Last Day in South Texas for 2010?

I was out about 6:30 this morning even though I knew the weather was going to continue to suck. I checked Chihuahua Woods again in hopes of better looks at a hook-billed kite, but instead I just mostly fended off swarms of mosquitoes. Then I went over to Santa Ana again to see what might be about. I was particularly looking for northern beardless tyrannulets that are at the refuge.

It was overcast because tropical storm Bonnie is coming into shore today down by Brownsville. There was also some breeze, so overall it was tolerable. I did not hear or see any tyrannulets, but there were plenty of other birds about. The photos above are of (top) golden-fronted woodpecker, and (bottom) yellow-billed cuckoo (left side) and white-winged dove (2 on right side). I posted these because they are common birds here in the valley in the summer. Remember to click on the photos to enlarge.

The clouds got thicker and it began to spit, so I headed back to my car. I stopped for breakfast tacos on the way to the motel, and now I am getting this post in before I go to the airport for my flights back to Utah--hopefully not to return to south Texas again in 2010. I added 4 more new birds on this last day of week #27. There is also an updated travel map at the top. Tomorrow I will be driving over to Elko, NV to search for a himalayan snowcock. Stay tuned!

Heat, Humidity and Clouds of Mosquitoes

I was up by 6 AM to make the hour drive down to Resaca de la Palma SP near Brownsville to search for the yellow-green vireo that was first reported the last week of June, and again on July 2nd. I saw my first yellow-green also in Brownsville back in late June of 2007. It was nesting in a neighborhood that made it very easy to see it, which was totally different than this morning.

I arrived at Resaca about 7:15 even though I knew that it might not be open until 8 AM. Sure enough the gate was still locked, but it was opened early. I pulled in and parked next to the visitor center. When the center was opened I had the opportunity to have the staff show me exactly where the bird was located. So at 8 AM on a morning with 90+% humidity, 85 degree temp, and at times clouds of mosquitoes, I began the 1.5 mile walk to find the bird. I had to stop once to put on more bug juice. No amount of repellent could keep me from occasionally inhaling a mosquito.

I got to the spot on my map, and sure enough not 1 but 2 vireos were singing. As I searched for one in the thick leaves, it flew out singing as it crossed the gravel road and disappeared into another tree. I listened to it singing for maybe another 2 minutes, but then decided that getting a photo was not likely and the mosquitoes were not letting up. I made the 3 mile round trip in an hour, and by the time I returned to the visitor center my shirt was totally soaked, and my wind pants were also wet from the knees down. I felt that hour was probably the most challenging birding conditions I experienced in this big year. I also felt fortunate to have had such good local information which allowed me to quickly see and hear the yellow-green vireo.

I cooled down in my air conditioned car as I drove over to the Brownsville dump to check it out for a tamaulipas crow. I tried to find this bird back in April, but the day I had a chance to stop in was after alot of rain and the dump was closed to birders. The crow used to be a regular at the dump, but had been absent several years in a row before a pair was seen initially back in March, and then again in mid April. They had not been reported since then, but I figured I should make an effort since I was nearby. After an hour of checking the appropriate spots, I found only 100's of laughing gulls, lots of great-tailed grackles, a few turkey and black vultures and 2 chihuahuan ravens.

On my way back to McAllen I saw 2 white-tailed hawks, and snowy, reddish and great egrets, so I have posted the photo at the top of a great egret scratching a mosquito bite.

I have just finished watching Spain beat Germany 1-0 to make it to its 1st World Cup final. I will be watching the final against the Dutch on Sunday, probably somewhere in Oregon. I saw 15 more new birds for the week today, and the vireo raises the YTD up to 635. Tomorrow I will bird here again early before catching a plane back to Utah. Stay tuned!

Not South Texas Again!

I am sitting here scratching my head almost in disbelief that I am actually in south Texas for the 5th time this year. And it is July to boot. I was here at the end of June back in 2007 and said to my long time friend from Missouri who was with me on that trip that we should never come back here in the middle of the summer. I called him this morning about 9 AM to tell him how lucky he was to not be standing with me in such a bug infested, high heat and humidity spot.

I came down in the worst of the weather cycle for south TX because a yellow-green vireo has been heard/seen in Brownsville in the past 2 weeks. I also saw that my nemesis bird for this big year--the hook-billed kite--had been seen feeding near its nest site in Chihuahua Woods, a Nature Conservancy Preserve. In fact, the local birders say that this is the 1st successful nesting by hook-billed kites in south TX since 2002. So I got a frequent flyer ticket and flew down here yesterday.

I arrived at Chihuahua Woods a little before 7 AM in hopes of seeing the kite feeding on the snails which are its main food. I actually was hopeful after arriving at the site because I don't think I have ever seen so many snails in one spot. The mosquitoes were only a nuisance because of the Deep Woods Off that I had doused myself with, including my shirt. Fortunately, my wind pants were too thick for the bugs to bite thru. While waiting for a kite to come feed, I had the good fortune of having a groove-billed ani fly in and perch near me for a good look before moving on. This was another bird that had eluded me on my earlier visits to south TX.

After a couple of hours of staking out the feeding site, I had seen numerous birds. More northern mockingbirds in one spot than I can ever remember seeing plus long-billed and curve-billed thrashers, cardinals and pyrrhuloxias, great kiskadees, brown-crested flycatchers, golden-fronted woodpeckers, great-tailed grackles, and white-winged and inca doves. But no kite, so I decided to walk down one of the trails. As I came out into a powerline cut I saw off in the distance a large, raptor-like bird fly up and land on a pole. My heart fluttered in anticipation only to calm down when I saw that it was the very common harris's hawk. A 2nd flew in next to it that looked like a juvenile. After another hour of looking and waiting I decided that I would try some other locations.

I next drove to Bentsen Rio Grande SP, but the visitor center is only open Wed-Sun for the summer. Without any current bird info, I was not willing to walk the 1.5 miles out to the hawk tower in 90+ degree heat. I did see another groove-billed ani next to the visitor center.

Next I headed over to Anzalduas county park only to find that I could not get in because it was closed in case the Rio Grande flooded as a result of the rains from tropical storm Alex. Then I drove on over to Santa Ana NWR to see if they had any good local intel. One of the wardens said that he had seen hook-billed kites late morning in the past couple of days. I hesitated because of the bugs and heat, but then put on my hat and more bug juice, and headed out to the hawk tower which is only about a 1/4 mile walk.

The wind was blowing some, and there was occasional cloud cover, but it was still hot and muggy. There were birds down in the trees below the tower, but nary a bird up in the sky. I kept scanning but continued to see nothing. After 30 minutes I was ready to call it a day when I looked to the west and saw a good sized raptor-like bird come up out of the trees. I watched it slowly rise up a bit and realized that I was watching a female hook-billed kite. It did not stay up long before it settled back down into the trees. I waited a bit longer in hopes that it would rise up again, but when it did not I finally packed it in for the day. This was not the perfect close-up sighting one would want for a life bird, but I will take it knowing that I will see more hook-billed kites now that I have finally seen my first.

Since I was not able to get a shot of the kite, instead I have posted at the top a photo of an intermediate rufous colored red-tailed hawk that I saw in Idaho on my way down to Salt Lake City.

I am now sitting in a nicely cool motel room, watching the dutch play Uruquay in the semis of the world cup. The past 2 days of birding have added 24 more new birds for the week. The ani and kite raise the YTD up to 634, and the tally of new life birds for the year is now at 18. Tomorrow I will be down in Brownsville hunting for the yellow-green vireo. Stay tuned!

Can You Say Chukar?

I finally tracked down not 1 but 3 chukars at Antelope Island SP at the great salt lake in Utah. But I am ahead of myself. I left Jackson, WY this morning at 6 AM planning to visit Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge which is located northeast of Salt Lake City. I made pretty good time, and even stopped briefly in Logan, UT to call my brother and his wife because they both graduated from Utah St. Univ. which is in Logan. When I arrived at the refuge I found that the auto tour was closed until 9/15, and the visitor center was closed for the 4th. I was sorely ticked off about this since it was one of the 1st places I birded back in my 20's, and I still have very fond memories of birding there with my brother, sister and a friend who now lives in Tucson.

Antelope Island SP is just 30 minutes south of Bear River, so I drove on down in hopes of finding a chukar. The woman working the entry booth suggested that I walk out to the end of Buffalo Point. This required walking up a steep hill, and then down thru some rocky/bouldery areas. Once up the hill, I fairly quickly saw 1 sitting on a rock. I slowly approached it in an attempt to get a photo for today's post, but it flushed before I could get close enough. I heard one calling further down the hill, and then spotted it. I made a 2nd attempt, and again it flushed with its mate.

Since I got no chukar shots, the top photo is of a singing lazuli bunting that I have posted for my friends back in Boulder and Austin who hiked with me last week. I saw 2 lazuli that day, but neither were close enough to see without binoculars, so my friends now can see what one looks like (remember to click/double click on the photo to enlarge). The bottom photo is of eared grebes in breeding plumage that I saw at Antelope Island. This shot is for my wife who did not see any eared grebes when we were together in North Dakota.

I saw 18 more new birds for the week with the chukar raising the YTD total to 632. I am now in my motel room trying to decide whether to fly tomorrow to south Texas for a couple of days in search of a rare yellow-green vireo that has been reported in Brownsville over the past 2 weeks. Stay tuned!

The Grand Tetons

After once again finding no chukars early yesterday morning, I arrived late afternoon in Jackson WY, which is on the edge of Grand Tetons NP. I first visited the park in 1968 as part of a 9000 miles in 3 weeks whirlwind tour of the western US before starting college. My oldest friend who I grew up with in Missouri and I drove his Chevy camaro, hitting as many interesting places as we could for future reference. One of the first was the tetons, and I have been back many times since, mostly in my teens and 20's to hike up into this magnificent mountain range. The top photo is of the Grand Teton. There is also a middle and south teton, but from the angle of this shot you can't really pick them out.

I was planning to meet a friend of mine from Austin here, but she decided that the 4th of July weekend did not work for her, and my birding schedule meant that this was when I needed to be here. So instead of enjoying showing her the tetons and Yellowstone NP for her first time, I went looking for calliope hummingbirds. It was a long winter here, and many wildflowers are still not in bloom so the hummers are not very visible yet. I saw many other birds including the barn swallow (middle photo) and the violet-green swallow (bottom photo). I particularly like the upclose frontal shot of the violet-green. Remember to click on the photo to enlarge it.

I also went for a walk around part of Jenny Lake in search of the hummer, but since today was July 3rd, there were so many other hikers/walkers that it was not all that enjoyable. Not 5 minutes apart I heard someone say to another person in their party, "are we there yet?". I also saw 3 young women carrying large backpacks clearly on their way up into the high country away from the crowds.

I ate dinner twice at a place called Nani's because a waiter I know from Tucson is here for the summer working there. It is a family owned Italian restaurant which has been here for 20 years. Because I like the food at Wildflowers in Tucson, I was hoping for a similar experience at Nani's. Unfortunately I can not say that was the case. The homemade bread, caprese salad with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil, and the stracciatella soup were up to snuff, but the main courses were only so-so. I had amatriciana pasta the 1st nite, but it was not made with hot pepper flakes so it was "lacking". The scottaditto--a lamb dish common also in Italy--was not as good as many I have had in Italy.

The wine list was pretty diverse and fairly priced. I had a bottle of '06 Argiolas costera made from cannonau the first nite, and a glass of Frescobaldi '05 reserve chianti tonite. Both were solid, true examples of their wine regions. All in all, I was glad to see my waiter friend, but I definitely prefer eating at his other place of work in Tucson.

Week #27 starts with 56 different species seen or heard, but no new ones for the year. Tomorrow I will be driving back down to Utah to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, another place that I have known since my 20's. Stay tuned!

Black Swifts Redux

I traveled today from Durango back up to the Grand Junction area. It was mostly about magnificent mountain scenery. I did stop at Ouray to check out the black swifts that nest there. The top photo above is of the sculpted rocks and water rushing below the swifts nest site at Box Canyon SP located on the edge of Ouray. The middle photo is of a black swift egg that was just laid today in a nest that was not occupied by a bird to keep it warm. The bottom photo is of a black swift on a different nest incubating its egg (remember to click on the photo to enlarge it). This species only lays one egg which is one reason it is not very common. It also generally nests behind large waterfalls for protection, but that is not the case at Box Canyon where instead it nests near a waterfall.

Today is the end of week #26, and the swift was the only new bird seen today for the week. Tomorrow I will be looking for chukars near Grand Junction early in the day before making the drive up to the Grand Tetons. Stay tuned!

Flammulated Owl and More

Today is Thursday July 1st--the halfway mark of my big birding travel adventure. When I started this back on January 1st, I had spent quite a bit of time last fall making my travel plan, but I did not know for sure if in the end it was going to be the "travel adventure" that I had hoped for. I can say now that it has been and much more.

I regularly told people that as long as I was having fun I would continue to follow my original plan, modifying it as needed. The basic schedule was predicated on where the birds would be at any point in the year. This is one reason that I have already reached 631 total species seen so far for the year. Being in the northern hemisphere, the bird's migration and breeding cycle means the 1st half of the year is very intensely packed with travel in my effort to see as many birds as possible.

So far I can say that of the birds that I ought to see, while I have had a few misses during the winter, I still have a chance to see those that I missed before the year is out. And because there are only so many birds that one can reasonably expect to find in the lower 48 states, at this point I probably will only see another 50 new birds for the year. 1/3 of those 50 will be seabirds, and most of those I will have a chance to see in August and September off the west coast. Of course if during the rest of the year many vagrants happen to show up in the lower 48, then it might end up being more than 50.

But let me return to the last 2 days of birding here in Colorado. Early Tuesday morning my friend from Austin and I went back into Rocky Mountain NP to bird for a few hours before I took him to the airport. We saw nothing new, but again had a very good time taking in the high mountain scenery and birdlife including a broad-tailed hummer on its nest. The photo above is of a black-billed magpie, one of the common but quite beautiful birds found all of over the western part of the US.

I drove west from Denver toward Grand Junction. I decided to drive up Mt. Evans to get the views above the treeline. I stopped at Summit Lake and was fortunate to see a nice mountain goat along the ridgeline. I also stopped at a place called Cameo near Grand Junction that I visited back in March in my efforts this year to see a chukar. My stop late Tuesday afternoon ended once again at that location with no chukar seen. I did see some nice desert birds including black-throated gray warbler, black-tailed gnatcatcher, say's phoebe, western kingbird, and a magnificent golden eagle which may be why I did not even hear a chukar calling.

I then drove up onto the uncompahgre plateau which is south of Grand Junction to a place that is well known for having flammulated owls. I arrived about 10 PM, and listened for their call. Not hearing any, which did not surprise me since it is now past their breeding season, I played the call from my Ipod. Very quickly I heard the owl call back. I walked around with my flashlight, playing the call again, and a flammulated owl flew over my head 3 times before flying further off into the trees. Since this was the only bird on my life list that I had heard but not seen, I was elated to have finally been able to see one. I fell asleep in the back of my truck with a smile on my face.

Yesterday I awoke with the sun rising over the plateau, and spent the day birding my way down the western side of Colorado near the Utah border. This is probably one of the most beautiful parts of our country and most Americans, and even residents of Colorado have never seen it. My destination for the evening was outside of Durango where a friend from high school and her husband live.

We spent the evening talking about a myriad of things while drinking some very good wine from their cellar ('95 Montelena cab, '99 Behrens and Hitchcock cab, and '70 Taylor port). The longhorn steak and salad was a good accompaniment for the cabs. An after dinner walk at sunset to visit their horses, and a house being built on part of the 150+ acres they own/owned gave us a second wind to keep talking past midnite.

The past 2 days of birding added another 31 new birds for the week. I will be birding my way back up to Grand Junction this afternoon. I am still on the trail of the chukar. Stay tuned!