By
the time June rolls around, adding year birds to your list (unless you take a
road trip elsewhere in the state) can be tough, so that’s when you resort to at
least building up your month list! J I couldn’t stand the thought of closing out
the month with under 100 species recorded, so a report of a Brown Booby near
the Boca Chica jetties (plus the fact that I was hurting on coastal birds –
even the Boca Chica survey only added a handful) sent me to South Padre Island,
where said jetties are a little easier to get to! My friend Pat was game, so we started out
pre-dawn, and by going by way of the toll road, that took us by the SR48 boat
ramp, so she suggested we stop before the sun got high enough over the horizon
to cause a viewing problem! That turned
out to be a productive stop, adding both Black-bellied and Semipalmated Plovers
to the list (she saw a Wilson’s, but I didn’t sweat that one having picked it
up along Boca Chica), plus the only Roseate Spoonbills of the day flying by! A
lone Caracara sat across the way while a Chihuahuan Raven glided by. The
usual contingent of Laughing Gulls and regular terns (including some Forster’s)
loafed, and an Eastern Meadowlark sang while we scanned. Alas, we couldn’t spot an Oystercatcher
(normally this is a reliable place for them) so we headed on to the Island.
We
went straight to Isla Blanca Park, taking only a quick look into the little bay
view area we usually stop at as the place was packed with vehicles already (added
Black Terns in the process)! Continuing
to the jetties, we parked and headed down, enjoying the Great Blue Herons
nesting on the towers in the channel, and scanning the jetties added some Least
Terns fluttering around. It looked as
though there was a little tent city across the way on the north end of Boca
Chica Beach, but try as we might, we couldn’t find anything even resembling a
booby (although Pat picked out a Ruddy Turnstone on the rocks). The end of our jetty was packed with
fisher-people, however (it was rather amusing looking at the mob through the
bins and about all you could see was fishing poles sticking every which way
like pins in a pincushion), and we were fascinated by this huge ship being
guided into the channel by two pilot boats!
Great Blue Heron
Base of the jetty looking west
Jetty looking east with the monster ship on its way in
Finally
giving up on the booby (I didn’t hold out a lot of hope, frankly, but a trip to
the Island is always fun regardless) we headed to The Flats, where about the
only shorebirds we could pick up were a few Willets and a family of
Black-necked Stilts, including some juveniles with crisp buffy
feather-edging! A handful of the regular
terns were out there as well, but wrapping that up quickly we pulled into the
Convention Centre, where we ran into a worker who told us that there was a
fishing tournament going on – that explained the pincushion! J Pat opted to relax in the shade and watch the
now quiet gardens while I checked out the boardwalk: the East Pond was pretty devoid of bird life
except for the nesting stilts, but heading down the north leg to the pier, a Red-winged
Blackbird seemed upset with my presence as he danced along the railing, a young
Great Blue Heron stood motionless, and Common Nighthawks were batting overhead in
broad daylight! I rested for five under
the shelter, hoping a frigatebird might sail by, but it was pretty quiet. On the way back a Green Heron had replaced
the Great Blue, and a Snowy Egret was on a dead stump seemingly fascinated with
a leafy branch in the water! Checking
out the other leg I at least heard a Least Bittern cackle, while a Common
Gallinule briefly showed, with an unseen chick calling nearby.
Juvie Black-necked Stilt (above and below) - note the crisp feather edging!
Sandwich Terns
Royal Terns
Both together (note the size difference)
Young Great Blue Heron
Young Green Heron
Snowy Egret fascinated by a branch in the water
Pat
had picked up a couple of squabbling Brown-crested Flycatchers while I was out,
but that was about it for the songbirds.
We bypassed the Birding Center and went straight to Sheepshead, only
because one year I had a young Golden-cheeked Warbler show up in the middle of
summer, so you never know! This time I
don’t think we had anything but grackles and Collared Doves, so we continued on
to the Port Isabel Reservoir (PIR).
First we made a quick visit to the golf course village next door to the PIR,
as this was a spot Michael Marsden had cottoned us onto one fall. Way in the back was another mudflat, but the
birds were way out there, and with the heat waves we really couldn’t
pick up anything. So on to PIR, and
again Pat opted to stay in the car with the AC running while I checked the
place out: there were several Reddish
Egrets out there (mostly white morphs) and some Killdeer and lots of
cormorants, but no new shorebirds. L
White morph Reddish Egret
So
we headed home after that, picking up a pair of Harris’ Hawks along SR100, and
while stopping at the Stripes at Laguna Vista we picked up a handful of Valley
songbirds for the day list! We ended up
with a modest 54 species for the morning (the Lesser Nighthawk was singing
pre-dawn at my apartment), but the trip was a success in that it got me over
100 for the month (108 to be exact)! J Bird list:
Black-bellied
Whistling-Duck
Mottled
DuckRock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Inca Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Lesser Nighthawk
Common Nighthawk
Common Gallinule
Black-necked Stilt
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Killdeer
Ruddy Turnstone
Willet
Laughing Gull
Least Tern
Caspian Tern
Black Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Neotropic Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Green Heron
Roseate Spoonbill
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Chihuahuan Raven
Purple Martin
Verdin
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Olive Sparrow
Eastern Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
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