“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice, and — most of all — love of what you are doing or learning to do.” ~ Pele
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A change in school situation squashed our plans for more family travel this year. We still managed, however, to go to a few new places before the juggling of four-kids-in-three-schools took over.
The Big Bend outing got us started in high fashion with a whole host of new species for the year, not to mention the handful of Lifers (ones we’d never seen before). Its doubtful we’d have finished as strong for the year without that trip!
For the most part, we stuck to places within a couple hours from home — hugging the Houston boundary — to better manage time and money. Wishing and achieving are indeed two separate things, so a more purposeful ‘Birding Big Year’ will just have to wait at liiiiitle longer. (Maybe when the kids leave the house.)
Enjoy these favorite photos of those beautiful birds we went out to get for 2016, including the posts that go with them (in case you missed them the first go ’round).
As usual — and barring extra time for post-processing — all photos are untouched and are presented as un-cropped JPG’s straight from the camera/big lens combo.
Enjoy the world around you, and get outside!
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Mottled Duck
Related Post: (10/25) Bloody Luck (And A Ruddy Duck)
Scissortail Flycatcher
Related Post: (5/9) Highs and Lows
Osprey
Related Post: (9/27) Going to Church
Canvasback
Related Post: (2/21) Memorial Park Birding
Greater Road Runner
Related Post: (1/27) Birding Big Bend
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Related Post: (5/14) Texas Gem: Brazos Bend State Park
Double-crested Cormorant
Related Post: (11/13) Nature Therapy: Wild Goose Chase
Reddish Egret
Related Post: (11/29) Bolivar Flats Feathered Darlings
Blackburnian and Golden-Winged Warblers
Related Post: (4/25) Anniversary Weekend Birding
Great-horned Owl
Related Post: (1/13) A New Year: Looking Up, Looking Back, and Plugging In
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DirtNKids Blog 
Great pictures Shannon. My husband and I were just talking about owls and how we never see them anymore. Now that I see your picture of the scissortail I realize we never see those anymore either. They are funny birds who will dive down and appear to attack a cat that is merely crossing its own yard. Many years ago our cats would run fast and hide to avoid them.
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So funny about your cat; I see mockingirds do this! We see a lot of scissortails here in the summer only. They are flycatchers so go where the bugs are, perching along ditches or around ponds on barbed wire fences or electrical wires. Look for them!
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These are wonderful and a treat to see some of the species we don’t have in our area!
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Thank you, Belinda. It’s what I like most about WordPress — the sharing of different species. Opens my world! Happy New Year. 😀
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Happy New Year to you as well!
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Gorgeous! One and all… I love the owl and the road runner. I have road runners where we live and it is always a special day when I spot one! 🙂
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I appreciate your comment, Courtney. We have to go get roadrunners, but truth is it’s a good day for me to see any kind bird. I just LOVE them. Happy New Year!
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Fabulous pics! x
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Thank you so much!
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You’re so lucky, I saw my first owl in the wild this last year, and it had it’s back to me!
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Hey Lori! So nice to see you here. We have owls in our yard — Barred Owl — and are awoken with the monkey-ruckus calls every night. Lucky indeed!!
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