EAST TEXAS — Classes ended at 3:30, and Spence, Courtney, and I assembled as quickly as we could. The last several days had been warm, clear, and beautiful, and this one was no exception. Papers, tests, and classes lose their stranglehold on our minds and spirits when the intoxicating April breeze blows.

Eastern Meadowlarks sang along Hut Horton Road, but Dickcissels were still absent, to my surprise. When we reached the church, Spence spotted a Blue Grosbeak perched high up in a pine, silent and still.

The cemetery was full of Red-winged Blackbirds. They clustered in the tops of the trees, creating quite a din. I found a Lark Sparrow high in a tree, but he was hard to see, and the blackbirds nearly drowned out his song. Eventually, the red-wings all flew down to forage among the grasses. A couple of meadowlarks joined them.

As we worked our way back to the gate, I heard a bobwhite’s call. It sounded very close and convincing, but I’d already been fooled more than once that afternoon by mockingbirds. We approached the location of the call, and I’d just about become convinced that it had been a mockingbird when a chunky brown bird popped up from the grass and flew stiffly to the edge of the woods. A moment later, a second quail followed. We couldn’t see them once they got into the trees, of course, but we did hear them scurrying through the fallen leaves.

A phoebe and a scissor-tail worked the fence, and Barn Swallows perched along the wires or flew overhead.

We stopped at the small cemetery on Quail Lane. Spence saw a strange-looking bird walking along the ground, but it disappeared into the vegetation before Courtney or I saw it. I heard another bobwhite and told Spence that’s probably what it had been. Only later did the possibility of roadrunner cross my mind, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it sooner. I questioned him further about the bird and referred him to Sibley, and we decided that’s what it had been. “Nifty,” said Spence. Well, yes, roadrunners are nifty.

At the Talley Bottom gate, we parked and got out to walk. We walked back to the pool and discovered a beaver swimming around in the dark water. Upon seeing us, it smacked its tail loudly and dove. It came back up before long, however, and continued about its routine. It swam around the pool, sometimes diving, sometimes hauling out on the bank to groom its long dark fur or to nibble vegetation.

While we stood transfixed by the huge rodent, a Barred Owl called somewhere in the swamp, and another answered it from a great distance. Black Vultures crashed and whistled through the trees, and a pair of Wood Ducks winged silently overhead. A chickadee gathered lichen from dead limbs, and a Summer Tanager called high in a tree.

We drove a slow, winding course home, stopping occasionally to look at Chipping Sparrows, bluebirds, martins, and a pair of shrikes. We got out of the car to watch the martins, which circled quite low over the road and our heads. We heard a dog bark and turned to see a rottweiler lumbering across a long front yard. We quickly got back into the car, but then the dog just fell over onto its side. No need to fear.

LETU’s dining hall was long closed by the time we returned to Longview, so we stopped for supper at Subway. Jason and I always stopped there on the way back from birding expeditions in earlier years. As we ate, I told Spence and Courtney stories about our birding trips from long ago. I treasure the memories from those years and cherish the time this spring with brand new birders. But I’m also sad to think of all that is gone and of how little time I have left here. In three weeks, I will leave LETU and East Texas, and I don’t know when — or if — I’ll return.

ydhttmwfi: Birds and a beaver

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