4/28/21
Joyce was a trooper – after multiple harrowing flights from Ventura, California, she and her friend Christine finally arrived in San Antonio late Tuesday night, and even after Keith’s insistence that they spend the night up there, she was determined not to miss our outing this morning and wheeled in to Alamo at 3:00 AM! So she was kinda floating at first (Christine was the non-birder and was sleeping in J), but her energy returned in spades as we arrived at Estero Llano Grande State Park and started finding life birds right away! Her main target was the Green Jay, but she also wanted to get a picture of a Cardinal for her nine-year-old grandson (that was his favorite bird J), and wouldn’t you know that was the first bird to greet us on the floor of the parking lot! A Long-billed Thrasher and Carolina Wren were more stubborn, but as we arrived on deck, Ibis Pond was just stuffed with birds: close looks at Stilt Sandpipers, dowitchers, Wilson’s Phalaropes, Lesser Yellowlegs, White-faced Ibis, Blue-winged Teal, and Mottled Ducks were the highlights. I intended to give the “restroom” hummingbird feeder 15 minutes for the Buff-bellied Hummer to come in, and he actually came in right away! We stayed a little longer in hopes that he would come back for a better look, but while he never did, a young male Ruby-throated Hummingbird did come in, showing a few red feathers on his gorget!
From
there we headed to Dowitcher Pond, which was pretty birdless except for some
Coots, a Common Gallinule, and a distant Pied-billed Grebe. We were apparently having too good of a time
yapping as a Sora whinnied annoyedly next to us! J The wind was starting to whip up so we didn’t
have high hopes of songbirds, although a nice male Ladder-backed Woodpecker
came bouncing in and gave good looks! In
Grebe Marsh we had two gorgeous Yellow-crowned Night Herons posing (the Great
Egret was anticlimactic), and had a nice view of a Neotropic Cormorant. At Alligator Lake a fuzzy-headed Anhinga
posed while some grackles gave him fits (Joyce thought that was a pretty cool
bird J). We looked in vain for the Pauraque and
Screech Owl (park volunteer Huck told us the former was in there, but deep and
hard to find), and while resting at the picnic shelter a Carolina Wren almost
came out to give us look!
Heading
back we took the boardwalk across Dowitcher Pond in hopes of seeing the Least
Grebes we were hearing, but they were too deep in the reeds; we did have
some nice Black-necked Stilts, however, and circling around Curlew Pond a
Kiskadee sat pretty and actually escorted us down the trail! At Avocet Pond, we had three Roseate
Spoonbills that were a hit, plus a Little Blue Heron! A Common Ground Dove went zipping by too fast
for Joyce to catch L, and a quick rehash of Ibis Pond only
added a Least Sandpiper, so we headed for the Tropical Zone. Coming down the brick walkway the Long-billed
Thrasher finally let us get a look, and a Chachalaca stepped daintily
down the path as well! Joyce nearly fell
over backwards trying to spot the Chimney Swift flying overhead!
We ran into Huck as we made our way to Green Jay Trail; the drip had been repaired, but a 15-minute vigil only added a pair of Cardinals doing some courtship feeding, and a couple of White-tipped Doves (which was still new for Joyce). Huck had gone looking for the trogon and couldn’t find her (and having not been reported for a couple of days, that prospect didn’t look good), but since Green Jay Trail was sheltered from the wind we hiked that anyway, hearing both Olive Sparrow and Altamira Oriole, but never getting a look… L We then headed on the “new” woodland trail where we bagged great looks at a pair of Clay-colored Thrushes, plus a Catbird that went zipping through, and a Swainson’s Thrush that was actually singing a little!
From
there we made our way to the Indigo Blind, taking a quick detour to look for that
Pauraque, which we never found (he apparently was moving around a lot,
according to Huck). A pair of
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks watched us from the road in the meantime! I knew the park staff had quit filling the
feeders, but I thought maybe we had a chance at the Green Jays coming in to the
water feature, so we gave it 15 minutes.
We noticed that the hummingbird feeders were also gone (Huck assured us
they were only being cleaned), but that didn’t stop both the Buffbellies and
the Rubythroats from looking for them!
Eventually a Chachalaca came in to drink, and a couple of White-tipped
Doves ventured in, but after a bit of waiting the Green Jays finally came in
and gave great (if brief) views! Joyce
was so excited! Huck showed up again
about that time, as did birding buddy Ken, and that’s when I found out that
“woodland trail” was really not an official trail, but one that had been blazed
“illegally” (which surprised me as it was actually in good shape)!
After
a few more minutes with no return visit by the jays, Huck offered to show us
the baby Great Horned Owls, which was, as he put it, “Cuteness Overload!” J Even Ken admitted that was the best look he
had ever had of them! There was also a
Black-crested Titmouse that didn’t wanna play ball, but I encouraged Joyce and Christine
to visit the National Butterfly Center where they do feed the birds all
year round, and she’d get great looks at that as well as her beloved Green
Jay! On the way out Ken and I looked for
the staked out Screech Owl in vain, but managed a nice look at a vocal Couch’s
Kingbird back in the parking lot!
Despite
the wind, we managed a respectable 54 species for the morning! Bird list:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Blue-winged
Teal
Northern
Shoveler
Mottled
Duck
Plain
Chachalaca
Least
Grebe
Pied-billed
Grebe
Common
Ground Dove
White-tipped
Dove
White-winged
Dove
Mourning
Dove
Chimney
Swift
Ruby-throated
Hummingbird
Buff-bellied
Hummingbird
Sora
Common
Gallinule
American
Coot
Black-necked
Stilt
Killdeer
Stilt
Sandpiper
Least
Sandpiper
Long-billed
Dowitcher
Wilson's
Phalarope
Lesser
Yellowlegs
Neotropic
Cormorant
Great
Egret
Little
Blue Heron
Yellow-crowned
Night-Heron
White-faced
Ibis
Roseate
Spoonbill
Turkey
Vulture
Great
Horned Owl
Golden-fronted
Woodpecker
Ladder-backed
Woodpecker
Brown-crested
Flycatcher
Great
Kiskadee
Tropical
Kingbird
Couch's
Kingbird
Green
Jay
Black-crested
Titmouse
Purple
Martin
Gray
Catbird
Long-billed
Thrasher
Northern
Mockingbird
Swainson's
Thrush
Clay-colored
Thrush
Olive
Sparrow
Altamira
Oriole
Red-winged
Blackbird
Brown-headed
Cowbird
Great-tailed
Grackle
Common
Yellowthroat
Northern
Cardinal
Dickcissel
Thanks for sharing.
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