My old man has like this ultimate set of tools, I can fix it!

Started off Wednesday morning heading for the Rufous-backed Robin in Uvalde County. I had my Egg McMuffin, my coffee, a full tank of gas. Life was good. Due to construction, my exit in San Antonio to US90 was moved and I missed it. My GPS overlords suggested the next exit and take the second right. Simple enough.  I exited got over put on my turn signal and started my turn...

... Wham!!! I got hit from behind. A guy on the feeder slide into me when he braked. I think it was likely just bad luck on his part, a slick patch on the road.

My thought at first was that I could continue on to Uvalde and get the bird, I could just rip the broken pieces off. It took 90 minutes to get a police officer out to take the report, 10 minutes with the officer and I was clear to go.

Turns out I had two problems, I could not get the tailgate to close anymore, and when I climbed back into the drivers seat I found my seat has twisted about and inch to the right so it was tipped. I'm thinking the "box" of the vehicle was twisted now. While it drives ok, I don't think this road trip is continuing. I will have to chase another day. We'll see if I'm getting a new car now.

East bound and down, loaded up and birdin'

White-throated Sparrow, Wood County

Well not really east, more north from Houston. Anyway, last week I headed north into east Texas to start the big push to bird all counties this year. I left home with 3 counties under my belt. My first stop was Montgomery County. Montgomery county is an embarrassment for me. Its adjacent to my home county but in the 12 years I've been county listing I only has 92 species in it. Just 8 more to go. I checked the eBird targets and it showed 32 targets with more then 5% so this should be a snap. I headed for Lakeside Park in the Woodlands. Thirteen species I needed were reported the day before.

I arrived about 8 am and got to 98 in just 15 minutes. Unfortunately It took me close to an hour more to to find European Starling and House Sparrow to make 100. Oh the indignity of having to have House Sparrow as my 100th. Anyway time to head out to meet Bob White who I was going to bird with the next day. By the time I left the county I had logged 43 species for the day in the county. I need to average 47 per county to reach my goal of 12k ticks for the year. A second visit when breeding birds are in or during migration should do the trick. These counties within a day trip of home need to all be at 100 plus by the end of the year.

On to Walker County, a county I have birded very little. I think only drive through birds on my way through on I45. I hit Huntsville State Park. It was slow, but I did manage a trifecta of nuthatches in one tree, Brown-headed, Red-breasted, and White-breasted Nuthatches. Twenty species and I hit the road, I needed to meet Bob at noon at Ratcliff Lake in Houston County. I picked up a few birds in Trinity County on the way and passed the best place name I've seen in some time, the East Prairie Possum Walk Cemetery.

I was 5 minutes away and Bob called, Ratcliff Lake was closed due to the government shutdown! We logged a few birds at the gate and headed for Mission Tejas SP. The state park was pretty dead too. Between the two stops and road birds we managed only 21 species.

We hit the Caddo Mounds in Cherokee County. Cherokee County only yielded 17 species. Our last stop of the day was Lake Nacogdoches, That got me to 18 species in Nacogdoches County. A six county day and I was off and running at 9 counties for the year.

Bob and I left early planning to be at Lake Bob Sandlin at first light, on the Camp County side. It was birdier today (some sun sure helps). We ticked off 24 species and crossed the lake into Titus County. Between the Boat ramp and Lake Bob Sandlin SP we knocked out 43 species in the County

We did some road birding in Franklin County for 19 species. We headed for White Oak Creek WMA in Morris County. White Oak Creek like many of the waterways in east Texas was out of its bank, better than a half mile wide. We were able to bird a little around one access point for 29 species.

We headed for Red River County and did a short road loop through the county for 27 species. We then birded through Bowie County for 17 species. On to Cass County, a new one for me and we found 12 species as we passed through.

Tiny Marion County was next, another new one for me. We planned to bird Buckhorn Park on Lake O'The Pines. Unfortunately like many Corps of Engineers Parks these days its only open to RV'ers spending the night. I guess the lady at the gate felt sorry for us though, she let us in since we were only planning to stay a short time. Here we found the bird of the trip, a Pacific Loon.

The day was getting away from us as we entered Harrison County at 3:54 pm, needed to be a drive through only county for five species.

Panola County was next and the last east Texas County I had never visited. The Beckville Picnic Area and some road birds made 23 species in the county. Part of our drive was County Line Road, we logged eight species in Rusk County on the other side of the road. That made 11 counties for the day, and 20 over all for the year for me.

Sunrise at Mineole Nature Preserve, Wood County

Bob was under the weather the next day and headed alone to start in Wood County at the Mineola Nature Preserve. I got there at 7:15, but the gates don't open until 7:30. I logged 10 species while I waited for someone to open the gate. The Mineola Nature Preserve is a gem, I found 41 species in 90 minutes. By the time I left Wood County I had 47 species and finally made my target in one county.

Next on my itinerary was Lake Gilmer in Upshur County. Road birding and the park on the lake got me to 31 species in the county and I headed out. In Gregg County I managed 19 species in an hour and even stopped for lunch. The Whataburger in Longview is across the street from the Redneck Rockstar Boutique and Spa in case you were wondering.

I stopped at CR244 Marsh in Smith County for 17 species and headed south. Except for a brief stop at Ellen Trout Park in Lufkin for Angelina County I logged birds from the Highway. I completed the road trip with Angelina, Polk, and San Jacinto Counties.

I was at 28 counties birded this year. A paltry average of 24 species though. I figure by the end off the year I should have all the counties within 2 hours of home at 100 or more and that could be as many as 20 counties. That will help a lot with the average.

Next week I drive across Texas.

The Full Beto

Yesterday I announced my intent to bird all counties in Texas in 2019. I called it "The Full Beto" referring to Richard "Beto" O'Rourke's brag of visiting all Texas counties during his US Senate campaign. Man did I step into it with that. A small number of subscribers howled foul that I was getting political with that. Good lord, a tongue-in-cheek reference to a failed political stunt is hardly political. Its a good thing I didn't mention Mexico was going to pay for my gas!

Anyway; from what I can tell no one has actually done this. Just to keep it interesting I'm going to see what mark I can set for total county ticks. Total county ticks is the total of the species in each county, i.e. if I see Northern Mockingbird in all 254 counties that counts for 254 ticks. The biggest total annual Texas tick total I know of is a bit over 11,700 so perhaps 12,000 should be the goal for that? Wait, that's 47.2 species per county average! is that doable? Lets see!

Somewhere I recall seeing that the average distance across each county in Texas is 60 miles. So that makes it about 15,240 miles to visit each Texas county. I did 45,000 miles in my 2017 big year so that seems totally doable. 

To reach 12,000 county ticks I will need actually bird in most counties, I need to get close to that 47.2 birds in each county. In 2017 I recorded birds in 150 counties and average 34 species per county. I did make the century mark in 14 counties and 50 or more in 34 counties. I recorded only one species in ten counties. Many of those counties I know I traveled through multiple times, can't let that happen again!

Of course the weather has been bad the first two days of the year. Lets hope tomorrow I get a chance to chase a Rufous-backed Robin in Uvalde County