I had to go to Lubbock, TX for a conference. The trip down Thursday evening wasn't very eventful--the wind was horrible and I was just trying to get there. Coming home on Saturday was better. I'm not much on car birding, because you can't see much at 70+ mph (hey, it's west TX--there is NOTHING out there) and I know I missed a lot of little birds that were gone before I could get a decent look at them.
As I was leaving Lubbock Saturday afternoon, I saw some avocets in a flooded field. Along the way, I did manage to ID a few birds that are easy to identify on the fly: European starling (yippee), great-tailed grackle, American coot, Swainson's hawk, crow, rock pigeon, mourning dove, American kestrel, cattle egret, cliff swallow, eastern meadowlark (heard at roadside park), house sparrow, turkey vulture, scissor-tailed flycatcher, mockingbird, red-tailed hawk, red-winged blackbird, barn swallow, mallard, brown-headed cowbird, lark sparrow, great egret, Eurasian collared dove, and killdeer.
Fortunately for me, I had to slow down in Vera, TX. As I was coming out of town, I noticed a flooded area that had some shorebirds on it. Since I wasn't going as fast, I could see they would be interesting and stopped. Seven Wilson's phalaropes, 5 blue-winged teal and 6 long-billed dowitchers made for a great stop.
Good birding!
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