Still here?

Hey gang! Just wanted to chime in with a little 'proof is in the pudding' moment for everyone that pledged towards Our Big Year 2012! Below are clippings from recent Houston Audubon and Katy Prairie newsletters showing us (or at least Blake) delivering the goods to the causes.

Thanks again to everyone that pledged! We had a blast... and hope someday to give it another go on a grander scale without day job limitations. Until then, we'll see you on the trails!

Blake and Holly Wright
Houston, TX

E-mails sent! Still time to pledge!

Hello everyone! We have sent out the e-mails to our pledgers with totals and instructions on how to get us the money for HAS and KPC. Again, thank you very much for being a part of Our Big Year. We raised a little money for a pair of good causes and had a great time doing it. Since Holly and I are still relatively new to birding, this was a year we won't soon forget. Well over half of all of the birds we photographed were lifers. That may have been one of the greatest things about this exercise. Every trip, whether to Minnesota, California or just down the street to the park, was met with equal parts anticipation and excitement. 
A friend asked recently to explain birding to him. Without getting into the science of it, I came up with this... It's a treasure hunt, and the treasure moves... and while 'X' may mark the spot at times, you never really know what your in for. Another way we started to look at it was this... "You never know, unless you go!" That got me thinking about the trips we made and birds that we only encountered once during our year. If we hadn't taken a break from a trade show near Los Angeles and drove up towards Santa Barbara, we wouldn't have seen Varied Thrush. If we didn't make the side trip to Sacramento after a conference in San Francisco, there would be no Red-breasted Sapsucker or Yellow-billed Magpie on our flickr stream.

A pair of West Coasters: Varied Thrush (top) and Yellow-billed Magpie (bottom).

We missed a lot of birds. Birds we should have ticked off our sheet with ease. Part of that was timing. Part was having limited time away from our day jobs. Part was likely our still maturing ID skills. I'd wager we have at least three additional birds in the volumes of file folders on our external hard drive where we just didn't know what we had. But that is part of the process... 2012 made us better birders. This year will too.
Our pledge this year is to step back from the camera lens and enjoy the birds. Doing more birding with just bins... and sometimes without bins. We want to take in the total experience, without worrying about poor lighting.
This year wasn't perfect. The second half was plagued by events that repeatedly derailed our momentum. Holly's father suffered a heart attack, which kept us off the trails for an extended period (He's doing much better now!). Holly herself had to have her gall bladder removed. (She's better too!) It was my turn at Christmas, getting a stubborn case of the 'crud'. That one really hurt the Big Year the most, as we were planning to head to New Mexico and a chance to add a dozen or so birds... one, final push towards 450. 
The best thing about this year? Our new friends. We met some extraordinary folks in 2012. That really started in February when we were at the Sax-Zim Bog Birding Festival and ran into a bevy of other Big Year birders!

FROM L to R: John Hargrove, Eric and Clare Malbone, Holly and Blake Wright, Eddie and Liam Ehrman.

The trend continued with tremendous support from some expert birders here in Houston. You guys know who you are. Thank you for everything you did to help our little project. It really did prove invaluable.
A few have asked if it is too late to pledge. Well, no! A bit of the fun has gone out of it because you know the total, but it is not too late. We are collecting pledges this month with plans to deliver the funds to HAS and KPC in early February. You can e-mail us using the 'Make A Pledge' link at the top, left of the page. Flat donations are acceptable as well.
Thanks again, one and all, for coming along for the ride this year. We'll do it again... for real. And soon! 

Blake & Holly Wright
Houston, TX

In like a lion... out like a lamb

Well, that's a wrap! Our photographic Big Year has come to an end... but not exactly the way we'd hoped. The combination of the holidays, family commitments and illness kept us off the trails for the majority of the last two weeks - a period we had originally planned to be very active, including at least one out-of-state trip. Alas, it was not to be. We did make a quick jaunt to Austin to see the Fork-tailed Flycatcher, but we appear to have been about two days too late as the bird was AWOL and isn't being seen any longer. We will spend this month in collection mode, bringing in the pledge funds and then getting the money to the Houston Audubon and Katy Prairie Conservancy. Big thanks to everyone that pledged. It has been a great year!

Calliope... yes!

A quick pitstop into Russ Pittman before work this morning was rewarded with great looks at the Calliope and Broad-billed hummingbirds that have been there for the past few days! 

Gotcha!

Both birds took to perching just above and behind the group of shrimp plants in the center of the park. Not only did we get the Calliope, we also got the honor of putting a fellow birder on their lifer Broad-billed. A good day!

Thanksgiving in the LRGV, Day 4...

Our last day in the LRGV was brief. We gave two hours of the morning to attempting the LTDU again... with no luck. We did find the Surf Scoter on the east side of Donna Reservoir, but could never ID the duck. We left the Valley around 10am and, of course, saw a report from around noon that the LTDU was there and folks were getting good scope views... (sigh).
We beelined back to Houston to give the rest of our light (about an hour) to the search for the Calliope Hummingbird seen at Russ Pittman Park in Belliare. Some birders already in the park had the bird about a half-hour before our arrival, but it didn't turn up for us as the sun went down.
We didn't get skunked today, however... I finally took a photo of a Common Grackle. About time, don't you think? 

Thanksgiving in the LRGV, Day 3...

Rains came and went... and we went to Salineno and Falcon State Park. We got our first new photo year bird driving down 83 west of Rio Grande City when we noticed a few groups of Greater White-fronted Geese gliding over. We pulled over and I jumped out for some photos. More came... then more... then more... Holly then noticed they were all landing in a field right off the highway. We guesstimate there were around 5000 GWFG... and at least two Snow Geese. 

Geese!

The morning on the river didn't yield the targeted Red-billed Pigeon or Muscovy Duck, but we did get great looks at Gray Hawk, Osprey, Atlamira Oriole and the heavily-armed Border Patrol! A quick ride over the Falcon State Park rewarded us with another new photo year bird... Greater Roadrunner! Ellen and Ron have a sweet little set-up at Falcon and we recommend a stop there for everyone in the area. Later... we made our way to Bentsen... and finally got our Northern-beardless Tyrannulet! Going into the last day, we've got seven new photo year birds. Here's hoping for one... maybe two more tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Thanksgiving in the LRGV, Day 2...

Have you ever stayed too long in one spot, hoping that the one bird you're after shows up... and when it never does it is too late to go looking for anything else? That's kind of how our day went today and our futile search for the Northern-beardless Tyrannulet. We tried Santa Ana... with no luck. No Hook-billed Kite either, but plenty of snail shells where one had been eating in the past. We tried Estero again... since that was a more recent sighting for the NBTY... with no luck. As the clouds thickened and the rain started we tried at dusk to find the Green Parakeets in McAllen... with no luck. The most exciting animal of the day... wasn't even a bird. It was this guy.

Always good to see a 'dillo still breathing... and not pancaked on the highway. We did add one bird today... a distant, but distinct Broad-tailed Hawk. With the rains due to pound for most of the night, our third day plan of Salineno/Falcon Lake may not be the best option since we'd be in the mud quite a bit. Plus, the weatherman isn't giving much of a guarantee that the rains will be over in the morning. We'll scheme this evening and come up with something.

Thanksgiving in the LRGV, Day 1...

We made it down to the LRGV late Wednesday for a Thanksgiving weekend birding trip. We set out this morning to try for the Long-tailed Duck at Donna Reservoir. We arrived to find about a half-dozen birders already on the scene scouring the thousand-plus Scaup for the bird. We easily found the Surf Scoter, but the LTDU remained elusive. In the end, we did not see her. We may try again in the morning.

The Donna Scoter

As for count birds, we did add three today - Curve-billed Thrasher, Common Pauraque and Red-crowned Parrot. We are planning to hit Santa Ana tomorrow in hopes of adding a Northern-beardless Tyrannulet, and if we're really lucky... a Hook-billed Kite! Stay tuned!

Long-tailed Duck... No

A quick chase down to Lake Jackson, Texas - where a female Long-tailed Duck had been seen for the past couple of days - rewarded us with a raft of Lesser Scaup. The duck was on a private fish hatchery pond. The hatchery was kind enough to let birding groups take a shot at seeing the wayward duck. Alas, it appears she's flown the coop! As a consolation prize, we did get a new bird... Wilson's Snipe. We had a single bird patrolling the grassy area off the wetlands boardwalk on the far side of the hatchery. We'll be hitting the road in a couple of days with big hopes for more year birds. Stay tuned!

Down... but not out!

It's been a rough couple of weeks on the photo Big Year front. Work demands have kept us from getting out near as much as we'd like. Then, the past week we've had to keep close to home after Holly had her gall bladder removed. We're likely not going to get out again until later in the month. That said, we do have a trip to the LRGV set for Thanksgiving. Sad to hear that Salineno will be shut. That was definitely on our list... and the best shot to get our nemesis Brown Jay. I'm still hopeful we'll get to 500, but the clock is ticking. More soon...

More offshore birding... :)

Not a new year bird, but too good not to share. I was offshore last week, traveling with Chevron to the deep-water Gulf of Mexico and their Tahiti spar production platform. I kept a keen eye peeled during the trip for any seabirds, but alas nothing noticeable passed the chopper on the way out... or the way back. However, while I was on the platform, I snapped this pic.

Stow away or tool pusher?

Yes. That is the tail of an American Redstart. He must have been taking a bit of break in his Trans-Gulf trip south. I asked the platform manager if they see a lot of migratory birds landing on the platform. He said not really, but occasionally one or two show up. So color me lucky to have been out there when this little guy decided to take a breather!

Chevron's Tahiti spar

We're eying a trip to the Valley in the coming weeks and plan on heading somewhere this weekend. If the Ruddy Ground-Dove hangs out north of San Antonio long enough, we'll likely try and get there.

Back from Cali...

Whew! What a trip! Holly and I returned from our northern California trek (mostly business, with a little pleasure thrown in for good measure) with over three dozen new year birds! The highlight of the journey was our very first pelagic trip. We set out with Debi Shearwater and her crew from Half Moon Bay on Sunday, 23 September and had a stellar day. First... we saw a ton of lifers! Second... no one got sick! That's a win-win in our book. While we dipped on any mega-rarities, like the recently seen Hawaiian Petrel, we had a wonderful assortment of seabirds. Now... I was fully aware that taking photos on a idling boat rolling in the swells of the Pacific Ocean would be challenging... but man - I have some new found respect for any one that takes his/her rig out on the ocean and gets good captures. I struggled... mightily. This fact, plus the fact that it was a gray day on the gray water looking for gray birds, and well... you get the idea. In the end, I only 'missed' three species seen on the trip. So while we saw Tufted Puffin, Red Pharalope and Ashy Storm-Petrel - no pic equals no tick on the year counter. Here are a few birds we DID get...

Black-footed Albatross

Sabine's Gull

South Polar Skua

We also had a chance to hit the beaches north of Santa Cruz for a few new shorebirds - Black Oystercatcher, Wandering Tattler, Black Turnstone, among others. A Bodega Bay pitstop also rewarded us with a few new birds. A late-week dash over to the Sacramento area netted us a Yellow-billed Magpie, Ring-necked Pheasant and a handful of others. In all, we return from the west coast with 37 new year birds, vaulting us past 400 for the year! Check out the Flickr stream for the complete haul. 
Now... we catch our breath and try to figure out if there is any good fall migrant traffic to look into in south-east Texas!

Pharaloped!

Hi ho everyone. We made a quick trip down to Quintana (near Freeport, TX) after a report of at least a pair of Red-necked Pharalopes carousing with a horde of Wilson's. We arrived at the spoils area just off the Intracoastal Waterway bridge and within about three minutes had our mark. It was not the best photo circumstances - early light, good distance and a ton of movement - but you can clearly see that one of these birds is not like the others!

Right in the middle... note the thick, dark eye stripe.

It was a good 'get' ahead of our West Coast trip next week. We also managed to snap pics of a Lesser Black-backed Gull, Merlin and a Boat-tailed Grackle... putting us ever closer to the 400 mark. We expect to reach that... and then some on the California trip. Stay tuned!

Booby irruption

Yes, yes... go ahead. Snicker at the headline. You know you want to... but there is no denying the fact that there has been an influx of Brown Booby sightings lately... East Texas, Arkansas, Canyon Lake in central Texas and coastal Florida. Now, you can add Baytown, Texas, to the list. As a sat home debating whether or not to chase the female Booby spotted at Canyon Lake tomorrow a text came in confirming a sighting near the north landing of the Lynchburg ferry in Baytown. Seeing as that is only a hour away opposed to three, we took the initiative and raced east.

One of these things is not like the others.

We arrived on site in a little under an hour. Cloudy skies, failing light and distance were the enemies, but we managed to get a photo that clearly shows the target bird hanging out with a group of Cormorants. Several other birders were on hand... a few with scopes. We were able to get good looks at the bird, both perched and in flight. In all, a very cool experience and a lifer for both Holly and me. Not to mention... a real time (and gas) saver! Kudos to master spotter Stephan for sending out the alert.

Hot, but birdy

A quick weekend jaunt to the LRGV netted our year count six new birds, with the potential for more as I work out identities of a handful of shorebirds. Our main target species for this trip included Groove-billed Ani, Gray Hawk, Green Parakeet and Botteri's Sparrow. We were able to get photos of the Ani and Hawk, but dipped on the others. The Green Parakeet was particularly frustrating, because we saw a small flock, but could not get a picture. 

Groovy!

East of Raymondville, we tried for the Botteri's, but could not get a cooperative subject to peak out of the shrubbery. The roadside was teeming with birds, however... Orioles, Vireos, a few flycatchers and hawks. Several White-tailed Hawks (a new year bird, too) and Harris's Hawks were around. We also got a pic of a Bronzed Cowbird here.

We stopped in Port Aransas to see if the Birding Center would graces us with a Lesser Bittern. It did. Several, in fact. Including one little guy that we tracked in flight from across the water and ended up landing on the boardwalk about eight feet from us! He quickly skittered into the reeds on the other side, but did a little fishing first giving us good looks at his 'clutch and grab' technique.

Good form!

Our next notable trip comes in late September when we head to San Francisco and try again for a Pacific pelagic. You might remember the weather cancelled our January trip out of Dana Point. Hopefully our Half Moon Bay excursion does not suffer the same fate.

Purple Martins Majesty

Holly and I joined some old and new friends at the Purple Martin staging site near Willowbrook Mall in Northwest Houston this evening. The site is one of a handful in town where tens of thousands of PUMAs do their evening roosting ritual, which involves flying around in a huge, swirling cloud before diving into area trees for the night. It is quite a spectacle.

Hitchcock-ian!

A word to the wise about attending such an event... bring an umbrella. There is a good likelihood - as I found out... twice - that you will be pooped on. Ahhhh... nature. While we already had PUMA covered for the photo Big Year, it was still an awesome thing to behold. We did manage to add a bit to the list this weekend, netting four new birds on a swing to Bolivar-Anahuac-Trinity River. Adds included the elusive Clapper Rail and a life bird in the form of a Swallow-tailed Kite. More soon!

The Dog Days of Summer

We've been stuck close to home for the past several weeks due to various day job commitments. It's been hot, sticky and relatively free of any avian excitement. We did head down to Aransas a few weekends ago to chase the Brown Booby that had been reported, but came away empty after a four-hour search. In the end, we netted a Magnificent Frigatebird... and found a new burger place!

The good news is that the summer funk will be lifted soon and we'll get back to the business at hand. We have a pair of brief excursions on the calendar over the next few weeks... and are still toying with taking the July Texas pelagic out of South Padre. We want to get down to the LRGV again to clean up a few stragglers. We wished we could have done that sooner to get the Masked Duck that had been at Sabal, but alas...

I should probably use this time to grab the few cheap photos we still need. There is still some low hanging fruit... like the European Starling and Rock Pigeon. I can just imagine us putting those off again and again and looking up at the end of the year and realizing 'D'oh!' 

Got the Godwit!

One thing the day job aspect of trying to do any sort of 'Big Year' usually does not allow is the ability to 'chase'. Unless we plan ahead, and have a very patient and happy bird, we really can't run after rarities the way we would like to. That said, when Ron Weeks told the Texbird faithful yesterday that he was pretty darn sure he had a Black-tailed Godwit in a flooded field in the Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge about a hour south of town, we left straight from work to get the bird. And... success!

The bird was still there when we arrived around 6:45pm. He was a bit distant and under some harassment by a group of bully Terns, but overall seemed content foraging for food... very far away from home. In the end, I'm glad we made the move when we did. While reports from this morning had him still around, a text from the TOS alert system around noon today said the bird had flown. UPDATE: He's back! And still being seen as of the morning of 6 June.

A Week in SE AZ

Sorry for the silence during the AZ trip. Internet service was spotty at best most of the places we stayed... which included Portal, Sierra Vista, Patagonia, Madera Canyon and Tucson (where we are now!). While the trip was a success, I think both Holly and I believe we fell a bit short of what we expected count-wise. While we are still ID-ing some birds, we're going to end up somewhere around 40 new species for the trip. Things started off great in Portal, adding the Red-faced Warbler and Olive Warbler at Rustler's Park. We dipped on the Mexican Chickadee however. Another group that was there (Hi Helen & Co.!) also missed on it. The other miss that comes to mind is the Juniper Titmouse. We had one VERY briefly in Paradise, but nowhere near enough time to get glass on it. Paradise, and the fine folks at George Walker House (Hi Winston, Jackie & Co.!), did give Holly this opportunity.

Holly and friend.

It was banding day the day of our visit. Holly was able to hold this female Magnificent Hummingbird for around four to five minutes before one of the banders took her back, fed her and set her free. A very cool experience. Paradise also is where we added our orioles - Scott's and Bullock's.

The Huachucas proved a good hike, but didn't turn up anything unique. We heard, but did not see, Elegant Trogon here. The walk at Gordon Lewis' property got us a Burrowing Owl. At Ash Canyon B&B (Hi Mary Jo!), we added Lazuli Bunting and Costa's Hummingbird. A trip up Ramsey Canyon netted a Sonoran Whip Snake, but no new birds. We opted out of the Miller Canyon trek for Spotted Owl due to the lack of morning success the day we were there. Of course, the owl was 'spotted' the next day.

Patagonia Lake State Park was a bird bust, but the rest area yielded the first of many Phainopepia and Lucy's Warblers. At Madera Canyon, we were greeted at Santa Rita Lodge by a gaggle of Wild Turkeys and more hummers. Day 1 up the canyon got us our first glimpse of Elegant Trogon, but no usable photo (at least not in good conscience). We did get Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers here. Later in Florida Canyon we dipped on the Rufous-capped Warblers (as did others), but did manage Band-tailed Pigeon, Cactus Wren and Varied Bunting here. Day 2 in Madera Canyon got us the Trogon photo we needed, but little else. 

The star of the show...

We're heading back to Houston tomorrow. Word is going around about a possible Fork-tailed Flycatcher in Anahuac... and a Bulbul near my office. Gotta love Texas!

Hosting 'Big Year' brethren

This past weekend, Holly and I played host to Eddie and Liam Ehrman - the father/son Big Year team that is making a run at the ABA record for North America. We met Eddie and Liam in Minnesota at the Sax-Zim Bog Birding Festival in February. It was there that we offered up our Houston-based digs for any of the 'Big Year' birders in attendance (There were several.) that planned a trip to Texas for spring migration. It was a short stay, but Eddie and Liam we able to add 30-plus birds, including some shorebirds that would be difficult to chase elsewhere. 

We paid a visit to Sabine Woods to get the Tropical Mockingbird. He was an easy mark on Saturday, but the horse flies made the stay a brief one. We also stopped in Anahuac for looks at White-rumped Sandpipers and Wilson's Phalaropes... then Smith Oaks for a few warblers before hitting Roll-over Pass and Bolivar Flats for good looks at Black Terns and Red Knots among others.

Holly bids 'bon voyage' at IAH to our Cincinnati connection.

Sunday, we drove out to Katy Prairie and were able to get our guests a few ducks and more shorebirds. Eddie also believed we may have found every Dickcissel on planet Earth! All in all, it was a great weekend with a pair of new friends. 

As for our count, we didn't do too shabby either. We added 10 new birds to our flickr stream. We're closing in on 300 and expect to reach and exceed that prior to heading out to Arizona in less than two weeks!