Tuesday, December 28, 2021

To Chase or Not To Chase?

12/24/21 

In the time between guiding Chuck and guiding our new guests Lisa and Pierre from Massachusetts, the first US record of Bat Falcon showed up at Santa Ana NWR during the Christmas Bird Count on the 18th!  (Well, to be accurate, a visiting birder initially found it on the 8th but didn’t know what it was, and subsequent searches turned up zero…)  So I gave Lisa and Pierre the option of sticking with the original plan, which was to bird Estero Llano Grande State Park, or going to Santa Ana, which would have many of the same birds plus a shot at the falcon (I had already procured cracking views and video of the bird the previous Saturday, so there was no selfish ambition in offering the change of plans J)!  Being a photographer, Pierre’s preference was Estero (plus they would have time on their own to go to Santa Ana), so over we went!

I was very thankful that, for once, we weren’t socked in with fog!  Once parked I suggested we circle the parking lot as Chuck and I had Lisa and Pierre’s one and only target bird, the Red-crowned Parrot, calling and flying over us the last time I was there!  Sadly, while we did hear them, they remained distant and out of sight, as did the Buff-bellied Hummingbird that rattled near the car, but a skulky bird gave both of them a good enough look to pin it down as a Long-billed Thrasher! 

Once on the deck I was a little alarmed as the restrooms were locked, and had forgotten that today was the Christmas federal holiday and that the facilities would probably be closed! L  At any rate, we got on the boardwalk and had lovely early-morning lit Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, plus Shovelers glowing green-headed in the sun!  We checked Avocet Pond for the Fulvous Whistling Ducks, but couldn’t pick any out.  Heading on, a very cooperative Ladder-backed Woodpecker posed on a bare tree near the shelter at the intersection with the Wader’s Trail, and at the “T” an Eastern Phoebe posed briefly on the trail sign.  At Curlew Pond we had great, sunlit looks at more whistlers, Gadwall, and Least and Pied-billed Grebes, while a sharp crack betrayed the presence of the local flyover Ringed Kingfisher (Pierre got a shot of him impersonating a torpedo J). 

Lisa and Pierre on the boardwalk

Female Northern Shoveler

Male

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

While Lisa scans the trees, Pierre shoots a female Ladder-backed Woodpecker (below)


Least Grebe

Gadwall 

Pierre then asked about the chance of seeing Avocets, so we backtracked to the main Wader’s Trail and headed up onto the levee.  For once it wasn’t a wind tunnel up there, and one of the first jewels we ran into was not an Avocet, but the White-tailed Kite pair!  We did indeed get several Avocets, along with Black-necked Stilts, Long-billed Dowitchers, Stilt Sandpipers, and lounging White Pelicans that made for artistic photos against the light!  An odd-looking raptor sitting in a tree turned out to be a Harrier, once she lifted off and gave us some pertinent field marks!

Grasslands along the Wader's Trail

The white arrow marks the White-tailed Kite (below)!


Mostly Long-billed Dowitchers and a couple of Stilt Sandpipers

White Pelicans

Avocet (left) and Black-necked Stilts 

Shuffling back down to the Wader’s Trail, we checked out Dowitcher Pond, where we had more Gadwall (the hybrid never gave us a showing), along with Common Gallinules, a Coot that hardly got a second look J, and a couple of sad-sounding Soras.  The reeds were really grown up, so we ended up spooking a flock of Ring-necked Ducks before seeing them, with some very white-faced females that had me guessing for a minute until we could analyze our photos!  Over at Alligator Lake the night heron show didn’t disappoint (Pierre and Lisa get Black-crowned where they are, but Yellow-crowned is a real treat).  Presently another visiting birder walked up and asked if we had seen the Pauraque, and offered to show us where it was!  Given the fact that the last ones I had were way back in the stuff, I was very thankful to have a little help with this one, which was behaving more “normally” for Estero birds (i.e., sitting close to the trail and ignoring the happy tourists J)!  He in turn (the man, not the Pauraque) asked us if we had seen Green Kingfisher, which we hadn’t, so we all slowly made our way to the big overlook, where the same guy spotted a female flying against the opposite bank!  Took a while for us all to find her, but everyone eventually had great looks!  We also had a nice male Anhinga as well as both cormorants.

Female Blue-winged Teal

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Pauraque

Anhinga 

Heading back to the deck, I was very relieved to see that the office (and the restroom J) was indeed open!!  So I got us checked in and then headed to the Tropical Zone for some more photo ops at the blind.  But first we checked on “Pam in the Palm” (one of the staked out Screech Owls); Pam wasn’t home (at least that we could see), so we headed straight to the blind, picking up a flighty gnatcatcher on the way.  Down the road we spotted a trio of rangers:  John, Becky, and Raul, the latter wearing a Santa hat! (I told him he needed to dye his beard white for it to be convincing… J) After chatting a little, John said he’d be coming back in a minute to refill the feeders (he said he was getting dirty looks from the Kiskadees and Clay-colored Thrushes J), but even so, there was still a lot of activity at the blind!  Despite the lack of peanut butter, the Kiskadees and thrushes were still coming in and posing beautifully on the logs (at one point we had three thrushes at once; pretty impressive when you realize this used to be considered a vagrant in the Valley)!  The Orange-crowned Warblers were definitely wondering where their PB was, but the titmice, Green Jays, and White-tipped Doves were happy with the seed on the platform feeder. 

Rangers John, Becky, and Raul (as Santa)

White-tipped Dove

Orange-crowned Warbler wondering where the peanut butter is...

Kiskadees waiting by the sidelines

Black-crested Titmouse proudly shows his conehead...

Clay-colored Thrush

After John and Doug the Volunteer returned with the vittles, the place became even more lively:  an Altamira Oriole claimed the orange, and finally a Golden-fronted Woodpecker came in to investigate the PB!  A Curve-billed Thrasher made a brief appearance at the seed feeder, but the Olive Sparrow only sang for us.  One of the banded Green Jays came in, identified as “Nigel” by John (we made cracks about him being named after the evil cockatoo in the Rio movies J)!  Sadly no Buff-bellied Hummer came in, although a female Archilochus did.  In the meantime my phone was dinging off the hook with all the chatter on a special Bat Falcon Chase What’s App group, so Pierre and Lisa were piqued enough to want to get on it themselves so they could chase it that afternoon! 

Ranger John refills the PB feeders

Altamira Oriole

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Curve-billed Thrasher

Nigel the Green Jay

Groucho the Green Jay 

I was really surprised that we didn’t even hear any Chachalacas that morning (John said the Cooper’s Hawk had them scared to death L), so we headed over to the Picnic Table Feeders to see if they would come in there.  Besides another Orange-crowned Warbler in the drip and on the log, the place was deserted, so after a fruitless search for Burney the Pauraque (didn’t need him, but I wanted to see if I could find the thing on my own L) and the returning Great Horned Owls, we went home by way of US 281 to avoid the freeway and see if we could pick up any raptors (nope).  Pierre and Lisa did decide to hit Santa Ana after lunch, and I would love to report that they got the falcon, but it wasn’t to be – but they were looking forward to their Whooping Crane trip aboard The Skimmer! J 

Pierre searches for the Great Horned Owl

We ended up with 59 species for the morning (60 if you count the Rock Pigeons on the way home… J).  Bird list:

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Gadwall

Mottled Duck

Ring-necked Duck

Least Grebe

Pied-billed Grebe

Inca Dove

White-tipped Dove

White-winged Dove

Common Pauraque

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Sora

Common Gallinule

American Coot

Black-necked Stilt

American Avocet

Stilt Sandpiper

Long-billed Dowitcher

Anhinga

Double-crested Cormorant

Neotropic Cormorant

American White Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

White Ibis

Turkey Vulture

White-tailed Kite

Northern Harrier

Ringed Kingfisher

Green Kingfisher

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Red-crowned Parrot

Eastern Phoebe

Great Kiskadee

White-eyed Vireo

Green Jay

Black-crested Titmouse

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

House Wren

Marsh Wren

Carolina Wren

Curve-billed Thrasher

Long-billed Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

Clay-colored Thrush

House Sparrow

Olive Sparrow

Altamira Oriole

Red-winged Blackbird

Great-tailed Grackle

Orange-crowned Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Northern Cardinal

 

Monday, December 27, 2021

Picking Up the Crumbs, Part 2

12/15/21 

The Scavenger Hunt definitely went better today than yesterday, as we stepped out of the car at Estero Llano Grande State Park and heard Red-crowned Parrots across the highway, soon to fly right over our heads!  Not “needed” but still fun was a squealing Harris’ Hawk with its parents close to FM 1015.  The parrots were a bonus, but the two “official” targets here were the Fulvous Whistling Ducks and the Cinnamon Teal.  The latter hadn’t seen reported for four days (and even then from the Llano Grande itself, not within the park), so we focused on the wetlands first, logging the usual Black-bellied Whistling Duck mob in Ibis pond, along with the Mottled Ducks.  On the first pass, only a Least Grebe, a Pintail, and more black-bellieds were in Avocet Pond, so we continued on the boardwalk, where the highlight there were three flyby Roseate Spoonbills (appropriate on the Spoonbill Trail)!  We then cut over to Curlew Pond where our mixed-up Gadwall/Pintail was hanging out, along with more Blackbellies and Least Grebes.  Three Long-billed Dowitchers flew over, peeping as they did, and as we crossed the boardwalk over Dowitcher Pond we flushed Shovelers and Blue-winged Teal.  A Ringed Kingfisher flew overhead as well, “cracking” as he went.

Ibis Pond 

Checking out Avocet Pond

Gadwall x Pintail mix

Black-bellied Whistling Duck tree 

It was decision time at that point as to whether we wanted to go up on the levee (I had heard avocets coming from there), but it started to spit, so we hightailed it back to the Visitor’s Center, quickly checking ducks as we went.  It let up by the time we got to Ibis Pond again, so we gave Avocet Pond one last look, and there were the Fulvous Whistling Ducks, actually diving!  That was a hoot!  The White Ibis showed up at the last minute before Chuck indulged in an ice cream (it actually looked more like a popsicle to me J) and we bantered again with Ranger John (and discussed the incredible Bat Falcon sighting at Santa Ana with Ranger Raul)! 

Ibis Pond with the Visitor's Center

Fulvous Whistling Ducks with a Black-bellied behind

Ladder-backed Woodpecker on the way out

After taking a quick peek to see if the gate to the Llano Grande was open (it wasn’t; Chuck offered to pick it J) we headed up for the real target, the Golden-crowned Warbler at Valley Nature Center!  (The tower of Turkey Vultures circling over the vicinity of Frontera Thicket was impressive…)  Chuck hadn’t been here since the new Visitor’s Center had been built; he was pretty impressed!  We didn’t linger on the bridge long enough for the turtles to rush us J but started down the Butterfly Trail, adding a ringing Clay-colored Thrush somewhere in the brush.  A House Wren and a couple of Carolina Wrens fussed at us (the latter gave a brief look), but before long I heard a soft ticking coming from the underbrush – it was the warbler!  A little soft pishing from Chuck got the thing pretty excited (which surprised me as I figured the thing had been pished to death) and gave Chuck a couple of brief glimpses before finally coming out and letting me get some documentation!  He was relatively cooperative, but not nearly as cooperative as that bird at Gladys Porter Zoo last winter!

Golden-crowned Warbler 

From there we headed straight to Quinta Mazatlan for the Crimson-collared Grosbeak.  They were getting ready for a big Festival of Lights, so we treaded carefully between the luminaries!  After checking in we headed to the amphitheater; another couple had seen the bird earlier that morning, so we were hopeful!  The feeders were actually quite active, with lots of Inca Doves, Green Jays, Cardinals, titmice, a Long-billed Thrasher, a couple of Orange-crowned Warblers, some Chachalacas, and of course the House Sparrows (a Curve-billed Thrasher called unseen, and Chuck got a glimpse of a Clay-colored Thrush).  Some pretty beat-up White-winged Doves came to the feeders as well, an Olive Sparrow lisped behind us, an Altamira Oriole whistled off-stage, and Buff-bellied Hummingbirds rattled here and there, but no grosbeak.  We walked out to Ebony Grove where the bird had been reported on previous days, but it was pretty quiet.  We sat for another half hour or so (Chuck decided that he’d rather wait this bird out than go to Bentsen and risk missing his flight by being delayed somehow on the way back), then walked the perimeter, then sat some more, where a brilliant Two-barred Flasher darted in and sat but took off before I could get a shot… L.  We gave that lady till the last minute, but she never showed, so we called it a day and headed to the airport, which was conveniently almost within walking distance!

Feeder area at Quinta Mazatlan's amphitheater 

Chachalaca

Green Jay

Inca Dove

Cardinal

Long-billed Thrasher

Orange-crowned Warbler with bling...

Chuck documenting the first Valley record of Snowy Owl...

It was a modest total of 50 species, but with some quality stuff to end his trip with!  Bird list:

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Fulvous Whistling-Duck

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Gadwall

Gadwall x Pintail Hybrid

Mottled Duck

Northern Pintail

Plain Chachalaca

Least Grebe

Pied-billed Grebe

Inca Dove

White-winged Dove

Mourning Dove

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Sora

American Coot

American Avocet

Long-billed Dowitcher

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

White Ibis

Roseate Spoonbill

Turkey Vulture

Northern Harrier

Harris's Hawk

Ringed Kingfisher

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Red-crowned Parrot

Great Kiskadee

Green Jay

Black-crested Titmouse

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

House Wren

Marsh Wren

Carolina Wren

Curve-billed Thrasher

Long-billed Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

Clay-colored Thrush

House Sparrow

Olive Sparrow

Altamira Oriole

Red-winged Blackbird

Great-tailed Grackle

Orange-crowned Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Golden-crowned Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Northern Cardinal

 

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Picking Up the Crumbs, Part 1

12/14/21 

Chuck, a retired chemistry teacher from Indiana and a return visitor (this time without his friend David), wanted to clean up his year list, so enlisting Michael Marsden for his first two days, they cleaned up the easy stuff (plus the bonus Fork-tailed Flycatcher J), while his two days with me were going to be spent “cleaning up the crumbs” as he put it!  That sure turned out to be the case this first day:  several of his targets could be had at Salineno, but the ones he needed were the ones that were miracles to bag!  But we’d give it a shot, anyway!

After parking at the “boat ramp” we headed up the trail, discovering a close Osprey next to what I thought was a Merlin at the time, but turned out to be a young Sharp-shinned Hawk!  (Believe it or not, they can be easy to confuse…)  The Ringed Kingfisher “cracked” and flew overhead, and once we got to the cul-de-sac, a Green Kingfisher was ticking and making a big fuss!  We gave it an hour, during which time we logged lots of Blue-winged Teals, both Mexican and Mottled Ducks, a bouncy Vermilion Flycatcher (good for Chuck’s Mexican list J), a Spotted Sandpiper floating downriver on some flotsam, and the little flock of Least Sandpipers coming in to the sandbar.  An Anhinga circled low overhead, and had lots of both flavors of cormorants fly by.  Two Great Egrets and a Great Blue Heron croaked and bounced around, and finally was able to spot a Black Phoebe up the culvert!  Black and Turkey Vultures were soaring, but the prize was a nice Zone-tailed Hawk that circled overhead!  (Chuck didn’t need that one, but I was excited… J)  Suddenly Chuck caught sight of a little brown ball that shot out of the cane and into a bush on the other side of the culvert that he was positive must have been the seedeater!  (I never saw it at all, but sounds like it acted just like the two I had the previous week, so I wouldn’t have been surprised…) 

Chuck hopes that the coveted seedeater will be at the boat ramp like last time!

Osprey

This young Sharp-shinned Hawk had me fooled into thinking it was a Merlin at first!

 

At the end of "Seedeater Trail"

Mexican Duck (with some Mallard genes due to the whitish tail)

Zone-tailed Hawk

Fluffy Great Egret

Chuck was bummed that I didn’t get on the seedeater because he wanted to be absolutely sure (reminded me of Hooper’s line in Jaws where he said to Chief Brody, referring to the Tiger Shark that was just caught, “It probably is, Martin, but I want to be sure!”), but he finally reneged and counted it for his year list!  We spotted a lone White Pelican in the river on the way back (wondered where all his buddies from the previous week went), checked for any missed species at the boat ramp (one year Chuck had shooed his friends down the trail for the seedeater while he stayed in the car due to a bum knee, and the bird came to him right there in the cane!), then headed up to the feeders.  I was a little concerned that I hadn’t even heard an Audubon’s Oriole yet, and indeed, none came in during the hour we kept watch (an Altamira barely gave a flash of orange), but we still enjoyed lots of Green Jays, Kiskadees, puffed-up Chachalacas, a nice Long-billed Thrasher, a lady Ladder-backed Woodpecker, and titmice before a Sharp-shinned Hawk came in and crashed the party!  That happened twice, and unlike previous times, the hawk stuck around and just sat pretty much in the open, which concerned Merle because they had never been that bold before, and that could really keep the birds away.   

Female Anhinga on the river

Feeding area (note the in-flight Kiskadee)

Lady Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Green Jay

Puffed-up Chachalaca

Lady House Sparrow

Long-billed Thrasher

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Red-winged Blackbird

Kiskadee

Young Sharp-shinned Hawk that broke up the party...

We figured that was the end of the show (oh, the ants were still carting corn kernels and had an additional train going through the middle of the seating area J), so headed over to the Dump Road in hopes of a Scaled Quail.  That was even more quiet with only a Pyrrhuloxia and Verdin to show for it, but when I mentioned the Mountain Plovers that had shown up, Chuck indicated that he did need that for the year (wasn’t on his list – guess he figured it was too remote), so we made the decision to head up to Jara Chinas Road and save the Hidalgo County stuff for the next day, seeing as we had to stick close to the airport.

It was nice taking the back road north from Rio Grande City to FM 490 and then east, then heading south on Jara Chinas.  We got to the “spot” and scoured the fields, but Chuck thought they looked too “plowed” for the plovers.  A friendly oil worker named Sonny stopped to see if we were okay, and when we told him we were birding, he really seemed interested, so I showed him the picture of the Mountain Plover (any normal person would understandably be incredulous that any bird would favor those barren fields J)!  Chuck asked him about the field and he told us they were indeed plowed earlier that week, which led to a conversation about “winter plowing” and irrigation.  Continuing on, all we found were several Horned Larks, so after perusing several of the county roads with no plovers to be had L, we headed down to the intersection with Mile 14 where we had a little more action:  the Vesper Sparrows were still there, along with a couple of Savannahs, and a largish sparrow that I couldn’t get an ID on until I looked at the picture (turned out to be White-crowned).  There were tons of Pyrrs here as well, along with a Common Ground Dove that Chuck spotted, but the icing for me was a gorgeous White-tailed Hawk!

Tackling the barren fields along north Jara Chinas Road

Vesper Sparrow

White-tailed Hawk

Kestrel 

Called it a day after that with 56 species tallied.  Bird list: 

Blue-winged Teal

Mexican Duck

Mottled Duck

Plain Chachalaca

Eurasian Collared-Dove

Common Ground Dove

White-tipped Dove

White-winged Dove

Least Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

Anhinga

Double-crested Cormorant

Neotropic Cormorant

American White Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Black Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Harris's Hawk

White-tailed Hawk

Zone-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Ringed Kingfisher

Green Kingfisher

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Crested Caracara

American Kestrel

Black Phoebe

Vermilion Flycatcher

Great Kiskadee

White-eyed Vireo

Green Jay

Black-crested Titmouse

Verdin

Horned Lark

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

House Wren

Marsh Wren

Bewick's Wren

Long-billed Thrasher

House Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Western Meadowlark

Altamira Oriole

Red-winged Blackbird

Great-tailed Grackle

Orange-crowned Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Pyrrhuloxia