A 4 hour drive this morning from Loredo TX up to Lake Travis was the first stop to look for the main target of the day. Brown Booby. This bird has been hanging out at this lake for a while now. We arrive around 10:30ish and try to figure out where to start looking for this thing. Shawn's initial reaction upon seeing the size of the lake was "holy &#$@, we are never gonna find it". This might take a while. Oh and did I mention it was cold! Like 28 degrees in Austin Texas where the average temp for this time of year here is 61. We scope this lake over and over and over again and can't find this bird anywhere so finally I just start wandering around to look for sparrows and stuff. I wandered pretty far and was freezing so Shawn and Dan came looking for me in the van. It's a good thing I went down this ridge because as we were driving out and looking at a sparrow, Dan looked up and spotted the booby flying right by the van! Perfect timing. If I hadn't wandered off and if Dan hadn't looked up we probably would've given up. We track this stunning boob till it lands on a stump just off shore so walk out towards it. While we are out there watching it, I found myself thinking about how insane it that I see my first booby species when its 28 degrees outside. Its just plain stupid. This is a tropical bird! BOOBY BABY!! Life bird for both Dan and me! I love sharing a lifer with Dan since he doesn't have the opportunity much anymore cause he already has a great list. This was all I really wanted from today so I was happy but we did bird some other places in the area and scored a few more year birds including a couple of my favorites, Western Scrub-Jay and a cute little Burrowing Owl. Missed on McCown's Longspur hunt. Maybe another time. Its late now and we have another long day of travel tomorrow with another great potential bird! Current year total is 225! Looking forward to tomorrow and finishing this amazing trip on a positive note. Lots of miles and lots of birds seen.
B00bs
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