I
had been antsy to get out to Laguna Atascosa and do a BBS-style survey since
they finished resurfacing General Brant Road, so finally got the opportunity
today! Not sure if the Rio Hondo Bridge
was open yet, I went by way of San Benito and cut up to General Brant from FM
510 via FM 803. Having found out from
their website that the Bayside Drive is still
not open L,
I started surveying just past the residential area that’s east of FM 1847, as
it’s almost all good thornscrub and prairie habitat with only a few scattered
houses. My first pre-dawn stop hit pay
dirt with a Botteri’s Sparrow singing right next to the car, and while I waited
for sunrise I logged a nice selection of things including both Olive and
Cassin’s Sparrows, Blue Grosbeak, Dickcissel, Common Nighthawks, and
Bobwhites. (I think this first stop is
very close to Cactus Creek Ranch, as that was actually the first hotspot that
came up on eBird…)
Botteri's Sparrow
Continuing
on, another stop had a nice pair of White-tailed Hawks in an open area, along
with a Harris’ on another pole. Some
distant whistling ducks flew by that lacked the tell-tale white wing patches,
making them Fulvous (had plenty of the Black-bellied as well). I happened to stop at a couple of the
“wildlife corridors” that they built to encourage animals to travel under the
road and not across it; here a Roadrunner sang (the only one of the day,
surprisingly), and a Bordered Patch fluttered in and posed for pictures. Shortly after that is the must-stop-at
wetland that feeds into Laguna Atascosa (there’s also a paved parking area for
the Prairie Trail on the right): the
place was alive with Least Bitterns, Common Gallinules, White Ibis,
Black-necked Stilts, a single Solitary Sandpiper and Gull-billed Tern, and even
a Green Kingfisher came in to say hello!
The wires were lined with tons of Cave Swallows (plus a few Purple
Martins), and several other herons either flew over or called from the
reeds. Down the road apiece you cross a
Resaca which often is lifeless but today had oodles of stuff: Willets, both flavors of yellowlegs, three
Spotted Sandpipers, a couple of Black-bellied Plovers, another Gull-billed
Tern, and even a couple of Wilson’s Phalaropes twirling around in the distance!
White-tailed Hawk
Bordered Patch
General
Brant no longer “T’s” like it used to at Buena Vista, but rather the latter
swings to the right, while you deliberately make a left turn towards the refuge
headquarters. By the ag fields an Upland
Sandpiper flew overhead, and an Olive Sparrow came right out for pictures! The day’s only Starling showed up on a wire,
along with the Mockingbirds, Mourning Doves, and even a Collared Dove! After getting my pass (where I found out that
they’re hoping the Bayside Drive will be open to vehicles by this time next year) I headed out to Osprey Overlook, where a guy had his ham radio
equipment set up! So I listened in on
these conversations while scanning Laguna Atascosa; picked up a single Little
Blue Heron, several Black and Forster’s Terns out over the water, and a couple
of Pied-billed Grebes on the
water! A quick look down the “dead end”
road didn’t add anything new, but had several Scissor-tailed Flycatchers
flopping around.
A few Olive Sparrow shots along the entrance road
Bronzed Cowbird on the road to Osprey Overlook
Wandered
around the headquarters area before checking out Buena Vista: scruffy-looking Green Jays were coming to the
open feeders along with a White-tipped Dove and Bronzed Cowbirds, and a couple
of Long-billed Thrashers visited the drip at the blind (one was pristine and
one was pretty scruffy). Nothing was
blooming so there wasn’t much butter action except for a Lyside Sulphur trying
to hide, but on the way to the Kiskadee Trail a mom Chachalaca was feeding her
three adorable babies behind the building!
Scruffy Green Jays
Pristine Long-billed Thrasher
Not-so-pristine Long-billed Thrasher
Plain Chachalaca family
The trail itself was rather quiet except for a couple of anis, but a big surprise was flushing the Pauraque near the amphitheater! The garden trail across the parking lot had several Snouts, and a little time at the gazebo water feature produced a bathing Olive Sparrow and drinking thrashers and cardinals. A Myiarchus flycatcher came in that sure struck me as a Great Crested: it seemed to have a marked contrast between the bright yellow belly and darkish gray throat, but unfortunately I couldn’t get a bead on it while it faced me to get a photo; by the time I found it in the viewfinder (my one real beef with the Powershot) it had turned sideways, and the resulting shots were inconclusive to my mind (the “dark gray” throat could easily be seen as an artifact of the light, and the diagnostic pale base to the lower mandible was not visible, although the tertial edgings looked pretty bright). After examining the photos Mary G. concluded that it was indeed a Brown-crested (the tail feathers growing in made it suspect to me as well...).
One of many Snouts
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Cardinal with flying water...
A
pretty good storm was brewing, so I wrapped that up and headed for Buena Vista,
as I saw cars going that direction and was wondering how much of the road was
open. Thankfully, the stretch of road
that goes through refuge land is
open, and was able to bag a Long-billed Curlew along here, but the monsoon hit
as well, so about all I could do was scout the road! It was closed again shortly before Laguna
Vista, so I just turned around and headed back by way of General Brant,
stopping at the Prairie Trail parking area to eat lunch and enjoy The Storm
Part 2 that was rapidly headed my way!
Finished just before it hit, so continued on in to Rio Hondo in hopes
that their bridge was finally open after years of work, and it was!! (It’s a straighter shot from Alamo to go
north on US 77 to Combes and head directly east…)
Incoming monsoon
Ended
up with a respectable 82 species for the morning! Bird list:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Fulvous Whistling-Duck Plain Chachalaca
Northern Bobwhite
Pied-billed Grebe
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
Common Gallinule
Black-necked Stilt
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Upland Sandpiper
Long-billed Curlew
Least Sandpiper
Wilson's Phalarope
Laughing Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Black Tern
Forster's Tern
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Inca Dove
Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Greater Roadrunner
Groove-billed Ani
Common Nighthawk
Common Pauraque
Chimney Swift
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Great Crested Flycatcher
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Purple Martin
Cave Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
Bewick's Wren
Cactus Wren
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Olive Sparrow
Botteri's Sparrow
Cassin's Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Dickcissel
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
82 SPECIES
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