Todd only had a couple of Valley
specialties to get under his belt (although a handful of other more widespread
lifers would have been nice), so we made plans to hit all the regular Aplomado
Falcon haunts the next day, followed by the only hotspot with a fairly recent
sighting of Ringed Kingfisher that you could theoretically get from the
car: Delta Lake! Reason for that being that the forecast
called for highs in the mid 40s and drizzly rain with wind all day, and that’s
exactly how it panned out – it was a miserable
day! But we made it safely to our first
destination, Boca Chica Boulevard, and cruised the road slowly looking for
falcons, checking the hacking platform and reasonable-looking perches. We did find a Harris’ Hawk all hunkered down,
along with a few Sandhill Cranes flying over the road! Along Palmito Hill Road we at least heard a
few things, best of which was a Long-billed Curlew, but about the only thing we
actually saw were some flyover White Pelicans!
We tried calling up Cactus Wrens but they were smarter than we were… L
Heppy had a pretty good layer of mud on his "feet" after traversing Palmito Hill Road!
We didn’t go beyond that, but instead
opted to head up to Old Port Isabel Road, where we knew that, with this
weather, we weren’t gonna get beyond the pipeline work entrance (that’s when
the “good” part of the road ends and the “crappy” part begins…). That hacking platform was empty as well, and
the birdlife was even more sparse: we
heard a couple of meadowlarks, spooked up a couple of Savannah Sparrows, and
had a Tropical/Couch’s type kingbird near the chicken coops. As it turned out, we wouldn’t have been able
to go beyond the pipeline work entrance even if we wanted to, as the big rigs
were lined up to get in and
effectively blocking the road! So we
figured that was a good place to turn around…
Since we were going by it anyway and there
had been historical reports of Aplomados, we swung by Palo Alto Battlefield for
a brief look, picking up a lovely male harrier for the day, but also several
Killdeer feeding in the grass. We picked
up SR 100 by way of Los Fresnos, and that stretch seemed empty of all raptors except for Kestrels! Past the official falcon viewing area we did see a largish raptor hunkered next
to one of the tall power poles, so we pulled over to look, and Todd’s camera
(which was better than a scope when you were in a hurry J) revealed it to
be a Peregrine, which was a new bird for his trip!
Killdeer
From there we went through Laguna Vista, picking
up a mob of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in Roloff Park! We went up Buena Vista Road as far as we
could, only picking up an Osprey in a field, so we backtracked to FM 510 and
took FM 1847 up to the newly opened General Brant Road, and it was glorious (to
drive – the birdlife still stunk)! Along
that stretch (and heading in to the Laguna Atascosa NWR visitor’s center) we
had a grand total of six species, the best of which was another harrier! It was too cold and windy to even watch the
feeders for very long, so we checked in and then headed to Osprey Overlook just
to pad the list. We didn’t stay up there
long, either – just long enough to ID a flock of peeps on the shore (Westerns)
and run back to the warmth of the car!
After jumping in a mob of ducks flew by that were probably Redheads, as
they looked “pochard-y” through the windshield…
A flock of Pintail flying over the car while we were heading out was a
nice addition. A White-tailed Deer
crossing the road several times was the mammalian highlight.
Western Sandpiper (Photo ©2017 Todd Hooe)
Lakeside Drive
We logged a grand total of three species
going back out General Brant before heading over to Delta Lake, hoping to find
some geese in a field somewhere, but again, they were smarter than we
were… Although we didn’t see any
kingfishers of any kind, we were rewarded with somewhat of a decent bird list
despite the wet and cold: a stately
Great Blue Heron greeted us along the canal, and a pair of Caspian Terns
accompanied us along the road! In the
“back section” one tree was loaded with Yellowrumps and Orange-crowned
Warblers, while Killdeer and Starlings fed side by side in the grass. Back in the big picnic areas a Ladder-backed
Woodpecker almost let Todd get a picture J, while a brilliant
Vermilion Flycatcher allowed wonderful photos!
Finally, on the lake itself, we hit the jackpot with two different rafts
of ducks: on the west side were Coots,
Pintail, Shovelers, and Blue-winged Teal, and on the other side were the
pochards: Canvasbacks, Redheads,
Ring-necked Ducks, and scaup (with a Pied-billed Grebe thrown in)! The Tree Swallows didn’t seem to mind the
rain, either, as they were swooping around in force!
Great Blue Heron
Vermilion Flycatcher
We were ready to call it a day after that,
but on the way home we passed some Snow Geese in a field (granted, only five
birds, but we were happy to see them)!
We were shocked that we did as well as we did, with 50 species for a
miserable, wet, cold, and windy day (and I got word that it was supposed to
SNOW here the next day!!!)!
Bird List:
Snow Goose
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Snow Goose
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Harris's Hawk
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Killdeer
Long-billed Curlew
Western Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
Tree Swallow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
50 SPECIES
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