Ten Little Celebrations – November 2025

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A lot happened in November…a birding festival and my first visit to my dad’s new memory care place…and then Thanksgiving…so many little celebrations! Here are my top ten for the month:

Laguna Seca. My husband insisted on a photography-oriented field trip and I acquiesced. It was great. I celebrated seeing a coachwhip snake….and lots of cardinals…at close range with great background.

Trekking poles.  Hurray for trekking poles! They help me avoid back pain while I am hiking. 

Chachalaca. I celebrated seeing the pink neck/check pouch come/go in the one video I took of chachalaca drinking from a water puddle…and listening to the flock for warnings.

Sunset on the mudflat. The last evening of the birding festival we were on a South Padre Island mudflat photographing the sunset. It was a great way to celebrate the winding down of the festival. I will post about it soon.

Bobwhites. We had been expecting to see bobwhites on several of our field trips in the Rio Grande Valley….celebrated when we finally saw them when we were on the last field trip!

Dark chocolate. I am celebrating the season with specialty dark chocolate first thing in the morning!

Aurora. I celebrated my small collection of pictures of the Aurora as seen from the Springfield MO area.

Cooking a big pumpkin. There was one pumpkin left from son-in-law’s pumpkin carving event and I celebrated it multiple times: that the flat side made it an easy fit in my oven to cook whole, that the seeds were large (great for roasting and then used to top salad and soups), and that there was a lot of pulp and I made custard, a cake and a frittata!

Seeing a great blue heron from my hotel window. I celebrated seeing a great blue heron on the pond below my hotel room window when I first opened the drapes on my second day in Dallas. What a great way to start the day!

Thanksgiving at memory care. The memory care facility held a special meal for the residents the Friday before Thanksgiving. My sister and I enjoyed it with my father. He cleaned his plate and enjoyed the live music. It was wonderful to celebrate with him.

Bentsen- Rio Grande Valley State Park

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It was a very hot afternoon (after our visit to Santa Ana) when we arrived at Bentsen- Rio Grande Valley State Park – about 90 degrees. On the plus side – we saw turkeys before we got to the visitor center!

We opted to take the tram to get an overall view of the park and then get off at the bird feeding station closest to the visitor center. The tram stopped long enough for me to photograph a feeding station dominated by turkeys.

When we got off the tram, the green jays and great-tailed grackles were at the feeder.

A golden-fronted woodpecker was on a post and then a roof.

A great kiskadee was on the same roof striking a vulture-like pose.

I was sitting in a swing and watching the plain chachalacas when I managed a short video which became the highpoint of my Bentsen visit. One of the birds started drinking from a puddle a few feet away from me. It was aware of calls from the other birds in its group….and showed its red bare skin patch!

We walked back toward the visitor center over the canal. Next time we visit, I’ll want to go in the morning!

National Butterfly Center

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Our second morning at the Rio Grand Valley Birding Festival started with a walk around the National Butterfly Center in Mission TX. It was a pleasant morning for a walk round the place. My husband and I stopped by the last time we went to festival in 2017, but it was a rainy and cold day….so we didn’t go past the visitor center! This time it was a beautiful sunny day, and we enjoyed walking around the space behind the visitor center with our guides. At one time there was a lot of anxiety that the border wall would cut through the center…but evidently the land for the center was preserved and there is still a lot to see there.

I saw a lot more than I was able to photograph! It was an interesting walk. I started with some plants near the entrance.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Spiny lizards

Neotropic Cormorants in flight

Northern Mockingbird

Green Jay (including an interaction with red-winged blackbird)

Bronzed Cowbird

Plain Chachalaca

Great-tailed grackle (including a picture that makes it easy to see the size difference between the grackle and the chachalaca)

White-winged Dove

Black-crested Titmouse

Inca Dove

Hummingbird

Queen butterflies

A rescued tortoise (not native…shell damaged by a fire)

Logs with beer, banana, brown sugar mix painted on daily) that attract insects

Olive sparrow (I saw several during the festival but these were the only photos!)

Nest of an Altamira/Audubon oriole hybrid

An adult and juvenile white ibis flying

By the end of the walk, I was ready for a rest on the bus while we headed to another birding hotspot.