For the fourth year in a row, Marie and I have travelled down to Texas to escape winter.
It took longer to make the escape this year since the cold weather in central North America extended well down into Texas.
We spent one cold night in Kansas at -23 degrees.
Even in north Texas the overnight temperature dropped below freezing. But we are settled in Edinburg, Texas now and despite rain yesterday, it’s clearing today and forecast to be 24 degrees tomorrow.
Despite the cold en route, we seemed to be seeing more birds than usual through the prairies. In Alberta, Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska, Horned Larks were abundant.
In places they seemed to be flying up from the road edge almost continuously.
This is always a regular species in those areas, but not generally so abundant.
In Alberta and Montana we were also seeing quite a lot of Snow Buntings. This is not a species we regularly see along our route. Also of note were quite a lot of Rough-legged Hawks.
But the bird variety was still quite limited until we got further south and into Texas.
We spent one night in Abilene. Here in the campsite we had Blue Jays, Northern Mockingbirds and White-winged Doves. Along the highway we saw our first Roadrunner, as well as Loggerhead Shrikes and Eurasian Collared-Doves.
Our next campsite, northwest of San Antonio, produced Northern Cardinal, Verdin, Carolina Chickadee, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, Inca Dove and Wild Turkey.
Further south at a roadside rest stop, we saw Green Jays, Eastern Bluebirds, Carolina Wren, Pine Warbler, Black-crested Titmouse and Eastern Phoebe.
All of these will be regular sightings in the next couple of months. And now we are in Edinburg, our home until mid-March. We’ve had little time to explore so far, but already we’re seeing Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, Vermilion Flycatchers, Great-tailed Grackles and Lark Sparrows. Some of these species are here year-round as sub-tropical residents, others, like us, are here just for the winter.
The photo I have included this time is a Hermit Thrush. This species is fairly regular in B.C. in the summer, but moves well south at this time of year. I took this photo a couple of days ago just before we arrived in Edinburg.