Ken and Bruce headed home after a great visit, and since then the pace of birding has definitely slowed, though I am getting out every day. Marian came down to visit arriving the evening after the boys left, but her visit was cut short by a family emergency, and she had to head home after just a couple of days.
She did manage to get out with me to Anzalduas County Park on the first AM after her arrival. We headed to the dam, hoping for the Rock Wren, with no luck. After a nice time birding the park, having lunch, and walking around we dropped back by the dam area. Marian asked me what the Rock Wren would look like, and I told her a small grayish-brown bird probably perched on one of the rocks. She looked up and asked, “Like that one?”, pointing to the highest rock nearest the dam. I looked, seeing a Rock Wren, and said, “Yes, exactly like that!” Tick. Texas live bird #299. What is going to be #300? My hope is either Northern Beardless Tyrannulet or Common Black Hawk, though Solitary Sandpiper is in the running. I really hope it is a vagrant ABA lifer!
Well, after the day at Anzalduas she got the call from her family, and we got her on an AM flight the next day.
That day, yesterday, I headed for S. Padre Island, where I scouted the area to see if it is worth a trip with the group, and enjoyed studying winter terns. It is amazing the differences in the many plumages of Forester’s Terns, some seem to have dark above outer wing tips, many very white like I’m used to at home.
Today John Heaney reached out and I joined him at Laguna Point in Willacy County, and added two trip birds to the list, American Pipit and later at the San Juan Wetlands, Indigo Bunting.
I continue to study Spanish as much as I can tolerate, though progress is painfully slow.
Me gusta ir a buscar los pájaros todos dias. Mi favorito pájaro en Texas esta mes es el Fork-tailed Flycatcher, pero el Falcón Aplomado es mucho buenos también.
Author: birdbanter
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #47 with Ryan and Victor Rodriguez Additional Info
My guest Ryan Rodriguez, 12-year old birder from McAllen, Texas, was a joy to meet and talk with. His Dad Victor sat in as the proud Dad, watching his son perform like a pro.
Check out Ryan’s eBird Profile to see his local accomplishments.
Here is a link to the World Birding Center Quinta Mazatlan Site that Ryan haunts as a birder.
The LRGV is a special place to ABA birders. So far in just the brief visit I’ve had here I’ve seen many species that would be difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere in the ABA area.
A Lower RGV specialty, seen all over, heard nearly constantly calling its name. [/caption]
These are just a few of the easy ones here.
Add the vagrant Fork-tailed Flycatcher that has been hanging out since before I got here, Clay-colored Thrush, Bronzed Cowbird, and you go a long ways to building your list here.
Ryan is in an opportune place to meet and see visiting birders as well as the LRGV specialty birds.
Good Birding. Good Day!
The Bird Banter Podcast Episode #46 from South Texas with Ken and Bruce Notes
What a great gift to have been able to spend 9 days birding the lower Rio Grande River Valley with Ken Brown and Bruce LaBar. They are great birders, fun guys, and we had a blast. I’m sad to have them leave, but needing a bit of a rest, and looking forward to exploring the valley over the next 3 weeks. I am also looking forward to having a group of Tacoma area birders join me from Feb 5-12 for an ABC Birding Club trip afar.
We talked about the World Birding Center and the 9 sites they have developed into a network of birding destinations along the lower Rio Grande. The system is spectacular, very well run, and a great addition to ABA birding. Check out their web site, and the site for each of the 9 locations.
We mentioned that local and visiting birders have been extremely gracious. On local birder, I’ll leave him unnamed as I didn’t ask his permission to mention him online, has a fabulous backyard birding setup. His home is on the edge of a local housing area, and he and his wife have developed the backyard into a birder’s heaven. They have water elements, dripping water, suet, sugar water, fruit and seed feeders, great cover. This combines to draw in spectacular numbers of birds. This is where Bruce and we got the Audubon’s Oriole.
John Heaney met us several times along our journeys, several looking for the Fork-tailed Flycatcher, which eluded him for a while before he got it after several tries. John was extremely friendly and welcoming, and introduced me to a 12-year old local birder who if all goes well will be the guest on the next episode. I’ll again leave him unnamed until I get formal permission to talk about him by name.
Here are some photos from our day at the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands. It may seem pretentious to use scenic in the name of a spot, but in this case it is understatement.
We didn’t mention that at Anzalduas County Park we got to see a Sprague’s Pipit in the grassy field. It was really cool to walk the fields and find these secretive birds poking around in the grass.
We also didn’t talk about chiggers. Chiggers are a tiny insect that if you walk in tall grass or brush can get on your clothing, and move around until they get into a tight spot, and then burrow under your skin, causing a terribly itchy rash. We have all had chiggers in the past, though mine minimal, and so avoiding chiggers was a big effort. It looks like Bruce git 3 tiny bites on his legs, and Ken was thinking he might have a bite on his buttock on the drive to the airport. If you come, avoid tall grass, and try to keep chiggers from getting onto your skin.
We also discussed the welcome wall. Here is a photo of the wall, and here is a link to a story about the National Butterfly Center fight to keep the wall out of their preserve.
Here is a link to my flickr site for photos from our time birding together.
Stay tuned to see if I can get my youngest to date top birder as my next guest. I’m looking forward to that and the rest of my time here in McAllen.
Good birding. Good day!
Last Full Day with the Boys in the Valley
Today Ken, Bruce and I went exploring. We headed north on Hwy 281 to see what we could find on Brushline Road and at La Sal del Rey (translates The Salt of the King) NWR. We got to Brushline Road about 7:50 AM and the birds were just getting active. It was pretty much as billed, with lots of Sparrows, mostly Lark and Savannah, with a few Vesper, along with Common Ground Dove, and scads of Red-winged Blackbirds, and a nice variety of dry land species.
La Sal Del Rey, a hypersaline pond which has been used for millennia as a source of salt for aboriginal peoples, the Confederate Army, and who knows who else. It was not terribly birdy, with 3 Snowy Plover, about 28 Least Sandpipers, 4 Ring-billed Gulls, and a few birds on the walk in and out.
A stop at Delta Lake was good for all 3 species of Kingfisher, ducks and a soaring flock of vultures. I think, but am not sure, that I picked a Zone-tailed Kite out of the flock, but no one else could get onto is, so it goes unidentified.
Our afternoon was spent at one of my favorites spots of the trip. The Westlaco Scenic Wetlands is one of 9 WBC sites, and was very birdy, with about 50 species, including several warbler species and a very black-backed Lesser Goldfinch.
Northern Parula[/caption]
A great dinner at the Palenque Grill, home to clean up, and I twisted arms into a brief Bird Banter podcast episode recording. Stay tuned to hear from tres amigos about the trip.
Winding Down Birding-with-Buddies Time in the Valley
Ken, Bruce and I had another good day today, taking it a bit easier, with a lot less driving than most prior days. We started at Anzalduas County Park again, trying without luck for the Rock Wren that has been seen there, but finding a Merlin in the farmland just outside the park.
We next went to the National Butterfly Center. I have heard that half of the butterflies seen in the U.S. can be seen in the lower Rio Grande Valley, and this place is set up for attracting them, with gardens and feeding areas. It is good for birding too, and we looked for, and only Ken saw, a Field Sparrow. We did see a nice Gray Hawk, and enjoyed the place.
To read more about this issue and the fight the National Butterfly Center is putting up, check out this article.
Next was the Hidalgo Pump House Park, the location of the steam powered pumping station that helped irrigate the entire county in years past. It is now a museum, and has good birding habitat. We saw Anhinga, Tropical Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, Vermilion Flycatcher, and more.
Next it was time for a sit, so we went to the feeders at Santa Ana NWR, where after an hour or so of looking I finally spotted a Hooded Oriole high in a snag, to add to our trip list. This is usually a spring and summer visitor here.
We finished trying to get the Egyptian Goose that has been hanging out at a local city park, as Bruce needs this for his ABA list (probably not listable here though) but were surprised it was not there. NEarly every imaginable exotic waterfowl was there though, and we got our first trip Ferruginous Whistling Ducks.
Grocery shopping, and early quitting time, and now about to head out for dinner.
One more full day tomorrow then the boys head home Saturday.
Good birding.
Aplomado Falcon Today and More
Here are the best I could do for photos.
The rest of the day was leisurely, as we went up to the Laguna Atascosa NWR, and worked our way home looking for seawatch sites in Port Isabella, then the blackbird spectacle at the Granary and the Llano River overlook in Westlaco, and finally at a nature center in McAllen.
Best birds of the day after the falcon were Redhead and Canvasback ducks, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Bufflehead, white-form Little Blue Heron, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Clay-colored Thrush and Gray Hawk.
Tomorrow a local day near McAllen.
Day 4 LRGV The Brownsville Area
For a day when we missed the primary targeted bird, Aplomado Falcon, we had a great day. We began at the Sable Palm Grove, the lone remnant of an original estimated 40,000 acres of Sabal Palm in the lower RGV. It was really dry, the palms look in poor shape, but we did find a few new species for the trip, including Black-throated Green Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, and enjoyed the area.
Next off to a place every ABA birder has heard of, and now I have finally visited,the Brownsville Dump. It is famous as the only place in the ABA to get Tamuopalis Crow, not there this year, but it is an old fashioned open dump, with the attendant thousands of gulls, Turkey and Black Vultures, Crested Caracara, various blackbirds, and today the hoped for Lesser Black-backed Gull, an uncommon European vagrant.
Next off to the Old Port Isabelle Road, where Aplomado Falcons are often seen, without luck.
We finished the day at the Boca Chica NWR. The shore, where we had hoped to drive to both the jetty and the mouth of the Rio Grande was washed out, but the backwaters were great, with lots of shorebirds, Reddish Egrets of both the red and white morphs, terns, gulls, pelicans, and plenty to keep us scoping for the rest of the day. There may have been 80 Snowy Plovers there, along with a nice flock of Stilt Sandpipers, >140 Reddish Egrets, and lots more.
A local Mexican joint for dinner on the way home, and now to sleep well for all.
Good birding. Tomorrow likely Bentsen Rio State Park, and Anzalduas SP.
Lower Rio Grande Valley Day 2 with Ken and Bruce
Today the primary objective was to find a Hook Billed Kite at Santa Ana NWR. Two birds have been seen there many days recently from the observation tower, so we opened the park, being the second car in the lot, and by far the first to the tower, a half mile hike. We got to the top of the tower, and immediately began identifying Harris’s Hawks, a total of 8, most at long distance. About 9:10 Ken spotted a raptor, not crazy far away, and his words went something ling this. “This is interesting. This could be. Maybe. I’ve got it! …” He had spotted a female Hook-billed Kite perched in a snag at maybe a half mile away. We all got good looks, barely passable photos, and it was an ABA lifer for Bruce, and a lifer for Ken.
We spent maybe 25 minutes congratulating ourselves, and showing the bird on the first step off the tower stairs to the next 6-8 birders to show up. All were pretty excited.
The rest of the day we spent birding Santa Ana, then the Frontera Audubon Society property, and finally the relatively new Quinta Mazatlan WBC, a place very near where we are staying and a pretty cool spot. Yellow-throated Warbler and Black-throated Green Warblers were trip firsts there. Another big day for all. Can’t wait for tomorrow!
Lower Rio Grande Valley Trip Day 3, The Boys are Here
Next off to Estero Llano Grande, where we spent the afternoon puzzling over flitting passerines, watching water birds, and generally getting acquainted with the area.
We finished strong visiting a private residence in McAllen, to see Ruth and Bert Wessling’s back yard sanctuary. It is incredible, with feeders, water elements, brambles for cover, and LOTS of birds. Ken and I quickly got a brief look at the Audubon’s Oriole, but Bruce, the only one of us who needed it for a lifer missed it. Not to fear we all got better looks a few minutes later. Lots of photo ops, comfortable back–porch chairs, and incredible hospitality for unknown vagrant birders who just showed up and got the dogs to bark enough that Ruth came to investigate, and graciously ushered us in to watch.
We ended up at the Green Parakeet roost and Chipotle’s for dinner in McAllen.
A great day with Ken and Bruce each getting 2 ABA lifers.
Tomorrow off to Santa Ana NWR to hope for Hook-billed Kite.
Lower Rio Grande Valley Day 2
Just a quick post about today. This was my solo birding day before picking up Ken and Bruce at the McAllen Airport in the evening.
First stop was Santa Ana to hope for Hook-billed Kite and the Crimson-collared Grosbeak, both without any luck. Great looks at Altamira Oriole, and lots of waterfowl. After there I went to Estero Llano Grande, cool translation Big flat estuary. A great story of rehab of an old cotton plantation into a wetland using mostly Ducks Unlimited dollars.
Also stopped at the nearby granary to see the blackbird spectacle there, and a try at the Audubon Oriole spot, scouting as Bruce needs this for his life list.
Good day and got the guys home after.