A fellow joined a guided bird walk at Quinta Mazatlan and within minutes pulled his detailed matrix matching regional birds with dozens of sites in the area. At one time he and the guide launched into a conversation about exact locations for a particularly rare bird; through the entry gate and just beyond the yellow bathroom by the big mesquite tree.  Yes, that specific.  You can hire a guide here that will take you exactly where a specific species can be seen on a given day: they pre-scout.  You can down load all that info from ebird too.  Some of these folks are really serious about their birding.  We try to hit the hotspots but tend more to meander around in some great outdoor spaces hoping to spot something new.  Good thing we have lots of time to work on our life-list.

Today we visited Estero LLano Grande State Park.  Before we even left the parking lot we encountered a pack of intent birders.  Yesterday there was an unexpected sighting of a blue throated hummingbird so they were out in force to find it again today.  We got caught up in that for a while but soon headed out to see what we could see.

How about this cool screech owl? Looks stuffed doesn’t he?

Or this fellow, a common pauraque, his camouflage is fantastic.