27 OCT 15
[Note: names are changed to protect identity…]
We had a mom and daughter team here
on a butterfly tour, but they wanted to do a little birding on the side, so I
was called in to be their guide! Mom Bonnie
and her husband (who didn’t come on the trip) were experienced birders and had
been to the Valley before, but Tara was new, so almost everything was new for
her! So since we wanted to avoid the
places they’d be going anyway on their butterfly tour, we first hit Anzalduas
County Park (with a quick check at Granjeño for the Burrowing Owl – he wasn’t
there, but a Cooper’s Hawk blasted by instead) where Bonnie was amazed at how
blue the Rio Grande looked! (Being able
to look right into Mexico like that is always a big hit! J)
A Kestrel greeted us on the entrance road, and crossing the dike we had
several shorebirds in the semi-flooded field; most were Killdeer, but we also
had a few Least Sandpipers in with them.
Dike over the floodway heading into Anzalduas County Park
We had barely passed the entrance shack
before Tara spotted a “red bird” at the top of a small tree, and sure enough, a
lovely Vermillion Flycatcher was flycatching!
I jokingly groused that someone had taken my favorite parking spot by
the river (J - the fisher
people were in early; in fact, a couple pulled in right behind us asking if we
were fishing or birding! They were
relieved that we weren’t taking their favorite fishing spot… J) and pulled out the scope when one
of Anzalduas’ signature birds, a Black Phoebe, started flopping around on the
wire fence line! He was joined by a
female Vermilion, so we got great looks at these two little aerial acrobats! There wasn’t much of anything on the river
except a Great Blue Heron, so we walked along the edge where a large flock of
birds in the big field turned out to be my first Western Meadowlarks of the
season! I heard a Ringed Kingfisher, and
sure enough, he rowed by over the river and gave great looks! We heard some warblers in the trees but could
only pull out a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Orange-crowned Warbler (after which
came the cracks about how you couldn’t see the orange crown…). On the way back to the car I was commenting
on how glad I was to get the Ringed Kingfisher (not a sure thing by any means)
when he wheeled around and gave an encore appearance over our heads!
Anzalduas habitat
Black Phoebe, at the eastern edge of its range here!
From there we just cruised slowly
around the park, making a stop at the “Secret Trail” hidden back by the dam
that a friend had told me about. You
could still peek into a small window behind the dam from there; it looked like
several Spotted Sandpipers were bouncing along the rocks. We had a warbler in there that could have
been a Nashville, but we just didn’t get a good enough look, but the
consolation prize was a nice Couch’s Kingbird that landed over our heads and
proceeded to eat a wasp!
Window into the back area of the dam from the "Secret Trail" (and that's Mexico across the way...)
Continuing the loop, I pointed out a
couple of Bronzed Cowbirds to them, and at one stop I heard a House Finch go
over and had to explain that these birds are considered accidental in the
Valley, even though they’re a “junk bird” everywhere else; Anzalduas is
actually one of the more reliable spots to get this bird. In the distance I heard a Gray Hawk; many
heard-only things were just too far away to try to pin down.
No sign of the Zone-tailed Hawks, so
we headed over to Quinta Mazatlan as Tara wanted to see Chachalacas, and there
you have to practically kick them out of the way! Right in the parking lot were several
Clay-colored Thrushes, and at the start of the old Birding Trail we heard a
Black-and-white Warbler singing! That
was another “want bird” for Tara, so we headed in, trying to pish it out (in
the meantime she was asking me what this grating sound was; I said it sounded
like a frog of some kind, but as we got closer we discovered it was the
domestic ducks next door…). No luck,
even though we got a couple of unseen Wilson’s Warblers to respond. Over at the new pond, several Red-bordered
Pixies were nectaring, which was very exciting, seeing as that’s one of our
signature butterflies! Swinging around
the back of the mansion, the Buff-bellied Hummingbirds were playing hide and
seek, but one finally allowed us to get a good look at the feeders, which we
hit just as a field trip was leaving. In
a little alcove a Long-billed Thrasher called and let us get a head look, while
several more Clay-colored Thrushes zipped in and out, feeding on the berries
that were there (I never thought I’d see the day when I’d say, “Just another
[Clay-colored] Thrush!”)! Sitting at the
feeders a lady Golden-fronted Woodpecker was raiding one of the hummingbird
feeders, and off to the side a Curve-billed Thrasher gave us great looks while
giving his rude whistle! Some Olive
Sparrows called behind us (but wouldn’t show themselves naturally), but on the
way out a nice fat Chachalaca walked out onto the trail and strutted his stuff!
Showing a Chachalaca to a school group
Red-bordered Pixie
Next stop was Edinburg Wetlands, which
I had touted as another great butterfly stop.
We headed straight to the South Pond (on the way to which another pair
of Ringed Kingfishers flew overhead), which was disappointingly empty except
for some Neotropic Cormorants and some egrets.
On the way back, however, Bonnie spotted a Black-and-white Warbler
crawling along one of the mesquites! Tara
was able to get a great look (well,
we all did, really J), so that was
fun! House Wrens were giving us fits
with their varied calls, and somewhere way back in the bushes a Bewick’s Wren
gave its zhrink zhrink call. But once
out in the open, we saw streams and streams of Turkey Vultures going by, then kettling
as they caught a thermal! (I had heard
news from further north that thousands of vultures were headed our way, so I
wasn’t too surprised…) A pair of Ospreys
circled overhead, and in the parking lot we saw another thermal with three
Swainson’s Hawks in with the TVs! We saw
another Long-billed Thrasher, but again the North Pond didn’t have much except
a few egrets, but one of the Ringed Kingfishers had landed along the edge
giving great scope views! Pied-billed
Grebes were new for the day, and a Tricolored Heron was nice to see. Tara spotted a Common Gallinule with its
pretty red bill, but I couldn’t even find any Black-bellied Whistlers, which is
usually a staple here!
Turkey Vulture kettle
We had to get back, so we headed
down to Alamo with a grand total of 61 species for the morning!
No comments:
Post a Comment