Got a call from Keith Sunday night asking
if I was available to guide the next morning as Ted, one of our regular guests,
wanted to try out the “guided tour bit”!
Normally a very independent birder, he had often hired guides in
tropical America, but he had never hired one in North America and wanted to see
how it would work out! I met him the
next morning, and he had been studying the latest eBird lists and announced
that a trip down Boca Chica Boulevard might best pad his trip list! Since he was checking out of the Inn and
checking into a hotel in Brownsville, we took off separately and met at the
Starbucks off Morrison Road for breakfast/coffee and then dropped his car off
at the hotel before heading to Boca Chica.
It wasn’t quite as productive as it was
when Mike and I went (no Aplomado or Osprey before the checkpoint L), but we did stop
at the intersection with Yolanda Road to check the hacking platform (no one was
home) and enjoy the mob of gulls and vultures at the landfill across the way,
along with a lone juvie White-tailed Hawk sitting all by his lonesome in the
field! At various stops along the road
we did get him his Harris’ Hawk, Long-billed Thrasher, and at least a
heard-only Verdin and White-eyed Vireo.
Making the turn onto dirt Palmito Hill Road, the plan was to get to the
end of the road and do our crawling on the way out, to put the sun to our
backs. But we didn’t get far before
spotting a very pale hawk on a pole that I thought was a juvie Krider’s at
first, but after consulting the Sibley I concluded that it was a juvie
“eastern” Red-tailed Hawk, as the belly band was very prominent (and I’m still
so used to “western” Redtails from San Diego that these pale eastern birds
still throw me). He took off eventually,
and while watching him soar around (and even hover), a White-tailed Hawk came
into his airspace and started a dogfight!
What a show!
Checking for Aplomados at Yolanda Road
We find a Harris' Hawk instead!
Young "Eastern" Red-tailed Hawk
Once we made the turnaround, the habitat
was great, but birds were quiet due to the wind (I caught a White-tipped Dove
shooting across the road while I was turning around and Ted was still trolling,
and we heard some Chachalacas sounding the alarm in the distance). We did
manage some nice looks at both woodpeckers and a Caracara back in the
thornscrub, but once back out in the open area things were hunkered down except
for a pair of Curve-billed Thrashers that gave great looks! Then we made our way down to Quicksilver and
checked out the Rio Grande access, which was quite birdy: Brown Pelicans were diving and White Pelicans
were sailing by on the Mexican side, but I was shocked to see another
black-wingtipped white bird: a couple of
Snow Geese! A Double-crested Cormorant
caught and gagged down a big fish, and several kinds of herons staked out the
opposite bank. Dessert was served by
three Long-billed Curlews that flew by!
Ted checks out the south side of Palmito Hill Road
Crested Caracara
Curve-billed Thrasher pair
We found some distant shorebirds and both
flavors of Reddish Egret on the flats, so we hiked out as far as we dared, and
while there was a good mob of peeps, between the wind and the distance the only
things I could positively pick out were a Western Sandpiper here, a Sanderling
there, and a Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs together! Continuing on, I almost gave Ted a heart
attack by driving through the “soft stuff” at the beach access at the end of
the road (it was almost like driving through a snowbank), but Heppy handled it
with ease! Heading south, the beach was
in pretty good shape, and for the first time in awhile I was able to make it
all the way to the mouth of the Rio Grande!
The hoped-for Bonaparte’s Gulls were nowhere to be found, however,
although we were able to add the expected gulls and a few terns (Herring was
new for Ted’s trip list). Ted really got
a kick out of the fact that Mexico was “right there” with several
fisher-families, and even a cop keeping watch!
Shorebirds were scarce, but several Avocets were near the mouth, and a
flock of a dozen Ruddy Turnstones was quite a sight!
Checking the flats for shorebirds
Avocet near the mouth of the Rio Grande
Ted checks out the larid flock on the Mexican side
Brown Pelicans
A Herring Gull finds a tasty morsel (probably a fisherman's discard)...
...but a Great Blue Heron bullies him into dropping it!
Meanwhile, a Ring-billed Gull stays out of it...
We slipped and slip back onto the main
drag, picking up Horned Larks dashing across the road in front of us on the way
back. With what little time we had, we
returned to the hotel to get Ted’s car, and decided to drive separately to
South Padre so that he could stay there longer when I had to head back to
Alamo. No sign of the crow near the La
Quinta (I didn’t even see any grackles this time), and it was pretty windy and
quiet when I got to the Convention Centre; I was able to make a quick search
for the Woodcock (no go) before Ted caught up with me!
I was really beginning to think it would
be a bust there, but as we waited at the water feature, before long a couple of
Wilson’s Warblers came in, and one of his target birds, a Hermit Thrush,
eventually made a showing! Talking about
driving on the Flats piqued his curiosity, so he wanted to follow me out there,
and if he felt uncomfortable taking the rental, he’d hop in Heppy. Well, it was actually in pretty good shape,
so we both went out there, logging the usual suspects lounging on the beach,
with the dominant shorebirds being Short-billed Dowitchers and Dunlin. Ted missed the Red-breasted Merganser that
came blasting in and, apparently mistaking the beach for open water, literally
crash-landed, but she appeared none the worse for wear as she sat dazed for a
moment, and then stood up and started walking towards me! I thought she was carrying something in her
beak until I took a close look at the pictures, and discovered that the poor
thing had a deformed bill! L
Ted bravely follows me out onto The Flats in his rental for point-blank looks at shorebirds!
Several views of Short-billed Dowitchers
Dunlin
Hapless Red-breasted Merganser with a deformed bill
I still had 15 minutes to kill before I
had to head back, so I joined Ted back at the Centre, but not before texting
him that his Mourning Doves were on the wire! J Added nothing new except a cackling gallinule
there, so I left Ted to explore the boardwalks and headed on home. I was surprised that we didn’t clear 70
species with all the shorebirds, but the wind kept the songbirds down. Bird list:
Snow Goose
Red-breasted Merganser
Plain Chachalaca
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Common Gallinule
American Avocet
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Long-billed Curlew
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Dunlin
Western Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
White-tipped Dove
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Tropical Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Verdin
House Wren
Hermit Thrush
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
68 SPECIES
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