Texas! (30Mar-06Apr)

I don't think I have neglected birding more in the past 10 years than I have in the past two months.  Usually spring has me motivated for finding first of year birds coming back from their wintering grounds, but lately I have been really busy with work but also with tending to my garden.  That being said, I did take a long weekend trip down to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas in the beginning of April so I had tons of photographs to edit and post.  I am finally getting to it now.

Right before I left for Texas, I took a walk down the Hermit Trail down at Fort Fisher.

Bald Eagle

Northern Flicker

We have been eating at Perla lately, one of the best burgers in Wilmington and plenty of other good eats too.

I had booked my Texas trip on a whim a month or so prior when multiple rarities were being reported and kept checking the reports so I could plan on what to chase.  Unfortunately once early April rolled around, several of the rarities were gone including the Bare-throated Tiger Heron and the Gray-collared Becard.  However, the Mottled Owl and Brown Jays were still around as well as the Cattle Tyrant and some other good birds I still didn't have for my ABA list.

I flew into Brownsville, TX on a Friday and headed immediately to the University of Texas Rio Grande campus to try for the ongoing Fan-tailed Warbler.  I didn't have high hopes for it because it was kind of sporadically showing up and the spot was not a really fun place to bird, not to mention it was in the high 80s and late in the afternoon.  I waited in the buggy resaca habitat next to a bucket where it had been seen before but had no luck, so I wandered the campus a bit.  Someone had reported Fulvous Whistling Ducks somewhere on the lake so I looked for them but could only find a large number of Black-bellied.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks.

Couch's Kingbird - It was fun trying to ID the Kingbirds on campus where both Couch's and Tropical are common.  Supposedly the Couch's have a heavier and stouter bill which this one did, but luckily they were calling incessantly.  

Green Parakeet - I had these and Red-Crowned Parrots but the Parrots were all fly-bys with no good photo ops.

I had a long drive to my hotel in Rio Grande City so I set off well before subset so I wouldn't have to drive at night.    I found out later someone had seen the Fan-tailed Warbler earlier in the morning and also in subsequent days so that stung a bit.

In the morning, I had scheduled an all day guided trip on the Santa Margarita Ranch which is the private land where numerous rarities had been reported in the past 6 months.  The main target for the day were the long staying family of Brown Jays which have been reported before in the ABA but this is the first year in many years where they have stuck around and appear to be nesting on the USA side of the border.  I met up with a large group of birders next to the border fence before first light and the two guides gave an intro on what we could expect over the course of the day.  Lesser Nighthawks fed in the lights atop the huge steel border wall but I couldn't manage a picture in the dark.  As the sun started poking over the horizon we hiked down a trail to a bluff overlooking the Rio Grande River and spent several hours scanning both sides of the river.  I totally neglected to take any scenery pics, but it was quite a nice spot to spend several hours.

We had several Gray Hawks.

I think this was a Familiar Bluet.

All the Audubon's Orioles we saw were pretty distant, and I already have decent pics of this species so that was fine by me.

I wasn't prepared for how common the Swainson's Hawks would be.  They were mostly flying by in ones and twos, but later in the morning we had a massive kettle with hundreds of them.

Red-billed Pigeon - these are speciality birds for the region and usually the looks are like this, super far away perched in a tree top, or sometimes a quick fly-by.  I got better looks later in the day.

Butterflies were everywhere!  I will ID this one later.

Neotropic Cormorant - most of the birds we saw were quick fly-by birds flying up or down the river.

Ringed Kingfisher - we had a Green Kingfisher too but it was not very confiding.

Almost all Swainson's Hawks! There were a few Broad-winged Hawks mixed in.

I feel like now I will be able to ID a Swainson's better now in North Carolina after studying them down in Texas.

I am having trouble IDing this beast, which I photographed with my iPhone.  I will post it to iNat.

We moved to a different part of the ranch around 10-11am and as we parked our cars, one of the guides found a Red-billed Pigeon much closer.

Red-billed Pigeon - the cloudy conditions were not optimal for photography, but it was still lucky to see one so close.

A Dainty Sulphur was a new butterfly for me.

Brown Jay! Once we got to the spot where the guides maintain a feeding station, the Jays appeared quickly.

Very cool!

Golden-fronted Woodpecker even got into the peanut butter action.

Green Jays are of course always good to see.

Plain Chachalaca

Long-billed Thrasher!  I was happy to get better photos of this Rio Grande speciality since I failed last time I was in the valley.

Brown Jay's apparently love eating junk food.

Cane Toad!  These things are huge.

The next spot we stopped at was for a pair of nesting Rose-throated Becards.  The poor backlit conditions again made photography very difficult.  Also the nest was only visible from certain viewpoints through the trees which was a challenge because there were 15 people wanting a look and the birds only flew into the nest site periodically.

Rose-throated Becard male and female making an attempt at building a nest.  The guide thinks they are inexperienced first year birds as they have been making a poor go at it.

No matter how much I turn up the contrast, the colors don't come up good because of the backlighting.

We also saw some Morelet Seedeaters but I already have good photos of this species from Mexico so I didn't spent much time photographing them.

We snuck up on a wild Muscovy Duck which was cool because the wild population can be hard to see up close.

We flushed an owl which flew by quickly and was probably the Mottled Owl that has been hanging out at the ranch for the past 5-6 months but no one got a photo.  It had to stay as Owl sp on our checklist but the guide was pretty sure it was the Mottled.

Olive Sparrows were pretty common.

Gray Hawk

Curve-billed Thrasher

Verdin

We ended the day at about 2-3 pm with 102 species!  Not bad for a half day.

I went back to my hotel room to rest up because at night I had booked a night trip on the ranch and it was damn hot by then.  I can't believe they do tours all summer were the temps frequently reach well over 100 degrees.

The night trip started at about 8:30pm and we met up in the same spot that we did in the morning, with Lesser Nighthawks again feeding above the border wall.  The guides gave us instructions on how to best view the Mottled Owl and led us to the spot, including telling us to stay stock still and don't fidget!  They explicitly said not to move once the owl comes in as it will flush and everyone will be pissed.  They lined us up in the spot were they use playback to attract the Mottled Owl and we quickly started to hear it respond and it flew in.  I just happened to be standing in the worst spot in the whole group.  It landed in a tree directly behind a bunch of branches from where I was standing!   I didn't want to move because it would spoil the other's view so tried my best to focus manually past the branches but it was too late and the bird flew before I could get a decent pic.

Branches in the way preventing autofocus from working.

I manually focused but it flew before I could get a sharp image.

Others in the group got awesome unobstructed views and photos.  You can see here from the checklist:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S167630712

I was kind of crushed but that is the way the cookie crumbles.

On the way back out from the spot, we had Great Horned Owls and Screech Owls.

McCall's subspecies of Eastern Screech Owl - This is the shot I was hoping for with the Mottled Owl!

Oh well, there will be other opportunities right?  maybe...

That was all on Day 1 (Saturday)!   Friday didn't count because it was only a couple hours after my flight.

On Sunday, my plan was to visit a couple spots where rarities were previously hanging out hoping maybe they were still around.  I decided on Resaca de la Palma where the Gray-collared Becard was previously hanging out.  One of the guides from the previous day said it might still be around as he heard one of the rangers might have seen it.  Someone also said the Roadside Hawk that had been seen at Resaca over the past couple months might still be around.

In hindsight, I should have just gone back for the Fan-tailed Warbler, but I was just not too excited about spending a bunch of time in a buggy swamp listening to the crazy loud air conditioning units on the campus.  It turns out Resaca was super buggy too and hot but at least the park is nice and has tons of birds.  I did eventually get my ABA lifer Tropical Parula but couldn't get pics as it stayed high in a tree flitting around like a Parula tends to do.  The other long-continuing rarity in the valley was a Crimson-collared Grosbeak at the Frontera Audubon Center but of course they were closed on Sundays!  

I will post my pics from Sunday in the next post.

Clots, Lips, Teeth, Kites and Curlews (14-16Mar2024)

Sorry for the radio silence dear readers/oglers, I had a bit of a health scare recently which put a wrinkle in my birding activity. I was having some calf pain and the wife made me go in to the walk-in clinic to get it checked out due to my history with pulmonary embolism.  Good thing she did because I had a big DVT (clot in the leg).  They put me on a high dose of blood thinners and sent me home, with orders to not exert myself in any way to lessen the risk that the clot dislodges and travels to my lungs.  It took a good week before the pain in my calf went away and I could get back out and do my survey on Figure 8.  Thanks to Jacob for covering for me while I was out of commission.

Lately I have been bringing the beach cruiser to do the survey because the distance is a couple miles now that they have pumped more sand.

You have to wear a helmet when doing surveys at Figure 8 because you never know when a coconut or some other object will fall out of the sky.

Shorebird migration is in full swing with numbers of dowitchers increasing. This Short-billed Dowitcher was having a good scratch which caused it to pucker its "lips".  Pretty cool that they can bend their beak tips to probe and snatch goodies in the mud.

Although this looks like a sneeze, it was actually calling.

Bet you didn't know Dowitchers have teeth! Just be careful because they can take a finger right off.

My kids had a track meet in Brunswick county and I noticed some Swallow-tailed Kits circling high up so I went and grabbed my camera.

One of them perched up in a snag.

Then this happened!

Sweet sweet love.

I love it when birds come to me.

Ryan from the triangle texted me to get some intel on birding Shackleford Banks for a planned trip on Saturday and I had been meaning to get out there anyway so I joined him, Lee, Jeremy W and his daughter for a beautiful day out at Shack to show them around.

It didn't take long to find a Long-billed Curlew.

The Spanish Horses are always a treat to see at Shack.

Cape Lookout light in the distance.

We spent a long time scanning the mudflats for the Bar-tailed Godwit but came up short.  Still a worthwhile adventure as always.  My favorite place in NC.

My next post might be from my trip to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas!  I booked a 5 day trip to mop up some of the eye-popping rarities that have been sticking around and maybe take in the Solar Eclipse.

Winter Pelagic and Some Local Stuff (25Feb-03Mar2024)

Usually I like to get out on a pelagic earlier in the winter, but life gets in the way.  First some local stuff....

Red-breasted Merganser at CB Lake - the original punk rocker of the duck world.

European Starlings are gorgeous if you stop to smell the roses.

Ryan Justice found a Clay-colored Sparrow at Fort Fisher and it was still around later in the afternoon.

The weather was looking really bad for Saturday so Brian P emailed and asked if I could do Friday instead.  Luckily I could swing it and drove up Thursday evening.

The wind was coming out of the east so the way out to the gulf stream was a bit choppy but the waves were small.  Once we got out about 20 miles we starting to pick up some alcids.

.Atlantic Puffin

Red Phalaropes were around but kind of flighty and I only managed some really bad photos.

We went very far out and consequently picked up an early Black-capped Petrel.   I was actually hoping we would stay closer to shore and look for Murres.

Several Ocean Sunfish were finning close to the surface.

Manx Shearwater

We had a ton of Razorbills on the way back in but they were all flying by pretty far out.

Overall a somewhat lackluster pelagic even though it is always good to get Puffins.  I don't think they have had any Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Little Gulls or Great Skuas this year.  I know Skuas had a huge die off from Avian Flu.

In the evening I stopped at Milltail Rd in Alligator.  There was tons of traffic so I was getting pretty frustrated because I think it's less likely to see owls when people are constantly driving around.  I did however, get some really nice American Woodcocks displaying right in front of me at dusk.  I decided I already have good pictures of Woodcocks in the past and I didn't to disturb them, so I only recorded them.  Audio in my checklist, turn it up all the way.  You will hear two Peent calls in the beginning then the twittering flight calls while they display in the air.

https://ebird.org/checklist/S163384921

I stayed at the Hampton Inn in Williamston, planning to hit up some spots on the way home in the morning. I woke up at about 6am with a splitting migraine and nausea.  I was basically incapacitated until about noon when I felt marginally better and checked out.  I don't know exactly what this condition is, but I seem to get it once a year, usually after a pelagic trip.  I think I need to drink more water.

On the way home I stopped at Martin Marietta Park in New Bern to try for an Ash-throated Flycatcher that has been hanging out.  It is a big park, so I was a bit worried I wouldn't find it.

Ash-throated Flycatcher - its been a big year in NC for this species with probably 10 or more.

Ruddy Duck

Then after about another hours drive I saw a sign for White Oak River and I remembered that I had always wanted to check out the impoundments there.  So I kind of blindly went in and started to explore.  I should have done some research first because I ended up walking down a bunch of dead ends.  I did finally find the place where the river walk starts about a mile down from the parking, but it was super muddy and I neglected to bring my boots.  I did hear a King Rail at close range but could not coax it out.

Wild Turkey

Hairy Woodpecker 

This morning I did the survey at Figure 8 and executed a major bonehead move.  I was walking down in front of where the pipe had recently been pumping near the shoreline to count all the gulls that feed on the pumped tidbits.  They had the pump off because they were fixing more pipe on so I figured it would be safe to walk out in front.  I was far enough out that even if the pump started, I would be ok but might get my feet wet.  However, what I neglected to weigh into the equation was that when the sand is super saturated and aerated it can be like quicksand.  One step I was on firm sand, and the next step I sank all the  way to my thighs.  I had to lean over and shimmy my way out but it was a little scary.  Luckily today I had on my sneakers and they were tied on good.  If I had my boots on, I would have probably lost them as they  tend to get suctioned in the quicksand from my prior experience.

Walking down the beach, I saw something I don't think I have ever seen on the beach, I lone Canada Goose standing right next to the surf line in the fog.

Weird...