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