200 X 4
I had an emergency alert on my phone at 4:40 a.m. stating there was a flash flood warning for the area. So 20 minutes later I roll out of bed get the coffee going and try to plan my day. I figured I had 3 or 4 options.
1. It was raining so hard I should probably stay home...naaah
2. There have been reports of a Snowy Owl on a telephone pole in the parking lot of a Discount Tire Store in Odessa....tempting.
3. Work on my life list, a county list, or just my year list
At this point life birds are becoming more difficult unless I do some major traveling or something rare happens to pop up in the area. I wanted to do a few things with my dad in Beach City so my mind was made. Chambers county. The only problem was the flash flood I mentioned earlier. Unfamiliar dark and wet roads...eesh. I guess if I am willing to venture out on frozen bridges and overpasses with icicles hanging off my truck then flooded roads should be no problemo. But I better take my truck just to be on the safe side.
When I got to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge it was still rather dark and gloomy but the really heavy rain let up just a bit. For the better part of the morning my birding was done with the windows up except for the times I rolled it down to clean them off enough to see out the sides.
But when the rain finally stopped the birding was great. I was hoping to add to my Chambers county list that started the day at 198. I ended the day with 73 species, 5 of which were new county birds giving me 4 counties now over 200 species.
Galveston 269
Jackson 224
Harris 206
Chambers 203
I made it back home safely without incident so I would call it a successful day.
1. It was raining so hard I should probably stay home...naaah
2. There have been reports of a Snowy Owl on a telephone pole in the parking lot of a Discount Tire Store in Odessa....tempting.
3. Work on my life list, a county list, or just my year list
At this point life birds are becoming more difficult unless I do some major traveling or something rare happens to pop up in the area. I wanted to do a few things with my dad in Beach City so my mind was made. Chambers county. The only problem was the flash flood I mentioned earlier. Unfamiliar dark and wet roads...eesh. I guess if I am willing to venture out on frozen bridges and overpasses with icicles hanging off my truck then flooded roads should be no problemo. But I better take my truck just to be on the safe side.
When I got to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge it was still rather dark and gloomy but the really heavy rain let up just a bit. For the better part of the morning my birding was done with the windows up except for the times I rolled it down to clean them off enough to see out the sides.
But when the rain finally stopped the birding was great. I was hoping to add to my Chambers county list that started the day at 198. I ended the day with 73 species, 5 of which were new county birds giving me 4 counties now over 200 species.
Galveston 269
Jackson 224
Harris 206
Chambers 203
I made it back home safely without incident so I would call it a successful day.
Comments
Post a Comment