What
a difference a few days (and a change in the weather) makes: last week had great migrant conditions where we
managed to bag an incredible 90 species during one morning of birding at Estero
Llano Grande, but today, with the horrendous south winds and high water in the
ponds, we were doing well to manage 46! L Dale and Suzanne from Oregon just wanted a
half day of casual “best of” birding as he called it, so even with the challenging
weather, Estero was the place to go! But I’m not willing to abandon the slogan coined
by Nydia from Texas Birding (“Estero Never Disappoints”), because even though
the overall birding was pretty dismal compared to the previous week, we had
wonderful looks at some of our special hard-to-see birds!
As
far as my guests were concerned, things started off with a bang with a male
Cardinal darting in front of us as we pulled into the parking lot! (Ya gotta remember: we west coast people don’t have Cardinals! J) Starting right in the parking lot, I thought
we had our resident Long-billed Thrasher singing from the wire against the
light (as he always does), but once I got the scope on it, it turned out to be
the Curve-billed Thrasher! Heading in to
the Tropical Zone, Dale’s sharp eyes spotted their first Clay-colored Thrush
sitting ram-rod against a tree! I was
amazed (although he admitted he saw the thing fly up there… J)! As we spotted two pairs of Golden-fronted
Woodpeckers battling on a dead tree, some Chimney Swifts flew over, and about
that time a volunteer named Donna came by with food for the feeders, which was
a real blessing as I assumed that once the park hosts left for the summer, that
was the end of the feeding! The other
blessing this Easter morning was one of the Red-crowned Parrots which alighted in
another dead tree in beautiful morning light!
Also high up in the treetops were the Chachalacas, starting the
spreading of the Morning News, and Suzanne noticed how red their malar skin
became when they chorused!
Red-crowned Parrot
Chachalacas giving the traditional Easter greeting in their own tongue! J
We
eventually made our way down to the open feeders, and ended up spending about
15 minutes there as the place was hopping:
White-tipped Doves were all over the floor, and Green Jays, more
Goldenfronts, and Black-crested Titmice raided the cage feeder. I got a glimpse of a Long-billed Thrasher
zipping into the undergrowth, and Suzanne caught two of them zipping back and
forth like “ghosts”, so fast that she couldn’t see any detail! I said that was typical… J A Buff-bellied Hummingbird snuck in to feed at
the feeder right next to us, as did a brilliant male Ruby-throated Hummer, but
unfortunately Dale couldn’t get on him… L But the real highlight was the normally
skulky Olive Sparrows coming right out in the open to feed, just like any other
sparrow! From behind us a Blue-headed
Vireo was singing his sweet song.
Black-crested Titmouse
Olive Sparrow darting behind a log
We
didn’t spend much time at the drip due to the angle of the sun, so we decided
to spend time in the Indigo Blind to see if the Rubythroat would come in there
(plus someone had seen a Blue-winged Warbler there the day before). The White-tipped Doves were marching in like
a line of soldiers, only to be challenged by the White-winged Doves who
constantly flipped their wings and tails at them! Once the Fox Squirrel vacated the cage feeder
the doves and jays got into the act, and a pair of Brown-crested Flycatchers
made a lot of noise in the trees, but never showed themselves. Eventually, however, the male Rubythroat did come in, although he tended to stay
in the tree next to the feeder! But at
least Dale got a good look, so I was happy about that!
Ruby-throated Hummingbird in the shadows
White-tipped Dove
White-winged Dove showing his annoyance at the other doves...
We
circled around and enjoyed a Kiskadee, but nothing much else due to the
wind. At the Green Jay Trail (where the
Cerulean Warbler was spotted the previous afternoon) I once again ran into
Huck, another friend of his, and Mary G. who was chilling in her fold-out chair
waiting to see what would come by! Not
surprisingly, nothing was showing, so Mary agreed to guard my scope while we
hiked the trail. At least two different
Carolina Wrens sang very close to the trail but never showed themselves, and
when we casually mentioned our frustration to a passing photographer, he told
us where he had found them nesting, so after retrieving my scope (Mary said it
only tried to run away twice J) we headed to the
spot and got wonderful looks at yet another notorious skulker!
Carolina Wren with lunch for the kids...
We
finally made our way to the deck where the wind and high water had effectively
removed any birds that had been there the week before (there were several
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, mostly on the shore, but that was about it);
even the normally omnipresent stilts had vamoosed the joint! Unfortunately while Suzanne and Dale were
preoccupied elsewhere two young White Ibis flew in and circled several times,
but decided not to hang around… So once
we were checked in we quickly checked out the pond from the boardwalk (better
light) where a Marsh Wren sang his rickety-rack song and Dale spotted an Osprey
flying overhead! From there we fought
the gale out to Dowitcher Pond (nada, except for a lone Mottled Duck way out
there), but at the relative shelter of Grebe Marsh we had a little pod of Least
Sandpipers on the shore and a lone Great Egret looking for lunch. At Alligator Lake the night herons had been
replaced by a couple of Green Herons, but unfortunately I could find neither
hide nor feather of either Pauraque that usually hangs out in the area (and
with them breeding, I really didn’t expect them to be easily found). Nothing was on the deck, so we headed back to
the VC, but not before another couple spotted Big Mama Gator gliding through
the water! We all got a great look
before she decided to slowly submerge…
Suzanne and Dale search in vain for the Pauraque...
The
walk back was filled with conversation about various tropical trips and lodges
(plus a few Rough-winged Swallows), and once back to the deck we listened in on
Ranger John’s recap of the bird walk he had just finished with some folks; they
did indeed find the Pauraque, but they had all but given up until someone with
sharp eyes spotted it way back there, tail on!
That would have been nearly impossible to find! While we chilled we added a lovely Harris’
Hawk that flew by, plus a Spotted Sandpiper bobbing on a log. After comparing our eBird lists, we headed
back to the car, where we heard an Altamira Oriole calling that (like so much
stuff today) was hidden deep in the tree, so we wrote that one off as a “heard-only”
as well. We were glad to get into the
air-conditioned car!
Bird
list:
Black-bellied
Whistling-Duck
Mottled
Duck Plain Chachalaca
Inca Dove
White-tipped Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Least Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Great Egret
Green Heron
White Ibis
Osprey
Harris's Hawk
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Red-crowned Parrot
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Couch's Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Green Jay
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
Black-crested Titmouse
Marsh Wren
Carolina Wren
Clay-colored Thrush
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Lesser Goldfinch
Olive Sparrow
Altamira Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
House Sparrow
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