Continuing a great trend of Eagle-Eye runs to southern Texas, this year’s trip one of the most exciting tours I’ve led yet! We were continually treated to the rich diversity and abundance of birds that inhabit South Texas during the winter season. Our travels took us from the salt marshes and shorelines of the Corpus/Rockport area down to the austere coastal plain of Brownsville, then into the delightfully birdy preserves of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and headed westward into the outskirts of the Chihuahuan Desert in the Falcon Dam region. We ended up tallying in an impressive 217 species of birds, many of them specialties of South Texas like Whooping Cranes; subtropical forest birds like Chachalacas, Green Jays, Altamira Orioles and Great Kiskadees; with desert species like Greater Roadrunner, and Pyrrhuloxia; plus raptors, waders & shorebirds galore and an amazing list of rarities like Common Black Hawk, Crimson-collared Grosbeak, Hook-billed Kite, Golden-crowned Warbler and Roadside Hawk!

Day 1, February 12: Corpus Christi

We began our tour with a meet and greet with most everyone (one couple got in late) at a great dinner spot in Corpus. We got to know each other over tasty seafood and sketch out what we would be doing for the tour. Excitement was high, and we were all eager for the morning to come and starting lifting our binoculars!

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks

Day 2, February 13: Corpus Christi to Rockport

After breakfast at our hotel, we headed out to start birding a local park shortly after sunrise. With a diverse assemblage of avian species, Hazel Bazemore is a fantastic starter plate to South Texas birding. The park is full of wintering songbirds and waders, as well as raptors, ducks and a mix of the first “valley specialties”. In a little over two hours we racked up 57 species including Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, Black-necked Stilts, White Ibis, Crested Caracaras, Vermilion Flycatcher, Sedge Wrens and singing Olive Sparrows and Long-billed Thrashers.

  Black-necked Stilt

Next up was the tidal mudflats of Indian Point. Full of shorebirds, we saw sixteen species, including both species of Dowitchers, Black-bellied & Semipalmated Plovers, Western Sandpipers, American Oystercatchers and an American Avocet as well as our first decent rarity of the trip, a flock of four Wilson’s Plovers.

Long-billed Dowitchers in the rear, with a Short-billed Dowitcher in the front. Note who the slimmer profile with a paler plumage separates the Short-billed from its larger sister species.

Wilson’s Plover

 We then headed up to the Rockport area, where we had a picnic lunch at Goose Island State Park. We took a walk around the trails and campground at the State park to stretch our legs, looking for songbirds, finding Orange-crowned Warblers, Gray Catbird and our only Field Sparrows of the trip. Moving on to the pastures around the Big Tree (an ancient Live Oak), we had our first looks at a few Whooping Cranes across a field! Also notable was a lone dark Ibis I snapped a few pictures of, and later in looking at my photos, confirmed my suspicions from the time that it was a Glossy Ibis as opposed to the more expected White-faced Ibis! We spent our last few hours of daylight cruising around the salt marshes of Cape Valero getting great looks at Roseate Spoonbills, White-faced Ibis, Little Blue Herons and were treated to a Clapper Rail lurking in a culvert next to the road!

Glossy Ibis in the right-hand photo, with White-faced Ibis to the left (along with Roseate Spoonbill and Snowy Egret). Note the dark eye and dark facial skin of the Glossy Ibis compared to the red eye and pink facial skin of the White-faced Ibis.

Whooping Cranes

Day 3, February 14: Rockport to Brownsville

One of my most favorite days of the year is taking Captain Tommy’s boat the Skimmer into the inter-coastal marshes of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge to see the most magnificent of all Texas birds- the Whooping Crane. Standing at five feet tall, this impressive-looking beast is still one of the more critically endangered birds on the planet. And we were lucky enough to see 45 of them! Certainly the highest day total I’ve ever had of this striking species! But the Whoopers aren’t the only birds we saw. We enjoyed a Great Blue Heron rookery en route to the docks that morning, and from the boat, tons of ducks; huge smears of Lesser Scaup seen on the open waters of Copano Bay, with big flocks of Blue-winged Teal and Gadwall in the marshes. Our first Reddish Egrets of the trip along with several Common Loons and Eared Grebes were seen and our only Horned Grebe, Marbled Godwit, Common Goldeneye and surprisingly Royal Tern of the tour were had. Very exciting were the numerous pods of Bottlenose Dolphins that came and rode in our boat’s wake.

Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin

After our picnic lunch in Rockport, we headed into the van for the afternoon drive down to Brownsville. The highway was lined in Red-tailed Hawks, Caracaras and a handful of our first Harris’s Hawks. Two quick birding stops on our route included our first visuals on Green Jays and Black-crested Titmice at the Sarita rest area, and a ranch along the highway held a large flock of Snow Geese with a few Ross’s Geese contained within. We got to Brownsville just as the shadows were growing long and after a brief check-in to our hotel, headed to Oliveira Park for an evening spectacle supreme- the night roost of the flocks of parrots that roam Brownsville. A parrot roost is in short, pure pandemonium in action! With shrieking cries and swooping explosive flights, flocks gather in the large eucalyptus trees. The most abundant bird is the native species Red-crowned Parrot, with additional feral species present like Red-lored Parrot, Lilac-crowned Parrot and White-fronted Parrots. A most memorable event to experience!

Black-crested Titmouse

Great Blue Heron rookery

White-tailed Hawks

Day 4, February 15: Brownsville

We started our morning in Brownsville by slinking along the Old Isabel Port Road in search of Aplomado Falcons. Right off the bat we had a pair of White-tailed Hawks engaged in nest-building right along the road! Tropical Kingbirds and Loggerhead Shrikes dotted the landscape and other new birds included Least Grebe, Curve-billed Thrashers and Cactus & Bewick’s Wrens. Singing a most haunting melody were a few Cassin’s Sparrows, and thanks to the tip of other birders on the road, we saw a distant Aplomado Falcon out in a field.

Cassin’s Sparrow

Green Kingfisher

Our next stop was the University of Texas AM’s Brownsville campus to look for a staked-out rarity, a Common Black Hawk. The stakeouts however do not mean guarantee birds, and we did not see the Black Hawk. However we did get looks at our first Ringed and Green Kingfishers along the banks of the campus resaca. Oh well, we would try again later for the hawk. On to Sabal Palms Audubon Sanctuary, home to one of the last remnants of the United State’s native palm tree. This subtropical preserve is one of the southmost points in the US, and we were treated to several new species like Yellow-throated & Black-throated Green Warblers, Gray Hawks, White-tipped Doves and good looks at Olive Sparrow and Green Jays. We took a stroll down to the Rio Grande River itself, with Mexico just a stone’s throw across on the other side.

 Rio Grande River

Olive Sparrow

Hiking the trails at Sabal Palms

We made another attempt for the Black Hawk, but after a second no-show, we headed out to take an evening drive to the beautiful and endangered habitat of the coastal prairies along the Boca Chica Road. We had fantastic looks at White-tailed Kite, Harris’s and White-tailed Hawks, dozens and dozens of Caracaras, a Great Horned Owl perched up on a Yucca, and a huge mass of shorebirds feeding on the salt flats. Sadly the flocks were a bit far, but through the scope we could pluck out goodies like Red Knot, Whimbrel and Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Astounding was a huge flock of Reddish Egrets- a 184 to be precise! The expansive waterway in this region is called the Laguna Madre and holds the highest densities of this rare and localized wading bird in the world! Another nice treat here was a coyote that came trotting down the road right  passed us.

Coyote

Reddish Egrets. Both white and dark morphs were present, white morphs make up about 10-20% of the population, this was right line with our count of this flock!

Common Black Hawk

Day 5, February 16: Brownsville to McAllen

Third time is a charm right? We did another attempt before leaving Brownsville for the Common Black Hawk, this time, we walked right up to it perched in a willow! A real treat, it gave quite the performance flying over the resaca to spook a heron off a favored perch. We then started to move into the heart of the Valley, and by 10AM we were pulling up to the lush gardens of the Quinta Mazatlan mansion. Here we had our first Plain Chachalacas, Clay-colored Thrushes (Robins), Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Inca Doves and Common Pauraque. However the main reason we had come to this place was for a known rarity, an immature male Crimson-collared Grosbeak that had been over-wintering here. It took quite a while of us patiently waiting for the bird, complete with a break for sandwiches, but eventually the Grosbeak flew in, giving everyone a good if not ultimately a brief look!

Plain Chachalaca

Texas Tortoise

Feeling good about our successes so far, we beelined it over to the Valley Nature Center where another stellar Mexican rarity, a Golden-crowned Warbler was over-wintering. Assisted by the center’s director Matt, along with a couple of friends of mine from Michigan, we circled around the thick woodlot in search of this skulky tropical bird. A Texas Tortoise crossing the trail was a great find, but the bird was proving to be more difficult. Just as we were ready to give up, Matt located the warbler! And boy oh boy did it put on a show for us. Remaining in sight for about 20 minutes (an eternity in warblertime…), the bird preened, foraged and even slayed a large caterpillar in front of us! Certainly my best looks at this species ever!

Monk Parakeet                             

Burrowing Owl

With the afternoon waning, we then headed to the small farming town of Grenjeno. Here we encountered two Burrowing Owls tucked into the rock lined levy. Afterwards we stopped by the nearby town of Hildalgo for a successful look at an established colony of Monk Parakeets. Then on to a fantastic restaurant to celebrate the day’s finds! The warbler was Ron’s 500^th ABA bird! Cheers!

Golden-crowned Warbler

Crimson-collared Grosbeak

Day 6, February 17: McAllen/Weslaco

We started out today with another rarity stakeout- a levy located near Bentsen State Park had been hosting a group of Hook-billed Kites all winter. So off we went to stand on the levy waiting for the kites to lift off out of the mesquite woodlands below. One our way there, we encountered a large flock of Green Parakeets leaving their evening roost. Upon getting to the levy, we waited about 30 minutes before A Hook-billed Kite made a fantastic flyby, with another skimming the treetops further out! Success again! We stopped briefly at the headquarters of Bentsen for a bathroom break where at the feeding station picked up our only Ruby-throated and Black-chinned Hummingbirds for the trip.

Hook-billed Kite (by Robert Floerke)

We then headed over to one of the best parks in the Valley, Estero Llano State Park. A mix of wetland and forested habitat can help produce a big day total from this site- our total was a robust 80 species! Several new species were observed here including Common Ground-Dove, Sora and Virginia Rails walking around on the mud, Stilt Sandpipers, Yellow-crowned Night-Herons, a McCall’s Eastern Screech-Owl, Blue-headed Vireo and Cave Swallows. Estero has a covered deck that makes an excellent location for picnic lunch, we were treated to flocks of Teal, Dowitchers and Egrets wandering right in front of us as we ate.

We then headed over to the Progresso Sod Farms to try and pluck out a Sprague’s Pipit from the extensive fields and much to my surprise, we had not one, but two Sprague’s give us great looks. We then stopped by a nearby grainery were we encountered our only Bronzed Cowbirds of the tour. And finally in the last light of day we passed back through Granjeno and saw two Short-eared Owls coursing over the fields.

Mottled Ducks

Common Pauraque

Harris’s Hawk

White-tailed Kite

Day 7, February 18: Salineno/Falcon

My other favorite day of the Texas tour is when we head upriver to the Chiuahuan desert scrub of the Falcon area, along with the riparian birding along the Rio in the sleepy little village of Salineno. Every visit to Salineno is a treat and today did not dissapoint! We spent some time along the river, seeing what we could scrouge up. And much to our delight, we scrounged up a really good bird; a pair to be presise, those being Red-billed Pigeons! One even cooperated for us and sat up in a tree singing for a spell. This allowed great scope looks for everyone! Afterwards we then settled in the feeding station at Salineno, where among the Red-winged Blackbird horde, we had several Green Jays, Great Kiskadees, Altamira Oriole and Hooded Orioles and a great look at a Clay-colored Thrush. We had high hopes an Audubon’s Oriole would make an apperance as well, but after waiting for quite some time, too much daylight was burning away so we packed it in and headed out. However, we made only 10 meters before I had  a flash of yellow dash over the car and everyone did an amazing job rolling out of the van in record time to enjoy their lifer Audubon’s Orioles teeing up in the mesquite trees along the dirt road.

Audubon’s Oriole                         

Red-billed Pigeon

Pyrrhuloxia

After a successful oriole nab, we then wandered the desert scrub for a while picking up a few new species like Pyrrhuloxia, Western Meadowlark, Vesper & Grasshopper Sparrows, Greater Roadrunners and Audubon’s Warbler. A stop for lunch at Falcon State Park yielded more sparrows, Lark, White-throated, White-crowned and Clay-colored as well as our only Black-throated Sparrow of the trip. An unexpected jewel was a fancy Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in the rustic campground! We made a few more attempts for new desert country birds in the late afternoon, but while we were treated to several Vermilion Flycatchers, nothing new popped.

Black-throated Sparrow

Curve-billed Thrasher

Greater Roadrunner

Vermilion Flycatcher                      

Clay-colored Robin

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Long-billed Curlew

Great Egret

Day 8, February 19: McAllen to Santa Ana NWR

Bittersweet as always, for the last morning of our tour, we headed out to do dawn along a brushy dry-country gravel road hoping for a Say’s Phoebe that had been around. No luck there, but it was a treat to have singing Cassin’s Sparrows and Pyrrhuloxias again. We then headed into town to a cemetery where a rare bird for south Texas; a Plumbeous Vireo had been spending the winter. It took a little while for us to locate it, but picking through flocks of Myrtle, Orange-crowned, Yellow-throated and Black-and-white Warblers is never a chore, and it was a real joy to get everyone on this demure looking vireo!

Plumbeous Vireo

We then headed back to the Hook-billed Kite levy, hoping for a second chance for it as well as the Groove-billed Anis that had been reported there. It was raining by the time we got there, and we had no luck with either species. However some of the tour participants had found a perched hawk that warranted a closer look. Upon getting it in the scope, I was blown away to discover that it was a juvenile Roadside Hawk! One had been in this area a few months earlier, could it be the same bird making a reappearance?! Either way, there are only a handful of records for the US and everyone got a good look in the scope at it before it flew down into the forest! WOW! What a great bird to get on our last day! At this point everything else was gravy. We had lunch at the nearby Anzulduas County Park right on the Rio. In the wet cold, not too much was moving but we finally encountered a flock of Cattle Egrets as well as a few new species of swallow. To wrap things up, we finished out taking a walk at Santa Ana Nat. Wildlife Refuge with my friends from Michigan who put us on some Cinnamon Teal and our last new bird of the trip, a Least Flycatcher.

We concluded out tour with a final meal at a great restaurant. It was a mirthful affair and everyone was overjoyed with the sights they had seen. The final tally for the tour came to 217 birds; a record for this tour I think may stand for a long time!

I want to acknowledge the Eagle-Eye office staff for their excellent work with the tour logistics; to my friends Mark & Joanie Hubinger and Tracy & Jim Zervos for their assistance and good company with the tour; to Mary Gustafson for all the hard work she does compiling and moderating the rare bird alerts and ebird database; and to all my participants of this tour- you all were a delightful group and your cheery personas and go-get’um birder attitudes made for a wonderful week! Thank you!

Golden–fronted Woodpecker

White Ibis

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck	Little Blue Heron	American Oystercatcher
Greater White-fronted Goose	Tricolored Heron	Black-bellied Plover
Ross’s Goose	Reddish Egret	Wilson’s Plover
Gadwall	Cattle Egret	Semipalmated Plover
American Wigeon	Green Heron	Killdeer
Mexican Duck (Mallard)	Black-crowned Night-Heron	Spotted Sandpiper
Mallard	Yellow-crowned Night-Heron	Solitary Sandpiper
Mottled Duck	White Ibis	Greater Yellowlegs
Blue-winged Teal	Glossy Ibis	Willet (Western)
Cinnamon Teal	White-faced Ibis	Lesser Yellowlegs
Northern Shoveler	Roseate Spoonbill	Whimbrel
Northern Pintail	Black Vulture	Long-billed Curlew
Green-winged Teal	Turkey Vulture	Marbled Godwit
Redhead	Osprey	Ruddy Turnstone
Ring-necked Duck	White-tailed Kite	Red Knot
Lesser Scaup	Hook-billed Kite	Stilt Sandpiper
Bufflehead	Northern Harrier	Sanderling
Common Goldeneye	Sharp-shinned Hawk	Dunlin
Hooded Merganser	Cooper’s Hawk	Least Sandpiper
Red-breasted Merganser	Common Black Hawk	Western Sandpiper
Ruddy Duck	Harris’s Hawk	Short-billed Dowitcher
Plain Chachalaca	White-tailed Hawk	Long-billed Dowitcher
Northern Bobwhite	Roadside Hawk	Wilson’s Snipe
Common Loon	Gray Hawk	Laughing Gull
Least Grebe	Red-shouldered Hawk	Ring-billed Gull
Pied-billed Grebe	Red-tailed Hawk	Herring Gull
Horned Grebe	King Rail	Lesser Black-backed Gull
Eared Grebe	Clapper Rail	Caspian Tern
Neotropic Cormorant	Virginia Rail	Forster’s Tern
Double-crested Cormorant	Sora	Royal Tern
Anhinga	Common Gallinule	Black Skimmer
American White Pelican	American Coot	Rock Pigeon
Brown Pelican	Sandhill Crane	Red-billed Pigeon
Great Blue Heron	Whooping Crane	Eurasian Collared-Dove
Great Egret	Black-necked Stilt	Inca Dove
Snowy Egret	American Avocet	Common Ground-Dove
White-tipped Dove	Scissor-tailed Flycatcher	Nashville Warbler
White-winged Dove	Loggerhead Shrike	Common Yellowthroat
Mourning Dove	White-eyed Vireo	Myrtle Warbler
Greater Roadrunner	Blue-headed Vireo	Audubon’s Warbler
Eastern Screech-Owl	Plumbeous Vireo	Black-and-white Warbler
Great Horned Owl	Green Jay	Yellow-throated Warbler
Short-eared Owl	American Crow	Black-throated Green Warbler
Burrowing Owl	Horned Lark	Wilson’s Warbler
Common Pauraque	Purple Martin	Golden-crowned Warbler
Ruby-throated Hummingbird	Northern Rough-winged Swallow	Olive Sparrow
Black-chinned Hummingbird	Tree Swallow	Cassin’s Sparrow
Buff-bellied Hummingbird	Cave Swallow	Chipping Sparrow
Ringed Kingfisher	Barn Swallow	Clay-colored Sparrow
Belted Kingfisher	Bank Swallow	Field Sparrow
Green Kingfisher	Black-crested Titmouse	Vesper Sparrow
Golden-fronted Woodpecker	Black-crested X Tufted Titmouse hybrid	Lark Sparrow
Ladder-backed Woodpecker	Verdin	Black-throated Sparrow
Crested Caracara	House Wren	Savannah Sparrow
American Kestrel	Sedge Wren	Grasshopper Sparrow
Merlin	Carolina Wren	Lincoln’s Sparrow
Aplomado Falcon	Bewick’s Wren	Swamp Sparrow
Peregrine Falcon	Cactus Wren	White-throated Sparrow
Red-crowned Parrot	Blue-gray Gnatcatcher	White-crowned Sparrow
Red-lored Parrot	Ruby-crowned Kinglet	Crimson-collared Grosbeak
Lilac-crowned Parrot	Clay-colored Thrush	Northern Cardinal
White-fronted Parrot	American Robin	Pyrrhuloxia
Monk Parakeet	Gray Catbird	Indigo Bunting
Green Parakeet	Curve-billed Thrasher	Red-winged Blackbird
Black Phoebe	Long-billed Thrasher	Western Meadowlark
Eastern Phoebe	European Starling	Eastern Meadowlark
Vermilion Flycatcher	American Pipit	Brewer’s Blackbird
Great Kiskadee	Sprague’s Pipit	Great-tailed Grackle
Tropical Kingbird	Cedar Waxwing	Bronzed Cowbird
Couch’s Kingbird	Orange-crowned Warbler	Brown-headed Cowbird
Altamira Oriole
Audubon’s Oriole
Hooded Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
MAMMALS
Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin
Raccoon
Hispid Cotton Rat
Gray Squirrel
Fox Squirrel
Nutria
Coyote
Desert Cottontail
Javalina (Collared Peccary)
White-tailed Deer
Blackbuck
Impala
Oryx
Axis Deer
HERPTOFAUNA
Texas Tortoise
Red-eared Slider
Alligator
BUTTERFLIES
Red Admiral
Giant Swallowtail
Black Swallowtail
White Peacock
Checkered White
Checkered Skipper