A saying goes that eventually "All Birders Come to Texas." This is no surprise, as the habitats and birds of this state are as diverse and unique as can be found anywhere in the United States. The following is the story of our first birding trip to the Lone Star State. These are excerpts of the journal that I kept, embedded with links to photos and videos taken along the way. If you would like to skip the story and check out the BIRD LIST AND PHOTOS only, there is a list at the bottom of this page.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: All photos and other content on this website are the exclusive property of Ken Blankenship (KB) and Rachel Cass (RC), unless otherwise credited. Unauthorized use and reproduction is strictly prohibited; you can usually obtain friendly permission to use images by sending me anemail.
DAY 1
Saturday, March 31, 2007
I walked Kennesaw Mountain with Steve Barlow and Roy and Andy Hester. I had two FOTS for me – White-eyed Vireo and Hooded Warbler. I spent the rest of the day running errands and packing the car to get ready for our first Texas birding trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley. I picked up Rachel at 5:45pm and we hit the road. We picked up dinner at a Schlotzky’s deli outside Montgomery, Alabama, and when we asked the guy at the counter if there was a Starbucks at the same exit a local guy behind us in a cowboy hat said, “Ha! Thar ain’t no Starbucks on this part of the EARTH!” We smiled and took his word for it. We got to Pascagoula, Mississippi at around 10:30pm, anxious to begin the adventure anew in the morning. We would not be disappointed!
DAY 2
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Just as we were turning out of the parking lot, I saw a dove flush from a rain puddle in the road with dark wings and unmistakable white markings in the center. I said, “Whoa! That’s a White-winged Dove!” You can’t argue with a life bird before you even start your birding road trip, a slightly scruffy-looking WHITE-WINGED DOVE. Though they have been seen several times in Georgia over the past few years, and I’ve chased a couple, I had still never seen one and neither had Rachel. It came back right away and continued its bath. We noted the obnoxious but yet coastal-charming calls of BOAT-TAILED GRACKLES in the distance, and a few beautiful breeding plumaged LAUGHING GULLS were cruising around.
After a little more than three hours heading west on I-10 and I-12, we passed through the hopeful vestiges of Ivory-billed Woodpecker habitat on the Pearl River and the Atchafalaya Basin, and were now deep in Cajun country – Lafayette, Louisiana. We made a stop to get some gas, and at the same exit we could not resist a little Cajun cuisine hole-in-the-wall diner down the street. As we perused the alligator head mounts, seasonings, sauces, and pork cracklins, I surveyed the illuminated deli-style menu behind a counter that was manned by a busy guy on the phone, taking a group to-go order. I saw something that caught my eye and told Rachel, “I don’t even know what ‘boudin’ is, but they have alligator ‘boudin’ and it’s only $1.99. I’m gonna order it, take whatever he gives us and eat it.” Rachel was in complete agreement – if a Cajun made it and it has alligator in it, could you possibly go wrong? No way! Turns out, “boudin” is a pseudo sausage; a mixture of meat, rice, bread crumbs, and seasoning all mushed up and put into a sausage casing (i.e., an intestine lining) and cooked. We ordered one, along with an order of three crawfish balls, and hit the road with our low-country hors d’oeuvres. The crawfish balls were awesome – like almost anything breaded and deep-fried in the south, right? The boudin proved a challenge. I finally decided to squeeze all of it out on a paper plate, trash the casing, and eat the filling with a fork. I totally recommend the stuff to anyone – good flavor, nice chunks of meat here and there, and a good spicy kick… but you may wish to develop your own method of getting into it (see PHOTOS 1 2 3 of our technique, the whole “boudin incident” was hilarious!) Next, we stopped at Breaux’s Mart – a local landmark Cajun grocery and deli we saw on the internet that was just down the highway. We picked up an awesome plate lunch of BBQ Cornish game hen, sweet potatoes, and cole slaw and ate it roadside next to a nearby farm on “rue de bon secours” to complete the French Creole experience; see the “before” and “after” photos if you need convincing of how awesome their food is. Along with some distant thunder, we heard EASTERN MEADOWLARKS and BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS singing, and the local cattle came over to watch the smart city slickers eating messy BBQ in their pretty white car.
When we got into Texas, we stopped at the visitor’s center for a break and life bird number two of the day – the loud and prolific GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE. Of course, we would see hundreds more over the course of the trip, but it was really cool and we took plenty of pictures. We also watched RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS displaying in the wetlands behind the visitor’s center, and heard a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT singing. We cruised on into the Houston area, where we’d stay on Friday on the way home. As we left Houston on US 59, we felt like we were finally in “new territory” as far as habitat. Numerous rice paddies (which double as crawfish farms) in Louisiana and eastern Texas had changed to agricultural fields, which now gave way to more open, savanna-like scrubland. A pale RED-TAILED HAWK going by at 80mph on a power pole sent us pulling a u-turn to make sure it wasn’t a White-tailed Hawk… good practice! Before too long, we saw our first SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER of the trip fly up to perch on a power line along the highway. Such awesome birds! We saw about 10 by the end of the day, along with good numbers of LOGGERHEAD SHRIKES, who also like power lines for perching. After some discussion, we decided to drive straight into Aransas National Wildlife Reserve to bird in the late afternoon before heading to our hotel in Port Aransas. We found some shorebirds in a wet agricultural field on the way, and were able to identify many BLACK-BELLIED PLOVERS and at least one PECTORAL SANDPIPER. As we came into the small town of Austwell, we hit the brakes when we both saw a dove flush from the ground with ruddy outer wings. We pulled over next to a house and found ourselves right next to two White-winged Doves. I got binos on the bird we had first seen, and sure enough – life bird number three for the day, an INCA DOVE! We got a few pictures before moving on to Aransas NWR.
A BELTED KINGFISHER at the pond behind the visitor’s center got our hearts stirring for “different” kingfisher species that we hoped to see further south. We noticed a single mosquito that got into the car at the center… another sign of things to come! As we approached a picnic area, we had a gorgeous look at an AMERICAN KESTREL on the dock in late afternoon light. Rachel spotted a duck out on the bay, so I got out to scope it. As it had looked in binos, it proved to be a pretty male RUDDY DUCK. I then became acutely aware that I was being brutally assaulted by Texas-sized mosquitoes, swarming in huge clouds around the car and biting me 2-3 times through my shirt! I retreated, and as we left we saw two BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS flying over the bay. Along the wildlife drive to the observation tower, we saw two large family groups – one of wild boar (javelina) and one of white-tailed deer, which was really cool. We saw AMERICAN COOT, COMMON MOORHEN, and PIED-BILLED GREBE in wet areas. We saw a couple large groups of waders flying in formation overhead and were able to identify LITTLE BLUE HERON, TRI-COLORED HERON, GREAT EGRET, and WHITE IBIS. At the observation tower we met a young birder named Phil from Michigan, also on his first Texas birding trip. We enjoyed views of the marsh, heard probable Clapper Rails calling (not the loud, raucous call but the higher-pitched trilling sound), saw many waders, a CASPIAN TERN, and some waterfowl including BLUE-WINGED TEAL and a couple GADWALL in the fading evening light. We found out that Phil would be joining us in the morning for the Whooping Crane boat tour, and we drove out of the area with him behind us. We smelled heavy of bug repellant and road trip, and couldn’t wait to make it to our hotel room! The last couple surprises of the day waited until after dark…
We trusted “her” to get us to the hotel – the GPS system, that is. We know how she can get a little squirrelly on back roads, but we trusted her. We took a couple funny turns out of Aransas NWR, but it still looked like she was taking us towards Hwy 35 and points south. And, though we had no clue where he was going – and perhaps neither did he – Phil had faithfully remained on our bumper for several miles… even when we kicked up five pounds of dust and gravel trying to make a last-second turn! But when we heard the GPS give her classic “take the next left turn” command and were greeted with a big barricade and a detour sign, we knew we might be in trouble! The best part was when the next sign said, “End Detour” when we hadn’t even started one in the first place. No biggie, we see on the GPS that a parallel cross-street is coming up to get us to the highway, so we turned on it – Shaw Rd, I won’t forget. It was immediately obvious that this was no “road” but a gravel-covered levee in between farm fields. Looking in the rear-view mirror, we laughed as Phil decided he had had enough and turned around – if these two idiots didn’t know where they were going, why was he following them? Well, having driven plenty of bad roads against my better judgment, I plunged forward. The gravel turned out to be on top of much softer earth than it appeared, and mud and rocks soon kicked around the wheel wells with a vengeance. We tried driving in between the ruts, and soon found the car sliding diagonally down the road! Did I turn it around? Nah, once you start something you gotta finish. We soon became aware of scores of shorebirds that were in the muddy fields next the road, skittering away from the headlights and the noise of a low-clearance passenger vehicle slogging along this sorry excuse for a road – yet it was shown clearly in the GPS system while other paved ones were not! Suddenly, a large bird of prey, very white overall, lifted up from the road shoulder and through the headlights into the field. Just as the gravel shifted to become as big as baseballs, we became aware that Phil was back at it… following us down this path to utter destruction with two miles to go in either direction to pavement. Then I figured we had reached the end of the line – a concrete gully crossed the road in front of us with no bridge across it. But when we saw only a trickle of water in it, it was onward march… just slow enough so the car wouldn’t bottom out as we drove down the embankment and back out the other side. And what made the whole thing even more entertaining, is that here’s this kid behind us, driving an old Toyota Camry, blindly following the blind down this hellacious road! Finally, with a three-inch thick coating on the mud flaps, we made it back to Hwy 35 and paved road again! We think Phil may have flashed his brights at us a couple times, but being no more able to help him than ourselves, we kept going and eventually he faded away.
As we approached our final resting place for the day, Port Aransas, we started to see some strange signs… “No smoking in vehicle” was first, followed by “Shut off engine on ferry.” A ferry? Well, must be for folks going somewhere else, right? Wrong. Unbeknownst to us when we made our reservations, Port Aransas is only connected to the mainland by way of a 24-hour free ferry service! And this isn’t a huge mega-ship, either… before we even had time to discuss whether we should even bother and just get a hotel closer to Rockport for tomorrow’s Whooping Crane tour, we were being signaled with those classic “airport flashlight cones” onto what was essentially a tug boat with an open deck – only about 12 cars even fit! As instructed, we shut off the engine and set the parking brake and immediately felt the car heaving and rocking in the waves as the little boat pulled away from the dock! A little delirious from 10 hours of driving and several hours of birding, we’re laughing hysterically at this development, as we picked up steam out into open water. In the driver’seat, I almost went for the brake or steering wheel 3-4 times as we crossed the bay, having never seen the lights of the horizon moving around in my peripheral vision while in a car and having it be out of my control! I’ve been on the mammoth ferry across the Saguenay River in Quebec in my car, but that thing holds at least 200 cars and feels like solid ground… this was like bobbing around in your car on a giant cork!
DAY 3
Sunday, April 2, 2007
It was quite foggy and overcast when the day started. We got to see in better light what mud flaps are actually made for as a result of the fun we had on the farm road the night before. We again started off our day with a life bird. After a quick breakfast we drove down to see the beach before heading off to Fulton for our Whooping Crane tour. It’s cool that you can drive right out onto the beach here and park to hang out. We saw a BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER and a bunch of SANDERLINGS at first. By spending just 20 minutes slowly walking along the piles of washed-up seaweed, we had three of the ringed plovers – first a PIPING PLOVER, which we had a chance to study so I could brief Rachel on what to look for in a Snowy because we had never seen one before. Next we saw a SEMIPALMATED PLOVER, and behind him came running another plover as fast as it could… with the naked eye I thought “Ah, probably another Semipalm.” But getting it in the binos proved it to be a SNOWY PLOVER indeed; it was nice to see the field marks we read about right there after discussing it moments earlier! We also had a couple CASPIAN TERNS and a ROYAL tern fly down the beach, along with plenty of noisy LAUGHING GULLS and GREAT-TAILED GRACKLES. We had to get going to make our second ferry crossing and get to the boat tour. We turned off our engine this time, but left the GPS unit on – it was funny seeing the message “Not on a digitized road” flash on the screen the whole way across the bay. We noted several EURASIAN COLLARED DOVES on the wires in the area, proving they continue to spread because Sibley’s guide does not show them established here yet.
The Whooping Crane tour was simply awesome. I would recommend this company to anyone – Rockport Birding and Kayak Adventures, with captain Tommy Moore on “The Skimmer.” While we waited to board, we were entertained by a mob of gulls and pelicans hounding a shrimper as he culled his catch; we witnessed some birds actually come down and snatch a bite from between his hands! We talked with Phil as we motored across the bay, enjoying the salty wind. When we got to the first stop – some man-made concrete and sand structures to create more habitat for birds at Aransas NWR – I was surprised and extremely pleased to hear our captain calling IDs and putting people on birds over the Skimmer’s loud speakers. I looked up and sure enough, he wasn’t just pulling up the boat and saying “Here’s some seagulls and ducks, folks!” He knew his birds, and this along with having two nice Nikon scopes on the top deck for clients to use was a very nice upgrade from many larger operations I’ve been on, and at a great price ($35 per person for 3 hours, maximum +/- 20 people). He also allows participants to set up their own scopes as well; it was tricky to get birds in the scope at times, but when we got to the tour’s namesake species and the boat was resting on the mud, it was really worth it! We saw lots of NORTHERN SHOVELERS, gorgeous AMERICAN AVOCETS in various plumages, a WILSON’S PLOVER, two HORNED LARKS, a few BLACK-NECKED STILTS, nesting GULL-BILLED TERNS and CASPIAN TERNS, REDDISH EGRETS, and several other species of waders, divers, and shorebirds. A birder from Sweden was scoping the stilts and put everyone on our second lifer of the day – a WILSON’S PHALAROPE! We moved on to the marshier part of the NWR to look for Whoopers. Though at great distance, we saw our first CRESTED CARACARA perched on a piling. A few MOTTLED DUCKS flew by overhead. We heard SEASIDE SPARROWS singing and pulled up next to one for great looks. Then Captain Tommy said very casually, “We’ve got some cranes up here. We’ll try to get in a little closer to them.” Ooh’s and Ahh’s soon followed as we were treated to a typical family unit of two adult and one juvenile WHOOPING CRANE foraging in a grassy part of the marsh. While enjoying their beauty and hearing about their history from the captain, Phil (the nice kid who followed us on “hell road” the night before) showed us our first NEOTROPIC CORMORANT, cooperatively perched on a sign right next to a DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT for comparison. We noted that the bill had very distinct barring or spots along its length, not shown as prominently in most guides. Just a few hundred yards farther down the marsh, everyone was absolutely floored as the captain eased the boat slowly up to the edge of the marsh where a group of three juvenile WHOOPING CRANES were foraging and preening. He did a good job explaining that juveniles may spend up to 2-3 years in such groups before finding another crane to form a pair bond for life. He also did a good job of keeping his distance so that the cranes did not react to us, and asked everyone to keep their volume low and keep movement to a minimum, and to move slowly if necessary. Camera shutters were snapping and beeping constantly, and the whole group was wowed as one crane stretched its wings fully, putting on a real show. The tour completed a loop, taking us around a few more reefs and hammocks, including a “grande finale” stop at a wader roost where we saw a dozen or more full breeding plumage ROSEATE SPOONBILLS, just as many BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS, and one YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON. Nearby we saw an AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER with two chicks, the first young of this species we’d ever seen. In the distance behind a group of foraging WHITE IBIS was another family group of Whoopers; we saw a total of 12 of these amazing birds for the day. As we came into port, the captain pointed out a local seafood joint right on the harbor. We had raw oysters on the half-shell and shrimp and oyster Po-boy’s on the water, very cool. Fueled up and ready for more action, we headed out to Hwy 77 south towards the Rio Grande valley.
Other than a constantly increasing number of SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER sightings, the first leg of the trip was kind of slow. We were expecting any number of cool raptors at any minute, but it just didn’t happen for us. Nonetheless, we diligently scanned every single TURKEY VULTURE or BLACK VULTURE we found – well, Rachel did, since I had to keep the car on the road. Finally, along a stretch of Hwy 77 just north of Riviera, we came across a migrating SWAINSON’S HAWK – a life bird for both of us. Birding along these highways is somewhat dangerous but we took the chance of pulling onto a side road and were rewarded with direct overhead views of this beautiful bird! We then headed west on TX 285 towards Falfurrias, a route nicknamed “Hawk Alley” in the Texas Coastal Birding Trail map description. Sure enough, after a few miles we saw a bird picking at some roadkill and it was our second Crested Caracara of the day – we couldn’t stop because a huge truck was on our tail but a few more miles of driving produced a few more Caracaras and we were able to stop to enjoy a pair on top of two power poles, who later flew off. The next bird was a very dark raptor perched on a power pole as well… we initially thought “another of so many vultures,” but was we passed we realized it was our life HARRIS’S HAWK! We stopped for a couple pictures, and saw 2-3 more of these gorgeous buteos along the next few miles of the road. We turned to head south on TX 281 in Falfurrias towards our home-away-from-home, the Alamo Inn in the town of Alamo near McAllen, TX. We kept hoping for a new hawk species, as the numbers of SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHERS passing by along the fence became so high we stopped keeping count. Finally, after scores of vultures a bird caught my eye, soaring quite a distance from the road on the east side. “I think that might not be a vulture… it has too much contrast.” We pulled over in the median and I jumped out quickly for a better look in binos. Even from this distance I saw a few definitive field marks and called, “WHITE-TAILED HAWK!!!” We turned around and headed back to the area where the bird was. We got nice views as it crossed the highway not too far from where we stopped. This was one hawk we were afraid we would miss, so with smiles on our faces we drove into McAllen and checked in to our room.
Just east of McAllen on Hwy 83 is a small town called Alamo. The town’s only bed and breakfast is called The Alamo Inn and is operated by Keith Hackland (956) 782-9912; visit the website HERE. Now, we’re not normally B & B people, we usually base out of a major hotel chain. But the place was recommended to us by fellow Georgia birders and friends Bob and Deb Zaremba, so we decided to give it a try. First of all, it is not your typical B & B. It is run by a birder, for birders. It has several well-appointed rooms, some of which (like ours – the Edinburg suite) have a sink, microwave, dishware, and a dining area. The inn is equipped with wireless internet if you have a laptop. Downstairs, there is a fully-equipped kitchen for guests to use. Unlike a typical B & B where meals are served to everyone at set times, the Alamo Inn takes into account that birders keep some crazy hours. For $3.00 per guest per meal, all guests make their own continental breakfast at any time from the large selection of fresh fruits, breads, cereals, juices, yogurts, etc. Additionally, they keep a nice selection of deli meats available so you can make a picnic lunch, put it in your cooler with some frozen water bottles and you’re good to go! Adjacent to the kitchen is a complete birder’s bookstore and gear shop. You can get anything – from checklists, field guides, and maps to hats, shorts, even optics! What’s also nice is that Keith graciously lets guests use a nice computer in the shop with high-speed internet, great for checking email or, perhaps more important, checking the most recent posts on TexBirds. Of course, Keith prints these out daily and has them on the breakfast table anyway, archived chronologically with all other posts from that month and the few months previous. In addition to all these awesome services, Keith himself is extremely knowledgeable about birding the Lower Rio Grande Valley. If you’re planning the next day’s itinerary, he’ll sit down with his guests to share birding tips, detailed directions, make hand-drawn maps, etc. I have no reason to give such a nice plug for a place other than it truly being an awesome place for birders to stay in south Texas, especially first-timers! We decided to get our first little taste of LRGV by driving just a few miles down the road to Santa Ana NWR.
As we turned off Hwy 281 into Santa Ana National Wildlife Reserve, we were immediately greeted by a group of at least 20 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers along the power lines! I believe this was most likely a migrating group due to the number of birds that had concentrated in such a small space – they were boisterous and zipping around, calling to each other. As we drove into the parking lot, we noted a lot of noise and bird action at the southern end, where there is an area of snag branches reaching up from the trees. We found a pair of HOODED ORIOLES and several COUCH’S KINGBIRDS pestering a perched raptor, which lifted up and proved to be a BROAD-WINGED HAWK. Our trip to Texas coincided with the peak of raptor migration, and literally thousands of hawks were settling in the surrounding woods for the night. We knew it was getting late and we didn’t have much time to bird, so we parked and walked straight through the visitor’s center plaza and onto the trails. The first bird we saw was a LINCOLN’S SPARROW with a few of his buddies. We continued down the trail to a central platform that serves as an orientation area with a large map, and is a trailhead for several routes through the property. Along the way, we saw a pretty BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER and heard our first GOLDEN-FRONTED WOODPECKER “quirring” in the trees, unseen. While trying to pick a route for our short evening visit, we were distracted by the raucous calling of several PLAIN CHACHALACAS nearby, but they were reluctant to come into view. I then saw a larger bird fly through the underbrush and land. When we both got on it, we saw it was another lifer for us – a LONG-BILLED THRASHER. We decided the best idea would be to take the Chachalaca Trail for a short loop since were didn’t have too much time before dark. Naturally, I didn’t pay attention and we took a long section of the Willow Lake loop instead before turning around. However, we were rewarded with our first GREAT KISKADEES. One called a few times at first (not the classic “kis-ka-dee” song) and after a second of mental processing I recognized it from practicing with the CD and excitedly said, “That’s a Kiskadee!” A few suspenseful moments later it flew into the open and perched on a dead limb for us. We were facinated by the huge cacti growing all around us. We also took note of a sparrow song in the brush and I thought it really sounded like a Field Sparrow. When we finally got one in our binos it turned out to be the common but pretty OLIVE SPARROW. As we walked along, we flushed a couple more Broad-winged Hawks from the higher branches, who were settling down for the night on their way to points north. We finally realized we were on the wrong trail when we came to a footbridge over a muddy creek bed; the darkness and a major increase in mosquito activity compelled us to turn around, but not before hearing the tell-tale chips of a waterthrush species down on the mud. I could only get it in binos for a split second in low light, but it appeared quite yellowish and I believe it was most likely a Northern Waterthrush, but the ID was not certain.
DAY 4
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
After reading some cool reports from Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park and World Birding Center on TexBirds, we decided to start our first full day in the valley here. Our first bird was a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK that came darting out of the woods over the canal behind the birding center buildings. When we got to the old gate house at the beginning of the park, we joined a group of birders who were sitting on some picnic tables watching a large feeding station on the edge of the woods. Within minutes we saw several birds including INCA DOVE, COMMON GROUND DOVE, GREAT KISKADEE, INDIGO BUNTINGS, and several life birds including LADDER-BACKED WOODPECKER, GOLDEN-FRONTED WOODPECKER, WHITE-TIPPED DOVE, GREEN JAYS, and PLAIN CHACHALACA (I had seen them on Sapelo Island but Rachel never had). Rachel then spotted a hummingbird cruising around some flowering bushes near the gate house. We got on the bird and found a gorgeous male RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, and later heard the telltale sound of two of this species vying for access to the flowers. We struck up a conversation with two of the birders, a couple from the Houston area. They were staking out the feeders for a Clay-colored Robin that was supposed to come to a peanut butter feeder every morning; it never showed. We told them about a couple specialties of the park that we really wanted to see, and they gave us some invaluable tips on locating them since they had been birding there several times. They were heading off to points west, where we would be the next day, so we exchanged cell numbers.
As we started to part ways, our first GREATER ROADRUNNER darted across the road into the brush. We found some more GREEN JAYS calling in the trees overhead. We walked along the roads and saw a neat reddish-orange squirrel, and heard a HOUSE WREN singing in the woods (they do not appear on several of the checklists for the area, but we heard them everywhere). After a while, we approached an area where we were told that a Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl is known to nest… we stayed for a while but he did not show. We moved on to an open area that used to serve as a campground, and scanned a nice resaca (oxbow lake) formed when the Rio Grande changed course several hundred years ago. We saw a large group of NEOTROPIC and DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS and a few ANHNIGA roosting in dead snags, and heard a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT chipping. We also saw several BRONZED COWBIRDS, and a pair of GREAT KISKADEES was busy building a nest squeezed between a power pole and a transformer box.
We next headed down the Kiskadee Trail, where we were pointed by the nice birders from Houston. Almost immediately, I heard a NORTHERN BEARDLESS TYRANNULET making its distinct calls down the trail. As I searched frantically for this tiny hard-to-see flycatcher, we were overwhelmed by cool birds as another pair of Kiskadees called to each other while building another nest and an apparent Altamira Oriole perched high in a tree overhead and began to sing. Finally, just before it stopped calling and flew into the woods, Rachel and I were both able to see the Tyrannulet – an elusive bird that we were very happy to get a look at, though I suppose visually it’s not that exciting. The oriole stayed for quite some time, a gorgeous bird that just wasn’t “right” in the face for Altamira – just too much black – but it certainly was not a Hooded, either; we later learned that it is nicknamed a “Smudgy” Altamira and is the descendant of the pairing of a male Audubon’s Oriole with an Altamira several years ago at the park. We moved on into the Kiskadee Blind nearby. We found some neat neotropical migrants enjoying a snack or a bath like BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, BLUE-HEADED VIREO, and INDIGO BUNTINGS; local birds included more Green Jays and our first BLACK-CRESTED TITMICE. Our walk from here to the Hawk Tower was relatively uneventful and hot, but we saw some really cool butterflies.
We knew that daily Hawk Watches were being conducted at Bentsen-Rio Grande to track numbers of migrating hawks. It was peak Broad-winged Hawk passage, and over 50,000 individuals had been reported the day before, along with a rarely seen Hook-billed Kite and a Zone-tailed Hawk (we missed both of these species on the trip but did not expect them anyway). We joined several local birders who were conducting the count along with other “tourist birders” like ourselves. It turned out we showed up at a good time – after a slow morning according to the watchers, we got to see several huge kettles moving through totaling 200-300 BROAD-WINGED HAWKS, many TURKEY VULTURES, and 6-7 SWAINSON’S HAWKS. A pair of Gray Hawks was nesting within view of the tower, but they did not appear while we were there. We decided to take the Rio Grande loop trail to get our first view of the river and perhaps some neat kingfishers. This road was quickly nicknamed “Death Road” because we had decided to do this right at the hottest point of the hottest, driest day of our trip! The habitat was really neat, though – interpretation of the behavior we saw).
After getting back on the tram tscrubby mesquite trees, big cacti (many in full bloom), and other arid habitat plants abounded. We heard our first CACTUS WRENS singing, but could not get a look at them. We ran into a couple from California coming the opposite way who had been on the tower, and we realized we missed the turn for the river. We finally made it out there and were quite disappointed with a tiny observation platform and only about 20 feet of open view on the river! We did not see any birds down there, but got our life view of Mexico so that was kind of cool, I guess.
We made another stop at the tower on the way to catch the tram back to the Visitor’s Center, and were very happy to find both GRAY HAWKS were out and about near their nest. No hawk watchers remained with a scope, but even in binoculars we had some nice views of these beautiful birds – one of which called to the other from near the nest (a naturalist told us later that the female calls like a baby to the male to bring her food – we agreed with this o head towards the Visitor’s Center, we came to a stop where some birders getting on mentioned that they had seen both Ringed and Green Kingfishers down at the resaca. The couple from California got off here to head down that way. We had already been there and had not seen the kingfishers, so as the tram was pulling away we jumped off for one more shot at them at Bentsen. And besides, the walk from this stop to the resaca brought us by the Pygmy Owl site one more time, too. We were walking ahead of the California couple when a Kiskadee called from a nearby tree. When Rachel put her binos up towards the movement to look at him, she said as fast as she could without yelling, “There he is, there he is, there he is!!!” I knew she meant the owl. She pointed me to a little lump on a branch, and sure enough – staring back at us was the amazingly small, diurnal FERRUGINOUS PYGMY-OWL! We immediately waved the other birders over to see him. He became quite active, really putting on a show as he did something none of us expected – he went to an area of dense branches in the tree and got out a rodent he had stashed earlier and had a snack right in front of us! He put the rodent back in some unseen spot and moved to a closer perch, hanging out for several minutes and affording us great looks. The owl also called 2-3 times while we watched it, reminding both of us of the Northern Saw-whet Owl that we’ve heard in Georgia on rare occasions in winter. Our second try down at the resaca produced our first RINGED KINGFISHER, a pretty female that flew the length of the pond – though Rachel did not get the best look at it since she was photographing the Kiskadee nest. I was struck by the strong impression of “checkering” of black and white in the wings as it flew. We caught the tram and rode around the park one more time until we came to the visitor’s center where we picked up some checklists and headed for the car.
Very happy to have heard and seen a couple birds that can be difficult to find, we left the park and made a quick visit to the NABA Butterfly Gardens around the corner from the park. We are neophytes at best in identifying these winged wonders, but this is certainly the place for them! This new facility is under development, with great plans for the future. The areas that are already planted are full of gorgeous flowering plants – and butterflies! We attempted a few photos, though the macro setting on our camera is spotty at best. We heard a BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER wheezing overhead, and then Rachel spotted some small birds coming to a little fountain for a drink and asked from about 30 yards away, “Are these Goldfinches?” I almost ran down there, and sure enough, a group of 2-3 LESSER GOLDFINCHES were hiding in some of the butterfly bushes – another new bird for us! We enjoyed the gardens and the butterflies for a while, then grabbed a quick lunch in McAllen before heading to Santa Ana NWR to finish the day.
We spent some more time enjoying some of the feeder birds like LINCOLN’S and OLIVE SPARROWS, and got some great looks at a male and female HOODED ORIOLE. We actually took the right trail this time, but the Chachalaca Trail was kind of quiet. A GREAT KISKADEE did come right out to have a close look at us,which was awesome. We did see some BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS at a pond, and heard the first of many WHITE-EYED VIREOS singing. We then walked the Willow Lake trail for a while, and heard a SORA calling from the marsh. When we got back to the center, we decided to sit and watch the hummingbird feeder for a while. GREEN JAYS and GREAT-TAILED GRACKLES visited the feeders along with the Hooded Oriole pair. After just a few minutes, the tell-tale chips of a hummer buzzed into the surrounding bushes and before long we enjoyed amazing close-up views of our first BUFF-BELLIED HUMMINGBIRD! It was soon chased from the feeder by a second bird, and we got to see them duel it out and take turns drinking from the feeder over the next 15-20 minutes. The light was very low and made photos difficult. That’s OK, it’s what you appreciate with your own eyes that matters :)
We knew we needed to solve a major photography problem – the laptop would not allow us to install a driver to read our older camera’s memory cards (and it’s the only one we have with any zoom capacity). Our cards were filled, and we planned to take a LOT more photos! We called Keith at the Alamo Inn and he said it was no problem to install the program on the guest computer, download the photos, and save them to a flash drive. We went and bought a cheap memory stick, got the photos on it, then onto the laptop, and everything worked out great! Keith also gave me some great information on recent changes in access to some sites, and drew a detailed map for us to use. I made some awesome picnic lunches for the next day using the inn’s nice selection. I called Joel Ruiz, the curator of the San Ygnacio Bird Sanctuary, which is a few hours drive west of McAllen. Sure enough, he had seen and heard the White-collared Seedeater that morning and said he would meet us at 8:15am the next day.
DAY 5
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
We headed west on Hwy 83, which was under construction (like ALL highways in Texas while we were there, it seemed - should make future visits much smoother, though). Our plan was to head all the way out to San Ygnacio first to try for the Seedeater, then bird our way back east along the Rio Grande, hitting the major hotspots along the way.
On the way west on Hwy 83, we enjoyed the early sunlight breaking through a mostly cloudy sky. We got nice views to the south across the scrubby cactus-dotted brushlands far into Mexico, where a purple mountain chain broke the monotony of the horizon. We noted that the town of Zapata has a new Holiday Inn Express being built along with plenty of restaurants, gas stations, etc.; considering the 2+ hours it takes to get out here for some really awesome birding, we may base out of the hotel for one night next time.
We arrived at San Ygnacio at about 8:30am. It was quite obvious that a major storm had struck the area the evening before – evidence of major water run-off was all over the street and many of the local mesquite trees had large branches broken off and lying around. I had forgotten to call Joel Ruiz that morning as I had planned, but we went ahead and walked down the road to a muddy easement for a large water intake pipe in the Rio Grande that supplies the village. We immediately met Joel, who emerged from the thick Carrizo cane to greet us. He is a very nice older gentleman with a charming Hispanic accent who takes care of the sanctuary, and who really knows his birds. As he was describing where the bird is usually seen, I heard the song faintly from downstream. The bird sang again and Joel said, “There he is, I hear him now.” We headed down a muddy trail, made worse by the heavy rains. However, just as we thought we might catch a glimpse of the bird’s perch, a huge blow-down blocked the trail. We retraced our path and headed down a parallel path that forms a loop along the river. More cane and other brush blocked the way, but it wasn’t too bad. A “tunnel” of cane hanging over the path was both cool and creepy at the same time… as I hunkered down and walked through bent over, a huge spider web caught me straight in the face. I freaked out and ran out the other end, swatting insanely at my face, knocking my glasses into the mud, and spitting (why do people spit when they walk into spider webs?). Joel didn’t say anything, but I could tell he was amused by my theatrical over-reaction, as was Rachel who could not help but laugh. I hate walking into spider webs! We came around the end of the loop and were able to walk on the river for a while before reaching the blow-down again… but the bird wasn’t singing anymore. At one point a COOPER’S HAWK came bursting out of the cane right next to us in hot pursuit of a small brown blur of a bird, really giving us a start! Joel headed back to search closer to the sanctuary’s observation tower. Soon, we heard his voice calling down the river, “He’s here! I hear him again!” We ran down the trail, through the cane tunnel, and into the pipe easement. We were rewarded with a nice view of a singing male WHITE-COLLARED SEEDEATER in the tops of some dead willow trees. While hanging out on the observation platform, enjoying brief views and the song of the Seedeater as it moved up and down the river singing, we also saw two SAVANNAH SPARROWS, a gorgeous male ALTAMIRA ORIOLE, BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS, COUCH’S KINGBIRDS, CAVE and BARN SWALLOWS on the river, LINCOLN’S SPARROWS, and heard some PLAIN CHACHALACAS calling over in Mexico. Very happy to have seen this species which sparsely occurs in the US, we gave the customary $5.00 per person donation to Joel for visiting the sanctuary and said goodbye to our gracious host.
We stopped at one of San Ygnacio’s two gas stations (the eastern-most one is best, but not great) and headed east for Chapeno. We had received a thoughtful call from the Houston birders that Brown Jays had been seen at the feeders there in the morning – the first report of this species in quite some time – and they were heading over there right away. Chapeno used to be El Rio RV park and was managed by a nice lady named Martha. However, ownership/control recently changed, along with the birding situation. Here is an update on access from Keith Hackland, from April 9, 2007:
“I spoke to Martha who used to run the El Rio RV Park and then managed the park after it sold for the new owners, the Trevinos. She tells me that the Trevinos terminated her manager position with them and closed the park due to Martha's allowing a boat owner who had trouble at the public ramp to use the Trevino boat ramp. I was happy to hear that there was no problem with birders. At this time Martha's uncle Larry still owns the original concrete block house where visitors first enter the park, plus he has a slice of land down to the river. They are continuing to feed the birds on their land and birders are still welcome on their land, but are not allowed on the Trevino land. Martha says there is an alternate path down to the river behind their house which is available for use by birders. Martha says they plan to make some improvements to their land to make river access easier for birders. Public access to the river at Chapeno remains open. Simply drive past the former RV Park and take the 4th dirt road right (after the bend in the paved road). This runs steeply down to the river where there is ample parking. The entry point at the water is soft and muddy, but offers good views up and down and across to a close island that obscures most of the view of Mexico. The road is currently in good condition, but be careful after heavy rain when it washes into deep ruts and low clearance cars should be parked at the top after heavy rain. Directions to Chapeno remain the same, but there is no longer a RV Park sign - in Falcon Heights look for a green road sign before the Catholic Church identifying Chapeno Road and also the brown Great Texas Birding Trail sign number 081. Turn left after the Church on a paved road. After the road makes a left turn take the second dirt road right for Larry and Martha and stop in front of the concrete block house. Watch for dogs. Sound horn if no one appears. Take the fourth dirt road right for public access.”
We paid Martha the customary $3.00 each to enjoy the area, watching her feeding station and the view from a large deck built above her pool. After a while, we grew antsy with the fading prospect of the jays showing up and headed down to the river. It is a nice grassy area with many feeders. We saw BRONZED COWBIRDS, a SPOTTED SANDPIPER on the river, an ALTIMIRA ORIOLE, several NEOPTROPIC CORMORANTS, and a few INCA DOVES. A busy PURPLE MARTIN house was also cool to watch. We saw a large group of AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS flying in the distance over Mexico and a strange, large black bird with a flight profile (especially the neck and head) that we had never seen before and could not ID. Colette said she would be happy to show us around a small park nearby so we headed to Falcon County Park.
As we parked, a beautiful male NORTHERN HARRIER cruised over the fields. We headed into the spiny bushes and cacti and very soon heard a fast cardinal-like chipping that I recognized from the CD. “Is that a Pyrruloxia?,” I asked. Just at that moment, the bird flushed and landed in a scrubby mesquite tree for Rachel to get a nice look at our first PYRRULOXIA. It flew away and was joined by another bird. In flight, I noticed how much brighter red the highlights were than the book, and how the bill was very pink and contrasting. I stumbled onto an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER as well. We were intent on seeing a Cactus Wren and Colette was very surprised not to find one here. However, later we were quite pleased when in an open area with small mesquite trees we found a striking male VERMILION FLYCATCHER, a SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER, and several singing LARK SPARROWS. A flock of CEDAR WAXWINGS flew overhead as we left.
We followed Colette and her husband to Falcon State Park down the road where they were camping. On the way, we passed two coyotes on the side of the road. We headed down to the picnic area to enjoy our sandwiches and a little break. We enjoyed watching a few SWAINSON’S HAWKS heading north over the lake in front of us, and a couple of OSPREY patrolled the shore. We got in the car, rolled down the windows, and started to cruise the loop in the cottage area. Almost immediately we saw a medium-sized bird way up on a dead snag. It was a CACTUS WREN! We both got to watch it for several minutes as it sang. As soon as I got out the camera and snapped one shot with its head turned away, it flew down into the brush – par for the course. We parked the car when we heard a lot of bird action further down the road. Two or three PYRRULOXIA chased each other around and sang in the scrub. I heard some interesting chipping and soon had my binos on two beautiful BLACK-THROATED SPARROWS scratching around in some gravel. Rachel was preoccupied with the Pyrruloxia, and a general air of “sensory overload” ensued (you gotta love it when the birding is like that!) Over the next 30 minutes, we birded around on our own… me following the sparrows for a while, Rachel following a GREATER ROADRUNNER that darted in front of her and finding another CACTUS WREN. Then both of us finally took note of a vigorous song in the background and located our first CURVE-BILLED THRASHER singing at the top of a mesquite. We were also very impressed with the gorgeous blooming cacti and the many butterflies attracted to it. We met Fran, who leads nature walks at the park, and enjoyed some bird chat with her while we watched a pair of Curve-billed Thrashers building a nest in a nearby yucca plant. We also came across the strange sight of a Greater Roadrunner perched way up in a tree calling, and noted that it hunched over and heaved its body like a cat throwing up as it did so! OK, that’s kind of weird, but we laughed so hard at this association because our cats love to eat grass and throw up and it just looked, well… exactly like it was doing this! Fran had pointed us to another nice trail behind the Recreation Hall and we looked hard for breeding Verdin in this area to no avail, but we did see two NORTHERN BOBWHITES, a WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, and a LARK SPARROW at a feeder blind and found more Orange-crowned Warblers, a singing Lark Sparrow, and up to five Black-throated Sparrows in the brushy habitat along the trail.
We ended our day in the western lower valley at a slightly disappointing site called Salineno. In town we passed a house with a rainbow of gorgeous Bougainvillea blooming all around it, including both a yellow and peach color we had never seen before. All winter, a couple from Michigan (the DeWinds) stays here on the river in an RV and feeds birds, attracting Brown Jays, several oriole species, and more. However, they had left to go back north the previous week. We did get to see a cute pair of BLACK-CRESTED TITMICE busily delivering food to a nest inside a tree cavity. It is important to note a couple things about Salineno: a) It is a busy illegal crossing point from Mexico, complete with boat ramps. If you see any activity do not engage anyone and you shouldn’t have any trouble, but we didn’t see anything going on… if Border Patrol is in the area you may be asked to leave; b) it is best to be on the river here (or at Chapeno) right at dawn if you expect a good chance to see Red-billed Pigeon roosting on an island just upstream or Muscovy Ducks flying up and down the river. Overall, Chapeno is a much nicer place to bird along the Rio Grande in this area, as the slice of land still owned by the former RV park manager has manicured grass, bird feeders, and a more open view of the river. You can see the other end of the mid-stream island that is also visible at Salineno, and sometimes Red-billed Pigeon is seen there. Another option is to kayak the river in this area, giving you more time and covering more area to hopefully see more birds.
We made a final quick stop at an overlook called Roma Bluffs in the town of Roma; it is a site that is part of the World Birding Center but is not much more than a visitor's center and a small observation platform down the road that is high over the Rio Grande River and overlooks Mexico. Still, the trees at the tip of an island to the right as you look out can have roosting Red-billed Pigeon, but not for us today. CAVE SWALLOWS cruised along the river in acrobatic flights. Reminders of illegal border crossings are everywhere, as evidence by several high-power spotlights on the bluffs.
DAY 6
Thursday, April 5, 2007
We got on the construction-infested Hwy 83 and headed east, our first destination being Sabal Palms Audubon Center. We were very excited to bird here, as several rarities and some key birds we had missed so far had been seen there in the past week and in general at this time of year (Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, Tropical Parula, Least Grebe, Green Kingfisher, etc.).
Along the road approaching the center we saw a LARK SPARROW on the power lines; they are downright prolific here in spring – but no less beautiful. We parked and coated ourselves in bug and sun spray, paid the fee ($5 per person) and hit the trail to the wetlands boardwalk where the Gray-crowned Yellowthroat was rumored to be singing in the morning. We heard the rambunctious calling of a family of GREAT KISKADEES that were waking up in the trees around the resaca. Then I heard a yellowthroat singing and got excited. We even recorded it using the video option on the camera. Alas, it wasn’t until much later when the center opened that I learned how different the Gray-crowned song is. We spotted movement on the muddy bank and found a LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH foraging. We continued along the boardwalk, spotting several COMMON YELLOWTHROATS, some COUCH’S KINGBIRDS, a male SUMMER TANAGER, and a couple GREEN JAYS. When the boardwalk ended, we came to an area of dense brush on the left side of the trail and a nearly-dry, weedy area of the resaca on our right. Rachel saw a large brownish bird disappear into the vines that she thought may have been a Clay-colored Robin but it did not reappear. An OLIVE SPARROW then popped right up in the same area, no more than three feet from us, providing great naked eye looks at this pretty bird. I spotted movement in the scrub to the left and got a brief look at a NASHVILLE WARBLER – the first of many neotropical migrants we were happy to find this day. Moments later, we took note of the birding couple from California we had met at Bentsen just up the trail from us. They excitedly beckoned us over. We quietly zipped in their direction, then our jaws dropped as we came upon two GROOVE-BILLED ANIS, one of which was no more than a yard off the trail, relaxing and warming itself in the morning sun. We stayed and enjoyed these birds for at least 10 minutes. When we continued past them, we were talking on the trail and suddenly one of the birds literally flew right at me – his real target was a low shrub on the trail behind me but he didn’t intend to fly around me so I ducked and he shot into the bush. Then the bird began calling! Rachel was able to get a quick video of the calls, and the bird emerging from the bush and flying into a nearby palm grove. During all the excitement, a nice flock of neotrops had moved into the same area. Since we were on an elevated berm, it was easy to look into the tops of some nearby trees and spot some neat birds; several of them were new to our friends from California. Birds included two TENNESSEE WARBLERS, a RED-EYED VIREO, some INDIGO BUNTINGS, a male SUMMER TANAGER, and the crown jewel, a vibrant male BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER. We pointed out the song of the WHITE-EYED VIREO to the other birders, and just then the familiar “wrreeeep!” calls of a GREAT-CRESTED FLYCATCHER rang out several times; we didn’t manage to see the bird, however. We left our friends who stayed to enjoy the flock some more and continued to make a loop back towards the resaca. We took a cut-through and soon saw a LONG-BILLED THRASHER dart into the woods. A moment later, a chirpy warbler song rang out from the tangles along the trail. The bird continued to sing every 30 seconds or so, and for the next five minutes it was one of those classic “that bird is right in front of us, how can we not see it?!” situations. Finally, I caught a glimpse of movement and the bird appeared just long enough to turn out to be a crisp male WILSON’S WARBLER flitting in the vines. We hung around long enough for both of us to get some better looks, and were soon back at the beginning of the boardwalk. We got to see a Great Kiskadee nab a frog off the surface of the water and eat it in a mesquite tree right in front of Rachel! A SOLITARY SANDPIPER came in for a landing and bobbed its way along the muddy edge of the pond. This place was turning out to be awesome!
We visited the center briefly to read recent reports, and the naturalist played the Gray-crowned Yellowthroat song for us and gave us more details on where it had been sporadically heard. We strayed for a moment to watch the feeders, where GREEN JAYS, PLAIN CHACHALACAS, WHITE-TIPPED DOVES, and other birds were hanging out. We then headed directly to the photo blind. We accidentally took the long way around, and had lots of fun doing the “I just walked into a giant spider web” dance since we were the first folks of the morning to walk this way. At the blind, there was lots of eye candy. A few NEOTROPIC CORMORANTS were sunning right outside the blind, along with AMERICAN COOTS, COMMON MOORHENS, and a PIED-BILLED GREBE. Across the resaca, we spotted some BLUE-WINGED TEAL, and then two tiny little birds motored out into open water and turned out to be a pair of LEAST GREBES! We got to see them being frisky and making a long, chattering call as they chased each other through the water. They also brought some green “slime” algae to their on-going nest in the middle of the pond among some reeds. One of them even came out of the water for a brief moment and walked around on the nest… so awkward, yet so cute! Just when we thought these would be the best looks we would have, both Least Grebes came directly over and spent at least 20 minutes diving amid the algae right outside the photo blind. Loud Kiskadees kept up a constant din in the background, and a RINGED KINGFISHER flew across the pond as we enjoyed the grebes, just a great place to bird!
From Sabal Palm we headed east to Hwy 4, Boca Chica Rd, so-called because it goes all the way out to Boca Chica beach on the Gulf of Mexico. The habitat here is very interesting – dry, arid, scrubby brush lands with lots of dwarf mesquite trees, yucca, and beautiful blooming cactus. We came alongside an area that was flooded north of the road, but very far from us. We parked on the shoulder and I scoped the area, finding good numbers of BLACK-NECKED STILT, some BLUE-WINGED TEAL, and a few NORTHERN SHOVELERS. There was a pair of GULL-BILLED TERNS nesting. EASTERN MEADOWLARKS were singing all around. Rachel stayed in the car, and soon took note of a bird singing on her side of the road. She knew it was wren-like, so she checked the CD and sure enough, it turned out to be a BEWICK’S WREN that we were able to get in the scope – the first of a few for the day. Though we had not used it much, we broke out the Birding Texas Falcon Guide and read that the area was also good for Verdin, which we missed the day before. We got to a large Rio Grande WMA sign and took a gravel road south into a brushy area with small mesquite trees that reminded us of the habitat in which Verdin were supposedly breeding at Falcon State Park. A NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW was perched on a nearby wire. Vivid pastel colors painted the cactus blooms all around. Though we generally try to avoid “taping,” we really wanted to catch just a glimpse of the gray, color-spattered Verdin so we lowered all the windows and played its song one time. We got out of the car and within a minute we heard the high-pitched three syllable song from the west side of the road. We heard it a couple more times, but due to the road bed being lower than the surrounding scrub we could not see it. Finally, it sang at a pitch that told us it must be out in the open, so I scrambled up the opposite side road embankment and there was a tiny VERDIN on top of some small dead branches about 50 yards away. Naturally, as soon as I got it in the binos and called Rachel over, the bird dove into the brush and did not reappear. We continued east towards the beach, and turned down the next gravel road on the right. We were surprised to find a male and female ORCHARD ORIOLE here. We heard another Verdin singing here, along with a Bewick’s Wren and a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. Continuing east on Hwy 4, we found a pair of CRESTED CARACARAS right next to the road. One of them was chewing on what appeared to be an egret’s leg – yummy! We saw two HARRIS’S HAWKS on power poles, and a migrating SWAINSON’S HAWK passed by overhead. A few more miles east and we came into large, sandy tidal flats. We stopped here and scoped a little bit, finding two PIPING PLOVERS, a few SEMIPALMATED PLOVERS, 2-3 HORNED LARKS, and an OSPREY soaring overhead. A LONG-BILLED CURLEW flew over high above, calling. We got out on the beach with Rachel’s car, which was really cool. Not much for shorebirds… a few DUNLIN, SANDERLING, WILLET. Both CASPIAN and ROYAL TERNS cruised the high, crashing surf. We enjoyed the salty air for a while and the sound of the pounding surf, really feeling like we’re on vacation since we’re at the beach… then headed back west, intending to visit Mexico later on and get to Bentsen in time for a night walk at 8:00pm.
Just west of Brownsville we turned down a farm road (FM 1421) that reportedly had a flooded grain field for migrating shorebirds. We never did find the field (turns out the directions on TexBirds were wrong) but instead found a nice pond that was very low, creating some good mud flats. We parked on a dirt side road and were pleased to find a group of 18 beautiful FULVOUS WHISTLING DUCKS standing in the shallow water, taking a nap. These life birds quickly became a favorite for both of us… with warm, cinnamon-brown tones, the marbled black and rufous pattern highlighted with those white bars, just beautiful! Also present were good numbers of Black-necked Stilt, some Pectoral Sandpipers, a few Least Sandpipers, and one AMERICAN AVOCET.
Several miles west on Hwy 261, and we arrived at the international crossing into the small town of Nuevo Progresso, Mexico. We parked on the American side and walked the bridge over the Rio Grande River and officially became international travelers! No one checks anything on the way over, but on the way back you must have a US driver’s license and/or your passport to re-enter the United States. We wandered the main street into Nuevo Progresso, noting immediately that this is NOT your glamorous tourist-oriented city like Cozumel or Cancun. I mean, it was just dirty… no traffic signals, streets crumbling, trash everywhere, poverty visible in many ways (not the least of which is mothers and their children begging on the sidewalk), etc. One interesting aspect is that every other shop is a pharmacy, offering drugs over-the-counter that require a prescription in the US; I’m not sure what kind of quality control or regulations there are in this domain, however. There was the bright side, too – colorful storefronts, street vendors selling hot and cold snacks, the sounds of Hispanic music pumping from stores and from vehicles as they passed by. I even got to test drive my pitiful Spanish-speaking abilities. We bought a few token souvenirs and some cool soccer jerseys for my dad and little brother and headed over the bridge “back to the states” since it was getting pretty late in the afternoon. I was hoping so much we’d spot a Green Kingfisher on the river, but all we saw were about 30 people yelling for us to throw money to them down on the riverbank.
We had to really book it to make it to Bentsen in time for the night walk. We were the last people with reservations to show up. The group was large, too many to fit in the park van, so we agreed to take our vehicle into the park and follow along (which we actually preferred anyway). On the way to the gate, we passed good ‘ole Michigan Phil and the two Swedish birders from the Skimmer trip on Monday. The Swedes were so good with their birds, especially considering how far from familiar territory they were! A COMMON NIGHTHAWK was cruising around overhead as we entered the park. We made our first stop at a crossroads, and when we got out we immediately heard the unique calls of several COMMON PAURAQUE both near and far, but did not see any. We made out the call of the FERRUGINOUS PYGMY-OWL coming from the nest area down the road. Our next stop was at the resaca, closer to the owl. Sure enough, everyone enjoyed several series of high-pitched calls from these little dynamos. We also heard at least two EASTERN SCREECH OWLS calling nearby. We walked the Kiskadee trail for a ways, and the rest of the group went into the blind to see if any javelina (wild pigs) were taking a mud bath. Just then, I distinctly heard an ELF OWL calling in the distance, sounding a lot like the CD. I said something about it, but no one really reacted – I wasn’t sure what this meant because I knew some folks were not just here for the birding. We continued to the old trailer loop where our guide shined the flashlight along the road looking for eye-shine. He was not the regular night walk/birding guide (who was on vacation this week) and seemed ready to give up pretty quick. I walked 20-30 yards down the road and soon found two glowing orbs reflecting my headlamp’s light close to the ground. I alerted the guide and the group, who came down to investigate. The guide was able to illuminate and get very close to what turned out to be a COMMON PAURAQUE before it flushed and headed into the woods. As we stood there listening to him explain their behavior a little, the ELF OWL called a couple more times. This time, I alerted Rachel and a couple birders standing nearby. The slight breeze made it harder to hear, but sure enough, there it was calling deeper in the woods. As everyone headed back to the vehicles, I stayed behind to listen to the owl. Finally, I started back and as I approached the darting flashlight beams30 yards up the trail, the bird seemed to be closer than before and easier to hear. When I got to the group, they were listening to an Eastern Screech Owl right next to the trail. When the guide finished his sentence I said, “I’m not sure if he was just pointing it out to you, but there’s an Elf Owl calling right over there.” A couple people said, “Oh yes, yes. Sure. We hear it.” I felt embarrassed for trying to point out the obvious, having come in at the tail end of his talk, and said, “OK, sorry. Please keep doing your job!” However, it turns out that those folks didn’t know their owls and thought I meant the Screech that was right there. Some birders told me later that they had wanted to go hear the Elf Owl but didn’t say anything so as not to hurt any feelings; turns out the guide was not familiar with the Elf Owl’s call.
A huge javelina crossed the road in front of our car, since we were leading the convoy. We then headed to the hawk tower, which had produced some interesting night birds on some recent TexBirds reports. The guide began to tell people about the Hawk Watches and migrating raptors, while Common Pauraques called in the background. At that moment, another ELF OWL began calling crisp and clear from only 50 yards away! Most of the group had already turned in that direction as he finished his point, and this time I said, “For any interested birders in the group, that is an ELF OWL calling over there. It’s the smallest owl in North America.” The guide also thought this was pretty cool, and the bird kept calling though no one could locate the tiny thing with their flashlights. Rachel and I stayed behind as the group headed down the ramp to the vehicles. I started whistling, and the bird moved even closer, at one point it was calling from just beneath us… only 30 feet away, yet invisible to our headlamps! We had to run to catch the group, which was already in the vehicles and ready to go – oops. It turned out to be a great night-time experience at Bentsen, with some really cool birds – especially the Elf Owl; though we would have loved to see one, it was a species we were afraid we’d miss altogether. We thanked our guide and headed back to the Alamo Inn for our last night in the LRGV.
DAY 7
Friday, April 6, 2007
I checked TexBirds to verify that a rare Masked Duck had been seen recently at a pond several hours north, but nonetheless along our route to Houston for the night. We reluctantly got all our stuff together, did a spot cleaning of our road-tripped-out car, packed up all our stuff and headed east on Hwy 83. We were excited, though, to get to see one more awesome birding spot – the newer World Birding Center at Estero Llano in the town of Weslaco. We pulled up to the sound of INCA DOVES calling in the parking lot, always cool. We noticed a large citrus grove adjacent to the property. The buzzy, clicking sounds of a Buff-bellied Hummingbird rang out from a nearby flowering bush as we put on plenty of bug and sun spray. We followed the signs and headed towards the visitor center.
As we came down the approach path, the air was filled with awesome, loud, and obnoxious PLAIN CHACHALACA calls! We soon found that the bordering mesquite trees were full of them, along with Inca Doves and OLIVE SPARROWS. The Visitor’s Center is great; the first view you have as you walk across the open deck and picnic tables is Ibis Pond, where many shorebirds, waders, and waterfowl were hanging out. Species included LONG and SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER, WHITE-FACED IBIS, STILT SANDPIPER, BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCK, and more. The sounds of the Chachalacas in the background really complimented this introduction to the area. We walked down the corridor where the restrooms are and onto a concrete observation patio with many hummingbird and platform feeders. We were thrilled to see 2-3 BUFF-BELLIED HUMMINGBIRDS, at least 2 RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRDS, and a possible female Black-chinned Hummingbird buzzing around, vying for access to the feeders. I went in to pay our fee ($5.00 each) and get some checklists, and we started walking around the pond on a combination of new boardwalks and trails. In addition to more of the birds mentioned above, we found a GREEN-WINGED TEAL, a lone FULVOUS WHISTLING DUCK, several BLACK-NECKED STILTS, and some COMMON GROUND DOVES flushed from the dirt along the shore. As if out of nowhere, a pair of ROSEATE SPOONBILLS suddenly mingled into a large group of foraging Stilt Sandpipers and dowitchers – very cool. After hearing from the leader of a bird tour that an adjacent pond (Dowitcher Pond) was completely dry, we walked back to the parking lot, where you can walk a separate access road to see two more ponds that are separated from the main property by a deep drainage ditch. We stopped by another awesome cactus and took note of the citrus orchard next to us surrounded by a ten-foot barbed wire fence. We helped an old couple to identify an immature LITTLE BLUE HERON and another WHITE-FACED IBIS, while a SPOTTED SANDPIPER bobbed along the shoreline of Grebe Marsh. The next pond, Alligator Lake, was much larger and had a nice roost of NEOTROPIC and DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS and several waders including SNOWY and GREAT EGRETS. The rattle of a kingfisher rang out, and though it was exciting we both immediately recognized it as a familiar BELTED KINGFISHER. Green Fisher proved to elude us on this trip, but it’s just another cool bird to look for next time. We jogged back to the car for part of the way to make better time, complained about how out of shape we are, and headed east.
We made another quick stop on FM 1421 since it was right off the highway. The wind was really kicking! Right off the highway, we found another nice pond on this road that had another Belted Kingfisher waaaay out that kept our attention for a while. More Black Stilts, one GULL-BILLED and one FORSTER’S TERN were also around. The next pond produced yet another Belted Kingfisher and a HARRIS’S HAWK holding on tight to its perch while its feathers ruffled in the wind. The Fulvous Whistling Ducks from the day before were not present this time, but in a corn field on the west side of the road we found a group of 6-8 UPLAND SANDPIPERS, so that made the stop worth it.
We turned around and headed east on Hwy 100, which goes out to South Padre Island from Brownsville. We had the idea of eventually making it out to Laguna Atascosa NWR, but this stop would have to wait for another south Texas trip. Our main target species on Hwy 100 were CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN and APLOMADO FALCON. As the habitat started to look “good” for these species (according to help from Keith) we turned left onto a dirt road right across the highway from a small mechanical/electrical shed. Our GPS called this road Buena Vista, and it turns out that this road is very well-known among local birders. Immediately, we had two CHIHUAHAN RAVENS along the barbed-wire fence on the road. We parked and enjoyed them in binos, soon realizing there were a few more in the vicinity. Then we noted a few sharp alarm cries, and to our amazement found an APLOMADO FALCON dive-bombing a couple Ravens on a power pole! After this display, the falcon dove down and perched on some dead branches in the middle of the yucca and cactus-dominated scrubland. We got to see the bird in our scope, and then became aware of a nest in the crux of the nearest power pole! Sure enough, a scope view revealed a female Aplomado Falcon on this nest – incredible. Around this time, I had become aware of and semi-obsessed with a sparrow song coming from the surrounding fields. Though I scanned and scanned with my binos, I could not find the bird. I got out the scope and tried panning across the whole field to no avail. Rachel started listening to various LRGV sparrows in the car, and called me over. Without letting me hear the species name, she played one and I said, “That’s it. That’s the bird singing out there.” She asked if I was sure, and played 2-3 more sparrow songs without playing the name of the species. We eliminated each, one by one... we already knew it wasn’t Olive, it wasn’t a Botteri’s… Finally, I had to know – “WHAT is the bird from the first song? Play it again!” She did, and finally let the voice on the CD say “CASSIN’S SPARROW.” Another lifer, and it was 100% certain the song we were listening to was the same as the bird in the field. We kept trying in vain to find the bird in the low scrubby vegetation, though its song rang out so clearly that it had to be in the open somewhere within 100 yards of us. Rachel finally saw some movement, and a bird dove down into a large group of cacti; the closest singing stopped at that point.
We eased down the road, being very careful because though it was dry today, we were often straddling 2-foot deep ruts created by large trucks in wetter, muddier conditions. Personally, I don’t think this road is a good idea in a passenger vehicle at any time. To the west, a NORTHERN HARRIER flushed a group of about a dozen WHIMBREL up over the fields. We watched them fly across the road in the distance and come down in a marshy area on the east side. As we came into this area, we noticed that the fields were flooded on both sides of the road and were full of shorebirds! Along with the Whimbrel, there were nearly 100 mixed YELLOWLEGS, a few PECTORAL SANDPIPERS, and a SHORT-BILLED DOWITCHER. Savannah Sparrows darted back and forth along the road in front of us. After enjoying this area, we got to a point in the road that brought back some unpleasant memories of the farm road debacle on Monday, so we turned around. We made a quick stop at the Cassin’s Sparrow area just in case. We heard the closest bird singing loud and clear. This time, we grabbed the scope and put it directly on the cactus clump where Rachel had seen movement earlier. Sure enough, we were rewarded with nice (albeit very distant views) of a singing CASSIN’S SPARROW. We headed back west on Hwy 100 and made our way north on Hwy 77, putting South Texas behind us after an awesome week of birding and other adventures.
A few more miles north we turned off the highway and went east, following the directions from TexBirds out to a little 2-acre pond in the middle of farm country. It was surrounded by mesquite trees blowing in the wind, and was virtually filled up with dead and dying scrubby vegetation and large floating grass mats. We joined two other birders already staking out a female Masked Duck that was originally found and reported by – of all people – the Swedish birders from the Aransas NWR boat trip. This pond is called “Pipit Corner” by local birders because it is known to host Sprague’s Pipits in winter. Trying to find a duck on such a small pond would normally be a cinch, but when you’re trying to look through masses of bushes, twigs, and weeds it is actually daunting. Though hard to get good looks at them, we found a group of AMERICAN COOTS and a PIED-BILLED GREBE at the other end of the pond. I got really excited when I caught a glimpse of something different back there. It turned out to be a female RING-NECKED DUCK. We continued to patiently stake out the pond, and enjoyed a boisterous pair of SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHERS and a COUCH’S KINGBIRD hawking insects nearby. A massive wave of AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS, I estimated 300+, flew over in huge V’s. While scoping the pond I found a Waterthrush sp. but it was so far away and obscured by vegetation that I could not make the ID. Later, a group of about 20 migrating FRANKLIN’S GULLS kettled in a thermal at some distance, then broke out and passed overhead at high altitude. We were glad to have the birders from California with us, who made this ID and showed us some good field marks for the species – an unexpected lifer for us. A LEAST GREBE materialized out of nowhere right in the front of the pond, which we took as a good sign. But nothing else turned up. Finally, after over two hours of waiting and walking back and forth trying to get other angles, I called down to Rachel (who was on the shore) that we needed to get going – we were staying several hours down the road in Houston that night and it was already after 7:00pm. Reluctantly, we picked up the scope and started for the car. One of the other birders started heading to their car too, but his brother stayed by the pond. As these things just seem to go, a moment later he somehow restrained himself from yelling, turned to all of us and called “Here she is! The bird is right here!” We were incredulous. We got back over there in two seconds flat and he put us on a mat of grass and water hyacinth. It took us a minute of asking “where is it?” but finally we made out a tiny brown and yellow striped face amid the green. A female MASKED DUCK was eyeballing us from the grass, deep inside a thicket of dead shrubs! It is amazing that he was able to pick out the bird, and I’m sure she was not there the whole time. It almost seemed out of curiosity that the bird came swimming right out into the open - to our amazement. I moved a little too quickly for a better view and she shot into another grass mat and literally dissolved into it. It took us several minutes, but sure enough there she was looking back at us again through the stems. The same sequence of events followed, this time bringing her into the closest grass mat to us! I was able to get one grainy photo of this beautiful, timid bird and then she dove. We followed a trail of bubbles to where she popped up in open water and motored at high speed back into the thicket of dead shrubs not to reappear again. The birder who spotted her came over and said, “Well, we’ve never met before but this deserves a hug!,” wrapped one arm around each of us and squeezed. The feeling was mutual. We hit the road to begin the long trek home with smiles on our faces and a treasure trove of birding stories to tell!
TOTAL SPECIES: 187
SHARED LIFE BIRDS (49):
OTHER BIRDS (138):
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Gadwall
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck
Common Goldeneye
Ruddy Duck
Plain Chachalaca
Northern Bobwhite
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
American Kestrel
Sora
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Wilson's Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
American Oystercatcher
Black-necked Stilt | American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Upland Sandpiper
Whimbrel
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Dunlin
Stilt Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Long-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Forster's Tern
Least Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Dove
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Eastern Screech-Owl
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo | Blue Jay
American Crow
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Cave Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Pine Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Summer Tanager
Savannah Sparrow
Seaside Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Boat-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
House Sparrow
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Copyright 2008 Ken Blankenship. All rights reserved.
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