Bikes, Birds, and Buses
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September 24, 2007:
First off, I just want to say that adding bicycle racks to all the METRO buses was one of the best things METRO could of possibly done. Bike + Bus makes it so easy to get around anywhere in town. No more "just missing" a bus. If I miss it, I just pedal real fast and catch it at the next stop.
Sunday I got up early and was happy to find out the chance of rain for the weekend had completely. I've been reading a big year book, so it's sparked my interested for birding again. I grabbed some water and headed out on my bike, hitting some downtown birding hotspots with the ultimate goal of reaching Ziggy's Healthy Grill for my normal Sunday Go Club, by way of downtown. For the map enthusiasts out there, I made one just for you to follow along on.
The first part of the path was a familiar one down Heights Blvd. I turned left on White Oak Dr. and went down to White Oak Park. There were literally dozens of Mockingbirds and Blue Jays calling on my ride down the road. I got to the park, and went down the trail. I didn't see anything overly spectacular. I heard multiple cardinals calling from the woods and saw a Great Egret and a Cattle Egret fly overhead. When I was at the last leg of the path, I saw what looked like a Little Blue Heron fly away from its spot on the ground towards the Bayou. I rode my bike over to the Bayou and got a closer look and found it was actually a Black-crowned Night Heron. They're supposed to be common backyard nesters in the suburbs, but I had never seen one inside the loop before. Then off to the left, I saw an oddly silent Killdeer.
Over the Houston Avenue bridge I went and saw over a hundred Grackles and Pigeons. Now it was starting to feel like downtown :) I came to the railroad tracks that I had seen a hundred times before. There was no bike lane underneath the crossing, so I thought I would ride up the pedestrian crossing. Oops! Stairs :( Thinking I could go over even the pedestrian crossing, I went all the way up to the railroad tracks, just to find it dead ends to a 6 drop. Then, I heard it, a call I had never heard before. I whipped my binoculars around and saw a bird that looked odd. It was brown and streaky like a sparrow, but had a tuft like a cardinal. Then a few of his friends showed up and flew over me and I saw their bright white vents. It finally struck me... these were the Red Vented-Bulbul population of Houston. They were exotic birds that escaped and set up a small local population here, but I hard only heard that they were in the Heights, so this was a pretty cool find. Granted, I wasn't far from the Heights, but far enough.
Next stop was Sam Houston Park downtown. This park was also featured in the book I'm reading during a Texas Big Day they attempted. I rode around, saw the usual feral Red-faced Ducks at the bond and looped around. Then I saw a little bird twittering in the oak. It looked a lot like a Black and White Warbler, but its breast was really dull. I looked it up on my cell phone and it was the fall plumage of the bird :) It's been so long since I've been birding that I had forgotten that fall plumage is not as pronounced as spring plumage. This was the only migrant I saw the whole day.
The rest of the birding path was along the Buffalo Bayou, but I didn't see anything new. Once I got to Waugh, I took a marked bike bath all the way to W Alabama and Woodhead, then took Alabama through some pretty horrible construction to the Go Club.
I played one game of Go (I won!) and tried to catch Bus 27 all the way up Shepard to the Heights. I waited about 10 minutes and decided that I missed it. Since it only runs every 40 minutes, I thought I would take an alternate route home. I rode up to Westheimer and barely caught Bus 82 to downtown. I literally flew up on my bicycle and banged on the door so that it wouldn't leave without me. Once I got to downtown, it was a 2 block ride to my normal downtown bus stop (the only stop that bus 40 and 50 both stop at, so I can just pick the first one that shows up). Bus 40 showed up 2-3 minutes later and I took it all the way back. After I was crossing White Oak Bayou again, I looked to the opposite side and saw a park that looked very woodsy. I'm going to have to come back to that one and see if I can stir up some more migrants.
To expand on biking and buses. I started to ride my bike today, thinking if Bus 50 happened to show up, I would take it the rest of the way. When I got to my second leg on Washington, Bus 36 was waiting. When I was waiting for the red light to change green, I took a quick peek to see if the light was a scheduled stop for 36, and it wasn't. Thinking I wouldn't even bother, I rode ahead. The bus pulled up beside me and the driver mimed the question "are you trying to ride?" I motioned with a head nod and she stopped. I looked up and saw the bus stop sign :) I jumped on and took it all the way to downtown.
Isn't METRO great?
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| 2008-05-07 - | Dropping hobbies like bad habits |
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| 2008-03-25 - | Cell Phone Woes |
| 2008-03-01 - | Texas Independence Day 5k Run |
| 2008-02-29 - | Running Pains |
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| 2008-01-14 - | Aramco Houston Half Marathon |
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