Heather, Rob, Roger, and Ruth had been
birding on their own for the good part of a week, and arranged a “clean-up” day
with me towards the end of their stay.
Rob (Heather’s hubby) opted to stay home, so the four of us piled in
their rented Hyundai and headed out!
Heather had a handful of targets, and Roger (Ruth’s hubby) wanted
another crack at photos of some of the birds they had seen earlier (she and
Roger were the “hard cores” by her own admission; Ruth played the role of
chauffeur J), so it looked like a good chunk could be
taken care of by visiting Bentsen SP, Anzalduas, the Progresso Silos, and then
a revisit to Estero Llano Grande. On the
way to Bentsen, however, was a lovely surprise:
at least 200 Green Parakeets all lined up on the wires along Business
83!
Once at Bentsen, we hadn’t gotten far when
I heard a Long-billed Thrasher singing, and a nice gentleman who was beginning
his exercise walk showed us right where he was!
The canal gave us Black Phoebe, and although not a target bird, he was
still cute and put on a good show! The
Gatehouse Feeders were quiet (breakfast hadn’t been served yet J), so we continued
on down to the Resaca, trying fruitlessly to pish up Olive Sparrows, a Hermit
Thrush, Lincoln’s Sparrows, and a stubborn Beardless Tyrannulet along the
way. However, a Clay-colored Thrush did
his ringing call and then was very
cooperative, posing on an open branch for a long time!
Long-billed Thrasher
Black Phoebe enforcing the rules...
Clay-colored Thrush
Another couple told us exactly where to
look for the vagrant Red-naped Sapsucker, so after we got to the road to the
boat ramp we circled the big trees near the entrance, where a lady
Ladder-backed Woodpecker had us going for a minute. My three charges wandered closer to the
overlook while I continued scouring the mesquites, when suddenly they said they
had it! The bird immediately flew back
into one of his “original” trees and continued to bounce around, but giving
great looks (and, I think, pictures for Roger – I got a “proof shot” J)!
The gang finds the vagrant Red-naped Sapsucker (below)!
He really does have a beak...
From there we went to check out the Resaca
for about 15 minutes to see if a Ringed Kingfisher would happen by; it was
actually quite birdy, with White Pelicans and egrets to the south, a Great Blue
Heron to the north, a Spotted Sandpiper on a log, and a female Anhinga hidden
in the branches quite close to us! The
“Wall Feeders” were quite active with lots of Kiskadees and Red-winged Blackbirds,
and one White-winged Dove for the day.
My friend Pat showed up about then, so we showed her where to look for
the sapsucker (which she got pretty quickly – needed it for her Hidalgo County
list J),
then saw a very pale-breasted Red-tailed Hawk sitting on a post that she
wondered if it was a Fuertes’. From my
angle it was a side view, so I really couldn’t tell, so we left it at just
plain ol’ Redtail for the eBird list…
A possible "Fuertes'" Red-tailed Hawk checks us out
About that time we got the alert that a
Green-breasted Mango had been discovered at Quinta Mazatlan! So after checking in (we had gotten there
before the office opened) we headed over, and the staff was already directing
people to the “Bat Lawn” where the bird had been hanging out! Staff Naturalist John Brush had found the
thing on the top of a Hackberry tree, but alas he was gone by the time we got
there (the mango, not John). John
actually got busy putting out some feeders in the hopes the bird would be
attracted to them and hence easier for folks to see (while a vagrant in Texas,
this was the dominant hummingbird at the feeders at Rancho Naturalista in Costa
Rica), while the rest of us caught up – a rarity brings birders out of the
woodwork, so it’s a great time to rekindle old friendships while waiting for
the thing to show up! J We agreed to give it a half hour, during
which a nice Black-throated Green Warbler showed up, which was a state bird for
Heather! A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks
were yelling at each other, then one of them flew in and perched on an open
branch, giving everyone great views!
When “time was up” we decided to head on and seek other quarry; on the
way out some Inca Doves posed right over their interpretive sign! J News would come later that the mango never did show up again, but it was on the way
to another site that we got the news that a rare butterfly had shown up as well:
a Tiger Mimic White!
Various birders wait for the Green-breasted Mango to show while Roger shoots a butterfly in the grass!
Red-shouldered Hawk
From there we headed over to Anzalduas
County Park, where Heather spotted both Least and Pied-billed Grebes in the
little channel going in! We parked to do
the Sprague Pipit March, and on the way across the field (when the guys weren’t
distracted by the Little Yellows and single Orange Sulphur bouncing around in
the grass J) we spotted another target flycatching
from a post: a female Vermilion
Flycatcher (although Roger was hoping for a male)! A shrike was also singing during all this,
and several Western Meadowlarks poked their heads up and wobbled along. A couple of American Pipits flew over, giving their “pip-it” call notes, and we
took a quick look at the mob of coots and scaup in the river before circling
around. Just as I started towards the
car Heather stopped me short saying, “There’s a bird in the grass!” I couldn’t believe it: there was the Sprague’s Pipit right in front
of us – albeit not in the best light, but at least he was standing still!! Everyone got a scope look, and we tried to
circle around him to get better lighting, but that little stinker snuck away
from us and took off way down the field!
Sprague's Pipit
From there we started the crawling, and as
we approached the first corner by the river where I like to park, a Ringed
Kingfisher suddenly started its machine-gun rattle! We parked and jumped out, and found the bird
in some vegetation hidden close to shore, but then she flew over to the little
“island” where we discovered she had a big fish in her beak, but just sat there
with it, watching us! Before long a
Green Kingfisher settled in below her, but we all thought that was interesting
that she just hung onto that fish instead of tenderizing it and eating it! In the meantime Heather and Roger had found
some feral Muscovy Ducks, so since eBird wants you to track them as well, I
made a special effort to find them myself…
Roger finds a comfortable place to shoot a female Ringed Kingfisher (below) who seemed determine to hang onto her fish!
As we made the circle, we finally did find
a nice male Vermilion Flycatcher that Roger could shoot, and when I saw him and
Heather abandon the flycatcher to go chase something else (I was keeping Ruth
company in the car), I caught up with them to discover they had found a nice
little feeding flock that included American Goldfinches and Yellow-rumped and
Yellow-throated Warblers! We had also
found some Eastern Bluebirds, but they fled the joint quickly… I heard a Gray Hawk, and then we saw a small
raptor making haste towards the dam area, but didn’t get a good enough look to
tell if that was him or not… On the way
out both Heather and Roger wanted to stalk the grebes on the spillway, so the
three of us did that while Ruth followed us in the car like a mobster’s
bodyguard, and in addition to the grebes we had nice looks at a pair of Mottled
Ducks and a female Lesser Scaup! [Update: found out later that the officials do NOT want you walking along the spillway, so we were unintentional bad kids... L]
Heather and Roger check the trees for dickey birds...
...and find a young male Vermilion Flycatcher (below; circled above)!
Finding more goodies...
Black-crested Titmouse
Finally a full adult male Vermilion shows up!
Female Lesser Scaup
Two-striped Mermiria Grasshopper
Least Grebe
Ruth was tuckered out by then (and I
needed to retrieve my phone charger), so we dropped her off at the Inn and
Heather became the new chauffeur! We
headed over to the Progresso Silos as she wanted to see a Bronzed Cowbird, and
were rewarded with a huge “bird-nado” of mostly Red-winged Blackbirds, but also
hundreds of Brown-headed Cowbirds, and the real treat, several Yellow-headed
Blackbirds! Heather was able to pick out a female Bronzed Cowbird in the mix, but I
kept hearing one singing from my side but couldn’t spot him; Heather finally
did, and he was a beauty! We were amused
at how the mob would gather in the shady spots, making a “square of
blackbirds”, and doing a little scanning revealed a Merlin up on one of the guy
wires! Another Red-tailed Hawk with a
rather pale face posed on another post, but I wasn’t quite ready to call him a
Krider’s… A nice White-tailed Hawk circled
ahead of us on the way out.
Cross-looking Yellow-headed Blackbird
Starling showing his colorful sheen
Distant Merlin on the guy wire
Heather checks out more blackbirds
"Blackbird carpet" staying out of the sun
Pale Red-tailed Hawk (probably a youngster)
Pretty cloud formations
Hitchcockian scene
With what little time we had we decided to
head to Estero, where we sent Roger to the hummer feeders while Heather and I
beelined for the Tropical Zone Drip in hopes of the Tropical Parula! We did
have Tropical Kingbirds on the way
that obligingly twittered! By the time
we got there it was actually time to head back already L, but we gave it
five minutes and logged the Wilson’s Warbler at least, plus a mob of
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks that were wheezing way in the distance! Roger dutifully met us, revealing that
instead of waiting it out at the feeders he had hoofed it all the way to Grebe
Marsh and back! That was a feat!
Ended up with a nice list of 78 species
for the day! Bird List:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Muscovy Duck
Mottled Duck
Lesser Scaup
Plain Chachalaca
Least Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Gray Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Spotted Sandpiper
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ringed Kingfisher
Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Red-naped Sapsucker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
American Kestrel
Merlin
Green Parakeet
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
Black Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
Clay-colored Thrush
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Sprague's Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Altamira Oriole
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
78 SPECIES
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