Met Josh, an enthusiastic young birder
from Massachusetts, at the airport after he dropped off his rental car, and we
were off through the fog, heading to Cameron County! He had flown in the day before and had gotten
a slew of life birds at Estero Llano Grande SP on his own (this was his first
time to Texas), so he was off to a good start!
As we discussed the route for the day, he happened to ask if King Rail
was a possibility, and his timing couldn’t have been better as we were two
exits short of Kansas City Road, the exit for Tiocano Lake! So we wheeled off and over to this often very
productive little wetland, logging a pair of White-tailed Kites on the way in!
We crawled along the road until we found a
somewhat safe pullout, and it didn’t take long before we heard a distant King
Rail “clapping”, then one closer, and eventually we heard one so close that you
could hear the “throaty” sound of the clap!
Both Neotropic and Double-crested Cormorants flew over together, so that
was handy to see the size difference! A
Least Bittern let loose with its cackle, which Josh had never heard
before! A Sora whinnied, a young
Cooper’s Hawk sailed in, and Swamp and Lincoln’s Sparrows called, but down near
the north end an odd sound turned out to be a Sedge Wren at our feet (that
actually sat up for pictures)! We
couldn’t believe it! The Marsh Wren calling
back at the car was definitely anticlimactic!
A foggy view of part of Tiocano Lake
Josh checks for rails...
...and we get a cooperative (and cute) little Sedge Wren instead!
From there we headed straight out to SR
100 towards South Padre Island, seeing as the Tamaulipas Crow hanging there had
been seen recently, so we wanted to try that location first. We stopped at the traditional “falcon stops”
along 100 with no success, but we had plenty of other raptors: lots of White-tailed and Harris’ Hawks,
Kestrels, Ospreys, and even a Red-tailed Hawk!
The Island was socked in, and no crow was along the main drag that we
could see, but we poked out onto the Flats anyway and had nice looks at the
usual suspects through the haze; unfortunately Josh’s two targets (Snowy Plover
and Sandwich Tern) were nowhere to be seen, although I was happy with the cute
little Piping Plover (almost a yawn where he comes from J), and a Reddish
Egret making a grand entrance was his first in 20 years, so that was
exciting! A Franklin’s Gull had been
reported, which would also have been a lifer, but we just couldn’t pick one
out.
Josh shoots some skimmers (below) through the haze
Reddish Egret in the fog
Rather than spend more time on the Island
we opted to head towards Old Port Isabel Road (OPIR), but I thought we might have a chance at the Snowy at Port
Isabel Reservoir, so we headed up that way.
On the way Josh saw a raft of ducks in the bay, and again, his timing of
the mention was perfect, as we had just reached the turnoff for the Bejarano-McFarland
Memorial County Park in Laguna Heights where you can walk out onto a little overlook
into the bay! Sure enough, there was a
nice raft of Redheads (along with one Gadwall and a couple of Coots), and we
also added Little Blue Heron to the list here.
He was just astounded with the sheer number of birds he was seeing down
here!
Scoping the ducks
Raft of Redheads
Great Egret
We finally made it to the reservoir, and by
this time the fog was starting to lift and the light there was great, so we
were treated to a great show of Shovelers, Pintail, Green-winged Teal, stilts
and avocets, Stilt and Western Sandpipers, and Long-billed Dowitchers. But in the process of scanning Josh spotted
yet another surprise lifer: a
Gull-billed Tern sitting on a post like a pillow! Back at the car Josh’s coveted Long-billed
Curlews suddenly put in an appearance by crying and flying all around!
After wrapping that up we saw a kettle of
vultures along Holly Beach Road, so since a Zone-tailed Hawk had been reported
repeatedly in the area, we decided to drive down and check them out. Just Turkeys and Blackies, but we were also
treated to a beautiful White Pelican Ballet in the sky! Once we turned around and headed out, the
dead Raccoon we passed had been discovered by a Caracara in addition to the
vultures!
On the way out it dawned on me that the
Dump closes around 3:30, so I made a command decision to return to Port Isabel
and take SR 48 down to SR 511 and straight to the Dump. There were good numbers of birds in the shrimp
basin area, and Josh called out a pair of Oystercatchers that I just happened
to get a glimpse of! Once at our
destination we wheeled in and checked in, and as I explained to him, I’m always
a little concerned whenever I go there as “the pile” is always being moved
around, and you never really know where you can drive and where you can’t
(you’re just admonished to stay out of the “active area”). This time there seemed to be only one road
open, and it led directly into the “stuff”, so I parked off the main drag as
best I could and we walked along the road, checking every grackle. Josh happened to catch sight of an odd gull,
and as it landed, I couldn’t believe it:
we had a Franklin’s! He was
thrilled to get that lifer, along with the Chihuahuan Ravens flying around and
croaking! At one point we walked over
the ridge and saw some settling ponds that were just stuffed with gulls (and other things); best bird there actually was
a pair of Roseate Spoonbills! Try as we
might, we couldn’t pick out a Lesser Blackback, but Josh was able to get
wonderful pictures of an adult White-tailed Hawk (see his eBird report for that day: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S41448013) working on a chicken bone (and
that made a liar out of me, because I told him that I couldn’t recall ever
seeing any adult Whitetails there)!
Caracaras of course were all over, along with Cattle Egrets and both
flavors of vultures, and the Starlings were performing murmurations, but we
just couldn’t pick out a crow. Josh
heard an odd sound that I said kinda sounded like a crane, and sure enough, he
spotted the thing way up there; I
could barely see it! I was very glad to
have his sharp eyes during the course of the day!
Franklin's Gull
Leucistic Turkey Vulture (either that, or he was pooped on a lot...)
White-tailed Hawk
(with a lineup of grackles behind him...)
Since Boca Chica Boulevard was right
there, we decided to just go in as far as Yolanda Road to check the falcon
hacking platform, but there were no falcons to be had (although we had a nice
Red-shouldered Hawk on the wire), so we headed on up to OPIR, where we again
dipped on the falcon but had lots of Eastern Meadowlarks, Shrikes, and even
another big group of curlews! We even
had another Sedge Wren calling at the “dicey spot”, and a Savannah Sparrow sat
up pretty on an isolated bush. At the
canal we spooked up a couple of Spotted Sandpipers in addition to more ducks
and herons, along with a few Lincoln’s Sparrows.
Checking for goodies along OPIR
Long-billed Curlew
From there we had to head back, but with a respectable 97 species for the day (and Josh probably had some I didn’t)! Bird list:
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mottled Duck
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Kite
Northern Harrier
Cooper's Hawk
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
King Rail
Sora
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
American Oystercatcher
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Long-billed Curlew
Stilt Sandpiper
Sanderling
Dunlin
Least Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Long-billed Dowitcher
Laughing Gull
Franklin's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Chihuahuan Raven
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Verdin
House Wren
Sedge Wren
Marsh Wren
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
97 SPECIES
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