Last Friday I took visiting birder Barry from Kirkland, Washington (who had been birding on his own the whole week before) up to the La Sal del Rey area to look for sparrow-type things (and he really wanted to see a Pyrrhuloxia, too). Turns out he keeps up a blog as well, so he very kindly allowed me to post it here, giving me a bit of a reprieve! (He sends these out to friends and family, hence the occasional reference to past posts...) I may put in an "Editor's Note" here and there to clarify things... :-)
Friday,
February 10, 2017
Today was an excellent day of birding, and a very long one. I had hired a bird guide for the day, and she
picked me up at 9 this morning. I got
back here to my room at 7 PM, so it was a ten hour birding day for me
today. It was somewhat overcast this
morning, which held the heat down. It
got up into the low 80’s by the end of the afternoon, but I did pretty well
with the heat. Our plan today was to be
in the car most of the time, with frequent stops to get out and listen and look
for birds. My guide, Mary Beth, is
excellent at hearing and recognizing bird calls, and she heard about twice as
many birds as I counted. That is, two
times as many species – probably ten times as many individual birds or more.
We headed north out of McAllen into the boonies and started our
day along Brushline Road. Here is a
picture of one part of Brushline Road, to give an idea of the habitat we were
in.
It was very dry for the most part.
To finish setting the scene, here is my guide, Mary Beth.
One of the birds I had wanted to see was PYRRHULOXIA, a relative
of cardinals. We saw them a number of
times, and this was the best picture I got a [male] Pyrrhuloxia.
We saw a lot of Crested Caracaras today, and here is a picture of
one that posed for us.
So, there you have the front view and the back view of Crested
Caracara.
We saw dozens of Mourning Doves, and I needed that one for
Friday. We heard and saw HOUSE WREN
several times, which I liked, but I never got a picture. As a reminder, when I show a species in ALL
CAPS, it means it is the first time I’ve seen that species this year.
A bird I have struggled with has been White-eyed Vireo. I recorded it twice, but I really wanted a
better look. We never saw one today, but
Mary Beth heard them a number of times, and one time I heard it sing very
clearly, several times. It is a
distinctive enough song that I counted it as a heard only bird today. We also heard CACTUS WRENS several times, and
one time I heard one very clearly, several times. It is a distinctive song that I know, so that
one went onto my year list as “heard only”.
At one stop we heard and saw three SANDHILL CRANES flying over the
road. I wish I had been able to get a
picture, but I’m using my old 30X zoom camera and I’m not used to it, so it
takes me a long time to get ready to take a picture. I missed my broken 50X zoom camera
today. When I get home, a new camera is
high on my list.
Another bird I really wanted to see was White-tailed Hawk. I had only seen that species three times
before today, and we saw them several times today. Here is a picture of one overhead.
Mary Beth heard thrashers at various stops, and I saw both
Long-billed Thrasher and Curve-billed Thrasher before the day was over, both
excellent Friday birds. We had Lark
Sparrow several times and a couple of American White Pelicans flew around ahead
of us and gave us good views. At a pond
Mary Beth spotted a Greater Yellowlegs, so that one went on my Friday
list. On our way back, by that same
pond, I spotted my first HERMIT THRUSH of the year, and got this picture of it.
I think the blurry line down through the picture to the left of
center was due to the wire in a fence, way out of focus. Either that or it was a branch.
We saw a GREATER ROADRUNNER run across the road ahead of us, thus
fulfilling its name. Another of the
species I had especially wanted to see was BLACK VULTURE, and finally we got
onto a group of 4 or 5 of them. I got
one mediocre picture of one overhead, good enough to identify the species,
anyway.
We saw WILD TURKEYS three separate times – two groups of about a
dozen and one smaller group of 3 or 4.
Here are some of the Wild Turkeys.
We saw Loggerhead Shrikes 3 or 4 times, and here are the two best
pictures I got, front and back.
I missed my broken 50X zoom camera today, but this old one did a
satisfactory job as a backup.
Mary Beth had heard of a report of a flycatcher out on one of the
roads we were on, and it is uncommon to rare out here. We actually found it and got pictures of the
SAY’S PHOEBE.
We had a group of Western Meadowlarks at one or two points, and I
needed that one for Friday. We also had
a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK give us a good close flight view, but there wasn’t time
for a picture before it was gone.
We saw and heard Yellow-rumped Warblers a number of times, and
Mary Beth heard a Couch’s Kingbird at one point, and eventually we were able to
entice it to fly in closer and I got an excellent look at it. We also saw a couple of Common Ground-Doves
at one point, so that one went onto my Friday list, too.
So, that was most of our long day of birding. It was about 5:15 by then, and we needed to
head for the parakeet roost, so I could get an almost-lifer.
At the McAllen parakeet roost we got there just in time to see the
GREEN PARAKEETS lining the wires near the intersection where they were supposed
to be. There must have been 5 or 6 dozen
of them, and more nearby. The light was
poor by then, and we were looking up into the sky at a distance, because the
wires they were on were high ones, but I took some pictures. The pictures are pretty crappy, but at least
they show this almost-lifer that I only saw once before, and that was a quick
fly-by. Here are my best two pictures of
Green Parakeet in the fading light.
Those two were kind of cozying up to each other, and I thought it
was cute.
In addition to the parakeets that were gathering for their nightly
roost together, there were thousands of Great-tailed Grackles congregating in
the area. Here is one small part of the
Grackles gathering on the wires.
There were at least ten times that many around the area, and they
made quite a racket, as they call very loudly.
Here is a closer view of that telephone pole in the middle of the
picture above.
It was getting dark by then, so we headed back. The birding wasn’t over yet, though. As we waited at stop lights in the heavy rush
hour traffic, I saw several Bronzed Cowbirds on the wires with the
grackles. That was an excellent one for
my Friday list, and my last bird of the day.
So, it was an outstanding day of birding, and I saw much, much
more than what I would have seen on my own today. It was also nice to have company all day,
after nine days of birding alone and talking to almost no one.
I added 24 birds to my Friday list, to bring it to 131, which puts
it way ahead of all the other days. A
whopping 11 of those birds were new for my year list, too, to bring me to 220
for the year. If you’ll remember,
yesterday I barely eked out one new year-bird, by a fluke at the end of the day
(the Northern Rough-winged Swallows), and today Mary Beth was able to show me
11 more. Outstanding. For my BAD bird today, I’m going to take Olive
Sparrow. I didn’t mention that one
before because it wasn’t a Friday bird – I had seen one briefly last Friday at
Sabal Palms Sanctuary. Today I got
great, though brief, looks at two of them, so I’m taking it as my BAD bird
today.
It was a long day, and I probably overlooked something here, but
it’s late, and I want to get this out tonight.
Tomorrow I fly home from San Antonio, and it is a four hour drive to get
to the airport from here. The flight
doesn’t leave until 6:40 PM, so I have all day, but I’m sure the time will fly
by. I’ll have to get all packed up in
the morning, and I want to at least make a token effort to get a new year-bird
tomorrow. As it turns out, Mary Beth was
able to tell me where a parakeet that I have only seen once before nests [Monk Parakeets], and I
plan to stop by that area tomorrow morning on my way out of town, and maybe I
can get that one for my new year-bird tomorrow.
If not, then tomorrow will almost certainly be the day my streak ends. [Ed. note: he got them! :-)]
Whatever happens with the silly streak, tomorrow I head for home
after an excellent trip, and it will be very good to be home, as always after a
trip, no matter how long.
MB here again: Here's the EBird checklist for the La Sal del Rey portion:
Gadwall 9
Mottled Duck 4Northern Shoveler 4
Northern Bobwhite 1
Wild Turkey 24 Three different groups along the route; first group had half-grown youngsters (pictures didn't turn out).
American White Pelican 2
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Black Vulture 8
Turkey Vulture 22
Harris's Hawk 1
White-tailed Hawk 3
Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Sandhill Crane 3
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Mourning Dove 49
Greater Roadrunner 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 8
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 7
Crested Caracara 11
American Kestrel 5
Eastern Phoebe 3
Say's Phoebe 1 Gray back, cinnamon below, fat black tail when flopping around, darker cap. Photos to follow.
Great Kiskadee 4
Couch's Kingbird 1
Loggerhead Shrike 3
White-eyed Vireo 6
Green Jay 14
Black-crested Titmouse 9
Verdin 8
House Wren 5
Bewick's Wren 13
Cactus Wren 2
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Hermit Thrush 1
Long-billed Thrasher 7
Northern Mockingbird 15
European Starling 3
Orange-crowned Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler 6
Olive Sparrow 5
Lark Sparrow 4
White-crowned Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 9
Pyrrhuloxia 11
Northern Cardinal/Pyrrhuloxia 7
Eastern Meadowlark 1
Great-tailed Grackle 25
blackbird sp. 1000 Probably some Brewer's in there; at the Rio Beef Feedlots. Too far away to ID.
House Sparrow 3
...and the checklist for the South Brushline Road portion:
Turkey Vulture 9
White-tailed Hawk 1
Common Ground-Dove 2
Mourning Dove 10
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 1
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
Crested Caracara 4
American Kestrel 2
Great Kiskadee 4
Loggerhead Shrike 1
House Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Curve-billed Thrasher 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Lark Sparrow 12
Vesper Sparrow 5
Savannah Sparrow 5
Western Meadowlark 6
Western/Eastern Meadowlark 1
