Since rain was in the forecast, I opted to
take Mike on the La Sal del Rey Loop, starting at “South Brushline Road” (the
stretch between FM 490 and SR 186). The
fog was pretty thick when we first left Alamo, but once it cleared along FM 493
we had a nice view of a Red-tailed Hawk on a pole (first of many). After leaving Hargill the sun was out, and we
passed a magnificent Peregrine Falcon on a wire (!) that we just had to stop
and enjoy! When we made the turn onto
Brushline, there was a cacophony of birds right there on the corner: several Kiskadees were displaying (kept
missing that perfect shot when they puff up their yellow crown), a Long-billed
Thrasher actually sat out in the open, and lots of “bitty birds” were around
but proving hard to pin down for pictures:
Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, titmice, and
Orange-crowned Warblers were all in the mix.
Even a Verdin chirped and gave a brief view, but he would prove to be a
nemesis bird for Mike throughout the day!
As we crawled along and periodically stopped we had flyovers of both
flavors of pipit, managed looks at a Pyrrhuloxia, White-tailed Hawk, and a pair
of harriers, and finally three Sandhill Cranes!
The big show, however, was a mob of Caracaras feeding on a dead crane (we were hoping it hadn’t
been shot and dumped…)!
Mike shoots a Red-tailed Hawk on the power pole as we head towards Hargill
A Peregrine Falcon gives us the evil eye just out of Hargill!
Displaying Great Kiskadee
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Pyrrhuloxia (dubbed "Half-painted Cardinal" by another Brit!)
Lark Sparrow
Fleeing Sandhill Cranes
White-tailed Hawk
Loggerhead Shrike
A group of Caracaras chow down on a deceased crane!
Crossing SR 186 we continued on, stopping
when we heard feeding flocks or something in particular that Mike wanted to
photograph, like Bewick’s Wren, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, or that dratted Verdin! J We tried for Cactus Wren but none would
respond, but at one stop Mike spotted a Cassin’s Sparrow sitting quietly in a
bush! The other home run (also spotted
by Mike) was a Lark Bunting right next to the road! At that point we only saw the one, but on the
way back we would flush a flock of about 30 that briefly landed on the wires
overhead before taking off again! In a
more heavily wooded area I thought I heard a whit, and sure enough, with a little encouragement a Least Flycatcher
popped up! Near the trail to the lake
(Mike preferred letting the car doing the walking, and I confessed that I
concurred) a Turkey was clucking in the distance, and a family of Javelina
crossed the road ahead of us (with a Roadrunner in the background). Sadly we found a dead White-tailed Hawk next
to the road; it was still pretty fresh, and I didn’t see any evidence that it
was shot or otherwise injured, so its demise remained a mystery.
Least Flycatcher; most have migrated through, but a few overwinter
Javelina family getting out of the way...
Lark Bunting
Fleeing Red-tailed Hawk showing off the red tail...
We tried for Cactus Wren again along the
east/west portion of Brushline, but instead got more “bitty birds” to respond;
a Verdin actually did pop out into
the open, but unfortunately Mike’s camera rebelled and the only photo he got
was a ball of fuzz… He did manage decent
shots of both the kinglet and the gnatcatcher, so he was pleased (as these
birds are constantly on the move and trying to follow them with a heavy lens is
a trick)! A Pyrrhuloxia also kindly
posed on a wire right next to the car! Up
at the pond we padded the list with a few ducks and shorebirds (Avocet and
Green-winged Teal were nice), and on the way back we had a “role reversal” of
the two male Vermilions that were dogfighting at Santa Ana: here we had two presumed females chasing each
other! They seemed oblivious to the
shrike they kept leapfrogging with, and while all this was going on a
Curve-billed Thrasher danced for us in front of the car…
Pyrrhuloxia
Various poses of a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher moving through the trees...
Mike checks out the farm pond along North Brushline while the threatened storms come our way...
American Avocet
Green-winged Teal
Long-billed Dowitcher and Black-necked Stilts
We made the turn onto Ken Baker and
resumed crawling, along which the threatened rain began (we had tremendous
views of the cells all round us; Mike was afraid I was going to switch to
storm-chasing mode any minute J); interestingly
we ran into another flock of Lark Buntings, and after finally talking Mike into
at least driving to the Rio Beef Feedyard gate, we were rewarded with a Say’s
Phoebe flopping around the tractors, and despite the dripping rain, they had a
sprinkler going in front of the office that was attracting hundreds of Brewer’s
Blackbirds! So he was happy after all
that we were rewarded with two new birds for him (and write-up ones at that)!
A mob of Brewer's Blackbirds feeds outside the Rio Beef Feedyard office!
Males are black with yellow eyes, much like miniature grackles...
...while females are dark brown with black eyes.
Say's Phoebe is considered a rare visitor from the west, but one or two show up most every winter.
No cranes or geese were in the “barren
field”, and since it was raining I opted to go down Rio Beef Road with its solid
caliche and good roadside habitat (but not before sighting an Indigo Snake
making haste across the road, unfortunately too fast for Mike’s camera). Some Yellowthroats were calling in the marsh,
but since it was still spitting we didn’t get out to investigate. Just before we hit SR 186, however, a nice
Krider’s Hawk was sitting on a pole along the highway!
Presumed young "Krider's" Hawk, although some young "Eastern" Redtails can be pretty pale as well...
With what time we had left we opted to
stop at the “1015 Pond”, seeing as we’ve had flyover geese and cranes in the
past; on the way we spotted a rather bedraggled White-tailed Kite! At the pond we had a nice selection of
shorebirds and ducks, but nothing unusual (added a ffting Marsh Wren for the day).
Just as we were getting ready to head home I heard geese in the
distance, and sure enough, a flock of Snows looked like they were coming right
at us, then suddenly wheeled around and headed the other direction!
Unfortunately Heppy had decided he had had
enough and refused to start (exactly what happened on the Boca Chica
Adventure), but this time AAA came to the rescue, determined he had a bad
battery, and got us going so we could head home! The delay enabled us to be treated to a
spectacular sunset, however, and we almost broke 70 species for the day! Bird list (those in italics were heard-only):
Snow Goose
Gadwall Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Green-winged Teal
Wild Turkey
Great Egret
Turkey Vulture
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Sandhill Crane
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Long-billed Curlew
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Least Flycatcher
Eastern Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Bewick's Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Sprague's Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Cassin's Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Lark Bunting
Lincoln's Sparrow
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow
69 SPECIES
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