Ugh!

As you might be able to tell I'm a little frustrated with the blog format. For my taste, there are too many date and time stamps that show up by default. The one above and below each blog entry cannot be removed. All is fine and well unless you are writing about an event from a previous day. I had been putting the date as my title to indicate the day I saw a certain bird. If this was the same day it was redundant and if it was a different day it was confusing. Hence my frustration. Anyway...

I am writing today, June 9th, about yesterday's BOTD, which was actually first spotted Sunday, June 6th, but was not eager to have its picture taken. Frustrated yet? So I had seen the bird, but had no picture. Intent on getting the photo, I went out in the very early hours on Tuesday to my usual spot. Unfortunately, the wonderful folks at the County Parks and Recreation did not receive my telepathic message to get to work on time. So when I arrived, the parking lot to the access point was still blocked. Oh well, TGFLB. Assuming, it would be a waste of a trip I set out in the heat and humidity to recheck the spot. As luck would have it, one BOTD was still there and the energy sapping climate made him more cooperative.



The Chuck-Will's-Widow gets its name from the sound it repeats over and over again at night. Austin is on the southwest end of its summer range. These Nightjars are odd birds. They are active at night and roost on the ground during the day. This is also where they lay their eggs and do not build nests. When flushed they fly lamely away and take the position seen in this photo. It is so awkward, it makes you take pity on them. I snapped a few pictures and moved on. Lunch-break over.

When I got home from work in the evening I found these gals enjoying a bath. Perhaps they didn't get the weather report of the 2+" of rain that was about to fall in just a few hours.



I took this photo by a method called digiscoping. For those that don't know, that is the process of taking a picture using your spotting scope as the lens. There are a variety of ways to do this from using your phone's camera to buying a special connector. These female Lesser Goldfinches are year-round resident here. The males have a black back in Texas.