6/4/21
Mary
and her hubby from Corpus were back in town, this time for a house-building
project in one of the colonias, so while Tom worked on the house, Mary and I
did some casual birding along the border!
We were concerned about the forecast as thunderstorms were predicted,
but it turned out to be a glorious morning:
We started at Bentsen at dawn, and we could hardly hear ourselves think
over the cacophony of bird song (granted, mostly grackles and White-winged
Doves J)! As per usual, we didn’t see a whole lot at
first, but a nice male Cardinal sat up and sang for us once we were inside the
park proper (we had to bust the balloon of a young first time visitor who
thought she could drive in), and while White-tipped Doves were “coke-bottling”
left and right, one finally sat up in the open for us! A little further down was a special treat: a
rather ratty-looking Groove-billed Ani on a snag! Mary spotted a Caracara flying ahead of us
being chased by something, and here and there a Green Jay would fly across the
road. A small flock of Neotropic
Cormorants flew overhead, but Mary missed the single Laughing Gull… A couple of Yellow-billed Cuckoos sang here
and there, and while trying to pish out a Verdin a Turkey gobbled in the
distance!
We
spent a few minutes at the resaca but didn’t see much except another ani and a
Chachalaca perched high above the trees.
A Golden-fronted Woodpecker showed well, and had a ratty-looking pair of
Chachalacas preening each other (I think the big rain last night did everyone
in)! But the star of the show was a
brilliant Altamira Oriole sitting up in the open and preening away, putting on
a great show! We also had some kind of
Orb Weaver along the road, and heard a Painted Bunting singing way back in the
brush near the Nature Center on the way back.
With the sun a little higher the Cave Swallows were now flying around
the bridge, so we got some good looks at them.
From
there the plan was to head to the National Butterfly Center next door for
feeder birds, but before we even got there a Ringed Kingfisher flew over the
car! Added a singing Eastern Meadowlark
out the window, and a fluttering Bronzed Cowbird almost got nailed by an
oncoming car, but as we pulled in to the center, we saw the gate to the back
gardens was closed, and for good reason:
with all the heavy rains we’ve been having lately, the flooding’s still
pretty pronounced, and the road back there was probably impassable! So we wheeled around and continued to
Anzalduas, adding a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher to the list along Old Military
Highway!
Anzalduas was quite productive: on the way in we had a young male Blue Grosbeak singing on the wire (I thought it was a female until he opened his mouth J), a distant Bobwhite let his presence known, and Dickcissels were singing from the fields but just not visible. A couple of Great Egrets were in the canal next to the levee, and as we crested said levee I was amazed at the amount of water in the “Pipit Field” – I hadn’t seen it that wet since Hurricane Alex when they had to open the floodgates! We quickly added Coots and a hooting Pied-billed Grebe as we crossed the spillway, and logged two Snowy Egrets in the field along with all the grackles. Just before the entrance kiosk a Swainson’s Hawk was hightailing it across the road followed closely by a grackle…
Stopping at my normal spot by the Rio Grande, we scanned the river and enjoyed a Four-spotted Pennant, but then got distracted by the dear-dear-dear of a Beardless Tyrannulet! So we walked over to the boat ramp, but he quit calling (naturally), so we went back and checked out the rest of the river. From there we crawled over to the dam where we again got out and finally found a Black Phoebe! Unfortunately the little trail that leads to the window into the river behind the dam was overgrown, but we still enjoyed the Cliff Swallows and their nests, and an Osprey flew by one of the “windows” between the dam structures. I felt some sharp zings on my feet and thought I had walked through some of those nasty spiky burrs that like to stick to your socks, but in reality I apparently had dislodged a fire ant nest! The good news was that I was spared having to perform the “Fire Ant Strip-Tease” I’ve heard so much about, because my pants were stuffed into my socks and the ants were all on the outside (but marching up rapidly)! Mary helped tremendously in swatting the ones I couldn’t see off my pants (“I don’t wanna swat your butt,” says she; “No!! Swat it!!” says I… J), but I think the fact that I had sprayed that area beforehand helped, and I came out of my first fire ant experience none the worse for wear…
We came
down the road by the maintenance buildings looking for House Finches, but
instead had a wire-full of fledgling Rough-winged Swallows, one that fluttered
his wings and buzzed at another that came up!
They were all dislodged by a Brown-crested Flycatcher (guess he saw the
camera and wanted his picture taken, too J)! After making the turn on that middle road I
suddenly heard a WheeK! and pulled over to try for that pesky tyrannulet
again! This time we found him, and he
was uncharacteristically cooperative, sitting out in the open and pulling on
Spanish Moss! Then Mary found a second
bird, and we strongly suspected they were building a nest! Mary was thrilled – she said that was the
best look she had ever had of that bird!
We added
a Black-necked Stilt flying over the spillway on the way out, then headed for
the next place on the list: the Old Hidalgo
Pumphouse! As I predicted, we got the
Monk Parakeets right along Bridge Street at their nests! (This was the first nesting site I had seen
outside of the “colony” around 5th and Gardenia…) A Lesser Nighthawk batting low over the
buildings was a nice addition, behaving just like the ones that nest on our
roofs at the Inn! This was a spot Mary
had never been to before, and she really liked it; we accessed the walking
trail by going around the building (I assumed the gate from the garden area
would be locked, and it was) and had a pair of cute little Inca Doves right
away! The deck overlooking the channel
was pretty quiet except for a Green Heron and a pair of Brown-crested
Flycatchers, plus more fly-by Monk Parakeets.
We then went up on the levee and walked westward, seeing as the trail
down below was too muddy, and that turned out to be great; we had a wonderful
(albeit brief) look at an Olive Sparrow, and a cute little Mexican Ground
Squirrel went scurrying down the road in front of us, tail held high! We got a glimpse of a White-eyed Vireo, while
a Black-crested Titmouse flew into a dead tree and posed briefly with some kind
of nut in his beak. A Verdin called (but
wouldn’t show), a Ladder-backed Woodpecker sat out in the open, and a presumed
male Black-chinned Hummingbird sat on a twig; we couldn’t get any glint of
color (even though we both thought something should be refracting at
that angle), but Ruby-throated would have gotten flagged at this late date, and
Black-chinned is an expected breeder here. [Update: It was - the pictures showed a glint of purple!] On the way back to the car we added an
Eastern Cottontail to the mammal list.
Was time to head home after that with a respectable 64 species for the morning! Bird list:
Black-bellied
Whistling-Duck
Plain
Chachalaca
Northern
Bobwhite
Wild
Turkey
Pied-billed
Grebe
Rock
Pigeon
Inca
Dove
White-tipped
Dove
White-winged
Dove
Mourning
Dove
Groove-billed
Ani
Yellow-billed
Cuckoo
Lesser
Nighthawk
Black-chinned
Hummingbird
Buff-bellied
Hummingbird
American
Coot
Black-necked
Stilt
Killdeer
Laughing
Gull
Neotropic
Cormorant
Great
Egret
Snowy
Egret
Green
Heron
Turkey
Vulture
Osprey
Swainson's
Hawk
Ringed
Kingfisher
Golden-fronted
Woodpecker
Ladder-backed
Woodpecker
Crested
Caracara
Monk
Parakeet
Northern
Beardless-Tyrannulet
Black
Phoebe
Brown-crested
Flycatcher
Great
Kiskadee
Tropical
Kingbird
Couch's
Kingbird
Western
Kingbird
Scissor-tailed
Flycatcher
White-eyed
Vireo
Green
Jay
Black-crested
Titmouse
Verdin
Northern
Rough-winged Swallow
Purple
Martin
Cliff
Swallow
Cave
Swallow
European
Starling
Curve-billed
Thrasher
Northern
Mockingbird
House
Sparrow
Lesser
Goldfinch
Olive
Sparrow
Eastern
Meadowlark
Altamira
Oriole
Red-winged
Blackbird
Bronzed
Cowbird
Brown-headed
Cowbird
Great-tailed
Grackle
Common
Yellowthroat
Northern
Cardinal
Blue
Grosbeak
Painted
Bunting
Dickcissel
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