It was somewhat dry when I went to pick up
Josh this morning, but it wasn’t long before we got into the mist and the wet
and the yuck heading to Starr County! We
logged a very damp Red-shouldered Hawk on the way, and once there decided to do
Falcon State Park first, not only because birds are more active there in the
morning, but it was still misting and I didn’t care to be “out” in it! We did
end up stopping along the road several time just to try and pish up things, but
weren’t very successful (except for Orange-crowned Warblers and a Ruby-crowned
Kinglet actually showing his ruby crown)!
After checking in we slowly made the
rounds, and I was very relieved when a wet Roadrunner made an appearance – that
was definitely one of Josh’s targets!
Bewick’s Wrens were singing but never gave views, and both flavors of
Yellow-rumped Warblers chipped here and there.
We decided to walk around the overflow lot a little (and added several
inches to our height due to the clay) where we added some gulls and fly-by
Least Sandpipers to the list, but a sparrow popped up just for a couple of
seconds that struck me as a Field, but struck Josh as a Cassin’s (and of course
both of us were claiming it looked nothing like what the other claimed J), but as I got to
thinking later, it possibly could
have been a Brewer’s, but all I remembered was a peachy cap, eyering, pinkish
bill, and striped back. Josh thought the
back looked more mottled, but unfortunately the thing never came back up, so
that was the one that got away; we managed to add a Savannah that we could
agree on instead… J Closer
to the lake we had great comparative looks at both species of cormorants flying
over, and White Pelicans drifted past in a nice “V”. On the way out I heard yet another Olive
Sparrow that Josh talked me into trying to pish out (up till now they had all
been very uncooperative), and lo and
behold, this one came right up and
gave him a great look!
Checking for dickeys near one of the trail entrances
Cold and wet Roadrunner
We finished the roads (including the
campgrounds, where Josh finally got a Black-throated Sparrow), then headed over
to Salineño. Since the mist had let up
somewhat, we decided to hike the Seedeater Trail, which looked like it had been
“graded” somewhat and was a bit easier to navigate (there was also a new fence
alongside it). It was dead quiet,
although we kinda hit the jackpot at the “midway overlook” where there’s a
little trail that goes down into the cane: a harsh crack! alerted me to a Ringed Kingfisher somewhere, and Josh got on
it flying downriver before I even said anything! A little later I heard a splat, and Josh again spotted the Green Kingfisher doing the
same! I heard a plaintive keeerrr! and warned Josh that it was
either a Gray Hawk or a Green Jay doing
a Gray Hawk (which I suspected after hearing jay-chatter shortly afterwards),
but it started sounding like the real deal, and sure enough, Josh spotted the
hawk sitting on a dead tree down the trail!
Crested Caracara having a "bad hair day"...
We made it to the canyon with no
seedeater, but you could actually walk across the rocks and into the little canyon (I couldn’t go
very far due to an unnegotiable knoll, but Josh clamored over it fine), so
while Josh disappeared around the corner I waited and listened. He later returned and felt confident that if
the birds had been there, he would
have found them, so we headed back a little crestfallen. We spotted a somewhat pale raptor amongst the
Black Vultures that we concluded was a pale immature Redtail (just couldn’t
turn it into a Ferrugie…), and flushed a couple of ducks, one which was a
definite “Mexican” Duck! The consolation
prize was an Audubon’s Oriole doing its Scrub Jay-like shack shack call, and we got lovely looks along the trail!
Even though we didn’t “need” the oriole
now, we still wanted some photo ops, so we headed up to the feeders where a
couple of other guys were already there, and one of them happened to be Bob
Miller, an old birding acquaintance from San Diego! After the birds got used to us they came back
in a flurry and cameras started whirring:
Kiskadees, Green Jays, Cardinals, both the orioles, both woodpeckers,
and even another Olive Sparrow! A little
later a White-crowned Sparrow came in (which I was very happy to see), and Josh
was very happy with the mob of Chachalacas, as he had missed them at Estero! We heard the Long-billed Thrasher but sadly
he didn’t make an appearance… (I concentrated on videos that morning, so will upload some links soon...) On the way
to US83 we had a suspicious-looking raptor that turned out to be what appeared
to be a dark morph Redtail!
We wanted to leave early in order to try
for the Sprague’s Pipit at Anzalduas, so we headed back, warming up with some
Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino on the way! J We had what we thought was a nice adult
White-tailed Hawk along the entrance road, but when it flew, its underparts
were clearly immature – he was apparently in one of those “in between”
plumages! It had started misting again
when we got there, so since my feet were soaked to the skin after that romp in
the mud and water at Falcon (and he had waterproof shoes), we reviewed the
Sprague’s’ flight call and I sent him across the field! As I watched him from the comfort of the car,
I could see that he flushed another target bird quite quickly – the flock of
Western Meadowlarks! I couldn’t see
anything else he flushed (aside from a flock of Killdeer), but after a few
starts and stops and checking out the duck raft in the river, he came jogging
back, declaring victory! I was very
happy he got that one!
Josh checks out the ducks on the river
With what time we had we crawled the
roads, adding Ring-necked Ducks to the scaup and coot mob, and getting scope
looks at the meadowlark flock so Josh could see the details (which was tough as
they were all wet…)! As we made the
circle towards the dam, we were both focused on a cooperative Vermilion
Flycatcher when I heard a peep, and sent Josh out the door to go get his life
Black Phoebe! I then pulled over and got
out myself when he called for help trying to find it, and I spotted the thing
way up on the building, hunkered next to the windows and getting bugs up there! After that we cut across on the middle road,
informing him that this was the most reliable place to find (drum roll) House
Finch in the Valley, which gave him a laugh, but we indeed ran into a flock, so
I razzed him about needing to do a writeup in eBird for them! J But things got quite birdy on the way out
with two more Vermilion Flycatchers, the bluebirds, a flock of Yellow-rumped
Warblers that included a nice male Audubon’s, some American Goldfinches
(although he needed Lesser L), and some
Chipping Sparrows!
Vermilion Flycatchers
Fuzzy "documentation shot" of one of the House Finches
"Audubon's" Warbler
We had to get going after that, so we
headed to the airport so he could get his rental for the next day, and said our
goodbyes. Between the two of us we
racked up 83 species for the day, which isn’t bad, considering the crappy
weather! Bird list:
“Mexican” Duck
Mottled Duck Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Plain Chachalaca
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Gray Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Ringed Kingfisher
Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Black Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Sprague’s Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
“Myrtle” Warbler
“Audubon’s” Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Altamira Oriole
Audubon's Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
83 SPECIES
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