You’ll pay me to show people birds? Okay.
Tomorrow, Nov 1, I leave for south Texas for the annual Rio Grande Valley birding festival. The last three years, I’ve been honored to be a tour leader for the festival. It’s a pretty sweet deal too. In addition to a modest salary, they pay for my airfare, hotel room, food, and in the past have given a group of us young guys a rental car for use in the latter part of the day after the trips are over. The festival gets over 1000 particpants from all over the country (and usually some people from other countries like Canada, the UK). I’ve been very blessed and fortunate to be a part of the festival these last three years.
This year, the festival’s offering a “post-festival” trip to northeast Mexico with space for 60 participants. I’ve been very fortunate to have the opportunity to help lead this trip as well. We’ll be staying in Cuidad Mante and birding areas around the small town of Gomez Farias along the Rio Sabino and El Cielo reserve.
Come to find out, they also needed at least a couple of guys to go down to NE Mexico before the festival and scout out the areas so that we’ll have a good chance of finding some of the birds that are likely to be high on people’s wishlist. Since my plane ticket’s already paid for, and since I’m under employed, I jumped at the chance. So, I’ll be going to NE Mexico for a week, coming back to south Texas for a week, and then going back down to Mexico for a third week. The first week’s a paid vacation, and the second two weeks I get a modest salary. Somehow, my one week festival trip turned into a three week trip.
This year’s festival isn’t without a note of sadness. A good friend of ours, Jason Starfire, passed away tragically this summer. For many of us, going to the festival and not seeing him there will be the first physical reminder that’s he no longer with us.
I’ve gone ahead and put up a gallery of pictures from last year’s festival, to give you an idea of the kinds of things I’ll be seeing. I will also be posting about my experiences and including lots of pictures while I’m down there. I’m looking forward to another great festival and some time in Mexico!
Website looks great (and I think I’m the first to leave a comment!) Just thought I’d let you know the pictures on the slide show aren’t working. (I’m using Firefox on a Mac) Hope you’re having a great day. Amy
That’s unfortunate. I will fix that, but it shall have to wait until I get back from south Texas. Too many things to do before heading out.
Impressive! Now, when are you going to do a website for BCAS? What kind of bribe would it take? Seriously, you’ve done a great job and have a talent worthy of compensation. See you in Mexico!
Jay
Good to hear from you! Great shots from Texas. They bring back memories of my trip in ‘93. The British Isles have a bit of a feel of the States at the moment with 4 Chimney Swifts, a Grey cheeked Thrush and a Myrtle Warbler in Ireland and Chimney Swift, Blackpoll, Sora, Laughing and Franklin’s Gull in England over the last few days.
If you ever want to kick start your Western Palearctic list you know where to find us!