Met
my charges Dian and Richard from Austin this morning, and we headed out to
Estero Llano Grande for some Valley specialty birding. It was fairly quiet going in, but pretty soon
we heard Buff-bellied Hummingbirds battling around the park host slot’s Turk’s
Cap flowers, and soon after the happy whistle of an Altamira Oriole! She only let us get a glimpse before taking
off for parts unknown, however… L
Many
of our “specialties” actually make it up to Austin, so we didn’t have to sweat
Golden-fronted Woodpeckers and Black-crested Titmice, and thanks to a quick
visit to Bentsen the day before they had already bagged Green Jays and
Chachalacas, so we made our way through the Tropical Zone and, as is often the
case, heard a lot but saw very little.
Some things, like the Clay-colored Thrush near Ben Basham’s place, and
the Olive Sparrow near Tyrannulet Trail, only allowed fleeting glimpses, while
near the butterfly garden a Couch’s Kingbird and Eastern Wood Pewee allowed
scope views. Several Kiskadees flew
overhead (Richard had seen one the day before but Dian was looking the other
direction J), and finally one landed in a tree and
sat still enough for Dian to get a good look!
A Long-billed Thrasher actually cooperated for a nice view, while the
Curve-billed only let us see his white tail corners… A Carolina Wren actually popped up while
trying to draw the thrushes out, and near the east side of the Zone a feeding
flock went through that gave us a female Black-throated Green Warbler, which
was a life bird for Dian! On the way
back to the main road a White-tipped Dove came out on the pavement briefly.
Dian and Richard in the Tropical Zone
Heading
down the brick walkway towards the visitor’s center, a Green Kingfisher ticked
unseen in the canal next to the trail, and Red-winged Blackbirds dominated the
feeders. After checking in we opted to
check Ibis Pond from the boardwalk on the way back, seeing as the sun was at an
awful angle, but as we headed toward the hummer feeders a flock of White-faced
Ibis flew overhead! A few minutes’ wait
at the feeder finally bagged a good look at a Buffbelly, but then I heard a
distant Groove-billed Ani, so we headed down the trail in search of him. Unfortunately he remained very distant, so the
best I could do was point out the call…
Checking out the feeders from the deck
We
kept leapfrogging with Ranger John, who was taking two ladies on a bird walk;
out at Dowitcher Pond we had our first looks at Least Grebe (along with tons of
coots; they were sharing with me how the Hawaiian Coots have longer toes so
they can more easily walk on the lava) and the ever-present Spotted Sandpiper. At Grebe Marsh we had another pair of Least
Grebes in a little better light, and we were looking at what turned out to be
an Eastern Phoebe when Dian spotted a Green Kingfisher on one of the dead
sticks! At Alligator Lake a
Yellow-crowned Night Heron dutifully showed off, but I was anxious to find the
Pauraque, and was a little nervous when we couldn’t spot him right away! Hearing John down the trail I assumed he had
the bird that hangs at the foot of the overlook, but he didn’t, and informed us
that the two Pauraques were there at
their normal spot! After enjoying an
Anhinga at the overlook (and being joined by another birder, plus a mother and
little girl), our whole mob headed back to the “spot”, where now John was sweating because the birds had
disappeared! I was anticipating a lot of
hard looking when Dian suddenly said, “I see it!” It was tucked tail in to the tree, and when
she went around to get a better angle for a picture, she declared there were two birds! Both Richard and I insisted that she was
looking at the same bird at a different angle behind the tree, but she got us
to where we could actually see the
two birds, which were both tail in at the same angle! (Guess you had to be there…)
Playing the "Spot the Pauraque" game...
One of two birds hiding cryptically behind a tree!
After
enjoying them we snuck around to see if the McCall’s Screech Owl was in his
box, and thankfully he was! John had
been telling us about their plight with the crazy ants, and we saw the bird
scratch at his face and then take off, but then his mate popped up! Through the scope you could see the box was
covered with ants, and we felt so helpless; these things are almost impossible
to eradicate.
One of the "McCall's" Screech Owl pairs looks at us cross-eyed...
After
a peek at Ibis Pond in better light (along with another pair of Least Grebes,
which led to a discussion on the “correct” pronunciation of various bird
names), with what little time we had left we decided to head over to Frontera Audubon
for another chance at the thrush and other skulky birds. I had forgotten that the place normally doesn’t
open till 1:00 on Sundays, but the gate was open, so we rolled on in – turns out
they were having a meeting of some sort, but Chris very graciously opened up
the trails for us, and we were on our way!
Well, we tried to be on our
way but intermittent Green Parakeet screeching sent me running back to the open
area at least twice, but we never could spot them (got Inca Doves instead)…
Inside,
we just slowly walked the trails and again heard more than we could spot: a Beardless Tyrannulet and Gray Hawk called
in the distance, and a couple of Wilson’s Warblers called closer and actually
let us see them. Dian spooked a Ringed
Kingfisher off a branch near the boardwalk, but I never saw it, nor did it even
vocalize! L
The boardwalk had a lot of odes (I pointed out both male and female
Eastern Pondhawks to them), and they loved the Sabal Palm Grove, where the
White-tipped Doves called hauntingly.
The cemetery had a few Couch’s Kingbirds, a Cooper’s Hawk flew overhead
obligingly, and a dull Nashville Warbler showed herself. We chatted a little bit about rare birds that
had shown up there, and even though the feeders hadn’t been stocked, we decided
to give them some time anyway and enjoyed more Buff-bellied Hummers and
White-tipped Doves (and the Ringed Kingfisher rattled in the distance, so I
could count it for my own list J). When it was time to go, we were heading back
towards the entrance when a family of Clay-colored Thrushes decided to show
nicely! That was a very nice ending to
the morning with a modest 62 count of species!
Dian at one of the feeding areas
At least an Eastern Cottontail was cooperative for pictures!
White-tipped Dove showing the lovely blue sheen on its neck
Bird
List:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Blue-winged Teal Plain Chachalaca
Least Grebe
Anhinga
Great Egret
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White-faced Ibis
Cooper's Hawk
Gray Hawk
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
White-winged Dove
Inca Dove
White-tipped Dove
Groove-billed Ani
Eastern Screech-Owl
Common Pauraque
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ringed Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Green Parakeet
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cave Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Bewick's Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Clay-colored Thrush
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Nashville Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Altamira Oriole
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow
62 SPECIES
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