Blood Clot? I think Not..... (03Feb2026)

The flight to Sao Paulo was loooonnngggg.....  10 hours give or take.  For me this is a problem because I have a history of blood clots (DVT and pulmonary embolisms).  So normally I would get an aisle seat and get up frequently and walk around to stretch my legs.  I wear compression socks and take aspirin but since I don't have any clotting disorder that any physician could find, I am not on long term thinners.  When I bought my plane ticket on United, I was thinking that I made out like a bandit because I got my ticket flying from RDU to Fortaleza and then back from Porto Seguro to RDU all for less than $600.  However this also meant I was in the cheapest economy seating and I was put in the hump seat.  The guy in the aisle seat somehow was sleeping the whole flight even though I barely slept a wink and I was hesitant to wake him to let me walk around.  In hindsight, of course I should have insisted or asked to switch seats but I didn't.  I landed in Sao Paulo exhausted but seemingly ok.  After a long layover, I got on my Sao Paulo to Fortaleza flight and made it to Fortaleza in one piece, but as I got into the taxi for the hotel, my calf started to hurt...  That night we had a nice dinner with all the tour participants that made it to the hotel and I figured I would sleep on it and see what was happening the next day.  

My view from the 17th floor in Fortaleza.  

The view out the front door of the hotel.

Fork-tailed Palm Swifts were hawking insects right from the hotel balcony.  First lifer of the trip!  My calf was smarting and I was visibly limping but I wasn't freaking out yet...  Our first birding stop of the trip was a town park in Fortaleza where Jandaya Parakeets hang out.

Wing-banded Hornero - to be honest the band on the wing is not noticeable.  The easiest way to tell this bird apart from the Pale-legged Hornero is the leg color.   Wing-banded has dark legs.  This backlit photo sucks so you have to take my word for it and I got better pics later.

Jendaya Parakeets!  There were tons of birds being called out but I knew this was the only place we would see these gorgeous parakeets so I focused on them.

After the parakeets were in the bag, we headed north along the coast.  The initial trip plan was to head south, but we all arrived a day early so Sherry and the tour leader Brad from Agami tours arranged for a quick jaunt north so we could try for some endemics that were not on the original plan.

On the way, we stopped at Porto do Pecem, a seaside spot with some mangroves.

More Fork-tailed Palm Swifts!

Masked Water-tyrant - on these trips you learn to take cues from the tour leader.  Although this bird was a lifer for me, he just casually mentioned it and then ignored it.  I found out later this was a very common bird throughout the trip.

Bicolored Conebill - I had seen these once before in Colombia but those photos were even worse!  We were not going to be in mangrove habitats anywhere else on the trip so I knew this was a good one to get.

Plain-bellied Emerald - another species that specializes near the shore.

There was a point break at this spot that I bet gets good with the right conditions.  This was a small day and the wind was wrong.

Mangrove Rail!  This was the main target for this spot.

Southern Lapwings flying by.

Yellowish Pipit!

White-winged Swallow!

Collared Plover

Cattle Tyrant

Caatinga Cacholote!  This bird is endemic to the Caatinga habitat of northeast Brazil but they do make it close to the coast.  This one was a stone's throw away from the beach.  Caatinga is a dry forest of low trees stunted by the elements and poor soil.  

At this point we turned inland and headed southwest from the coast.  Our next stop in the hot afternoon sun consisted of some farm habitat in Forquilha.   The guide was hoping to pick up Moustached Woodcreeper here but he acknowledged the hot sun late in the day was probably not ideal.  However, we did get some good birds.

Rufous-browed Peppershrike

Scarlet-throated Tanager

Pale-legged Hornero

We threw in the towel on the Woodcreeper which meant we would need to backtrack the next day to try again.

We had one more stop planned before heading to the hotel.  Serra da Meruoca in Camilos.  This was the spot for the endemic Hooded Gnateater.  

We all got good looks at the male but only the female allowed herself to be photographed.  A great bird and the only spot on the trip for it.

Ochraceous Piculet!  Another northeast Brazil endemic.

Glittering-throated Emerald

Gray-eyed Greenlet - almost a Brazilian endemic but it does have a disjunct population in Bolivia.

Pileated Finch - I had these on my first trip to Brazil but it was cool to see him with his crest up!

Black-bellied Antwren - another I had in the Pantanal.

Light was fading so it was time to pack it in and we headed to the city of Sobral.  At this point I was visibly limping from my calf pain so I let some of the tour participants know that I probably had a blood clot in my calf which can be dangerous.  After some discussion, I let tour leader know and we all decided it would be best if I saw a doctor.  Brad the tour leader was amazing and volunteered to take me to a local emergency clinic which charges a small fee but has much less wait times than the free clinic.  I was super surprised that after paying the equivalent of $75, the doctor saw me in probably less than 30 minutes.  Both Brad and I were hoping this doctor would see me and clear me so I could continue the trip.  I was expecting an ultrasound and was dreading a diagnosis of a DVT which would probably require admission and treatment with clot busters.  However, this was a small town in Brazil and they didn't have an ultrasound machine.  The doctor basically felt my leg and told Brad who was translating that he did not think it was a serious DVT and he gave us an order for an ultrasound to be performed elsewhere if things got worse.  Although I was a bit incredulous, both Brad and I were glad that the doctor was not alarmed and thought we could continue.   The alternative was to completely blow up the trip for myself and possibly impact others as well.  So I decided to wait and see, making sure to put my leg up whenever I could to make sure the blood was flowing.  

This was the general route we followed on Day 1.    This trip would have a lot of driving!  The endemics are spread out and Brazil is a huge country.  By the end of the trip, we would have driven over 3k miles!  That is the equivalent of driving across America from the east to west coast!

Houston, we don't have a problem! (31Jan - 01Feb2026)

I was scheduled to fly out of North Carolina for my trip to Brazil on the first Sunday in February, but a historic snowstorm was threatening my flight.  After hours on the phone, I was able to push up my first segment of the trip to Houston on a Friday to avoid the snow.  They wouldn't push up the Houston to Brazil portion because of some codeshare nonsense, but I was happy to spend a couple of days in Houston waiting for my next segment.  I have birded the Houston areas many times back when I used to travel for work but I was a novice back then and I didn't have a decent camera.  The bird I wanted most was several hours away near Aransas, TX. The iconic Whooping Crane!  After a nights stay near the airport in Houston, I rented a car and beelined my way south west to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge which is where I saw my lifer Whoopers over 15 years ago.  It turned out to be very blustery and cold on the gulf coast and all the overlooks in Aransas were coming up empty.  I was on my way out of the park to try some of the nearby agricultural fields when I saw a sign for a lake overlook on the west side of the park road.  I am so glad I checked it.  Literally minutes after I walked to the overlook a family of three Whoopers landed to get a drink out of the small pond.

They each took turns drinking while the other two were on lookout duty.

As of 1941, only 21 birds of this flagship species were left.  Conservation efforts have increased this to about 830 birds as of 2025 but it is still Endangered per IUCN and deserves all the protection it can get.

After getting hydrated the adults took off.

And the young one followed....

With my primary target in the bag, I decided to try for a bird I had never made a good effort for in the past, the Sprague's Pipit!  There were several recent eBird reports in some nearby farm fields so I headed to one of them and it didn't take long to find some!

Sprague's Pipit!!  They look a lot like American Pipits but have a streaky back and head which makes them almost sparrow-like.  This one was out in the open only because I flushed it, but they prefer the short grass on the edges of the farm fields whereas the American Pipits are normally out in the open turned soil.

There were also plenty of Savannah Sparrows trying to throw me off.  

Sprague's Pipit in its natural habitat, shortgrass prairie.  Unfortunately this type of habitat is threatened by all the agriculture of this area.

On my way out I saw some more Pipits which turned out to be American Pipits which offered me a chance to study the differences including a more "blank" looking facial expression and less streaks on the back.

Long-billed Curlews were seemingly everywhere in the freshly turned fields.

Burrowing Owls are always fun to find.

Crested Caracaras are the most common raptor in these parts.

It was getting late, so I headed back to Houston with one more stop at the Attwater Prairie Chicken Preserve to see if I could luck into some chickens.  That was not in the cards but as the sun set, I did get a great show from the Short-eared Owls!

A great day ended with an Orange Sherbet sky and Short-eared Owls barking at the moon.

In the morning I decided to visit the Houston Botanical Garden to look for the Red-vented Bulbuls which somehow I still did not have on my lifelist.  I think I had previously confused them with the Red-whiskered Bulbuls of Los Angeles and so didn't make the connection.  Red-vented Bulbuls are a completely different species of exotics that have been established in Houston as a countable species on the ABA list.

Ring-necked Ducks abounded in the small pond.

Red-vented Bulbul!  

Hunting Bulbuls is hard work so I googled the best sandwich shop nearby which happened to be Kenny and Ziggy's New York Deli.

This triple-decker was a heart attack waiting to happen but it was worth it!

I still had some time before my red-eye to Sao Paulo so I headed out to the Katy Prairie. 

Red-tailed Hawk

Loggerhead Shrike

A very pale Krider's Red-tailed Hawk

The prairie was beautiful but I neglected to take any scenery shots.  My flight to Sao Paulo was painful, literally... I had some pretty bad calf pain when I landed and I was sure I had a DVT in my leg based on my medical history.  More on that in my next blogpost starting in Brazil!