Willacy
County is one of the most under-birded counties in the LRGV, but there are some
great places to explore; one of my favorites is Sacahuistale Flats, a
road-birding route that basically follows SR 186 eastward from Raymondville
towards Port Mansfield (PM). The Flats
themselves are about halfway to PM, but I like to start my route just past FM
1420, as some of the more “wild” ag fields (i.e., away from peoples’ homes)
provide a different habitat that can have some nice birds for the trip. On the way to the start of the route just
before sunrise, I was honestly afraid I was gonna nail one of the dozens of
southbound Barn Swallows swooping low across the road! Thankfully I didn’t, but at the first stop,
there was a constant flow of them; I think the final total was well over 200
(and I probably undercounted)! The palm
trees along this portion of the route often have Hooded Orioles, but today I
would interestingly get them further east, in the thornscrub (guess they’re on
the move, too, along with the Baltimores)!
Was pleased to not only hear
Upland Sandpipers, but a pair flew by giving great looks! Other “ag specialists” added along this
stretch included Long-billed Curlew and Horned Lark. Also managed my first-of-season Kestrel
hunting from a wire.
One of the ag fields along SR 186
Eurasian Collared Dove, a common rural bird
Once
out of the ag fields you enter typical Tamaulipan Thorn Scrub habitat. To my knowledge, all the land you drive
through right into PM is privately-owned ranch land, but birding from the road
is of course permissible. Be careful, though,
and be sure to pull way over: the
Weekend Warriors heading out to PM with their boats don’t dilly dally, as the
speed limit along here is 75! You’re
also not too far south of the King Ranch, and diligent birders have found Ferruginous Pygmy Owl along
here! The only “King Ranch Specialty”
that I encounter with any frequency out here is Audubon’s Oriole, and this day
I had two birds sadly singing (along with a very happy-sounding Altamira on a power
pole)! The poles are also great places
to look for White-tailed and Harris’ Hawks, along with Crested Caracaras. A nice surprise was a young Red-shouldered
Hawk perched on a power line!
Scene along the road
Immature Red-shouldered Hawk
Hiding Altamira Oriole
Typical thornscrub habitat
Harris' Hawk (not the band on his leg)
About
nine miles past 1420 is a little creek with a couple of primitive parking
areas; this time a couple of fishermen had already staked the place out, so I
didn’t check it, but with the freshwater vegetation it can be a good place to
look for herons, kingfishers, Yellowthroats, Spotted Sandpipers, Anhingas, and,
in winter, Swamp Sparrows. Today the wires were lined with migrating Purple Martins!
Mesquite savannah near the creek
Purple Martins
Further east, you
start getting into mesquite savannah and the coastal plains. This is the realm of Cassin’s and Botteri’s
Sparrows, and I was surprised to hear a couple of the latter still singing
(although it was just the sputtering first part, leaving off the bouncing-ball
ending)! Didn’t hear any Cassin’s
Sparrows this trip, but did pick up a couple of Eastern Meadowlarks. Bobwhites can be calling from the distance
all along this route, even in the ag fields!
Botteri's Sparrow country!
White-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara
I
wrap up my survey just before entering Port Mansfield, making it a nice 13-mile
route. In PM, there are three places we local
birders generally check: the first is
the new Laguna Point Rec Area, a great place to look for shorebirds and other
water birds. I say “new” only in the
sense that they’ve greatly improved the entrance road and have built new piers,
observation decks, trails, and even a restroom!
Before all the improvements the place could often be a muddy death trap
(or it seemed like it, anyway), but it was still great for birds – a lot of us
got our life Purple Sandpiper out there one year! On today’s outing there was nothing out of
the ordinary, but a scan from the end overlook added a ton of young Least Terns
to the list, in addition to a single Common Tern, lots of Laughing Gulls, and a
few shorebirds. A good trail (and even
an interpretive sign) heads out to the water, and from there I was able to get
a closer look at the shorebirds: mostly
Western Sandpipers, but also a few Leasts, Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, and Semipalmated
and Black-bellied Plovers. On the way out I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch what was probably a Mexican Racer slithering across the road, but unfortunately a Texas Rat Snake wasn't so fortunate...
White-tailed Deer with a serious rack chilling out at Port Mansfield!
View from the end of the trail at Laguna Point Rec Area, showing the end parking lot
Deceased Texas Rat Snake
Detail of the head pattern
The
next two places are mentioned on the Texas Wildlife Viewing Map: Fred Stone County Park and the Port Mansfield
Nature Trail. The parking area for the
county park is usually too overrun with people to be worthwhile, so I just
drive right up to the fence at the end of the road and check out the
wetland. Sometimes there’s not much of a
wetland to check, but today there was
a little puddle of water that had a ton of Black-bellied Plovers, Royal and
Caspian Terns, and Long-billed Curlews!
(One of the curlews even fed close to the road in the grass!) The Nature Trail is often too hot to house
many birds (at least this time of year), but this day at least managed to add a
Ruby-throated Hummingbird and a couple of Black Vultures to the day list! This can be a good place to pick up Wild
Turkey, and on other occasions I’ve gotten some good butterflies (such as
Tropical Buckeye) and migrants (such as Yellow-throated and Bay-breasted
Warblers), but today the stars of the show were the White-tailed Deer asking
for handouts…
Loggerhead Shrike
Long-billed Curlew
Deer in velvet
Bambi
Photo bomb... (check out Bambi's tongue)
Portraits of Mom
Dad
A Rock Pigeon squeaks in as the last bird of the day!
Bird List:
Northern Bobwhite
Neotropic Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Black-necked Stilt
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Willet
Upland Sandpiper
Long-billed Curlew
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Least Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Least Tern
Caspian Tern
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Bank Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cave Swallow
Verdin
Cactus Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Yellow Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Botteri's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Dickcissel
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Hooded Oriole
Altamira Oriole
Audubon's Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
House Sparrow
74 SPECIES
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