Lyndon,
an Amishman from Missouri, had contacted me for some guiding as he and his
family were coming down to South Texas for the first time, but since they’d be
bringing their RV and van, they had found a park in San Benito (to be close to
the Island for “the girls” J) and opted to do
the driving (especially since Heppy can’t handle six people)! They had had several days of birding before
hooking up with me, so in reality they had already gotten most of their
targets, and just had a few to clean up, most of which were up in Starr County,
so that’s where we headed! They had
actually traveled and birded much of the country, so “western” things like
Scaled Quail, Pyrrhuloxia, and Roadrunner weren’t necessary, but while we
talked birds his wife Luann and three daughters Kaitlyn, Karen, and Kristen
entertained us with glorious four-part harmony Gospel songs! J
It
was a beautiful day, and we went straight to Salineño where some fishermen had
beaten us to the boat ramp, but as we headed out on the Seedeater Trail, almost
right away I heard an Audubon’s Oriole!
The whole family had terrific eyes, and immediately Lyndon spotted the
bird in some grasses not too far from the trail! Everyone eventually got stellar looks at this
specialty! Other birds that graced us on
the way to the end included a lady Ladder-backed Woodpecker that bounced right
up to us, an Altamira Oriole that “choiped” and whistled and gave a brief view
as it shot downriver, Ospreys circling overhead, and “chacking” Yellowthroats. We also ran into Mike who helps run the
famous feeders; he reported no seedeater, but lots of other birds around.
Skulky Audubon's Oriole
Down
at the end we decided just to wait and see what showed up; as we arrived a
Mexican Duck took off, cormorants of both flavors were constantly beating back
and forth, and even an Anhinga flew low over the trees! A beautiful Gray Hawk flapped overhead, a
very distant White-tailed Hawk circled, and before long both Turkey and Black
Vultures began to stream. Lyndon spotted
a Lincoln’s Sparrow in the ditch while another couple from Oregon wandered
over, also looking for the seedeater.
Their timing couldn’t have been more perfect, as I suddenly heard the
tell-tale descending whistle! He sounded
close, so I sent them towards the bush by the culvert where the sound was
coming from, and Lyndon spotted him right away, sitting right in front! Unfortunately one of the girls (I think it
was Kaitlyn) didn’t get a good look before the bird flew, so Lyndon decided to
take her up the hill and across the rocks to find it, only when they returned
almost immediately he admitted that the mention of possible snakes on the rocks
sent Kaitlyn back post haste! J I shortly heard the bird again, and this time
they spotted it in a tree where Kaitlyn was able to get a look!
The Rio Grande from the cul-de-sac
Since
Ringed Kingfisher, Red-billed Pigeon, and Muscovy Duck were also targets,
everyone agreed to just hang around as long as it took (or they got tired of
waiting J);
it wasn’t long after that when one of the girls spotted the Ringed Kingfisher
up the river with her naked eye! She was
able to get most everyone on it (it was hard to pin down) before it took off; I
never did see it, but Lyndon assured me that it was completely rusty
underneath, so that nailed it! A Belted
also came by and hovered, and other birdlets included both Eastern and Black
Phoebe, Verdin, my first Pyrrhuloxias of the area, and Orange-crowned
Warbler. Before long someone mentioned
that a “gentleman with a dog” was approaching, and it turned out to be Merle the
Feeder Man and their “assistant” Chamois!!
Mike had alerted him that we were here, and even though the feeders
weren’t technically open to the public until the first (they still had some
cleaning up and arranging to do), he invited us up to sit for a spell as stuff
was coming in great guns already!
Verdin
After
a few more minutes at the overlook we headed back to the boat ramp where we sat
for about 15 minutes (and the girls enjoyed literally cooling their heels in
the river J), but since nothing new showed up, we
decided to take Merle up on his offer and check out the feeders! He was right:
Green Jays were all over, two Long-billed Thrashers came in,
Olive Sparrows were ridiculously cooperative, titmice zipped in and out, a lady
Golden-fronted Woodpecker showed off, Kiskadees threw their weight around, White-tipped
Doves paraded across the floor, and Chachalacas gathered round (one looked like
he had a bum eye). Merle had reported
that “Baldy”, the Audubon’s Oriole with the screwy feathers on his head, was
back for his fifth year, but he didn’t make an appearance while we were there. What did make an appearance was a bird
I don’t think I’ve ever seen in their yard:
a Nashville Warbler taking a bath in Mike’s wonderful new water feature!
Flighty Green Jay and Red-winged Blackbird at the famous feeders!
Great Kiskadee
Green Jay ponders and then nabs a bit of PB Mixture (below)!
Black-crested Titmouse with prize
Long-billed Thrasher
After
thanking and saying goodbye to Merle and Lois we decided to check out Chapeño,
another river watch site that I hadn’t been to in years! You turn right at the sign for the Rio RV
Park, and the hostess at the house gathered our entrance fee and sent us down
to the picnic area where we found a great table overlooking the river, but
before Luann and the girls literally rolled out this tremendous spread of
home-grown turkey salad (Lyndon’s a turkey farmer J), tortillas,
cheese, and other snacks, I heard the Ringed Kingfisher calling downriver, and
Lyndon and the one daughter who didn’t get a good look at the previous Ringed
went traipsing out to the rocks in the river, where he did make a couple
of passes! (A grackle doing a very
kingfisher-like rattle had me fooled in to thinking the bird was right next to
us… L) After that excitement we sat down to lunch
with some good conversation, when suddenly Lyndon jumped up and yelled,
“Muscovy!!” Sure enough, the bulky black
bird with the white shoulder patches was hightailing it downriver (just like I
told him they usually do J)!
That was worth the entrance fee!
I can’t recall if it was this road or the Salineño road, but somewhere
in here one of the girls spotted a Roadrunner on the way out!
The Rio Grande at Chapeno
It
was time to use the restrooms, so since Lyndon was curious about actually seeing
Falcon Dam (even though you can no longer access the back of it), we headed
into the state park, where what we thought was a weird-looking Harris’ Hawk at
first turned out to be a rufous morph Red-tailed Hawk! After using said restrooms we got a nice view
of the dam from the boat ramp, then trying to decide what to do next, we
settled on the Dump Road seeing as Cassin’s Sparrow was also a target. We crawled along to that nice open grassy
field, where we stopped and I tried a little coaxing, and lo and behold a bird
came tearing in and landed on a post! He
actually stayed put while we crawled up so that everyone wasn’t looking through
the windshield, and what was even more miraculous was the fact that he still
stayed put after we pulled over to let this creepy guy by who decided to stop
between us and the bird! We explained we
were looking at the Cassin’s Sparrow, to which his eyes glazed over and he
kinda shook his head and continued on, while the sparrow stayed on his post!
Cassin's Sparrow
After a quick stop at Roma Bluffs just to see the place, a notice came over the LRGV Rare Bird Alert that a Northern Jacana had
been spotted at Estero Llano Grande, so rather than go back to Salineño and
hope for a longshot pigeon (the latest report had been in Laredo, anyway), we
decided to go for the jacana (and especially since Tropical Parula and
Groove-billed Ani had also been reported there)! We pulled into Main Street in Alamo so I
could retrieve Heppy the Forrester and they could follow me to Estero and then head on to San
Benito from there. Upon arrival on the
deck we were greeted by my birding buddies Huck, Sue, Billy, and Deb (who had
found the bird in the first place J), so after taking
a quick look at the whistling duck mob Huck grabbed his own scope and led the
way to Avocet Pond! Thankfully a couple
of other folks were on the bird, who was popping his head up and down in the
grass near some other whistling ducks, and everyone got great looks
(Lyndon even got to see his long toes a couple of times)!
Roma Bluffs
The lost immature Northern Jacana
Interesting pattern from the back...
Huck
told us where he had seen the ani, so we headed back to the deck (only I missed
the back trail because we were busy yapping and greeting Rangers Raul and
Javier, getting distracted J), but had we gone
that way I wouldn’t have seen the Ovenbird that Lyndon pointed out! (I think they were amused by my getting so
excited about it, as they have tons where they are… J) We eventually got to the back trail where we
had had the Bay-breasted Warbler last Saturday; no ani, and no screech owl in
the white building, but lots of ducks were in the wetlands. We made our way back to the “Picnic Table
Drip” back in the Tropical Zone, and while things were quiet for the most part,
what should eventually come to the drip but the Bay-breasted Warbler! I’m sure they would have preferred the
parula, but that was pretty cool!
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
My
guiding time was up about then, so I left them to enjoy the rest of the park
(they later texted me and reported a Wood Thrush, Lesser Goldfinch, and
Black-and-white Warbler) while I headed back to the parking lot, where Billy
was giving Deb a lesson in plants (and I listened in, of course)! We ended up with a modest 67 species for the
day (not counting what Lyndon et al saw after I left), but since we were so
focused on certain targets I probably overlooked some stuff… Bird list:
Black-bellied
Whistling-Duck
Muscovy
DuckBlue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
Mexican Duck
Plain Chachalaca
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-tipped Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Killdeer
Northern Jacana
Spotted Sandpiper
Neotropic Cormorant
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
White Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Gray Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ringed Kingfisher
Belted Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
Black Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Great Kiskadee
White-eyed Vireo
Green Jay
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
Horned Lark
Barn Swallow
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
House Wren
Marsh Wren
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cassin's Sparrow
Olive Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Altamira Oriole
Audubon's Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
House Sparrow
Ovenbird
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Bay-breasted Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Morelet's Seedeater
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