The Winds of Opportunity

Last week's weather was fabulous, and we took full advantage of it. I shot hundreds of pictures at several birding sites. We enjoyed grilling some chicken breasts for supper and for the freezer. We did lots of walking and exploring. But, while it may be the subtropics, it is still Texas. So, this week, we took full advantage of a significant change in weather: three days of winter. The RV experience includes learning how to live the good life in 150 sq. ft. on wheels. A major part of this learning revolves around discovering how to take advantage of the various situations that find us and then claim the gifts they bring daily. This week, we had ample opportunities to discover, learn, and claim the gifts of winter along the Mexican Border.

 

A Collared Dove

On Sunday, we knew that we were in for a stretch of wet, windy, and cold weather, so we took advantage of the last of the warm weather and headed back to Resaca de la Palma State Park for another try at seeing the rare birds that were still in residence. We tried earlier in the week and struck out after missing the Roadside Hawk by a few minutes. We likely heard but did not see the Becards in the trees. Birding is often as much about luck as skill. We arrived and hedged our bets for a fruitful day by bringing our overflowing recycling bag to empty in the recycling bin at the park. After dumping the paper, plastic, and glass, we registered and started searching for the birds. Once again, we missed the Roadside Hawk by a minute or two. The beaches also proved to be elusive. The only glimmer we saw of them was in the eyes of our fellow birders, who also sought them in vain. We took advantage of the large birding blind at the park, and I got some decent shots of our usual suspects. Those shots are below. Once again, Full-time RV life is about taking the opportunities that present themselves as you live your life. Today, we got some exercise before the cold set in, emptied our recycling, and got a few shots of some of our favorite feathered friends. Overall, it was not a bad day that could have been filled with frustration if life had not taught us to claim the gifts that present themselves rather than the ones we wish we had. 

A brilliant Northern Cardinal

Green Jay

 

The next day, the temperatures plummeted into the 20s with a north wind blowing at 20+ mph. This front would last through most of the coming week. So, you might be wondering what gifts cold weather RVing offers. This is where life must do the teaching. Anti-life would whine and complain about the situation. But life allows us to be creative if we can overcome our disappointment and frustration. This is more than making the best of a lousy situation. It is transforming the lousiness into something worthwhile. In this case, there are several movies that we have wanted to see. The internet and electricity were still working, so we bundled up and watched several movies. Typically, we do not waste good weather sitting inside Koko. This was the perfect opportunity. We claimed the gift of the moment and found joy with good movies, cups of tea, and hanging out together. The cold, nasty weather gave us several gifts, and we did our best to unwrap and enjoy them.

According to the long-range forecast, Thursday was the last day for the next week with good temps, light winds, and no rain, so we headed out to Hugh Ramsay Nature Park in Harlingen. This is an excellent reserve within the elbow of a resaca, Arroyo Colorado. We walked the two main loops, picked up one lifer, the Hooded Warbler, and missed another by a few minutes. I got a few pics, a selection of which is below. This park is part of the World Birding Center and has well-maintained trails, drips, and feeders scattered along the trails. They have done an excellent job protecting and making viable habitats accessible to birders. 

House Sparrow

Inca Dove

Red Eared Turtle

Least Grebe

Green Kingfisher

Kingfisher in flight

A Skittering Grebe

Green Heron

Green Heron Tossing Back a Morsel

white Egret

Curved Bill Thrasher

House Sparrow

Great-Tailed Grackle

Curved Billed Thrasher

Southern Dog Faced Butterfly

Altamira Oriole

Bathing Tufted Titmouse

Queen Butterfly

Javelina

White Peacock

 

Life on the road offers a steady diet of challenges. One of the more persistent challenges is to stay connected with family and friends so that we can stay informed about the important events in their lives. I am familiar with the eye roll that generally accompanies my declaration that I like Facebook. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn!" I stay in touch through my FB page, email, Zoom, and messaging apps. In fact, I am now in touch and up-to-date with more people than I was before our traveling days. My screen time is not a waste of time. I am retired! I am involved in the lives of our kids, grandkids, long-time friends, and new friends. My weekly Zoom with my self-proclaimed-with-tongue-in-cheek Council of Sages and our monthly Zoom with long-time friends called "It's 5 0'Clock Somewhere" offer precious connections and community. Facetime with grandkids, where we discuss dinosaurs and the latest video games, also enriches our time on the road. Phone calls and emails with the kids and older grandkids remind us that we are family. Texting with long-time friends and regular emails about the blog are links to people who would likely drift apart in the currents of daily living. Indeed, I wonder if I would be as engaged with the number of people via FB and all these other sources if I were busy being part of a local community with the same level of intensity. Nope, life on the road allows me to share with as many people as I feel I can handle. I will continue to take advantage of these opportunities as long as they prove meaningful to the tribe of which I am part.

 

Last week, a friend remarked after hearing me describe how we handle life on the road, “The more I hear you talk about RV life, the more it sounds really complicated!” It is more complicated than living in the same house for over twenty years like we did in Baytown. This picture is our water, sewer, and power connections for Koko. All of this was buried underground and in the walls of our house. We never thought about the services until they stopped working. Life in one place allowed habits and routines to develop. I spent most of my time following familiar paths and had very few surprises. (When these surprises happened, they were generally beyond our control.) But, as I have written before, full-time RV life is all about change. I have habits and routines, but they are limited to the 150 sq. ft. of living space in Koko. Within that space, we have had to learn many things, like hooking up, maintaining, and disconnecting our water, sewer, and electricity. We are constantly learning, unlearning, and re-learning. Which may be complicated, but it is also interesting and, at times, entertaining. This is not unlike changing out the toys in the Chimpanzee zoo habitat to keep the critters from becoming bored. Our lives may be more complicated than life in the house or apartment, but it is seldom dull! There is a lot to learn, and this truly is part of the journey! I hope it is keeping the brain young and agile!

Our week finished on a wet and cold note, much like it began. Though, it is not as damp nor as cold. Our great challenge during the next 5-7 days of wet weather is to find places to explore and ways to stay entertained when we are in Koko. (The more significant challenge is to stay away from the snacks.) I have my writing projects and love to watch TV. Marlene reads and watches TV. I have a couple of books going as well. Plus, there is staying in touch with friends and family and doing our chores around Koko. It's not exciting, but it is our life on the road. It enables us to take advantage of opportunities as they come along as long as we are awake and aware enough to see them. Often, the complications keep the eyes open and the mind alert. Our lives abound, even on wet, windy, and cold days! Let me rephrase that. “Our lives abound, especially on wet, windy, and cold days!”

 

Travel well, my friends!

Bob

 

Valley Life

Life in the Rio Grande Valley tends to be laid back and relaxed. Despite the misinformation and politically advantageous lies that come across the conservative news channels, there are no signs of “IMMIGRANT CRISIS” or “Murderous Gang Wars” filling the streets. This is a subtropical area that enjoys a subtropical temperament. Traffic is slow. People ease their way forward when the lights turn green. They walk with an easy gait, many in groups, and carry on conversations with their companions and complete strangers. In fact, I have seen fewer police here than I did on our trip through Montana, Utah, and Idaho. Yep, I am settling in very nicely, thank you!

This is especially true on the weekends. Over the last few years, we have learned that planning only a few things for weekends is best. Families fill the parks and attractions during the school year on Saturdays and Sundays. Even when the schools are not in session, working people claim the weekends to be "party hearty."  Weekends tend toward noisy, crowded streets and venues, so we take it easy. Last weekend was no exception. We had a chill couple of days with reading, playing games, watching movies, and smoking a pork butt on the pellet grill. It was a relaxing break from our nice, comfortable pace of life. I suppose that is why we retired!

On Monday, we had planned to get out and about to some of our favorite birding spots. But the weather had a different idea. The forecast called for sustained winds of 30 mph with 50+ mph gusts. The skies were cloudy but dry. But birds do not like that much wind. So, we took our lead from our avian compadres and hunkered down until the winds died down. We stowed away our outside furniture and gear and settled in for a breezy day in Koko. I continued working on our routing for 2025 and decided that the trip had had started outlining did not excite my joy. So, I began cogitating on the elements of travel planning. I knew I needed to come up with a better way to develop our trips. So, I put it away and let it bubble on the back burner for the week.  

Tropical Parula

By Tuesday, the winds had died down a bit, and we loaded up our hiking, birding, and photo gear for an afternoon at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. After arriving, we discovered it was a Bow and Arrow Hunt Day, and most of the trails were closed to birders. We did walk a few trails and made a short drive to see Laguna Madre, but the freshwater Laguna Atascosa was surrounded by people armed with Bows and Arrows, so we had to leave the waterfowl to them. We also discovered that the staff no longer supplied birdseed and water for the birding blinds, so the birds were scattered throughout the brush. We found one mud hole, and I was able to photograph a few birds that came by for a drink. It was a lovely day to be out in the sunshine but a flat day on the trails. Here are a few of the shots from our day. The highlight was picking up a "lifer" species, the Tropical Parula.

Curious Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Black-Crested Titmouse

Orange-Crowned Warbler

Yep! That's a Yellow Rump!

Red Wing Blackbirds and a Green Jay

Narcissist Green Jay

Greater Roadrunner

The winds started picking up a little on Wednesday, and we decided it would be a good day to see the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville. This fella welcomed us to the Zoo in his usual, relaxed manner. This small, world-class zoo never fails to delight the animal lover. It is in the heart of Brownsville and is well-curated with the comfort of the animals and the guests in mind. The zoo was built in 1971 and quickly established itself as a world leader in providing care for hundreds of species while offering a unique experience to visitors. We have been coming to the Zoo since the 1990s and have watched them continue to delight new generations of future naturalists.

I have been taking pictures at Zoos since I was 10 years old and visited the San Antonio Zoo on school trips. While the photography is relatively easy, I still get much satisfaction from capturing images of these exotic creatures. Here are a few of the shots from our day.

Surveying his kingdom

Letting it all hang out!

Just Showing Off!

Mom!   MOM! Are you sure about this?

A Tortoise Tete-a-tete

A Majestic Bald Eagle

Look at this little cutie. Especially those teeth!

Pondering Primate Possibilities

I know that look!

Watching the antelope next door.

Crested Crane

Giraffe Gossip

Scary Eyes

Jabba the Hutt's Little Cousin

A little too close!

The Warthog

Look closely at the eye lashes!

 

We drove to South Padre Island to bird along Laguna Madre on Thursday. Two boardwalks wind through the Mangroves on the Island's bay side. South Padre Island Bird and Alligator Center and the South Padre Island Nature Center at the Convention Center allowed us to get up close with many of the shore birds that winter in the warm, hyper-salty waters of Laguna Madre. (The world-renowned Sea Turtle, Inc. sits next door, but that will have to wait for another day on the Island.) Here are a few photos of these other winter Texans enjoying the sun and warmth of SPI.

 

 

Red Eared Turtle catching a few rays!

Mottled Duck Feather

Egret Ballet

Skimmers looking for food!

White Egret Posing

A Brown Pelican in the middle of a dive. They actually flip over when diving at too slight an angle.

More Egret Ballet

Spotted Sandpiper

Hannibal Lecter the Tortoise

Two little cuties

"Let us pray!"

Tri-Color Heron snags a snack!

One Handsome Tri-Color

Pair of Redhead Ducks

White Morph of Reddish Egret doing some modern dance.

And you thought you had bad hair days!

Two Piping Plovers. The one in the rear used a bit too much beach!

Under the watchful eye of the Redhead.

American Oystercatcher

Tricolor Heron

Pintail Ducks

Roseate Spoonbill: "I know I'm cute!"

An egret grabbing a little brunch.

The Narcissist Spoonbill

Somedays I just do not want to deal with it!

Black-Necked Stilt on reflection

Spotted Sandpiper

A Ponytail on a Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron in Profile

Green Heron

Unfortunately, the high winds returned on Friday. When the rest of the country gets winter storms, we get the winds that sweep up Gulf and Caribbean moisture and deposit it into those deep lows that pummel the Midwest with heavy rain and blizzards. Once again, we hunkered down in Koko. It became a good day to return to the questions that bubbled up last Monday. It began with a simple question that soon transformed into a BHM, Big Hairy Monster of a question. What is the best way to choose a destination when you have a whole year and country ahead of you? Here are a few of my preliminary ideas.

When exploring options for traveling, I have several choices: weekly, monthly, or seasonal stays. There are also the options of combining two of these into a particular year of travel. We have been doing the weekly for several years. Since going full-time, we have booked mostly weekly stays with a monthly stay for the winter. We enjoy the rhythm of weekly travel, but it can be very expensive and only sometimes leaves little time to explore an area thoroughly. Weekly visits limit our exploration radius to an hour or two. We have used monthly stops primarily for Wintering in Texas and saving a lot of money on gas and site rental. It also expands our exploring radius and allows us to stay overnight away from Koko as we do when we go into Houston for our medical appointments. This is the first year we are doing a genuinely seasonal stay here in Brownsville. It expands the options and benefits of the monthly stays. It offers an even greater opportunity for a wider radius of exploring to include cruises or extended excursions. These are just the surface of the options and ideas I want to explore as we prepare for our 2025 trip. Fortunately, next month, we will begin taming this BHM and start seriously planning our 2025 adventure.

 

A Fan-tailed Warbler

Before closing out this week's blog, take a sneak peek at an extraordinary bird and another lifer for us, a Fantail Warbler. This bird is so rare in Texas that it is not even listed in Sibley's Guide as being rare to Texas. It is listed as a native of Mexico, Central, and South America. He has put on quite a show here in the Valley. It is recorded as a vagrant to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. I would love to say that we camped out in the howling wind for three days to wait for this bird to appear. But frankly, when we saw its location posted on Facebook, we went to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley site. We saw people standing around with cameras and binoculars as soon as we left the parking lot. This little creature was holding court under a bush beside the Resaca. Several people stood around, talking and looking at him. At the same time, the bird flitted from branch to branch, giving us his repertoire of poses. It was as simple as that! Thanks, little bird. You made a lot of people very happy today!

We will continue exploring the Rio Grande Valley for the next 6 weeks. There are so many winter birds from Mexico, Central, and South America in the area that we will have our work cut out to see and photograph them all. Please hang with us as we while away the winter here on the tip of Texas.

If you want to see the complete set of pictures from our travels, please go to my Flickr page. You can find it at https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobdees/.

Enjoy!

Bob