The Surprise Birthday Gift

5/3/21 

As Staci put it, most 16-year-olds want a car for their 16^th birthday, but Jeremiah wanted a birding trip, so his parents decided to surprise him with a trip to the Valley! J  So even though the feeding had stopped and the specialties would be harder to pin down, I felt Estero Llano Grande State Park would be the place to go for a good variety!  Our nesting Lesser Nighthawks at the Inn were a nice first lifer for the day!

It was very pleasant (and even a little foggy) to start off with; we had Couch’s Kingbirds and flyover Hooded Orioles in the parking lot, and as is often the case, some things were content to sing and not show themselves:  the Long-billed Thrasher sang along the brick walkway and just would not show himself (it’s really much nicer when they sit on the wire J), and the White-tipped Doves sang sadly from the woods.  Lesser Goldfinches were calling but were impossible to pin down, but a Lincoln’s Sparrow deigned to let us watch him hop along the trailside!

Trying unsuccessfully to find the thrasher... 

Once on deck we really started seeing things:  Purple Martins were actually feeding in the grass, and in addition to the Whitewings, the White-tipped Doves were surprisingly coming out in the open!  A perusal of Ibis Pond added a Tricolored Heron, Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Blue-winged Teal, and a gob of Wilson’s Phalaropes!  A couple of Stilt Sandpipers joined the crowd, and Jeremiah spotted (no pun intended) a Spotted Sandpiper in addition to a little Least near the shore.  A White-faced Ibis fed near the boardwalk, and Black-necked Stilts were here and there.  Heading out on the main trail we dipped on the reported Virginia Rail, but a Sora was very cooperative!  We noticed a blob on the boardwalk that turned out to be a snoozing Stilt Sandpiper…

 

Sora

Least Sandpiper

Eastern Cottontail off the deck

Blue-winged Teal with a mob of Wilson's Phalaropes

Heading towards Dowitcher Pond Jeremiah spotted a flyover Caracara that had seen better days, and shortly one that was in better shape flew in and landed briefly in a shaggy tree!  We heard several pairs of chorusing Chachalacas (that made Jeremiah’s list of “funny bird sounds from the Valley” J), and his dad Travis was able to spot the female of a closer pair (the male was clear in another tree)!  That was fun watching her “sing”!  A Brown-crested Flycatcher finally sat in the open, but Dowitcher Pond itself was rather sparse except for Coots and a Great Egret, so we headed on to Grebe Marsh where we had both adult and subadult Yellow-crowned Night Herons (Stacy liked how their filo-plumes wafted in the breeze)!  A Neotropic Cormorant was drying his wings, and from another angle we found several close Least Grebes (that quickly pattered out to the middle of the pond when they realized they had been “discovered”)!  What I was pretty sure was a Great Crested Flycatcher made a brief appearance, but later one made its distinctive call so we could at least count it for the day!  Jeremiah picked up some Cedar Waxwings flying overhead, but Alligator Lake was disappointingly quiet, except for a fly-by Green Heron that Jeremiah was thrilled to see!  Couldn’t locate the Pauraque, and the Screech Owl wasn’t in his hole; we did kick up a few Yellow Warblers and a couple of close cormorants, and an Altamira Oriole sang nicely but only made a brief appearance…  Nothing was at the overlook except a Carolina Wren that sang loudly but wouldn’t show…

 

Neotropic Cormotants

First-year Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Adult

Least Grebe

I had heard some Fulvous Whistling Ducks, so we returned to Dowitcher Pond, noting a flyover Dickcissel doing its brat call.  We headed south along the east edge of the pond, and while we were enjoying a Common Gallinule and Pied-billed Grebe, Jeremiah spotted the ducks!  That was very nice!  Another Yellow-crowned Night Heron was in a distant dead tree, and a lady we ran into with a Big Gun was pleased as punch to be told that’s what it was, as it was a life bird for her!  Both an adult and immature Little Blue Heron showed up (Travis noticed that the adult was having trouble eating whatever it was he caught), and Curlew Pond had some nice things such as a Roseate Spoonbill and a Long-billed Dowitcher in breeding plumage (that promptly got chased out of a stilt’s space).  Taking the cutoff trail back towards the Visitor’s Center, a couple of Kiskadees showed off, but the two Yellow-billed Cuckoos were content just to sing…  Avocet Pond had Jeremiah’s first Mottled Duck, along with a pair of Blue-winged Teal.  Once back on deck a quick review of Ibis Pond added more Mottled Ducks and Stilt Sandpipers, but nothing new.

Jeremiah checks out Dowitcher Pond (photo by mom Staci) 

Fulvous Whistling Ducks

Common Gallinule

Checking out the birds at Curlew Pond...

A Long-billed Dowitcher gets out of the way of a Black-necked stilt (also below)!

Young Roseate Spoonbill

Another view of the dowitcher

Kiskadee

From there we headed to the Tropical Zone, where a Painted Bunting sang in the distance and a Black-crested Titmouse finally came in and showed off his cuteness!  A short sit at the Green Jay Trail Drip added a Catbird and Wilson’s Warbler, but we were distracted by a pair of Green Kingfishers that were ticking up a storm, and as we started on the trail, Staci found one of them up in the tree of all places!  What spotting!  A Least Flycatcher also came out for a look while an Eastern Wood Pewee called in the distance, and a White-eyed Vireo actually came out in the open!  A pair of Cardinals acted as though a little courtship behavior was in the making, but flew off before anything interesting happened…  An Olive Sparrow appeared briefly on the ground next to the trail, but the trogon never showed herself…

 

Green Kingfisher through the trees

Wilson's Warbler at the drip

From there we headed back to the roads where the baby Great Horned Owls had been hanging out, but we couldn’t find them (a Chachalaca was sitting where the owls had been last week).  A Red-crowned Parrot called way in the distance, a Blue-headed Vireo sang sweetly way up high, and a few Golden-fronted Woodpeckers showed themselves while Ladderbacks laughed in the distance.  A Harris’ Hawk posed nicely in the Norfolk Pine that got fried by the Freeze, and a Clay-colored Thrush called nicely but we couldn’t find him before he flew… 

Harris' Hawk

Finally, we spent several minutes in the Indigo Blind hoping some specialty birds would happen by; the Buff-bellied Hummingbird made several trips to the hummer feeder, and White-tipped Doves were being territorial.  Another Clay-colored Thrush came in briefly (described as pretty boring plumage-wise J), and I had to drive home the fact that birders would fly in and crawl on their bellies to see this thing before it became a backyard bird!  Finally Jeremiah’s most-wanted bird, the Green Jay, came swooping in – in fact, they spotted it long before I did as it stopped dead and blended right in like a green and yellow leaf! 

Clay-colored Thrush

We had to start heading back about then, so we tried for the Pauraque and Screech Owl on the way out (nada), and we did get another brief look at a jay!  But Jeremiah was intrigued by the Brown Anole that was displaying his red gular flap! 

Dragging ourselves back to the car...

There was a heat advisory out already, so I was glad we started at sunrise and got the hot part of the park done first!  The gang almost fainted after I input the eBird list and we ended up with 73 species!

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Fulvous Whistling-Duck

Blue-winged Teal

Mottled Duck

Plain Chachalaca

Least Grebe

Pied-billed Grebe

White-tipped Dove

White-winged Dove

Mourning Dove

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Chimney Swift

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Sora

Common Gallinule

American Coot

Black-necked Stilt

Killdeer

Stilt Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Long-billed Dowitcher

Wilson's Phalarope

Spotted Sandpiper

Lesser Yellowlegs

Neotropic Cormorant

Great Egret

Little Blue Heron

Tricolored Heron

Green Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

White-faced Ibis

Roseate Spoonbill

Harris's Hawk

Green Kingfisher

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Crested Caracara

Red-crowned Parrot

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Least Flycatcher

Great Crested Flycatcher

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Great Kiskadee

Couch's Kingbird

White-eyed Vireo

Blue-headed Vireo

Green Jay

Black-crested Titmouse

Purple Martin

Barn Swallow

Carolina Wren

European Starling

Gray Catbird

Long-billed Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

Clay-colored Thrush

Cedar Waxwing

House Sparrow

Lesser Goldfinch

Olive Sparrow

Lincoln’s Sparrow

Hooded Oriole

Altamira Oriole

Red-winged Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Great-tailed Grackle

Common Yellowthroat

Yellow Warbler

Wilson's Warbler

Northern Cardinal

Painted Bunting

Dickcissel

Birding on Fumes

4/28/21 

Joyce was a trooper – after multiple harrowing flights from Ventura, California, she and her friend Christine finally arrived in San Antonio late Tuesday night, and even after Keith’s insistence that they spend the night up there, she was determined not to miss our outing this morning and wheeled in to Alamo at 3:00 AM!  So she was kinda floating at first (Christine was the non-birder and was sleeping in J), but her energy returned in spades as we arrived at Estero Llano Grande State Park and started finding life birds right away!  Her main target was the Green Jay, but she also wanted to get a picture of a Cardinal for her nine-year-old grandson (that was his favorite bird J), and wouldn’t you know that was the first bird to greet us on the floor of the parking lot!  A Long-billed Thrasher and Carolina Wren were more stubborn, but as we arrived on deck, Ibis Pond was just stuffed with birds:  close looks at Stilt Sandpipers, dowitchers, Wilson’s Phalaropes, Lesser Yellowlegs, White-faced Ibis, Blue-winged Teal, and Mottled Ducks were the highlights.  I intended to give the “restroom” hummingbird feeder 15 minutes for the Buff-bellied Hummer to come in, and he actually came in right away!  We stayed a little longer in hopes that he would come back for a better look, but while he never did, a young male Ruby-throated Hummingbird did come in, showing a few red feathers on his gorget!

Stilt Sandpiper

Wilson's Phalaropes (female above, non-breeding below)

Two female phalaropes 

From there we headed to Dowitcher Pond, which was pretty birdless except for some Coots, a Common Gallinule, and a distant Pied-billed Grebe.  We were apparently having too good of a time yapping as a Sora whinnied annoyedly next to us! J  The wind was starting to whip up so we didn’t have high hopes of songbirds, although a nice male Ladder-backed Woodpecker came bouncing in and gave good looks!  In Grebe Marsh we had two gorgeous Yellow-crowned Night Herons posing (the Great Egret was anticlimactic), and had a nice view of a Neotropic Cormorant.  At Alligator Lake a fuzzy-headed Anhinga posed while some grackles gave him fits (Joyce thought that was a pretty cool bird J).  We looked in vain for the Pauraque and Screech Owl (park volunteer Huck told us the former was in there, but deep and hard to find), and while resting at the picnic shelter a Carolina Wren almost came out to give us look!

 

Anhinga

Neotropic Cormorant

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Heading back we took the boardwalk across Dowitcher Pond in hopes of seeing the Least Grebes we were hearing, but they were too deep in the reeds; we did have some nice Black-necked Stilts, however, and circling around Curlew Pond a Kiskadee sat pretty and actually escorted us down the trail!  At Avocet Pond, we had three Roseate Spoonbills that were a hit, plus a Little Blue Heron!  A Common Ground Dove went zipping by too fast for Joyce to catch L, and a quick rehash of Ibis Pond only added a Least Sandpiper, so we headed for the Tropical Zone.  Coming down the brick walkway the Long-billed Thrasher finally let us get a look, and a Chachalaca stepped daintily down the path as well!  Joyce nearly fell over backwards trying to spot the Chimney Swift flying overhead! 

 

Long-billed Thrasher

Least Sandpiper

Kiskadee

We ran into Huck as we made our way to Green Jay Trail; the drip had been repaired, but a 15-minute vigil only added a pair of Cardinals doing some courtship feeding, and a couple of White-tipped Doves (which was still new for Joyce).  Huck had gone looking for the trogon and couldn’t find her (and having not been reported for a couple of days, that prospect didn’t look good), but since Green Jay Trail was sheltered from the wind we hiked that anyway, hearing both Olive Sparrow and Altamira Oriole, but never getting a look… L  We then headed on the “new” woodland trail where we bagged great looks at a pair of Clay-colored Thrushes, plus a Catbird that went zipping through, and a Swainson’s Thrush that was actually singing a little! 

Clay-colored Thrush

White-tipped Dove

Cardinal

From there we made our way to the Indigo Blind, taking a quick detour to look for that Pauraque, which we never found (he apparently was moving around a lot, according to Huck).  A pair of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks watched us from the road in the meantime!  I knew the park staff had quit filling the feeders, but I thought maybe we had a chance at the Green Jays coming in to the water feature, so we gave it 15 minutes.  We noticed that the hummingbird feeders were also gone (Huck assured us they were only being cleaned), but that didn’t stop both the Buffbellies and the Rubythroats from looking for them!  Eventually a Chachalaca came in to drink, and a couple of White-tipped Doves ventured in, but after a bit of waiting the Green Jays finally came in and gave great (if brief) views!  Joyce was so excited!  Huck showed up again about that time, as did birding buddy Ken, and that’s when I found out that “woodland trail” was really not an official trail, but one that had been blazed “illegally” (which surprised me as it was actually in good shape)!

 

Chachalaca

Green Jay

After a few more minutes with no return visit by the jays, Huck offered to show us the baby Great Horned Owls, which was, as he put it, “Cuteness Overload!” J  Even Ken admitted that was the best look he had ever had of them!  There was also a Black-crested Titmouse that didn’t wanna play ball, but I encouraged Joyce and Christine to visit the National Butterfly Center where they do feed the birds all year round, and she’d get great looks at that as well as her beloved Green Jay!  On the way out Ken and I looked for the staked out Screech Owl in vain, but managed a nice look at a vocal Couch’s Kingbird back in the parking lot!

 

Baby Great Horned Owls

Despite the wind, we managed a respectable 54 species for the morning!  Bird list: 

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Mottled Duck

Plain Chachalaca

Least Grebe

Pied-billed Grebe

Common Ground Dove

White-tipped Dove

White-winged Dove

Mourning Dove

Chimney Swift

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Sora

Common Gallinule

American Coot

Black-necked Stilt

Killdeer

Stilt Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Long-billed Dowitcher

Wilson's Phalarope

Lesser Yellowlegs

Neotropic Cormorant

Great Egret

Little Blue Heron

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

White-faced Ibis

Roseate Spoonbill

Turkey Vulture

Great Horned Owl

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Great Kiskadee

Tropical Kingbird

Couch's Kingbird

Green Jay

Black-crested Titmouse

Purple Martin

Gray Catbird

Long-billed Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

Swainson's Thrush

Clay-colored Thrush

Olive Sparrow

Altamira Oriole

Red-winged Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Great-tailed Grackle

Common Yellowthroat

Northern Cardinal

Dickcissel

One Loss, One Gain!

4/27/21

Thanks to a last-minute cancellation, I was able to do some last-minute guiding for Chris from Alpine!  She made it easy by declaring that she had no target list and wanted to go wherever I wanted to go J, so I came up the idea of targeting some year birds for me at places that would also have some new birds for her!

Because of the heat we left bright and early and arrived at Bentsen State Park about a half hour before dawn.  The goal was to make it to the hawk tower (an almost two-mile hike one-way) in hopes of picking up the Hook-billed Kite and maybe hearing the lost Morelet’s Seedeater.  Lots of things were calling, of course, but in the gloom we really couldn’t see anything, although a Cooper’s Hawk flying over the Nature Center doing its floppy display flight was fun!  We also managed to see a pair of Green Jays along with silhouetted White-winged Doves.  For most of the walk I pointed out different vocalizations, and except for the Olive Sparrow, White-tipped Dove, and Long-billed Thrasher, I think eventually we ended up getting looks at everything at least on the way back!

Once we got to the tower, we didn’t even make it to the top before a Groove-billed Ani called and perched on a dead twig in the open!  There was actually a little water in the resaca, and we ended up spooking a few herons before we realized they were there, but they all eventually came back:  adult and immature Little Blue Herons, several Tricolored Herons, a couple of White-faced Ibis, and a few shorebirds including Least Sandpiper, Greater Yellowlegs, and Long-billed Dowitcher.  Up at the top we spotted a raptor sitting on a dead tree that got our juices going, but it turned out to be a Swainson’s Hawk…  Some Coots were in the other part of the resaca, and before long, sure enough, the sweet swee-swee-swee-teu-teu song of the seedeater wafted over the airwaves (although distant; sadly, I don’t think Chris ever could pick it up…)!  More “gettable” was a Brown-crested Flycatcher sharing another dead tree with a pair of Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, and a pair of brilliant Baltimore Orioles!  After a half hour we were ready to head on to the feeders at the National Butterfly Center, so we told the Hook-billed Kite that we were leaving J and headed out.

 

Chris looks for goodies from the Hawk Tower at Bentsen SP!

Baltimore Oriole

Golden-fronted Woodpecker (left) and Brown-crested Flycatcher

Tricolored Heron

White-faced Ibis

Young Little Blue Heron

On the way back the Chachalacas started chorusing, and we eventually saw one hunkered in a tree!  But the biggest treat for Chris was seeing a glorious Altamira Oriole on a dead twig, right in the sun!  Another one (may have been a female) actually attacked the hummingbird feeder back at the Nature Center, while another Chachalaca strutted out, thinking we had the food, probably!  A female Orchard Oriole finally let us get a belly view, and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds chattered from the Mexican Olive trees, which Chris really fell in love with (the trees, not the hummers J)!  Another fun sighting was all the Blue Spiny Lizards along the brick wall, including a mating pair!  Near the restrooms several Inca Doves were calling, and a Golden-fronted Woodpecker contorted trying to get nectar out the hummingbird feeder!

Nopal Road

Plain Chachalaca

Altamira Oriole

Another one (probably a female) raids the hummer feeder!

Blue Spiny Lizard

Mating pair

Kiskadee

Golden-fronted Woodpecker raiding another hummer feeder

Next was the National Butterfly Center, where Luciano reported that an Audubon’s Oriole was coming into their Big Sit feeding area!  I was hearing a Blue Grosbeak singing from the mesquites along the road to the old gardens, but with the wind we just couldn’t pick him out.  A pair of Hooded Orioles flew over us as we parked, and 15 minutes of waiting at the feeders brought in close Chachalacas and courting Green Jays (in addition to the grackles and blackbirds), but Chris missed the brief appearance of the White-tipped Dove.  A perky male Cardinal added some more color, but no orioles came in (although we did hear the Altamira and saw where she was building her nest in Spike’s enclosure), and we were treated to a male Bronzed Cowbird performing The Helicopter (where he hovers motionless about a foot or two over the female), but she was duly unimpressed…

 

Visiting Spike the Tortoise

Fluffy Green Jay

Chachalaca

The Back 70 was closed, so from there we stopped for a Stripes Taco (you can’t visit South Texas without trying a Stripes Taco J) before heading up to Hargill.  A Lark Sparrow was sitting on a fence wire at the intersection of 1^st Street and Lincoln, followed shortly by a Savannah Sparrow!  The resident Snowy Plovers were being reported (which I hadn’t logged during Saturday’s Birdathon), but because it was overcast, viewing conditions were 1000% better!  Highlights included both Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets, a few American Golden Plovers still around, lots of Wilson’s Phalaropes, a single Semipalmated Plover, and the continuing Reddish Egret, along with more little shorebirds I just couldn’t ID (except for a Western next to a Least where you could see the size difference).  My heart skipped a beat when I spotted a Sanderling along the shoreline, however, as that’s a rare bird inland, but started snapping pictures after only a quick look, and the only things the camera captured were more peeps (that were not Sanderlings) and the Snowy Plover!!  I had hastily reported the Sanderling on the local RBA and had to renege, but to this moment I still have a Sanderling picture in my brain, so who knows…  (What the camera also captured that I didn’t notice at the time was a Spotted Sandpiper, so had to add that one to the list after the fact, and I also found out later that someone had gone there the next day and had seen a Sanderling, so maybe I wasn’t losing my mind! J)  A couple of local ladies bounced by in their truck (all a little rough around the edges – one of them offered us a beer out of the blue J) and chatted with us, and they actually remembered all the birders flocking to this spot when the Collared Plover showed up years ago!  They were curious about the scope so I set it up on a Snowy Egret, which produced the expected ooohs and ahs!  While we were talking a small flock of Franklin’s Gulls sailed by behind them!

Savannah Sparrow 

Snowy Plover

From there we continued on 1^st Street heading east and checked out the two wetlands, only adding a Least Grebe to the day list but got a great look at a White-faced Ibis.  So from there we headed up to CR-20, where a handful of White-tailed Hawks circled around at the intersection with SR 186!  There actually was some water left; lots of Gull-billed Terns were here in addition to more Franklin’s Gulls, and a Lesser Yellowlegs conveniently called to help us ID it!  I tried hard to turn some distant shorebirds into Hudsonian Godwits, but it didn’t work… J  Several Dickcissels sat on dead sprigs, and Chris spotted a pair of Caracaras, which was very fun!  Several Swainson’s Hawks sailed over the fields (heading the wrong direction J)!

Least Grebe

White-faced Ibis

Black-necked Stilt

 

Caracara

From there we just headed north into the Teniente Tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR, hoping to see some songbirds from the car, but the wind was just too much; several Painted Buntings sang from the mesquites, as did Bewick’s Wrens, but didn’t wanna come out, whereas the Scissor-tailed Flycatchers were more cooperative!  I heard a Bullock’s Oriole, so we jumped out to try and find him, which Chris did, hunkered next to a small trunk in the shade!  La Sal Viejas was totally dry (at least the portion that the road crosses), so we made the turn into Ken Baker, where a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher did a little song while we were still in the thornscrub.  Out in the fields we spotted several Common Ground Doves (one on a wire next to some Mourning Doves for good comparison), another White-tailed Hawk, and heard a chattering Pyrrhuloxia on the fly.  But we never made it to the pond at the north end of Brushline as we had to head home (and while not as hot as Saturday, it was still pretty warm).  With the wind the way it was, we didn’t do too badly with 80 species for the day!  Bird list: 

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Mottled Duck

Plain Chachalaca

Least Grebe

Inca Dove

Common Ground Dove

White-tipped Dove

White-winged Dove

Mourning Dove

Groove-billed Ani

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

American Coot

Black-necked Stilt

American Avocet

American Golden-Plover

Semipalmated Plover

Snowy Plover

Killdeer

Stilt Sandpiper

Spotted Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

Long-billed Dowitcher

Wilson's Phalarope

Greater Yellowlegs

Lesser Yellowlegs

Franklin's Gull

Gull-billed Tern

Great Egret

Snowy Egret

Little Blue Heron

Tricolored Heron

Reddish Egret

Cattle Egret

White-faced Ibis

Turkey Vulture

Cooper's Hawk

Harris's Hawk

White-tailed Hawk

Swainson's Hawk

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Crested Caracara

Great Crested Flycatcher

Brown-crested Flycatcher

Great Kiskadee

Tropical Kingbird

Couch's Kingbird

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Green Jay

Black-crested Titmouse

Verdin

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Barn Swallow

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Bewick's Wren

Long-billed Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

Olive Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Savannah Sparrow

Eastern Meadowlark

Orchard Oriole

Hooded Oriole

Bullock's Oriole

Altamira Oriole

Baltimore Oriole

Red-winged Blackbird

Bronzed Cowbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Great-tailed Grackle

Common Yellowthroat

Northern Cardinal

Pyrrhuloxia

Blue Grosbeak

Painted Bunting

Dickcissel

Morelet's Seedeater