The cold front hit the Valley with a
vengeance today, but thankfully the accompanying rain stayed in Hidalgo County
and avoided Starr County, which was our destination this day! We headed straight to Falcon State Park
first, figuring that even with the cold weather early morning would be better
for bird activity, but got distracted by a Curve-billed Thrasher on a residential
connector street after we made the turn to the park! (He was posing perfectly until Todd got his
camera on him… L)
Along the entrance road to the park a flighty bird that landed on top of
one of the gas rigs turned out to be an Eastern Bluebird, and a little further a
Bewick’s Wren came in for a great view!
Todd got a shot of a mystery sparrow that I never saw, but his photo
looked like it might have been a Lark Bunting, and that was the consensus of my Facebook friends as well! Just before the
entrance kiosk a covey of Bobwhite ran across the road but didn’t linger!
Good quiz bird - the buffy wing patch nails it as a Lark Bunting! (Photo © 2017 Todd Hooe)
Once we checked in we crawled slowly along
the roads; the normal wintering stuff was around, and Verdins chinked
enticingly (although Todd said he did
finally get a good look at one J). In the primitive camping area a young
Vermilion Flycatcher batted around, but that was the extent of the birdlife
until we got out again to pish at some wrens, and a Roadrunner popped up behind
us! The boat launch parking lot was
totally empty (the first time in my experience), but with no boats on the lake,
the birds had taken over, with over 100 White Pelicans and probably twice as
many cormorants floating in the cove!
They would lift off and move around, and we’d end up encountering them
every time we found another cove; in the picnic area they were joined by a
bunch of Laughing Gulls and a handful of Ringbills! We had up to four Ospreys at once, and on the
way out of the picnic area a pretty Kestrel and handsome Caracara posed for
pictures! We hiked a bit of the Verdin
Nature Trail but got more exercise than birds (although another Roadrunner ran
out in front of us before he saw us, put the brakes on, and backtracked)! A day like today (with temps in the 50s)
would have been a perfect day to hike the whole three-mile loop trail!
With no boaters on the lake, the pelicans and cormorants take over!
White Pelicans
Todd checks the lake from the end of the picnic area
More White Pelicans prepare for liftoff...
Fluffy male Kestrel
Fluffy-headed Crested Caracara
Perturbed-looking Osprey
From there we went straight to Salineño,
picking up a cooperative Black Phoebe on the road to the river! We planned to give the feeders at least an
hour for the orioles to show up before taking up River Watch – well! We hadn’t even reached the porta potty before
Todd spotted the Audubon’s Oriole! (Hostess Lois confirmed from his photo that it was "Baldy", the odd-tufted bird from last year...) There
was actually a pair that was feeding on some PB mixture on the other side of
the tree, so we continued on to the seating area where Merle and Lois’
“assistant” Mike was holding down the fort!
M&L (and their rescue dog Chamois - pronounced "Shammy") shortly came out when they heard
us talking, so we settled in for a great time of catch-up, dog-loving, and
feeder-watching! We joked that we didn’t
even have to wait the full hour for the Audubon’s to show up, but in the course
of the time we did spend there Todd
quickly added Olive Sparrow to his photo list, in addition to more great looks
and photos of both woodpeckers, Kiskadees, Green Jays, Cardinals, a Long-billed
Thrasher, an Orange-crowned Warbler, White-tipped Doves, and finally the
Altamira Oriole! Sadly the Hooded Oriole
hadn’t returned; they were afraid that maybe something happened to the pair
that nested in Falcon Heights and provided babies for so many years…
Black Phoebe
Green Jay
Lady Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Olive Sparrow
Long-billed Thrasher
Cardinal
Altamira Oriole
Orange-crowned Warbler
White-tipped Dove
Audubon's Oriole (Photo ©2017 Todd Hooe)
When we finally tore ourselves away from
there, the show wasn’t over yet, as a “Turkey Vulture” flying overhead morphed
into a Zone-tailed Hawk! We went ahead
and hiked the Seedeater Trail next, but had no seedeaters (or much of anything
else, for that matter); the most interesting birds were a flock of “Mexican”
Ducks on the river, one with a rather curly tail! More cormorants lined the logs (mostly
Doublecrests with one Neotropic), and a couple of Ospreys hung out here as
well. I heard a Gray Hawk “whine” but
wasn’t sure it wasn’t a Green Jay imitation, so we headed up the hill and back
down the driveway, and sure enough, the Gray Hawk took off, calling for good
measure! Alas, no Ringed Kingfishers
graced us, but the Audubon’s Orioles were calling like crazy down the trail!
Shooting the Rio Grande
With what little time we had we opted to
crawl down the Dump Road, and turning the corner onto the main road hit pay
dirt with a beautiful little Black-throated Sparrow right out the window! He was the climax, however, as the road was
as dead as a doornail after that, so we headed on home. That wasn’t the end of the adventure,
however, as driving back through McAllen three Green Parakeets flew across the
freeway! We ended up with a respectable
61 species for the day.
Black-throated Sparrow
Bird List:
“Mexican” Duck
Plain
Chachalaca Northern Bobwhite
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Harris's Hawk
Gray Hawk
Zone-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Inca Dove
White-tipped Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Green Parakeet
Black Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Altamira Oriole
Audubon's Oriole
House Sparrow
61 SPECIES
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