Hi all - As some of you did see on the TexBirds FB page, I left Corpus Christi at 4am and arrived at the South Padre Island Convention Center (SPICC) at 6:48 am - still dark outside, lots of lights on at the SPICC, and the wind was HOWLING! Ugh. There was a large market or craft show there this weekend, and one pop-up tent that was tethered to the support columns of the CC's rain awnings was flying like Sally Field in a hurricane (if this makes no sense to youngsters like Cameron Carver and Heidi Trudel, Google it). I parked my car away from that one, in case the cords snapped and it decided to head for Port Isabel. First light came quickly, and I was out of the car by 7:05, mildly surprised that there were no other birders present. Go figure. That last time this happened to me was in Laredo for the Amazon Queen, and I pretty quickly found the target bird all by myself. Gee, maybe lightning can strike twice. I sidled over to the Yellow Wall, and even though the lighting was still pretty iffy, scanned every branch, leaf clump, tree trunk, and hidey hole that I could find, hoping to see something looking back at me. No joy. The wind was buffeting the treetops. I then checked the trees to the west of the water feature, and those two big palms were disheartening - if the FLOW was in there, it would be impossible to see it. I took my time, moving slowly, and checking every possible nook and cranny in the two groups of trees. Back in the Northeast, I had been a very active hawk and owl bander, and we had become pretty proficient at spotting Saw-whet Owls tucked into evergreen trees and viney thickets while on migration or wintering, and it was always a badge of honor to find a roosting Saw-what or Long-eared Owl on a Connecticut CBC. One of the hallmarks of finding Saw-whets and Boreal Owls was their roost predictability - they ALWAYS roosted on a perch that could be directly flown to (usually while swooping up from below) and the almost always chose the WEST side of a tree or thicket, away from the rising sun. I had only ever seen one Flammulated Owl before today (in Colorado in the breeding season), so I had no idea if they followed the same behavior pattern as Saw-whets. In the back of my head, I was prepared for them to be more like a Screech-owl, which will land on a branch, then walk or crawl to a more suitable roosting spot that was less conspicuous, but also less easy to flee from predators. Finally a few more people arrived, and we all commiserated, then continued to search. Eventually, my thoughts were that if it was, in fact, hiding deep in either of the two big wooded areas, it was likely not going to be found. However, it would not be a bad idea to check some of the outlying trees and bushes that were planted as part of the Gabriel Tree of Life Foundation. More on that later.... I was standing next to the cut-in-half log bench near the Boy Scout gazebo, so I turned to the bushy tree 15 feet from me. The leaves were silhouetted against the gray sky to the south, and as the wind whipped the branches back and forth, there was a small dark clump that did not seem to change. I put my 12x50s up to my eyes, and thought "oh, it can't be THIS easy....". Yup, the "clump" had feathers. Yes, it was NOT like a Saw-whet - it was in the middle of LOTS of branches and leaves, on the East side of the tree, and facing East (I was initially looking at its butt). How 'bout that! Ok, so I called to the others, pointed it out to them (it took a while for everybody to get on it), then walked back to the car to get a couple of spotting scopes to set up on it. After returning with the scopes, the big problem was that there was NO single viewing angle that showed the entire bird! Eventually I settled on a low-angle scope setup and another scope from the far right, and between the two views, a decent composite "mental image" of the bird could be constructed. The wind was blowing the tree quite a bit, and occasionally the bird would react by shifting its position a bit, or open its dark eyes. I posted a note to TexBirds from my iPhone but some were only able to read the title, followed by a bunch of gibberish, while others could read my text and passed it on to others. Soon enough, birders from the Valley were trickling in. It was good to see Bob and Arleen Steltzer again, and Benton Basham left the Tropical Zone to come see the owl, as did Ranger Kyle and the O'Haver family. BOK, back to the Gabriel Tree of Life Foundation. Gabriel was the son of Scarlet Colley, and he died far too young. Not long after that, Scarlet told me about a plan to accept donations for trees to be planted at the SPICC grounds as memorials to loved ones that had passed away. I suggested that she write the project for a Great Texas Birding Classic Conservation Project. She did, our Swarovski Optik Roadside Hawks won the Lower Texas Coast part of the GTBC, and the Conservation Prize money went to the Gabriel Tree of Life Foundation. Here's the link http://www.trailoftrees.com/ and you can see Gabriel's Tree when it was first planted. Now comes the wonderful part - sometime abound 9am, Scarlet and George Colley arrived, and when Scarlet saw where the bird was, she exclaimed "It's in Gabriel's Tree", and gave me a big hug. Somewhere, I hope that Gabriel is pleased. Clay Taylor TOS Life Member Calallen (Corpus Christi), TX Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at //www.freelists.org/list/texbirds Reposting of traffic from TEXBIRDS is prohibited without seeking permission from the List Owner