Escaping Harvey, Part 2

9/2/17 

We hadn’t forgotten about the sod farms, so after discussing our options (and as my friend Norma Friedrich likes to say, road-birding from an air-conditioned car is always a good summertime birding option J), and also realizing that the 281/83 interchange wouldn’t be a nightmare on a weekend, we decided on doing the Cannon Road Loop (which includes the Weaver Road Sod Farms – aka Superior Turf Farms officially).  Normally I start this route from the south end of Cannon Road itself, off US 281 just east of the little town of Santa Maria, but since we wanted to target the sod farms, we came in from the north, from La Feria down to FM 3067 (which turns into FM 800).  Just before the road curves left is the turnoff for Weaver Road on the right, which is unmarked, so unless you know exactly where to turn you can feel like you’re pulling into the farm’s driveway!  Heading south takes you through some ag fields (full of cotton this time), and you run right into the sod farms!  On the way down a couple of Swainson’s Hawks were sitting in a barren part of the field, as is their custom!

The first bird was preoccupied with his beauty preen, but the second bird (below) kept his eye on us!

 First thing in the morning is a great time to bird the sod farms, as the best viewing is to the west, so you have the sun in a perfect position!  Sometimes the birds can be way the heck across the fields (and we did have a few stilts, grackles, and a White-faced Ibis over there), but more often than not they’re “spottable” with the naked eye, and that was certainly the case this day, as our first “grasspiper” turned out to be a lovely Buff-breasted Sandpiper!  We caught sight of a few more, along with some Pectoral Sandpipers that were closer to the road.  Also closer to the road were several Least Sandpipers, and Killdeer were also plentiful.  A couple of Long-billed Curlews put on a show as well.  We even had both adult and immature Little Blue Herons along the canals.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper, showing the yellow legs better in the above shot.

Pectoral Sandpiper (above and below)

After that high, we continued to Jimenez and decided to cut straight over to Cannon and check out the NWR tract.  By then it was pretty quiet (still had plenty of Tropical Kingbirds, though, as is normal for this route), and I called out things as I heard them, but nothing really got the juices going until a family of Groove-billed Anis popped up back on the Weaver Road section of the NWR tract!  We did hop out trying to spot a Clay-colored Thrush that flew in, giving his “robin ring” call, but we never could get a good look (that was a first for the route for me).  We scared up several Common Ground Doves, but none wanted to stay put for Firmin’s camera. L  A nice addition, however, was two White-tipped Doves that flushed along the road and veered off, giving us great looks at the “white tips” and the flash of rufous under their wings!  Heading through the cotton field on the way down to US 281 Firmin’s favorite bird of the day popped up on a cotton stalk:  a lovely male Blue Grosbeak!  The Tropical Kingbird on our right was in better light, and he almost seemed to be posing and saying, “Aw, don’t pay any attention to that blue guy – lookit me!” J

A bit of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR tract along Cannon Road

Blue Grosbeak

Posing Tropical Kingbird

The endearing Groove-billed Ani (above and below)

From there we had just enough time to check out Rangerville Resaca, so we cut over on Jimenez, spotting a beautiful White-tailed Kite on the way!  At one of the canals Firmin finally got to see a Wood Stork for the trip, as one hid in the grass and then took off when he realized he had been discovered! J  At the resaca we picked up several Stilt and Western Sandpipers for the day, but alas, we had to get back to the hotel so they could start home for San Antonio!  Still, it wasn’t a bad morning with 57 species! 

Fleeing Wood Stork

Distant White-tailed Kite

Bird List:

  Mottled Duck                         

  Blue-winged Teal                     
  Wood Stork                           
  Snowy Egret                          
  Little Blue Heron                    
  White-faced Ibis                     
  Turkey Vulture                       
  White-tailed Kite                    
  Swainson's Hawk                      
  Common Gallinule                     
  Black-necked Stilt                   
  Killdeer                             
  Lesser Yellowlegs                    
  Long-billed Curlew                   
  Stilt Sandpiper                      
  Least Sandpiper                      
  Buff-breasted Sandpiper              
  Pectoral Sandpiper                   
  Western Sandpiper                    
  Laughing Gull                        
  Rock Pigeon                          
  Eurasian Collared-Dove               
  White-winged Dove                    
  Mourning Dove                         
  Inca Dove                            
  Common Ground-Dove                   
  White-tipped Dove                    
  Groove-billed Ani                    
  Golden-fronted Woodpecker            
  Crested Caracara                     
  Eastern Wood-Pewee                   
  Brown-crested Flycatcher             
  Great Kiskadee                       
  Tropical Kingbird                    
  Couch's Kingbird                     
  Loggerhead Shrike                    
  White-eyed Vireo                     
  Bank Swallow                         
  Barn Swallow                         
  Cave Swallow                         
  Black-crested Titmouse               
  Bewick's Wren                        
  Clay-colored Thrush                  
  Curve-billed Thrasher                
  Long-billed Thrasher                 
  Northern Mockingbird                 
  European Starling                    
  Common Yellowthroat                  
  Yellow Warbler                        
  Olive Sparrow                        
  Northern Cardinal                    
  Blue Grosbeak                        
  Dickcissel                           
  Red-winged Blackbird                 
  Great-tailed Grackle                  
  Lesser Goldfinch                     
  House Sparrow                        

57 SPECIES

Escaping Harvey, Part 1

9/1/17 

Firmin and Marie had their Labor Day Weekend plans all set up in San Antonio, but when Hurricane Harvey got in the way, they decided to come to the Valley to bird! J  They had visited the Valley many times before, but always in the winter, so this would be a new experience.  I try to convince birders that there’s always something to see in the Valley, no matter what time of year – it’s just that this time of year you need to make sure you do your birding during the coolest parts of the day!  We kind of threw that out the window, however, as our first destination was South Padre Island, where the Gulf breeze usually keeps things tolerable!  When Harvey made landfall the week before, he totally missed the Valley (except for a couple of inches of rain in Cameron County), but he ended up pushing dozens of Magnificent Frigatebirds inland all along the coast; we even got one in inland Hidalgo County that Dan Jones found (see previous blog for that adventure)!  So we were hoping there would be some interesting birds still hanging around the Island.

Alas, we dipped on the frigatebird (although fellow guide Justin LeClaire did glimpse one that day), but the Flats were incredible:  perfectly dry right up to the water’s edge (which usually isn’t the case), and instead of most of the birds being hunkered in one or two large groups, there were birds scattered all over – our initial plan to skim the shoreline so that Firmin could get some pictures ended up being kind of a zig zag, as we’d see a pretty Black-bellied Plover over there and swing over, then some more Piping Plovers or Least Terns in another spot, and circle around for those!  We ended up logging all the expected plovers, with lots of Piping, Semipalmated, and Black-bellied (including a heard-only Killdeer), and most of the expected tern species (I think the only one we missed was Caspian, which we picked up at the Convention Centre)!  Reddish Egrets of both morphs were performing their dances, and we had a great selection of shorebirds; Justin and Stephanie were doing Piping Plover surveys (I apparently photographed one he missed J) and told us of a “special shorebird” around the corner!  He finally spilled the beans when I whined that, now that the pressure was on J, I’d probably overlook the thing!  But I needn’t have worried:  it’s hard to overlook a Red Knot that stands out like a giant amongst all the smaller Sanderlings and Western Sandpipers!  (Actually, we had one hanging with some lazing dowitchers, and even with them he looked huge!)  Other “special” shorebirds included several Marbled Godwits, a pair of American Oystercatchers, and a Ruddy Turnstone still in brilliant breeding plumage!  In some of the isolated puddles we had a Black-necked Stilt and a couple of Greater Yellowlegs looking for breakfast, and on the way out a regal Osprey posed on a wire!

Molting Sanderling

Molting Black-bellied Plover

Piping Plover #55A makes a run for it!

(This is the bird Justin and Stephanie apparently missed...)

The similar Semipalmated Plover

Here are the two together:  Piping (above) is the color of dry sand, and the Semipalmated (below) is the color of wet sand!

This guy apparently never got his "bling"!

Marbled Godwits (above and below)

Short-billed Dowitchers (above and below)

Western Sandpiper

Greater Yellowlegs (above and below)

Dancing Reddish Egret (doing the Tango below...)

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Black-necked Stilt

Snowy Plover

Black Tern

Two similar and potentially confusing terns:  the non-breeding Forster's (behind) is easy with his black ear patch, but the Common Tern (in front) is more problematic, as both species are black-capped in breeding plumage.  The pale bill tip, darker primaries, and short tail are all good clues for Common.

Another look at the Common Tern

Non-breeding Commons are also pretty straight-forward:  the black encompasses the nape, and they have a dark carpal bar which the Forster's lacks.

A Red Knot seemingly dwarfs some lazing dowitchers!

You can see a few of his red belly feathers retained! (above and below)

One Black Skimmer plays the "Dead Skimmer Routine" to the hilt, while his friend shows how razor-thin those bills really are!

Ruddy Turnstone (above and below)

American Oystercatcher

Wilson's Plover shows how big his bill is compared to other small plovers (above and below)!

Osprey (above and below)

We had a hard time tearing ourselves away from that spot, but the Centre beckoned, and although quiet, we did pick up a few migrants:  several Yellow Warblers, a couple of Wilson’s, and a brilliant male American Redstart were the highlights.  Several flycatchers came in; the only ones I could positively ID were a friendly Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (who peeped for good measure) and an Eastern Wood Pewee, but what I thought was an Alder Flycatcher at first (due to a sharp call note and the relative lack of an eye ring) I reneged on later after scrutinizing the pictures and wrote it off as another pewee, which can also utter a sharp pik call.  A rest at the gazebo at the base of the water feature yielded a cooperative Northern Waterthrush, and a short walk on the boardwalk (still hoping for that frigate) yielded Mottled Ducks, Pied-billed Grebes, and heard-only Clapper Rails and Least Bitterns.  The “east pond” had the usual Roseate Spoonbills and over-summering Blue-winged Teal.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (above and below)

Here's that "Alder Flycatcher" I was having doubts about; thoughts?

Northern Waterthrush (above and below)

After chilling out under the blind at the end of the boardwalk we had lunch at Daddy’s (which was fabulous; I had the crawfish etouffee, and they even had frog legs!!), then headed over to Sheepshead, which was a new spot for them.  But we were shocked:  there were dead trees lying all over, and the north side had been all but cleared out!!  After posting the pictures on Facebook the mystery was solved post-haste:  they were clearing out the non-native plants with plans to plant native plants and put in more water features.  But that didn’t stop the birds any:   another Northern Waterthrush bobbed along the water on the south side (which was untouched as far as I could tell), along with a Wilson’s Warbler, and a handful of Baltimore Orioles came in to the water feature on the north side while we sat in the shade of the kiosk!  We were also visited by an Eastern Kingbird, and upon reflection Firmin felt he had a female Painted Bunting while Marie and I were focused on something else!  But the best bird was a young male Vermilion Flycatcher, very rare on the Island any time of year (definitely was a first for my “Island List”)!

The lot on the north side of Sheepshead

Young male Vermilion Flycatcher

Baltimore Oriole

Loggerhead Shrike (above and below)

Hot Eastern Kingbird

Talk of sod farms led me to consider Weaver Road, but due to time constraints we decided to make a stop at Tiocano Lake on the way home.  No King Rails sounded off, but we did pick up some nice birds for the day, including Avocets, Stilt Sandpipers, a heard-only Pectoral Sandpiper, Common Gallinules, and a Wood Stork that unfortunately only I saw before he took off… L  A nice consolation prize was a family of Groove-billed Anis along the road!  A huge thunderstorm was to the west, and even though it was heading southwest according to the radar, we figured it would be best to be prudent and start back home!  That storm was indeed south of the freeway, but we ended up driving through quite the gully-washer on the way to their hotel!

Firmin and Marie at Tiocano Lake

Wound up with a modest 83 species for the day.  Bird List:

  Black-bellied Whistling-Duck         

  Mottled Duck                         
  Blue-winged Teal                     
  Pied-billed Grebe                    
  Wood Stork                           
  Neotropic Cormorant                  
  Brown Pelican                        
  Least Bittern                        
  Great Blue Heron                     
  Great Egret                          
  Snowy Egret                          
  Little Blue Heron                    
  Tricolored Heron                     
  Reddish Egret                        
  Cattle Egret                         
  Black-crowned Night-Heron            
  White Ibis                           
  Roseate Spoonbill                    
  Turkey Vulture                       
  Osprey                               
  Clapper Rail                         
  Common Gallinule                     
  American Coot                        
  Black-necked Stilt                   
  American Avocet                      
  American Oystercatcher               
  Black-bellied Plover                 
  Snowy Plover                         
  Wilson's Plover                      
  Semipalmated Plover                  
  Piping Plover                        
  Killdeer                             
  Greater Yellowlegs                    
  Willet                               
  Marbled Godwit                       
  Ruddy Turnstone                      
  Red Knot                             
  Stilt Sandpiper                      
  Sanderling                           
  Least Sandpiper                      
  Pectoral Sandpiper                   
  Western Sandpiper                    
  Short-billed Dowitcher               
  Laughing Gull                        
  Least Tern                           
  Gull-billed Tern                     
  Caspian Tern                         
  Black Tern                           
  Common Tern                          
  Forster's Tern                       
  Royal Tern                           
  Sandwich Tern                        
  Black Skimmer                        
  Rock Pigeon                          
  Eurasian Collared-Dove               
  Mourning Dove                        
  Groove-billed Ani                    
  Lesser Nighthawk                      
  Chimney Swift                        
  Ruby-throated Hummingbird            
  Golden-fronted Woodpecker            
  Eastern Wood-Pewee                   
  Yellow-bellied Flycatcher            
  Vermilion Flycatcher                 
  Great Kiskadee                       
  Eastern Kingbird                     
  Loggerhead Shrike                    
  Barn Swallow                         
  Cave Swallow                         
  Blue-gray Gnatcatcher                
  Northern Mockingbird                 
  European Starling                    
  Northern Waterthrush                 
  Common Yellowthroat                  
  American Redstart                    
  Yellow Warbler                       
  Wilson's Warbler                     
  Dickcissel                           
  Red-winged Blackbird                 
  Great-tailed Grackle                 
  Orchard Oriole                        
  Baltimore Oriole                     
  House Sparrow                        

83 SPECIES