1/5/17
I'm calling it "Part 2" because "Day 2" of their adventure was
Wednesday when they went up to Laredo on their own to get the Amazon
Kingfisher! Yesterday's adventure was an
attempt to bag Aplomado Falcon and Cassin’s Sparrow along Old Port Isabel Road
(OPIR), and if possible, the Tropical Parula and Groove-billed Anis that had
been reported at Laguna Atascosa.
It
was a cool, relatively calm day, and the cloud cover was helpful in that we
weren’t looking right into the sun going northeast on OPIR. Our first stop interestingly had an Olive
Sparrow singing from the brush across the field, and a White-tailed Hawk posed
on top of one of the railroad crossing barriers (that come down when a train is
coming)! The hacking platform was empty,
and no falcons were about, so we just went slow and stopped every mile to see
what we could scare up. Long-billed
Curlews were very common and cooperative (and noisy J), and several stops at some
“seeps” failed to kick up the Cassin’s.
But finally a flock popped up along the side of the road that had a
couple of Savannah Sparrows, but also a great look at a classic Cassin’s! That was Griffin’s 500th bird, so
it was cause for celebration! But what
got me more excited in the group of warblers was a tail-pumping Palm; since
Griffin was already out of the car shooting the Cassin’s, I yelled,
“Griffin! Get a picture of that Palm
Warbler!” After several “Where?!”s I was
finally able to point the guy out before the flock moved over to my side of the
road and I was able to document it as well!
Not a life bird for Griffin (common fall migrant where they are), but an
exciting bird for these parts!
White-tailed Hawk
Palm Warbler
Continuing
on, we were watching the tall power poles, when Griffin spotted something
suspicious, and a scope view did indeed reveal a pair of Aplomado Falcons, but waaaay over there! Miraculously a White-tailed Kite showed up on
the scene and the falcon pair went after it (or maybe it was the other way
around – it happened too fast), and the next thing we knew the pair landed on a
utility pole practically next to us!
What views! We were debating
whether it was a pair or siblings (I incorrectly assumed the buffy coloration
on the rear of the supercilium was indicative of a younger bird, but it’s not),
and in looking at the pictures, one of the birds looks slightly larger, so it
could have been a mated pair. Definitely
thrilled with that!
Aplomado Falcons
Griffin digiscopes lifer #501!
The
powers that be must have recently graded the road, because OPIR was actually in
terrific shape (relatively speaking)! We
made it through to SR 100, adding a couple of Caracaras guarding a No Trespassing
sign, and some Great Blue Herons and Mottled Ducks in the canal. Just past the canal I thought I heard some
suspicious chinking, so we got out to see if what I was hearing was a Sedge
Wren, as it was perfect habitat! There
was definitely a House Wren burbling and scolding in there, and one stubborn
wren sure was acting suspicious, but never would give us a view, so we finally
gave up and headed on. While pointing
out the other traditional falcon-viewing spots, a Chihuahuan Raven posed on a
wire while another flew overhead!
Crested Caracara
Crawling
through Laguna Vista and onto Buena Vista Road, I again heard a suspicious
wren, and once again we got out to check; this time there was no doubt about
what I was hearing, and bird seemed to be responding to the tape, but all it
did was give us a fleeting view as it darted from one bush to the next. I consoled them with the strong possibility
that they would get tons of ‘em up at Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR!
We
continued to crawl up Buena Vista Road, having a small flock of Sandhill Cranes
fly overhead and a whole power-line full of Couch’s Kingbirds! The refuge had been closed for three days, so
no one had any recent reports of either bird, so we made an initial wander
around the VC area and Kiskadee Trail, enjoying Green Jays at the feeders, but
that was about it. We then headed out to
Osprey Overlook where there was an absolute mob of egrets and ibis on the
shore, plus gobs of Ruddy Ducks in the water (along with a couple of alligators
that were exciting the non-birding tourists J)! Griffin spotted a huge pod of Pied-billed
Grebes engaged in a feeding frenzy on the point, and he also had a white egret
that he was hoping was a white morph Reddish, but struck me as an immature
Little Blue, as the legs were greenish and the base of the bill was pale
blue. A Roseate Spoonbill fed “like an
avocet” he noted; his life birds had flown over at the Stripes earlier, but
this was a much better view! J
One of at least ten Couch's Kingbirds
Green Jay
View from Osprey Overlook
Wader Mob
Female Ruddy Duck
From
there we hiked a bit of the Scum Pond Trail, where apparently anis had been
reported, but we didn’t want to do the whole four-mile round-trip hike, so we
just hiked in as far as the trail split and then came back. A suspicious-looking flycatcher flopped
around and “pupped” but refused to give a good look, and I had thoughts of Mary
Gustafson’s Brown-crested Flycatcher, but alas, it didn’t cooperate. An Eastern Phoebe on the way back was more
cooperative, but the walk was better for exercise than anything else…
Scum Pond Trail
Looking for anis...
...and only finding an Eastern Phoebe
We
decided to spend the rest of the afternoon waiting to see if the parula would
show up, so we split up, and I took the VC shift, finding a pair of mating
Mestras in the process! I eventually
heard a feeding flock that led me over to the Kiskadee Trail where Griffin was,
where he had a couple of tyrannulets that were pretty good for Cameron County,
but otherwise just had more Orangecrowns, titmice, and a Black-and-white
Warbler. We split up again, and I heard
some rustling in the leaves, wondering if it was Griffin’s Indigo Snake he had
seen earlier, but it turned out to be an Armadillo! Griffin had found me again by that time, and
when I whooped at his little ears (the Armadillo, not Griffin), he suddenly
looked up and started running towards us!
What a look! Unfortunately the
only decent shot I could get was his rear end heading back into the bush…
Mating Common Mestras
South end of a northbound Armadillo...
Diane
wondered if it might be profitable to try for the Santa Ana parula again before
our time totally ran out, so we headed back towards Alamo, picking up a
Roadrunner on the way out. But after
some on-line EBird research, it was concluded that the Santa Ana parula was
being seen in the volunteer “camp” (which is off limit to the public), so he
suggested cruising the neighborhood and listening for feeding flocks, hoping my Tropical Parula would make an
appearance! We did run into a flock, but
unfortunately Griffin’s camera decided to malfunction about that point, so we
called it a day.
Greater Roadrunner
Bird
List (with Griffin’s additional species in brackets):
Snow Goose
Mottled Duck Northern Shoveler
[Blue-winged Teal]
Lesser Scaup
Ruddy Duck
Plain Chachalaca
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
[Cattle Egret]
White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
[Black-necked Stilt]
Long-billed Curlew
Laughing Gull
[Ring-billed Gull]
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
White-tipped Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Aplomado Falcon
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Chihuahuan Raven
Horned Lark
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Sedge Wren
Bewick's Wren
Cactus Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Palm Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
[Black-and-white Warbler]
Olive Sparrow
Cassin's Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Western Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow
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