Monday, May 29, 2017

Cool Birding in the Heat

5/26/17

Headed out before dawn on Friday to the chorus of awakening Tropical Kingbirds (which John thankfully got the day before on his laid-back rest day)!  We headed over to Estero Llano Grande under heavily cloudy skies, and as Providence would have it, a state trooper had pulled over a car and both were “using” the park entrance road, effectively blocking our entrance, so we used that excuse to continue south and see perchance if the gate to the actual Estero Llano Grande was open!  Thankfully it was, and as we pulled in, Dickcissels were singing out the yin yang in the field next to us, but unfortunately were laying low due to the wind!  After a long time scanning I was thrilled to hear John say he saw one fly in, land briefly, then dive down into the stuff, but he described it perfectly, so that was great (lifer)!  Several Snowy Egrets and a couple of Great Egrets and Tricolored Herons fed in the river, but that was about it, and not wanting to take the risk of getting gated in, we decided to turn around and head back to the park.

By that time both law-breaker and law-enforcer had cleared the entrance road, so we headed in and poked into the Tropical Zone first.  The place was packed with White-winged Doves, and we managed wire looks at Couch’s Kingbirds.  We saw the tyrannulet nest (with no tyrannulet), and the screech owl was a no-show, so we went to sit at the drip in hopes that some migrants might come in.  A White-tipped Dove pranced by right out in the open, and a Curve-billed Thrasher flew and posed nicely, but we weren’t there very long before we heard Green Parakeets screeching by!  They sounded like they had landed, so that got us out of our seats and to the back road (enjoying a nice Ladder-backed Woodpecker along the east fence), where we finally found one perched closer to the entrance!  John’s life Purple Martins flew overhead, and a female even perched for scope views!  A group of Lesser Goldfinches also were entertaining as they chased each other, and Chachalacas posed right out in the open.  We heard Clay-colored Thrushes all over, but never could get on one (and thankfully that wasn’t one John “needed”).

Headed up the brick walk next, where a Long-billed Thrasher ran across the road and then gave great looks right along the bank!  At the deck the VC wasn’t quite open yet (and found out they were preparing for a group of kidlets), so we checked out things there, said hi to Rangers Jose and John, then sat for 15 waiting for a Buff-bellied Hummingbird to come in to the feeders, which he did eventually, along with a fleeting Green Jay!  When we heard the kidlets were arriving soon we headed straight for Alligator Lake!

White-winged Dove at the feeders

We made a brief stop at Dowitcher Pond where we had a Gull-billed Tern keeping company with Killdeer and Stilts, and at Grebe Marsh John spotted a female Green Kingfisher!  At the turnoff he announced he thought he had an alligator peeking out of the water, and then I saw what he was looking at:  a Soft-shelled Turtle just peeking its eyes and nose out of the water!  An adult Yellow-crowned Night Heron across the way was nice (we had an immature earlier), but hard as we tried, we just couldn’t find the Pauraque (thankfully that wasn’t a life bird, either, but it’s kind of requisite that all visitors see Estero’s “tame” Pauraques J), and the screech owl wasn’t in his hole, so that was disappointing.  But at least there was the iconic Alligator hauled out on the bank at the overlook!

Female Green Kingfisher

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Futile search for the Pauraque...

We found John’s life Stilt Sandpiper in Dowitcher Pond on the way back (we took the loop), but that was about it bird-wise, especially with the wind.  We arrived at the VC to see that the kidlets had arrived in force, and they were having a big time at each “station” along the brick walkway that described the adventures a migratory bird goes through (or at least that’s what I gathered from reading them J)! 

It was still on and off overcast and breezy, so it was still tolerable; therefore we headed over to Frontera in hopes of catching some migrants.  We ran into Simon K. who reported a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher and Beardless Tyrannulet (I was surprised we didn’t even hear that at Estero), so we were hopeful!  Actually, things were pretty quiet initially as we made the loop, but we spotted a male Green Kingfisher from the overlook at the Big Pond, and swinging around the back side we scared up a Northern Waterthrush – I was so thrilled to get at least one migrant!!

We made it to the cemetery area where Simon had his flycatcher, and an empid did indeed pop up, but unfortunately not his Yellowbelly – this guy was a “Traill’s” Flycatcher for sure, with barely an eyering and pale underparts, but unfortunately he didn’t say a word, and he was most uncooperative for pictures.  A little further on we did hear the incessant peeping of what I felt comfortable calling a Yellow-bellied, but we never could get him to come out; titmice popped in and out, and a fledgling Olive Sparrow actually popped up (at least I hope it wasn’t actually a cowbird; “Mummy” was nearby, but that baby looked awfully bulky and dark for a sparrow to me…)!  So we decided to sit at the feeders; the first set was rather quiet except for Fox Squirrels and White-winged Doves, but the second set (the “old” feeders) hit pay dirt with a whole titmouse family that came in!  Simon’s tyrannulet called in the distance, so we decided to go after him, and we hadn’t hardly left the area when a real Olive Sparrow family popped up at point blank, and suddenly the tyrannulet was right behind us!  He finally came out with a little coaxing, showing that puffy little head!  A Carolina Wren came in to investigate, and even the Traill’s came back for an encore!  We were amazed at how suddenly everything came together!

Mystery empid - best guess is a "Traill's"...  Feedback welcome!


 We called it a morning after that, ready to take a siesta to be rested for the afternoon shift!  I was a little concerned with the heat advisory, but with the breeze it was actually quite pleasant!  Our first stop was an unintended one along FM 493 where a flooded field had a nice flock of White-faced Ibis, at least one actually showing the white face!  Both whistling ducks sat side by side, which was nice as well.  I chose to go over to CR 20 in case that wetland was still intact (which it wasn’t), but birding the dicey roads was wonderfully productive:  Scissor-tailed Flycatchers posed left and right, and right away a flock of Pyrrhuloxias chattered and showed themselves!  A Cactus Wren finally came in at the same stop, Lark Sparrows gave good views eventually, and Ground Doves were all over the place.  A Verdin drove us nuts by continually flying back and forth over the road but never allowing a look…  I heard something funny at the dried wetland, and when I got out of the car discovered it was an Ash-throated Flycatcher, with a Brown-crested calling nearby for good comparison! 

White-faced Ibis along FM 493


The actual "white face" shows only for a short time during breeding season.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Ash-throated Flycatcher

John watching the flycatcher along CR20 in the La Sal Viejas Tract

When we made the turn onto the dicey part of Ken Baker Road, we were treated to lovely views of the mesquite savannah to the north (from which Cassin’s Sparrows were singing), a Common Nighthawk batting around, and a couple of Bobwhite hightailing it down the track!  (I also narrowly escaped running over a big coil of barbed wire… L)  What I thought was another empid morphed into an Eastern Wood Pewee, and a Caracara flew over and rattled from a tree.  The road dead ends at CR 30, so we took that south, passing over dry La Sal Viejas (and some iffy parts of the road as well), with an Eastern Kingbird perched on one of the dead trees!  A Yellow-billed Cuckoo sang from a hiding place, and an Ani perched in plain sight on the left side of the road!  But the real treat of this leg was a gorgeous Black-throated Sparrow hopping along the fence!  We heard Painted Buntings at several places, but they were too distant to try and see.

Eastern Wood Pewee

We finally made it down to SR 186 and blasted south for a chance at catching the Red-crowned Parrots on Houston and McColl, but never heard any, either there or at Dallas and Cynthia.  So we called it a day and headed home, very happy with the two days’ list!  We topped it off with the whinnying Lesser Nighthawks back at the apartments!  Today’s list (no pun intended) stood at 78 species, if you count the “Traill’s” Flycatcher as a “species”…  Scroll down to the bottom for a bonus picture!  Bird list:

  Black-bellied Whistling-Duck         
  Fulvous Whistling-Duck               
  Blue-winged Teal                     
  Plain Chachalaca                     
  Northern Bobwhite                    
  Neotropic Cormorant                  
  Great Egret                          
  Snowy Egret                          
  Tricolored Heron                     
  Yellow-crowned Night-Heron           
  White Ibis                           
  White-faced Ibis                     
  Turkey Vulture                       
  Common Gallinule                     
  Black-necked Stilt                   
  Killdeer                             
  Stilt Sandpiper                      
  Gull-billed Tern                     
  Rock Pigeon                           
  Eurasian Collared-Dove               
  White-winged Dove                    
  Mourning Dove                        
  Inca Dove                            
  Common Ground-Dove                   
  White-tipped Dove                     
  Yellow-billed Cuckoo                 
  Groove-billed Ani                    
  Lesser Nighthawk                     
  Common Nighthawk                     
  Chimney Swift                        
  Buff-bellied Hummingbird             
  Green Kingfisher                     
  Golden-fronted Woodpecker            
  Ladder-backed Woodpecker             
  Crested Caracara                     
  Green Parakeet                       
  Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet        
  Eastern Wood-Pewee                   
  Yellow-bellied Flycatcher            
  “Traill’s” Flycatcher                     
  Ash-throated Flycatcher              
  Brown-crested Flycatcher             
  Great Kiskadee                       
  Tropical Kingbird                    
  Couch's Kingbird                     
  Eastern Kingbird                     
  Scissor-tailed Flycatcher            
  White-eyed Vireo                     
  Green Jay                            
  Horned Lark                           
  Purple Martin                        
  Cave Swallow                         
  Black-crested Titmouse               
  Verdin                               
  Carolina Wren                        
  Bewick's Wren                         
  Cactus Wren                          
  Clay-colored Thrush                  
  Curve-billed Thrasher                
  Long-billed Thrasher                 
  Northern Mockingbird                 
  European Starling                    
  Northern Waterthrush                 
  Olive Sparrow                        
  Cassin's Sparrow                     
  Lark Sparrow
  Black-throated Sparrow                        
  Northern Cardinal                    
  Pyrrhuloxia                           
  Painted Bunting                      
  Dickcissel                           
  Red-winged Blackbird                 
  Eastern Meadowlark                   
  Great-tailed Grackle                 
  Bronzed Cowbird                       
  Brown-headed Cowbird                 
  Lesser Goldfinch                     
  House Sparrow                        

78 SPECIES

John and Ian chilling out on the next day's Birder Patrol trip (which I didn't attend)!



One Last Migration Fix

5/24/17

A miracle happened in the midst of constant dry weather and south winds, and a cold front blew through Tuesday night and kept up the north winds through Wednesday, so John from Warwickshire, England timed his arrival perfectly!  It was cool and crisp in the morning (I caught the nesting Lesser Nighthawks batting overhead while getting the car ready pre-dawn), and the whole time we were at South Padre Island we had a cool breeze blowing!

We headed out, stopping at a Stripes for coffee and a snack, then went over to the Island by way of SR 100, bagging a pair of Chihuahuan Ravens flying across the road.  We stopped at the Blue Shack and initially saw only Black and Turkey Vultures, but just as I was getting ready to pull out, we saw this little guy buzzing after one of the vultures – the Aplomado!  He swung up and landed on one of the crossbars (in horrible light, naturally), so we pulled ahead and found a safe place to pull over where we could put the scope on him for better views!  Another Turkey Vulture came too close, and he and another falcon took chase!  That was fun!

Once on the Island we headed straight to the Convention Centre, where things seemed a little slow, but ran into Joe from Edinburg who had seen “a couple of warblers”, and when he showed me what he photographed, I nearly fainted – he had just seen a male Golden-winged Warbler!!  So he showed us where the bird was, joined by fellow Birder Patroller Betty, and before long the little guy came in and showed beautifully!  John and I went to sit on the “corner bench”, and stuff just started coming to us: in addition to the Goldenwing making several appearances, we had visits from a Magnolia and Black-throated Green Warbler, an American Redstart, and several Eastern Wood Pewees!  (We discovered later that the Goldenwing had an injured foot, hence why he probably hadn't headed north yet...)  After about ten minutes we poked around the back area where we didn’t see much (and even less out back as the water was very high, but one of the “pied-winged” Reddish Egrets put on a nice show by hanging in mid-air aided by the north wind), so we circled around when I thought I heard a waterthrush pink.  Couldn’t pull anything out, but what was showing up was dozens of Eastern Kingbirds!  Joe pointed out a single Cedar Waxwing, and Scarlet and George Colley showed up and pointed out a female Indigo Bunting!  John got a kick out of the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks camped out on the top of the Centre building! J

John willing something to come in to the water feature!

Reddish (left) and Great Egrets
  
We finally hit the boardwalk, enjoying the requisite spoonbills and stilts out in the east pond, along with some waders we hoped to get a better look at from the Birding Center boardwalk (a bobbing Spotted Sandpiper was about the only thing we could positively ID in that light).  Halfway down the boardwalk I spotted John’s coveted Least Bittern out in the open, but the bugger slinked into the reeds before John could get on him! L  Not to be deterred, we went to the end of the boardwalk, where thankfully another bird was halfway up the reeds and decided to pose beautifully for us!  A Caspian Tern weaved around and showed off every field mark, while several of the other extreme, the Least Terns, batted around.  The other boardwalk was rather birdless except for a female Yellow Warbler that darted in and a singing White-eyed Vireo that refused to come out, but we were hoping for the reported frigatebird!  Nada…  On the way back a White Ibis in full breeding color sailed by, and we spotted a few Scissor-tailed Flycatchers in with the kingbirds, but before heading for Sheepshead (where the report of a continuing Yellow-green Vireo had just come in) we checked the “roundabout bushes” for stuff, but just had a few pewees.

Washed-out Great Blue Heron

Least Bittern

Eastern Kingbird

Cedar Waxwing

After stopping at “What-a-birder” we headed over to Sheepshead where Mary G. and Lizzie and several other ladies were already at the fence; Lizzy told us the vireo had been playing hide-and-seek, so we retrieved our burgers from the car and munched down, figuring that would make the bird come out (when our mouths and hands were full of food J)!  We made it through lunch with nothing more than a Red-eyed Vireo and female redstart interrupting us, and I had just pointed out a Chestnut-sided Warbler to John when one of the girls said, “I have it!”  The Yellow-green Vireo was at the back water feature!  Thankfully everyone was able to get onto him, so that was a real treat! 

Waiting patiently for the Yellow-green Vireo to show up...

We meandered over to the other side after that where John found an empid that my gut feeling on was Willow (no eyering), but later I was hearing a pit, which would fit Alder, so I’m not sure what we had, as I’ve never seen a proven Alder that didn’t have at least somewhat of a thin eyering.  Betty refound us just as a strange little guy jumped from a palmetto into the grass, and when he finally came out it turned out to be a first-year Mourning Warbler (which made sense after the husky call note I heard)!  A Common Nighthawk put in a surprise appearance and then flew right over our heads – another lifer for John!

From there we decided to try The Flats, which were actually drivable (I wasn’t sure seeing all those whitecaps from the back of the Convention Centre)!  We only had one little larid flock to drive up to, but the quality couldn’t be beat:  besides the usual Royal and Sandwich Terns and skimmers (just a couple), we had several Black Terns (a couple in full breeding plumage), several Common Terns (one in breeding plumage but most were in basic), and a handful of Sanderlings.  A snoozing Marbled Godwit was our token “big shorebird”.

Black Tern

Royal (in back) and Common Terns

Marbled Godwit, hiding his ultra-long bill!

From there we decided to hit the Birding Center, where a walk around the butterfly garden hit pay dirt with a great look at a Yellow-billed Cuckoo!  Javi told us several empids were around, and we did indeed see several, but they either didn’t stay still long enough for a good look, or they kept shifting field marks on us (we thought we had a Yellow-bellied with the non-contrasting face, but then it would move to another branch and suddenly be pale below with a very contrasting face)!  Giving up on those we hit the boardwalk for the easier stuff, and got another life bird pretty easily:  Mottled Duck!  Javi pointed out a Wilson’s Plover to us that really blended in, and an Osprey was still hanging around perched on a very odd square-shaped branch!  Clapper Rails sounded off but never showed themselves, unlike the Common Gallinules!  The friendly Rock Pigeons escorted us for much of the way, and I didn’t even see the Collared Dove until I flushed it off the railing!  To the south were many Willets, but also some Ruddy Turnstones that came sailing in.

Waterfall behind the SPI Birding & Nature Center VC

Tricolored Heron stalking lunch


The final leg was more productive, with various herons (a nice look at a Green Heron showing off his “do”), more spoonbills, and a better look at some of the shorebirds in that east pond:  we positively added Greater Yellowlegs and Short-billed Dowitcher (along with a lingering Blue-winged Teal), and a chink-chink alerted me to the fact that a White-rumped Sandpiper was around!  Thankfully we both saw it wheel in (there were two, actually), so that made it an easy ID!  A little more challenging was a duller bird that I suspected was a Baird’s, but I had been fooled by those Whiterumps in basic plumage before, so we waited for this one to be bullied by a Coot into flying a little to reveal that he only had white on the sides, confirming (at the time) that he was indeed a Baird’s Sandpiper!  Alas, the pictures proved I was fooled again, but not by a White-rumped Sandpiper:  this guy was by himself, so size can be hard to judge, but my pictures showed a dumpy, short-billed, short-winged peep that much better fit a Semipalmated Sandpiper...  John was glassing a little bird and declaring, “That’s not a Barn Swallow!”  I got on it briefly enough before it disappeared behind some vegetation to tell it was a Chimney Swift!  A couple on the parallel boardwalk pointed out a big Blue Crab to us, so that was fun!  Surprisingly, we found no Alligators today!

What I thought was a Baird's Sandpiper at a distance looks more like a Semipalmated when looking at the photos; feedback welcome!




Yet another Tricolored Heron

John was very happy with the day and didn’t necessarily see the need to go back to the Convention Centre (the day before was apparently much better, but today you really needed patience for the birds to show up), so since he needed some open country birds we headed down Old Port Isabel Road.  Despite the recent rains, it still was in decent shape (except for some of those ruts that I think are permanent…), and we hadn’t gone far before his next life bird popped up – a nice Horned Lark!  Continuing on we heard a Cassin’s Sparrow singing and got a look at him skylarking, and down the road John spotted a distant raptor that turned out to be a nice White-tailed Hawk!  He spotted something running across the road way in the distance, and I couldn’t get onto it before it disappeared, but when we got to that point a Bobwhite was “covey calling” right next to the road (unseen, of course), so there’s no doubt in my mind that’s what it was (although John needs a better look to count it J)!  At the same stop both Cactus and Bewick’s Wrens sang, but neither would come out for a look.

We had to scoot after that in order to get home in time, but we were distracted at the Skeet Club entrance by what was probably a Tropical Kingbird but never said anything.  A Golden-fronted Woodpecker bounced across the road and landed in a bush where we could barely make out his zebra back!  After finally getting to the freeway and flying north, a flock of birds was flying to our right, and as he answered in the affirmative to my, “Do they have this; do they have that?” questions, we concluded we had his life White-faced Ibis flying by! J

After a stop at HEB we wheeled in with 92 species for the day!  Bird List:

  Black-bellied Whistling-Duck         
  Mottled Duck                         
  Blue-winged Teal                     
  Northern Bobwhite                    
  Neotropic Cormorant                  
  Brown Pelican                        
  Least Bittern                        
  Great Blue Heron                     
  Great Egret                          
  Snowy Egret                          
  Little Blue Heron                    
  Tricolored Heron                     
  Reddish Egret                        
  Cattle Egret                         
  Green Heron                          
  White Ibis                           
  White-faced Ibis                     
  Roseate Spoonbill                    
  Black Vulture                        
  Turkey Vulture                       
  Osprey                               
  Harris's Hawk                        
  White-tailed Hawk                    
  Clapper Rail                         
  Common Gallinule                      
  American Coot                        
  Black-necked Stilt                   
  Black-bellied Plover                 
  Wilson's Plover                      
  Killdeer                             
  Spotted Sandpiper                     
  Greater Yellowlegs                   
  Willet                               
  Marbled Godwit                       
  Ruddy Turnstone                      
  Sanderling                           
  Dunlin                               
  Baird's Sandpiper                    
  White-rumped Sandpiper               
  Short-billed Dowitcher               
  Laughing Gull                        
  Least Tern                           
  Caspian Tern                         
  Black Tern                           
  Common Tern                          
  Royal Tern                           
  Sandwich Tern                        
  Black Skimmer                        
  Rock Pigeon                          
  Eurasian Collared-Dove               
  Mourning Dove                        
  Inca Dove                            
  Yellow-billed Cuckoo                 
  Lesser Nighthawk                     
  Common Nighthawk                     
  Chimney Swift                         
  Ruby-throated Hummingbird            
  Buff-bellied Hummingbird             
  Golden-fronted Woodpecker            
  Crested Caracara                     
  Aplomado Falcon                      
  Eastern Wood-Pewee                    
  Brown-crested Flycatcher             
  Eastern Kingbird                     
  Scissor-tailed Flycatcher            
  White-eyed Vireo                     
  Red-eyed Vireo                       
  Yellow-green Vireo                   
  Chihuahuan Raven                     
  Horned Lark                          
  Barn Swallow                         
  Verdin                               
  Bewick's Wren                        
  Cactus Wren                          
  Gray Catbird                         
  Northern Mockingbird                 
  European Starling                    
  Cedar Waxwing                        
  Golden-winged Warbler                
  Mourning Warbler                     
  American Redstart                    
  Magnolia Warbler                     
  Yellow Warbler                       
  Chestnut-sided Warbler               
  Black-throated Green Warbler         
  Cassin's Sparrow                     
  Indigo Bunting                        
  Red-winged Blackbird                 
  Eastern Meadowlark                   
  Great-tailed Grackle                 
  Brown-headed Cowbird                 
  House Sparrow                        

92 SPECIES