Date: April 12-17, 2012

Location: South Texas

Our group consisted of Joe, Kathy, Al, June, Mary, Alan, Carol, Irene, Elizabeth, and John. It was the third straight year that Happy Warblers had run a birding trip to South Texas. Except for Joe it was the first time that the members of the group had been birding in South Texas. Our group would see 133 species of birds and visit some of the best birding locations in the United States.

April 12: Our group met at Newark/Liberty Airport and boarded the 11:50 am plane to Houston and then switched to the smaller flight to Harlingen, Texas. We would stay at the Harlingen Country Inns and Suites for the next six nights. Our location in Harlingen would put us close to all the birding venues of South Texas and the Rio Grande valley. Dinner the first night and all the other nights would be at local restaurants.

April 13: We had breakfast at 7:00 am and by 7:45 we were on the van heading towards our first birding Venue, Estero Llano Grande. It took us about 20 minutes to reach this destination but as soon as we got to their parking lot the birding began. I would say the first bird seen was a beautiful White-winged Dove. This was quickly followed by a Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Plain Chachalaca, Couch’s Kingbird and a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. We were still in the parking lot. All of these birds would become very common for us as we would see them over and over. Also in the parking lot were a pair of Altamira Orioles carrying nesting material. Next we walked over to the observation deck where we spent over one hour just going over all the great variety of ducks and shorebirds. We all saw very well: Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Least Grebe, Roseate Spoonbill, Black-necked Stilt, White-faced Ibis and Cinnamon Teal. All these birds were Texas specialties and set the tone for the entire trip. We left the observation deck and walked the trail towards Grebe Marsh and Alligator Pond, where we saw more birds including: Tri-colored Heron, Anhinga, Solitary Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Inca Dove, White-tipped Dove and many Yellow-crowned Night Herons. We looked in vain for a reported Pauraque. We had found the bird in the past two years but could not locate it this year. Other species missing this year were Kingfishers. The water levels in all the ponds we were to visit in this park and other parks were low due to the continuing drought and probably accounted for the lack of Kingfishers. We made our way to the canal part of the park where we saw many Fulvous Whistling-Ducks and many American Avocets. A Bobcat ran across our trail. Coming back to the park’s headquarters we saw Harris Hawk and Purple Martins. Many members of our birding group would say that this park was the best of our entire trip.

Our day was not finished. We took a lunch break and then headed to Frontera Audubon. Because the habitat was different we would see different birds. We had our first sighting of the Green Jay. It is a very beautiful bird and a somewhat common resident in South Texas. We also saw Buff-bellied Hummingbird and White-eyed Vireo. We had some more time so I decided to take another shot at the Pauraque, this time in a different part of Estero Llano Grande. This park is so big that a birder could spend more than one day there and still not see everything. Again we nixed on the Pauraque but we did pick up the nest of the Altamira Oriole with the male right outside of the nest.

April 14: Again we had breakfast at 7:00 am and by 7:45 we were on the van out to do some birding. Today we headed east towards Laguna Atascosa NWR and then South Padre Island. We drove through some farm fields on our way to Laguna Atascosa but because of the continuing drought we did not see many birds, although we did pick up many Eastern Meadowlarks, many Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, a few Loggerhead Shrikes and a very beautiful Crested Caracara. Missing were Whimbrel and marsh birds. Arriving at the visitor’s center we birded the grounds and saw very well an Olive Sparrow. Migrants were missing as the south winds over the Gulf of Mexico probably blew the birds right over us without them stopping. We took the van to xxx. Here we viewed the lagoon and saw a few alligators, many Coots and some Redheads. We went back in the van and drove the 15 mile auto loop. The strong winds and lack of water reduced the number of birds we saw but we did pick up: White-tailed Hawk, Reddish Egret, Northern Harrier and Osprey. A Roadrunner crossed our trail many times and a Lesser Nighthawk zipped low across our path. We left this park and headed towards South Padre Island.

Texas State Parks has established about 10 of these centers which they refer to as World Birding Centers and South Padre Island is one them. Here we walked the boardwalk trail into the marsh. We saw many birds like: Clapper Rail, Sora, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet and White Ibis. Another part of the park has mud flats where we saw: Marbled Godwit, Wilson’s Plover, Gull-billed Tern, Caspian Tern, Royal Tern and my favorite, Franklin’s Gulls. The Franklin’s Gulls were in breeding plumage. I should also mention that we had great looks at many sandpipers including Spotted Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone and Pectoral Sandpiper. We had dinner on South Padre Island and drove back to our hotel and prepared for our next day.

April 15: The routine was the same, breakfast at 7 and then in the van by 7:45. Today we were headed towards Santa Ana NWR. I had information that some great birds were being seen at the sod farms of Progreso, Texas. I changed our route slightly and made a stop at the sod farm. Here we had good scope views of Upland Sandpipers and Golden Plovers. They were life birds for almost everyone. We also saw, real close, Loggerhead Shrike and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. This is a spot I intend to make a regular birding location. After about ½ hour at the sod farms we arrived at Santa Ana NWR. First we checked in at the visitor’s center and then walked the Chachalaca trail. Here we heard and easily saw the Tropical Parula, many Olive Sparrows, Great Kiskadee, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, more Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Couch’s Kingbird. After this trail we walked the Pintail Lakes trail loop. Again we could see the drought conditions of Texas as the ponds were very low and some of them were actually dried up. Again kingfishers were missing. We did see many Fulvous Whistling Ducks, a Roseate Spoonbill, Blue-winged Teal and a few Cinnamon Teal. After a break we headed towards our afternoon venue, Bentsen State Park.

At Bentsen we took the tram to the hawk watch tower. We were very lucky as we got to the tower just as a large kettle of Swainson’s Hawks were flying over. I conservatively numbered the size of the kettle at 300. Mixed in with the Swainson’s were some smaller Broad-winged Hawks. It was a very exciting moment for our group most of whom had never seen so many hawks at such close range. We took the tram back to the van and headed towards our hotel.

April 16: Today would be our last full day of birding. We were headed to Falcon State Recreation Area. This park was about 100 miles away, our longest trip by far. But this park had a desert like habitat and birds unlike any of the other places we were to visit. Arriving at the park we went right after the key bird, Pyrrhuloxia. During our stay at the park we would see many of them and also see some Northern Cardinals to compare against. Other birds that we saw were: Common Ground Dove, Cactus Wren, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Northern Bobwhite and Eurasian Collared-Dove. At the feeder station we had excellent views of a Green-tailed Towhee, a ‘lifer’ for almost everyone including me. It was very exciting.  We left the park and headed towards the Roma Bluffs, an easy stop on the return trip. No interesting birds were found there but we did have excellent views of the Rio Grande River and Mexico.

April 17: We broke the pattern of 7am breakfast and had breakfast at about 8. We packed our luggage, checked out and made a stop at a nearby Starbucks, for coffee and hopefully Red-crowned Parrots. We had seen the parrots the last two years in this spot. We got the coffee but missed on the parrots. We will try for the parrots again next year. We took the 11am flight to Houston and then to New York arriving right on time.

SPECIES SEEN

Least Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
Brown Pelican
Neotropic Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Reddish Egret
Tricolored Heron
Little Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
American Wigeon
Gadwall
Green-winged Teal
Mallard
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Redhead
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Harris's Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Plain Chachalaca
Northern Bobwhite
Clapper Rail
Sora
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
American Golden-Plover
Black-bellied Plover
Wilson's Plover
Killdeer
Long-billed Dowitcher
Marbled Godwit
Upland Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Spotted Sandpiper
Willet
Ruddy Turnstone
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Stilt Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Laughing Gull
Franklin's Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Sandwich Tern
Royal Tern
Forster's Tern
Least Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
White-winged Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Inca Dove
White-tipped Dove
Greater Roadrunner
Lesser Nighthawk
Chimney Swift
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Horned Lark
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cactus Wren
Carolina Wren
Marsh Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Long-billed Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
Clay-colored Robin
Tufted Titmouse
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
European Starling
White-eyed Vireo
Tropical Parula
Common Yellowthroat
Scarlet Tanager
Olive Sparrow
Green-tailed Towhee
Lark Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Altamira Oriole
Bullock's Oriole
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Species seen - 133