Ken was anxious to get to Cameron County,
as he had a whole pile of potential lifers that were coastal! His MIB (Most Important Bird) was the
Aplomado Falcon, so we headed out to Old Port Isabel Road first, praying the
bird would be visible on what would certainly be the only drivable portion of
the road after the previous day’s storm!
At our first stop the air was filled with the songs of Eastern Meadowlarks,
and down the way we saw what turned out to be another birding group! J
As we approached, Ken spotted a raptor on a telephone pole to our right
which was almost right in the sun; it looked pretty big and bulky so I had it
written off as a Harris’ Hawk until I took a look, and I couldn’t believe it –
it was his life Aplomado Falcon! I got
the scope on it, and despite the not-great lighting situation, Ken could see
every field mark! In the meantime the
birding group had their sights trained on the hacking platform, and when I
finally got someone’s attention I pointed to the falcon right behind them! By the time we caught up with the group
(which was a Road Scholar group this time), they were enjoying a pair of
falcons that were on the platform in
much better light, but their backs were to us, so Ken thought his look was superior! J
Ken's life Aplomado Falcon!
The pair on the hacking platform, much farther away!
Road Scholar group enjoying the well-lit falcons...
We continued on, because he still needed
Long-billed Curlew and some sparrows, plus John Ewan (a volunteer at Santa Ana)
had passed on that another trustworthy birder was pretty sure he had a
Gray-crowned Yellowthroat just past the Skeet Range, but he couldn’t confirm
it. So we at least went that far to see
what we could pish out, and interestingly a Swamp Sparrow peeped from the
reeds! Couldn’t get it to come out, but
even better was the King Rail that started “clapping” in the distance! (Unfortunately there was no way we were gonna
see that thing, so Ken had to be happy with a good “listen”…) We heard some Long-billed Curlews but
couldn’t spot them, and since Ken was more anxious to get to the Island
(figuring he could get the curlews easy enough elsewhere) we headed back, only
to slam on the brakes when a huge curlew stood next to the road, giving great
looks, then slinking back into the grass!
Gull-billed Tern was another target, and
they had been reported at the Highway 48 Boat Ramp, so we gave it a shot and
ran into the Road Scholar group again!
Bob Powell was leading the group and said they hadn’t seen any yet, but
in the meantime we enjoyed a couple of Yellow-crowned Night Herons, a white
morph Reddish Egret, and some skimmers.
From there we took off for the Island,
heading straight to the Bayside Flats, and thankfully they were drivable! There were several groups of birds, so we
kind of looped around so that Ken could get good, well-lit views out his
window. There were lots of Semipalmated
Plovers around, but alas, no Snowies or Piping, but amongst the hordes of
Dunlin we found a few Western Sandpipers (another lifer). It was quite windy, so the terns were either
facing away from us or had their noses under their wings, but the few that did
show their noses all appeared to be Royals (with a token Caspian amongst them),
along with the smaller Forster’s.
However, a lone tern sitting on the beach towards the south did turn out
to be the coveted Gull-billed, and he shortly flew and gave us a show as he
dove and nabbed stuff in the little mangrove “hammock” that sat in the middle
of the flats! There was a mob of stuff
over by the private pier, so we managed to make it even that far, adding deep
water stuff such as Common Loon, Red-breasted Mergansers, and White Pelicans to
the list. Later, however, while processing the pictures, I noticed to my chagrin that Ken's coveted Sandwich Tern made a cameo appearance while I was shooting a Ring-billed Gull - he was apparently one of those nose-in-the-wings terns that just decided to turn his head when I snapped the picture!
Black-bellied Plover
Ruddy Turnstone
Dunlin attempting to snooze
Ring-billed Gull with a cameo appearance by a Sandwich Tern (right)
Bad hair day...
Herring Gull
I wasn’t sure if the restrooms at the
Convention Centre would be open, so we headed straight to the Birding Center,
where I pointed out the Great Southern Whites that I promised Ken we’d see on
the coast! After getting our tickets we
headed straight to the boardwalks, where, after squeezing by all the tourists
enjoying the ducks and pigeons, we started looking for rails. Out on the pier we enjoyed a point-blank dark
morph Reddish Egret, and Ken spotted a Belted Kingfisher guarding the “No Wake”
sign! Being an expert on fish, he was
pointing out the various fish in the bay, although he wasn’t sure what
comprised the schools of tiny fish we were seeing.
Mottled Duck
Reddish Egret (above and below)
Having his own "bad hair day" (above and below)
Belted Kingfisher
Continuing on the loop I heard some
high-pitched whistling that I thought were some kids squealing at first, then
realized I was hearing Oystercatchers, and we just happened to latch onto them
as they flew by! A Northern Waterthrush called
from the base of the mangroves, and further on we noticed that they had cleared
out most of the reeds, but the birds didn’t seem to mind, as Common Gallinules
and Coots were all over, along with a lone Redhead and Pied-billed Grebe close
to the boardwalk! An absolutely huge Alligator was hauled out, and this
one gallinule was making the most sad, plaintive noise as he poked around
looking for food! Another Bird Blind had
several Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, giving Ken a better look than he had had
before, and the little island that is also visible from the CC boardwalk had
several spoonbills and Greater Yellowlegs on it. As we were on our way out we heard a mad
squawking and looked back to see where a Black-crowned Night Heron had landed,
but we didn’t see what had caused the ruckus (probably the gator…).
Common Gallinule (above and below)
Big Mama Gator
"I see you!"
Great Blue Heron
Pied-billed Grebe (showing off his lobed toes below)
We headed back to the car, then swung over
to the CC to eat lunch on the benches, where the little woodland that is
hopping during migration was as quiet as could be! After lunch we walked to the back area where
we tried unsuccessfully to call up a Sedge Wren (got a Giant Swallowtail
instead). We hit the boardwalk after
that where we ran into Michael Marsden leading a Naturalists Journey birding group
(they’re really coming out of the woodwork this week J)!
He was showing the group a Little Blue Heron when a Least Bittern
sounded off right next to us! A perusal
of the rest of the boardwalk yielded no Clapper Rails (I couldn’t believe we
didn’t even hear any – that was an
absolute first!), but a close Redhead was nice, and Michael’s group spotted some kind of yellow snake that
disappeared before we could get a look at it.
Upon “landing” back at the center’s gardens, I was shocked to find a
White-striped Longtail batting around the flowers!
Lunch at the Convention Centre gardens
Giant Swallowtail
Redhead
White-striped Longtail
We decided to make a return visit to the
Flats, seeing that there were a lot more bird groups out there! The Skimmers had moved in, and yet another
vanful of birders was way out by the water’s edge, but we were rather
nonplussed with the vehicles that insisted on driving right through the birds
(while we were studying them, yet)!
Ironically, the birds themselves didn’t seem too perturbed; they just
lifted off and settled right back down again, sticking their noses in their
wings or doing the “dead skimmer routine”.
A small group of Short-billed Dowitchers was close by, which was another
sought-after lifer.
More peeps on the beach
Ken's life Western Sandpiper...
...and his life Short-billed Dowitcher!
Yet another birding group enjoys the mob
Snoozing Black Skimmers sleep like the dead...
After combing the flats, I thought that maybe we’d have enough time to check out
Boca Chica Beach, because that was the only other place I thought we might have
a reasonable chance at finding the plovers (without paying ten bucks for SPI
beach access). So we blasted down there,
picking up three Chihuahuan Ravens on the wires on Boca Chica Boulevard
itself. The beach was in relatively good
shape, but alas, nothing new to add – just a ton of cute little Sanderlings and
all three expected gulls.
Sanderlings
Headed home with 73 species for the
day! Bird List:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Redhead
Red-breasted Merganser
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Kite
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
King Rail
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Oystercatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Long-billed Curlew
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Western Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Belted Kingfisher
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Aplomado Falcon
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Chihuahuan Raven
Barn Swallow
Marsh Wren
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Northern Waterthrush
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Cassin's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
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