Technically
cheated when the first bird of the day was churring outside my apartment
(Lesser Nighthawk), but soon got on track within Cameron County while heading
down New Carmen Road towards my first destination, Resaca de la Palma State
Park an hour before dawn, with several Pauraques (2) jumping up from the side
of the road! With the window down I
could hear the Common Nighthawks (3) beenting and Couch’s Kingbirds (4) tuning
up with their sneezy dawn songs! Once
parked and settled in “Howard’s Chair”, added the dawn choristers one by one as
I waited for sunrise: Brown-crested
Flycatcher (5), White-winged Dove (6), Cardinal (7), Mourning Dove (8),
Carolina Wren (9), a Mockingbird (10) that gave me fits (almost added several
things before realizing who was doing it L), White-tipped
Dove (11), a flyover Dickcissel (12) giving its flatulent call, and a
Clay-colored Thrush (13) singing softly and then giving its querulous
call. From the open area near the main
road a Lark Sparrow (14) was singing loudly enough to be heard, and Green Jays
(15) soon added their raucous calls to the cacophony. An Olive Sparrow (16) started its bouncy
song, followed by a Black-crested Titmouse (17), Kiskadee (18), and chorusing
Chachalacas (19). A Great-tailed Grackle
(20) finally gave its grating call from somewhere in the park, and a White-eyed
Vireo (21) and Common Yellowthroat (22) joined in. A Brown-headed Cowbird (23) gurgled from
behind, and a Golden-fronted Woodpecker (24) finally woke up! A Chimney Swift (25) chittered overhead as sunrise
hit, but while I was disappointed that no Chuck-will’s-widow sounded off this
time, I was really shocked that neither Eastern Screech nor Great Horned Owls
made a peep!
Headed
north to the freeway, adding a singing Eastern Meadowlark (26) in the mesquite
savannah, and was thrilled to nab the White-tailed Kite (27) sitting on the
wire! Spotted a Bronzed Cowbird (28) and
heard House Sparrows (29) on the way to the frontage road, and logged Rock
Pigeon (30), Laughing Gull (31), Black-bellied Whistling Duck (32), and
Starling (33) heading down the I-69E towards Brownsville. Once on the surface streets added Red-winged
Blackbird (34) and Tropical Kingbird (35) on the way to Sabal Palm Sanctuary,
and once on the entrance road added Ladder-backed Woodpecker (36) and Verdin
(37). A Buff-bellied Hummingbird (38)
rattled in the butterfly garden after I checked in and hit the trails, and a
Long-billed Thrasher (39) sat up singing.
The next several additions were pretty migrants along the trail: a snazzy Rose-breasted Grosbeak (40), a
gorgeous Painted Bunting (41), a beat-up Tennessee Warbler (42), and a
Philadelphia Vireo (43) on the appropriately-named Vireo Trail (with an Indigo
Bunting, 44, keeping him company)! At
the new blind a pair of Gray Hawks (45) circled and whistled, and a Green Heron
(46) sat on the end of the dead snag.
The water level was pretty low, so nothing was visible, but a little
clapping got the Least Grebes (47) to respond!
Continuing on the trail added more migrants: an Orchard Oriole (48) “nyehed”, and two
Baltimore Orioles (49) fed in the same tree with both a Red-eyed (50) and
Warbling Vireo (51)!
Chachalaca getting ready to chorus...
Northern Cardinal
Shy Painted Bunting
Great Kiskadee
Red-eyed Vireo (and you can actually see the red eye!)
On
to Old Port Isabel Road, adding Harris’
Hawk (52) on the way. At the first stop
a Loggerhead Shrike (53) fed from the wire, and the White-tailed Hawk pair (54)
circled in the distance. A Long-billed
Curlew (55) cried and flew, and heard Gull-billed Terns (56) on the way to the
next stop. A Caracara (57) flew in front
of the car, and Loma Alta Lake was at such an angle that I could actually see a
Shoveler (58) out there! Heard a
Bobwhite (59) in the distance, and Barn Swallows (60) zipped past. No falcon on the platform, so after adding a
singing Willet (61) I continued on, adding a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (62) and
Eastern Kingbird (63) side-by-side on the wire!
A Blue Grosbeak (64) eyed me from the fence, and a Mottled Duck (65)
flew into one of the ponds while a Cassin’s Sparrow (66) sang in the distance. (As an aside, I couldn’t believe I spotted a
nighthawk roosting in a tree in the Chicken Coop Yard…) Said ponds also had Coots (67), Black-necked
Stilts (68), a lone White Pelican (69), and some Ruddy Ducks (70). Continuing on a Bewick’s Wren (71) sang from
the thornscrub, and my FOS Botteri’s Sparrow (72) sang right next to the
car! Thankfully the road from then on
was dry, but had the proverbial “canyons”, so much so that I was inspired to
take a “dash cam” video as Heppy carefully made his way down the road! Even so we picked up a singing Sedge Wren
(73), and while scanning at another stop added Turkey Vulture (74), Harrier
(75), and thankfully the Aplomado Falcon (76) shooting across the road and up,
up, and away! At the canal added a Great
Blue Heron (77), both Great (78) and Snowy Egrets (79), a Spotted Sandpiper
(80), and a wing-drying Neotropic Cormorant (81). Heard a Whimbrel (82) sound off, and near the
end of the road a Savannah Sparrow (83) popped up.
Eastern Kingbird
Cassin's Sparrow
The similar Botteri's Sparrow, best told apart by its song
The infamous Old Port Isabel Road with its foot-deep ruts!
Now
it was time for the Island! Added
Chihuahuan Raven (84) along SR 100, then headed straight to The Flats. The tide was out, so was able to drive right
up to Least Terns (85), Black-bellied Plovers (86), and Dunlin (87). A single young Brown Pelican (88) flew by
while logging Sanderling (89) and Ruddy Turnstone (90). Sandwich Terns (91) were trying to impress
their mates while Short-billed Dowitchers (92) snoozed. Royal Terns (93) were also obeying their
hormones, while the Black Skimmers (94) were really sacked out! Was disappointed that the Franklin’s Gulls
had “se fued” the joint, but at least picked up a second year Ring-billed Gull
(95) before heading around the corner to the Convention Centre!
Short-billed Dowitcher
Ruddy Turnstone
Dunlin
Sanderling
Sandwich Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
On
a recent visit, my friend Pat and I were forced to park on the far side of the
circular area due to the mob, but that turned out to be perfect as that
circular area was filled with migrants!
So I did the same this time and parked on the far side, working my way
towards the building. Since the winds
had shifted and were coming from the south, the migrant show wasn’t nearly as
good as it was the last couple of days, but still managed to add the first of
many Eastern Wood Pewees (96) while a Collared Dove (97) called incessantly
from the building. A Lincoln’s Sparrow
(98) tried to be invisible against the wooden wall, and once on the sidewalk, a
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (99) fed in the bottlebrush. Simon K. was leading a group for the Spring
Chirp, and got me on bird #100, a Swainson’s Thrush, plus a female Scarlet
Tanager (101)! (A gorgeous male showed
up later and wowed the crowd, along with a stunning Rose-breasted Grosbeak and
many Indigo Buntings…) In the same area
was a cute Black-and-white Warbler (102) and a Blue-headed Vireo (103). A Common Gallinule (104) did its jungle
cackle from the marsh, and in the “back yard” the same Black-throated Green
Warbler (105), the vagrant Townsend’s Warbler (106), and a stunning
Bay-breasted Warbler (107) were entertaining a whole mess of birders (including
Norma and the Birder Patrol J)! A quick look out back added a pair of Little
Blue Herons (108) and the white morph Reddish Egret (109), and back in the
“garden” a Yellow Warbler (110) showed up at the water feature. I was getting ready to leave when I almost
tuned out a female Summer Tanager (111)!
Eastern Kingbird (above and below)
Lincoln's Sparrow
Scarlet Tanager (above and below)
After
devouring the rest of last night’s steak (the grackles appreciated the fat
portions J)
I headed over to the Birding and Nature Center where the Osprey (112) whistled
while I checked out the garden area (I thought I had a Gray-cheeked Thrush but
just didn’t get a good enough look). In
the “Secret Spot” that Baceliza had shown us during the last good fallout, a
Magnolia Warbler (113) showed, but that was it.
Taking the hike around the boardwalk, no “Mangrove” Warbler sang this
time, but did hear a crying Sora (114) and several Purple Martins (115) gurgled
overhead. The ubiquitous coots,
gallinules, and Mottled Ducks were looking for handouts, and the whistling
ducks were in their usual spot, but shorebirds were sparse; picked up a pretty
Tricolored Heron (116) there, and miraculously a Least Bittern (117) popped up
out of the reeds and tumbled back down again!
Over in the East Pond the Roseate Spoonbills (118) snoozed, and the
Stilt Sandpipers (119) were still fighting.
Added a pair of Blue-winged Teal (120) and a Greater Yellowlegs (121)
there, and was heading over to the parking lot when I almost wrote off this
brown bird on the distant fence as a female grackle before taking that second
look and realizing it was a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (122)!
Mottled Duck
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (above and below)
Sheepshead
was next, where I ran into the Spring Chirp bunch again, this group led by Tony
Henehan from Las Palomas WMA! It was
pretty quiet, and the normally reliable Northern Waterthrush didn’t show, but
what was better than that was the Ovenbird (123) that popped up on a
branch! I needed help from others
spotting additional stuff: a Catbird
(124) hiding behind the “dark side” drip, a Yellow-breasted Chat (125) showing
only its tail in a small tree before darting across the road, and a Wood Thrush
(126) really hiding behind the “sunny
side” drip!
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Headed
to the “Cannon Road Loop” next, where the first stop (speaking of Las Palomas
WMA) was the resaca at the Ebony Unit on Rangerville Road. Only added a Pied-billed Grebe (127) here,
but also had plenty of Ruddy Ducks and gallinules, plus the Least Grebes. Heading down Jimenez to Weaver Road added a
Cattle Egret (128) flying towards me, and at the sod farms a pair of Killdeer
(129) had adorable babies feeding near the ditch! Horned Larks (130) called and sang, and was
beginning to sweat adding any grasspipers as most of them were way out there and impossible to ID even
with the scope! But no sooner had I
thrown the scope back in the car and started off when up popped a Baird’s
Sandpiper (131) right next to the road, joined by a Least Sandpiper (132)! Now that’s
how I wanna see these things! It looked
like there were lots more further down, and thankfully the Buff-breasted
Sandpipers (133) were close enough to ID without the scope, but there were some
out there that could have been
Pectorals, but I just couldn’t tell. Sadly
no Golden Plovers this time, but one of the best sightings here wasn’t new for
the day list, but a rare chance to see both Whimbrel and Long-billed Curlews
side-by-side!
Baird's Sandpiper (above and below)
Horned Lark
Whimbrel (above and below)
The
last stop of the day was Tiocano Lake, adding a flyby Curve-billed Thrasher
(134) in La Feria. Again I was sweating
as the wetlands looked rather birdless, and a guy was working on his car right
where I usually park and survey the open marsh!
So I continued on down to the end of the wetland area and turned around,
slowly checking out the west side, and thankfully our Fulvous Whistling Ducks
(135) were still there! By the time I
crawled back to “my” spot the guy had left, so I settled in, adding
Rough-winged Swallows (136) to the list.
I was despairing of hearing any rails when I couldn’t believe my
eyes: there was a King Rail (137)
actually walking across the road!! In
all my visits here that was the first time I had actually seen one! After 15 minutes I
rolled out, adding a rickety-racking Marsh Wren (138) as the last bird of the
day (couldn’t even sneak in an Inca Dove back at the apartments… L)!
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