1/9/17
Diane
decided to take a day off, so Griffin and I headed straight away to Estero
Llano Grande to try for the “McCall’s” Screech Owl. The box along the entry way was empty, so
after taking a cursory look at the ducks on the deck, we headed straight back
to Alligator Lake, taking a quick peek at Dowitcher Pond, picking up dowitchers
and Stilt Sandpipers in the process
(the latter took a minute because they were so puffed up due to the cold that
they didn’t look like their normal slender selves)! Unfortunately that owl was also either still hunkered down or gone (I had heard
rumors that the Crazy Ants had been troubling some of them), but we logged the
snoozing Pauraque for the day and one of the Yellow-crowned Night Herons (along
with another calling Beardless Tyrannulet), then headed back to the Tropical
Zone for last ditch hopes that that
owl would be showing! On the way back to
the visitors center a flock of Yellow-headed Blackbirds intermingled with the
Redwings, which was a lot of fun, seeing as that can be a tough bird to get!
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Black-necked Stilt
I
sent Griffin on ahead as I got us checked in, and as I made my way back there
eventually, I got a text from him saying he had found the owl! I was thrilled; I snuck over by the bathrooms
and looked at the tree, and couldn’t find it!!
Thankfully Griffin arrived and admitted he couldn’t find it either until
he took a picture and zoomed in on it, and when I took the second look, there
he was, snoozing away – you could just make out the facial disks! What camouflage!
Very well-camouflaged "McCall's" Screech Owl
From
there we headed to Pauraque Hall and the drip thereby, and sat and waited while
other birders came and went; one lady reported that she did see the Tropical Parula come in, so we were hopeful, enjoying a
Nashville Warbler and a wintering Ovenbird and Wilson’s Warbler in the
meantime. Griffin spotted some swallows
flying and ran over to the butterfly garden where he could get a shot, and sure
enough, at least one turned out to be his target Cave Swallow!
Combing the Tropical Zone for the Tropical Parula
After
awhile I just happened to look up at a tree to our left at a kiskadee-sized
bird flopping around at the edge, and saw what looked like a gray bird with a
fluffy black cap; I thought, “No way – I’ve never
found one of these things on my own!!”
But he turned around and showed that diagnostic pink throat, and amongst
a plethora of praises to God (I had to explain that I wasn’t swearing – I
really meant it J) I called out,
“Rose-throated Becard!!” Of course that
sent everyone scrambling, and thankfully a few of us got “documentation shots”
as the thing became very active going from branch to tree to branch, and then
finally disappearing towards the back!
After putting out an alert on the LRGV text group, it was amusing to
shortly see all these birders come out of the woodwork (including a whole group
from Colorado) who had “gotten the memo”! J
Lost Rose-throated Becard - the brown in the wings show that it's a youngster
Lousy shot, but it shows the "rose throat"!
Happy birders!
After
things calmed down a bit Griffin decided to “make the loop” (as that’s what the
parula would often do) as I continued the Drip Watch with my friend Sue and
others who had come to see the becard.
Presently I heard Griffin calling me:
he had the parula! That caused
another scramble, and while I never saw the bird before it took off, Griffin
did (and got a photo), so that was all that mattered, especially after numerous
“Wild Parula Chases!” Figures that the
minute everyone was away from the benches, one lady announced that the thing
had come in to the drip, and the minute we all went over there he scrammed! L
It
was only noon and we had gotten Griffin his three target birds (and the becard
as an added bonus), so I asked him what he wanted to do now, as between the
guided trips and his own outings with his mom, he was cleaning up big time and
what targets were left were primarily vagrants!
He had noticed the reports of Prairie Falcon out near McCook, so since I
knew exactly where that was (our “Sparrow Road Route”), off we went! Unfortunately we could kick up no falcon, but
a Say’s Phoebe along Jara Chinas Road on the way up to the general area was
definitely a nice bird! A few Lark
Sparrows were an added gift as Griffin didn’t get to see them very often, and
that facial pattern really is spectacular!
Scouring the barren fields yielding not much more than the expected
Horned Larks, but we did see a Merlin
making haste across the road!
Horned Larks (fuzzy male above, in-focus female below...)
The barren fields of Jara Chinas Road
Lark Sparrow
We
finally headed home with 70 species for the day (counting the ones Griffin saw
that I didn’t, which are in brackets)!
Bird List:
Gadwall
Mottled Duck Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Plain Chachalaca
Least Grebe
American White Pelican
Great Egret
Little Blue Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
[Harris’ Hawk]
White-tailed Hawk
[Red-tailed Hawk]
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
Spotted Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
Eastern (“McCall’s”) Screech-Owl
Common Pauraque
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Merlin
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
Say's Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
Rose-throated Becard
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
Horned Lark
[Cave Swallow]
Black-crested Titmouse
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
Clay-colored Thrush
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Ovenbird
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
[Tropical Parula]
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Lark Sparrow
[Lincoln’s Sparrow]
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
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