2/28/22
By the time fellow guides Tiffany Kersten and Jim Danzenbaker got done guiding Rafael and Letecia, I was trying to figure out a “clean-up” route for their last three targets: Groove-billed Ani, Verdin, and Beardless Tyrannulet! A little more communication revealed that they had their hearts set on my original itinerary to South Padre Island, as they really wanted help identifying shorebirds! So we planned on that, and added some places to the itinerary that might bag the others targets (and it turned out that they had more potential life birds than just those three)!
Since they still needed Aplomado Falcon we decided to go by way of SR 100, stopping first at the Blue Shack. No falcons, but Rafael did spot a distant Chihuahuan Raven (also a lifer) that eventually made its way across the highway and landed on a wire, along with its mate! At the “official” observation site we hit pay dirt as the Aplomado pair was at the nesting platform (not the best view into the sun, but we could easily make out the white chest and dark cumburbund)!
After a pit stop at the Stripes we continued to The
Flats, where right at the entrance was a disheveled immature Reddish Egret
poking along who happened to be banded!
But the only pod of shorebirds was waaay out there, so Rafael (who was driving a rental) was not squeamish
about bouncing over to them! While we had great looks at close-up Sanderlings,
the other birds needed scope views, and it was tough to isolate individual
species. But we did have
Black-bellied, Semipalmated, and Piping Plovers, Dunlin and Western Sandpipers,
and a yelling Greater Yellowlegs.
Further out were the requisite skimmers, Laughing Gulls, Royal and
Forster’s Terns, Redheads (another lifer), and very distant Red-breasted
Mergansers. An Eastern Meadowlark serenaded us the whole time, and what we
thought was a swooping blackbird at first morphed into our FOS Purple
Martin!
Banded Reddish Egret
We then swung over to the back parking lot at the Convention Centre to take a look at The Flats from that perspective. Rafael and Letetia had brought along a container of those rotisserie leg quarters, so Rafael grabbed one for “breakfast” while we walked down to the water’s edge, and it didn’t take long for the Laughing Gulls to discover a potential handout! J We were hoping Rafael wouldn’t get “decorated” as the whole mob just hovered motionless over his head!
Here, another pod of birds was a bit closer: a beautiful adult white morph Reddish Egret
posed along with a Great Blue Heron, and we had better looks at the terns. On the way out Rafael spotted a beautiful female
Harrier wafting over the open area!
Over at the Birding and Nature Center, the sandbar immediately outside the visitor center had a nice Brown Pelican sail in, plus several snoozing Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. Rafael quipped that the little boy who was checking in ahead of us was going to enjoy himself when he saw all the Alligators sprawled over each other! (I pointed out “Big Padre” in an enclosure by himself…) Other big hits (for us) included several Tricolored Herons (which led to a discussion on what the “three colors” actually were), a swaying Green Heron, and a snoozing Yellow-crowned Night Heron. Out on the pier we added a couple of Pintail, an American Wigeon, Coots, more Sanderlings, several Black-necked Stilts, and what I felt comfortable calling a Lesser Yellowlegs due to the shorter, thinner bill.
Brown Pelicans (breeding adult in front, immature in back)
Alligators
Tricolored Heron
Green Heron
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Sanderling
Turning the corner, the freshwater wetland seemed
to be devoid of birds until we spotted the same banded Reddish Egret doing his “dance”
in the pond, scaring up a couple of Common Gallinules in the process! Our resident “yellow-billed” Snowy Egret
showed up, just as fluffy as he could be, while a Great Egret worked on downing
a very agitated fish he had just caught!
Rafael spotted what looked good for a retreating Merlin, plus a pair of
Blue-winged Teal in the reeds. A group
of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks entertained several people by playing “King of
the Mountain” on a little grassy knoll, while the canal next to the parallel
boardwalk had a pretty pair of Mottled Ducks showing off their purple speculums. A Pied-billed Grebe went motoring by like a
little mechanical boat, but about the only bird we could spot in the East Pond was
a gorgeous male Green-winged Teal. Back
at the car a Yellow-rumped Warbler showed up, and another warbler showed
briefly in a spindly tree, shot towards us and chirped, then landed in the
palm; based on Rafael’s description (he had a much better look) and the chirp
and palm tree destination, I was 99.9% sure we had a Yellow-throated
Warbler!
Fish struggling defiantly against his captor (Great Egret)
The pied-billed Snowy Egret is getting fluffy!
Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
We added a couple of Harris’ Hawks and two Ospreys on poles (each with a big fish) on the way to Laguna Vista Nature Trail, and in retrospect we probably should have stopped here first while the coveted Verdin would have (probably) been vocalizing at least L, as it was quite dead as we made the loop. A Mockingbird with a wounded eye dominated the drip at Blind #3 while a Long-billed Thrasher called, but besides the three White Pelicans that circled overhead, that was it for the birdlife (I think it was here we startled a little Rosebelly Lizard on a mesquite…)! So we headed on up to Laguna Atascosa, and there we did hear a Verdin along Buena Vista Road! But as usual, he was stubborn and didn’t wanna come out… Something that was singing way too brightly for a Cardinal (so I thought) did turn out to be a Cardinal (as opposed to a Pyrrhuloxia, another coveted lifer), so we continued on to the refuge proper, logging a flock of White-faced Ibis on the way.
I really didn’t expect any Verdins or Pyrrhuloxias at the Visitor’s Center, so we went straight to Osprey Overlook, hoping to hear something in the thornscrub. Zilch, zero, nada. Laguna Atascosa proper was pretty empty itself save for a few rafts of Redhead and (presumed) Lesser Scaup that were way out there (my charges found it hard to believe that in drought years this big lake can be bone dry)! On the way out Rafael spotted a group of feral hogs, and back at Headquarters, the Kiskadee Trail was also dead except for Green Jays, Red-winged Blackbirds, and a stubborn titmouse. The Black-throated Blue Warbler had apparently se fue’d the joint, so I offered the option of hiking the Mesquite Trail in hopes of kicking up a Verdin and/or Bewick’s Wren (another forgotten lifer J), but seeing as time was getting on the guys were leaning towards San Benito Wetlands for a shot at the Groove-billed Anis. So off we went, picking up a pair of gorgeous White-tailed Hawks overhead on the way out, Caracaras shooting by, and a Black Vulture on a pole.
Osprey Overlook
But as we were musing later, just when you feel discouraged that things turned out a bust, God has a way of surprising you: Heading out General Brandt Road we suddenly encountered a huge flock of Snow Geese right next to the road! We careened to the shoulder, and thankfully right in front there was one Ross’, picture perfect! After a while they all lifted up and headed deeper into the field (at which point we all agreed that, had we shown up five minutes later, we never would have been able to pick out a Ross’ from that distance), and as we followed them in our bins Rafael spotted a group of Sandhill Cranes back where they were landing! What a treat!
On to the Wetlands, where we pulled in and started the hike to the back section, where I had had the anis on a previous trip. A Tropical Kingbird tittered in a nearby tree, and while Rafael went to waylay another birder across the way and ask if he had seen the anis, Letecia and I continued on, adding a “highlighter red” Vermilion Flycatcher (her term J), Horned Larks calling in a plowed field, and a Loggerhead Shrike. We looked back and saw where the other birder had brought Rafael back to the middle section, and they were both looking towards a stand of bamboo with his scope, so we decided to hoof it back and see what they had – turns out they did briefly have the anis!! So we circled around to the area where the guy (John) said they headed, and before long, one popped up and squeaked, but unfortunately took off before Letecia could see him! L So she and I continued down the trail where the thing had dropped to the edge, and before long two anis popped up and landed in some cane across the way, and Letecia was finally able to get a look at the bill! So after chatting with John and thanking him profusely J we headed back to the car, spotting the dark morph Red-tailed Hawk that had been hanging around all winter, and Rafael mentioned in passing that he had logged Savannah Sparrows in the roadside bushes.
Trail at San Benito Wetlands
We headed home after that, and for a day I thought
was gonna be a bust in some ways, we ended up with 88 species! What a blessing! Bird list:
Snow Goose
Ross's Goose
Blue-winged Teal
American Wigeon
Mottled Duck
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Redhead
Lesser Scaup
Red-breasted Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
White-winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Groove-billed Ani
Common Gallinule
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Black-necked Stilt
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Piping Plover
Killdeer
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Dunlin
Western Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowitcher
Spotted Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Forster's Tern
Royal Tern
Black Skimmer
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Green Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White-faced Ibis
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Harris's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Merlin
Aplomado Falcon
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
Chihuahuan Raven
Black-crested Titmouse
Verdin
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
House Wren
Marsh Wren
European Starling
Curve-billed Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
Savannah Sparrow
Eastern Meadowlark
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Orange-crowned Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Northern Cardinal
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