April 2024 in Texas – Part 3

On April 4, we decided to stay close to our casita for the morning. We walked over to Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park, about five minutes from the RV Resort gate. First we walked to an overlook of the river and saw Anhingas, Great Egrets, Double Crested Cormorants and a Least Grebe. Continuing on, we saw a several Great Kiskadees and two of them were building a nest.

Near the washrooms we caught a glimpse of an oriole as it moved from tree to tree. We were able to track it down and confirm that they were two Altamira Orioles. Here’s a photo of a first year individual. An adult would be a deeper orange. Altamira Orioles have a very limited range in the US. Another life bird!

We walked farther to the hawk watch tower and saw some distant unrecognizable birds. It was a long walk, so we didn’t bring our scope. We could hear Olive Sparrows in the underbrush below the structure, so we focused on trying to see one.

And we did catch our first sighting of an Olive Sparrow, a rather drab bird. It’s a secretive bird that also has a limited range in the US.

It’s always nice to see a Greater Roadrunner, especially when it’s running along the road!

That afternoon, we drove to Weslaco to the Frontera Audubon Center. It was like being in the tropics, yet we were in an urban area.

We got a good view of a Golden Fronted Woodpecker. The orange-yellow nape (back of neck) and the yellow in front of the bill along with the all-white rump and all-black tail distinguish it from other woodpeckers. It sounds a bit like a Gila Woodpecker that is very familiar to us in Arizona.

A Green Jay is another one of the birds that is only seen in the US in Southern Texas. They are more common in Mexico and down as far as Honduras. This individual is not as green as others we saw. The blue colour we see on a bird is a structural colour, created by the way the light waves interact with the feathers. All the other colours of light are absorbed by the melanin layer which allows our eyes to see only blue.

We also had our first look at a Long-billed Thrasher, a bird we had only heard for the first time earlier in the day.

And there also were Plain Chachalacas, which acted very much like the Gray-headed Chachalacas that we saw on our trip to Panama. They are noisy turkey-like birds.

We also saw a Buff-bellied Hummingbird and a Carolina Wren at the Frontera Center, both “life birds” for us. A good day for us!

There are two more blog posts to finish up this trip, and they will be posted soon.