Today
we headed first to the Weaver Road Sod Farms in order to try for
“grasspipers”. I was dismayed at first
when I saw that the northernmost field had apparently been harvested as it was
all barren ground, but thankfully as we approached viable sod fields we saw
some large bodies that turned out to be American Golden Plovers! We were getting ready to continue and head
around the corner to get a better look when I noticed an orange-legged
shorebird prancing in front of the car – it was a Buff-breasted Sandpiper! He continued into the field, giving everyone
great views, and even did a couple of display “flashes” for us (even though
there wasn’t another Buffie within miles, probably)! In the process of enjoying him the gang found
several Horned Larks, which were new for the trip for them.
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Performing the "flash" display!
Horned Lark
Heading
south on Weaver we got great looks at the plovers, but other shorebirds were
sparse. Kaas actually thought he had a
pipit next to a lark, but the “pipit” morphed into a Savannah Sparrow before
multiplying into several in the field and in the sunflowers along the
road! The flock also held a
surprise: a nice Grasshopper
Sparrow! A “gray-capped” sparrow in a
sunflower plant right next to the car turned into a brilliant Dickcissel, a
life bird for all! A distant Upland
Sandpiper by the side of the road was a nice addition, and a little further
down we finally saw a couple of shorebirds down in the grass that turned out to
be Pectorals, and a little scanning landed on a suspicious-looking peep that we
finally narrowed down to White-rumped, due to the attenuated look, black legs,
strongly streaked breast and sides, and straight bill (was too far away to see
the diagnostic rusty spot at the base of the lower mandible). Several Leasts were in there as well. The party was broken up by a Peregrine dashing through!
Dickcissel
From
there we headed over to Rangerville Resaca, stopping at the little bridge to
enjoy both Cliff and Cave Swallows, plus a surprise Ani! An even bigger surprise was driving up to a
totally dry resaca!! I had never seen it bone dry in my ten years
here!! So we tootled over to the resaca
within the Ebony Unit of the Las Palomas WMA, and while we found no Ruddy Ducks, we padded the day
list with Gadwall, Least Grebes, Coots, Stilts, and Blue-winged Teal in the
lake, and in the woods added (by ear) Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Chachalacas, and
White-tipped Dove. A Swainson’s Hawk
circled around in the fields, and we actually found another Peregrine!
We
were kind of flying by the seat of our pants after that, as we had several
options but couldn’t do “everything”, so my charges had to prioritize: trip birds or life birds? They opted for the latter, but first we
agreed to try for the Aplomado Falcon along Boca Chica Boulevard. Taking the toll road down, we came up on a resaca just before the terminus, and I wondered if this was the resaca someone had reported a
Redhead on recently, so I careened over and we scanned, and sure enough, there
were two beat-up female Redheads out there!
A nice surprise lifer for the group!
Lingering female Redhead
Continuing
on to Boca Chica, we went far enough to bag a heat-wave-induced view of the
Aplomado Falcon (although he gave us a good flight look). We also got good “listens” of Bobwhites, but
alas, none showed themselves. I think
the Border Patrol guys had a good time making my charges sweat as they went
over their passports!
The
Tamaulipas Crow hadn’t been reported recently, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t
there, so with the promise of great photo ops of Caracara and Chihuahuan Ravens
at least (to say nothing of the gulls), we headed over there, and I was shocked
at the number of trucks, large and small, going in there! We pulled over once up the hill and still
almost got run over by a garbage truck coming into our little corner, but we
did have great looks at the ravens, and a first-year Herring Gull was new for
the trip! About that time a report came
over the RBA messaging system that a possible juvenile Great Black Hawk was
sighted at Sheepshead, which if confirmed would be a first U.S. record! So that and the heavy traffic finally drove
us away, but the gang opted to hit Old Port Isabel Road (OPIR) first to bag a
few lifers (actually, I think they had all seen a Great Black Hawk on previous
tropical trips, so that wasn’t a big priority)!
Surprisingly,
no falcon was manning the nesting platform, so I was very glad we at least got
a passable look on Boca Chica! A Cassin’s
Sparrow popped up and gave great views (and pictures for those on the correct
side of the car J), but the Bewick’s Wren wasn’t as
cooperative… At one stop in the
thornscrub a Curve-billed Thrasher pair darted by; the only one who actually
saw it was Kaas, but it wasn’t an identifiable look. Thankfully, everyone got the Verdin that
popped up, but only Kaas got the Gull-billed Tern that batted by behind us… Some Long-billed Curlews circled around and
landed, and the very nice driver of the car coming the opposite direction
actually stopped for us until everyone had gotten their fill!
Eastern Meadowlark
Cassin's Sparrow (showing striped crown below)
Finished
up OPIR and blasted over to Sheepshead, where Lizee Cavazos had gotten some
great photos of the bird as it was being mercilessly harassed by grackles, and
it sure looked good! (It had initially
been ID’d as the more expected but still rare Common Black Hawk, but warning
bells went out throughout the thread not to rule out Great Black, and indeed,
the bird looked way too large and “long” for a Common Black…) The migrant show was definitely slower: the orioles, Parula, and waterthrush were still
around, but a nice male Rose-breasted Grosbeak and both Indigo and Painted
Buntings were nice, plus a Yellow-breasted Chat that Alicia Cavazos (no
relation to Lizee J) showed us! The whole Harlingen contingent of the Birder Patrol gang was
there (plus a whole bunch of other folks who had heard the news), so when Sue Griffin got a report of a Blackpoll Warbler over at the CC, we
all loaded up and headed out!
As
per usual, we first spent a little time at the water feature where Catbirds, Orange-crowned,
and Hooded Warblers showed up. As we wandered
to the “back yard”, Alicia and Anne Mayfield told us of a Bay-breasted Warbler
that was hanging around the “Oriole Oranges”, along with the continuing female Cape May! We eventually got on the Bay-breasted, but in the
meantime they had a vireo that they wanted an opinion of, and when I finally
could get on the thing it turned out to be a Warbling! Mary Gustafson and Bill Clark showed up about
then, and he confirmed from the photos that the Sheephead hawk was indeed an
immature Great Black! The mystery
flycatcher that everyone had been debating about showed up again, so we all wanted
her input, and like a good teacher she asked, “What is everyone calling
it?” That got us all to carefully look
at and analyze the bird; the fact that it wasn’t acting like an empid (i.e.,
flipping its tail) but more like a pewee bothered me, but the overall color and
wingbars looked too bright for a pewee to me.
When she hinted that it was definitely an empid, I said Acadian straight
away, as the thing had a crazy long primary projection, even though the back
didn’t look as green as I would have liked!
She concurred, so we felt better!
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Bay-breasted Warbler
Female Cape May Warbler
A
report that the Black-throated Blue Warbler was back on the boardwalk sent us
out there, but not before getting waylaid by shorebirds in East Pond… Dipped on the Blue, but got an American Redstart and Black-throated Green instead; otherwise it was pretty quiet.
We had to leave after that, so I took the scenic route down SR 48 where the
gang saw an Oystercatcher on the fly!
With that we ended up with 113 species for the day!
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Black-throated Green Warbler
Suus and Kaas comb the boardwalk for migrants...
Bird list:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Gadwall Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Redhead
Plain Chachalaca
Northern Bobwhite
Least Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Cattle Egret
Roseate Spoonbill
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Swainson's Hawk
Sora
Common Gallinule
American Coot
American Oystercatcher
Black-necked Stilt
American Golden-Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Upland Sandpiper
Long-billed Curlew
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Dunlin
Least Sandpiper
White-rumped Sandpiper
Buff-breasted Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Laughing Gull
Franklin's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Least Tern
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Groove-billed Ani
Lesser Nighthawk
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Aplomado Falcon
Peregrine Falcon
Acadian Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Chihuahuan Raven
Horned Lark
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Cave Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
Bewick's Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Gray Catbird
Curve-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Northern Waterthrush
Black-and-white Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Hooded Warbler
American Redstart
Cape May Warbler
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Cassin's Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Grasshopper Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Painted Bunting
Dickcissel
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Sparrow
113 SPECIES
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