Birding Blind?

I suppose that title can have a couple different meanings. You can bird from a blind, or you can blindly bird, or you could feel blind while you bird. I'm dealing a bit with the third. I wear glasses at work, not because it's hard for me to see, but because I easily get eye strain when staring at a computer all day. My vision isn't 20/20, but it's still pretty good. I can see things far away, I can see things up close, I can see things that are small.

However, on our recent trip to the RGV, I was in charge of the camera for a time. I'm clearly not the best photographer, but I don't do it for the best pictures in the world. I like taking pictures of the birds because 1) I think they're pretty, 2) it reminds me of all the fun I had on a specific trip, and 3) it helps me see the field marks on various individuals which may have a different pattern than the standards in a book, which makes me a better birder. Looking back at some of the pictures I took on this past trip, I realized something that made me feel much older than my true age: I can't see nearly as well as I thought I could. The things with the bins and camera is that I can adjust the fine focus to make the birds look clear to me through the lens. Unfortunately, that doesn't always translate to an in-focus image once I've taken the picture.

In concession to my age, I think it's time to start birding with my glasses. I'm due for a new pair, so maybe I can get a cheaper pair for birding and keep my nice ones for work. I just hope that'll solve some of my problems when it comes to taking pictures. It's hard to ID field marks from a smudgy pic.

RGV Birding Part 3 (4/14/14)

We got out of the house around 7AM and grabbed some coffee before heading back to the island. The wind was supposed to have died down, hopefully making birding a bit more successful. We really like this bagel shop called Bada Bing, but they apparently they're closed on Mondays. Instead, we went to McDonalds and grabbed a quick breakfast and then made our way to the SPI Birding Center. This is a really fantastic area, and definitely worth the $5 admission. If you go to the RGV, make this one of your stops.

Walking out on to the boardwalk, we saw a Cattle Egret roost with at least 50-60 birds. There was a Mottled Duck under the seed feeder. Down the boardwalk, there were numerous Willet and Least Sandpipers in the mudflats and Tricolored Herons perched on the boardwalk itself.

Continuing around, we spied a Clapper Rail running in the reeds with Coots and Gallinue. Near one of the bird blinds, we had this little Least Bittern standing right out in the open.



Overhead were lots of Laughing Gulls, Least Terns, Black Skimmers, and other gulls (which remained unidentified until just a bit later). Instead of walking out the end of the boardwalk, we doubled back to see if we could pick up anything else we missed. This is how we saw a Swamp Sparrow and Common Yellowthroat. Near an intersection in the boardwalk, we ran smack into another Least Bittern, as well as a couple we had seen the day before. They pointed us to a Sora and we directed them to the Least Bittern. That's the best kind of birding. As we made our way back to the center, we passed some folks looking at another Clapper Rail (which they were calling a Sora) while others were looking at a scope. I heard two words that made me turn around: "Peregrine Falcon". It's one of my embarrassing misses...well, it was! They had great looks at one perched on the water tower. Lifer! I thanked them and explained how to tell the difference between the Clapper and the Sora and directed them to where the Sora had been. Hopefully they got to see it.



We left the birding center and drove to the Convention Center in hopes of having more luck than the day before. Immediately in the bottlebrushes, we saw two Tennessee Warblers. Around back, we had the Townsend's again, as well as a Black-throated Green.





I kept walking down the path and saw my huge flock of unidentified gulls land. I peeked at them through the binoculars and remembered what Huck had said the day before. "Franklin's will have a pinkish tint. Laughing won't." He was serious. These gulls looked like they got washed with a red sock!



We saw the Orchard Orioles again, but not much else, so we went to the Sheepshead Lots. There were two other birders there, but they said they hadn't seen much. We saw the Louisiana Waterthrush again, and were about to give up when we noticed some fluttering. In one tree we had an unidentified flying yellow object (which was figured out in a bit with the help of you all!), a Northern Parula, a Black-throated Green, and a Painted Bunting. Awesome! I followed the lady back to see a roosting Nighthawk while my partner went on a bunting hunt. I saw the Nighthawk and came around to find my partner on 3(!!!) male Painted Buntings. I quickly waved the couple over (the lady had missed the Painted Bunting her husband had seen a few days before because she was at yoga). By the time they got there, one had left, but we still got nice looks at 2. They went a little further down while we waited to see if anyone else popped out. They got on something, and I swear it sounded like Grosbeak, so we hustled over. They had 3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (2 males, 1 female). We decided we were each other's birding good-luck charms.




Coming back around, we ran into the other couple from the Convention Center and we told them about the Nighthawk, so they went off in search of it. There were actually at least 2, so we figured they'd have good luck. I walked back around to the middle of the area, turned, and saw this:



We waved our new friends over so they could see it too. As we were standing there, a van full of New Yorkers rolled up. We happened to get on a bird and were looking at it through our binoculars but myself and one of my new friends could not make the word come out of our mouths. There was some sort of brain/bird disconnect. Leave it to a New Yorkers..."DICKCISSEL!!!!!!!" We all got stellar looks at the year's first Dickcissel before he decided he had somewhere else to be.



The New Yorkers were on an Eastern Wood-Pewee, so I'd like to consider us even. We walked across the street and saw the mystery bird in the water drip. One of our new friends came over and we were all stuck in Warbler mindset and couldn't make it work for anything. Thanks to y'all, I know now that we had a female Scarlet Tanager (duh!). Right before we left, we had a Yellow Warbler in a tree.

We packed up the dogs and began the long drive back to San Antonio. Along the way, we picked up White-tailed Kite, Brewer's Blackbird, Crested Caracara, and Swainson's Hawk. Boy it was fun, but I was glad to be home.

One of the wonderful things about South Texas birding in the winter is Winter Texans. These are folks from up north who come down here in the winter because being up north in the winter really sucks. These are some of the friendliest birders I have ever met. They're always sad for us when they find out we have to go back to work and are only down for the weekend. They always help us find birds we didn't see, and they're always ready to have a chat. I think that's because they only see each other all winter and are happy to see a fresh face.

SPI Birding and Convention Center: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17892581

Sheepshead Lots: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17892657

Trip Summary:
Total Birds: 139
Year Birds: 27
Lifers: 5

RGV Birding Part 2 (4/13/14)

Though the weather conditions had definitely not improved, I had a feeling today was going to be a better day. I had already decided that we should go to Estero Llano in Weslaco and do the guided bird walk at 8:30. We got there around 8 and viewed birds off the deck for the first half hour. One of the guides was there (Pat) and she explained that they like to see birds off the deck for 30 min and then go on the walk. I was very glad we did, since we scored the first lifer of the trip about 15 feet away, a pair of Fulvous Whistling-Ducks. I'd put a picture, but a duck butt is a duck butt, you know? Our first warbler of the entire trip was the Common Yellowthroat flitting around the deck.



Folks slowly trickled in, and our group got up to about 15 + 2 guides (Huck and Pat). We began the walk down the trail near the Purple Martin houses and had a kettle of 200-300 gulls fly over. Huck wasn't super confident they were Franklin's, so we didn't count them. The group stood on the bridge waiting for a Virginia Rail. No luck, but we did have a beautiful little Sora and could hear the Marsh Wrens. As we all turned to leave, I spotted a Marsh Wren in the reeds and pointed it out to the group. It was definitely a lifer for a big portion of the folks (8-9 were from the UK). Another lady pointed out a Least Tern, which was our first for the year. We stopped at various ponds, seeing both White and White-faced Ibis, as well as a pair of fly-over Roseate Spoonbills. Our destination for this part of the walk was a grove of trees where a mama Common Pauraque (I've been saying "Pair-a-key" but Huck called them "Pa-rocky"...any other opinions???) has been nesting. On one side, we didn't see her, so we moved to the other. All of a sudden, there she was, in front of a yucca, with her two babies. There was a rabbit near them, and as soon as he got too close, mama and her babies, stood up and all put their wings up in an effort to be intimidating. I don't think they bothered that rabbit one bit, but we got an awesome show. The pictures aren't the best because it all happened pretty fast, but I thought it was a neat show anyway.





We walked around some more ponds, and finally up to the levee. The wind was even stronger here (sustained speeds of ~30mph), so there wasn't much to see except a handful of Turkey Vultures and our first Tree Swallows of the year. The real reason we were up here was the view of an Eastern Screech Owl nestbox. It was really cute to see that little face poking out! On the way back towards the Visitor's Center, we stopped at a pond where they'd had Cinnamon Teal for months. No Cinnamon this time, but we did have Blue and Green-winged. We also had our year Stilt Sandpipers. Behind the sandpipers, a lady from Canyon Lake (just north of San Antonio) and I both saw this tiny bird spinning in circles like a dog chasing its tail. Wilson's Phalarope! My first of the year, and also Estero Llano's first of the year. As we were crossing the final bridge, we were on the lookout for our missing Virginia Rail. About a quarter of the way, I spied some movement and called out that I had something. One of the other walkers said it was a Sora, but I knew that wasn't right, even though the size fit. I started calling out field marks...long orange bill...gray cheeks... Huck got very excited and said "Virginia Rail!". Second lifer of the day (and #350 overall for me!). Some of the UK folks didn't see it, so they waited on the bridge while the rest of us went back to the Visitor's Center to compile our first half list.

After a snack, we began the second part of the walk. Right away we had a Plain Chachalaca on the feeders. We rounded the corner and had a Brown-crested Flycatcher and Clay-colored Thrush in an old mobile home spot (a big portion of this park used to be a mobile home park. Folks were allowed to continue living there until they either passed away or moved into a retirement home. There are still 3 residents of this old mobile home park who live there...there's also a really cool birder called Benton Basham living there. He did a big year in 1983 and had 711 species. He was super nice!). Huck pointed out two Altamira Orioles building their nest.



There were Bronzed Cowbirds watching...plotting their evil plans. So hopefully the Orioles are able to keep the Cowbirds away. Walking through the old park, we were added Ruby-throated Hummingbirds for the year. Near a feeding station, we saw this squirrel raiding the bird seed.



Finally, on the way out, we had a Broad-winged Hawk soaring overhead, to make the 8th year bird. I would highly recommend the bird walk at Estero Llano to anyone planning on heading to the RGV. Huck and Pat were super informative and gave us a LOT of good tips for recognizing and differentiating various species.

After we left Estero, we drove about 2 miles down the road to the Progreso Grain Silos to pick up our lifer Yellow-headed Blackbirds. On our way back to my sister-in-law's house, we debated what birding (if any) we wanted to do for the rest of the day. Since Estero is a World Birding Center, if you pay to get into one, you can get in to any of them for the rest of the day. So we went to Resaca de la Palma, which is about 2 miles from my sister-in-law's. It was pretty blah. No new birds, very very hot and windy. I was ready to call it a day, but my partner convinced me we could go one more place. I knew from Facebook that a Townsend's Warbler (rare for the Texas Coast) had been seen Saturday night and Sunday around noon at the SPI Convention Center. I said "What the heck?" and we drove out the 45 minutes to the island.

We walked the free boardwalk (the World Birding Center part was already closed since it was 5pm) and saw lots of Red-winged Blackbirds, Laughing Gulls, etc. I was able to add Semipalmated Sandpiper to the year list before we decided to walk over to the Convention Center. We immediately found the Townsend's (just follow the giant lenses...).



We also had a Yellow-rumped, bringing the Warbler total to a whopping 3. Our last year bird of the day was a gorgeous adult male Orchard Oriole.



We left the Convention Center and drove down the island a way before accessing the beach. We added Sanderlings for the day, but this was not a productive spot. On our way off the island, we stopped at the Sheepshead Lots. People had been reporting tons of warblers, buntings, etc. We had a really cute Louisiana Waterthrush, but not much else. This was probably because some idiots climbed over the fence and were trampling all through the habitat. We made our way off the island and tried to get some rest for our last day in the RGV.

Estero Llano: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17873309
Silos: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17872435
Resaca de la Palma: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17875544
Convention Center: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17882736
Beach: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17892682
Sheepshead Lot: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17917951

RGV birding Part 1 (4/12/14)

We woke up at 5 on Saturday because we wanted to get an early start out to the island (South Padre Island). While getting ready, I checked all my sources to see if there was anything rare/cool being seen besides the various warblers, buntings, orioles, etc, that had been seen for the past few days. When I checked the Rio Grande Valley Birding Facebook page, I saw that there was a motorcycle festival going on at the Convention Center (which is some of the best birding on the island) through Sunday afternoon. I was super disappointed because that really threw a wrench in my plans, but we decided to be a bit flexible and head out to Sabal Palm instead. We got there around 7AM and I immediately knew it was going to be a bad day. The winds were terrible. 20-25 mph sustained winds with gusts between 30-50 mph meant that most birds were going to ground or got blown out and weren't going to be around. Oh well, that's what happens sometimes!

We first walked around the old plantation house on the property to check out the nesting Great Horned Owl. She's been in the same tree since January, so we've already seen here 3-4 times, but I never tire of seeing owls! We had some Black-bellied Whistling Ducks in the trees near the house as well. We walked around the front to head down to the feeding station and had our first new bird of the year, Bronzed Cowbird. I like them because they look sort of evil. They don't try and pretend they're nice, they just let you know with those red eyes that they mean business. On the path down to the feeders, we had some Hooded Orioles drinking from a hummingbird feeder, which was really upsetting to the hummingbird. We couldn't see it, but we could hear it flying all around scolding the orioles. The feeding station is always nice, and never disappoints when it comes to South Texas specialties. We had Green Jays, White-tipped Doves, Plain Chachalacs, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, Clay-colored Thrushes, Buff-bellied Hummingbirds, etc.




We walked down the trail through the Butterfly Gardens and down to the Rio Grande. Along the way, we had our next new year bird, Brown-crested Flycatchers. The lighting was terrible, but luckily, these called, making it easy enough to distinguish them from Great-crested. We kept hearing this terrible ruckus near the blind so we kept walking towards it...only to be almost run over by the Border Patrol. For those not aware, the Rio Grande is the border between the US and Mexico and also is the southern border of Sabal Palm. The entire park is actually BEHIND the border fence, so Border Patrol is to be expected. I actually heard a lady last month ask if she was in Mexico now. I can see the confusion (especially when AT&T on your cell phone gets replaced by movistar/TELCEL), but the park is still US territory...no passport necessary!

We never saw the birds making the noise, but later figured out that they were Chachalacas. They're getting pretty territorial this time of year and also advertising for mates...so they are really freaking loud. Overhead we had a kettle of at least 200 American White Pelicans. It was one of the coolest things! We turned back towards the feeding station and saw a Bronzed Cowbird doing a display.



Then, we heard a loud noise in the brush. A loud noise in the brush in Texas is always scary. Is it a bobcat? A coyote? A different kind of coyote (the human kind...)? A crazy feral hog? Not today...this was a javelina!



That was a first for us and pretty cool, even if it wasn't a bird. Down near the end of the path, we had our first Olive Sparrows of the day. They were gathering nesting material. We walked down to the resaca and spent some time in the bird blind. We didn't have much down there except Least Grebe, Ruddy Ducks, and a Belted Kingfisher, so we left the blind and decided to walk some more. All of a sudden, my partner jumps back screaming "RED TOUCHES YELLOW RED TOUCHES YELLOW".



While not the biggest snake we've seen at Sabal Palm (last month's 5 foot Indigo takes the prize...), this Coral was definitely the most dangerous, so we headed away from that area. Near the end of the resaca, we got lucky when we looked up and our third year bird of the day, a giant Ringed Kingfisher. Seriously, they're huge. We went back to the feeding station and watched a Buff-bellied preen.






We left Sabal Palm and drove to Hugh Ramsey Park in Harlingen. As I mentioned, the winds were awful, and now the temperature was climbing, so I didn't expect much. At this park, we got nice looks at Curve-billed Thrashers and a Solitary Sandpiper. We also got really nice looks at some Great Kiskadees doing their flycatching. Finally, we went to Harlingen City Lake in hopes of catching the Fulvous Whistling Ducks that had been reported recently. No dice, but the there were plenty of Black-bellieds and Laughing Gulls braving the wind!

All in all, not the best day of birding in South Texas, but there were still a couple more days of the trip to go!

Sabal Palm http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17859948
Hugh Ramsey http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17862672
Harlingen City Lake http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S17862717