I wasn’t holding out much hope that the
Green-breasted Mango had survived the historic snowstorm of last Friday (and
neither was Howard, frankly, after two days with no reports of the thing), but
he had purchased his tickets and was gonna go for it anyway, so this morning we
headed to Quinta Mazatlan by way of Whataburger for breakfast J, and killed time
in the parking lot until they opened the gates at 8:00. It was another crisp, somewhat sunny, calm
morning, and there were lots of feathers right there: both Orange-crowned and Black-throated Green
Warblers, gnatcatchers and kinglets, a Mockingbird and Curve-billed Thrasher
side by side, and even fighting phoebes!
Finally when a Quinta truck came through we asked them about the gate,
and he shrugged and said no one had said anything to him about their making a
special opening of the park (normally they’re closed on Mondays), but he bade
us enter anyway, so in we went, with Chachalacas running along ahead of us and
Clay-colored Thrushes flying back and forth across the entrance road!
Treetop Eastern Phoebe
After getting Howard settled I went into
the VC to check in and use the facilities, then took up watch (I would make
several trips back there to get coffee, etc. – that sure felt good on a cold
morning J)! Every 15 minutes I would get up and walk the
circle around the education center just in case the bird was laying low back
there; Green Jays were fussing at something, and at one point I did flush something big that I thought
might have been an owl, but later we saw the Red-shouldered Hawk flying around,
so that could have been what I flushed.
Before long Chris Lopez and his dad arrived; Chris got some nice kinglet
pictures which led to a discussion about how to tell them from Hutton’s Vireos
(don’t have to worry about that here, but in the Hill Country or Big Bend it
could come in handy)! At one point I
heard White-fronted Geese cackling in the distance, and three Gadwall wheeled
overhead, but besides the Kiskadees and the other usuals, things weren’t very
exciting until I heard a Summer Tanager calling over near the entrance
road! A Wilson’s Warbler got added to
the list at one point, but around 11:30 we decided to do some road birding and
then maybe come back later.
Howard takes up watch
Inca Dove along the entrance road
Flyover Red-shouldered Hawk
The closest “bird road” was Wallace Road,
so up we went, and that turned out to be very productive! Right away we had several Red-tailed Hawks
(including a couple of Fuertes’), and at one point we had a young White-tailed,
but what was even better was a young Swainson’s, which is rare this time of
year! The folks who had bought the
former Monte Cristo Tract had evidently cleared some trees, because now you
could see the big lake from the road, with a Great Blue Heron perched on one of
the snags! Further down, the wetlands
were in good shape; Howard spotted a Belted Kingfisher right away, with several
Least Grebes floating along below it! A
Swamp Sparrow peeped behind us, and as we were checking the shorebirds a state
trooper pulled up behind us, his lights flashing! I thought I was pulled over enough, but his
real reason for stopping (and he was very congenial) was to see what we were up
to, and when he was convinced I was a “real birder”, he explained that this
stretch was a popular “pickup” spot for illegal aliens! I didn’t doubt him for a minute, as I often
saw “creepy” cars along there and never felt comfortable enough to go far from
the car! But we saw a good variety of
ducks (including a few Cinnamon Teal), a White Pelican, some nice shorebirds
including Stilt Sandpipers and both flavors of yellowlegs, a perky Vermilion
Flycatcher, and even overwintering Scissor-tailed and Least Flycatchers!
Red-tailed Hawk in flight
Redtails can be quite variable; this one leans closer to a "Fuertes'" type due to the nearly pristine underparts.
This one is much more typical, showing a stronger belly band.
The pale eye suggests that he's a youngster as well.
This juvenile Swainson's Hawk should have been in South America by now!
Like the Swainie, a few Scissor-tailed Flycatchers hang around all winter.
From there we blasted south on US281,
stopped at the McDonald’s for a late lunch, and then decided to revisit Quinta after
much hemming and hawing! So we headed
back in and set up shop, and after about an hour I happened to look up into the
sugar hackberry tree that was the favorite hangout of the Mango, and there he
was!! Howard quickly got on him, and I
miraculously got the scope on him, and we got great looks as he moved around and showed off every field mark
(much better looks than I got the last time)!
He even gave us a breast view so we could see that diagnostic black
stripe down the center!
The mango returns! He has his back to us in the above shot, but you can still see that decurved bill.
Here he's showing a bit of his white underparts...
...but the black stripe down the middle is diagnostic, even in this lousy shot!
We took off after that, and with the
Wallace Road romp we ended up with a respectable 78 species for the day! Bird list:
Greater White-fronted Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Ring-necked Duck
Ruddy Duck
Plain Chachalaca
Least Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
White-faced Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Stilt Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Green-breasted Mango
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Clay-colored Thrush
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
78 SPECIES
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