Bird #60... and... Bye, Bye Birdie

It was cloudy when I got up this morning and kept getting darker as I drove into Carrizo Springs to run some errands.  I got home just after noon.  I'd hardly got back in the door when the rains hit...  and the wind...  and lots of thunder and lightning.  My kind of storm!  

After I got the laundry and groceries put away it was the perfect day to lay on the couch and read.   All that was lacking was having a kitty curled up by my side.  KC, our last cat, died 3 days before we started our travels...  way back in 2001.  

Anyway, the rains came down really hard at times.... and we sure need the rain here in Texas.

This is a photo of a tanker truck leaving the site yesterday...

 Yeah....  that's dust

And that's our motorhome and tow vehicle on the left.  Since we have been using the AC nearly every day lately the rig has been closed up so we have been spared a lot of the dust and grit that those big trucks stir up.

And the rain also cooled things down a bit...  yesterday a tanker pulled into our site by mistake.  He had to back to get out onto the road...  The asphalt was so hot...

 He left huge ruts in the road...  

I was popping tar bubbles when I walked out to take this picture.

(Did you ever do that as a kid?  Pop tar bubbles with your bare feet?  The water that squirted out always felt cool....  Heck, maybe you still do it as an adult...  I might one of these days)

This isn't the newest bird, but I finally got a shot of the Yellow Breasted Chat

 He's got his mouth open, so his head looks kind of distorted...

He's one noisy bird!  But I love hearing his raucous chatter.

Nope... this isn't the newest bird either...

 A front view of the Painted Bunting...

By far the most colorful bird I've ever seen in the USA

There are lots of them here, but I've had a time getting a decent photo.

And now...  Ta Da!  Bird # 60

Blue Grosbeak

You can barely see the chestnut top of his wing.

At first glance I thought he was an Indigo Bunting (remember, I'm a Buckeye... that's what we have there), and I never heard his song, but my trusty binoculars set me straight pretty quick.

Seeing him this evening brought our total "positive" sightings to 60 birds during our stay here.  Birds are still migrating, so I'm sure there'll be more passing through.

But it's time for us to migrate as well.  Sunday we'll pack up and head further south.  Right now we're thinking we'll head down to Falcon Dam for a day, then on down to Alamo, TX.  Alamo is just a few miles from New Progresso, Mexico - time to get my teeth cleaned and buy some cheap drugs.  Okay, the only drugs I'll buy are perfectly legal...  only far less expensive than in the US.  We'll probably visit Santa Ana NWR - we volunteered there in 2002.  I must have seen at least a dozen "life" birds during that stay.

So tomorrow we'll start putting things away.  We've been here 8 weeks and it always surprises me how much we make ourselves at home when we're at a place that long.  Not sure when I'll be able to post next.

That's All For Today!