Back from Texas

I added 10 State birds for Texas, but missed all the rarities except one due to windy weather and poor showings. Best bird: Yellow-faced Grassquit! New Texas total: 344. Louisiana is my newest state list. The list is entirely composed of birds I saw from the car. Louisiana total: 14. I had fun with some county birds too. Hidalgo County Texas gets an additional 15 checks to go from a white county (0-99 species) to a blue county (100-124). Real gets 3, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, American Wigeon and Song Sparrow, to go from blue to teal (125-149). Aransas County gets within three of going blue by adding 39!.

I've spent 2 half-days (11-Dec-2010 and 12 Mar 2011) in Aransas, and otherwise have never spent any time within the boundaries of this county. It's amazing I got 97 species in two days in about 8 total hours. Sure people doing big days have done more than twice that in one day, but they have a route picked out, drive like crazy, have intimate details of birding locations, bird in April and scout rarities in advance of the big day. I just showed up and started looking around and had a huge list in no time. Aransas County is really a fantastic place for birds! Best birds for Aransas: Yellow-faced Grassquit and Whooping Crane.