Finally, I’m on the road. I launched at about 3pm last Monday, driving through Ramona and Santa Ysabel, then dropping into the Borrego Valley down Montezuma Pass. It is one of my favorite routes east from San Diego. The route carries me past a fairly reliable location in the Henshaw Valley to find Tricolored Blackbirds … Read more
I spent two nights at Fort Clark in Brackettville Texas. It was my base camp during my tour of Kickapoo Caverns State Park, about 30 miles away. In the spring of 2021, I tried visiting Kickapoo Caverns on my way out of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, but my timing was bad. My visit was … Read more
I left Whitehorse Sunday morning with a plan on returning to the pond on the Tagish Road south of Jakes Corner. Two weeks ago, while on my way to Whitehorse, I met Horned Grebes there, as well as Lesser Yellowlegs, snipe, and blackbirds. I hoped the grebes might have babies by now. (They did not.) … Read more
My friend Teresa volunteered to take me island hopping in the Puget Sound, and I happily accepted the offer. According to my research, there are 20 sizable islands in the sound, but counting the smaller islands, some resources say there are 170 of them. The weather was kind to us on our tours. Wednesday we … Read more
Monday night I plotted a course north that included breakfast in Pacific City, perhaps the smallest of towns I’ve stopped at on this trip. The cafe, called the Village Coffee Shoppe, was so small and intimate; I felt I was in someone’s home, enjoying a meal with family. Yesterday and last night I worked on … Read more
I left Brownsville in the darkness of pre-dawn, with plans to meet birds on South Padre Island as they began their morning rounds. It seemed a good idea to be present when the birds got busy. The heavy overcast sky was not apparent as I drove the road to Port Isabel and then continued east … Read more
If you are passionate about birds, I believe there is no better place to hang out than South Padre Island during spring migration. As a kid growing up near the Southern California coast, eastern birds seemed out of reach for me. But here in south Texas, most of these unreachable species pass through as they … Read more
I tried to visit the National Butterfly Center last week, but the big freeze and the power outage at the time mandated they close, so I had to turn around and try my luck elsewhere. Given this location’s excellent reputation for meeting birds and butterflies, and its proximity only two miles from my camp in … Read more
I wanted to wait for my bicycle to finish up in the shop before I attempted more explorations of Bentsen Rio Grande State Park. South Texas has been hard hit with weather related dilemmas of late. The unusual cold we’ve been experiencing has degraded to cold with power outages. We lost power Saturday night, and … Read more
It takes a little over an hour of freeway driving to reach Edinburg (Texas) from my camp in Brownsville. The reserve encompasses 40 acres, but most of the trails available for exploring are within a 0.8 acre patch nearest the visitor center. Contained in this small section is almost a mile of trails winding through … Read more
