2/19/26 Bird Tour

 We went to bed early last night as we were all pretty tired.  It took a bit to get used to the sounds of people soccer, barking dogs and crowing roosters. We got up early to shower and have a small breakfast before Luis picked us up for our birding tour.  We started at the end of town on the beach and saw a number of birds.  We saw blue winged teal, anhinga, neo-tropic cormorant, least grebe, brown pelican, blue-footed boobie, American coot, northern jacana, snowy and great egrets, yellow and black crowned night herons, black necked stilt, Heermann's gulls,  cinnamon teal, willet, spotted sandpiper, killdeer, laughing gulls, turkey vultures, common black hawk, great tailed grackle, Sinaloa crow, We drove over to the jungle path near the Polo club where we had a delicious brunch of waffles, fresh pastries, cut fruit, and eggs at the open air restaurant.  We saw on our walk orange fronted parakeet, Mexican parrotlet, black throated magpie jay, street backed orioles, yellow winged cacique, golden vireo, thick billed king bird, social fly catcher, great kiskadee, blue gray gnat catcher, ruffed winged swallow, squirrel cuckoo, masked tityra.  We took a side path and found a place called a Fairy Garden mostly small stone sculptures that are hidden in the glade.  Luis was a font of knowledge.  One of the most interesting stories was about the cycle of three birds:  the orange fronted parakeet carves out a hole in a termite nest to raise their young.  When the young fledge and leave the nest, it is taken over by the Citreoline trogon who raises a family.  When they leave the nest is is taken over by the elegant trogan.  It is a time share system in which each pair of birds raises their family in 3 months and then the next pair take over the nest.  Very cool!  We came back to the house after our 5 hour adventure and Dave went for his nap and the rest of us read by the pool.  I took a dip first as I was hot from the jungle walk.  While we were in the living room a golden cheeked woodpecker landed on the tree just off the balcony.  We will go for an early dinner tonight and hopefully be awake enough to play cards.

2/18/2026 San Pancho, Mexico

After a long day of flying we finally made it to Puerto Vallarta airport on the west coast of Mexico.  The airport here was an adventure in itself - a long line to go through passport control and then another to go through customs.  We met Russ and Cathie outside the terminal and found our driver.  We stopped at a large grocery store which was accessed by an escalator (more of a rolling sidewalk).  We picked up supplies for breakfast and lunch and then drove on another 45 minutes to the small town of San Pablo.  Russ's son Tristan and family own a house up on a hill over the town.  Very nice!  Will take some pics tomorrow.  The funny thing is that the driver could not get his car up the hill to the house so Russ walked up and got the golf cart so we could get the groceries and then the luggage in two trips.  We went into town for dinner and ate at a place called Barracuda.  The food was excellent - I had a shrimp taco and the others had mahi mahi tacos plus Russ had a shrimp burrito (he brought half of it home for lunch tomorrow.  We are all pretty tired so will forgo cards tonight. 

3/22/2025

 We are home!  Our last night was a good one.  We walked over to the beach after dinner and took a walk down to Point of Rocks on the sand.  We came across a large heart outlined in white roses with a bucket with a bottle of champagne and asked the photographer if there was going to be a wedding.  She said it was a surprise proposal.  When we came back we could see the young man on his knees and the squeal of excitement so we knew she had said yes.  I took a quick pic, but as we walked by I was hoping that someone had a coat for her as the wind was blowing and it was quite chilly.  We took our sunset pics and then hurried back to the condo to warm up.  We decided to play a game of pinochle, but got beat again!  

Saturdays morning we had breakfast, packed up last minute item and took off for the airport.  Russ and Cathie dropped us off very early for our flight and continued on as they were flying back to Vermont out of Tampa airport and also had to return the car.  We read and did some people watching for a bit.  A plane came in that had two medical emergencies onboard.  We saw two people being taken off by stretcher.  Later I went to the restroom and an older fellow fainted in front of me.  He was with a group and I only assisted by picking up a food back that he had dropped.  He roused very quickly and was sitting up by the time the EMTs got to him.  I was wondering if this was going to be a doomed flight, but the worse thing that happened is that we were on the runway for 45 minutes waiting for our turn to take off.  Amy picked us up in New Haven. It was very nice to be home.  We got to see Theo and Zoe as this was the last weekend of their spring break. In just a few weeks, we will go to Theo's graduation - hard to believe.

3-21-2025 Celery Fields

 We missed the sunset last night as there was a sudden rain shower so we will try tonight.  We played our last game of hand and foot and lost again.  Tonight we will try a game of pinochle.

We went back to Celery Fields today.  While we didn't see the painted bunting this time, we did see plenty of birds and ducks: Nanday parakeets, mocking bird, tree swallows, boat tailed grackle, red winged blackbird, blue jay, grackle, white ibis, glossy ibis, common gallinule, juvenile purple gallinule, cowbird, turkey vulture, mourning dove, tricolored heron, little blue heron, cormorant, purple martin, blue winged teal, cattle egret, great blue heron, sand hill crane, roseate spoonbill, bald eagle, blue jay, and red bellied woodpecker.  We also saw a rabbit.  We went back to the unit for lunch and then our last poolside reading session.  Fortunately, Russ found some chairs where the wind was being blocked as there was a cool breeze this morning.  We came back and cleaned out the fridge as we are going out to The Cottage again tonight to celebrate Russ's birthday.  We have had a wonderful three weeks here, but we will fly back tomorrow morning.  

3-20-2025 Red Bug Slough Preserve

 So we had a change of plans last night.  We did not go walking on the beach to catch the sunset, but instead walked over to get ice cream for and early birthday present for Russ whose birthday isw tomorrow.  Will try to catch the sunset tonight.  Hand and Foot has been a disaster for Cathie and I.  We had to concede two games to the boys last night as they were killing us.  Oh well, another year maybe.

We went to Red Bug after breakfast and had a good walk.  The first amazing thing that happened was that a red shouldered hawk flew overhead and landed on a branch right over our heads.  He than proceeded to pose on the branch for quite a long time so that we all could get pics of him.  It was quite exciting.  We didn't fare so well on the rest of the walk, but we did see a decent number of birds - red shouldered hawk, mourning dove, cardinals, blue winged teals, female mallard, mocking bird red winged blackbird, grackle, little blue heron, anhinga, glossy ibis, osprey, great blue heron, common egret, crow, and hairy woodpecker.  We also heard a blue jay and a red bellied woodpecker.  There were lots of yellow eared sliders and a first for us, a Florida soft shell turtle (long neck and pointy head).  We also saw a flower that looked like a yellow iris, but Cathie has a plant identification app on her phone and it was a yellow flag flower.  We also spotted a crested anole and a rabbit.On the way back to our condo, we took a left over the bridge and wandered down to Turtle Beach.  We found a restaurant that people have been telling us about called Ophelia's.  It looked like a modest ranch house from the outside, but people say the food is amazing.  We won't be finding out for ourselves as the entrees are $50 - $100 per person!  We will have leftovers tonight as we leave on Saturday morning and we need to clean out the fridge.