Travels to Big Bend

     As of about a week now, I fulfilled my promise of six months of work in south  Texas, and am now an unmoored wanderer bouncing my way back home. Of course, my first stop required me to go further west, but the detour was definitely worth it. Thus I came to hike and camp three days and two nights in Big Bend National Park.
     All in all, a very interesting place where a mountain range is an island in the desert. Crowds were manageable since the heat kept most people away. I ended up hiking in the mornings, seeing tiny Mt. Carmen white-tailed deer, Mexican jays, spotted towhees, and all sorts of animals and plants. Anyway, here are some pictures...

Me on Chisos Basin Trail, with the Window behind

Casa Grande formation from Chiso Basin Trail

Another shot of Casa Grande from Lost Mine Trail

A mountain dawn from Lost Mine Trail

Castolon Peak from Ross Scenic Drive

Walking through a wash on the Devil's Den Trail

Leaving the ranch, on to new adventures!

End of point counts: a commemorative set of haikus

I'll preface this by saying I recently submitted a challenge to my parents to immortalize their adventures and observations as haikus, starting with their going to home games of the Marauder's baseball team in Florida. Receiving their excellent and elegantly phrased poems and having come to the end of my field season bird point counts, I thought I would attempt a reply, albeit one with awful writing and a Monty Python reference. For those with brave hearts and terrible poetic taste, read on!

 

Two walk a long time

Listen for the birds singing

But where are the birds?

 

Breeding season gone

Birds a-flocking, taking flight

Ten minute silence
 

Bored out of our skulls

Think of something, just anything,

Bring the coconuts!

The long walk between point counts...

South Texas birding highlights

The problem with on-the-job birding is that you see a lot of cool birds (and also a ton of mockingbirds) but never have a chance to actually get pictures of them. Anyway, because I happen to like pictures, here are some of my favorites and new additions to my birding life list, all of which I saw in the wee hours of mornings May through July here in south Texas.

 

For those playing at home the birds in reading order are: Audubon's oriole, Bullock's oriole, groove-billed ani, greater roadrunner, painted bunting, orchard oriole,  blue grosbeak, pyrrhuloxia, dickcissel, hooded oriole, green jay, northern beardless-tyrannulet, varied bunting, yellow-billed cuckoo, and long-billed thrasher. (Photo credits in photos or from wikipedia.org)

Heading into thick catclaw scrub ...

"El Sauz and Back Again: A Birder's Tale" by yours truly

     Updates (from the person who cannot pass up a semi-obscure Lord of the Rings reference)...I went to El Sauz two weeks ago and did some birding. I've probably said this before, but it's a pretty cool place, but it's definitely some hard work just getting around. The marshes are slightly drier, but it still was hairy in some places driving the work truck. This might go without saying, but driving a little Toyota Tacoma on a muddy road-less-traveled at pitch-black 5am is not exactly ideal. But I also got have a change in scene, some new bird species, time with the herp crew, and some delicious BBQ.
     Back at the main ranch point counts proceed per usual. The summer heat is starting to dial up, sometimes getting up to highs of 99 degrees, and we're getting less in the way of rain. In between bird surveys, we now are setting up and checking bat detectors. The equipment itself is pretty nondescript, consisting of a black box recorder the size of a DVD player, a microphone, cord, and a toolbox to stow the black box out of the rain. At certain points, we secure the microphone to the top of a painter's pole and then lash the pole to a tree. After formatting the storage card, replacing batteries, and some fiddling with the recording settings, the whole apparatus is up and running, ready to record anything in the bat sound register during the night hours.
     The bunkhouses nowadays seem full of people, which as can be imagined causes occaisonal friction and drama. With our fearless crew leader with the herpers at the other ranch, issues are bound to come up. Questions like: is it worth it to call someone out because they used your shampoo without asking? What about if they leave all their dirty dishes in the sink for days on end? Why is it nobody thinks to get firewood? The hazards of living in close quarters I guess. Still, it means I have plenty of people to talk to and hang out with on the weekends.
     Anyway, probably closing in on the last month here in Hebbronville. Birding surveys are slated to wrap up by the end of July, although admittedly they originally were supposed to be done by now. Currently searching for new jobs and looking forward to a little time off to explore and visit home. New and exciting things are sure to come!

Abandoned car at main ranch

Open grasslands at the main ranch

Possibly: skeleton plant (Lygodesmia texana)

Mexican burrowing toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis). Why are they awesome?

 

"The only species, within the only genus of the family Rhinophrynidae, and with over 190 million years of independent evolution, the Mexican burrowing toad is the most evolutionarily distinct amphibian species on Earth today; a fruit bat, polar bear, killer whale, kangaroo and human are all more similar to one another than this species is to any other amphibian."

http://www.edgeofexistence.org/amphibians/species_info.php?id=1355



 

 

New species:
-Northern beardless-tyrannulet (Camptostoma imberbe)
-Gull-billed tern (Gelochelidon nilotica)
-Black-tailed gnatcatcher (Polioptila melanura)
-Mexican burrowing toad (Rhinophrynus dorsalis)