Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!   And, yes, I have a picture of wild turkey.   Not a great picture.  I'm still waiting for the shot with a tom turkey and its tail completely fanned.

The man cubs both contracted hand, foot and mouth disease this past week.  So, it has been all yard work for the past several days as they recovered.  The palm trees start to arrive this week.  The blisters are already here.

Back to the birds, here are a few more Texas species from 2024 that I have not previously shared.

This Common Nighthawk was sleeping on a curb in the middle of a parking lot at the Sea Rim  State Park.  Cars were parking in spots to the left and the right and nighthawk didn't budge.

This Eastern Meadowlark stopped for a quick portrait.

Also at Sea Rim State Park, this Great-tailed Grackle was finding great success with its crabbing effort.

This Loggerhead Shrike was quite the poser.

And, then there is the Pectoral Sandpiper...

That is not to be confused with the Stilt Sandpiper...

Or, the Spotted Sandpiper.  Naturally, this one has almost no spots.

Or, even with the Greater Yellowlegs.

Birding ain't easy.  Happily, these Royal Terns will never be confused with sandpipers.

While the grackle was crabbing, this Snowy Egret was fishing.  Here, it managed to nab two fish on the same attempt.  No pole.  No lures.  No bobbers.  As Henry would say... Awesome.  Tada.  

And, let's hear it for the diminutive Least Grebe.  One of the homeliest birds around.  It's less than half the size of a Mallard Duck.

In case my good buddy Judson is following along... don't listen to the fake news.  Alabama can still lose another game and make the playoff.

We are back in Key West this evening after several productive days of shelling on Sanibel.  We ended up with enough plunder to fill two 5-gallon buckets on this outing.  This will help re-stock son Nick's SanibelShellsCo Etsy store where the orders keep rolling in.

The shell piles were enormous on one of the beaches so, it was part Easter egg hunt and part looking for needles in haystacks to find the good stuff.   Could have used a backhoe. 

On one of our outings, three separate people asked me what I was digging for.  Each time I replied, "Sea shells."  Two kept chatting.  One walked off.  So, I was 1 for 3.  Not great.  Not bad.  Happily, there were very few people on the beaches the past couple of days.  So, we enjoyed great shelling and great solitude.

After digging through piles of shells for several hours, you tend to work up an appetite.  So, we hit the local favorite, Doc Ford's daily for a late lunch/early supper.  The cobia fish and chips were too good to pass up.  As Don Jr. said the other day... Making America Healthy Again can wait one more day.

On the other hand, chasing after Henry and O.G. has caused me to drop about 10 pounds from my office days.  So, I think I'm already headed in the right direction.  And, Crystal keeps pumping me full of supplements and organic foods whenever she can.   

It is a bit depressing to see Sanibel in its current state.  Hurricane Ian from two years ago and the two hurricanes that touched the island this past fall have the area looking like a nuclear disaster occurred there.  It's similar to seeing areas out west that have been devastated by forest fires.  It will take a generation for things to get back to normal, assuming the island isn't in the path of more hurricanes in the coming years.

Happy days are here again as we spend a few days in Sanibel doing some power-shelling.

Henry has been in the patriotic spirit over the past couple of weeks.  He decided Cinderella's castle should have the American flag on it.  Good idea.  O.G. is crawling.  So, with both now being mobile, this baby-sitting thing has gone to the next level.

With the 2024 bird count likely finished at 467, here is an initial look back at some of the species observed during the year that did not make my original posts...  Starting with the trip to Arizona in May.

Cactus Wrens on a cactus.  Go figure.

Acorn Woodpecker on wood.  Again, go figure.

Bendire's Thrasher  (One of the 31 lifers I picked up on the trip)

I pulled up behind a paid birding tour van and asked one of the folks what they were looking for as there were several pairs of binoculars peering through a Federal government fence.  The answer was Bendire's Thrasher.  No luck.  But, as I was leaving the area, I stopped near the fence and listened.  I heard the thrasher, then watched as it landed on the road beside my vehicle.  It left after I got my photos but before the paid tour van came back through.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

I played hide-and-seek with Grace's Warblers all over Arizona before finding this poser.

And, a Lark Sparrow sporting intricate color patterns around its face.