Greetings Tweeters -
I'm still working on catching up on all the postings to see what's
around here now, but I thought I'd say hello again after almost a
month away from WA.

I hit the road on April 15 and made a big loop that took me first to
Big Bend in Texas, then to many spots on the lower Rio Grande.
Eventually I headed up to Michigan to visit with family [the excuse
for the trip, though I think few bought my claim that Texas was only
a little out of the way for a Seattle-Detroit trip...]. On the way
back, I didn't stop as much, as the prospect of looming bills in the
mail was getting a bit more urgent.

If anyone is headed to Texas and wants suggestions, feel free to ask.

Overall, since this was my first trip to Texas, I was pretty much
overwhelmed by all the birds -- The extent of the fast&furious pace
became clearest to me one evening when I sat out along the Rio Grande
near the Falcon Dam at dusk and tried to make a clean copy of my
notes -- just while sitting there, three new lifers popped by to say
hello -

Hard to even figure out what the high points were, as almost every
day seemed to offer new things. A few samples, rather than a full
list -

Warblers: Colima , Golden-cheeked, Tropical Parula, Painted Redstart
-- by the end of the trip, 35 species, despite being a bit early for
the 'real push' [I loved standing at a mini-fallout site on S.Padre
Island listening to warbler-vets complain that 'this really isn't all
that good' - we were looking at a tiny garden w/ maybe 10 small
trees, and they had 40-50 warblers of 12 species in them - and this
was 'bad'??

Vireos: A Black-capped Vireo finally came out [at Lost Maples] after
waiting for many hours over 2 visits. 9 vireos overall.

Raptors - Almost all those random buteos that fill out the pages of
the guidebooks were hanging out at nests ready to be observed. Only
missed on Zone-tailed, despite watching all those Turkey Vultures as
carefully as possible.

I was a bit early for warblers up north, but Point Pelee and the
Magee Marsh south of it in Ohio were both excellent stops for a
west-coaster not used to eastern warblers.

Overall, 240 Texas birds, 316 species for the trip, w/ 122 lifers -

If anyone is getting the itch to do a road trip, just remember that
it is possible to be in Big Bend after only 2 long days of driving
from here. Really long days, but still possible.....

Best,

Matt Bartels
Seattle, WA



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