12/2/21
Diane and her friend Kristen from Illinois joined up with their mutual friend Paulo from Portugal this morning to join me in picking up some Valley birds, continuing their Texas adventure! The original plan was to visit Estero Llano Grande and then bird the brushlands around La Sal del Rey, but I gave them the option of visiting some places that had had rarities of late, so we ended up doing a little bit of both! J We started at Estero where the fog was thick as soup, but an old Altamira Oriole nest in the parking lot was a hit!
Paulo, Kristen, and Diane are ready to hit the trails!
Old Altamira Oriole nest
We opted to try for the Pauraque and
Screech Owl by Alligator Lake first, but not without the requisite look at Ibis
Pond, which was stuffed with Black-bellied Whistling Ducks! A few winter ducks had arrived, but no grebes
or Cinnamon Teal. The Chachalacas that
had distracted us on the way in were now at the feeders by the restroom, so we
spent several minutes enjoying them (all three were photographers, so that
always takes a little extra time to get that perfect shot)! In addition, a friendly little Orange-crowned
Warbler landed right next to me, and Cardinals also came in to the
feeders. A Long-billed Thrasher did his faaaa
call that makes him sound like something ferocious, and thankfully he came out
at the top of a tree for all to see!
Soras whinnied and Marsh Wrens “fttt”ed unseen
as we passed the reeds, and Paulo managed to photograph one of the angry
Yellowthroats! Dowitcher Pond was socked
in, and nothing was at Grebe Pond, but Alligator Lake at least gave us a Green
Heron and nice looks at the Yellow-crowned Night Herons and a couple of Anhingas
(Black-crowned Nighties gave us fleeting looks). Kristen spotted a couple of White Ibis flying
overhead, which she was thrilled to see!
Sadly, we could not spot the Pauraque in his usual haunts, and the
Screech Owl box had been taken over by bees, so we made our way back to the
Visitor’s Center, logging an unseen Belted Kingfisher rattling overhead.
Back at the boardwalk we walked out a
little ways to try and scare up a rail (the fog was starting to lift by then),
but in the midst of all the wheezy duck whistles a harsher per-REER came
overhead, and two Fulvous Whistling Ducks wheeled in! I think between three long lenses and a big
group on the deck they decided to go elsewhere…
Out in Avocet Pond we were able to pick out what looked like a good
Mexican Duck amongst the Mottled (and his tail looked rather whitish, so he
could have had some “northern” Mallard blood in him). A Lincoln’s Sparrow popped up and then shot
to the side while we were studying the ducks.
After checking in and bantering with
Ranger John a bit J, we took the shortcut to the Tropical Zone to try and
find “Fred in the Shed” (the Screech Owl who hangs out in a hole in the corner
of a white shed). Fred wasn’t home (I
think I’ve only seen him once in all the times I’ve looked L), so we continued on in to find “Burney”, the
Pauraque that hangs out by an old burn barrel.
Had it not been for the group that already found him, I wouldn’t have
recognized the spot, as it was almost totally overgrown with guinea grass! It took a little work, but everyone finally
got a great view (and Paulo actually found a second bird)!
From there we went to the Indigo Blind, where we ended up spending about a half hour and had great looks and photo ops of most of our Valley feeder birds: Green Jays, Black-crested Titmice, White-tipped Doves, Kiskadees, and my personal favorite, several Clay-colored Thrushes! A cooperative Buff-bellied Hummer came in to the feeder as well, and I almost wrote off a Bronzed Cowbird as just another Redwing! After leaving there a bright chirp in the palm tree betrayed a Yellow-throated Warbler, and thankfully everyone got great looks! Somewhere in here a friendly White-eyed Vireo popped right out in front of Kristen, and she was able to get a wonderful shot, thankfully, as it was a life bird! We tried in vain to find “Pam in the Palm”, the other Screech Owl, but we at least finally got great looks at the Golden-fronted Woodpecker before heading out to Best Buy.
In order to avoid the freeway we went by way of US 281, where we made a very quick stop at a roadside pipe where a Burrowing Owl had returned for the winter (very quick in that some kind of farm machine was bearing down on us along the shoulder), and a nice pale eastern Red-tailed Hawk on a pole. Diane had ordered a new lens as hers wasn’t focusing correctly, and the store had implied that it was ready for pickup, only it wasn’t L. While the girls were in the store Paulo and I discussed target birds and plans, and it sounded like the original plan of going to the brushlands might be the better option, but Kristen only had this day to get her Valley birds, so we decided to wrap up the day with visits to Quinta Mazatlan and Bentsen Rio Grande State Park, and Diane limped along with what she had.
After parking at Quinta we headed in,
checking their Guamuchil tree for Red-bordered Pixies. A Ladder-backed Woodpecker sounded off on the
way in, and the gang was able to spot it before it blasted off. After checking in we headed to the
Amphitheatre area where the Crimson-collared Grosbeak had been hanging
out. We initially gave it 15 minutes
where the usual suspects came in, along with another Long-billed Thrasher and
several Inca Doves, but we got distracted by a Summer Tanager that was calling
behind us, and eventually circled around and landed right in our faces (she was
even too close for Kristen’s lens)!
Given what time we had left they opted to go to Bentsen rather than
spend more time looking for the grosbeak, so we picked up a gnatcatcher in the
parking lot and then headed to the state park by way of Military Parkway to see
if we could kick up any Cave Swallows; no swallows, but we picked up a
heard-only Tropical Kingbird and roadside Kestrel and Loggerhead Shrike
instead.
It was really quieting down by that time;
a poke around the VC area yielded no Audubon’s Oriole, so after checking in we
headed up to La Familia Nature Center. I
pointed out the Blue Spiny Lizards on the brick wall, and despite the ranger’s
sad news that they only put food out in the mornings, we decided to give the
place our remaining time, as we were really there too late to catch a tram to
the hawk tower. Green Jays and Cardinals
still picked at the leftovers, but before long Paulo called out that he had an
Altamira Oriole! He (the oriole, not Paulo) was on the opposite
side of where we were, of course, on the PB feeder that still had PB mixture in
it, but while he and his mate played hard-to-get for a while, everyone
eventually got pictures! That was a
highlight for sure!
Unfortunately the becards never showed (although Paulo reported a Peccary), so we headed back to the parking lot where a Curve-billed Thrasher was hiding in the shade under Heppy (my Forrester)! So we wrapped up the day with a modest 61 species.
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Mexican Duck
Mottled Duck
Green-winged Teal
Plain Chachalaca
Pied-billed Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Inca Dove
White-tipped Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Pauraque
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Sora
Killdeer
Anhinga
Neotropic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Burrowing Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
Black-crested Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Carolina Wren
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Clay-colored Thrush
House Sparrow
Lesser Goldfinch
Lincoln's Sparrow
Altamira Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-throated Warbler
Northern Cardinal
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