11/16/21
Gail from Vermont had attended the RGV Birding Festival and was spending an extra week in the Valley to bird before having to drive to Waco, so she wanted to go somewhere off the beaten track (she figured she could visit the popular parks on her own). So we originally scheduled road-birding along Wallace Road, but several rarities that were found during the Festival were still being seen in Hidalgo County, so when I asked her if she wanted to try for them, she was game! So we first headed to Bentsen Rio Grande State Park in hopes of Audubon’s Oriole, Rose-throated Becard, and Hook-billed Kite!
After checking in we went straight to the Nature Center feeders, as that’s where the becard was hanging, and also where I thought the oriole was, but fellow guide Tiffany informed us it was actually at the Visitor’s Center! So we traipsed back and found the area where it had been seen, but it never showed; we got Chachalacas, Green Jays, Inca Doves, and Cardinals instead, plus a distant Eastern Phoebe.
Back
to the Nature Center we went, stopping to admire a Blue Spiny Lizard on the
wall (which wasn’t blue, Gail noticed J); the becard was
a no-show, but Gail was thrilled with the Altamira Orioles that came in, as she
hadn’t seen any orioles this trip yet (even during the Festival)! The Chachalacas were giving their strange
rising alarm calls (someone, probably Dayna the Volunteer, mentioned that it
might have been due to the resident Bobcat), and more regulars came to the
feeders, including a Long-billed Thrasher and tons of Green Jays. We took the tram to the hawk tower, but on the
way the driver pointed out a huge tom Turkey indulging in one of the tray
feeders! (I also noticed they’re no
longer flagged in eBird; guess those tracking them are happy with their “residence”
there…) We also ran into Tiffany’s group
on the way, so we picked them up and headed over.
When
we pulled up to the Rio Grande Trailhead (also the trailhead to the Hawk
Tower), the bad news was that several vans were parked there (which meant a
huge group up on the tower; I was hoping the thing didn’t have a maximum
capacity), but the good news was that meant more eyes (including professional
guide eyes J) looking for the Hook-billed Kite! The top platform was indeed packed, and after
a while Gail and I parked the scope down the ramp a little just to get some
breathing room. One of the guides
spotted a Green Kingfisher in the same exact spot I had one the last time I
came up here looking for the kite, along with various waders and waterfowl in
the resaca. In the other direction was
an Anhinga, plus a hovering large kingfisher that I suspected was a Ringed (and
pointed out to the group), only because I again had one down there the last
time, but I also had those two Belted Kingfishers chasing each other, so since
it was in horrible light and far away, I wasn’t gonna make a call without it
calling! The kite never showed (one of
the guides was even doing a countdown to the time it showed up the day before),
but a nice consolation prize was a juvenile Broad-winged Hawk that flew low
over our heads! (I was too busy studying
the thing to get a photo… L) A couple of Gray Hawks were also nice, so it
wasn’t a total loss! A hovering Osprey
right in the light gave a good lesson in ID by jizz and behavior!
Rather than waiting for the tram to swing around again after our hour up there, I suggested we start walking in the direction that the tram would be coming (and hitch a ride at that time), as we could possibly kick up some birds that way. Gail seemed dubious as it had gotten rather quiet by that time, but I was hoping for a Roadrunner, as she wanted to see one and I’d often see them along that stretch. Somehow we got talking about venomous and non-venomous snakes in the Valley, and I was just about to mention that the one snake one was most likely to encounter here was an Indigo Snake, when I suddenly noticed one stretch out on the road ahead of us! He must have realized he had been spotted as he started moving the minute I said something, but Gail got a great look (and he was unfortunately too fast for the camera)!
We
jumped on the tram when it came, and on the way back to the parking lot had a
nice Red-shouldered Hawk (in the sun, unfortunately). We then took Old Military Highway (OMH) towards
Hidalgo, and we were just past the Butterfly Center when we noticed a gorgeous
White-tailed Kite right next to the road in beautiful light (and he stayed put,
too J)! Gail spotted a string of White Pelicans in
the distance, and I figured they were probably headed to Inspiration Road Pond,
and that we should check it out.
Well! That place was stuffed
with hundreds of White Pelicans all doing the swim-n-scoop routine, along with
dozens of Neotropic Cormorants – and almost every one of them had a fish in his
or her beak! There were a few egrets
hanging around as well, but they were virtually ignored as the pelicans swam
and flew and in general just put a on a great show! But there was one oddball white bird in the
distance that I though might be a gull at first, so Gail dragged out her Kowa
scope (while I did the “camera-scope” trick of shooting the thing then zooming
in; with a camera with the equivalent of a 1,365 mm lens, that gets you in
closer than the scope can!), and it turned out to be an immature Snow
Goose! That was a hoot!
Continuing
on OMH, I took Gail up on the levee so she could see Chimney Park and the Rio
Grande, and told her all about the historic flooding in 2010 from Hurricane
Alex. Anzalduas was still closed due to
the housing of immigrants with COVID, but we managed to add some Black Vultures
along the entrance road. We then continued
on towards Granjeno, where a black hawk with silver wing linings glided low
overhead; I assumed it was a young Zone-tailed Hawk (as there were no bands on
the tail), but with so many buteos having dark morphs, I wanted to be sure to
rule out anything else. Fast forward to
post-production and a couple of video grabs that showed a suspiciously whitish
tail, and a few inquiries to the RGV Birding Group (and especially Bill Clark,
Mr. Raptor himself), confirmed that it was actually a Harlan’s Hawk, not
a Zonetail! Truthfully, that was in the
back of my mind anyway, as Bill had banded a Harlan’s years ago that wintered
here (a rarity in itself, even though presently considered only a race of the
Red-tailed), so I wasn’t a bit surprised.
On
to Hidalgo, where we didn’t have to go into Old Hidalgo Pumphouse before
finding the Monk Parakeets! They were
too skittish for the camera (or even a really decent look), so from there we
continued to Quinta Mazatlan in hopes of the Crimson-collared Grosbeak. The big group we encountered at Bentsen beat
us there as well J, and the guides were spread out trying to
find this thing while most of the folks waited at the amphitheater, where the
bird had also been seen. Come to find
out one of the guides, Brennan Mulrooney, was an old San Diego birding buddy,
but back then he was a “young kid” who joined me a few times, and this time we
didn’t even recognize each other! (The
name tag gave him away… J)
When activity finally geared up again at the feeders there, we got great
looks at their Clay-colored Thrushes (one was color-banded), and both
Long-billed and Curve-billed Thrashers.
A Carolina Wren made a brief appearance, snatching a seed and darting
off in the manner of the titmice, while a Summer Tanager called behind us
unseen.
We
took our leave after awhile as I wanted to check some areas, like Ebony Grove,
where the grosbeak had been seen in years past.
It was really quiet by then; the most exciting thing we saw on
the trails was a little Black-striped Snake, a South Texas specialty, that I
thought was dead at first (as I almost stepped on him), but proved to be very
much alive when he scurried away after a couple of pictures!
We
called it a day after that with 66 species and some cool critters as well! Bird list:
Snow Goose
Blue-winged
Teal
Plain
Chachalaca
Wild
Turkey
Pied-billed
Grebe
Rock
Pigeon
Inca
Dove
White-winged
Dove
Ruby-throated
Hummingbird
Buff-bellied
Hummingbird
Sora
Common
Gallinule
American
Coot
Anhinga
Double-crested
Cormorant
Neotropic
Cormorant
American
White Pelican
Least
Bittern
Great
Egret
Snowy
Egret
White
Ibis
Black
Vulture
Turkey
Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed
Kite
Northern
Harrier
Cooper's
Hawk
Harris's
Hawk
Gray
Hawk
Red-shouldered
Hawk
Broad-winged
Hawk
Zone-tailed
Hawk
Red-tailed
Hawk
Green
Kingfisher
Golden-fronted
Woodpecker
Ladder-backed
Woodpecker
Crested
Caracara
American
Kestrel
Peregrine
Falcon
Monk
Parakeet
Eastern
Phoebe
Great
Kiskadee
White-eyed
Vireo
Loggerhead
Shrike
Green
Jay
Black-crested
Titmouse
Verdin
Ruby-crowned
Kinglet
Blue-gray
Gnatcatcher
House
Wren
Carolina
Wren
European
Starling
Curve-billed
Thrasher
Long-billed
Thrasher
Northern
Mockingbird
Clay-colored
Thrush
House
Sparrow
House
Finch
Lesser
Goldfinch
Olive
Sparrow
Altamira
Oriole
Red-winged
Blackbird
Great-tailed
Grackle
Orange-crowned
Warbler
Summer
Tanager
Northern
Cardinal
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