I
had been telling Tom and Nancy about the success of the “resurrected” Sabal
Palm Grove (a Valley hotspot currently “behind the Wall”), so we decided to
start there today on what turned out to be an absolutely perfect day
weather-wise! After checking in and
being appropriately wowed by the restored Rabb House, we headed onto the Resaca
Loop. Even before we got to the “trail hub”,
Carolina Wrens were singing all over, and we even had a couple of Catbirds
competing! In the woods we heard a
distant Gray Hawk whistle, and closer to the Resaca an Olive Sparrow allowed
brief views on the side of the trail.
While we dipped on the reported White-throated Sparrow, a hawk gave a
brief pass low overhead that turned out to be a Zone-tailed! That was pretty unusual for Cameron County
(my first “Zonetail” out along Boca Chica Boulevard turned out to be a very
dark young White-tailed…), and thankfully the bird perched down the way and
gave prolonged scope views in great light!
When it finally flew it gave a great look at the Turkey Vulture-like
pattern and the thin gray bars on the tail that denote an immature bird. Shortly after he
left a Red-shouldered Hawk started yelling, so we couldn’t help but wonder if
the Zonetail was upsetting him…
Olive Sparrow
Young Zone-tailed Hawk
Tom's IPhone shot through his Swarovski scope (©2018 Tom Goetten)
Except
for a Kiskadee and a pair of territorial Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, it was
pretty quiet up on the Vireo Trail, but it’s always a lovely walk. We took the Oriole Trail cutover and ran into
a bunch of other birders, telling them about the Zonie, then headed towards the
big blind. On the way we ran into a
feeding flock that included a Nashville Warbler in addition to Orange-crowns, Yellow-rumps,
gnatcatchers, and a slew of titmice! In
the blind, the gentleman that leads bird walks for Sabal was with a young man
who apparently had never birded before, and we enjoyed Least Grebes, a variety
of ducks, and a liftoff of vultures! Lo
and behold, a black blob off to the side turned out to be our Zonetail again,
so I’m glad we weren’t the only ones to see it (the volunteer said he had only
seen a Zonie one other time there, knowing how rare they are that far
east)! The bird really put on a show as
he flew back and forth across the Resaca, showing off every field mark!
We
headed back to the car after that and decided to take a quick peek at the
hacking station along Boca Chica, seeing as my colleague Justin had seen some
there the night before. On the way in,
however, we swung around to get wonderful looks at a stunning White-tailed
Hawk! We played tag with the
water-spraying truck as we snuck down to the road opposite the platform; no
falcons, but the mob over at the Dump was something else! Going back through the checkpoint one of the
Border Patrol guys said he had actually seen the falcons previously!
Considering
the time, I decided to head straight to South Padre, even skipping the famous
Boat Ramp along SR48 (even Nancy said it looked pretty packed with fisher-people), but we did
manage to pick up a pair of White-tailed Kites, Roseate Spoonbills, and a mob
of White Pelicans out in the bahia on the way!
We went straight to the flats, where the water was way out, but it
appeared to be birdless, and what was even more surprising on this sunny
Saturday afternoon was the lack of people!
But as we made our way out there we saw the place was dotted with birds:
both Piping and Semipalmated Plovers,
Sanderlings, Dunlin, and Black-bellied Plovers were the main characters, along
with a couple of Western Sandpipers.
There was no big larid flock, but rather a meager selection of the
regulars. The mob instead consisted of
thousands of Redheads out in the bay! A
Peregrine Falcon powered over, and before we left Tom spotted a white morph
Reddish Egret way out there!
Herring Gull
The ever-endearing Piping Plover
Dour-looking Semipalmated Plover
From
there we wheeled into the Convention Centre which surprisingly had quite a few
people, but not too many birds (ran into Willie, Martin, and Sheridan there,
three birding acquaintances from central Texas that I rarely see)! An extremely friendly Mockingbird sat watching
the proceedings on the back deck from a bush literally only feet away while we
scoped the mudflats out back! The
boardwalk was a little more productive, with stilts and ducks in the East Pond,
and the resident show-off Common Gallinule near the end. A hovering Belted Kingfisher put on a show, a
Black-crowned Night Heron gave great looks, and a Sora even popped out into the
open! Folks were telling us about a
Stingray visible on the other boardwalk, so we headed out there and enjoyed
that little critter, plus the “almost” dark morph Reddish Egret (with the
handful of white wing feathers) that always seems to be there! We saw that the bird mob would be in better
light from the Birding Center’s boardwalk, so we hightailed it over there next…
Friendly Mockingbird
Gulf Fritillary
Tom and Nancy check out the East Pond
Snoozing Black-crowned Night Heron
Great Blue Heron
The friendly Common Gallinule
Sora
The same night heron from the other boardwalk...
Sting Ray
Reddish Egret
Tom
and Nancy fell in love with the place (and want to see boardwalks like that
built in their local birding hotspot in Illinois)! A Great Egret posed point blank, and we had
eyeball looks at both Tricolored and Little Blue Herons! A Great Blue Heron was soaking up the sun
with a “yoga” pose, and Nancy got to enjoy seeing the Coot’s toes! Out on the “pier”, we did indeed get cracking
views of wigeon, pintail, Redheads, a single skimmer, and the ubiquitous gulls
(Nancy even got to hear them “laugh” J)! Although in terrible light, we added
Short-billed Dowitcher to the list, along with more Dunlin.
Great Egret
Wind-blown Belted Kingfisher
Tom and Nancy on the Birding Center's boardwalk
Another Common Gallinule
"Myrtle" Warbler
Several shots of a focused Little Blue Heron
An American Wigeon poses with a Pintail behind him, plus a Coot and a couple of snoozing Redheads
Northern Pintail
View of the Convention Centre's pier from the Birding Center's pier!
Continuing
on the trail we ran into Gunnar, one of our “Winter Texans” who likes to stay
at the Inn along with his wife Lorna, and he told us about a Clapper Rail down
the way! (“Just look for the
Alligator…”) We thanked him profusely
and headed down, ignoring the pack of White Ibis until we could bag this
rail! And bag him we did: he was right
out in the open, along with the whining gallinule, a Mottled Duck, and a pair
of grackles (the gallinule even tried to beat up on the duck)! The Green Heron that flew in almost got
ignored! After the rail slunk away we
returned to the ibis and enjoyed them before moving on (and the Alligator
decided to haul out on the bank in the meantime). We did manage to add a pair of Blue-winged
Teal, and in the East Pond a female Green-winged Teal and some Lesser
Yellowlegs were hanging out with the birds already seen earlier, but alas, we
couldn’t kick up a bittern. But Nancy
was pleased as punch with the rail (as was I)!
Clapper Rail
Pack of snoozing/preening White Ibis
Green Heron
Had
to rush home after that, but with a nice list of 87 species! Bird list:
Gadwall
American Wigeon Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Lesser Scaup
Least Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Kite
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Gray Hawk
Zone-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Clapper Rail
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
Lesser Yellowlegs
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Dunlin
Least Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
Black-crested Titmouse
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Carolina Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Gray Catbird
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
87 SPECIES
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