3/17/2022
After just recovering from cancer surgery, Jen and her
husband Joe from North Carolina (originally from Long Island, New York) decided
it was time to get away and have some fun!
This was their first time in the Valley, and they got in early enough to
do some laid back birding on their own before going out with me. And by today, Jen was almost ready to run a
marathon! (Okay, a little exaggeration,
there… J) But I had scheduled a nice easy road-birding
morning, particularly since Jen really wanted to see a Roadrunner, so I figured
the La Sal del Rey Route would be the best bet!
We didn’t count on a Red Flag Warning for the county, though L, although it wasn’t too bad when we started out going north on Rio Beef Road. The wetlands near SR 186 had plenty of water in them, but visibility was obscured by lots of brush, so we only managed to add Blue-winged Teal and Shoveler there. There were a lot of thick trees along here, where Olive Sparrows and a Carolina Wren sang, but a surprise Clay-colored Thrush also popped up! Green Jays were out the yin yang – the most I’ve ever seen on this route! Several were along the road, joined by a couple of Mourning Doves and our first Pyrrhuloxia! A brilliant Cardinal sat in the sun, and while we heard several Bewick’s Wrens, none wanted to play ball. An Orange-crowned Warbler gave a brief view, but it was the only one we saw all morning. Here and there a Lincoln’s Sparrow smacked while I was trying to draw out something else, and a nice male Ladder-backed Woodpecker bounced up on a dead tree in front of us as well.
True to form, the “barren field” at the T with Ken Baker Road was truly barren (I shared the story of how, on my very first visit to this spot, the field was stuffed with cranes and geese, and I assumed it would always be like that – ha). The wind was starting to kick up when we pulled into Rio Beef Feedyards, picking up a Loggerhead Shrike on the fence. We wanted a crack at the blackbirds if not the geese, but the latter had apparently headed north by now, as the feed lots and ponds were devoid of water birds. But the icterids were all over, even performing a few “murmurations” that delighted Jen! Redwings and Brown-headed Cowbirds were the main players for certain, but we were able to pick out the requisite Brewer’s Blackbirds, and I briefly spotted a Bronzed Cowbird that unfortunately lifted off before J&J could get on him. But Jen enjoyed the bovines as they busily consumed their breakfast in the trough along the fence! On the way out was one of their target birds: a beautiful White-tailed Hawk right overhead!
Crawling out we added a mixed flock of Black and
Turkey Vultures (Joe was telling a funny story about his mom and a vulture when
one materialized right next to the car), and a little further along the road a
Nilgai loped along (unfortunately too fast for a picture L)! Joe also spotted a pair of White-tailed Deer,
the buck with a pretty good rack (also too fast for the camera), but finally we
found a Bewick’s Wren that deigned to let us see him! But further down the road was the
shocker: Joe had spotted a Vermilion
Flycatcher on the fence in front of us, but I stopped dead not for that, but
for a tooting Ferruginous Pygmy Owl in the brush! Unfortunately he didn’t keep it up (I was
hoping for a “proof” recording), but that was the biggest surprise of all! (For the record, they have been found in
the area, but stumbling upon one is a near miracle…)
Continuing on we added a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that kept hopping down to the next wire, as well as a Kestrel doing the same, plus a beautiful Harris’ Hawk next to the road. Turning north on Brushline we heard Cactus Wrens near one of the ranches, but they also stayed low out of the wind. A Black-throated Sparrow tinkled but was uncharacteristically unfriendly, as was pretty much everything else along the rest of the route (except for a pretty Pyrrhuloxia that posed). We did finally get a Caracara to sit on a pole so Jen could see one that wasn’t flying away! J A trio of Couch’s Kingbirds chattered for us, and at the turnaround we got out to stretch and examine a hole in the ground, the excavator of which I had no clue (we were guessing Armadillo or maybe even fox, as one of the prints looked rather like a dog’s paw). Even heading back we scared up no Roadrunners L, and I truly was surprised that I didn’t even hear some of the common denizens of this area, like Verdin! (Jen at least saw her coveted Armadillo, although it was deceased…) We at least added a pale Red-tailed Hawk to the list on the way back to Alamo…
Finished with a pretty dismal 39 species for the morning, but even a heard-only pygmy owl made it worthwhile! Bird list:
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Vermilion Flycatcher
Couch's Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
Black-crested Titmouse
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Bewick's Wren
Cactus Wren
European Starling
Long-billed Thrasher
Clay-colored Thrush
House Sparrow
Olive Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
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