Of Parrots and Pauraques

This past weekend, we made a trip down to Brownsville. I already knew that this was going to be more of a family trip than a birding trip (especially since we're going down on 3/21 and 4/11 again), so I didn't plan on us getting to see too many species. Plus, once we got down to the valley, the weather was bunk and made me not feel too bad about missing out on some birding experiences.

The one concession to birding I wanted was a visit to Oliveira Park near sunset for a look at the Parrots and Parakeets. If you ever go down to Brownsville, you have to check out this park. It is such an experience to have hundreds of Parrots come flying in, making more noise than you can believe.

We were on the look out for Red-crowned Parrots, which are the most common species, but also anything else we could find. When we got there, it was cold and drizzling, but there were tons of birds lined up on the telephone lines surrounding the park. Scanning the line showed Red-crowned Parrots (as expected), along with a handful of Red-lored Parrots. These are not an accepted TBRC/ABA species, but they are an established population and seem to be holding their own amongst the Red-crowneds. I also managed to spy a Green Parakeet (a lifer...which I thought I had already seen before...whoops!).

On the way back to my sister-in-law's house, we decided to cruise Resaca de la Palma State Park. We knew the visitor's center would be closed, but we thought the gate might still be open. It wasn't, but that was totally ok since we had an awesome bird (or 12) right outside of the gate. Our headlights managed to illuminate at least 12 Common Pauraques working the fields at the entrance to the park. What a neat experience to see these birds we normally only hear at night while sitting on my sister-in-law's porch.

The next morning, we got up in the rain and made it over to Resaca de la Palma again. This time, we knew they'd be open. We were looking for a specific new bird that has been seen lately. We paid our fees and headed to the feeders, keeping our eyes peeled. An employee of the park said that the bird had been seen the previous day, so we had high hopes. About 10 minutes later, we were rewarded by a very brief appearance of a Black-headed Grosbeak (lifer). After that, we were so cold, we packed it up and headed back for breakfast.

The April trip is very exciting and I can't wait to bird until I drop!

Texas year list as of 03/09/14: 198