Saturday, August 23, 2008

Jabiru in Willacy County, 8/21/08

A couple of weeks ago I heard a rumor of a Jabiru (or a Jacana) up by Raymondville in Willacy County. Well, I couldn't get any more details so I forgot it till I checked out Texbirds Thursday afternoon after a day of boring back to school inservices. They were reporting a juvenile Jabiru in the flooded fields along Hwy 490 west of Raymondville. So I escaped a few minutes early, raced home and grabbed Honey and my camera and we were off. We arrived to find a dozen unsuccessful birders. After an hour of driving and searching someone found the bird right where we were all originally parked. This is about the tenth ABA record, all occuring in late summer or fall in Texas except for two Louisiana records. Jabirus are native from the Atlantic coastal wetland of Tabasco and Campeche in Mexico to Brazil. They like open grassy areas with shallow water. What a bitchin' bird!

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