It's a Wrap!

My first Adventures with Bedichek road trip is in the books. It is great to be home and it is now time to reflect and digest. I'll continue to post as the reflections from the trip surface.

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On my last day in Austin, I was able to see the few items in the Briscoe Center's Bedichek collection that are considered "artifacts." Included are a briefcase, wallet, Swiss Army knife and a hackberry tree clipping that was sent to him (not sure its significance).

I believe this was his "everyday" briefcase. He received a very nice one upon retirement but it did not look like this one. Now, that I think about it, it is kind of odd to get a fancy briefcase upon retirement when one would, in theory, not really need a briefcase anymore!

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First stop on the way home was a friend's home in Rockwall, Texas. Last year, they installed a purple martin house and to my great luck, they said the birds had just started to arrive! In the last chapter of Great-Granddaddy's Adventures, he muses about purple martins. He notes that martins were "on friendly terms" with the Native American's when the Europeans arrived. "Exporers record finding holed and hollowed-out gourds with these birds nesting in them, hanging in front of wigwams."

He confesses in a funny story that he tried to "make the purple martin arrive in the Texas state capital on March 2, Texas Independence Day." He notes "they did arrived at my box for four consecutive years exactly on that date. Then, not wanting to spoil a good story, I began to fudge a little by not looking very hard until March 2, on which date I looked my eyes out and even called my friends by phone to find out if their martins had arrived. I accumulated six 'straights' in this way and was about to offer my research to publication, when a group of four noisy martins awakened me on the morning of a February 15 and stayed around the box the whole day, uttering their cool hello calls until the neighbors were brought in to witness."

Not a great photo, but purple martins none-the-less!

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At Amarillo, I made an afternoon detour to Palo Duro Canyon and was able to get some photos of birds at the park's bird blind.

The "Lighthouse" in Palo Duro Canyon.

Song Sparrow?

White-Crowned Sparrows

White-Crowned Sparrow

Brown Thrasher?

White-throated Sparrow

"You lookin' at me?"

Harris Sparrow?

Spotted Towhee (female immature?)

Cardinal

Female Cardinal drinking water

Harris Sparrow (?) & Cardinal (female)

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As I entered Colorado, one of my favorites, the Meadowlark, was there to greet me!

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Until next time, friends!