I had the opportunity to visit with friends in Texas in February 2010. The journey started in Fort Worth Texas, where Elaine lives. Elaine had visited me in Canada a few years earlier so it was awfully nice to meet her family and to see many of her favourite birding spots in
Texas.
Elaine drove us to Becky's place in the Davey Crockett National forest. Rosa & Emma, friends that I corresponded with, but never met drove to Becky's and we spent a few hours visiting and bird watching.
Afterwards, Becky gave us a wonderful tour of her area. Soon after, we 3 drove down to Corpus Christi Texas to meet another birding friend, Linda. It was wonderful to finally meet and 'see' Linda's backyard & especially her pond. I remember being fascinated by the migrant birds that stopped at the side of her pond for a drink.
Texas was having unusually cool, rainy weather so Linda gave us a 'car tour' of the area. It was fascinating to see the Whooping Cranes in a nearby field. We also went to a little town called Beesville. There we met her friend Jimmy and also saw a lifer at an Amish farm. The Northern Wheatear was way off course! It normally lives year round in Alaska but ended up in Texas in the fall of 2009.
The four of us piled into Linda's SUV and headed for the Rio Grande Valley. We had a chance to meet up with Barbara & Dave, our neighbours at Dagobah.
What an exciting time we had! I was introduced to several state parks and saw a lot of 'lifers' ...