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4 – 19 April 2015 This stunning male Blackburnian Warbler, a recently-arrived migrant, greeted us on the first full day of the 2015 tour. (Glen Davis) TEXAS 4 – 19 APRIL 2015 LEADER: GLEN DAVIS The great state of Texas provides the visitor with a dazzling variety of regions, each with their own habitats and local flavor. Our 17 day tour visited all of these special corners of this, the 2nd largest state in the USA, and with our van, covered 3996.5 miles. That is farther than driving round-trip from London to Moscow. On the other hand, driving from London, Texas to Moscow, Texas only takes 5 hours. The Texas state bird list boasts 649 species of which our 2015 tour recorded an outstanding 313 species! Although Spring migration was a week or two away from reaching full-swing in the region, we managed to find good migrants and specialty species throughout. The first morning was spent aboard Captain Tommy Moore’s boat tour of the salt marshes and waterways of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Seeing the majestic Whooping Crane was the main goal and still this prime waterbird area gave us an exciting and fairly comprehensive list. There were many introductions to 1 BirdQuest Tour Report: Texas www.birdquest-tours.com species that we would see more of: Mottled Duck, American White and Brown Pelican, Western Osprey, American Oystercatcher, Black-necked Stilt, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Eastern and Western Willet, Black Skimmer, Laughing Gull, Ring-billed Gull, American Herring Gull, Caspian Tern, Royal Tern, Cabot’s Tern, and Forster’s Tern. Never an afterthought, 21 of the stately and critically endangered cranes were counted as they remained on their winter territory for a few more days. We navigated past a Least Tern colony and American Oystercatchers raising their precocial young. A small heronry featured Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, and Reddish Egret. The boat was able to negotiate tight channels and brought us the further excitement of mating Gull-billed Terns and Wilson’s Phalarope feeding in the salt pannes like a spinning top. The sand banks and coastal scrub added places to look for birds, with surprisingly stable from-the-boat looks of: Belted Kingfisher, Northern Crested Caracara, Merlin, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, American Crow, Purple Martin, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallow, Black-and-white Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Red-winged Blackbird, Great-tailed Grackle, Seaside Sparrow, and Indigo Bunting. Wintering Lesser Scaup, Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, and Great Northern Loon were all good finds as we transited through Aransas. Back at the dock there were Northern Mockingbird and Common Starling. The introduced House Sparrow is consistently ubiquitous around inhabited areas in the USA as a germane contrast to their decline in northern Europe. After a picnic lunch in the coastal breeze at Goose Island State Park we had a walk-around the “Big Tree”, an over 1,000 year old Coastal live oak. Nearby we could compare Double-crested and Neotropic Cormorants while Chimney Swifts danced over our heads. The live oak tree is a key habitat in of itself for insectivorous, migrant species. We turned twice through the park before we zoomed in on a few of these trees and enjoyed another avian welcome to the USA with: Inca Dove, Mourning Dove, Eastern Kingbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Black-crested Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Hooded Warbler, Northern Parula, Myrtle Warbler, and Lincoln’s Sparrow. South of the Aransas/Rockport area, along the lower Texas coast, lies the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center. A small sewage facility-turned freshwater wetland, coastal brackish marsh also borders this place to provide the visitor with a wide-array of habitats in a small area. The salt flats and marsh gave us great viewing and comparisons of Semipalmated Plover, Killdeer, Wilson’s Snipe, Semipalmated, Least, and Pectoral Sandpiper. A small patch of scrubby habitat around the wetlands held Great Crested Flycatcher, Brown-headed Cowbird, Northern Cardinal, a small flock of Tennessee Warblers, and a ravishing male Blackburnian Warbler. The latter foraged in a willow right in front of us as we got simply the best views possible. The fantastic collection of birds along the boardwalk provided all close-up views of Blue-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler, Green-winged Teal, Ruddy Duck, American White Ibis, Western Cattle Egret, Tricolored Heron, Solitary Sandpiper, White-tailed Hawk, Sora, Common Gallinule, American Coot, and Tree Swallow. American Alligators were right below us as well! Waterbird splendor at Aransas with an American Oystercatcher family, Whooping Crane, and Gull-billed Tern. (Glen Davis) For the next three nights we’d call Harlingen, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, our base of operations. Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge is one of the largest tracts of remaining native scrub forest in south Texas and we arrived there at dawn on our first morning in “the valley”. Between the parking area and the headquarters 2 BirdQuest Tour Report: Texas www.birdquest-tours.com building feeder area we scored on many of the specialties: Plain Chachalaca, White-tipped Dove, Buff- bellied Hummingbird, Great Kiskadee, Couch’s Kingbird, Green Jay, Cave Swallow, Long-billed Thrasher, Clay-coloured Thrush, and Altamira Oriole. Amazingly, a day-flying Paraque danced and darted around (and sometimes between!) us collecting all nearby moths in it’s wake. Golden-fronted Woodpecker was especially numerous here and Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Bronzed Cowbird, and Olive Sparrow were well-studied. Other species we came up with here and would find at other sites included: Gadwall, Turkey Vulture, Sharp- shinned Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Swainson’s Hawk, and White-winged Dove. The challenging ID of a female Hooded Oriole was good experience and a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet made us dizzy while it spun and sputtered out in the open, near the canopy walkway. The second half of the day was spent exploring patches of native habitat in the McAllen area. The Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center made for a pretty lunch spot with the entertaining company of Eastern Grey Squirrels. The Edinburg Wetlands hosted a chase of Green Kingfisher that was fruitless for most of our group. A Tropical Kingbird sat tight within 2 meters on a residential roadside offering a pick-me-up on the way to Anzalduas Park, lying directly along the Rio Grande. A Grey Hawk in the late afternoon sun crossed back and forth from Mexico. Overhead, Broad-winged and Swainson’s Hawks continued to stream and were matched briefly by Peregrine Falcon. The best part was catching up to better views of Green Kingfisher! Next up was Bentsen Rio Grande State Park offering a comparable portion of last-vestige native habitat with Santa Ana NWR. Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Long-billed Thrasher, and Common Yellowthroat were observed closely. A very faint tremolo of a Eastern Screech Owl (McCall’s, s TX- ne MX) was leader-only. From the coast to along the Rio Grande Valley, the birds of Texas revealed themselves: Sora, White-collared Seedeater, and Paraque. (First by Johanne Charbonneau, second and third by Glen Davis) The next day in the valley was spent farther upriver toward Salineño. Early morning along the Big River is always an opportune time for fly-bys and Salineño specialized in this with: Sharp-shinned Hawk, Gull-billed and Caspian Tern, Spotted Sandpiper, Ringed Kingfisher, Sand Martin, and the hoped-for Red-billed Pigeon (5 or 6 passes!) Brown-crested Flycatcher was cooperative, Pyrrhuloxia sat up once, and Audubon’s Oriole were only fleetingly seen, with the beautiful songs to taunt. We next slid on upriver to San Ygnacio with plenty of fresh morning light left on the water. Two male White-collared Seedeaters counter-sang in the sunny treetops just above, and Yellow-Breasted Chats sang out of tall shadows. Our lunch stop made for the best Chihuahuan Raven raving of the trip. Estero Llano Grande State Park is a wonderful parcel of wetland and scrub forest along the border. We also toured the overgrown trailer park which is still home to North America’s greatest twitcher. We watched the nest-building antics of Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, Lesser Goldfinch, and Altamira Oriole in this section. Later we walked around and scoped the wetlands and scrub coming up with Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Cinnamon Teal, White-faced Ibis, Black Vulture, and White-tailed Kite. In addition their was a more typically- hidden, Paraque, day-brooding her young, comparisons between Ruby-throated Hummingbird andBlack- chinned Hummingbird, and a hell-bent Peregrine Falcon! 3 BirdQuest Tour Report: Texas www.birdquest-tours.com We rose early to depart the valley via Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. American Wigeon, Redhead, Northern Bobwhite, Pied-billed Grebe, Little Blue Heron, Harris’s Hawk, and Eurasian Collared Dove were all out on this patrol. A squad of Greater Roadrunner, then Verdin, Orange-crowned Warbler, Eastern Meadowlark, and Lark Sparrow watched us from the roadside secondary growth. North, all-day, we then drove with not much to add save Red-shouldered Hawk and Rock Pigeon. Once transplanted to Jasper we breathed in the evening chorus of Wood Thrush, Eastern Bluebird, and Gray Catbird song-filled air. It was the fifth morning and off to the Angelina National Forest with its native Wood Duck, Red-bellied and Hairy Woodpecker, Blue Jay, Carolina Chickadee, Northern House Wren, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and Brown Thrasher. Not to be outdone by other fantastic North American songbirds like American Goldfinch, Pine Siskin, Ovenbird, Pine Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, and Cedar Waxwing. The Bachman’s Sparrow sang its evocative song and sat in view, while the family troop of Red-cockaded Woodpecker was much more obliging on a second pass through their home territory.
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