Neal’s Lodges, is a birding mecca in the central Texas town of Concan, Uvalde County. At the various drips and feeders around this commercial establishment, I was able to get quite close to some life birds.
Olive Sparrow
Brewer’s Sparrow
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker
What proved to be most exciting part of the stay however was an armed holdup at the local bank which I narrowly missed. I had the vague notion of exchanging a 100 dollar bill at this establishment just minutes before the event. Fortunately, I passed up the opportunity. Apparently the culprit fled on foot into the surrounding scrub land and a Border Patrol helicopter was called in to perform a low level search.
The noise from this activity effectively destroyed the bird watching for the rest of the day. The next morning at the general store across from the bank I overheard two women talking about the perpetrator’s capture.
“Good”, said one to the other. “I hope they string him up!”
Like Dorothy said to Toto, “We’re not in Kansas anymore!”