Before retiring in 2018 I would travel to Houston for work about
a week a month.
I’d often squeeze in a
little local birding time during most of those trips, working on my TX state
list and sometimes even my LA list.
But
the real attraction was the opportunity to bird in the Lower Rio Grande Valley,
which after all was only an hour plane flight from Houston.
On a number of my trips, I would add a vacation
day to chase after some extreme rarity from Mexico (or even farther away).
As a result, I’ve made 14 trips to the LRGV and
nearby areas in south TX over the years, with each of the most recent 9 trips targeting
a single life bird.
Fast forward to mid-December 2023 – I started hearing some
buzz about rarities being seen in south TX this winter. I did a quick eBird Needs Alert for TX and
was blown away by the number of rarities on the list. There were no less than 5 mega-rarities that
were seemingly quite reliable –
- Roadside Hawk and Gray-collared Becard (first record for TX)
at Resaca de la Palma State Park
-
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and Mottled Owl at Santa Margarita
Ranch – property only accessible by hiring a guide
-
Cattle Tyrant (a first for the US) in downtown Corpus
Christi
Needless to say, all 5 would be life birds for me. What an amazing group of rarities! Plus there were sightings of 2 parrots that I
had never seen before - White-fronted and Lilac-crowned. Although these “exotic” species are countable
per eBird rules, they are not countable per ABA and the TX Bird Records
Committee.
And there were more than just potential life birds to pursue. Although my TX state list was already pretty
respectable at 452, there were quite a number of possible TX state birds also being
seen. Key targets included – Long-tailed
Duck, Western Grebe, Limpkin, Mountain Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Iceland Gull,
Dusky-capped Flycatcher, and Hermit Warbler.
Another great list of targets!
With all those potential life and state birds it was a
no-brainer that I had to give it a try and make my 15th trip to the LRGV. After all, I’ve taken numerous trips to the
Valley for just 1 potential life bird.
Albeit those trips started in Houston instead of western NC. I found a window of free time in my schedule
in early January, and made reservations to fly to TX on the 4th, returning on
the afternoon of the 9th, giving me 4 and a half days of birding in south
TX.
All things considered I hoped to find 4 or 5 lifers, and an
additional 5 state birds. That’s quite a
step up from my recent trips to the Valley hoping for just 1 target bird.
This post summarizes the second half of my trip. The previous post summarized the first part
of my trip.
January 7 – Corpus Christi and Vicinity and Parrot
Search
The plan for the 7th was to travel to Corpus Christi where
the key target was a long-staying Cattle Tyrant. This flycatcher is typically a South American
species (I’ve seen it several times in Brazil), which is normally not seen any
closer to the US than Panama. Though
there was one being seen in Costa Rica now.
It’s unclear whether the Texas Bird Records Committee will decide to add
this species to the state list. But it’s
best to try to see it in the meantime, and then await the Committee’s
decision. Interestingly, eBird already
considers it to be countable.
After (hopefully) finding the Tyrant, my plan was to chase
after 3 rare potential TX state birds – Bar-tailed Godwit Iceland (Thayer’s)
Gull, and Long-tailed Duck. All 3 were
being seen near Corpus Christi, or along the route back to the Valley. Then I would get back to Brownsville by
sunset to look for Parrots at an evening roost.
I developed an itinerary that would in theory give me enough
time to try for each of my targets and still get in all that driving time. But that itinerary went out the window when I
overslept – I guess I was really tired from my late night with the Owls. I got out of the hotel an hour later than planned,
and spent a lot of time on my drive to Corpus Christi going through the options
to get back on schedule. I ended up
deciding to skip my search for the Bar-tailed Godwit. Although that would be a great bird to see,
it had not been reported for 10 days despite multiple checklists in the areas
where it had been seen. Plus I had
planned on a lengthy 90-minute search for the bird, so skipping that one would
give me more than enough time to find my other targets.
The very tame Cattle Tyrant was being seen in downtown
Corpus Christi principally in an area covering one city block. And one its favorite spots was a blue
dumpster near the corner of Water and Lawrence Streets where it would eat flies
and other unmentionable insects. I
finally rolled into downtown Corpus Christi at 9:45 and parked near that
dumpster hoping for a quick look at the bird, but came up empty. I took a slow walk around the city block but
still no Tyrant. At one point an
employee of one of the local businesses came up to me and said he had seen the
bird a bit earlier that morning, so at least it was still around. By 10 some other birders started to show up and
a few of us exchanged phone numbers to spread the news when it was
sighted.
During one slow period I checked my TX Needs Alert for
updates and found a report that the Godwit was seen just an hour earlier, and a
specific location was given. That meant
I should add the Godwit search back into my itinerary, but would I have time
for all my stops?
It was now 10:30 and still no sightings. I was standing back at the dumpster when one
of the birders I met earlier came by to say she had just found the Cattle
Tyrant around the corner. After a short
brisk walk I turned the corner and saw these 2 birders standing in the road up ahead. That’s the target bird in front of them
walking in the road.
I walked a bit closer and got these nice digi-binned shots.
Cattle Tyrant was ABA Lifer #5 and State bird #8 – at least
for now pending the TX Committee’s decision.
It turns out that one of the birders with whom I exchanged
numbers was the person who re-found the Bar-tailed Godwit that morning. Before I left I was sure to get very specific
directions from him – he mentioned it was on the short rocky jetty at Indian
Point Park. That was 1 of 3 hotspots
where it had been sporadically reported over the last month, and was just 10
minutes away. So I was cautiously
optimistic. But since it took nearly an
hour to find the Tyrant I might need to delay my try for the Long-tailed Ducks
until tomorrow, unless I could find the Godwit quickly.
After a short drive I parked at Indian Point Park and walked
right to the jetty. I had a couple
Willets and a Turnstone, but no Godwits. It was indeed a very short jetty and there was
nowhere for a large shorebird to hide, so I hadn’t overlooked it. I then turned my attention to a small
wetlands close to the jetty that had a Marbled Godwit and a few Black-bellied
Plovers, but still no target. So much
for hoping to find the bird quickly.
Just northeast of the jetty was a large impoundment that
looked like great habitat. But that
wetlands stretched some 2 miles to the north, and the Godwit had been reported
throughout this impoundment. But since
the bird had just been seen on the jetty, maybe it hadn’t gone far. I set up my scope and started to scan the
southern end of the impoundment. I was
especially focused on the larger shorebirds, picking up another Marbled Godwit
and a Long-billed Curlew. Then I came to
a large shorebird in the distance that was pale below. I increased the magnification on my scope and
confirmed I had my target Bar-tailed Godwit – creamy white below, lighter brown
above, and upturned 2-toned bill (State bird #9). Here is a crummy distant phone-scoped photo
of the bird. Nice that it picked a spot to
be all by itself so it would stand out.
Bar-tailed Godwits would normally be wintering in Australia
or New Zealand, so this is quite a rarity for TX.
I’ve now seen this species in 4 states as a
vagrant, along with AK as a breeder.
While I was looking at the Godwit two birders from CO arrived.
They were from CO and said they didn’t
know their shorebirds well.
So I not
only put them on the Bar-tailed, but also a Marbled Godwit, Long-billed Curlew,
and Piping Plover.
Not birds you see in
CO very often.
Since it only took a few minutes to find the Godwit I was
now only a few minutes behind schedule – maybe I’d have time for all my targets
after all.
And that next target was an Iceland Gull. This was an adult of the Thayer’s subspecies
that was being seen along the John F Kennedy Causeway. It was always reported at either of 2 fishing
piers across a narrow channel from each other.
It seems the bird was looking for handouts among the Laughing Gulls
there, and all the posted photographs showed the bird perched on posts at one
of the piers.
I pulled into the parking lot of the first fishing pier, the
Cos Way Bait and Tackle, and scanned all the posts. I had a few Laughing Gulls and a couple
Pelicans, but no Iceland Gull. Then I
looked across the channel to the other fishing pier, the Red Dot pier, but
again just found Laughing Gulls. There
were also small gull flocks resting in the shallows nearby, but all were still
just Laughers.
I guess I might just have to wait a while for the bird to
return. From the Cos Way pier I could
see both piers, but I was looking into the sun in order to see the Red Dot pier. So I decided to drive over there and look
back to the north at the Cos Way pier with the sun at my back.
I drove to Red Dot, and although lighting was much better, I
still couldn’t find my target. The tide
was pretty low at the time, and I wondered if the Iceland might be resting on a
sand bar somewhere nearby. I noticed a sleeping
flock of gulls a short distance to the northeast beyond this boat.
I pulled out the scope and instantly noticed the third bird
from the right was larger than the Laughing Gulls.
It was an adult gull without a hood but had
considerable streaking on the head, had a pale back, and a small unmarked
bill.
I had the Iceland Gull (State bird
#10).
There were 2 other birders there
at the time and I was able to get them on the bird as well.
Here’s a distant digi-scoped picture of the
bird, of pretty poor quality I’m afraid.
My state bird map of Iceland Gull includes my sightings of
both the Thayer’s and Kumlien’s subspecies, as they have recently been lumped
into one species.
I was only 30 minutes behind schedule when I headed off so I
should have enough time for my entire itinerary.
Especially if my next target, Long-tailed
Ducks, were cooperative.
These diving
ducks were surprisingly feeding in a shallow saltwater pond in Port
Mansfield.
The eBird reports were quite
confusing as to the ducks’ exact location, so I reached out to two birders who
had recently reported the birds to get directions.
Both gave me directions to a pond just west
of the point, labeled as the Port Mansfield Marine Sanctuary hotspot, requiring
a short walk to the pond.
But one birder
also mentioned they were sometimes seen in a lake east of the point - the
Laguna Point Recreation Area hotspot.
He
gave me directions to both lakes, so I should hopefully be all set.
I drove to the small town of Port Mansfield, parking at the
corner of Fox and Allen to take the short walk to the pool at the Marine Sanctuary. But there wasn’t a single duck on this very
small pond – just a couple Black-necked Stilts on the bank. At least it was a short walk back to the
car. I then drove around to the Laguna
Point pond. I did a quick binocular scan
and spotted several ducks near the eastern end of the pond. The first ones I got on were a group of 4
Lesser Scaup. Then a couple seconds
later I spotted the black-and-white plumages of the pair of Long-tailed Ducks
(State bird #11). Here is a picture of
the pond – my target birds were in the back below the blue arrow.
Not only were these diving ducks in a shallow pond acting
like dabblers.
But they were also very
far from their typical wintering range in the northern portions of the Atlantic
and Pacific coasts and Great Lakes.
TX
is now the 6th southern and central state where I’ve seen Long-tailed Duck as a
rarity.
The last stop of the day was an evening Parrot roost at
Oliveira Park in Brownsville.
Some recent
reports included hundreds of Parrots of up to 4 species – Red-crowned was the
most common but there were also a few White-fronted and Violet-crowned which I
needed as potential new countable life birds per eBird.
(Though they are not countable per the ABA
and the TX Committee.)
And then again,
some checklists had few birds and only Red-crowned.
I pulled into the park about 4:45 and found 3
other birders there also waiting for the Parrots.
The birds often don’t come in until close to
sunset, which was still an hour away, so we birded the park a bit waiting for
the evening flocks to arrive.
Around 5:30 I spotted a large flock of perhaps 100-200
Parrots flying in the distance. This was
looking promising. But that flock never
came to the park. Finally a flock of
about 50 birds flew overhead, circled a couple times, but never landed. These were mostly Red-crowned but I also
picked out at least 2 Red-lored with yellow cheek patches (I’ve already seen
this species countable only per eBird), and 2 Yellow-headed (not countable by anyone’s
definitions). Unfortunately that was the
end of the Parrot show for that night.
That was quite disappointing, missing both of my targets. Though at least neither of them are countable
per the ABA and TX Committee.
January 8 - Second Tries for Fan-tailed Warbler and
Mountain Plover
This day and the next were designed to be clean-up days to
go after anything I had missed from the earlier part of the trip. And the key miss was the Fan-tailed
Warbler. Since I tried for it on the 5th
the bird was seen or heard multiple times on the 6th, but just once on the 7th.
Most sightings were from the original
spot on the north side of the resaca, but a couple in the afternoon were from
the south side of the resaca. And there
were several heard-only observations, as the bird gave its “tseee” call. So the bird was still around, and despite its
elusiveness, I decided to try for it again on the 8th.
I arrived at the college campus around 7:30 and was greeted
by a stiff wind coming out of the south.
That put the wind right into my face as I stood watch for the bird at its
original location. Soon I was joined by
a number of other birders, but once again I couldn’t come up with the bird. We all wondered if the wind was making it even
more elusive than normal. Then again, at
one point I was quite sure I heard the bird giving its “tseee” call several
times coming from the brush right in front of me. I turned to other nearby birders to see if
they thought that was the Fan-tailed, but no one even heard the calls. I wasn’t going to check it off just based on
the call notes, especially if no one else heard them. So after a 4-hour vigil, no sightings by
anyone that morning, and seeing almost no other birds, I decided to throw in
the towel on the Fan-tailed Warbler.
The other target that I had missed earlier in the trip was
Mountain Plover, which was spotted once again in those same plowed fields the
last 2 days. I had the whole afternoon
to try again for these birds, though I had to get there first since it was a
hefty drive from Brownsville. I arrived
at the Edinburgh fields at 1:30 and spent the next 3 hours looking for the
elusive shorebirds. I covered 3 times
the area I birded on my first trip, and was joined by some other birders who
covered some additional area. We found
big flocks of Horned Larks, Mourning Doves, and Western Meadowlarks in the
fields, but no Plovers.
Near the end of my search I spotted a Falcon perched on
wires in the distance. I pulled over to
check it out and it turned out to be a Kestrel.
But then I noticed another larger Falcon fly in from the distance. I first noted it was brown above, and then it
passed nearly right overhead giving me a great view of its dark underwing coverts
and axillaries – I had a Prairie Falcon (State bird #12). There was one sighting of a Prairie Falcon in
the area 3 weeks earlier, but that was the only other sighting of this rare wintering
species in the area this season. So this
species was not on my radar. And along
with sightings of a Merlin and Peregrine that day, it was a nice sweep of the
local falcons.
I only need this Prairie Falcon in 2 more states within its
regular range.
January 9 – Third and Final Try for Fan-tailed
Warbler
My flight out of McAllen was at 2 PM, giving me the whole
morning to bird in the area. After
spending 7 hours trying for the Fan-tailed Warbler and seeing very few birds in
general, my first thought was to end my trip at some location that was likely
to be a lot more birdy. Frontera Audubon
came to mind - I’ve had great birds there in the past, and a couple rarities
were being seen there this winter. But
then I got an email from a birder I met at the Fan-tailed spot mentioning the
bird was seen and heard again on the afternoon of the 8th. I hated to give up on the chance of seeing a
life bird, despite the very low odds. So
with some misgivings, I decided to head back to the university campus and give
the Fan-tailed Warbler one more try.
The temperatures were in the low 50s when I arrived at the
Warbler spot – that’s pretty chilly for a Mexican bird. So I headed across to the south side of the
resaca where the vegetation was in the sun thinking that might be the preferred
location for this chilly bird. Here’s
some of that vegetation on the south side of the resaca.
But as I stood there I remembered that birders had the bird
at the original north side location at about 5:30 the evening before.
Maybe they were there as the target bird was
going to its evening roost, and it might start its day today there as well.
I walked across the bridge to the north side
to test my revised theory and there were several birders peering intently into
the vegetation.
There had just been a
sighting but only by a couple birders.
Darn – I guessed wrong with the feeding-in-the-sunlight theory, but at
least the bird was in the area.
I spotted a little movement in the brush, but it was just
the resident Wilson’s and Orange-crowned Warblers – undoubtedly the same ones I
had seen there several times before. Over
the next hour there were no more sightings.
Had I missed it yet again?
Then about 9 AM I heard the Fan-tailed Warbler’s distinct “tseee”
call 3 times coming from the brush.
Surprisingly once again no one else heard it so I alerted everyone. And just a couple minutes later I heard
another call just to the east - the bird must be moving east through the
brush. But still no sightings.
And then at 10 came word that someone had a sighting of the
Warbler a bit farther east. It turns out
there was a trail through the brush that would allow you to stand right in the
middle of the thickest vegetation, and the Warbler was passing right through
that area. I got to this spot and almost
instantly had the briefest of views of the bird – large for a warbler, with a
dark back and long tail. But that was
all I could see. And then finally at
10:30 I spotted movement down the bank to the resaca and there was the
Fan-tailed Warbler – steely gray above, long fanned tail held cocked up a bit
with white tips, yellow crown patch, and yellow below with a bit of an orange
tint. After 10 hours of searching over 3
days, I finally had the Fan-tailed Warbler (Lifer #6, State bird #13). What an
excellent way to end the trip! Though I
was at the university so long that they almost made me sign up for classes for
the spring semester.
Trip Summary
I ended the trip with 162 species, including 6 life birds. An excellent tally especially compared to my
expectations of 4 or 5 lifers. That
allowed me to reach a milestone of 750 for the Lower 48. I’m now at exactly 750 by ABA’s
accountability rules, and 753 by eBird’s rules.
The differences are related to whether several introduced species that
I’ve seen are countable. And my ABA
Continental total is 770 per ABA and 772 per eBird.
I was lucky enough to tally 13 state birds, great results compared
to my expectations of 9 to 10. My TX
state bird totals are equally as fuzzy. My
TX state list is now at 465 per ABA and 468 per eBird.
Here is a link to my eBird Trip Report - Lower Rio Grande Valley, Jan 2024 - eBird Trip Report
As a postscript, I put together this little summary of my 14 prior trips
to the LRGV and nearby south TX locations -
· April 1985 -
21 lifers, including my only ever Tamaulipas Crows
·
April-May 2000 - 12 lifers, including Ferruginous
Pygmy-Owls, Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, White-collared Seedeater, and Muscovy
Duck
·
January 2005 - 4 lifers - Rose-breasted Becard,
Green-breasted Mango, White-throated Thrush, and Crimson-collared Grosbeak
·
December 2009 - 1 lifer - Northern Jacana
·
January 2011 - 2 1/2 lifers - Black-vented Oriole, Rufous-Backed
Robin, and "Mangrove" Yellow Warbler
·
February 2011 - 1 lifer - Yellow-faced Grassquit
·
January 2012 - 1 lifer - Golden-crowned Warbler
·
November 2013 - 1 lifer - Amazon Kingfisher
·
June 2014 - 1 lifer - Yellow-green Vireo
·
August 2014 - unsuccessful attempt for Collared Plover
·
April 2015 - 1 lifer - Aplomado Falcon
·
August 2015 - 1 lifer - Collared Plover
·
April 2016 - unsuccessful attempt for Blue Bunting
·
February 2018 - 1 lifer - Blue Bunting
And now on my 15th
trip in January 2024 – I saw a whopping 6 lifers – Roadside Hawk, Mottled Owl, Prairie
Falcon, Gray-collared Becard, Cattle Tyrant, and Fan-tailed Warbler
