Back in Texas

The flight was early but relatively uneventful.  There was a half-hour delay for mechanical reasons prior to my seccond flight, but it all worked out.  Got my rental car in San Antonio and headed south toward Laredo and beyond to San Ignacio where I set up shop in the car opposite the feeder where a Brown Jay has been coming.  After an hour I caught sight of a brown shape flying into the tree above the feeder.  After a brief interlude, I got out of the car because I couldn't see the area of the tree where I thought the bird had landed.  Couldn't find the bird in the tree, so I returned to where I could see the feeder, and...there was the jay.  Great looks, but no pic (web photo).  So I headed south toward Zapata to look for Red-billed Pigeon.  After I arrived at the spot, I got out of the car and walked a bit.  My phone rang.  It was Joyce telling me she had arrived in Louisville for her meeting and everything was fine.  At that moment a pigeon flew past and out of sight.  I changed position, raised my binos, and there was the Red-billed, posing nicely (web photo).  I will say that all the earlier sightings of Red-billed Pigeons in the trees near Las Palmas road didn't have to search through trees with lots of green foliage.  Ah but it just makes it all the sweeter.  Drove to Salineno to look for Muscovy Ducks.  There was a German birder there with his family who had all come from his sister's wedding somewhere in Texas.  We all watched the sun go down, but didn't see any big black ducks with white wing patches.  Headed east but went much further than I had initially planned ending up in Mission.  Guess that means I'll go to Bentsen SP tomorrow.  The two new birds today brings the year's total to 414.