After
having birded on their own for several days, there were still a couple of
target birds that Robert and Denise needed (mainly for Denise as she was a new
birder), so they asked if they could shanghai me for a morning to try and nail
Northern Beardless Tyrannulet and Tropical Parula in particular. There had been several of the latter reported
around the Valley (a surprise in and of itself), but one of them was at Santa
Ana NWR, and seeing I had heard the tyrannulet when I was there last week with
Minda and Harle, I figured that would be a good place to bird for the morning,
especially since a female Blue Bunting had also been reported, and the Glossy
Ibis was apparently still hanging around!
Heading
down Alamo Road, a flyover White-tailed Kite got the day list off to a good
start, but unfortunately I was the only one to see it, even after we turned
around and tried to refind it. In the
parking lot we were greeted by hundreds of flyover Red-winged Blackbirds and
the Starlings hanging on the cell tower, and after crossing the levee we got a
brief glimpse of a Bobcat hightailing it into the woods! We took the beginning of the Willow Lake
Trail, where eagle-eyed Robert spotted a couple of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers on
a dead tree! Eventually winter flocks
consisting of Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Black-crested Titmice,
Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets came in, but along the cutoff
to Chachalaca Trail, Robert spotted a couple of Nashville Warblers! A Verdin chirped brightly but refused to come
in, and a Carolina Wren sang in the background, but as we connected with the
main trail, several Altamira Orioles and Green Jays were making a ruckus, but
try as we might, we couldn’t find what was causing it. Scott (another birder staying at the Inn) was
around the corner intently looking at something that turned out to be Olive
Sparrows that had just flown the coop…
We
took a quick look at the lakes just to pad the list: tons of Blue-winged Teal and Shovelers were
“tipping up”, and at the blind a couple of Least Grebes skittered away. At the lake the ibis had been in last week we
had a couple of snipe, a couple of Lesser Yellowlegs, and several Black-necked
Stilts. Continuing on the Willow Lake
Trail, some Olive Sparrows were making little noises right beside us, and
finally one ran across the path with his tail cocked, enough of a view so
Denise could say she saw it! J Then a Clay-colored Thrush tuck-tucked and finally gave a great
view, but in the middle of that I heard the tyrannulet go WeeeeK! So we hurried along
and followed the calls, just getting glimpses as the thing bounced from tree to
tree along with the rest of the flock it was hanging with, until finally it gave
a great view out on the tour
road! High five! On the walk out a nice Harris’ Hawk posed on
a pole.
Willow Lake
Hungry Shoevelers and Blue-winged Teal
Snoozing Zebra Heliconians
Altamira Oriole
Wilson's Snipe
Northern Beardless Tyrannulet
Of
the birds on our “board” at the Inn, the Mountain Plover intrigued Robert, but
Sprague’s Pipit was also on his wish list, and I was getting ready to take us
out to Anzalduas until I remembered the fiasco from last Friday and was afraid that maybe they’d be closed this Friday, too, due to the upcoming
holiday (and the folks in the visitor’s center concurred). So we opted to blast out to Harlingen to try
for the plovers, even though they hadn’t been reported for a while (but there
had been no negative reports, either…).
Unfortunately after a thorough scouring of the fields on both sides of
FM 1599, we couldn’t even kick up a Killdeer, although several Caracaras and
Turkey Vultures sat in the south field, along with several Sandhill Cranes. I told them that Sprague’s Pipit was remotely
possible even here, and while an American Pipit and several Horned Larks flew
over, no Sprague’s sounded off, although Robert had a small bird that could have been one; we just couldn’t
get a decent look.
We
had to head back to Alamo at that point, so after stopping at a roadside fruit
stand for a bag of oranges, we flew back home with 52 species for the morning
(53 if you count the Cooper’s Hawk that Robert spotted but eluded me). Bird List:
Gadwall
Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler
Plain Chachalaca
Least Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Turkey Vulture
White-tailed Kite
[Cooper’s Hawk]
Harris's Hawk
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Black-necked Stilt
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Wilson's Snipe
Rock Pigeon
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Clay-colored Thrush
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Altamira Oriole
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