April 2024 in Texas – Part 4

This blog post is all about our day at the Santa Margarita Ranch on the banks of the Rio Grande on April 5. We met the guides and the rest of the group before sunrise right at the border wall. Since we were birding on private ranch, we were required to join a guided group. We actually got a glimpse of two Northern Bobwhites in the dim light. We also heard our first Common Pauraque, which has a distinctive call and is rarely seen.

We walked through an “animal gate,” in the wall.

We set up our scope on a bluff with a view into Mexico. The Rio Grande is on the left and the border wall is visible on the right of the photo. From here we had a distant view of a Hook-billed Kite.

Soon we moved down to a lower bluff that had a better view of the river. Notice the small island in the river,

because that was where we saw these Muscovy Ducks. We have only seen domestic Muscovy Ducks before.

At least five Caspian Terns flew over the river, so they were a little closer.

A Ringed Kingfisher flew by us a couple of times, allowing good views. We have only seen them before in the tropics. The species is larger than a Belted Kingfisher and has a massive bill. We watched it hover over the water looking for prey and dive directly from the air.

We had a very distant view of an Audubon’s Oriole. We were lucky to see it because these birds have a limited range in the US and are usually more secretive than other orioles. It’s also good that it has such distinctive colouring since it was hard to see any details on the bird.

We also saw two more “lifer” birds: a White-tailed Hawk and a Red-shouldered Hawk. (No photos.) We saw 57 species in the three hours we were at the bluff area.

We made our way back to the vehicles and then drove a short distance to the ranch proper for the second part of the tour. Here’s a photo of some of our group of twenty clients and two guides. It was close to 11:00 am. by then.

We followed the guide down a ranch road to an area that was set-up as a feeding station. Here’s a Brown Jay feasting on peanut butter. Brown Jays are much larger than other jays and are rare and very local. The ranch was one of the few places in the US that they are found. Later in the day, we saw a Brown Jay at a nest, which is even rarer.

We had another view (for this trip) of a Green Jay. This photo shows the green back better than the one in a previous post.

And a Long-billed Thrasher also enjoyed the peanut butter.

We headed off the main trail and followed narrow forest trails. We came to a tricky stream crossing that required us to wade into water that was just over our shoes. In the photo below, taken by our friend Mary, we’re waiting for the rest of the group to catch up. It wasn’t the best place to hang around, however, because the “chiggers” like the tall grass and will climb up your pant legs and nibble on your leg. On our other trips in the tropics, we tucked our pants into our socks to help avoid this. Not this time. No bites on Doug, three on Wendy which itched for a couple of weeks.

We took turns having our photos taken in front of the Rio Grande.

Here’s another of Mary’s photos of the group waiting for interesting birds to show up. We did see glimpses of a pair of Rose-throated Becards, and a distant view of a Morelet’s Seedeater; both rare species.

An Olive Sparrow was very cooperative beside the trail on the way back up to the vehicles.

At the truck, we got a good view of this Swainson’s Hawk flying overhead.

In our six and a half hours of birding we saw or heard 80 species, including 6 “lifers.” It was an experience of a lifetime, made better by being able to share it with our friends, Mary, Rich and Carol.

If you are reading this blog post in “real time,” you’ll notice that it’s now June! There’s one more post about our Texas trip to come. Life back in BC is busy!