13-14 NOV 15
[Note: names were changed to protect privacy, but Ed (Ernest) posted his own version of the whole trip, which can be viewed on the next blog, so you're gonna get their real names anyway... :-): ]
I ran into Brody and crew in Portal,
AZ, last August while feeder-watching, and while we were sharing stories I had
mentioned that I had just been hired at the Alamo Inn B&B, and that if they
were considering coming to south Texas to bird that they should stay with
us! Well, he actually took me up on it J and he and his wife Danielle,
along with his friend Ernest and his wife Dee, arrived on the 12th,
and we all went birding Friday and Saturday!
The weather forecast had been dismal all week, but miraculously the
morning of the 13th the chance of rain up in Salineño went down to
10%, so we decided to head up there first (but not without driving through some
pretty good squalls to get there).
Before we left we bagged Tropical Kingbird right across Main Street in
the little city park!
It was good to see Merle and Lois
again (the steadfast Winter Texan couple who faithfully stocks the feeders at
Salineño), but I was saddened to hear that their loveable dog Jake had
died. But their two Maltese were as cute
and friendly as could be (until the couple with the longhair dachshund showed
up)! Audubon’s Oriole was the main
target here, and we didn’t have to wait long for him to show up, giving
everyone great views! It took a little
longer for his cousin the Altamira Oriole to show up, but eventually the crew
got decent looks of many of their targets:
Long-billed Thrasher, Green Jay, White-tipped Dove, Black-crested
Titmouse, and even Golden-fronted Woodpecker and Kiskadee were a hit! An Olive Sparrow showed up briefly, and I
think everyone got at least a glimpse of him before he was upstaged by the
Hispid Cotton Rat! Even the lone Bronzed
Cowbird was exciting for them!
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Audubon's Oriole
Green Jay mug shot
Altamira Oriole
Heading to the feeders
After we had gotten our fill of the
feeders we meandered down to the boat ramp, where it was pretty quiet bird-wise
but several fishermen had the place staked out (Ernest practiced his Spanish on
them J)! Downriver was a distant cormorant that a
scope proved to be a Neotropic, and a couple of Ospreys were patrolling the
joint, but the star of the show was a Zone-tailed Hawk that circled
overhead! We poked down the trail a
little, but I didn’t realize there had been a fire in there; the place was
pretty ravished. But we did manage to
spook a nighthawk that (thanks to Brody’s photo) we were able to pin down as a
Lesser, and indeed John Arvin’s checklist shows that they do hang around here
until mid November!
Mediocre shot of the Zone-tailed Hawk
Lesser Nighthawk
Since they already had the typical
southwestern species under their belts, we decided to skip Falcon SP and head
back to Bentsen (or Anzalduas if it was raining by the time we got there). We stopped for lunch (where the guys got
their life Cave Swallow in the rain) then drove through another cell in Rio
Grande City, but by the time we got to Bentsen it was only dripping, and then
soon stopped altogether! But on the way
down Bentsen Palm Drive the guys spotted a hawk hunting low in the field, and Brody
did a Uie so we could get better views (as the bird had landed); turned out to
be a young White-tailed Hawk which gave wonderful scope views! Two more youngsters were flying around, and
soon all three were circling! A Caracara
had also been sitting in the field earlier on.
Once in the parking lot we went on a
sapsucker chase for a few minutes, but seeing as it was getting late I wanted
to try and get them on the Eastern Screech Owl Ranger Roy had staked out for
the RGV Bird Festival folks, so I had them bird the gardens in search of their
Buff-bellied Hummingbird (and the Tropical Parula if it was around) while I
checked us in and got our “bands”. Sure
enough, they had found one (the hummingbird, that is)! We made a cursory check at the canal for
Green Kingfisher (nada), then headed to the Gatehouse Feeders where I was hoping
a Clay-colored Thrush would come in.
Everyone got killer looks at Chachalacas instead (and more Green Jays of
course), but when it became apparent that the tram wasn’t coming any time soon
I suggested we walk on down to the Pavilion area. Some Red-shouldered Hawks were screaming, and
shortly thereafter a Gray Hawk joined in.
Once down to the grove, someone thought they heard a Ringed Kingfisher,
so we meandered down to Kingfisher Overlook, but there wasn’t anything except
another Osprey, I believe. So we wandered
over to the restrooms, and I was warning everyone to approach carefully, only
after careful scrutiny we saw that Mr. Owl had flown the coop (and not only was
this a lifer for them, but it’s a candidate for a split as well). So then we floated over to Green Jay Blind
where we enjoyed the namesakes trying to avoid being eaten by a Sharp-shinned
Hawk patrolling the area (although there was some discussion that it could have
been a male Cooper’s as well)!
We finally dragged ourselves away
and poked back down the road to the visitor’s center, where an Orange-crowned
Warbler was showing off. I directed Brody
to take West Military Highway to avoid the freeway construction, and in doing
so we had two beautiful White-tailed Kites (and also a nice Harris’ Hawk
somewhere along the way)!
We made it back safe and sound,
deciding to hit Estero Llano Grande the next day, but with continued reports of
Hook-billed Kite, Brody greeted me the next morning with the desire to hit
Anzalduas first, which sounded great to me!
After we gathered everyone together I asked if they needed Monk
Parakeet, which they did, so we took a swing through Hidalgo first. I was sweating a little, however, as the
parakeets weren’t hanging around their nests, but suddenly Brody spotted a
small silent group on the wires, and everyone jumped out to get great looks at
yet another life bird! J
From there we headed to Anzalduas,
where we found three species of swallows all lined up on the wire over the
spillway, and then ran into a gal who was on a couple of the field trips I led
for the RGV Bird Fest! She was looking
for Sprague’s Pipits (I told her, and my crew, that here that involved forming
a scrimmage line and walking through the field, so they passed on that), but
she did say the Greater Pewee was still around, so we thanked her and headed
for the river. As always, my clients
were amazed that Mexico was “right there” (to say nothing of the fact that, at
this point in the river, you’re actually looking north into Mexico)! One of
the gals spotted a Green Kingfisher sitting across the river on the little
“island”, and Dee did hear a distant Ringed Kingfisher, but alas, we never saw
the guy. We worked the trees there for
warblers and picked up a Black-throated Green for the day. I was also able to feign exuberant excitement
over a House Finch teed up on a tree (although considered accidental in the
Valley, this otherwise widespread species can be reliably found at Anzalduas)! But the best bird was feeding next to a Great
Egret out in the river: a young Reddish Egret dancing away! (These birds are expected on the coast, but
are rare anywhere inland…)
Distant shot of the young Reddish Egret - expected on the coast, but rare inland!
The gang works the trees for warblers
House Finch, considered "accidental" in the Valley, believe it or not!
Heading over to the pewee spot, we
ran into a group of birders who already had the bird, so my gang was able to
get another easy lifer! I was pleased to
see a few Eastern Bluebirds sail in, and soon they joined another feeding flock
where we were able to pull out both White-eyed and Blue-headed Vireos, a
Black-and-white Warbler, a knockout Yellow-throated Warbler, a few Chipping
Sparrows, and my personal favorite, an “Audubon’s” Warbler (which is a “junk
bird” to Washingtonians, of course)!
Raptors were quite plentiful, and we had a Hookbill false alarm for a
minute when what looked like a very fat-winged raptor went sailing away from us
and behind the trees! If it was indeed
the same bird that reemerged, it turned out to be a young Harris’ Hawk, but in
addition we had a young Broad-winged Hawk, an adult Swainson’s, a Red-tailed
Hawk, and a beautiful pearly Gray Hawk that put on a show! There were lots of vultures of both flavors
around, and we ran into my RGV Fest friend again valiantly trying to turn one
into a Zonetail! But a real odd-looking
“raptor” flying overhead turned out to be an Anhinga!
The continuing Greater Pewee
Female Vermilion Flycatcher
Immature Black-crowned Night Heron
Snoozing Pauraque
Park host Huck Hutchins had another
owl staked out, so we made our way back to the Tropical Zone, but not before
climbing up onto the levee to look for the Groove-billed Anis, a bird that
normally clears out in the winter but a few always seem to hang around. I wasn’t sure exactly where on the levee they
were, so after enjoying some Avocets and Shovelers in the actual Estero Llano, we headed east, and it
wasn’t long before some black things flopped into the bushes! Anis!!
Shortly they decided to show themselves, and everyone got great looks at
their honkin’ noses and eventually heard their squeaky calls! Miraculously a Verdin finally decided to show
himself as well! Heading back down the
levee we added several herons and a couple of Roseate Spoonbills to the list,
along with one of the same White-tailed Kites we had seen during the Bird Fest
sitting in the same tree!
Then it was time to find Huck’s owl,
but we kept getting waylaid by various ducks, Indigo Buntings, and a variety of
sparrows that included Savannah, Field (thankfully Brody got a picture as it
was flagged by EBird), and Swamp! At the
boardwalk on Ibis Pond another target bird, the Least Grebe, started
trumpeting, and we finally got on a close one and saw his yellow eyes! Several Soras actually showed themselves, but
I didn’t want to keep Huck waiting too long, so we hustled back into the Zone
where he had the fluffiest Screech Owl just sitting pretty on his stump! The crew was thrilled, and I advised them to
bank this one (“McCall’s Screech Owl”) in case the rumored split became a
reality! Huck also told us about the
Crazy Ant problem, and we were all shocked to see how they had even invaded an
electric meter! A Couch’s Kingbird was
“pupping” near the old shuffleboard courts, so that was another target “ticked”
off, and Huck showed us another Pauraque (another backup in case I couldn’t
find the regulars on a future trip). More
American Robins made themselves known, but alas, no Clay-colored. Someone did spot another gorgeous Altamira
Oriole, but unfortunately another target bird, a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet,
did one wheeeK! and then shut up…
Female Northern Pintails
Female Indigo Buntings
Enjoying Least Grebes from the boardwalk
"McCall's" Screech Owl
We were pretty beat after that, so
we headed home, but talk about the Green Parakeet Show on 10th
Street got everyone excited again, so we headed over there with plans for
dinner afterwards! I advised Ernest just
to cruise up 10th with the windows down, and when we heard some, we
went careening into the nearest parking lot and got great views of the parakeets staging on the wires (we were
especially entertained by those that would hang upside down and preen each
other)! Not only that, but we happened
to park under a little oak tree where they eventually all came screeching in, chowing
down on acorns!
Snapping the Green Parakeets in urban McAllen!
Playful parakeets
We had a great celebratory dinner
after that at The Blue Onion, then headed back to the Alamo Inn with well over
100 species for the day!
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