Texas 2002 - From the archives

Last weekend was tied up completely with domestic duties, and then it rained, so I didn't manage any birding at all. I am following a few blogs from America, and recent posts regarding spring migration there reminded me of my trip to Texas in April 2002 with Birdseekers holidays. This was my first birding trip to USA, so I knew I was in for a great trip!! We started at Houston, then headed southwest to Rockport, west along the coast, up the Rio Grande, then to Edwards Plateau before turning East back towards Houston. My trip report, as used by Birdseekers on their website, is here. Back in 2002 I was using a 3MP Nikon Coolpix E995, mostly digiscoping with my Kowa TSN823 (both of which I still have). Looking at the shots now, you can really see how far nature photography has come in a very short time. Many thanks to Kelly, Mary and Kathy for reminding me of this great trip and inspiring this post through their great blogs. Here are a few shots taken on that trip. They are not in any particular order. On the trip I saw my first wild Alligator Our guide spotted some Barred Owls My first Skimmer. I had heard about the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and it certainly lived up to it's reputation - beautiful! Red!! (for Kelly!) The Green Jay was also stunning Golden-fronted Woodpecker Plain Chachalaca My first Hummingbirds - Black-chinned Seeing around 12 Million Mexican Free-tailed Bats emerging from their cave at dusk was the highlight of the trip for me. Rufous Hummingbird And searched for and eventually saw the striking Golden-cheeked Warbler. Ash-throated Flycatcher Harris' Hawk