Texas! Our friends were travelling to Texas for birding, so we decided to join them. Mary had done a lot of research on sites to visit and birds to see. Rich worked out our accommodations and our guided day. They had both been to the area the previous year and we appreciated their expertise.

For the first couple of days we were travelling separately. We stayed in Van Horn, Texas the first night. The next day, we got to the first birding site a few hours after Rich and Mary, and they told us where we could see our first target bird – the Black-capped Vireo. They saw it in the bushes near the entrance to South Llano River State Park in Kimble County.

First we heard the Black-capped Vireo singing, so we followed its progress as it flitted between the branches, mostly hidden. It perched in view for only a short time, and Doug was able to get this photo of our first “life bird” of the trip.

We also got a good view of a Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay in the meadow of wildflowers.

We stopped at a bird blind on the walk back to the truck and saw this Black-crested Titmouse looking a little disheveled after having a bath.

We drove next to Lost Maples State Natural Area in Bandera County. We crossed this creek on the East/West trail and saw our first ever Carolina Chickadee. It is nearly identical to a Black-capped Chickadee but the species have different ranges that only overlap in a small area.

We worked hard to get a good view of this White-eyed Vireo. We had seen the species once before but only for a fleeting moment. Later we walked up the East trail and got a glimpse of a Golden-cheeked Warbler, another bird that we had hoped to see.

We left Lost Maples about three in the afternoon and drove another four hours to Portland, which is just outside of Corpus Christi.

The next morning, we birded out of the wind beside the motel that our friends stayed at in Portland. We really got a good opportunity to work on our shorebird identification and get some good views since the birds weren’t that far away.

All of the following birds were visible from our sheltered position. This Marbled Godwit, winters on the Texas coast. It is still in non-breeding plumage so its breast is buffy, not “marbled” like it will be when it is at its summer breeding grounds in the Canadian prairies.

We saw the first of many Willets that we were going to see. It’s a drab-plumaged larger shorebird with a stout bill.

We like watching Ruddy Turnstones turn over rocks. Usually we see them foraging in the mud but this one is in shallow water. The species is a ruddy colour when in breeding plumage.

Here’s a pair of Laughing Gulls. They were the most common gull species that we encountered in Texas. We estimated that there were over 130 within our sight. They get their name from the sound of their call not their comical appearance.

Here are a couple of Forster’s Terns. The one on the right is likely a first winter individual, while the one on the left is showing breeding plumage and bill color.

We got a really good view of a Tri-Colored Heron. Its blue bill is the courtship color. Tri-colored Herons always have a dark breast and contrasting light belly.

This was the first Reddish Egret that we had ever seen and we were glad that our friends could confirm the identification because it doesn’t look reddish at all. (It’s a white morph.) The bi-colored bill helps distinguish it from a Great Egret.

This adult White Ibis was easier to identify.

Just around the corner of the motel we saw our first ever sighting of an American Oystercatcher. Notice that it is banded.

Our next stop was just a couple of minutes away at Indian Point Park – Nueces Co. marshes, where we saw more shorebirds.

This little guy is a Semipalmated Plover. It’s a little smaller than a Killdeer and has only one breastband.

A Sanderling is a sandpiper that is a little bigger than a Semipalmated Plover. This one could be a female just coming into breeding plumage.

The smaller birds are Sandwich Terns. The key identifying feature is their black bill with yellow tip, since several species of terns have black heads. We also saw some “lifer” Least Terns (small terns with yellow bills) but they were too far out for a good photo.

We’ve seen Roseate Spoonbills before but never in flight. When in flight, an adult spoonbill displays an orange tail.

Next, we went to downtown Corpus Christi, to the parking lot of an oyster bar restaurant. At the back of the lot, there is an oyster recycling center. Oyster shells (or shucks) are collected and eventually returned to local waters to provide substrate to form new reefs and habitat for fish and crabs. An oyster shell reef is important in the lifecycle of an oyster because young larval oysters have no shell and prefer to settle on the shells of other oysters, and then begin building their own shells. This is all information that we learned after the fact. We were actually there to see a rare bird who kept coming back to the recycling area.

This is a Cattle Tyrant. You won’t find this bird in any field guide of North American birds because their normal home is in South America (Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia) where they forage on the ground near cattle herds. Before November of 2023, a Cattle Tyrant had never before been seen north of Panama. Did it get blown off course or come as a stow-away in a ship? It’s not telling, but it has stayed in the area for over four months, and is still being reported as this post is being written. Well over a thousand people have seen it and reported it on eBird. It’s our first “Mega Rarity.”

Our next location was just outside Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. We saw an Aplomado Falcon and about 400 metres away on a nesting platform. The photo below was taken through our scope, so it is a bit fuzzy. Aplomado Falcons are found in Central and South America and used to be common in the dry grasslands of the US. They have been introduced into areas of south Texas, but are still considered endangered.

That afternoon we made it to our home for the next five nights at Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort. It was a great location, within walking distance of Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. We even did some birding on the grounds.

We were staying in a casita that was one of a pod of three, with one of our friends on one side and the other on the other side. We all shared the central backyard shaded table area. Most winter residents leave by March 31, so there was good availability and reduced rates.

Here’s a view of the kitchen and dining area taken from the living “room.” A bedroom and a bathroom rounded out the accommodations. We liked being able to prepare our own meals.

Whew! We saw a lot of birds in two days including eight species we had never seen before. This was a long post; the other parts won’t be quite as long. Look forward to Part 2, 3, 4 and 5 to be posted soon.

At the beginning of March, we went on our annual “thrasher hunt,” out to the salt brush desert scrub about an hour and a half drive away. Our friends Mary and Rich joined us. It was a beautiful day, but the LeConte’s Thrasher that we had hoped to see, stayed quiet and hidden, if it was there at all.

We did get a good view of a Sagebrush Sparrow, which also likes this habitat. There were also several Sage Thrashers.

On our way back to town, we drove to an area that White-tailed Kites had been seen. Rich spotted one as he was driving, so we hopped out of the vehicles to get a good look.

For about fifteen minutes, the kite flew around the fields. It hunts from the air, often hovering gracefully (or kiting) then dropping straight down. After a bit, it flew closer so it was almost overhead.

Another day drove down to Patagonia, AZ again. This time we saw a Louisiana Waterthrush near the creek that flows beside the Paton Center for Hummingbirds. The Louisiana Waterthrush and the Northern Waterthrush are very similar. The Louisiana one is best distinguished by a broader white eyebrow and sparser streaking than a Northern Waterthrush. Their songs are quite different, which helps in the identification.

We didn’t have to wait long for the Louisiana Waterthrush to show up for us, so we had time on our way home to stop at Empire Gulch in Las Cienegas National Conservation Area. Our friend, Rich had seen a Winter Wren there and we hoped to see it too. It’s a little wren that is very similar to a Pacific Wren, except for its song. Mostly it stayed hidden, teasing us with its calls, but luckily it hopped up on to a log long enough for Doug to get a photo.

We made a number of trips to Agua Nueva, a newly opened park near Sweetwater Wetlands, in hopes of seeing a Swamp Sparrow. The first few times, we saw several Lincoln’s Sparrows, and this one perched in good light.

We also saw our first Broad-billed Hummingbird in the Tucson area for the year. The sky was overcast that day.

This Cooper’s Hawk has a nest nearby. We saw it as we were leaving one day and hoped that it hadn’t made a dinner of the elusive Swamp Sparrow.

Finally we were successful. One morning, the Swamp Sparrow foraged along the edge of the island about fifteen to twenty metres away from us.

This female Summer Tanager was hanging out in Reid Park in the middle of Tucson for the whole winter, but it took us until March to get a good look at her. This day, she was perched very high in a pine tree. Summer Tanagers are regularly seen in Arizona in the summer and usually migrate south for the winter months.

We visited the Hawk Watch in Tubac a couple of times. We didn’t happen to be there when large flocks of hawks flew over, but we did see several different species. Sometimes the birds were so high that they could only be identified by an expert with a scope. Several people watched from dawn to dusk for the whole month of March, and one enthusiast started a few weeks earlier and continued into April.

Many visitors come to see the migrating Common Black Hawks. They nest in areas of Arizona and New Mexico that have cottonwood trees.

Gray Hawks also like riparian woodlands, but they don’t travel very far past the Mexico border. The fluff in the photo is from the nearby cottonwood trees.

When we were in the Tubac area, we walked one of our favourite trails at Santa Gertrudis Lane. We were happy to see a Wilson’s Warbler. Soon Wilson’s Warblers will be common in Arizona in wooded areas while they make their way northward.

Here’s a view of Reservation Road in Avra Valley. Usually when we bird in a spot like this, we’re the only ones around. But a Grasshopper Sparrow, a Cassin’s Sparrow, a number of Bendire’s Thrashers and Sage Thrashers (all rarities) were reported in the area, and several people chose to look for them on the same day. Luckily for us, the Grasshopper Sparrow was closer to the road when we saw it. Doug is in the photo, but only to give encouraging words to the other birders before we left.

The Grasshopper Sparrow did not pose nicely for a photo and our views of it were obscured by branches. But we saw a Cassin’s Sparrow on a tree about twenty-five metres (or a pool length) out from the fence.

This Vesper Sparrow popped up much closer to the fence, resulting in a much clearer photo.

The next photos are from our visits to the Sweetwater Wetlands, one of the top hotspots in the Tucson area. One day in early March, there were so many swallows flying around that it was hard to count them, until most of them chose to perch in the dead branches of a tree. It was then much easier to identify them as Northern Rough-winged Swallows, a very common swallow.

By the third week in March, the Bell’s Vireos showed up. Mostly we identify them by their distinctive song, but Doug was able to get a photo of one of these drab birds.

That same day, we watched a Greater Roadrunner deal with its dinner. First we saw it with a large Desert Spiny lizard in its bill, thrashing it against the ground. We suspect the bird was trying to make sure the lizard was truly dead. The roadrunner then manipulated the lizard so it was lengthwise, and started swallowing it, head first.

We always have interesting birds in our yard, but we don’t often share the photos of them on the blog. So here are a couple. This Curved-bill Thrasher has a longer than normal bill. It’s a bill deformity, and can make it difficult for a bird to eat. This thrasher visited our feeder, so it’s managing. We’ve since researched bill deformities in birds. A longer curved bill on a Curved-bill thrasher is not as dramatic as the images of chickadees with long curved bills.(For more information search: Beak Deformities in Landbirds by Alaska Science Center, http://www.usgs.gov)

Here is an Inca Dove, which visited our yard at least once. It’s considered rare for the area, but we frequently hear them calling from the farm next door. It’s a small dove with beautiful feather patterns.

We enjoyed searching for different birds in March, but we expect April will be even better. At the beginning of April, we drove to Texas, and saw several new birds. Also, we hope we’ll see different birds as they migrate into the area. So there is lots to look forward to.

Wildflowers! We’ve had double the average rainfall this year in the Tucson area and the wildflowers are loving it! This post will focus on botany, with a reptile thrown in.

Our March wildflower quest started with a hike up King Canyon in Saguaro National Park (West). The Arizona Native Plant Society had planned a field trip to the canyon, so we decided to go a few days earlier on our own. This Desert Wishbone bush was the featured photo on their Facebook page advertising the trip, so we were happy to find it early in the day. The bush has quite a small flower and is easy to overlook.

We’ve shared photos of penstemon before on blog. However, this was the tallest specimen that we’ve seen in the “wild” (meaning, not the Desert Museum). Parry’s penstemon is native to the Sonoran desert and blooms in March and April.

A close up of Penstemon parryi.

The “main event” flower was Crossosoma Bigelovii, or ragged rockflower. It likes to grow out of rock crevices, so it’s not able to be cultivated.

It has a pleasing jasmine-like scent. We only saw one of these plants on our hike.

Farther up the canyon, there is a rockwall covered with petroglyphs. Doug is pointing yo some of them in the photo below. Every crack that holds a bit of soil has a plant growing out of it.

We climbed out of the canyon and followed Sendero Esperanza west until it joined the Gould Mine trail. There was a blooming Ocotillo overhanging the trail along this section.

This is a close-up of Allonia incarnata, a flowering plant in the four o’clock family. The flower is about the size of a quarter. It’s the last wildflower photo that we included from this hike, although we saw several other flowers that day.

In March, we have generally done most of our hiking from our doorstep. We realized that we enjoyed the solitude, the scenery and the convenience of not having to drive to a trailhead. We have discovered multiple trails so we can enjoy a short 45 minute hike or extend it to two or three hours. Here’s a view looking south over the teddy bear chollas and saguaros towards Wasson Peak in Saguaro National Park.

The scorpion weed made a carpet of purple on one of our hikes.

If you look closely in the photo above, you might notice some slender whitish flowers. They are Lyreleaf jewel flowers (streptanthus carinatus). A bee happened to visit one of the flowers as Wendy was taking a photo.

We had never seen this bush in flower in the last four years, but the moisture this year allowed it to flourish. It’s a species of rhatany known as Krameria erecta. It’s very heather-like, and unlike most desert bushes, doesn’t have any thorns.

The buckhorn cholla is sending out new growth and it looks very flower-like.

Here’s a close-up. We passed this cactus and few days later, and the red had faded to green.

Here’s an Ocotillo with autumn colours. It used to be a lush green and it is now turning colour similarly to how deciduous leaves turn colour in the fall where we live in BC. It makes sense, because it is coming to the end of its growing season. It will be dormant in the heat of the early summer and sprout green leaves when conditions are right again.

At the end of March, Wendy walked from Cam-Boh picnic area back to our place (about an hour) and was surprised to see this hedgehog cactus in full bloom. It’s the first of the season; mostly we see this species bloom a little later.

We made a special visit to a saguaro that we saw start to bud last year to see how long the arms had grown. The first photo was from February 23, 2023 and the next one from March 27, 2024.

The next couple of photos were taken at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

Here, the Kingcup cactus, a variety of hedgehog cactus is just starting to bloom.

These Notch-leaved Phacelia provide nice contrast to the cactus.

Now to introduced flowers. In Madera Canyon, this plum tree is growing wild, producing beautiful blooms. It was likely planted near a cabin, which has long ago disappeared.

Our neighbour grew this flower in a raised bed along with some lettuce. It’s a hibiscus called “Hawaiian Punch.” The vegetable gardening season is almost finished because it will soon be too hot.

Now to our reptile sighting. One day on our bike ride on “The Loop” we encountered two rattlesnakes in the middle of the pavement, which we found were easy to avoid. This one is a Western Diamondback. It was spread out across the bike lane as we approached, and we watched a cyclist run over it. It then curled up, but didn’t look injured. It’s nice that an iPhone can zoom in a long ways so Doug didn’t get very close for the photo. We guess that both snakes were warming up on the dark surface.

Of course we will end the blog post with a sunset photo. This one is almost magical.

We hope you enjoyed all the flowers and plant life. We also saw plenty of birds which will be posted soon in the our second blog of March, 2024.