Mom's Life List

Because Robert & I have been to South Texas a couple of times before, we knew that our ability to pick up new bird species would be limited. We have already seen the "easy" birds, and Robert did not plan the trip to maximize our chances at the hard birds we have yet to see.

But since it was my parents' first trip, they had a lot of new birds in store, including many that are common in the deep southern parts of the Rio Grande Valley but not seen elsewhere in the United States.

My mom just reported that she added 60 bird species to her life list, for a new total of 236 birds! Congratulations, Mom.

And as predicted, even my Dad, with his preference for big, easy-to-see birds, got tired of the ubiquitous, large, charismatic, completely-unphased-by-people Plain Chachalaca.



(Photo courtesy of dencwheel's Flickr photostream, since I brought my camera but never used it on the trip.)

Trip reports plus photos by other people with a great deal of skill, patience, and expensive cameras with lenses longer than my forearm to come.