Wednesday, January 9. 2008
Bird Watching Among the Cactus
It's very cold in West Texas in winter, and yet still, the birders are out doing their bird watching thing.
A pleasant day spent among the birds. Now personally, I'd rather be inside sipping hot cocoa.
Next up are the cactus wrens in family groups. Every cactus wren has several football-shaped nests of wads of grass in the thicker shrubbery of lote and catclaw, not mesquite. They spend the night alone inside their own nest but tag along together during the morning's inspection tour. Mockingbirds also greet the sun. They prefer to spend the night near their favorite tasajillo clump under a mesquite, the one with the ripest red berries....
Every winter my parents traveled West Texas, doing up to twelve Audubon Christmas Bird Counts. They would often awaken at 3 or 4 a.m. to drive a hundred miles or more, then count birds from "can to can't" and then join other birders to tally up. I always rode with them as a kid.
Every winter my parents traveled West Texas, doing up to twelve Audubon Christmas Bird Counts. They would often awaken at 3 or 4 a.m. to drive a hundred miles or more, then count birds from "can to can't" and then join other birders to tally up. I always rode with them as a kid.
A pleasant day spent among the birds. Now personally, I'd rather be inside sipping hot cocoa.
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