Don
and Dorca were from New Brunswick, and they were interested in seeing “out of
the way” places, as they planned on visiting the well-known parks on their
own. I though the La Sal Del Rey area
would be a good choice, as I often get a variety of birds along that route. We went straight to Brushline Road, to the
area north of SR 186, where many birds came right out: a Brown-crested Flycatcher showed nicely, as
did a Long-billed Thrasher, Olive Sparrow, Pyrrhuloxia, Bewick’s Wren, and a
friendly Curve-billed Thrasher up on a wire!
A Cassin’s Sparrow sang on a bush for scope views, Scissor-tailed
Flycatchers posed on the wires, and a big surprise was a flock of Cedar
Waxwings down the road! An even bigger surprise was a big flock of Lark Buntings, when they should have been long gone by now!
Don and Dorca check out Brushline Road
Coy Olive Sparrow
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Small part of a large flock of Lark Buntings!
Here the tell-tale buffy wing patch is evident on these birds.
Close-up of one of the birds (with an inconvenient fence wire through the middle...)
Curve-billed Thrasher
The pond at the
end of Brushline had some interesting birds to pad the list, including American
Wigeon, Black-necked Stilts, Cattle Egrets grazing with the horses, and an
Emu! (He didn’t go on eBird… J) Backtracking, a pair of Harris’ Hawks posed
on a pole, and Don got to see his Roadrunner!
(I missed that one, but heard one later…) Because of the angle of the sun, I opted to
blast down to SR 186 and head east to Rio Beef, come up that road, and go west
on Ken Baker so the sun would be to our backs, but on the way we nearly went in
the ditch stopping to enjoy a tom Turkey “in the strut”! Continuing to Ken Baker, I was sweating the White-tailed Hawk until one finally
gave us a good view!
An Emu seems out of place with horses and Cattle Egrets (at least in North America)!
Harris' Hawk
We stumble upon a tom Turkey trying to impress a hen!
"She's not even looking!"
"Fine - be that way!"
Another cute Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Delta
Lake was too high for shorebirds, so we swung in the park mainly to use the
restrooms, but birdwise it was pretty much a bust except for Cave Swallows swirling
around the little bridge and a Green Heron in the same area. Conversely, the “Back Pond” along FM 1015 was
great with Fulvous Whistling Ducks and others water birds! Sugarhouse Pond had the proverbial “zilch, zero,
nada,” but after that disappointment that “still small voice” suggested I give
Javier over at Valley Acres Reservoir a call, and he gave the go-ahead to come
on in and bird! (This is a restricted
area, but so long as you call Javier and ask, they usually don’t have a problem
with birders coming on the property…)
That was a great decision: tons
of White Pelicans, Franklin’s Gulls, and shorebirds graced us (including
Baird’s Sandpiper)! A gorgeous Roseate
Spoonbill was a hit, too, and a nice surprise was an American Golden
Plover! The “back leg” had a line of
tamarisks that were hiding tons of Black-crowned Night Herons, which took off
one by one as we passed!
Valley Acres Reservoir
American Avocet
Baird's Sandpipers (close-up below)
American Golden Plover
Stilt Sandpiper
Roseate Spoonbill
Our
last stop was the Progresso Sod Farms, where we found several Upland Sandpipers
and a few more Golden Plovers, along with some nice Swainson’s Hawks. Discovered to my chagrin that you can no
longer drive up on the levee to access Pomelo Road to the east, but thankfully
you can at least drive the road the parallels the levee to get there! There was simply a “No Trespassing” sign that
was enough to deter me, but I’m glad I didn’t cave to temptation and get up
there anyway, as we saw a huge block of concrete crossing the old access road
down to Pomelo!!
Headed
home after that, with 91 species for the day!
Bird list:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Fulvous Whistling-Duck Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Bobwhite
Wild Turkey
Least Grebe
Neotropic Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Roseate Spoonbill
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Sora
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
American Golden-Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Upland Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Franklin's Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Lesser Nighthawk
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Western Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cave Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Common Yellowthroat
Olive Sparrow
Cassin's Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Lark Bunting
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Indigo Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
House Sparrow
91 SPECIES
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