When
George and I ran into Dick and Maco at Salineño, they said they were keen to do
some clean-up birding the next day, so rather than subject them to another oh
dark hundred departure time, we left at the normal 7:00 hour and adjusted our
planned itinerary to try and target the birds they still had yet to bag after four
days on their own. We decided to start with
the Mountain Plovers on FM 1599 as they were still being reported, and like
George and my experience the day before, we were gratified to see other birders
already there and looking! (Ironically
it was a trio from Georgia that we had run into at Laredo the day before… J)
The leader of the group did indeed spot the birds, but we all ended up
going down the road about a half mile to get them in better light, and they showed
even better than the previous two times I had been out there! The Sandhill Cranes were still coming in, and
I heard a distant flock of Snow Geese, but even more exciting for Dick was the
American Pipit that flew in and landed right in front of us! More numerous were the nicely-patterned Horned Larks (or Shore Larks as
they call them in the UK). We then
crawled down 1599 in hopes of hearing a Sprague’s Pipit or spotting the geese I
had heard, but ended up checking out the little pond where the Birder Patrol
had a few shorebirds a couple of weeks previously; the Vermilion Flycatcher and
Eastern Phoebe were still there along with a Great Egret, but the only
shorebirds were a handful of Long-billed Dowitchers and a flock of Least
Sandpipers, all of which flew around and vocalized nicely. A Tropical Kingbird tittered unseen as well.
A group of Georgian birders (foreground) and Dick scope the fields for Mountain Plovers (below)
American Pipit
Horned Lark
I
cringed when they reported that they had dipped on the Olive Sparrow at Salineño,
so on a tip from my friend Norma we swung down to Hugh Ramsey Nature Park in
Harlingen to try for it, as she said it often came in to the feeder area right
there by the parking lot. Everything but the sparrow came in over about a 15
minute wait (Dick announced to the birds, “Okay, we’re leaving now!” hoping the
age-old Murphy’s Law of the bird showing up just when you leave would come into
play), so we decided to poke around a short loop, as I had heard a Carolina Wren,
which was also a target bird. As we
poked, we managed to kick up the resident Black Phoebe (considered rare in
Cameron County, but becoming more common), and at one of the ponds the Carolina
Wren miraculously showed itself while a Bewick’s sang in the background (don’t
often get those two together)! While
trying to coax out a Curve-billed Thrasher (they had seen one in Arizona but I encouraged
them to put this one in the bank, as it may be split down the road) we heard
the Olive Sparrow singing (which is odd this time of year), but we never could
get it out (same story with what would have been their life Verdin). At another pond a pair of Green Kingfishers
performed well, but what stole show was a knockout Isabella's Heliconian that
Maco spotted! Actually, the whole patch
was alive with great butters: we rescued
a Queen that had gotten itself stuck on a very sticky plant, but in addition we
saw Long-tailed and Sickle-winged Skippers, Mestras, Snouts, a Laviana White
Skipper, and even a Zebra Heliconian!
Black Phoebe
One of the wetlands at Hugh Ramsey
Dick and Maco enjoying the Green Kingfisher (below)
Isabella's Heliconian, a very rare butterfly in the Valley!
Long-tailed Skipper
Piping
Plover was still high on Dick’s list (thankfully they actually saw and photographed the Clapper Rail on a
previous outing), so on the way to South Padre we stopped at the SR100 Resacas
for shorebirds, finally seeing some Least Sandpipers that were close enough to
see the yellowish legs and adding a few ducks to the day list (along with a
Belted Kingfisher). Stops at the Blue
Shack and the Falcon Parking Lot for Aplomados were unsuccessful (although we did have a nice Peregrine up on the
crossbar that had us going), so that meant we had to try Boca Chica afterwards. Once on the Island, thankfully we got to
drive right up to the Big Bird Flock on the flats which included both flavors
of pelicans, all the expected larids, Dunlin, a few turnstones and Willets, and
even a few Marbled Godwits, which was also a life bird! I was disappointed that the only plovers we
were seeing were the Black-bellied (I confided that I thought “Grey Plover” was
actually a more appropriate name J)
when Dick spotted a distant Piping on a sandbar! I clapped in glee which sent the whole flock
flying… L (Thankfully they all settled down quickly;
they’re used to having revelers drive right through the middle of the flock…)
One of the SR 100 resacas
Least Sandpipers
Caspian Terns (with one still begging)
Gulls and skimmers loafing and flying
Heading
down SR 48 we made fruitless searches of both Boca Chica Blvd. and Old Port
Isabel Road for the falcons, so since we were running out of time, we decided
to blast out to Valley Nature Center for a crack at the Clay-colored Thrush,
which Maco spotted and which gave great looks!
The Olive Sparrow was again elusive, but the Chachalacas entertained us
at the feeders! A Wilson’s Warbler
calling in a feeding flock would have also been new for them if the thing had
cooperated and showed itself…
Red-eared Sliders
Feeding area at Valley Nature Center
Ended
up with 93 species for the day! Bird
List:
Snow Goose
American Wigeon
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Ruddy Duck
Plain Chachalaca
Northern Bobwhite
Least Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Black-bellied Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
Mountain Plover
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Dunlin
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
White-tipped Dove
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Black Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
Carolina Wren
Bewick's Wren
Cactus Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Clay-colored Thrush
Curve-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow
93
SPECIES
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