1/21/2016
After analyzing the weather report
and what birds were left on their “need list” (taking into consideration what
was reasonable as well), we decided to head up to the La Sal del Rey area for Joe
and Mary’s last day. Again, it started
off foggy, and as we wheeled onto Nittler Road from FM 493, the Avocets feeding
in the little wetland were ghostly!
Continuing north, we headed west on FM 490 to Brushline Road, where we
crawled northward, stopping for suspicious chirps and scouring any wetlands we
encountered. The sun actually came out
while we were on this road, and even a local landowner stopped by to see what
we were up to! J (At that particular spot we were enjoying a
pair of distant Red-tailed Hawks…) The
wetlands held the usual ducks and waders, but one of them had some coveted
American Wigeon feeding in the field!
Both Harris’ Hawks and Crested Caracaras gave great photo ops, and even
a couple of Kestrels uncharacteristically stuck around! I was surprised we had no Horned Larks in the
plowed fields (except a brief flyover), but Joe and Mary got great looks at
Lark, Savannah, and Vesper Sparrows at various stops! The little reedy wetland that had a Swamp
Sparrow when I brought Brad this way last year still had the (uncooperative)
Swamp Sparrow, and the “Purple Gallinule Wetland” had an Eared Grebe (along
with a bunch of other waterfowl)! A
Peregrine flew over at one stop, and at the intersection with SR 186 a
beautiful flock of Sandhill Cranes showed off for us!
American Avocets in the fog
Scanning the wetlands
Kestrel checks us out
Harris' Hawk
Sandhill Cranes
Crossing over, Joe noticed a “clump”
by the side of the road about a half mile up, and they couldn’t believe it – it
was another Roadrunner! This one
transformed himself into a typical Roadrunner shape as we approached, and Joe
was able to get some more pictures! Two
more White-eyed Vireos sang right by the road but would not come out, no matter how much we coaxed them! A little further,
another “most wanted” bird, a White-tailed Hawk (albeit a youngster) was
circling with a few Turkey Vultures, and at that boggy area that had the road
closed for awhile, a nice Vermilion Flycatcher flopped around! At the intersection with Chapa Road we
stopped to see if we could pish out any Cactus Wrens, but as Providence would
have it, four potentials lifers all decided to show up at that point: the White-eyed Vireo finally came out into
the open, as did a Verdin (!!!), and behind us both the Cactus and Bewick’s
Wrens enticingly called, but we couldn’t get the latter two to show
themselves…
Greater Roadrunner
Curve-billed Thrasher
Continuing on Brushline we were thrilled
to have an adult White-tailed Hawk hanging in the wind while a Caracara tried
to chase him, doing loop-de-loops in the process! Yet another Roadrunner posed, and somewhere
along the route my own personal wish came true, and a Say’s Phoebe (rather rare
in the Valley but reported in the area recently) posed on the wire! At the farm pond near the end of the road we
had Roseate Spoonbills and another pair of Wigeon in addition to the regulars. I headed down to the gate to turn around and
hit gold: in amongst a flock of Savannah
Sparrows that popped up on the fence were two beautiful Grasshopper
Sparrows! High fives!
Grasshopper Sparrow
Say's Phoebe, normally pretty scarce in the Valley, but this seems to be a boon winter for them!
We scooted down to Ken Baker (aka GI
Road to us old timers J) and continued
our crawling, and as we approached Rio Beef Feedyard there wasn’t a blackbird
in sight. I had heard from others that
if you ask at the office, they may give you permission to bird the feedlots, so
we headed in (picking up yet another Say’s Phoebe in the field), got the
coveted permission (just stay in the car, they said), and had crippling views
of the needed Brewer’s Blackbirds, along with every redwing, cowbird, and
grackle in the area J, but try as we
might, we couldn’t pick out a Yellow-headed.
(Joe and Mary got a kick out of the icterids sharing the feeding troughs
with the cattle… J) A flock of Snow Geese fed in a protected area
behind the lots, and while they were too far away to pick out any Ross’, a
couple of blue morphs were easy to pick out.
Joe was able to pick out a couple of Western Sandpipers next to some
Leasts in a nearby wet spot, and a big flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
wheeling into the feeding area was fun!
A very buffy-looking Mourning Dove!
Continuing on, I hit the brakes for
an odd-looking sparrow, and after pishing, a beautiful Black-throated Sparrow
popped up! Mary got a great look, but
unfortunately Joe didn’t get on it until it flew… L
I was very bummed, but Joe seemed to take it all in stride… But unbelievably after that we kicked up yet another Say’s Phoebe! I couldn’t believe it!
Yet another Say's Phoebe ready to book...
Didn’t pick up much else, so headed on
down to Delta Lake to check for shorebirds.
Unfortunately I didn’t realize that the angle of the sun would be
horrible, but we were able to at least add their Long-billed Dowitchers, plus
Laughing Gull and Caspian Tern to the day list.
A swing around the park proper bagged a nice male Belted Kingfisher and
a pretty pair of Redheads (ducks, not people J), but not the hoped-for Green
Heron.
Redhead
Called it a day after that, with 96 species
logged, and I believe Joe and Mary had well over 30 lifers! Bird List:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Snow Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Ruddy Duck
Eared Grebe
Least Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
White-faced Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Laughing Gull
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Belted Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Eastern Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Cactus Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
96 SPECIES
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