Ahem...Is this thing on?

I went down to my usual haunt, Estero Llano a couple of weeks ago to check out the waders that have been migrating in for the last month.  I was hoping to see some birds that I'm still lousy at identifying: the Dowitchers and sand pipers.  Plus, I like going down there because I can usually get a good peak at a Vermellion Flycatcher, and a couple weeks before this, I got to see a common paraque...in short, estero has been good to me.

Apparently they had a sighting of a rare bird and a ranger was taking a bunch of people  down to a closed part of the park to see it.  We walked around for awhile and then one of the women called out and pointed...

I didn't really know what I was expecting, but there it was, a Magpie Jay.  It's about three feet tall, tail included.  It looks like what would happen if a gigantic Mexican Jay and gigantic Magpie had babies...hence the name, I guess.  Anyway, it's so out of context that it's not in the bird book.  The ranger said that they're pretty sure that its an escaped cage bird.  He explained that they live pretty far south in Mexico and they're non-migratory.  Two strikes.  They're really popular cage birds beacuse they're beautiful, but they're also really smart, so they escape fairly frequently.  Three strikes.  That said, it's still super cool.  I'm glad I got a chance to see it.

Here's a link to some Magpie Jay photos so you can get a peek.  Awesome stuff.

So, my brother, aka iceinperu, recently posted his bird list from the Peruvian jungle.  Although I can't quite get to the Peruvian Jungle, I can get to Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park. 

I've wanted to get back to Bentsen for for awhile, but this time with my bike.  It kind of a sprawling park and not a lot of trailheads out of the visitors' center.  It's nothing like Santa Anna, where you can get out on the paths right out of the parking lot.  So, I loaded up my bike and early this morning and drove back to my old hometown of Mission, Texas.

First, I have to say that biking was AMAZING, and the best way to keep the bugs away.  They have an incredible hawk tower (that's handicapped accessible!!), which I hadn't been to before, simply because it took too long to get out there on foot.  While I was on the hawk tower, I saw two new birds: the little blue heron and the grooved-billed ani, which I'd looked so long and hard for on Wednesday.  The Ani is pretty common in the summer but it looks looks a bit like the much more common great-tailed grackle if you don't have binoculars/look too quickly.  It was a  great bird to see, and I was SUPER close (probably about 12 feet away).  I was close enough to see the grooves in its bill which was a real treat.  The heron is an exciting spot because it means I have a full page checked off in my bird book.  Huzzah!

I also got to wander around and meet some of the park rangers, who were super-enthusiastic about planning a program for my students.  I think I'll pass it along to our science teacher and see what she can do.

The only downside of the morning was that it had just rained, and I forgot my bugspray.  My legs are COVERED with mosquito bites.  I've counted 47 in all.  Seriously.  I look like I have the plague or something.

Here's the complete list from yesterday morning:

Plain Chachalaca
Least Grebe
Pied-Billed Grebe
Yellow-Crowned Night Heron
Little Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Mystery Hawk (maybe a juvenile Harris's.  It flew away too quickly)
Turkey Vulture
White-winged dove
Inca Dove
Grooved-Billed Ani
Ringed Kingfisher
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker
Green Jay
Great-Tailed Grackle
Northern Mockingbird
House Sparrow

So these days, my favorite place to go is Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center site.  The main benefit of going there instead of Santa Anna is that it's so much closer.  I don't have an NPS Pass anymore, so I'd have to pay at Santa Anna anyway.

So, I headed over to Estero early Wednesday morning.  I was dismayed because the gate was shut when I first showed up.  I sat on the porch and watched the feeders for a bit--the buff-bellied hummingbird was about...one of those has been hanging out around our feeder here at home, so it was a quick ID.  I wandered around a bit and saw a Chachalaca with its red breeding markings all a-glow, which was kind of exciting.  Then, I ran into Jim, one of the Park Rangers.  We recognized each other by sight (which is an indication of how many times I've been there...), and he let me into the park through the back gate.  Neat.

I went in looking for the Grooved-Billed Ani, but no luck.  I walked out to Alligator Pond and scanned the trees as I went.  Lots of Black-bellied whistling ducks and more white-winged doves along the trail.  The best spot though was a flash of red I picked up and followed.  I was hoping it was Vermillion Flycatcher, one of my favorites.  I focused in and was so excited--a Painted Bunting!  It was a boy bunting, and if you click the link, you can see just how lovely they are.  I made it over to Alligator Lake and sat around at the benches, seeing who was out and about.  Lots of birds in the pond areas.  The usual suspects were out, but the big thrill was a Green Heron.  He was perched on one of the branches, just like the one in this picture.  He was a little bit younger (more brown spots on his chest).

I walked around the lake area, but didn't see anything else new.  I headed down to some of the side trails, but it was getting hot and it was still kind of muddy from the hurricane.  I headed out after a short walk, satisfied with my two-new-bird day, but still a little bummed about the grooved-billed ani.

Here's the complete list from the morning:

Plain Chachalaca
American White Pelican
Yellow-Crowned Night-Heron
Green Heron
Snowy Egret
Roseate Spoonbill (in flight, so...?)
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
White-winged Dove
Common-Ground Dove
Inca Dove
White-Tipped Dove
Buff-Bellied Hummingbird
Golden Fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-Backed Woodpecker
Great Kiskadee
Cliff Swallow
Long Billed Thrasher
Painted Bunting
Great-Tailed Grackle
House Sparrow

So, this afternoon I noticed my cat (Gracie!) looking longingly out the window.  I thought she was watching the white wing doves that have been mating in the trees in our yard.

Then, I looked and realized that there was a Chachalaca running around on our lawn.  Although this has never happened before, I wasn't particularly surprised--they're native and pretty numerous around here.  So, I went outside (with the cat) to get a closer look.  And, although this is not the main point of the story, you should note that as soon as we were outside, Grace quickly HID from the Chachalaca.  So much for having a fierce hunting kitty.

So, I walked around our big tree where the Chacalaca was, and noticed that not only was there one Chachalaca, there were two!



Only downside...

One of them was a heaping pile of Chachalaca carcass.


Now, Emma and I are going to Home Depot to get a shovel.




P.S. I miss my landlord.

This morning, I took a couple hours to bird at Santa Ana NWR. I like going there, mostly because it's free with my park pass...but they also have TONS of birds. I've seen all sorts of crazy statistics about the number of speices...as high as 400. The last time I was there, I had a great morning, so I decided to go again.

This morning was not quite as productive, but I did see some new life listers. The usual suspects were out; a list follows:

Northern Mockingbird
Tufted Titmouse
Cardinal
Brown Thrashers
Plain Chachalacas
Green Jays
Red Winged-Blackbirds
Great Tailed Grackles
Golden Fronted Woodpeckers
Ladder Backed Woodpeckers
House Sparrows
European Starlings

But...there were some newbies as well.

Olive Sparrow
Carolina Wren
Mottled Duck

After seeing these three, I was set to go home happy. I went into the visitor's center and they said that 2 Clay Colored Robins had been sighted in the butterfly garden yesterday. So I went out there and there was a big group of tourist birders looking in a spotting scope. And, sure enough, within a matter of moments, we'd spotted:

Clay Colored Robin
Lesser Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Orange-Crowned Warbler
Lincoln's Sparrow

The Clay-Colored Robin was the real treat. They're kind of rare around here. In the bird book, they're so rare that they don't even have a range map. It's one of the first really unique birds I've seen.

It's getting dark, so I've gotta take off. I wanted to head over to the Valley Nature Center to see the parrots tonight. I'll let you know how that goes.

I also need to write an update on my trip to Big Bend....Emma and I spent Thanksgiving there and I think I doubled the size of my life list. I'll get on that soon.

I've been meaning to update for awhile...we had a week off for Thanksgiving, and then after that, school just started eating me alive.

Emma and I spent the first 1/2 of our week off in Big Bend National Park.  It's a place I've wanted to visit ever since I moved to Texas, but it's SO far away and completely in the middle of nowhere.  But the week off from school gave us the perfect opportunity.  So, we loaded up the car on Saturday morning and did the 9 hour drive to the park.

The drive runs through lots of prarie-desert scrub, which is the perfect place to watch for hawks.  We saw a whole bunch of Crested Caracara, Turkey Vultures, Black Vultures, Red-Tailed hawks, and even a Harris Hawk.  There were a few other ones we saw that we just couldn't identify. We saw something that looked like a Short-Tailed hawk who'd have been out of his habitat and a long way from home...On the way into the park, we got a great look at a Northern Harrier flying low and hunting for mice.  On the last morning we were there, we also saw an American Kestrel.  All in all, a great week for hawks.

But, we also spent a lot of time birding right by a marsh near our campsite.  We got to see a Pied-Billed Grebe, which is related to the loon.  They're really loud and have this funny, hooting sounding call.  Emma liked them because they're also really cute and puffy.  We also got to see some American Coots near the marsh and another birder helped me identify the Marsh wren--another new bird.

Along the Rio Grande, we saw a bunch of rock wrens, some ravens, and Emma's first Black Phebe.  On another trail we hiked, we spotted a whole bunch of Spotted Towhees and a Cayon Towhee. 

Since Big Bend is so huge, you have to drive a lot if you want to see a lot of the park.  We took a lot of driving trips around the park--it's so vast, empty and beautiful.  When you're driving, there's NO ONE else around, except for a few Scaled Quail...One of the park rangers explained it this way:  If everyone who visited Yosemite in 1 year all came on the same day, they would have 2 sq. ft. to themselves.  If everyone who visited Big Bend in 1 year all came on the same day, they'd have 2 acres to themselves!

My favorite, by far, was a bird I'd been hoping to see since I started--the Pyrrhuloxia.  (Say: ParaLOXiya).  They're really closely related to the cardinal, but they've got gray plumage over the top.  When they're pearched, they're sort of a redish gray, but when they take off they explode into red.  SO COOL.

Unfortunatly, the two birds I REALLY wanted to see were not interested in being seen.  The Golden Eagle and the Montezuma Quail were both in hiding.  But, all was not lost.

The highlight was the day that I hiked up Emory Peak.  Emma wasn't up for a big hike, so I went on my own.  There were a couple of Ruby-Crowned Kinglets flitting around in the trees, but the real treat came as I got higher up the mountain.  I got to see a couple of Mexican Jays, which are a specialty of Big Bend's.  There's not a lot of other places where they live, so I left the park with good feelings.

I took the day off from school because we're closing on our house today.  I decided to start the day off right with some birding.  I drove down to Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, which is supposed to be one of the best hot spots in the country.

The list is extensive.  I saw an incredible number of birds.  My favorites are linked.

Old Birds:
Grackle
Northern Mockingbird
Green Jay
Plain Chachalaca
House Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Brown Thrasher
Great Kiskadee
Vermilion Flycatcher
Ladder Backed Woodpecker
Golden Fronted Woodpecker
Black-necked Stilt
A couple of mystery warblers...they're too small and too fast...

New Birds:
Black and white Warbler
Blue Gray Gnatcatcher
Black-Crested Titmouse
Green Kingfisher
White Tipped Dove
Long-Billed Dowitcher
American Avocet
American Coot
Aplomado Falcon
White Faced Ibis
Least Grebe
Woodstork
Blue Ringed Teal (Duck)
Green Winged Tea (Duck)
Dunlin

Today, we went on a field lesson with my students (IDEA's way of saying, "field trip").  We went to Palo Alto Battlefield and University of Texas Brownsville.  At the end of our tours, we took our kids to Dean Porter Park, right across the road from the Gladys Porter Zoo in downtown Brownsville.

At the park, I noticed a bunch of birds hanging out in the canals, but I couldn't go look at them because I was watching my students.  But then, three (yes!  three!) Muscovy Ducks came up off the bank and wandered up to our group.  They're obviously used to hanging out by the picnic area and used to eating scraps.  That was a little sad and frustrating, but getting to see the ducks was a real treat.  My bird guide hinted that I'd have to go all the way out to Falcon Dam again if I wanted to see one.  But there they were, three of them, hanging out with us during our picnic lunch.  It was awesome.

I dragged all my students over to see the duck and explained to them how lucky they were.  I think a couple of them thought it was cool, but most of them were sorta like, "Yea, miss.  It's a big duck.  Can we go play football now?"  Still, a couple of the kids (the usuals) really enjoyed birding with me.  I'll make some bird nerds out of them somehow!

This weekend, Emma and I took a trip to Corpus Christi and to Padre Island National Seashore.  Although it was a little early to start seeing migrating birds, there were several out.  I'm looking forward to going back in January or February when the whole beachfront is filled with birds.

Along the shore, it wasn't hard to find birds at all.  It was a really nice contrast to hunting for birds in the mesquite brush which takes forever.  Here's a list of new species we saw.  My particular favorites are linked to whatbird.com so that you can get a good look at them.

Reddish Egret (white morph)
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Crested Caracara
Black Bellied Plover
Snowy Plover
Black-necked Stilt
Willet
Long-Billed Curlew
Ruddy Turnstone
Sanderling
Laughing Gull
Royal Tern
Foster's Tern

Upshot, awesome Saturday.

IDEA Public Schools is a wonderful institution...because this weekend, we had Friday off.

Emma and I had a busy weekend planned, what with a couple of parties, a softball game, and church stuff.  Amazing how you do nothing for weekends on end and then suddenly, you don't have enough free time.  I'm sure next weekend, it'll be back to normal.

Anyway, because we had a three-day weekend, we took a little trip to Falcon State Park.  It's about sixty miles away, right on the border outside the town of Roma.  It's an amazing place in general, but we went to bird.  Or at least, I did.

We pulled into the park and drove to the campground.  We had to stop, though because I saw an owl.  He was sitting under a lamp, ripping up some dinner with his claws.  I spent a long time checking him out and ID him—an Eastern Screech Owl, the gray morph.  I’ve only IDed 1 other owl, so this was pretty sweet.

We camped out on Thursday night at a totally deserted campsite.  We slept okay, but there was a pack of coyotes that started howling around 4am...charming.

We woke up early and started birding, but it was quiet around our campsite.  We saw some mockingbirds and bunnies, but that was about it.  Then, as I was taking down the tent, I saw two big birds land in a tree.  Once I got a good clear look at them, I knew that they were Crested Caracara.  They're these amazing birds of prey with a face only a mother could love.  Emma and I watched them for a little while until they flew away.

Then we headed out to the nature trail, but stopped to check for water birds at the boat launch.  I got to see a bunch of Great Egrets hanging out.  I saw something that may have been a green kingfisher, but didn’t get a good look at it.  There was another Crested Caracara pulling apart some fish guts in the parking lot.  I got a nice picture and a good, long look at it.

Then we went onto the nature trail and saw a whole bunch of birds.  Rather than bore you with a long description of where, when and plant types, I’ll just make a list.
Cardinal (1 adult, 1 juvenile)
Northern Mockingbirds (about a bazillion….)
2 Great Kiskadees
1 Brown Thrasher
Some mystery warbler—maybe a gray vireo
Great Tailed Grackles
Golden-Fronted Woodpecker
Great Blue Heron

Then, once we finished our walk, we drove over to the world birding center in Roma.  On the drive we pulled over twice—once for a Loggerhead Shrike and once for what I’m fairly sure was a Roadside Hawk. There were also tons of Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher hanging out on the powerlines.

Once we got to Roma, we went over to the overlook.  I really want to go there again, in the early morning.  Here’s what we saw there:

Redwing Blackbirds
Green Jay
Couch’s Kingbirds
A herd of domestic pigs

We heard a lot of other birds, but my binoculars just weren’t powerful enough to break through the brush.  There was a super birder with a spotting scope who helped me see the Kingbirds.  

Anyway, an awesome 24 hours of birds.  I can’t wait for our next trip.