Sunday, August 26, 2007

Phalarope Soup at Sal del Rey, 8/26/07

Walked into Sal del Rey unit of Lower Rio Grande NWR from Brushline Rd. The grass has been cut on the track along the field but not on the last bit of trail to the lake. First thing I saw on the shore and in the water was lots of Wilson's Phalaropes. I scoped from east to west, counting how many phalaropes were in a scope field and the started adding scopefields, periodically recounting in the scope field, and kept scaning and adding. I estimated 7000 Wilson's Phalaropes. It was a huge swirling bowl of phalarope soup!

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Rain on the horizon,

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I found shelter under an old covered deer feeder and got pics of these guys while I waited out the rain.

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Found my FOS Yellow Warbler as I headed back to the car.

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Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 22
Wild Turkey 3
Northern Bobwhite 5
Little Blue Heron 1
Turkey Vulture 3
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Snowy Plover 1
Killdeer 1
Black-necked Stilt 5
Greater Yellowlegs 2
Sanderling 1
Western Sandpiper 6
Least Sandpiper 25
Wilson's Phalarope 7000
Laughing Gull 250
Forster's Tern 1
Mourning Dove 20
Common Ground-Dove 12
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 4
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 3
Brown-crested Flycatcher 2
Great Kiskadee 2
Couch's Kingbird 7
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher 20
Green Jay 2
Black-crested Titmouse 3
Verdin 3
Cactus Wren 3
Bewick's Wren 6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Northern Mockingbird 2
Curve-billed Thrasher 4
Yellow Warbler 2
Yellow-breasted Chat 2
Olive Sparrow 4
Cassin's Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Pyrrhuloxia 1
Dickcissel 3

Last weekend I was doing Northern Pygmy Owl toots in Pine Canyon to attract passerines and I called in a Northern Pygmy owl. Today, after leaving Sal del Rey, I was checking out the flooded mesquite along Brushline Road .45 miles north of Hwy 186 in Hidalgo Co. I whistled some Ferruginous PymyOwl calls to see what passerines may be about and guess what flew in. Yup, I got a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl. I had one a few years ago a couple of miles NE of the Rio Beef Yards so it wasn't a major surprise. But two Glaucidium species in nine days in Texas is pretty cool.

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Yesterday I checked out Frontera Audubon Thicket in Weslaco. This Louisiana Waterthrush greeted me at the water feature behind the visitor's center.

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Not too many birds but two Banded Peacocks were the first I have ever seen north of Mexico.

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Gulf Fritilary

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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Llano Grande, 8/21/07

I took a little time this evening to check out the Llano Grande flood channel bordering the south side of Estero Llano Grande State Park. At first I thought there were few birds as has been the case all fall. Then I hit the "mother lode" of shorebirds half a mile or so to the east. I counted and estimated about 800 Stilt Sandpipers. I'm sure I missed a few things with the low sun and strong wind. A Peregrine Falco seemed early to me.

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Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 6
Mottled Duck 20
Neotropic Cormorant 2
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 2
Snowy Egret 5
Little Blue Heron 1
Tricolored Heron 1
Roseate Spoonbill 5
Peregrine Falcon 1
Black-necked Stilt 60
American Avocet 5
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 50
Baird's Sandpiper 2
Stilt Sandpiper 800
Long-billed Dowitcher 15
Wilson's Phalarope 50
Laughing Gull 1
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
White-winged Dove 8
Mourning Dove 8
Common Ground-Dove 4
Great-tailed Grackle 50
House Sparrow 5

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Long-tailed Jaeger at Braunig Lake, 8/19/07

Got up at 3:30 AM to make the 240 mile drive to San Antonio to look for Martin Ried's Long-tailed Jaeger at Braunig Lake. Soon found the bird and got these pics. There's alot of debate as to whether this is a Long-tailed or Parsitic Jaeger. I need 'em both for my Texas list so I'll let bigger brains than mine make the decision. Any comments?

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The bill looks a little big to me for Long-tailed, but check this link to pics of a bird on a Nov. 2005 pelagic trip out of SPI accepted as Long-tailed Jaeger by Texas Bird Records Committee. These are on Martin Reid's site. Looks much like the Braunig Lake bird. http://www.martinreid.com/Main%20website/jaeger2.html

Here's a link to Martin's pic of the Braunig Lake jaeger
http://www.martinreid.com/Main%20website/jaeger4.html

Gigantic Big Bend End of Summer Birdomania Blowout.

Wow! What a birding weekend. After being stuck on Texas bird #489 for several months, I scored five new Texas birds in three days. Here's how it happened.

Two weeks ago Honey and I were visiting my Dad up in the pretty but birdingly boring Missouri Ozarks where I grew up. On the way home to Weslaco I was seriously contemplating swinging over by Big Bend National Park and checking it for fall migrants. I had a Red-faced Warbler on the Pinnacles Trail a few years ago during August. Or maybe we would hike up little birded Pine Canyon. Well, we didn't go cuz I decided it was too far out of the way. Then a few days ago there's this post on TEXBIRDS. Eric Carpenter had found a first Texas record for Fan-tailed Warbler in little birded Pine Canyon. Holy moly, That should have been my bird!

Well we couldn't leave for a few days, but we finally managed to get away on Thurs, four days after the warbler was first found. We pulled into Big Bend at 10 PM and drove up the dark, rough road to Pine Canyon and set up our tent at one of the primitive campsites. Honey slept like a baby as always while I tossed and turned thinking about my strategy for finding the bird among the expected hoard of noisy birders. Fantailed Warbler is an ABA mega-rarity from Mexico that seldon stays long for viewing. Not many birders have it on their life list. I chased a couple in Arizona only to come up empty handed.

Much to my surprise we were alone at the trailhead as we started the two mile hike through high desert vegetation just before sunrise. The rising sun beautifully illuminated this uncommonly visited canyon in the park.

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The first good bird was this female/juvenile Lucifer Hummingbird. I had failed to twitch one in Texas despite a half dozen trips to Big Bend,

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As we climbed the canyon became more narrow and lush with oaks and madrone. The second new bird for my Texas list were three Whip-poor-wills that flushed ahead of us. Not exciting but a bird I had missed previously in Texas. We went up a bit higher. I did a few Northern Pygmy Owl toots to attract birds. Through the years I have found passerines to be very responsive to pygmy owl calls in the higher elevations of the park. Well, not only did the did I get scolds from the Black-crested Titmice and Bewick's Wrens in the area, I was amazed but not totally surprised to hear a return call from a Northern Pygmy Owl. There are only two previously accepted records for the state, both from Big Bend. The call was the double toots of the gnoma subspcies, native to SE Arizona and Mexico. I whistled some more calls and soon saw the fiesty, diminutive owl who was being mobbbed by even fiestier Acorn Woodpeckers, Scott's Orioles and titmice. With a little work we managed to get a few record shots. A very good bird for Texas!

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The rest of the morning was spent searching for the Fan-tailed Warbler at the end of the box canyon know as the Pine Canyon Pouroff. Four other birders joined us and after three hours of searching and waiting we managed brief but OK views of the Fan-tailed Warbler. I've seen many of these in Mexico so we decided to leave and head back home. The only warbler I'm missing on my ABA list is Kirtland's Warbler which just requires a trip to Michigan in the summer. I'll get it someday. Four new Texas birds and an ABA lifer all in one day. Pretty cool. But I'm not done yet. When we got home Sat. afternoon and checked TEXBIRDS I learned Martin Reid had found a Long-tailed Jaeger in San Antonio at Braunig Lake. Oooh, I need that for the Texas list. So guess what I did this morning.

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Santa Ana NWR, 8/12/07

The conditions at Santa Ana NWR this morning could aptly be summed up by a song title from the 70's band Black Oak Arkansas ......"Hot 'n Nasty". The empids of last weekend were mostly gone and replaced by an influx of Painted Buntings. Not much else to mention.

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This Silver Emperor was the first I've ever seen. With all the summer rains this may be a good butterfly year.

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Mottled Duck 1
Plain Chachalaca 6
Pied-billed Grebe 4
Least Bittern 1
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 5
Tricolored Heron 4
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 6
Harris's Hawk 1
Common Moorhen 5
American Coot 1
Killdeer 5
Black-necked Stilt 15
Lesser Yellowlegs 1
Solitary Sandpiper 1
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 10
Stilt Sandpiper 10
Long-billed Dowitcher 4
White-winged Dove 70
Mourning Dove 5
Common Ground-Dove 5
White-tipped Dove 3
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 5
Groove-billed Ani 20
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 3
Ringed Kingfisher 1
Green Kingfisher 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 6
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 3
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 1
Alder Flycatcher 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 3
Great Kiskadee 5
Couch's Kingbird 8
Bell's Vireo 5
Green Jay 6
Cliff Swallow 1
Cave Swallow 92
Barn Swallow 1
Black-crested Titmouse 3
Carolina Wren 6
Bewick's Wren 1
Clay-colored Robin 2
Northern Mockingbird 5
Long-billed Thrasher 12
European Starling 1
Common Yellowthroat 12
Olive Sparrow 12
Northern Cardinal 2
Painted Bunting 7
Dickcissel 1
Red-winged Blackbird 20
Great-tailed Grackle 6
Bronzed Cowbird 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 4
Orchard Oriole 1
House Sparrow 5

I checked out the Llano Grande flood channel south of the state park this evening. Water levels are finally dropping a bit and might be good in a few days. Twenty five Wood Storks flew in as I was leaving. There were also 12 Roseate Spoonbills and two Fulvous Whistling Ducks were among the 160 Black-bellies. Shorebirds are still way down from previous years. Most noteworthy were a pair of Northern Bobwhite. These are hard to find in the southern part of the county.

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Saturday, August 4, 2007

Santa Ana NWR, 8/3/07

Spent yesterday morning at Santa Ana NWR. Saw a Clay-colored Robin behind the headquarters and then heard a singing vireo that sounded like a fast Red-eyed. Turned out to be a scruffy Yellow-green Vireo. He was hanging out between the bridge and the trail head.

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It was a good morning for Empidonax with six Least, five Yellow-bellies and at at least one Alder. Saw my FOS Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Mosquitos which were really bad last weekend were almost nonexistent on the Pintail Trail.

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Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 10
Mottled/Mexican Duck 1
Northern Pintail 1
Plain Chachalaca 3
Pied-billed Grebe 3
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 3
Tricolored Heron 1
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 8
Cooper's Hawk 1
Harris's Hawk 1
Common Moorhen 1
Black-necked Stilt 10
Spotted Sandpiper 1
White-winged Dove 80
Mourning Dove 10
White-tipped Dove 3
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 4
Groove-billed Ani 12
Chimney Swift 1
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 1
Ringed Kingfisher 1
Green Kingfisher 1
Golden-fronted Woodpecker 10
Ladder-backed Woodpecker 6
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet 1
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 5
Alder Flycatcher 1
Least Flycatcher 6
Brown-crested Flycatcher 3
Great Kiskadee 5
Couch's Kingbird 10
White-eyed Vireo 6
Yellow-green Vireo 1
Green Jay 4
Bank Swallow 1
Cave Swallow 60
Black-crested Titmouse 14
Carolina Wren 4
Bewick's Wren 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Clay-colored Robin 1
Northern Mockingbird 5
Long-billed Thrasher 1
European Starling 1
Common Yellowthroat 10
Olive Sparrow 12
Northern Cardinal 2
Painted Bunting 1
Dickcissel 3
Red-winged Blackbird 10
Great-tailed Grackle 10
Bronzed Cowbird 6
House Sparrow 5