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2012 Big Year - January
January 22 - South Padre Island & Frontera Audubon Thicket
This day I was joined by Mary Jane Syvertsen, Pat Heirs, and Joyce Davidson (aka the Birder Patrol) to try for the rarities being seen on South Padre Island, which included a very confiding Black-legged Kittiwake (Joyce's non-birding husband had poured salt in the wound by showing her a picture of said kittiwake seen on a fishing trip), so we headed out there first. Other birders had observed that the bird wasn't necessarily there first thing in the morning, and that proved to be the case, although we saw some nice Red-breasted Mergansers and a pair of Sanderlings on the rocks. A Merlin came shooting in and landed in a palm tree, so that was wonderful to get him taken care of for the year! After scouring the jetty area Pat showed us a little alcove that was just filled with ducks and gulls--just not our gull!
Red-breasted Merganser at Isla Blanca Park
Sanderlings
From there we decided to check the bay beach access before it got too crowded, but the flock was still way out there, with a lot of wet, muddy sand between us and them, so we decided caution was in order and headed straight for the Birding Center. While we dipped on all the rarities reported there, the photo ops couldn't be beat with point blank looks at the usual herons, ducks (mainly Redheads), shorebirds, and "swimming rails". One Clapper Rail called and showed himself briefly while dashing from one clump to another, but that was the extent of rail activity (at least of the skulky kind). A pair of Black Skimmers showed off their feeding skills right in front of us, however, as a Forster's Tern tried unsuccessfully to compete! A Gull-billed Tern in the larid flock was good for the year, and we were all surprised that there were no Sandwich Terns in the mix! A little LBJ fluttered up out of the reeds and then back in again, the jizz of which sure made me think Ammodramus sparrow, but it never gave another look. The non-avian prize most definitely went to not one, but two huge Alligators basking on the banks!
Alligator #1 delights the crowds right outside the Birding Center building!
Lesser (left) and Greater Yellowlegs
A photographer's dream!
Clapper Rail races between clumps...
Great Blue Heron
Little Blue Heron
Roseate Spoonbill, with an American Wigeon in the background
Fearless Great Egret
Stretching Common Gallinule
Forster's Tern looking for lunch
The Great Blue Heron has moved from the post to the mangroves...
A much smaller Tricolored Heron
Marbled Godwit
A Black Skimmer notices a fish frenzy and wheels in to take advantage of it!
He dips the razor-sharp lower mandible into the water...
...which automatically snaps shut when it comes in contact with a food item!
A little fuzzy, but this shows how thin that bill really is!
Reddish Egret
The Great Blue Heron sails in to join the feeding frenzy!
"Here I am!"
He loses no time in searching for lunch!
A Snowy Egret does the same, his "golden slippers" visible in the shallow water!
Black-bellied Plover (without the black belly in winter...)
Alligator #2 basking closer to the Convention Center...
Meandering over the Convention Center bagged us a female Selasphorus hummer at the water feature, but nothing else of interest. From there we decided to return to Isla Blanca Park, but we could find no kittiwake, even though the guy at the bait shop encouraged us to hang around as it had come in the day before. By that time it was getting close to 1:00 and I was antsy to try for the Golden-crowned Warbler and Crimson-collared Grosbeak at Frontera, so after admiring a fancy pigeon in with the rest of the flock (I think Pat referred to it as a "White-runner" or something like that), we headed out and over to Weslaco.
We can't find the kittiwake, so we settle for some fancy Rock Pigeons...
As we walked in the gate a lady came up and said she had just had the warbler, so the girls shooed me after her (along with Terry and Marci Fuller who had been looking long and hard for it) while they checked in, and we caught up with the rest of the crowd waiting expectantly along the trail by a small water feature along the north side of the area. Presently the rest of the Birder Patrol showed up, and we waited for a good while until I got antsy again (we only had an hour before I had to start getting home), so while Joyce manned the main water feature out front, the rest of us went back to the shack area and made a whole loop, looking and listening, picking up a flock of Field Sparrows by the boardwalk. We spent a little while at the feeding area where the grosbeak had been seen, but I think all we had coming in were titmice and chachalacas. We finally gave up and made our way back to the front where Joyce had seen a Blue-headed Vireo, but nothing else exciting (Pat was worried that Joyce might greet us looking like a Cheshire Cat...). Those who had stood vigil at the original spot reported that the warbler never did reappear...
Field Sparrow
Called it a day after that, but felt rotten this morning reading the Texbirds reports as someone from San Antonio evidently saw the silly kittiwake right after we left!! :-( Oh, well--as Pat said, yas pay yer money and yas take yer chances! ☺
Bird List (new species are in CAPS):
American Wigeon
Anas americana
Mottled Duck
Anas fulvigula
Northern Pintail
Anas acuta
Redhead
Aythya americana
Lesser Scaup
Aythya affinis
Red-breasted Merganser
Mergus serrator
Plain Chachalaca
Ortalis vetula
Pied-billed Grebe
Podilymbus podiceps
Double-crested Cormorant
Phalacrocorax auritus
American White Pelican
Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
Brown Pelican
Pelecanus occidentalis
Great Blue Heron
Ardea herodias
Great Egret
Ardea alba
Snowy Egret
Egretta thula
Little Blue Heron
Egretta caerulea
Tricolored Heron
Egretta tricolor
Reddish Egret
Egretta rufescens
Roseate Spoonbill
Platalea ajaja
Turkey Vulture
Cathartes aura
Osprey
Pandion haliaetus
Northern Harrier
Circus cyaneus
Harris's Hawk
Parabuteo unicinctus
White-tailed Hawk
Buteo albicaudatus
Red-tailed Hawk
Buteo jamaicensis
American Kestrel
Falco sparverius
MERLIN
Falco columbarius
CLAPPER RAIL
Rallus longirostris
Common Gallinule
Gallinula galeata
American Coot
Fulica americana
Black-bellied Plover
Pluvialis squatarola
Semipalmated Plover
Charadrius semipalmatus
Killdeer
Charadrius vociferus
Black-necked Stilt
Himantopus mexicanus
American Avocet
Recurvirostra Americana
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Tringa semipalmata
Lesser Yellowlegs
Tringa flavipes
Long-billed Curlew
Numenius americanus
Marbled Godwit
Limosa fedoa
Ruddy Turnstone
Arenaria interpres
Sanderling
Calidris alba
Dunlin
Calidris alpina
Laughing Gull
Leucophaeus atricilla
Ring-billed Gull
Larus delawarensis
Herring Gull
Larus argentatus
GULL-BILLED TERN
Gelochelidon nilotica
Caspian Tern
Hydroprogne caspia
Forster's Tern
Sterna forsteri
Royal Tern
Thalasseus maximus
Black Skimmer
Rynchops niger
Rock Pigeon
Columba livia
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Streptopelia decaocto
Mourning Dove
Zenaida macroura
Inca Dove
Columbina inca
White-tipped Dove
Leptotila verreauxi
Rufous Hummingbird
Selasphorus rufus
Buff-bellied Hummingbird
Amazilia yucatanensis
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Melanerpes aurifrons
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Sayornis phoebe
Great Kiskadee
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Vireo griseus
Green Jay
Cyanocorax yncas
Black-crested Titmouse
Baeolophus atricristatus
Carolina Wren
Thryothorus ludovicianus
Marsh Wren
Cistothorus palustris
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Polioptila caerulea
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Regulus calendula
Northern Mockingbird
Mimus polyglottos
Long-billed Thrasher
Toxostoma longirostre
European Starling
Sturnus vulgaris
Orange-crowned Warbler
Oreothlypis celata
Common Yellowthroat
Geothlypis trichas
Olive Sparrow
Arremonops rufivirgatus
Field Sparrow
Spizella pusilla
Savannah Sparrow
Passerculus sandwichensis
Northern Cardinal
Cardinalis cardinalis
Red-winged Blackbird
Agelaius phoeniceus
Great-tailed Grackle
Quiscalus mexicanus
Lesser Goldfinch
Spinus psaltria
House Sparrow
Passer domesticus
82 SPECIES
So Far:
169 SPECIES