We took a ten day trip to Texas in mid-April to pick up some new birds for the year. On our first day, we took a short detour to Portal, Arizona. This is the view at Cave Creek Ranch just outside of Portal. We saw the resident Blue-throated Mountain Gem, a beautiful hummingbird. We saw it at a shaded feeder, so no photo this time. In the photo below, Wendy is looking for the oriole we had just heard.
That night we stayed in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The next day we drove about seven hours to Junction, Texas. That afternoon, we visited South Llano State Park which was just a few minutes out of town. We saw some interesting birds, but not the Black-capped Vireo which is only found in that part of Texas. Our friends arrived a few hours after us, and saw the vireo. So we went back to the park after dinner to see if we could see it too. Here we are with our friend Teri. (Mary took the photo.) We didn’t see the vireo that night, but we did see it early the next morning. It stayed mostly hidden in the bushes however, so no photo again. Instead, we’ve added a photo of the magnet that we bought at the visitor centre. The Black-capped Vireo brings visitors to the park so it is featured on the souvenirs that they sell.
We got a good view of a Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay at one of the bird blinds in the park.
And a Black-chinned Hummingbird also made an appearance.
Next, we headed to Lost Maples State Natural Area. This is a wide spot in the river just past the Visitor Center, and about as far into the park that we got.
The “special bird” for the area was the Golden-cheeked Warbler, and we saw several around the Visitor Center. While they were pretty common in the park, the species breed in a small area of central Texas, and winter in Central America.
Carolina Chickadees lived there too. They are found in any wooded area throughout the southwestern US. They look almost identical to a Black-capped Chickadee, but their ranges hardly overlap.
It was about a five hour drive to our place for the next five nights. Our casita was part of the Bentsen Palms RV Resort.
Here’s a view of the inside.
Most of the winter residents of the park had headed to their summer homes, so when the office set out the Canadian flag, we knew it was just for us.
The blue dot on the map below shows our location close to the Rio Grande which is also southern border of Texas. We could see the border wall from the RV park grounds.
The next day we went to South Padre Island. We started at the World Birding and Nature Center, especially because a rare bird had been sighted there.
It didn’t take long before we saw the Flame-coloured Tanager, right at the parking lot. Then there was time to get a really good photo. Doug, Mary and Rich all had their cameras focused on the tanager in the photo below.
Here’s the best of several shots that Doug got of the Flame-colored Tanager, a year-round resident of Mexico. This one is a female or an immature male. A mature male has a bright orange head and neck.
Then we went in and paid our admission, so we had access to the center’s boardwalk.
This Roseate Spoonbill flew when someone got too close as they tried to get a photo with their cell phone.
This is a Tricoloured Heron. Its bill turns blueish in breeding season from February to July. Its bill is yellow the rest of the year. It always has a dark breast and light belly.
This juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron was perched in some bushes across the channel from us and was difficult to see when it was stationary. Luckily one of our party saw it fly in.
Next, we drove about 5 minutes north to the mudflats beside the Convention Center. We walked out to be a little closer, but you can see the tire tracks of other vehicles that drove right out to the water’s edge.
We studied the many shorebirds to try to identify as many species as we could. Here are photos of some of the species in order from smallest to largest.
First up are Sanderlings that are about 20 cm (8″) long, with a short bill. The small flocks run rapidly up and down the beach. They breed in the high arctic. This female is approaching breeding plumage.
A Dunlin is about the same size as a Sanderling with a long, slightly drooping bill. Like the Sanderling, the species is also common along the coasts on sandy beaches. It also breeds in the Arctic, but not as far north as Sanderlings.
We saw two kinds of plovers. We were lucky to see a Wilson’s Plover because they are usually solitary when they are foraging. There are less than ten thousand in North America. This plover is also about the same size as the two previous species. Its bill is long, thick and always black.
We saw several Black-bellied Plovers, but not all of them were as close to full breeding plumage as this one. They only have a black belly in breeding plumage, but they always have black under their armpits. They also breed in the Arctic. They are the largest plover at 29 cm (11.5″) long.
The wind was behind us in the photo below. Rich is pointing out a special tern to us.
The Least Tern is unique with its yellow bill with a black tip and white forehead. They are only found in the US in breeding season, wintering in the Caribbean and along the northern coast of South America. As its name indicates, it is the smallest tern in the world (about 23 cm or 9″ long).
These two fellows sitting into the wind are Sandwich Terns. For a positive identification it’s good to be able to pick out the pale tip on their black bill. They were hanging out with Royal Terns which are a bit bigger and have bright orange-red bills.
A Black Skimmer has very long wings and its lower mandible is longer than the top which allows it to gather food by skimming the top of the water. Doug took several photos in order to catch one in action.
This pale bird is a Reddish Egret; the white morph version. In breeding season they have a bicoloured bill.
After the mudflats, we went to a rockier shoreline at the “Shrimp Basin Bridge.” We wanted to see species that prefer that habitat.
We were happy to see a Ruddy Turnstone, which since it was developing its breeding plumage, was quite ruddy coloured. It was flipping over pebbles and stones to find food.
We had seen Willets at the other beach, but this one was doing a mating display, which showed off the underside of the wings, warranting a photo.
We had to walk under the low highway bridge to access another beach. Once on the other side, we good a view of an American Oystercatcher. It is a crow-sized bird that sounds almost the same as a Black Oystercatcher, which we see on the Pacific coast of BC.
On the way back to our casita, we stopped at the Pintail Lakes in the Santa Ana National Wildlife Reserve. It was really hot and humid, but we also wanted to protect ourselves from stinging insects. Recent flooding seemed to have affected the number of birds (there were fewer than last year), but we did see an uncommon Groove-billed Ani. Here Rich and Mary are trying to get a good shot.
You can make out the huge bill on the disheveled-looking Groove-billed Ani, which never came out of the brushy tangle. The species only comes up into Texas from Mexico in the summer.
The next blog post will cover the last three days of our birding adventures in Texas. Coming soon!
Travels with a Fox 