A letter from America

So I’m lying in bed in Brownsville, Texas, having just travelled down to the Rio Grande from High Island. On the television is a story about a serial killer in New York. I’m full of Dr Pepper and some weird fucking thing called chipotle sauce. If anyone can tell me what chipotle is I’d be very grateful. Actually, it’s probably best that I don’t find out.

Regarding serial killers, a quick bit of Googling has revealed that one of Brownsville’s most famous sons is Efren Salvidar, a respiratory therapist who may have murdered up to 120 of his patients. This is quite some coincidence, because just 7 miles from where we live in Glossop, Harold Shipman killed at least 218 of his patients when he worked as a family GP. There’s a lesson for us all to learn here: despite the immense distance between Glossop and Brownsville, and what seems like totally unrelated cultures, just scratch below the surface and I guess we’re all the same human beings sharing similar values on this planet. There’s a bit of serial killer in all of us, deep down.

The birding is fantastic. We started in High Island, and despite very low numbers of migrants, we still saw a bucket load of great birds. The shorebird numbers at Rollover Pass is staggering. We’re now at nearly the most southerly point of the USA (I think Florida just beats it) and have a week in the Rio Grande valley, followed by some time on Edward’s Plateau to hopefully see Golden-cheeked Warbler and Black-capped Vireo, before finishing off back in High Island at the end of the month.

The star birds so far would have to be Magnificent Frigatebird, Yellow Rail, Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow, Green Jay, Long-billed Thrasher, Roadrunner, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, White-tailed Hawk, Olive Sparrow … blah blah blah … It’s also been amazing to get brilliant views of some of our most sought after British vagrants like dendroica warblers, Scarlet Tanager, Sparrows, all of the nearctic waders on the British list, Forster’s and Royal Tern … blah blah blah …

Anyway, I’m so full of Dr Pepper that I need to go for a piss. Nice chatting to you. We’ll speak soon. Here’s a couple of video clips:

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Tagged as: High Island, Magnificent Frigatebird, nelson's sparrow, rio grande, Texas, tom mckinney