Target Birding in Texas

Why go birding at the bottom of Texas? Because there are birds there that aren't found in other areas of the United States. Check out the map. You can see how far south we are as compared to Mexico. Therefore, we can see birds that we may have never seen before - or - add birds that we've seen in Mexico or Belize or Honduras to our U.S. list. 

Rio Grande Valley

So far, I have 7 life birds for the trip and 8 other birds to add to my U.S. list. In the past, I have tried to see birds in many places on my own but when I told people that we were headed to Rio Grande Valley area, everyone said that we should hire a guide to get the specialty birds. Most of the people who suggested this know what they are talking about and they all said that we should hire Mary Gustafson for a day. I met Mary on the North Carolina pelagic trip (she was the other woman in the Mahi Mahi photo). She lives in Rio Grande Valley and is a professional guide. I contacted her and she agreed to take us around on Saturday.

Mary met us at our motel on Saturday morning. It was blowin' a gale outside but Mary was not deterred. I showed her my spreadsheet and she formulated a plan for the day. First stop - Estero Llano Park. We were surprised to find out that the park was actually an RV park that the State took over. There are only 2 campsites that are allowed to be occupied - they are reserved for volunteer "Park Hosts". We met one of the couples who spend the winter in the park showing visitors around. Very nice people from Ontario Canada. 

Mary took us to a place near the old bathhouse and found a Common Paraque - which is in the night jar family. They hunt insects in the evening and then roost on the ground during the day. They are very camouflaged against the leaf litter. We saw one in Honduras this past spring. 

Common Paraque

Inca Dove is another bird that camouflages pretty well. Here is one sitting on a gravel road in the park. You could almost miss her. They usually take off but this one let me get pretty close.  

Inca Dove

We also found Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet  in the RV part of the park thanks to the Park Hosts and Mary. This is a very secretive flycatcher so no photos. The park also has a lake which has some great ducks and a few Least Grebes which were great to see. 

Off to our next stop which was Frontera Audubon Center. This park is kind of in the middle of town but we really hit the birds here. One of our main target birds was Green Kingfisher. I photographed one in Honduras but wanted to see one in the U.S. Boy, did we get a show from not one, but two! Here is the female which perched on our side of the lake. The male perched on the other side of the lake but when she saw him, she chased him off! 

Green Kingfisher

We caught up with her again when she perched on the railing of the boardwalk. I snapped this just as she dove into the water after a fish. 

Dive!

We worked really hard looking for another of our Life Bird targets - Olive Sparrow. We spent a fair amount of time looking at the bird feeders around the park waiting for one to slink out from the woods to grab a seed from the ground. Mary and I saw one for a split second but it never came out from under the brush again. We finally heard 2 in the woods later thanks to Mary and saw one  thanks to Barbara's keen eye. Again, no photo was possible. 

Thankfully, some birds were VERY photographable. This Black-crested Titmouse sat still long enough for a photo. 

And Great Kiskadees were all over the place. This one perched near the Green Kingfisher for a few minutes.

Great Kiskadee

Here are a gang of them on another pond. I wonder what they are all looking at. 

Kiskadees

Mary took us to a great little lunch spot and then we headed out to find some other target birds. Some target birds aren't really what most people would call sexy, but I want to see those too. Blackbirds might fall into that category for some people. Mary took us out to a grain silo where we found flocks of blackbirds along the road. They go to the grain silos for an easy meal. And we go for easy birding. Here they are swirling around the warehouse. 

Bronzed Cowbird was on my target list. I saw them in Honduras, but not up close and personal like this. Here is a male all puffed up ready for his bath. Look at those devil eyes! You can see the bronze shimmer of his chest which gives him his name. 

Bronzed Cowbird

We also saw Yellow-headed Blackbirds in the flock. Here is a female getting a bath.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Mary wasn't done with us yet. Off we went to the town of McAllen where she knew we could find parrots and parakeets. We lucked into a flock of Red-crowned Parrots which flew across the highway. We exited and drove up a busy street and found Green Parakeets on the wire. Here are 2 snuggling. 

Green Parakeets

A stellar day despite the unrelenting wind and cold conditions. Thanks Mary! 

Boys Weekend in Texas

Calling this weekend "Boys Weekend" was not my idea. Lori came up with that term because 3 of us decided to go power birding in Rio Grande Valley which meant that the other 3 of us stayed home. Which 3 are in Texas? Me, Lori and Barbara. We wanted to go on a trip to find birds and not worry about eating or sleeping or any other comforts. The goal is to see birds!

So far, success. One day around Brownsville and Barbara has 5 life birds, Lori has 4, and I have 3. I also picked up a bunch of ABA birds too. We started the day at Sabal Palm Sanctuary which is right on the Mexican border.  The property was once a large plantation and now is a wildlife refuge.

Rabb Plantation House - Sabal Palm Sanctuary

Driving in south Texas is like being in a third world country sometimes. Little dirt roads, horses tied up in front yards, goats roaming around. We drove down the road to the park and found a Harris' Hawk sitting on a telephone pole.

Harris' Hawk

Of course, we pulled off the dirt road to take this photo. A few minutes later, a Texas State Trooper pulled up along side of our rental Jeep. "Um, are you ladies bird watching?" asked the 12 year old Trooper (OK, he wasn't really 12 years old but he was really young). We told him that we were looking at a hawk and making our way to the park to which he replied "If you see anyone running, call us" while making the phone call motion with his hands. This is border country for sure.

Don's Fence

Donald Trump sure works fast :-) Kidding. This is the border fence that already exists in this area. The guy at the park office told us that the fence runs along the Rio Grande river levee. The park actually sits between the fence and the Rio Grande river. Here I am pointing to Mexico.

Rio Grande River - Mexico

We saw some great birds at this park including Green Jays. There were many of them but only photographable at the bird feeder.

Green Jay

Here is a close up.

Green Jay

We also saw Buff-bellied Hummingbirds. This is the only one that sat long enough for a photo.

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

We also saw butterflies and a rare snake - the Speckled Racer. Barbara saw a little one slither under some palm fronds and then Lori found a 3 foot one slinking through the butterfly garden. We spent almost 4 hours at this park and then headed north to Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge. Everyone warned us about the pothole riddled road and the hunters but we went anyway. We stopped at a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant for lunch. YUM.

Lunch

This is where it all went downhill. The lady at the Laguna Atascosa visitor center was really nice but most of the refuge was off limits due to hunting season and road repairs. We wandered around the trails near the main office when all of a sudden, the skies opened up and it poured rain for 45 minutes trapping us under a pavilion.


We drove out of the rain and headed to Port Isabel Road to find very rare Aplomado Falcons. These falcons were virtually extinct from the US until recent efforts by the US wildlife department re-introduced the birds to south Texas. They are slowly making a come back. The nice lady at the Visitor Center showed us where to look for them. We struck out at first, but finally found one bird sitting on the cell phone tower at about 4:15 PM - just as a rainbow appeared. Coincidence? I don't think so . . .

Rainbow Falcon

The falcon is the little dot on the left side of the tower next to the rainbow. Here is a zoomed in shot. Keep in mind that the tower was pretty far away and pretty tall.

Aplomado Falcon

Great way to end Day 1 of Boys Weekend. #boysweekend