I am so excited and happy today! I'm trying to get as much writing accomplished as I can before leaving for Texas. I thought I was leaving Thursday but double checked my reservations and found that I am in fact leaving Wednesday morning. I should be working on revising birding loops for the Minnesota River Pomme de Terre and Kandiyohi regions but I keep thinking of kiskadees (like one above that I saw at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Fest last year).

I'm also excited because a northern jacana that was found at Estero Llano in Weslaco in August is still apparently hanging out. WildBird on the Fly and I are sharing a hotel room again and she gets in later than I do on Wednesday, so I plan on going from the airport to the jacana and then to the welcome reception. The jacana is one of those birds that have always stuck out to me in field guides that I thought would be so cool to see.

Last week in Cape May was one of the few times when I could tell my friends, "I'll see you next week." Since they have to work the RGV bird fest too, I get to hang with them again. So, besides looking forward to all the birds, I get to see great buddies like Jim Danzenbaker the Brunton binoculars rep. Who has the most awesome profile shot ever. In the above photo Jim is enjoying a giant heap of meat--oh besides friends, now I am looking forward to all the food--the cheap and oh so spicy food of Harlingen.

Meanwhile, I am finding the internet a huge distraction with memes, Julie's post about blogging and caring about what you do, and some sparring going on between BirderBlog and Birding is Not a Crime. I'm not sure what happened there, but it started with a Kirtland's warbler sighting and then someone got served and now apparently "it's on".

And now, with much love to both, I dedicate the following to BirderBlog and Birding Is Not A Crime!!! (The clip is two minutes and eighteen seconds and doesn't have swearing.)