More waiting time, might as well find a comfy place to sit it out and give the fingers a bit of exercise.  Things are progressing well at Mayo.  Linda has finished 4 of her 5 appointments today and now just waiting for a meet with the cardiologist.  I cannot say enough about how efficient Mayo Clinic is.  I realize they have had a lot of practice moving people through, but I could say the same for many other organizations that are nowhere close to the honed processes I am witnessing here.  Check out the plan for the day on the Mayo app, arrive, check-in, execute medical task and you are on your way.  Now the downside is from a social perspective, this area can be a definite downer.  Being at the tops of the medical field brings with it a higher concentration of the serious ailments humans must endure.  You look around and your heart feels for the hardships many of these patients must deal with on a daily basis.  If there is any calming, it is knowing they are at least in the best place possible to get some relief.

Last post, I featured the golden-eyed one (the White-Tipped Dove).  Definitely a stunning feature should you be lucky enough to catch a specimen in enough light to show it off.  While looking at my processed queue found another eye stunner.

Hit the jump to see a few more shots of Mr. Redeye.

This time a much more menacing red one.  Admittedly, I can relate to the bright red eye of the Black-Crowned Night-Heron having taken my own late night flights back from a week of debauchery, oops, I mean sleepless nights in Las Vegas.  Luckily birds are not addicted to social medial so their escapades are safe from the social voyeurs on Facebook, Instagram or whatever the disturbing digital addiction of the week happens to be.  That, of course, excludes bloggers since they are clearly cooler than the rest ha!  The specimen above, and all these pictures as a matter of fact, actually comes to you from the birding paradise of South Padre Island Bird Viewing and Nature Center.  The difference being the first one was in December of 2017 where the rest of the shots were taken a year earlier.

The Black-Crowned is not new to the blog as it has been featured here several times in the past – a mangy specimen back in March of this year (link here), one from a mile high (link here) and smattering from multiple locations like Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge.  Looking back on those shots, this one looks to be the most pristine of the lot.  The setting at South Padre is naturally a bit cleaner especially compared to the swamps of Georgia.  They can hang out on the reeds above the mud and still keep an eye on any unsuspecting invertebrate that wanders too close to the banks.  They are a bit disadvantaged compared to their longer legged brethren like the Great Blue Heron, but who wants to risk being down in the waters when there are Alligators all over the place.  Harder to sneak up through the weeds than it is to approach from underneath the water.

Maybe that is the reason they are so comfortable catching some shut-eye right out in the open (see above).  Reminds me of the Vegas airport as the bright eyed and bushy tailed arrivers weave their way through the exhausted returners passed out on the chairs and floor shielding their own red eyes from the harsh sunlight.  Personally, I think this was more of a birder defense mechanism.  It went into this “don’t bother me I’m sleeping” posture the second it noticed The Beast pointed at it.  “Nothing to see here, just a sleeping bird, you can move on now…”  As I started to turn my attention to other targets along the Center’s boardwalk, I noticed it popped open its eye to see if the ruse was successful (while issuing an evil chuckle…)

Clever bird!  Oh well, it was time to move on anyway.  I was hoping to find the Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron which is quickly becoming another bird to add to my nemesis list.  I have managed to miss that bird numerous times now and it is starting to frustrate me… not at a Puffin level yet, but getting damn close (doesn’t help as I think Ron has the yellow variety already in the tin).  Should be calling Linda back any minute so going to call it a post.

Hope you enjoyed seeing a couple more pictures of a rather classy looking species.