Derek and Helen had just come in from a
five-day blitz on the Central Coast and the Hill Country with Jon McIntyre, so
I was relieved that he had already bagged some of the more difficult Valley
specialties for me! J
However, just because the bird was on the list didn’t mean that they
didn’t have a few “BVDs” (birder lingo for “Better View Desired”), so their
desire was to get good looks at our
local birds, plus get some help with the vocalizations. We had already talked about going up to
Salineño to get some of the upriver specialties (thankfully they logged
Audubon’s Oriole at Choke Canyon), and after an introductory trip to Santa Ana
on their own, they already had a handful of our local specialties (like Chachalaca),
so this was going to be a laid-back sorta day up in Starr County to see what we
could see.
The first stop was Falcon (Starr) County
Park in hopes that the Red-billed Pigeons would be feeding on the coma berries,
but I guess that gang of eleven cleaned them all out two weeks ago, as there
wasn’t a pigeon to be seen! It was a
beautiful day, though, and the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers were back in force,
which delighted these two Brits to no end!
The other hit was the Vermilion Flycatcher pair; even the female had her
subtle beauty! At the same stop we
finally got scope views of a singing Bewick’s Wren, and a Lark Sparrow teed up
on a tree for looks. Making the circle
we added the Ash-throated Flycatcher by the office, and closer to the south
fence a Caracara flew over. Hugging the
“center island” I was thrilled to hear a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher giving his
pish-like scold, and after some coaxing he finally sat up and showed off, black
cap and all!
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Lark Sparrow (above and below)
Giving up on the pigeons, Derek and Helen really wanted to see a Roadrunner again
(they had seen one with Jon, but it was distant), so we wheeled into Falcon
State Park right next door. The entrance
road actually turned out to be quite birdy:
a pair of House Finches sat on a wire first (which are considered
“accidental” in the Valley), and then a thrasher was singing really close, so
we parked and got out to investigate. While
we were searching a Verdin came right out and perched in the top of a dead
tree! Before long we spotted the singer:
a nice Long-billed Thrasher who was partially hidden at first, until a
Pyrrhuloxia came blasting into the Verdin’s tree as if to say, “Why are you
looking at him?! Lookit me!!” About that time the thrasher decided to sit
up as well, so we got great looks at three special birds!
House Finch, considered "accidental" in the Valley
Long-billed Thrasher (above and below)
After checking in and making the right
turn as is my habit, we didn’t have to wait long before we spotted a Roadrunner
next to the road (of course)! A camper
scared him into the campground entrance road, but as we crawled up he stayed
put and we got stunning views! We saw
another one down the road doing his cooing song, but as we crawled up he walked
into the brush. I demonstrated my
compulsion to “mess with Roadrunners” (their song is very easy to mimic), and
suddenly he appeared in the middle of the mesquite, looking all around and
cooing back to me! What a show! We saw yet a third Roadrunner before hitting the primitive camping area!
Roadrunner
I think my Brits woulda been happy if they
saw nothing else at that point J, but turning
right at the road to the primitive camping area gave us a great look at a
preening Curve-billed Thrasher on a wire!
I was telling them that this was a good area for Cactus Wren (and they
were admiring yet another Scissor-tailed Flycatcher) when suddenly something
even better started singing: a Bell’s
Vireo (also considered accidental in the Valley)! Unfortunately he was being drowned out by a
Mockingbird, so the recording wasn’t the best, and the trash picker-upper was
coming by in his noisy little vehicle, so we bagged the idea of trying to pull the
vireo out and headed on. I heard a
Cassin’s Sparrow and we are actually able to spot it doing its parachuting
display song, but every time he landed he quickly moved to another spot, only
to rise and parachute down again!
Curve-billed Thrasher
Down at the boat ramp, my passengers
agreed to some four-wheeling in the hopes of pulling up something new near the
water’s edge; a Greater Yellowlegs was nice, but what we did kick up was an unexpected but pleasant surprise: a pair of Bobwhite (and the female sat on the
track for a good long time, giving us great views)! Bouncing back up to the pavement we headed
over to the picnic area, where we actually had a picnic J while I took the
scope down the path to check out the pile of larids on the spit; it was tough
judging them in the heat waves, but we ended up with a Caspian Tern, a couple
of Ring-billed Gulls, and a mob of Laughing Gulls (plus the odd Great Egret).
We cruised around the cabin area not
picking up anything new (it was getting to be that time of day), then swung
around the county park one last time (same story) before heading out to
Salineño via the Dump Road. Unbelievably
we scared up yet another Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, and also got fleeting looks
at Black-throated Sparrows, but again the Cactus Wrens refused to cooperate,
even though they were singing and calling fairly close. The butters were just going nuts: mainly Lyside Sulphurs attacking these
white-flowered bushes, but I was able to point out a Reakirt’s Blue to Derek
and Helen.
Derek and Helen along the Dump Road
Down at the boat ramp we parked and
decided to hike the trail first, and almost immediately I heard the seedeater
singing! So down we went, and we got
pretty close to him (close enough to get a decent recording for documentation),
and by going down the little side trail that had been blazed last year during
the seedeater “invasion”, we were able to get brief views as the male sat right
up on a dead stalk! Not for long,
unfortunately, but what was either the female or a young male followed him, as
I thought I heard that one singing as well.
But he was going up and down along the whole length of that trail, just
like last year, as we heard him both at the cul-de-sac and then again at the
trailhead (no sign of the nice black-and-white one David and I had seen).
A watch at the river for almost an hour
yielded no specialties except a Green Kingfisher that shot across and then
headed down towards the island. The
Chachalacas were tuning up, and we had at least four pairs spreading the
afternoon news from behind us to Mexico to the island upriver! The “resident” Ospreys were there, of course,
and the Spotted Sandpiper finally showed up (along with a Killdeer who enjoyed
taking a bath at the foot of the boat ramp).
Here, too, the butters were nuts, reminding me of that huge mudding
party along the shores of the Sarapiqui River in Costa Rica, only our species
diversity was lower: again, mainly
Lyside Sulphurs, with a few Snouts and Large Orange Sulphurs in the mix.
Killdeer watches the sky as he cools off!
Mudding party!
Mostly Lyside Sulphurs with one Large Orange Sulphur
A closer look at the Lysides
We were talking about stopping at Hidalgo
for the Monk Parakeets on the way back, but everyone was pretty bushed, so we
decided to call it a day with a surprising 71 species for the day, which is
tough when the feeders are closed! Bird
List:
Gadwall
Mottled Duck
Plain Chachalaca
Northern Bobwhite
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Harris's Hawk
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
White-tipped Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Vermilion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Bell's Vireo
Green Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Cactus Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Black-tailed Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
White-collared Seedeater
Olive Sparrow
Cassin's Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
House Sparrow
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