4/13/16
We were graced for four days by a
group of birders from Denmark, the leader of which, Frands Jensen, had taken
Pat Heirs birding while she was in Denmark, so now she was returning the favor!
J I was along as Alamo Inn’s guide, so since
the forecast on their first birding day was for rain, we figured going
somewhere where we’d be in (or close to) the vehicles would be a good idea!
One of Pat’s favorite routes is FM
493 going north out of Donna, as there are very often flooded fields and bogs
that have interesting birds. But first
she wanted to take the group to a grassy field next to the Wal-Mart, which
often has grasspipers! It did not
disappoint, as it had several Pectoral Sandpipers and a couple of Baird’s! Down the road at a resaca Pat spotted a
Yellow-crowned Night Heron, which was definitely a hit! One of the nearby kingbirds finally tittered,
confirming it as a Tropical! Heading
north, we stopped at another field near a bar that had an Upland Sandpiper and
a pair of White-tailed Kites!
Happy group of Danes, with leader Frands in the middle (lavender shirt) and Ian, the co-leader, to the right re-checking the fields...
Checking the field
"There's a White-tailed Kite!"
Nittler Road is always worth checking, and it proved productive this day, with many avocets and stilts and several species of ducks, including some Fulvous Whistling Ducks and a very late Canvasback! A Horned Lark was an exciting find for the group as well. We continued east on Nittler to Delta Lake County Park (about the only restroom stop out in this “middle of noplace”), where Pat found a baby Cane Toad in the ladies’ room! The area proved quite birdy as well, with “common” things causing a lot of excitement, such as Kiskadees, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, and a Brown-crested Flycatcher, and a not-so-common Bullock’s Oriole along with some Baltimores! The little skuzzy canal had a Solitary Sandpiper feeding close by.
Checking out the birds along Nittler Road...
Fulvous Whistling Ducks (with a Black-necked Stilt in the foreground)
American Avocets in breeding (left) and non-breeding plumages
Flighty avocets with a Black-necked Stilt on the right
Baby Cane Toad in the ladies' room
Solitary Sandpiper
The gang at Delta Lake Park
The lake was too high for shorebirds at the pullout, so we continued up to Rio Beef Road, where a stop at the little marsh there proved surprisingly productive (only because it’s hard to see in there), with Least and Pied-billed Grebes, and heard-only Soras. A Summer Tanager was a big hit, but like most everyone, the gang really wanted to see a Roadrunner, so a large bird on the road in front of us got us excited until we realized it was a Turkey! (That became very exciting when we discovered a male in display just up the road!) The group did get glimpses of Green Jays, Lincoln’s Sparrows, and the like, and a picnic lunch near the stockyard (they said they didn’t mind the smell J) enabled us to enjoy Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, along with a Bewick’s Wren we finally got to come out! The gang decided to take a walk down the road while Pat and I stayed behind and chatted with one of the participants who also decided to stay behind and pondered over this pretty purple plant; after posting it on Facebook my friend John Brush identified it as a Silverleaf Nightshade!
Picnic time at Rio Beef
Pat chats with one of the participants while the rest poke along Ken Baker Road in search of brushland specialties...
Silverleaf Nightshade
From there we took Brushline north
to its terminus, and at one spot where we stopped to try and pish something out
(probably either a Verdin or a Pyrrhuloxia, as both were proving elusive),
their co-leader Ian spotted a Roadrunner by the side of the road! Unfortunately only a few people saw it before
it slunk into the bushes, but Ian tried valiantly to herd it back out, to no
avail… We continued on, hoping to get
something good in the farm pond, which we did:
a late pair of American Wigeon!
Somewhere along the drive we also managed good looks at White-tailed and
Swainson’s Hawks, along with plenty of Caracaras.
The last stop was Hargill Playa,
where viewing was tough, but a cute little Snowy Plover did show itself on the
close shore! We also managed to log
Gull-billed Terns, and Ian managed to find an American Golden Plover! (He couldn’t find Pat her county Dunlin,
however… J) Ian also zeroed in on one of the local
Wilson’s Plovers, which most of us couldn’t find…
Scrambling up the berm to view Hargill Playa
Bird List:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Fulvous Whistling-Duck Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Ruddy Duck
Northern Bobwhite
Wild Turkey
Least Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
White-tailed Kite
Cooper's Hawk
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
American Golden-Plover
Snowy Plover
Killdeer
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Upland Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Franklin's Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Chimney Swift
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Western Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cave Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
Bewick's Wren
Cactus Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Clay-colored Thrush
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Common Yellowthroat
Cassin's Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
House Sparrow
98 SPECIES
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