That's the "Spirit"

Well we got a slower start than we had hoped. Our cheap Spirit Airlines flight was delayed out of Cleveland which put us down in Texas at around 1 am after yet another interesting group of travelers ( idiots ) prohibiting sleep on the plane. By the time we arranged a rental and figured out where we were going it was almost 2 and we had a decision to make: Just crash and get up early to hit the road or put in some drive time and see how far we could get before stopping. Since we both felt pretty good we decided to drive. And drive some more. At a coffee stop about 3.5 hours in we again faced a choice: stop for the night and sleep a few hours or just push it and get there. Another coffee and 5-hr energy it was. 

We arrived at Estero Llano around 1pm and headed out to the area where the gray-crowned yellowthroat has been seen. A few other people were also looking but had not had much luck. We eventually heard the bird song twice and call for about a minute from the center of the tall grass area near some scrub but we could not get eyes on this bird.  I was prepared to stick it out and then I looked at my phone. White-throated Thrush in the tropical zone. Ok let's go.

We get out there and join the other 10-15 people searching for the bird with little luck. We staked out the same spot where the bird was originally discovered and stayed there for three hours. Clay-colored thrushes started to pop up from the understory and feed in the berry trees. Catbirds, thrashers, robins and doves moved around. Altamira Oriole and green jays flitted about and a northern-beardless tyrannulet put in an appearance. 

At around 4 I could barely keep my eyes open and we decided to go get some sleep.  Of course the thrush would be refound at around 4:30 but at that point it could have been in the parking lot of the hotel and I'm not sure I would have gotten up to see it. We are plannin on going back in the morning and that's enough for me. I passed out around 6:30 and slept until 5 am.