinds of good
stuff and I have been dragging my broken body all over town today to
get after the goodies. I just wanted to let them know that I am not
always the limping, groaning mess that I was today:)
Shortly after I got home earlier today Brad Shine let me know that he
had found a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak at Leftwich Park and I was off
and running back to somewhere I had just been.
When I got there a whole passel of young birders were there and they
put me on a beautiful male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. Other highlights
noted during my afternoon visit to the park were 1 Great Egret, 4
Snowy Egrets, 2 Chipping Sparrows, and 5 Clay-colored Sparrows.
According to Brad Shine, Jim Crites had recently located a Blue-headed
Vireo at Clapp Park and I headed on over that way.
I limped and groaned my way around Clapp Park for an hour and a half
and, while I could not re-locate the Blue-headed Vireo, I did have
some goodies, including 24 Blue-winged Teals, 1 Black-necked Stilt, 4
American Avocets, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, 1 Solitary Sandpiper, 1 Lesser
Yellowlegs, 3 Wilson's Phalaropes (tricky - as they were ashore
instead of afloat and spinning about - which always throws me for a
minute), 4 Snowy Egrets, 1 Yellow-crowned Night Heron, 2 White-faced
Ibises, 1 Osprey, 1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, 1 Hermit Thrush, 1 Gray
Catbird, 1 Lesser Goldfinch, 29 Chipping Sparrows, 2 Clay-colored
Sparrows, 4 White-crowned Sparrows, 1 male Yellow-headed Blackbird, 3
Bronzed Cowbirds (one male displaying in one part of the park; another
male displaying to a female in another part of the park), 1
Orange-crowned Warbler, 1 Common Yellowthroat, and 2 Wilson's
Warblers.
It was a pretty good day ... and I am hoping that a hot bath and some
bourbon will make my body agree with me:)
Anthony Hewetson; Lubbock
P.S. I apologize to David - over there at texbirds - for use of the
word dagnabbit - hope he doesn't consider it cussing.