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!
Tag: Bruce LaBar
The Bird Banter Podcast: Episode #3 with Bruce LaBar
Bruce LaBar is my second guest on The Bird Banter Podcast and I am flattered to have Bruce to talk to you. Bruce is a very accomplished birder, a bigtime lister in Washington, and is well known and respected in the birding community. Bruce is the #1 all-time lister in WA with a WA lifelist of 452 species seen in WA, as well as the #1 all-time lister in our home Pierce County, WA with 285 species seen. He is currently the #1 2019 lister in both WA and Pierce County also, and is a good birding buddy to me (and really to almost every local and regional birder) as he is such a nice person.
Bruce and I did Pierce County Big Days in every month of 2018 (I missed Feb.) and added Pierce to the counties in WA with a big day in every month of the year. We talk a bit about that in his podcast episode.
Bruce spent his formative years in birding in California during the time when ABA birding exploded, the 1970-1990 time frame, and lists as his friends many of the legendary California birders of that era.
I think you’ll enjoy hearing from Bruce on this episode. Here is a link to the episode on the iTunes store. Enjoy.
Be sure to subscribe, and please give The Bird Banter Podcast a high “Star”rating and leave a reveiw if you can. Thanks.
Taking a Break from Yard Work Yields Lazuli Bunting and Western Kingbird
Today I had a short window between yard work and covering SDC so the PAs could go to their quarterly meeting, and when Bruce texted about not just the usual Lazuli Bunting but Western Kingbird in Orting, where to go was clear. I had only an hour to bird after dashing down the hill to the Orting Valley and getting to the 178th Street hotspot, but it was enough. I checked the powerline and fenceline on the way down 178th but couldn’t find the WEKI. Lazuli buntings were on station and singing all over the place in the field past the bend in the road, in the Scotch Broom as Bruce described. I had at least 4 birds, two males singing and posing near the gravel trail, and another two singing farther away at the same time. I think there were a minimum of 6 birds singing, but reported 4 on eBird.
I made it a quick stop in this area to have time for another look for the kingbird, and just before giving up on the way back I spotted the WEKI on the wire from the utility pole just in front of and to the left of the cell tower. I managed a digiscope ID quality photo. In the photo I can see the white outer tail feathers, and in the scope clearly saw the gray overall color with yellow belly. These birds seem to frequently stop at this location in migration at this time of year. last year Bruce and I had them in the same field 2 days earlier in May.
Two good FOY Pierce County birds. Thanks Bruce.