Bird cycles

The winter birds are coming back to the Resaca. No, I don't mean the Winter Texans (Snow Birds they're called elsewhere). I mean the herons, egrets, anhingas, whistling ducks and coots are starting to show up in abundance and the sea gulls are only a desultory few skulking over the water. The parrots migrated through a few weeks ago, shrieking and flashing in the afternoons. Before that it seemed the days were filled with gulls and the mornings with twittering fly catchers. Now it's all pijejes' whistle calls and the oddly discordant complaint of the snowy egret getting bullied by the great (strictly a matter of opinion) egret.

The butterflies have come along with the shore birds. There are monarchs, of course but also a dazzling array of small brilliances fluttering through all levels of the sky column. Soon of course, all too soon, this all means that grim winter, or as grim as winter gets along the Rio Bravo, will be upon us. I'll have to start wearing shoes and socks to go outside and even a sweater! Will this nightmare never end?