Rancho Cardinalis is located in the Texas Hill Country outside the village of Center Point that rests on the Guadalupe River. We acquired the ranch in 2005, built temporary living quarters in 2006 and our home in 2009. Our ranch is managed under a State wildlife plan. The focus is on Near-Artic and Neo-Tropical migratory & breeding Hill County birds. We also manage for small mammals and butterflies. The ranch is named after our most abundant bird – Northern Cardinal - cardinalis
Texas Forest Stewardship award
In 2007 we received a Texas Forest Stewardship award. L-R; Susan Sander, Sherry Collins, Clay Bales, Tom Collins
Friday, December 28, 2018
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
PAPUA NEW GUINEA - NEW BRITAIN ISLAND
Too much to cover in this blog right now...I will fill in some more comments later...we got 258 lifers with my target set at 219...The tour list was 297 species on PNG and 84 on New Britain Island.
I can say this was our most difficult tour ever - the weather, terrain, perhaps our age and a leader that was our worst ever leader. We were saved by the back-up leader. I will write the management of the Rockjumper Company regarding both leaders one get an A the other a D-.
In addition, Sherry dropped her camera and it was unusable. We got bit by body mites at our river camp site, we fell down too many times to count while trying to navigate the steep muddy, rutted and rooted trails. On our way home Sherry's Surface was stolen in Brisbane.
I took about 1,600 pictures, although the weather made it difficult to get good lighted photo opportunities. Plus I also had camera difficulties just before we left so I got a new one a couple of days before departing. Even though it was a Canon similar to my broke one, it was different enough to cause me problems with the poor light and different button and shooting options. I have consolidated some of the "better" shots into a Google Photo Album and included a link to it.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8YamxPu4oSpwdSLn6
Enjoy
I can say this was our most difficult tour ever - the weather, terrain, perhaps our age and a leader that was our worst ever leader. We were saved by the back-up leader. I will write the management of the Rockjumper Company regarding both leaders one get an A the other a D-.
In addition, Sherry dropped her camera and it was unusable. We got bit by body mites at our river camp site, we fell down too many times to count while trying to navigate the steep muddy, rutted and rooted trails. On our way home Sherry's Surface was stolen in Brisbane.
I took about 1,600 pictures, although the weather made it difficult to get good lighted photo opportunities. Plus I also had camera difficulties just before we left so I got a new one a couple of days before departing. Even though it was a Canon similar to my broke one, it was different enough to cause me problems with the poor light and different button and shooting options. I have consolidated some of the "better" shots into a Google Photo Album and included a link to it.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8YamxPu4oSpwdSLn6
Enjoy
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| Need I say more |
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Anniversary # 53
How the years fly by, but our love for each other still grows. Time for a big hamburger at the Cactus Café in Bandera.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
ANNA'S, ALLEN'S and RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRDS
Just before we headed off for Ethiopia, we had two ranch visitors show up the same day. I first saw the Anna's briefly and new it was of the genus that was either an Anna's or Costa's, but guessed t was Anna's since it would be more likely. The same day Sherry saw what she though was an adult male Allen's, but it was chased off by another hummingbird that looked to be a younger male Allen's.
The Anna's left the following few days due to pressure from the young Allen's. All along we had a young male Rufous hanging on to our backyard feeder. We arranged for our local college student to keep our feeders full and left for Ethiopia. When we returned the Rufous and Allen's were still here.
The Allen's is progressing and looks to be almost fully adult and the Rufous still remains somewhat of a question about it's sex and species since it's back is still all green. Time will tell all...
The Anna's left the following few days due to pressure from the young Allen's. All along we had a young male Rufous hanging on to our backyard feeder. We arranged for our local college student to keep our feeders full and left for Ethiopia. When we returned the Rufous and Allen's were still here.
The Allen's is progressing and looks to be almost fully adult and the Rufous still remains somewhat of a question about it's sex and species since it's back is still all green. Time will tell all...
Male Anna's Hummingbird 12/12/17
Allen's Hummingbird - 12/16/17
Allen's Hummingbird - 2/20/18
Rufous Hummingbird - 2/19/18
Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Ethiopia - 2018
We were off to Ethiopia Jan 3 with a stopover in Richardson so Greg could ferry us to DFW. Nice Business Class flight all the way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Emirates Airline.
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| Ahh-Business Class |
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| One of our target species - Crowned Cranes |
Sea Eagle
Ethiopian Wolf
Somali refugee camp
Termite mound - camels are not native to Ethiopia
Most of our group
Sherry beside a termite mound
Lunch time
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| Ground Hornbills |
14,000 foot elevation
Gelda's are the world's most terrestrial primate excluding humans which they look like from a distance
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| Nile River Croc |
A sheep riding on top of a bus...
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