A South Texas Adventure with Nature Trip - Texas bird watching trip report

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Jiffy (also jiff)

noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.

So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!

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คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

Вы говорите по-русски? Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!

E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

A South Texas Adventure - Day 6

Upriver Rio & Estero Llano Grande

Today, after gathering our gear and breakfast, we’ll continue our Rio Grande Valley exploration upriver with several hot spot stops along the way but spend much of our day at the most excellent World Birding Center at Estero Llano Grande.

In recent years this site has become dependable for a number of regional specialties. With a little luck we have the possibility of seeing Altamira Oriole, Clay-colored Thrush and Curve-billed Thrasher in the “tropical” section.

From the sanctuary’s veranda, overlooking a shallow pond, ducks, Least Grebes, shorebirds, swallows, rails and waders are all on show.

At times Black-chinned Hummingbirds can be picked out from the very similar Ruby-throated Hummers that visit the feeders along with an occasional oriole looking for a sweet drink.

A stroll along the Estero trails should turn up Neotropic Cormorant or perhaps a Heron Rookery. Every year is different. If our timing is good there’s a chance for Common Pauraque.

Friday 21 ^st of April 2023 and we leave the hotel at 7 thirty to go to the Birding and Nature Center. But they do not open until 08:00 so we start on the beach. And it turns out to be an eBird hotspot: South Padre Is.--Beach Access #3 area

The group go down on the beach and as I don't want to have sand in my shoes I decide to walk to the Birding and Nature Center. I spot one Willet on the parking lot.

I check out the beach and I turn around

Willet

Willet

I leave the beach

Some of the local wildlife

I cross the road to go check out the swallows on the wire

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

I cross the road and I walk along the road towards the Birding Center and I try to take pictures of the Barn Swallows sitting on the wires. I walking past the convention center and I spot the Loggerhead Shrike.

Most likely the same bird we spotted in the palm tree yesterday. Sitting on a post and diving down to the gras to catch something to eat. Amazing how they can spot small worms from the power wires. The bird threw himself for 20 meters and came back with a worm in his bill.

Loggerhead Shrike

Loggerhead Shrike

I reach the South Padre Is.--Birding and Nature Center and I walk across the parking towards the visitor center. I can see our van at the parking lot so I know my group is looking for birds at the Birding and Nature Center.

There are some kind of spring water in the middle of the parking and I spot one bird and it looks like a mallard. But there is no Mallards in Texas so it would have been a rare bird alert. When I met my Guide he told me that it was a Mottled Duck.

I am soon discovering that the duck has a baby and a little later I spot the second baby. And before I left, I had discovered 3 babies.

Mottled Duck

Mottled Duck

Mottled Duck

Mottled Duck

Laughing Gull

Laughing Gull

Laughing Gull

I enter the visitor center and I buy some water and I pay the 10 US$ entrance fee. I really did not have a clue on what to expect from the birding center. But I could see on the back that there were a wetland and a board walk.

Coming out on the balcony/ platform behind the visitor center and there were two ponds and in one of them there were small alligators and in the big pond they had two big alligators.

The alligators are rescued alligators and people are also coming here to drop off animals. I went down on the board walk and my group had made 15meters progress on the board walk so I was back in my group after 15 seconds.

American Moorhen

American Moorhen

American Moorhen

Tricoloured Heron

Tricoloured Heron

There are many birds and my Guide spot a green heron nest in the mangrove. A nest with one baby and two eggs and the baby is quite big so I don't understand the time difference between the laid eggs. But the birds seemed OK so I guess it is a normal situation.

I tried to take pictures but it was not easy

Mama & Papa Green Heron

Sitting on eggs

Mama & Papa and baby Green Heron + 2 eggs

I continue along the board walk and I see a guy on one of the platforms and he is taking pictures of something. He points and tell me that it is a Sora.

I manage to get a picture before the bird disappears and I walk back to the visitor center.

The Sora was the last bird I took pictures off and I will go back to have a shower in the hotel before we check out.

Sora

Sora

Sora

Lunch

I cross the road and I went back to my hotel room. We will meet in the reception at 11 to go get lunch. We go to a nice restaurant and I order tea, first place with hot tea since we left Corpus Christi and I had an “Farmer Omelette” with two plates with avocado.

I had a second pot of tea and I was feeling very nice by the time we left the restaurant. We will drive to Weslaco at the border to Mexico to visit a few birding places. It is inland and it will be very hot in the afternoon.

So, we decided to stay on South Padre Island a couple of more hours in order to arrive later on in the afternoon and we drive to the convention center and we park the car where we parked yesterday. We got out and we walked to the birding area.

I looked for hummingbird while they put oranges in the bushes to attract birds.

Putting oranges in the bushes to attract birds

Grey Catbird

Grey Catbird

Baltimore Oriole

Indigo Bunting

House Sparrow / Gråsparv

House Sparrow / Gråsparv

Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird

Hooded Warbler

There are many birds, of course, the annoying Great-taied Grackle, but I grow to like the bird more and more by the day. They are really funny to watch, especially this time of the year when they are about to breed. Many of them are busy building nests.

The males are calling and singing and flapping the wings while fluffing up them self while turning blue. They were busy around me and I managed to get two recordings of the male birds around me. I enjoyed myself and the time turned really quick.

Listen to the Great-tailed Grackle

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder and High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

Two birds, the firs bird is calling and 00:05:41 we can hear the bird jumping to the next branch. At 00:09 we can hear the 2nd bird the bird takes off with wing flaps at 00:21

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder and High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

Bird foraging on the lawn. What sounds like wing flaps is the bird doing some strange sound before making the call

eBird Report

South Padre Is.--WBC/Conv. Center/Laguna Madre Trail (LTC 035), Cameron, Texas, US
Apr 21, 2023 12:36 - 14:00
Protocol: Traveling
0,12 kilometer(s)
17 species (+1 other taxa)

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 6
Mottled Duck 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1   Male
hummingbird sp. 2   Not possible to ID for me
Great Kiskadee 1
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Grey Catbird 3
House Sparrow 3
Orchard Oriole 1
Baltimore Oriole 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Great-tailed Grackle 7
Hooded Warbler 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Blue Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 2   Female + male
Painted Bunting 4
Dickcissel 1

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S134499978

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

Aplomado Falcon

It is time to leave South Padre Island and I was soon asleep in the van. I woke up when we stopped after about 30 minutes. We passed the eBird hotspot: Cameron Co.--TX100--Aplomado Viewing Area We had passed the area and they had spotted one the Aplomado Falcon sitting on a power wire.

We reached the Estero Llano Grande SP and I started my eBird app at 16:48. We walked down to the visitor center to pay the 5 US$ entrance fee.

There was a huge platform overlooking the pond at the visitor center. There were hundreds of shore birds in the pond but just too far away for any pictures. The rangers came out to warn us about an approaching storm.
- Hail the size of base balls!

We decided to stay and as I said to my Guide, we are lucky it is a rented van. I lost all interest for the birds and I set up my video camera as I wanted to have a video of this biblical size hail. We had some rain and then it was over and I was disappointed.

I had really been looking forward to the hail storm. The weather turned in to sunshine and my group left for the trails. I stayed behind to try to get pictures of the hummingbirds.

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Listen to the Buff-bellied Hummingbird

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder and High Pass Filter applied with Audacity

Buff-bellied Hummingbird perching over the feeder singing. The other sound is a frog.

Black-chinned Hummingbird

White-winged Dove

eBird Report

Estero Llano Grande SP WBC (LTC 054), Hidalgo, Texas, US
Apr 21, 2023 15:48 - 18:43
Protocol: Traveling
1.42 kilometer(s)
22 species

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 2
Northern Shoveler 1
Plain Chachalaca 1
White-winged Dove 6
Black-chinned Hummingbird 2
Buff-bellied Hummingbird 6
Black-necked Stilt 3
American Avocet 2
Great White Egret 2
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
White Ibis 2
Roseate Spoonbill 1
Turkey Vulture 1
Great Kiskadee 1
Green Jay 1
House Sparrow 1
Orchard Oriole 1
Hooded Oriole 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Great-tailed Grackle 3
Northern Cardinal 1   Male

View this checklist online at https://ebird.org/checklist/S134526827

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (https://ebird.org/home)

I booked a Lyft car when I had checked in to my room and I was off to Walmart. Going back home and the driver told me that many cars and houses had been destroyed by the hail, golf ball sized. But the storm had missed our area. Going back to the hotel and my driver suddenly told me that there were many police cars.
- OH! They have shotguns!

So we had ended up in the middle of a police raid but we just continued and we ended up at the wrong address, yet again using Lyft. Not the first time I have had problem with Lyft and this time I lost 20 US$ as we had to go back in the opposite direction.

I had tea and smoked salmon when I came back to my room and I decided to go look for the Yellow-crowned Night Heron as the group had been spotting them on the trails. So, my plan is to go back to the Estero Llano Grande SP tomorrow morning at 6 and to skip the group tour departing at 7 thirty. I really want to see the Yellow-crowned Night Herons.

Click HERE to find out if I have any luck with the Yellow-crowned Night Herons tomorrow.

eBird Trip Report

Since April 2023 eBird offer a new feature, to create Trip Reports. At least this is when I first heard of this feature and I have decided to make the eBird Trip Reports instead of my list of OBSERVED birds.

And of course, this also means that I will HAVE TO go back and do the same for my old birding adventures, WHEN I HAVE THE TIME!

Today's Trip Report: Southern Texas bird watching tour with Nature Trip - Day 6 | Click HERE

Download | PDF

Lifers
Icons for lifers used in the eBird trip reports

Species lifer:First time that someone observes a species in their life

Photo lifer:First time that someone photographs a species in their life

Audio lifer:First time that someone audio records a species in their life

Exotic species
Exotic species flags differentiate locally introduced species from native species.

Naturalized:Exotic population is self-sustaining, breeding in the wild, persisting for many years, and not maintained through ongoing releases (including vagrants from Naturalized populations). These count in official eBird totals and, where applicable, have been accepted by regional bird records committee(s).

Provisional:Either: 1)member of exotic population that is breeding in the wild, self-propagating, and has persisted for multiple years, but not yet Naturalized; 2)rarity of uncertain provenance, with natural vagrancy or captive provenance both considered plausible.

When applicable, eBird generally defers to bird records committees for records formally considered to be of "uncertain provenance". Provisional species count in official eBird totals.

Escapee:Exotic species known or suspected to be escaped or released, including those that have
bred but don't yet fulfill the criteria for Provisional. Escapee exotics do not count in official eBird totals.

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