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| Best Picture of the Trip!!! Nation Geographic submission |
Welcome home south Texas birder!!! That's right, back in good ole sunny, cold, windy and snowy Ohio. I spent three days in late February in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, getting some winter birding in. It was a chance to start my year list off quickly and hopefully add some much needed #LifeBirds. But guess what? No life birds this trip! First time in a long time. But I did get good pictures of "second look lifers". Birds I've seen in my younger years, but got to re-experience them again, and with friends.
This entry will be more about winter LRGV rarities, FOY's, and places visited. Since I've been birding in the valley starting in 1986 with my grandparents, I'm starting to run out of new life birds to see there. Sooner or later it was bound to happen.
Lifers missed:
- Mountain Plover, code 2, dipped again, second year in a row. Several where reported in a field across from Santa Ana 4-6 days earlier. Right place, wrong time. See ya next year?? 3rd try
- Varied Bunting, code 2, Butterfly museum, $10 per person per trip. Rare bird to the LRGV, only reported for 2 days about a week earlier. And since no report while I was there, I did not try. But trust me I had my $10 and was ready in case it showed up again.
There are two airports to fly into the valley, McAllen(MFE) and Harlingen(HRL). I always fly into HRL because Southwest Airlines only fly there. Both airports are about 45 minutes apart and are close to all the birding hot spots. This year I was only trying for the 2 life birds, but all the other FOYs birds and Code 3's where the highlights.
Out of the 138 species that I saw/heard, 21 where Code 2 or higher. That's 15.2%!! So one out of 6 birds were a birding highlight reel. Here's some good ones . . .
Day 1:
Santa Ana NWR--White-tipped dove(h), Tropical Parula(code3),
Estero Llano Grande SP--Yellow & Black crowned Night Heron
Progresso fields--Yellow-headed Blackbird, Bronzeded Cowbird
Hargill Plaza--Snowy Plover(code2), lifer last year probably same bird!
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| @ Estero Llano SP |
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| Snowy Plover, part 2?!? |
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| Common Pauraque |
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| Green Parakeets(2), McAllen |
Day 2:
Salineo river front--Red-billed Pigeons(code2), Olive Sparrow(2), Ringed Kingfisher(2)
Zappata Liberay/park--White-collared Seedeater(2)
Falcon Dam SP--Lunch and windy
Hildago--Monk Parakeet(2)
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| Daybreak at the Rio Grande River |
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| Osprey staring at me |
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| Red-billed Pigeons(2) |
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| Re-lifer |
I originally saw these pigeons back on 3/31/1989 @ Zapata, TX with Red&Louise
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| White-collared Seedeater(3) |
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| second look lifer |
I originally saw the seedeater back on 3/31/1991 @ San Ignacio, TX with Red&Louise
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| Monk Parakeets, Code 2 |
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| Pack a lunch @ Falcon Dam SP |
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| Texas HOT!! |
Day 3:
Port Isabel Rd.--Alpomado Falcon(3), Long-billed Curlew, Vesper Sparrow
South Padre Island convention center--lots, lots of herons, shorebirds, skimmers, terns
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| Port Isabel Rd. birding |
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| Alpomado Falcon, Code 3 |
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| Very Rare bird |
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| Texas horse & a Code 3 Falcon!! |
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| Big Alligator at SPI Conv.Center |
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| Roseate Spoonbills |
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| Welcome Spring Breakers 2017!! |
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| Team #RuddyTurnstoned |
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| Coastal Breeze |
Day 4:
Estero Llano Grande SP--Clay-colored Thrush(3), Long-billed Thrasher(2), Ruby-crown Kinglet
Harligen--Mourning Dove
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| Clay-colored Thrush, code 3 |
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| Texas Snacks |
Code 3: Rare
Species that occur in very low numbers, but annually, in the ABA Checklist Area. This includes visitors and rare breeding residents.
Total seen/heard: 138
Code 2s: 17
Code 3s: 4 Tropical Parula, Alpomado Falcon, White-collared Seedeater, Clay-colored Thrush(Robin)
Code 4: 0 first code 4 miss year in a long time, damn
Code 2: species have a restricted North American range, are more widespread, but occur in lower densities, or are quite secretive making their detection often difficult. We readily acknowledge that some Code-2 species are harder to find than some species that have higher codes.
Next up: Ohio Birding . . . Seattle in late April!!
