Well, Hurricane Harvey was forecast to
give us torrential rain here in the Valley along with everyone else on the
Texas Coast, but he went “poof” at the last minute (at least in our neck of the
woods; unfortunately his full wrath was unleashed on Houston and vicinity), and
Saturday turned out to be a gorgeous day!
So at the last minute I decided to survey Old Military Highway (OMH) and
Anzalduas County Park, seeing as I needed data for the latter for late
August. I begin the OMH route right at
the Bentsen Rio Grande State Park entrance, follow OMH eastbound up onto the
levee, and then continue on the levee to just before La Lomita Mission (you
used to be able to go straight through to Anzalduas, but now the Border Patrol
keeps that exit closed, even though the gate near La Lomita may be open, so it’s
a good idea to just turn off there and continue to Anzalduas via FM 494). On the way to the starting point I was
treated to a gorgeous sunrise and a “beenting” Common Nighthawk along Bentsen
Palm Drive!
Two views of the sunrise
I got to the starting point pre-dawn, and
it was surprisingly quiet – only a Kiskadee and Couch’s Kingbird were
announcing the dawn! Stopping along the
fields yielded flyover Dickcissels and lots of blackbirds, while a stop up on
the paved portion of the levee bagged a flyover Upland Sandpiper, a
Yellowthroat hiding in the cane, and a surprise Cactus Wren singing from deep
in the thornscrub on the north side! A
Gray Hawk was whistling on the caliche portion of the levee, and the area
around Chimney Park had the requisite urban birds. Shortly past that is the turnoff, where I
finally picked up Black Phoebe for the route.
Going that direction, I usually stop along
the entrance road to Anzalduas to pick up anything that may be hanging out in
the ag fields; this time the most interesting thing was an Orchard Oriole
giving his nyeh call, but I spooked a
raptor that unfortunately flew away from me at an angle that rendered him
unidentifiable (although I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was a Swainson’s
Hawk). Pulling up onto the levee, I was
surprised (and disappointed) to see the gate to the park closed (even though
there were several city trucks in there)!
Figuring they had probably made their plans based on the forecast of
four days’ worth of rain that never materialized, I pulled in the overlook to
the spillway and just logged what I could in five minutes: several Black-necked Stilts in the little
wetland, a distant Osprey, a Carolina Wren and Groove-billed Ani vocalizing
from the woodlands, and an Eastern Meadowlark rattling in the spillway field.
The "Pipit Field" (and the Rio Grande in the distance) at Anzalduas
View of the spillway from the overlook
With those plans dashed, I decided to
follow my normal Big Day route just for kicks and grins, which led me to Quinta
Mazatlan next. Thankfully they were open, so wandering their
beautiful trails there, added Chachalaca (actually, three were having a tussle
right in the parking lot), friendly Olive Sparrows, several Blue-gray Gnatcatchers
and Black-crested Titmice, Clay-colored Thrush families, some Yellow Warblers, plus
a close bird giving a soft, downward whistle that had me totally stumped; all
my pishing got the titmice excited and drew in a Ladder-backed Woodpecker, but
the whistler sat stubbornly until I could finally look in there and get a peek –
it was just a silly Mockingbird! L
Black-crested Titmouse growing in some new tail feathers
Their new trail is now open, so I headed
in followed by the feeding flock I had gotten all riled up (along with a
Brown-crested Flycatcher), but in addition was a bird that had me totally
stumped until I did some on-line photo studies, and concluded I had a Bell’s
Vireo with two strong wing bars, not
just one (still a great bird)! The new
trail basically circled through an open area with mesquites and picnic tables,
but on the return leg I was surprised by a friendly Roadrunner! When he hid behind a palm tree I “messed”
with him by cooing, and he practically jumped in my lap! (Try getting a picture that way! J) Quinta’s resident bird guide John Brush just
happened to be coming the other direction and gleefully witnessed the whole
episode, very happy to see the reported “roadrunner in the park”, which is
quite unusual for an urban setting! A
beautiful Giant Swallowtail decided to float by and pose as well, while near the
new Dragonfly Pond a Tawny Emperor tried to hide on a tree.
The new trail with official Greeting Bunny
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Olive Sparrow
New picnic area; Green Parakeets often nest in the palm trees that are just out of sight on the right
Ratty-looking (but still glossy) Great-tailed Grackle
Friendly Roadrunner
Giant Swallowtail
Tawny Emperor
Bordered Patch (above and below)
With only enough time for one more stop, I
opted for Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, which was a good choice as I picked up
several water birds for the day: tons of
Neotropic Cormorants, several Snowy Egrets, a Great Blue Heron, and a couple of
Greens flying around graced the north pond.
Across the way I almost wrote off a “grackle” that morphed into a
Groove-billed Ani! The “Jungle Trail”
had the day’s only White-tipped Dove, and a great look at a ratty-looking
Clay-colored Thrush. Their signature
Buff-bellied Hummingbirds were all over, along with their resident group of
Chachalacas. Walking the trail next to
the canal added a Yellow-crowned Night Heron for the morning; checked out the
south pond but it was empty except for a lone Snowy Egret across the way.
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
"Jungle Trail"
Another Buffbelly watches the trail from his overhead perch
Two Neotropic Cormorants trying to stay cool
(The head-on look is rather interesting...)
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Gulf Fritillary
Headed home after that, but the excitement
wasn’t over: when I got home I noticed a
message from Dan Jones on the RBA WhatsApp Group that he had a Magnificent
Frigatebird up at Delta Lake! (He had
seen the Texbirds report of bunches of them being blown down the Arroyo
Colorado near Rio Hondo so figured Delta Lake would be a good place to look for
one for Hidalgo County…) Since my friend
Pat was a big county lister (and I was sure our other friend Joyce would be
interested as well), the three of us headed up post haste where Mary Gustafson
had joined the watch, and miracle of miracles the bird was still visible! Unfortunately she was too distant for a
decent photo, but before we had gotten there she had flown right overhead,
allowing Dan to get some fabulous photos (which he graciously let me use for
the blog)! While there added a handful
of things to the day list, but was really surprised I only had barely cleared
60 species for the day! (Oh, and a nice
Swainson’s Hawk did put on a show as
I was pulling into my apartment…)
Female Magnificent Frigatebird that got blown into Hidalgo County (photo courtesy of Dan Jones)
Bird List:
Plain Chachalaca
Magnificent Frigatebird
Neotropic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Green Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Gray Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Black-necked Stilt
Killdeer
Upland Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Groove-billed Ani
Common Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Black Phoebe
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Bell's Vireo
Green Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cave Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Carolina Wren
Cactus Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Clay-colored Thrush
Long-billed Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Dickcissel
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Orchard Oriole
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow
63 SPECIES
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