9/24/22
Kay from San Antonio (who was practically family by now J) wanted to come down to the Valley to see a friend and celebrate her birthday, so she wanted to go to the Island to see if any migrants were coming through. On the way out there via SR 100, a suspicious light in the sky had us pull over into the Aplomado Viewing Area parking lot, but the light was simply a very bright star that was nevertheless showing a lot of refractive color through the scope! Obviously it was still quite dark, but the glowing eastern sky dotted with black clouds was just gorgeous!
We broke with tradition and went to Sheepshead first,
which was sadly pretty dead except for an Inca Dove out of the car and an Eastern
Wood Pewee trying out his dawn song! We
were getting ready to move on when suddenly things started seeping and
chirping, but not letting us get much of a look; Kay got a glimpse of a
Yellow-breasted Chat, and I was trying to follow something that looked rather
plain below and on the face, but had very strong wingbars and was chirping up a
storm! Just for kicks and grins I
decided to tape the thing with Merlin, and when it immediately ID’d it as a
Northern Parula, that made perfect sense (as first-year birds can be rather
dull)! Kay had what sounded like a
Yellow Warbler from her description (and the chirp sounded good), and a Least
Flycatcher called from the north side water feature area, but the only other
bird to show up was a juvenile Mockingbird that had some kind of deformity on
its bill and feet – poor thing didn’t look very well, at any rate…
Heading over to the Convention Centre, we skipped
the Circular Area and went straight to the water feature, which was also pretty
quiet except for an immature Ruby-throated Hummingbird and a pair of Wilson’s
Warblers that came in to bathe (I heard an Orchard Oriole, but that was the
extent of that bird). Kay was introduced to
the “jungle sound” of the Common Gallinule, and we added quite a few “heard
only” birds to the list including Least Bittern, Green and Great Blue Heron,
Kiskadee, Tropical Kingbird, and Belted Kingfisher. We strolled out to the back viewing area
where the white morph Reddish Egret was still hanging, along with a subadult
Brown Pelican, and the Neotropic Cormorant that always seems to be there, along
with the requisite Laughing Gulls (the pelican seemed to be intently watching
the egret as he preened J). We tried to get a posing Tricolored
Heron to look at the camera J, but he was too focused on the two kayakers floating by behind
him! We skipped the boardwalk as it was
getting hot, but the most exciting bird flew over us back at the car – a Merlin! (Guess he was a little early as he got
flagged…)
Despite the fact that I’ve been chastised several
times by my Subaru service advisor L, I decided to drive out on The Flats anyway so Kay
could get a closer look at the shorebirds out there! Black Tern would have been a lifer for Kay,
but unfortunately they had moved on; we did have nice comparisons of a few Red Knots next to the Short-billed
Dowitchers! (Kay only gets Long-billed,
and she could really see the difference, even though there is overlap…) Also in the crowd were Marbled Godwits,
Sanderlings, Piping (CUUUTE!!!) and Black-bellied Plovers, Black Skimmers, and
the normal terns, including a Common.
Kay suggested driving up the beach, so we got on
via Atwood Park (as Beach Access 6 has been dicey of late), and didn’t get far
as the sand was pretty soft (like driving through snow). We had a good time joking about the truck
that was piled high with water toys (“Sure you don’t wanna take a shark home?!”
J), and
on the way out we did see a Ruddy Turnstone, but the poor thing had no feet! L After I got home I bemoaned the fact that we
couldn’t get any farther, because a Great Shearwater was spotted in the surf
about a quarter mile north of road’s end (which would have required getting on
at the aforementioned Beach Access 6)! L Oh, well…
Since it was too hot to walk, Kay suggested we just cruise around the Birding & Nature Center’s parking lot to see if we could spot anything from the car (last time she came down in the spring that proved very productive), but the most exciting bird there was a White Ibis, plus another pair of Wilson’s Warblers. But we did foist off some birthday cake on Park Naturalist Javi J (we had been indulging all morning) and also enjoyed watching the kids from the Harlingen Military Academy helping to plant some natives on the grounds!
By then it was lunch time (despite stuffing
ourselves with cake J), so after running Heppy through the car wash we headed over to Pier
19, only to discover the place had burned down!! L So since we
were headed to Isla Blanca Park we ended up at Dirty Al’s, which was wonderful
(we both had the fish and shrimp basket)!
The only new birds we picked up there were a little group of lady
Red-winged Blackbirds, so we ended up with 50 species for the morning, which is
kinda meager for migration time on the Island.
But we had a great time of fellowship, which is what counts!
Bird List:
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Inca Dove
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Common Gallinule
Black-bellied Plover
Piping Plover
Marbled Godwit
Ruddy Turnstone
Red Knot
Sanderling
Short-billed Dowitcher
Willet
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Sandwich Tern
Black Skimmer
Neotropic Cormorant
Brown Pelican
Least Bittern
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Green Heron
White Ibis
Osprey
Belted Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Merlin
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Least Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
European Starling
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow
Eastern Meadowlark
Orchard Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Yellow-breasted Chat (Kay only)
Northern Parula
Yellow Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
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