Another
beautiful day greeted us as we headed up to Starr County! The Salineño feeders were of course closed by
now, but we had high hopes of bagging the seedeaters, as they were being seen
regularly. The river was quite high when
we got there, and another car had beaten us there, so we parked behind them and
immediately saw the Lesser Scaups swimming backwards (just appearing to with
the strong current J) and hearing but not seeing the Gray
Hawk. The Chachalacas were also
chorusing but not showing themselves. We
headed up the trail, and the first thing we tried to zero in on was the singing
Cassin’s Sparrow, who happened to be sitting right out in the open for scope
views! A pair of Verdin was also very
cooperative!
Lesser Scaup
Female Ring-necked Duck
Tam at the river's edge
We
arrived at the end of the trail where another birder had a scope up, and as we
approached we asked what she had, and she was looking at five Red-billed
Pigeons! We were jazzed: they were sitting right up top in beautiful
light for knockout looks! While watching
them both an Altamira Oriole and a Cardinal hopped up to join them, giving us a
splash of color! The gal’s name was
Nina, and shortly her two friends Theresa and Brian came down the hill with no
luck with the seedeaters; turned out they were all from Houston coming down for
some “spectacular” birding! We gave the
spot a few minutes then crawled up the hill where the same Ringed Kingfisher
from last time was in the dead tree, this time with a mate! Coming from the opposite direction this time,
I saw the bank that they were in all probability nesting in, so we kept our
distance but still got some nice pictures.
I saw smaller holes in the bank and wondered if they were used by the
Bank Swallows we were hearing overhead.
Coming back down the hill I thought
I heard a distant seedeater, but it never sang again, and I just wasn’t sure,
so we let that one go. A Red-tailed Hawk
soared over the river, proving itself to be a clean-breasted Fuertes’. After Brian pointed out a Caspian Tern and
then showed us where a Ladder-backed Woodpecker had made a nest, we headed back
to the car, where the Osprey was again on his pole with a big fish!
Red-billed Pigeons (with a token grackle)
A closer bird...
Jamie shooting the Ringed Kingfisher pair (below)
©2018 James Hayden
Couch's Kingbird
Next
route was the Dump Road, where on the connector road we found a House Finch on
a wire! In the thornscrub we added several
Caracaras, Black-throated Sparrow, and Pyrrhuloxia; Tam actually walked much of
the road while we crawled along, and managed to spot a lot of stuff that way,
including a White-eyed Vireo! While
stopped to enter the eBird list, someone spotted a hawk, so I jumped out, and it
turned out to be a very high Swainson’s Hawk!
Jamie captured this fabulous in-flight shot of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher! (©2018 James Hayden)
Black-throated Sparrow
Pyrrhuloxia (©2018 James Hayden)
Crested Caracara
From
there we headed to Falcon (Starr) County Park, as Vermilion Flycatcher was high
on the want list. We crawled in the main
road and parked at the restrooms, and Tam said, “Watch the Vermilion show up the
minute I go in!” Well. She disappeared and I spotted a red bird
right in front of us – the Vermilion!
That got a good laugh when she finally came out (she had actually
already seen one, but Jamie hadn’t), and as they chased the thing around, there
turned out to be two birds, one that
looked like a young male to me (as his “red” areas were more orange), but they
were certainly interacting strangely! On
the way out another cooperative Verdin worked the bushes right next to the car!
Stalking the elusive Vermilion Flycatcher (below) at Falcon County Park
Very cooperative Verdin (©2018 James Hayden)
From
there we went to Falcon State Park to kill time until it was time to head to
Rancho Lomitas. We ran into another
birder who was RVing with her husband, and she alerted us to a nearby
Ash-throated Flycatcher, another lifer for Jamie! We also spotted a White Pelican for Tam, and
after that we actually didn’t get very far before it was time to head to the
Ranch. But on the way out we were held
up by a very cooperative Roadrunner!
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Fleeing Roadrunner
Eadweard Muybridge proved in the late 1800s that all four feet of a horse are off the ground in a gallop; now we know that both feet of a Roadrunner are off the ground in a run!
This
was only my second time to Rancho Lomitas (a native plant nursery where one
must call ahead for access), but since Scaled Quail was on Jamie’s “want” list,
this is about the only place in the Valley where they’re almost guaranteed! Jim and
“Pal” (the little dog) met us at the gate and showed us to his little bungalow
where he puts out the food, and sure enough, after awhile they came in and screwed up the
courage to come right to the platter where Jim had put the feed out! What looked like a little Mexican Ground
Squirrel stuck his head out briefly, and a White-tipped Dove made an appearance
way in the back, but the quail were
definitely the stars! With what little
time we had left, we took the loop trail around the property and down to the
pond, picking up Cactus and Bewick’s Wrens, a friendly Ruby-crowned Kinglet,
Curve-billed Thrasher, both Inca and Common Ground Dove, and at Toni’s patio
another Ash-throated Flycatcher! (Toni
and Benito actually own the property, and besides plants, also rent out casitas
to folks…)
Tam makes friends with Pal (Jim's doggie)
Scaled Quail
Bewick's Wren
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Cactus Wren
We
headed home the back way (via FM 490), and I resolved to explore some of these
dirt roads we were traveling for future road-birding routes; the habitat looked
wonderful!
Bird List:
Bird List:
Lesser Scaup
Ring-necked Duck
Plain Chachalaca Scaled Quail
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Harris's Hawk
Gray Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot
Caspian Tern
Rock Pigeon
Red-billed Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Ringed Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Vermilion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cave Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
Bewick's Wren
Cactus Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Curve-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Olive Sparrow
Cassin's Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Altamira Oriole
House Finch
House Sparrow
65 SPECIES
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