Nueces County 2/15/14

One of my favorite birding locales is Nueces County along the South Texas Coast. This is about a 2.5 hour drive away from our home, so I enjoy seeing what I can spot along the highway driving down. There are the typical hawks, sparrows, doves, vultures, etc, but as we're doing a Texas Big Year, I was on the lookout for something new. Two flocks flying overhead added two new year birds, Snow Goose and Sandhill Crane.

Once we got to Corpus Christi, we stopped at Labonte Park. This was our first time at this location and while we saw some good birds, including Anhinga (a first in the county for me), there was nothing new for the year. So we moved onward to Blucher Park. This is a huge migrant trap in the county and is truly one of the birdiest parks in America. We haven't hit the stride of Spring Migration, so there weren't a ton of new birds, but we managed to add Great Kiskadee and Brown Thrasher to the year list. Come March/April, the number of warblers there will be fantastic! Not to mention Indigo and Painted Buntings and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks...I can't wait!

After leaving Blucher, we drove out to South Padre Island. Along the bridges, we were able to add Black-bellied Plover and Sanderling. Those are about the easiest shorebirds for me to pick out. Once on the island, we stopped at a small migrant trap called Packery Channel Park. The main target was American Oystercatcher (but no such luck today). Only new year bird was Willet, but he did have some company with a lot of other birds (none new unfortunately).

We continued down to Port Aransas and made our first stop at Paradise Pond. It was neat to add Cedar Waxwings to my county list, but the only new year bird was a very personable Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. He just would not stop flying around us. ;) There were also Winter Texans...not a species of bird, but a type of birder from the North who like to escape their terrible weather and enjoy all that South Texas has to offer.

Next stop was the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center. I love this place because it always has good birds, good birders, and giant alligators. And we found all three today. For the year list, we were able to add Cinnamon Teal (there was only one and thankfully another birder helped us find it), Least Bittern, Green Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, White-faced Ibis, Sora, and American Avocet. I was happy to be able to help other birders see and identify the Least Bitter and White-faced Ibis and thankful for the eyes of others to get the Cinnamon Teal and Green Heron.

Finally, we thought we'd try a new spot for us, the Port Aransas Jetty. Driving down the beach towards the jetty, we added Forster's, Royal, and Sandwich Terns, while the walk along the jetty brought Ruddy Turnstone and Bonaparte's Gull. I'm excited to come back here and add more terns and gulls!

On the way off the island, we spotted a Long-billed Curlew working hear near a bridge. The honor of "Last Bird of the Day" goes to a pair of White-tailed Kites hovering over the highway on the way out of Corpus.

All in all a FANTASTIC day of birding with 84 total species, 21 new species for Nueces County, and 21 new year birds, bringing the 2014 total to 180!

Brown Pelican

Laughing Gull

Ruddy Turnstone

Royal Tern with funny hair!

Baby Texas Big Year - Birding Brownsville

We've decided to do a Baby Texas Big Year. All that means is we are aiming to get 350 species in Texas in 2014. Shouldn't be too terribly difficult and hopefully will be a lot of fun. :) After a mini-big day on New Year's and a bird count in Boerne, we were up to 96 by 01/03. A couple of extra bird walks got us to 105 by 01/17...then it was time for some fun! We decided to head down to Brownsville on the evening of the 17th in order to bump up our count a little bit. On the way down, we ended up spotting a Great-horned Owl on the side of the highway. Normally owls are pretty difficult for us, so it was quite a surprise that this was so easy.

The first birding stop in Brownsville was Sabal Palm Sanctuary. They've recently remodeled the old house and moved the Visitors' Center into that building. Fortunately, they still maintain the feeding station at the old center. :) At the time of our visit (01/18), there was a Great-horned Owl nesting in a tree just outside the new Visitors' Center. Two owls in two days will very little effort. If only all birding was so easy! An Osprey flew over, marking the first new bird of the trip. We went to the feeding station and added White-tipped Dove, Green Jay, Clay-colored Thrush (lifer), Gray Catbird, Olive Sparrow, and Hooded Oriole to the year list. Then, we walked down to the lake and had Mottled Duck, Least Grebe, and Green Kingfisher. On the way back we picked up Plain Chachalaca in the underbrush. We were able to help another pair of birders get their eyes on the Chachalaca as well. It's always fun to see someone's eyes light up when they find a bird they were looking for! :)

Clay-colored Thrush

Green Jay
Just outside Sabal Palm, we spied a Chihuahuan Raven (thanks to the wind which exposed the white feathers!). Near the intersection of University at 77, we had a falcon on the telephone wires...Aplomado Falcon (lifer)! Always fun to see birds in unexpected places. We had a Northern Harrier fly over an empty field, bringing the bird list to 120 at the end of the morning.

After a nap, we went to Harlingen Arroyo Colorado to pick up some more birds. At the feeding station we spied Common Ground-Dove and Buff-bellied Hummingbird. We walked down to the river and were able to see Harri's Hawk, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Curve-billed Thrasher. That evening, we drove a resaca and added Anhinga and White Ibis. At the end of the day, we got to 127. Not bad for a few hours of birding!

Sunday, the 19th, we drove out to the South Padre Island Birding and Convention Center. Walking the trails, we were able to add Northern Pintail, Redhead, Red-breasted Merganser, Brown Pelican, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Reddish Egret, Roseate Spoonbill, Clapper Rail, Common Gallinue, Spotted Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit (lifer), Laughing Gull, Herring Gull, Caspian Tern, Black Skimmer and Common Yellowthroat. I love this area! The trails go right through the marsh and make it very easy to pick up birds like rails that are sometimes really difficult to spot. After walking the trails, we walked up to the Convention Center to look for a female American Redstart which has been seen near the water feature. Another birder already had eyes on the Redstart and she kindly pointed it out to us. On our way back to San Antonio, we picked up Tropical Kingbird, White-tailed Hawk, and Brewer's Blackbird.

Clapper Rail

American Redstart
Two day trip added 3 lifers and 42 year birds...up to 148 already!