February 13
Today was a travel day as we headed back to San Antonio. Of course, with 2 very good birds on the way, it was also a good birding day.
We left Rockport and started towards Beeville. On the way, we found a couple Sandhill Cranes in a field and had an Avocet and other stuff fly over.
Reaching Beeville, we worked our way to the outskirts where a Northern Wheatear spent the winter at a farm. The farm was easy to find (a bit closer to the road than the directions implied). Getting out of the car, we were almost immediately joined by a Canadian couple. Seconds later, the wheatear popped up and gave us pretty good views (which was doubly nice as other people reported having long waits and only distant views).
After stocking up on peanut brittle for gifts, we headed on to the next stop, Choke Canyon State Park. Not surprisingly, the other people were heading that way too and we arrived at the same time. Checking in, we got directions to the pond hosting the Jacana and headed that way. Almost immediately, we located the bird walking out in the open along the edge of the lake.
We spent close to an hour watching it walk and fly along the edge of the pond, getting great views.
We drove around the park a bit and eventually stopped at one of the picnic areas for lunch. This was near the fishing area and we enjoyed a flock of Snowy Egrets waiting for leftovers.
From here, we headed back to San Antonio, arriving at Jack’s midafternoon. We went out to Red Lobster for dinner (again with a wait from rodeo crowds). It was fairly good (especially considering we already had excellent seafood the last few nights). We then packed and got ready for our early flight.
The return trip was easy with flights right on time (not having to get off the plane in Chicago was very nice) and we were home by midafternoon with Harry waiting.