Ten days ago or so, on a cold blustery day, Ryan Rodriguez found a third year Kelp Gull at Fred Stone County Park in Willacy County. Several of us looked the next day but could not find it. But yesterday Nolan Walker checked the park and there was the Kelp Gull not far from the fishing pier. It makes sense it would stay with the free supply of cleaned fish corpses. So I ran over yesterday and easily ticked it for my 300th Willacy County bird species. But the bird was distant and soon took off to the north so my photos were not great. After birding Laguna Point a bit I returned to Fred Stone where a group was assembled hoping for the return of the Kelp Gull. Another birder arrived and showed me a photo he had taken near a private dock to the south where a local resident was cleaning fish. Sure looked like the Kelp Gull.
Several of us drove the few hundred yards south where the man was still cleaning fish and there was the big stonking black and white South American gull.
Nearby was a pale immature gull that I remarked to the group could be a Thayer's Iceland Gull. One of them said that was Merlin's guess also but I don't have a lot of faith in Merlin. Head seemed to be more Herring Gull like to me. But I'm not much of a guller so I'll wait to see what more experienced eyes have to say. Iceland Gull would be a great Willacy County bird and new for my list.
Otherwise there was not much interesting in the area so I decided to go check the old Mountain Plover site on Mesquite Road. On the way I found a fun herd of Nilgai crossing the canal on FM 1420. These huge introduced Indian antelope have made a home in coastal south Texas.
I followed Mequite Road east of FM 2099 though an area of plowed fields that once hosted wintering Mountain Plovers. None have been seen in the area since the windmills invaded. The once pristine white fans are now coated in grime.
There were very few birds but it's hard to tell if that is because of the windmills or extreme drought. Probably both. But I found one of my targets. All this Horned Lark needs is wide open spaces.
My other target was Sprague's Pipit. I've heard of no reports this winter. There doesn't seem to be any at the usual Anzalduas field south of Mission. But Mesquite Road has been good for them in the past so I slowly drove the dirt track keeping an eye open for any little bird flying up from the short grassy border. A small sparrow sized bird flushed and flew ahead. Hmmm.... Usually Sprague's Pipits explode upward, sometimes flying high and circling before descending in a series of stairsteps. This bird landed back in the grass ahead so I just kept driving slowly forward. It flushed again, this time higher up, circling back behind me before dropping back into the grassy margin. That looked good. I thought I saw the white outer tail feathers. So I got out and slowly walked the grass and...... nothing. They are so sneaky! So I got back in the jeep, turned around and backtracked a hundred yards, and started the slow drive forward again. And the little bird flushed again and repeated the routine. But this time I could see the little bugger sneaking through the grass and got a few photos.
Well that was a fun day. As I write this birders are again observing the Kelp Gull. It is thought this may be the same bird seen last year on Padre Island National Seashore and aged as a second year bird. This bird is in near adult plumage and is thought to be a third year Kelp Gull. This is my third in the ABA area though I have seen many in Ecuador and Argentina.
And the large pale gull is still being seen and birders are calling it an Iceland Gull. We'll see.
PS: Visiting author and bird guide Cameron Cox has deemed the pale gull to be a worn American Hering Gull based on structure and molt. As I said I didn't think the head was shaped right for Iceland Gull. But Merlin keeps saying Iceland and birders keep adding Iceland to their life lists. Glad I'm not an eBird editor. There's a mess to clean up.
