Hi from Texas! I am here until the 10th June and I'm currently in San Antonio. I'm off to the Davis Mountains in West Texas tomorrow for an astronomy convention (the Texas Star Party) because as well as a birder I am also an avid amateur astronomer.
Jet lag meant I got up at 5am this morning (Texas is 6 hours behind the UK) so I headed off to Brackenridge Park in the city and the Japanese Tea Garden for a bit of birding. There was no-one about that early and as it was early it wasn't too hot (it's not nearly 5pm and approaching 110 degrees outside).
There was plenty of bird song and activity and among the birds were Great-tailed Grackle, Common Grackle, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Downy Woodpecker, Inca Dove, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Cardinal, House Sparrow, Barn Swallow, Purple Martin, Bewick's Wren, Blue Jay, Carolina Chickadee, Red-tailed Hawk, Yellow-crowned Night-heron and Great Egret.
Unfortunately the park is full of feral cats and while the authorities catch and neuter as many as they can they won't eradicate them entirely because the cats keep the rat population down. Unfortunately they probably also have an effect on the birds too.
I managed to photograph some birds this morning but as the light levels weren't very good they're not great. I'll post the best of these and the rest I hope to take over the course of the next nine days when I get back to the UK on the 11th or 12th.
Look forward to the photo's VB.