Jamie
had rented a nice SUV, so he opted to drive for our three days together! He and Tam had an extensive target list,
being their first time to South Texas, and he was also interested in
photographing the birds, but the two things that intrigued him the most were
the Aplomado Falcon and the Brownsville Dump (the latter just because he’d
heard so much about it)! So we started
at Boca Chica, actually stopping for a Harris’ Hawk and a Chihuahuan Raven on
the way, and at the platform about a half mile past the checkpoint, there was
an Aplomado (granted, a distant view, but it still counted)! The plan was to head straight to the Dump
after that, but we had a hard time leaving, as we enjoyed Eastern Meadowlarks,
calling Bobwhites, and distant Chachalacas all splitting the air! Several swallows flew around and actually
gave identifiable views against the blue sky:
most were Caves, but I also pulled out a couple of Cliffs and a
Tree. We also had several Caracaras, but
I came as close to promising them as I dared that we’d get better looks at the
Dump! J
Harris' Hawk on the way in...
Chihuahuan Raven
Use your imagination and you can see an Aplomado Falcon stretching its tail on the right side of the platform; use it even more to see the second bird on the left behind the bars!
Loggerhead Shrike
Lark Sparrow
Another (or the same) Harris' Hawk on the way out
After
chatting with the Border Patrol agents (and getting distracted by a Lark
Sparrow on the wire) we headed on up, and I think this is where we had our
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher sail by! Since
Jamie was driving, I had him sign in, and just as we pulled in a Ringed
Kingfisher of all things went rowing overhead!
The guy gave us three orange safety vests, which was a first! (Good idea, actually…) I had told J&T that the Tamaulipas Crows
had been reported the day before, so our hopes were high, but Jamie didn’t feel
it was necessary to, say, spend an hour there waiting for the things to show
up. Well. We ended up spending almost an hour and a
half there, as the birding was so great!
They had once again moved the mountain, so the road they sent us up gave
us a great view of the settling ponds just south of the landfill that were
stuffed with birds! But even before we
got up that far, we pulled over to enjoy beautifully-lit Caracaras and
vultures, and even another Chihuahuan Raven!
A Chihuahuan Raven welcomes us to the famous Dump!
An adult Crested Caracara looks for a morsel...
"Find anything good in there?"
Youngsters are more brown; this subadult is just starting to get his red face.
Jamie caught this great action shot of two caracaras! ©2018 James Hayden
Jamie and Tam (©2018 Tamara Hayden)
Another view of the raven...
...and here you can see why the old name was "White-necked Raven"!
Herring Gull
Laughing Gulls (with a couple of token Herrings in the back)
Jamie sneaks a shot of Tam enjoying the spectacle!
Said spectacle...
Settling ponds
We
finally made it up as far as we could safely go, parked, then walked across the
road to check out the birds on the fences for crows. After a bit Jamie happened to turn around and
yelled, “Look behind us!” A big flock of Tamaulipas Crows was
wafting by right behind us – we estimated about 30 birds!! (Thankfully we both got some pictures of the
group; I didn’t think anyone would believe us otherwise…) After they flew by and down the hill, we
spotted a lone individual circle over us, and we could even hear its frog-like
croak! He landed on another fence a ways
away, but what a show! We ended up
walking along the outside of the fenceline to see if we could see where the
flock went, and checked the birds down below while we were at it; while we
could pick out no odd gulls, we added Black-necked Stilt, Shoveler, Mottled Duck,
and both cormorants to the Hotspot list.
A couple of guys from Oklahoma showed up about then (as Jamie put it,
this time we were on the “giving” end
of the “you just missed it!” scenario…), so after enjoying some young
White-tailed Hawks that they pointed out to us, we left them to look and headed
back to the car. Driving down the hill
on the way out, however, I saw a suspicious black bird on the fence, and sure
enough, it was the crow, leaning over and croaking every so often! (Probably was the same one that had circled
around earlier…) What a great time! [Update: they ran into the same guys later in the week, and thankfully they did get the crow!]
Three members of the huge Tamaulipas Crow flock!
You can see the squared-off tail on the bird on the far left, ruling out Chihuahuan Raven.
Jamie's shot of 27 Tamaulipas Crows!! ©2018 James Hayden
We refind the straggler on the way out!
From
there we headed to Old Port Isabel Road, as there was always the off chance
we’d spy a falcon close the road for pictures.
We crawled up towards that
hacking platform, but Jamie spotted something on a yucca, and sure enough, it
was another Aplomado! While we were
enjoying him through the scope, suddenly a second bird showed up, and the two
of them started bombing a pair of White-tailed Hawks that were hunkered in the
bush next to the first falcon, that we hadn’t even seen! That was quite the show!
Very distant Aplomado Falcon!
Things
were pretty slow after that, but we did manage to add Long-billed Curlew, a
backlit Bewick’s Wren singing from a yucca, and invisible Cassin’s Sparrows
singing out in the field. At the canal
we added a Great Blue Heron and Great Egret, plus a Spotted Sandpiper that I
missed, along with a kingfisher of some kind that darted from the bridge and
into the same bush that the Belted had on our last trip. On the other side Tam spotted an LBJ hanging
on for dear life in a wind-blown bush that turned out to be a Savannah Sparrow.
Tam on Old Port Isabel Road
Next
stop was South Padre, and every photographer has to visit the Flats, so out we
went! There were gobs of birds
apparently unbothered by the nearby parasailers: lots of skimmers, terns (all three
“biggies”), and Laughing Gulls (couldn’t pick out a Franklin’s yet), plus lots
of Dunlin with a single Western Sandpiper thrown in. We also enjoyed both morphs of Reddish Egret,
a single Tricolored Heron, some Marbled Godwits, and several Sanderlings, Ruddy
Turnstones, and Black-bellied Plovers.
Tam and Jamie check out the birds on the Flats
Western Sandpiper
Ruddy Turnstone
Black Skimmers
All three "big terns" (with a token Ring-billed Gull in the back)
Sandwich is the smallest, with a yellow-tipped black bill
Royal is next up, with an unmarked orange bill.
Here is a Sandwich Tern (left) next to a Caspian, the largest tern.
These are told by their heavy, dusky-tipped red bills
Telling someone off...
Headed
to the Birding Center after that, where right away Jamie spotted a pair of
Oystercatchers all hunkered down! They
happened to be next to two Double-crested Cormorant and a Neotropic, so that
was a great size comparison. Lots of
Barn Swallows were flying around, and I saw something dull brown fly up and
land; as I got the scope on it, it looked suspiciously like an American Golden
Plover, which would have been a life bird for Jamie (and he agreed that it
looked too slender to be a Blackbelly), but I would have felt better if I had
seen the thing fly again…
Tam and Jamie outside the SPI BNC (©2018 Tamara Hayden)
As
usual, the birds were fearless (the Coots were actually asking for a handout J), but Jamie
spotted something out in the bay that looked suspicious, so we tootled out
there to discover a pod of Pied-billed Grebes in the green stuff! One American Wigeon pair was still hanging
around the mangroves, so that was nice. We
heard several Soras, and finally both Jamie and Tam saw one come out (I missed
that one), but in the same little area we had great views of White Ibis, a
Spoonbill, Lesser Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpiper, and of course many
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. In the
songbird department a Yellow-rumped Warbler was flitting around, and a little
pishing brought up a smacking Lincoln’s Sparrow (plus several hiding
Yellowthroats)!
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Tam and Jamie on the boardwalk
Snoozing (but alert) Roseate Spoonbill
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
White Ibis
The spoonbill decides to preen a bit (along with the ibis)
Then makes his move to come down and get a little lunch...
Pectoral Sandpiper
I
heard a Least Bittern cackle, so after enjoying a Black-crowned Night Heron and
the resident Green Heron in his culvert, we headed out towards the “south pond”
(the one that’s visible from both the Birding Center boardwalk and the
Convention Centre’s), as that’s the direction the cackle came from. Couldn’t find the bittern, but we had another
collection of nice birds, including a Snipe that Jamie spotted! We had nice comparative views of both
yellowlegs species, more Pectorals, some Stilt Sandpipers, a couple of
Short-billed Dowitchers, and a couple more suspicious-looking Pluvialis plovers, but thankfully one of
them spread his wings briefly, proving him to indeed be a Golden! Cha-ching!
A Purple Martin gurgled overhead, and an Osprey was enjoying his lunch
on the blue water tower on the way to the parking lot.
Jamie spots a distant Wilson's Snipe that gets photobombed by an American Golden Plover (below)!
More views of the plover
Green Heron
Mottled Ducks
Showing the purple speculum
Tam meets one of the friendly Great-tailed Grackles (result below)
©2018 Tamara Hayden
We
had to head home after that, finishing with an impressive 94 species for the
day! Bird List:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
American Wigeon Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Plain Chachalaca
Northern Bobwhite
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
American Oystercatcher
Black-bellied Plover
American Golden-Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Stilt Sandpiper
Sanderling
Dunlin
Pectoral Sandpiper
Western Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Ringed Kingfisher
Belted Kingfisher
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Aplomado Falcon
Couch's Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Tamaulipas Crow
Chihuahuan Raven
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Cave Swallow
Verdin
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Curve-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Cassin's Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
94 SPECIES
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