Our team of four; three girls and one guy, plus two adult sponsors and self, pulled out of Rockport at 6:15. It was dark! We arrived in Port Aransas and began birding at 6:45 A.M.. We had eight solid hours to bird and quit promptly at 2:45. These kids were terrific. They never let up. All four had to see a bird and agree on what it was. I had to confirm whether they were right in their call. At the final horn blast at 2:45 this team of kids from 9 to 13 had EIGHTY-EIGHT species of birds!
When you think that just a few over 600 birds have EVER been recorded in Texas, some of these only once or twice, it was an incredible and fun day. I had a stomach virus and sore throat, and would have been in bed had it not been for this long-awaited event. Tomorrow the awards banquet will be held at the Omni Hotel In Corpus. We won't know until then how we placed. It doesn't really matter all that much, though we would like to be high on the list; the day was worth every minute! I will be spotting birds in my sleep. We couldn't point the birds out or name them! That was real tough. Our competing teams were from all along the Gulf Coast. I believe there were seventeen teams of Roughwings 9-13 out somewhere up and down the coast. I will let you know tomorrow how these kids fared.