Made
a return trip to Starr County today, which sadly wasn’t nearly as birdy as two
days ago (it’s warming up), but Firmin (who lives in San Antonio and is no
stranger to Texas birds, south or otherwise) had a handful of targets that were
best gotten out here. Pyrrhuloxia and
Audubon’s Oriole were top on the list, so we started the day at Falcon State
Park.
Thankfully
they didn’t “need” a Roadrunner as this was only the second time coming to this
park that one didn’t show! But as we
slowly made the rounds, the first of his handful of targets was strutting
around in the primitive camping area: three
American Pipits! A couple of times I was
sure I was hearing a Black-tailed Gnatcatcher, but the perp never showed
himself… L Thankfully a nice male Pyrrhuloxia did eventually show (although the light
wasn’t the best), and later a female popped up on the way to the picnic area in
better light, and finally in the cabin area a little group of them fed on the
ground, so Firmin was able to get some shots!
At the boat ramp area a young male Vermilion Flycatcher flycatched from
the wire, and where we went “off-roading” down into the overflow area we scared
up a Great Egret and what we thought were just a couple of Least Sandpipers,
but more just kept appearing until we had about a dozen! Up in the “circle” we had a nice feeding
flock of Butterbutts, Orangecrowns, and a single Ruby-crowned Kinglet, but
Marie got on a sparrow that kept giving us fits until it finally came out into
the open, only to reveal itself as a female House…
Northern Cardinal...
...and his close relative the Pyrrhuloxia!
Eastern Phoebe
Young male Vermilion Flycatcher
Marie and Firmin pose with "Heppy" in the "circle area"
Firmin tracking down his Pyrrs in the cabin area...
...and he finds them!
"And just what do you think you're lookin' at?!"
In
the picnic area the young Harris’ Hawk was back on his light pole, but the only
thing I could pick up in the lake were a couple of Pied-billed Grebes and a
Coot. In addition to the aforementioned
Pyrrs, the Caracara posed on “his” pole in the cabin area, and as we crawled
through the hookup area, we mused on which RVs were “drivable” or not (some, we
concluded, were just too darn big for our comfort – not to live in, but to take
on the road)! The only new bird we
picked up in there was a really pretty Western Meadowlark feeding under a
shelter, so we headed out and continued to Salineño.
Presumed Western Meadowlark coming into breeding plumage; the yellow extends further up into the malar region than on Easterns.
We
just missed the tour group J as we headed in
and took our places! Merle and Lois’
rescue doggie Chamois (found out that was
the correct spelling for that cloth you wipe your car down with – the word
comes from a European goat) came out and demanded some loving (and almost
demanded Marie’s lunch as well J), but it wasn’t
long before the Clay-colored Thrush came in and delighted those few of us
there! The regular crew was there
(Kiskadees, Altamira Orioles, Green Jays, titmice, woodpeckers, and of course
the blackbirds), but we had to wait awhile for the Olive Sparrow, Long-billed
Thrasher, and even Baldy the Audubon’s Oriole; turns out he was being rather
intimidated by the blackbirds going after the PB mixture! The young Hooded Oriole (another target) came
in to a close nectar feeder, so everyone got great looks at him! There was a mob of Chachalacas there today,
and at one point what Lois called a “chorus line” of them were all lined up at
the bath! A few false alarms sent
everyone scattering, but they would shortly return, at least until the
Sharp-shinned Hawk made a pass for real and really
shook up the crowd, especially after he caught a blackbird (it all happened so
fast I didn’t even see the hawk)! Shortly
Merle and Lois’ friends from Minnesota showed up with their three sled dogs;
Catcher was just a lover and didn’t wanna leave my side! J
The Clay-colored Thrush comes in right away!
Altamira Orioles are ubiquitous...
The young Altamira is back
An Audubon's Oriole grabs a quick bite before the blackbirds chase him off (note the flying piece of PB mixture...)!
The young Hooded Oriole isn't intimidated at all!
Cardinal with crest down...
...and up!
The Olive Sparrow sneaks out for a bite...
This time Mrs. Ladderback is in for a snack!
Nice look at her zygodactal feel and back pattern
A true feeding frenzy!
Chachalaca mob
"Patch" is back!
Chamois greets the guests and then supervises Lois as she restocks the feeders during a lull!
Firmin
figured he had gotten about as good a picture of the Audubon’s as he was gonna
get (Baldy didn’t stick around very long), so with what time we had we went
down to the river to see if anything was gonna fly by (and the report from the
group was that no seedeaters showed). It
was pretty quiet; a distant “Mexican” Duck took off so that we could see the
nice white borders to the speculum, and a young White-tailed Hawk soared in the
distance, but besides them and the ever-present Ospreys, it was pretty
dead. We did a “changing of the guard”
with my friends Ann and Rick and another gentleman who had just shown up; they
had visited Falcon County Park (right
next to the state park) and had a nice selection of sparrows. But it was time for us to go, stopping at the
Jack in the Box in Roma for some iced mocha and an illegal Oreo Cookie Shake… J
Bird
List:
“Mexican” Duck
Plain Chachalaca Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Egret
Cattle Egret
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
American Coot
Least Sandpiper
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
White-tipped Dove
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Eastern Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
Bewick's Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Clay-colored Thrush
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Hooded Oriole
Altamira Oriole
Audubon's Oriole
House Sparrow
55 SPECIES
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