Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival Day 3

Today was spent at The Nature Conservancy’s Southmost Preserve and on the road out to Boca Chica Beach including parts of the Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR. The original trip itinerary included Sabal Palm Audubon Center but that property is currently closed due to budgetary issues. Both Sabal Palm and Southmost are being threatened by the new border fence. I won’t get into the whole politics of the fence but as you can see from the picture below, this fence will completely cut off the property. This photo was taken from inside the Southmost Preserve right at the entrance road looking out. When the wall is complete, the preserve will be completely cut off. The ironic part is that the Border Patrol agents I spoke with said the fence will do little to curb immigration. It might slow immigrants down but the really determined will still get through.

Southmost Preserve is a property that is not normally open to the public but our group was given special access and a personal tour by Dave Benn. It is another one of those places that make the RGVBF a truly great event since you can get access not normally available to others.

The highlight birds of the day include White-tailed Hawks that soared directly overhead at quite a low altitude allowing for excellent viewing opportunities. We were also able to closely observe a rather cooperative Peregrine Falcon. The best bird was something that isn’t even a south Texas specialty. While in Southmost, our bus split into two groups. Our group spooked a Barn Owl that was roosting in a palm tree. Later, as the other half the group was searching for the owl, the spooked bird flew directly over our half of the group affording us excellent views at less than 15 feet. All told, more than 100 species were seen on this trip.

A big thanks to the days field trip leaders Chris, Richard, Mike and Jay. They did a great job making 40 birders feel like a small group.

Lang Elliott gave a program on the new CD Valley Bird Songs. If you use BirdJam or own the Stokes bird CD’s, you are familiar with Lang’s work. The program was enough to get this cheapskate to fork over $17 for a CD.

The final event of the evening was the Great South Texas Birding Quiz Show hosted by Jeff Gordon. Groups of birders, both amateur and professionals competed for prizes in and glory in a Jeopardy style quiz show. Please note that any resemblance to the actual TV program was purely a coincidence. The only question that comes to mind after the show is how I managed to avoid Luby's in 10 days?

Tomorrow is sadly my last day of birding down here but I'm heading to the King Ranch.

Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival - Day 2

The morning started with a field trip to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. This was an outstanding trip with good looks of Northern-beardless Tyrannulet. This little bird is smaller than it's name.  Who would have thought that a bird with such a long name would be so drab.  A small group was also able to see Smudgie, the unusual hybrid of an Altamira and Audubon's Warbler. Smudgie looks like an Altamira with a dirty and streaky hood of sorts. The name was well chosen. Over 70 species were seen on the trip.  A big thanks to our guides Jeff, Jim, John, and Ben.

The afternoon and evening programs were all very interesting. Jeff Gordon spoke about Mexican birds and Xavier Munoz spoke about his work in Ecuador. Don Kroodsma gave a fascinating program on bird song and the dynamics of how a bird sings.

Tomorrow starts with a field trip to Southmost Preserve, an area not normally open to the public.  More to come.......

Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival - Day 1

The morning started very early as the busses left the auditorium for our trip to the Santa Ana NWR at 6:00. A quick nap on the bus made the trip go by quickly.

Since a group of Masked Duck had been seen at Santa Ana, our group split into two. A little more than half the group headed out for the 3.2 mile hike in an attempt to get the duck. Since I had spotted it earlier in the week, I opted for the more leisurely hike on the Chachalaca trail and spending time on the tower looking for the Hook-billed Kites.

One surprise was that Don Kroodsma, the author of The Singing Life of Birds was a participant on our walk. At one point we were discussing the local Carolina Wrens. They are a subspecies endemic to the area. Dr. Kroodsma commented that they sounded “different” than other Carolina Wrens he’s heard. He’s the expert, I’ll take his word on it.

The group managed to record more than 80 species although those taking the long walk missed out on the Masked Duck

The highlight bird was a very cooperative American Bittern which did a slow fly-by in front of the group and then landed in a rather conspicuous spot. I’ve never had such good views of a Bittern.

My afternoon trip was to Weslaco to look for parrots and parakeets. Although the areas had been staked out a few days in advance, the birds had other ideas. We did get a fly-by Red-crowned Parrot and a Lilac-crowned Parrot that perched rather cooperatively for our van. The highlight bird was a pair of Merlin in a tree in someone’s front yard. The neighbors were curious when two 15 passenger vans with dark tinted windows pulled up and suddenly people with optics and cameras of all sorts started to mill around. We were like some sort of birdy clown car.

I finished the day with a program by Bill Baker on the great Texas Birding Classic.

Big thanks to trip leaders Chris Merkord, Richard Gibbons, and Cameron Cox.

Now it’s time to get some rest as another 6:00 bus awaits.

Great day....bad WIFI

I had a great day of birding at Laguna Atascosa but the WIFI at the hotel is acting up. I'll try to post the details tomorrow.

Texas here I come!!!!!

I'm packing tonight for a 10 day tip to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. I'll be attending the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival later in the week. I also have 4 days scheduled on the ground to wander wherever I like. I'm ready for the trip but I'm dreading getting up for the 6:20 AM flight. Ouch!!!

Consolation Prizes

I received a phone call of an American Avocet nearby today. I spent a few hours looking but came up empty. All was not lost. I managed to get this nice shot of a Solitary Sandpiper.

Shame on me

I’ve been away for too long. The last month and a half has been very hectic with family issues and volunteer activities. I haven’t had nearly enough time to go birding, or to write about it.

Since the end of June I’ve only been in the field twice. One day was a few weeks ago to check some of the local shorebird traps. This summer has been quite dry and there was almost no habitat available in the local places I checked. I’m hearing reports from other parts of the state but I haven’t had time to go check them myself. I’m taking part of this week off so I should have more time provided the weather cooperates.

I did manage to get out on the Black River Audubon field trip to Indian Hollow Reservation yesterday. It was a fun morning even if the heavy tree cover makes it very hard to bird. I was a little disappointed that when I pulled the 40D out of the travel case I saw the battery was nearly dead. I had forgotten to charge it after the last photo session. Oh well, sometimes it’s fun to bird without the camera. I stopped at Best Buy on the way home and bought a second battery. Now I won’t have to deal with dead batteries anymore.

If you get time, check out the new Black River Audubon Society page on Facebook. That is one of the places that took some of my time.