“Harriet and Kiefer” from Houston
had been to the Valley before, but they had a small list of birds that they
wanted to see again, as well as get some help identifying some of the more
difficult groups, like sparrows and hawks.
What better place to take them than Sparrow Road! J
Kiefer
opted to drive, so we took off in their red Jeep, crawling along FM 2221
heading north from La Joya. Once the fog
burned off, we started to get flocks here and there, the first of which that
had both a Verdin and a White-eyed Vireo that actually came out in the
open! A little later a White-tailed Hawk
was perched on a post-like tree, and it was then I noticed that Harriet and I
both had a Canon Powershot, so I got to show her a few pointers with her PAS!
"Harriet" shoots a White-tailed Hawk (below) that's sitting on the broken-off palm tree between the two full palm trees above. Shows you how powerful the zoom is on this camera, as you can't even see the bird in the above shot!
Except for phoebes and shrikes, things
were kinda slow along the paved portion (even the famous Grasshopper Sparrow
Field didn’t produce this time), so we headed north past the intersection and
onto the dirt portion of Jara Chinas, where it was a little more productive: Lark Sparrows sat in the open, and a
beautiful Black-throated Sparrow popped up as well. Lots of Savannah Sparrows were around, and at
one point a flock of Vesper Sparrows gave decent views. Caracaras gave great looks as usual, and we
witnessed a Harris’ Hawk go after a Jackrabbit at one point; the rabbit got
away, but the hawk flew back to a pole where another hawk was sitting, and
pretty soon three more came in to join them, so we figured it must be a family group!
I could just hear the dad saying, “Okay, junior, here’s what you did
wrong…” J
Loggerhead Shrike
Female Kestrel shows off
"Harriet and Kiefer" look for sparrows along Jara Chinas Road
Crested Caracara
About halfway up the road we noticed
a white car behind us that was also crawling; Kiefer presumed it was another
birder, and sure enough, Dan Jones (a prominent local birder) pulled up
alongside us and announced he had some Green-tailed Towhees along Seven Mile
Road (which is the westbound dirt road at the intersection)! He also mentioned Cassin’s and White-crowned
Sparrows, but he was looking for Lark Buntings, which we hadn’t seen yet. But we were all interested in the towhees, so
we made a Uie and headed back to the intersection!
I have to confess I was curious
about this road anyway, and it turned out to be a very birdy road! Not long after we made the turn we had more
Lark Sparrows, a couple of Chippies, and
the Cassin’s, and on the telephone wire a male Vermilion Flycatcher sallied
forth continually! Further down we had a
large flock of Pyrrhuloxias, and as Harriet and I got out to enjoy them,
suddenly a Kestrel blasted in and sent the whole flock scurrying, and one of
them came right for us and almost ran into us! Continuing on we did find a young
White-crowned Sparrow, along with more Savannahs, Vespers, Black-throateds, and
even a couple more Cassin’s. Alas, we
couldn’t pull out a towhee, but we saw lots more hawks, caracaras, and a couple
of cooperative Bewick’s Wrens. The road
twisted and turned through ranchland and next to natural gas fields, but a
floppy bird on one fence turned out to be a Say’s Phoebe! There were great patches of habitat, but it
was getting to be the time of day when things were quieting down (and we were
having a heat wave of sorts with 90-degree weather), but a little patch of vegetation near a
farmstead had a Field Sparrow, along with another immature Whitecrown! That was pretty special! We also finally picked up a Roadrunner
somewhere along there…
Vermilion Flycatcher
Typical habitat along Seven Mile Road
Female Pyrrhuloxia
Bewick's Wren
The road finally dumped us out on
Pipeline, and Kiefer was pretty tired by then (the road was pretty dicey in
spots), so we headed north towards FM 490 to head to the freeway, but not before
spotting a handful of Long-billed Curlews by the road! During a potty break (and out there
that means hiding behind the car) we happened to spot a covey
of Bobwhite! All in all Harriet and
Kiefer were very happy with the day, and we ended up with about 52 species for
the day. Bird List:
Northern Bobwhite
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Long-billed Curlew
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Eastern
Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Horned Lark
Verdin
House Wren
Bewick's Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Olive Sparrow
Cassin's Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Western Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
52 SPECIES
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