Taken at Brazos Bend State Park, Texas
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Great Egret
Posted in Uncategorized on November 6, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Cedar Hill State Park, Texas … Painted Bunting
Posted in Uncategorized on November 5, 2009| 1 Comment »
Nov. 5, 2009 …. Cedar Hill State Park and Painted Buntings
It was a painted bunting that first drew me to this Texas State Park. It took three days of breaking spider webs on trails and one day of slogging through mud after a night of rain, but I eventually found one of these clownish-colored birds.
When in the open, you can’t miss the male of this species. He has a bright blue head, a scarlet breast, a green back and a red rump. The female is more subdued, dressed all in shades of green, with the breast leaning toward yellow on the color wheel. These birds, however, feel more comfortable when ensconced in thick foliage.
I finally found the bird that would become No. 383 on my birding life list in a tree near a small pond. The painted bunting is nicknamed nonpareil (without equal) in French and mariposa pintado (painted butterfly) in Spanish because of its spectacular appearance.
Sad to say, its beauty has made it a hot item with the international pet trade and its numbers have declined over 50 percent during the last 30 years. The birds are particularly popular as pets in Asia and Europe.
I’m now up to bird 682 on my life list, the result of a lot more traveling around the country in an RV with my black cocker spaniel, Maggie, as my copilot.
Recently, however, I decided to sit for a few months and let the birds come to me. I jumped at an opportunity to volunteer, in exchange for a free RV camp site at Cedar Hill. This is where I’ll be through mid-December. It’s the wrong time of year for painted buntings, but the crows that have been landing on the roof of my RV are keeping me entertained in the meantime.
Mockingbirds, cardinals, chickadees, roadrunners and phoebes are still hanging around as well.
Hello world!
Posted in Uncategorized on November 5, 2009| 6 Comments »
Hi!
My name is Pat Bean. I’m a writer and a full-time RV-er. I’m also a passionate birder who chases life birds in her travels. My goal with this blog is to write about travel, nature and birds bi-weekly. I’d love to hear your comments.
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“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters.” — Ursula K. Le GuinPat Bean is a writer, avid birder, hiker and passionate nature observer with wanderlust in her soul. She spent nine years living and traveling in a small RV. She now lives in Tucson with Scamp, a rescue who was supposed to be a Schnauzer mix but turned out to be a Siberian Husky-Shih Tzu mix who is as stubborn as his owner, her granddaughter says. She was also a journalist for 37 years, and can be reached at patbean@msn.com
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