Date: April 11-16, 2013

Location: South Texas

Our group consisted of eight birders. It was the fourth 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 153 species of birds, a record, and visit some of the best birding locations in the United States.

April 11: Our group met at LaGuardia Airport and boarded the 11 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 five 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 12: 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 birds seen were a pair of Harris Hawks. Easy view as they perched on a nearby tree. This was quickly followed by a Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Plain Chachalaca, and Couch’s Kingbird. 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. Next we walked over to the observation deck where we spent over one hour just going over the great variety of ducks and shorebirds. We all saw very well: Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Least Grebe, and Black-necked Stilt. 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, Green Kingfisher, Inca Dove, White-tipped Dove and many Yellow-crowned Night Herons. We looked for a reported Pauraque. We had found this bird in two of the last three years. We were lucky as the bird was spotted only about five feet from the trail. The water levels in all the ponds we were to visit in this park and other parks were low due to the continuing drought. We made our way to the canal part of the park where we saw many American Avocets, in breeding plumage. Overhead was a White-tailed Kite.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. Best bird we saw was an Olive-sided Flycatcher. We also saw White-eyed Vireo and Brown-crested Flycatcher. We had some more time so I decided to take another look at Estero Llano Grande this time visiting a different part of the park known as the tropical zone. Estero llano Grande is so big a birder could spend two days there and still not see the entire park. We saw our first Green Jay. It is a very beautiful bird and a somewhat common resident in South Texas. Best bird we found in the tropical zone was an Altamira Oriole. Two of them were carrying nesting material and starting to build a hanging nest on a telephone wire. We headed back to the hotel and dinner.

April 13: 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. We did pick up many Eastern Meadowlarks, many Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, a few Loggerhead Shrikes and a close flyby of a Crested Caracara. About five Whimbrels were seen feeding along the road. Arriving at the visitor’s center we birded the grounds and saw very well an Olive Sparrow, Altamira Oriole and Painted Bunting (male). We went back in the van and drove the 15 mile auto loop. We did pick up: White-tailed Hawk, Reddish Egret, Northern Harrier and Osprey. A Roadrunner crossed our trail twice. One highlight was a scope view of two Aplomado Falcons. They breed on a manmade platform at some distance from the road. 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, about 30 Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and 10 Western Kingbirds. Another part of the park has mud flats where we saw: Marbled Godwit, Wilson’s Plover, Gull-billed Tern, Caspian Tern, and Sandwich Tern. Our group left the boardwalk and headed towards the Convention Center. There was a fallout of trans-Gulf migrants around the shrubs located near the Center. We picked up Prothonotary, Black-throated Green, Tennessee, Nashville and Black-and-white Warblers.  We had dinner on South Padre Island and drove back to our hotel and prepared for our next day.

April 14: The routine was the same, breakfast at 7 and then in the van by 7:45. Today we were headed towards Santa Ana NWR. First we checked in at the visitor’s center and then walked the Chachalaca trail. Here we easily saw the Cinnamon Teal, many Olive Sparrows, Great Kiskadee, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, more Scissor-tailed Flycatchers and Couch’s Kingbird. At the third lookout spot we heard and then saw the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet. This may be the only area in the United States where this species breeds. 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. We did see many Fulvous Whistling Ducks, Blue-winged Teal and many White-faced Ibis. After a break we headed towards our afternoon venue, Sabal Palms.

Sabal Palms is located in Brownsville and is considered the southernmost spot in all of Texas. In one tree near the entrance and feeder station we saw four species of orioles. Baltimore, Orchard, Hooded and Altamira were all present. Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Green Jay and Summer Tanager added much color to the area. After about two hours we headed back to our hotel and dinner.

April 15: Today would be our last full day of birding. We were headed to Falcon Lake 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. Before we got to the park we saw a Chihuahuan Raven on the road. Arriving at the park we went right after the key bird, Pyrrhuloxia. We had excellent looks. 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, Lark Sparrows, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Northern Bobwhite and Eurasian Collared-Dove. Overhead were White Pelicans and Swainson’s Hawks. We had lunch at a picnic area that overlooked the lake. On the shoreline were about 20 American Avocets in breeding plumage. 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 16: 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 in two of the last three years. 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 three hours late.

SPECIES SEEN

Least Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
American White Pelican
Brown Pelican
Neotropic Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Reddish Egret
Tricolored Heron
Little Blue Heron
Snowy Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Least Bittern
White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
American Wigeon
Gadwall
Green-winged Teal
Mottled Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Redhead
Ruddy Duck
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Swallow-tailed Kite
White-tailed Kite
Mississippi Kite
Northern Harrier
Harris's Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Swainson's Hawk
White-tailed Hawk
Crested Caracara
Aplomado Falcon
Plain Chachalaca
Northern Bobwhite
Clapper Rail
Sora
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Wilson's Plover
Killdeer
Long-billed Dowitcher
Marbled Godwit
Whimbrel
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Willet
Ruddy Turnstone
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Dunlin
Stilt Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Laughing Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Sandwich Tern
Royal Tern
Common Tern
Least Tern
Black Skimmer
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
White-winged Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Inca Dove
White-tipped Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Greater Roadrunner
Pauraque
Chimney Swift
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Couch's Kingbird
Western Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Carolina Wren
Marsh Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Long-billed Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
Clay-colored Robin
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Tufted Titmouse
Loggerhead Shrike
Green Jay
Chihuahuan Raven
European Starling
White-eyed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Tennessee Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat
Scarlet Tanager
Summer Tanager
Olive Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Pyrrhuloxia
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Painted Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Great-tailed Grackle
Bronzed Cowbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Altamira Oriole
Hooded Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
Orchard Oriole
Lesser Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Species seen - 153