During my inbound flight to San Antonio on April 10, I kept having flashbacks to Day 1 of my Newfoundland trip with Bill just a few months ago, when I missed several flights and was forced to go through security four times. Check out my post from February 16, 2012 if you enjoy travel horror stories. But thankfully, all nineteen of us arrived on time and without incident. On my final leg from Dallas/Ft. Worth to San Antonio, I saw two women trying to pack tripods into the overhead bins, and knew immediately that I was among friends. "You must be birders!" I said, introducing myself, and I thus met Sally and Helga before the trip had even officially begun.
It's always such a thrill being deposited in a different part of the country...As soon as you walk out of the airport, an entirely new world of sights and sounds just hits you right in the face. Wildflowers in bloom all along the roadsides...flurries of butterflies coursing through the grass...and birds! New birds, that is! As I took the short shuttle ride from the airport to the car rental lot, already I was met with Great-tailed Grackles flying by, their long tails like the train on a black wedding gown. Western Kingbirds peered down unperturbed from the telephone wires. And the elegant Scissor-tailed Flycatchers revealed their pink flanks, but only hinted at their bright salmon underwing for now. I couldn't get out of that shuttle soon enough.
In time, all ninteen of us arrived without incident in San Antonio and met up with our great and expert leader, Bill Drummond. We had a wonderful congregation of people, and luckily Bill's wife Barbara was along to lend her skilled ear for birdsong as well as her knowledge of wildflowers. Since it was only the first day, and now late in the afternoon, there were no scheduled birding stops...We would be enjoying our first dinner together later that evening at a riverside Mexican restaurant. But true to our nature, birders never want to leave a spare moment hanging in the wind...So most of us paced around the hotel in the 90-degree heat, getting a jump on building the trip list. There wasn't much around the hotel parking lot...A small abandoned weedy field was good enough for House Sparrows and House Finches, but we were more excited by the surfeit of White-winged Doves and the smaller Black Vultures joining the Turkeys up above us. Demonstrating the keen eyes that would prove to be so beneficial throughout the trip, Zack and Mike got on a curious bird perched on a fence across the highway, and after running back to my room to retrieve my scope, we were rewarded with our first Loggerhead Shrike. This group had energy...and the trip was only ten minutes in!
But it was soon time to go to dinner, and a riverside Mexican restaurant in downtown San Antonio would be our venue. And what a venue...The San Antonio River Walk is a public park directly adjacent to the San Antonio river, and from my seat at the outdoor dining table, I could reach down and pet the Mallards if I liked. Miles of restaurants, candy stores, and souvenir shops beneath a canopy of cypress trees along the riverside...It was a beautiful and refreshing place to enjoy our first dinner. But wouldn't you know? Do birders ever stop birding? Even before the meals were served, someone spotted a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron gliding down the river...And leaping from our tables, always to the befuddlement of waiters and onlookers alike, we walked downstream to discover an entire rookery of night-herons! They were all over the trees, and in each tree could be found several nests. Returning to the table, we reassured the waiters that, no, there was no bomb under the table, nor a rattlesnake in the chair, just a few birds. Birders get used to living in their own world on a trip like this.
Then during dinner, one of our group spotted just over our heads an active swallow nest...And the adult was going in and out, leaving, returning...and switching places with another adult...Was it a Cliff Swallow? Luckily, some of us had brought our binoculars along, and discovered that the nest just a few feet from our dinner table was in fact an active Cave Swallow nest! Good fortune, for our looks at Cave Swallows the rest of the trip would be fleeting, and here, without even trying, we could enjoy great looks without getting up from our meals.
After dinner, we strolled over to see the Alamo nearby. My former history lessons used to rest firmly in my memory banks, but have since been displaced...Thankfully Gene, our resident history expert, was there to fill in the gaps and answer all my questions. My camera was still packed, so my photos would have to wait until the following day, but I did have my iPhone, and was able to take this, my first official picture of the trip:
Zack remembers the Alamo, but not his binoculars.
A rewarding and auspicious first day in Texas! The next day, Eric and I would have our cameras with us, so the photos are on their way...Get ready, the first full day of the trip is upon us!
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