I was anxious to test Merle's theory that the cold weather would bring in the orioles, so Bob, Mary Ann, and I piled in the car and headed up to Salineno! Coming down the entrance road a beautiful Harris' Hawk posed for Bob, so that was a good start!
I warned everyone to bundle up good (highs would remain in the 40s, which is frigid for the Valley), and the feeders didn't disappoint this time: Bob was happy (so I was happy) shooting Golden-fronted and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Green Jays, Kiskadees, a Long-billed Thrasher, Inca, White-tipped, and White-winged Doves, and even Red-winged Blackbirds! The Altamira Oriole put on a great show, and although the Audubon's had shown up earlier, he didn't come in while we were there.
Altamira Oriole (above and below)
Pretending to be a hummingbird...
Getting a mouthful of that peanut butter mixture...
Up close and personal
Green Jay feeding his face
Great Kiskadee
Eyeing the PB mixture...
Northern Cardinal
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Eyeing the grapefruit...
Long-billed Thrasher
Some Longbills can look as rusty as their cousins the Brown Thrasher!
Also eyeing the PB stuff...
Female Ladder-backed Woodpecker
After viewing the Rio Grande just so they could say they saw it (and shooting a nice Osprey on our side), we headed over to Falcon State Park just to see if we could kick up a Roadrunner or Caracara or other desert specialty along the roads (we started to take the Dump Road, then thought better of it after seeing the condition it was in...). No Roadrunner; in fact, it was frustratingly quiet, but another Osprey posed with a fish, and in the campground where someone was feeding the birds, a Bobwhite had joined the blackbirds and doves! We had some distant White Pelicans and herons at the lake, but nothing close enough for photos.
Osprey at the Salineno boat ramp
Immature Osprey at Falcon SP with lunch
Northern Bobwhite
The next feeder area was Bentsen Rio Grande State Park, which had been jumping the day I took Gary and his sons there, but what a difference the cold weather made! Ranger Karla informed me that we were visitors numbers 4, 5, and 6 all day - that's how miserable it was out! We walked up to the Nature Center feeders which were eerily empty, and even though there was seed and some PB in the holes, the gal on duty said the birds just weren't coming out! Not to be dissuaded, I suggested we sit in the swings for about ten minutes to give stuff time to get used to our presence and come in. The Green Jays didn't have a problem swooping in, but I was sweating the Chachalacas, as that was the target bird I was hoping for! I was gazing elsewhere trying to come up with a backup plan when I happened to see Bob's camera pointed my direction, and there were the Chachalacas, right in front of us! Whew!
Mary Ann points something out to Bob on the way into Bentsen
Shooting Green Jays at the Nature Center feeders
The Chachalaca shows up!
From there we walked down to the Resaca (the two feeder areas between "here and there" were dead as well), where the "Resaca Fence" at least had some Redwings, doves, and a single Kiskadee coming in to drink! Before long Ranger Roy rolled in with who must have been visitors 1 and 2 (or 2 and 3), with their sole target being a Ringed Kingfisher, and thankfully one flew in! All of us (including Bob and Mary Ann) were able to get great looks, but unfortunately the viewing window as too narrow and the distance too great to get a decent picture before the bird flew...
Sweet-looking Mourning Dove
Kiskadee at the "reflecting pool"
Time had gotten away from us, so we headed out, adding some Clay-colored Thrushes following a flock of Green Jays, and a cooperative Killdeer posed for pictures as we rolled out. My plans to hit Estero again went out the window as I realized it would be sunset by the time we got there, but I thought that maybe, just maybe, we'd be able to catch the Green Parakeet Show on 10th Street. Traffic held us up, and while we finally found some parakeets in with the grackles on Trenton, it was too dark for pictures...
We actually didn't get many more birds than we had gotten the day before, but at least we didn't get wet! Bird list:
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Pintail Plain Chachalaca
Northern Bobwhite
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Harris's Hawk
Gray Hawk
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
White-tipped Dove
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ringed Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Green Parakeet
Black Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Verdin
Bewick's Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Clay-colored Thrush
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Altamira Oriole
House Sparrow
50 SPECIES
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