DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — People continue reporting wonderful things from Big Bend. To wit:

• Fan-tailed Warbler (first documented Texas record and one of only very few for the USA)
• Red-faced Warbler
• a pygmy owl
• Lucifer Hummingbirds
• etc.

I’m practically drooling on my keyboard, and I’ve started contemplating a crazy-insane Labor Day trip to the park. But I’d need a companion (or two), and preferably a high-clearance (maybe 4WD?) vehicle. It will probably be hot, and there will be a LOT of hiking. Do any of my readers care to join me in the expedition? If so, I need to know fast. Like by Friday.

Let’s go!

DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — Thanks mainly to Fjord, I’ve completed some behind-the-scenes maintenance, including a switch to the latest version of WordPress. Unfortunately, there are a few problems still to sort out:

1. The categories display has gotten messed up, partly because of the import and partly (it seems) because of the way the new version of WordPress handles parent categories.
2. My blogroll is gone and will have to be rebuilt.
3. Static pages are MIA but can hopefully be recovered … ?
4. A few older images in posts may be broken temporarily.
5. A few more trivial problems hardly worth mentioning.
6. Do you see anything else that seems different, odd, or broken? At the moment, there should not be any wholescale changes in layout, and everything should still be working. If not, please let me know.

DALLAS, TEXAS — Tonight, Search and Serendipity will have to go offline for up to a few hours. We hope to be up and running again late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

DUNCANVILLE, TEXAS — Cogresha from Earth House Hold tagged me with a birding meme. I thought the questions were interesting, so here goes:

1. What is the coolest bird you have seen from your home?
   My first difficulty here is defining the word home. Even if I could work that out, which isn’t likely, my perennial inability to choose a favorite anything presents another problem. I lived in a house in Papua New Guinea for several months, and from the deck, I could watch Great Woodswallows and Rainbow Bee-eaters and Yellow-breasted Bowerbirds to name a few. Pretty cool, yes? I have seen Bay-breasted and Blackburnian warblers, Rusty Blackbirds, and Wood Ducks at my parents’ home in Missouri. One day, there was a Monk Parakeet outside the apartment where I’m living now.
2. If you compose lists of bird species seen, what is your favorite list and why?
   I really only keep a life list, so this makes my choice of favorites a bit easier. I enjoy looking back over my list and remembering the triumphant, serendipitous, frustrating, and exhilarating moments that the entries represent. I remember places, people, and details of the experiences when I look back at the list. Too, the list reminds me how much of the world remains to be seen!
3. What sparked your interest in birds?
   My interest in birds goes back as long as I can remember. I think I made my first life list before I was 10 — maybe even before I was eight. But I did not become a really serious birder until my family moved to a house on a semi-wooded lot in Missouri, and I discovered all manner of warblers, vireos, sparrows, and flycatchers in the trees. At that time (c. 1999), I discovered birding communities on the Internet. Then, my interest running high, I went on my first birding trip ever — a field trip with Greater Ozarks Audubon in May or June 2000. That was the tipping point. That field trip changed the course of my life.
4. If you could only bird in one place for the rest of your life where would it be and why?
   I’m not ready to settle down just yet. But if I had to choose right now, I’d probably pick somewhere on the Texas Gulf Coast — perhaps the Bolivar Peninsula or South Padre Island. If I lived on the Gulf Coast, I could become a real expert at shorebirds, gulls, and terns, learning their ages, habits, plumages, and voices inside and out. Passerine migration is virtually unparalleled, and the waterbirds are abundant and spectacular. And you never quite know what’s going to blow in off the Gulf. But I haven’t made it to the Pacific Northwest yet, or Maine, or Southeast Asia, or Eastern Africa, or New Caledonia, or the taiga….
5. Do you have a jinx bird? What is it and why is it jinxed?
   I’m still missing too many birds to single one out. However, the King Rail comes to mind — I still don’t have one despite repeated efforts in suitable locations.
6. Who is your favorite birder? and why?
   I think a good birder should be like a good well — deep, full, quiet, and refreshing. I enjoy the company of birders who are passionate, curious, and knowledgeable but never (or only judiciously) obnoxious.
7. Do you tell non-birders you are a birder? What do they say to you when they find out?
   No, not until they get to know me well. Some people ask to come along on my next trip. Some think it makes me (in the words of a former roommate) “a cool nerd.” Others don’t know what to say. That’s OK.

I’d like to know more about Patrick, Jochen, and Rusty, so I’m tagging them to answer these seven questions too.

DALLAS, TEXAS — For the first time ever, a Fan-tailed Warbler has been photographed in Texas. Carolyn Ohl-Johnson snapped the image: Fan-tailed Warbler.