20TH RGV BIRDING FESTIVAL - EL CANELO RANCH

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Outrageously gaudy even more or less straight out of the camera - Vermillion Flycatcher

RAIN WAS BUCKETING DOWN OVERNIGHT IN HARLINGEN as a cold front arrived from the north and this morning's field trip to the lovely El Canelo Ranch was probably too cold and windy to expect to see any owls. Despite testing conditions I still enjoyed some very nice birding with Shawneen Finnegan and Father Tom Pincelli. The highlights were some great views of Vermillion Flycatchers, a very co-operative Ladder-backed Woodpecker feeding low down in moss-covered mesquite and a tame Curve-billed Thrasher. Couch's Kingbird and Loggerhead Shrike were new for the trip as were Harris's Hawk, Common Ground Dove, Belted Kingfisher and Sprague's Pipit. New warbler species included a couple of gaudy Yellow-throateds and a young Chestnut-sided.  Lincoln's Sparrows skulked in the thickets and a few House Wrens scolded as we passed. The ranch is also home to some introduced mammals, notably Nilgai and Scimitar-horned Oryx. It is bizarre to see the latter flourishing here now that original populations in North Africa are now EIW!

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Ladder-backed Woodpecker, El Canelo Ranch 

INTO THE VALLEY... PAINTED REDSTART!

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Painted Redstart (Brook County Rest Area, US281 south of Falfurrias)

PAINTED REDSTART WAS A GREAT WELCOME TO THE VALLEY! Well just north of it actually at the Brook County rest area on US281 south of Falfurrias. A world as well as an ABA area lifer for me it is one of several birds from south of the border in the valley at the moment that I will hopefully catch up with over the next few days. The redstart was hyper-active, hardly pausing for a moment and it was quite shy as well. However, it also has a contact call very similar to Yellow-browed Warbler, which made it easy to follow in the oaks of the rest area, between the toilet blocks and the 'watch for snakes' sign. That is when I could actually hear it above the noise of semis thundering past on both sides. The rest area appeared silent at first but was quite full of birds, with Green Jays, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, Eastern Bluebirds, Black-crested Titmice, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Lesser Goldfinches. 

I had been trying to get into the mood for the Latino-flavoured Rio Grande Birding Festival by reading Cormac McCarthy's 'The Counselor' on the plane yesterday, set in the Texas/Mexican borderland about a guy who decides to do a one-off drug deal to set himself up for life, with disastrous consequences and I had Pitbull's 'Don't stop the party' blaring on the radio on the way down from Austin today, passing Crested Caracaras and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers. I also seem to have caught up with the TVs again, still making their way south.  After setting up the booth I had an hour or so with Robert Kirk and Erik Bruhnke at the Frontera Audubon thicket at Weslaco. There were some more valley specialties here like: Clay-coloured Thrush (at least three); White-tipped Dove; Ladder-backed Woodpecker; Great Kiskadee and Long-billed Thrasher but no Golden-crowned Warbler....yet. There were a few other warblers feeding quietly in the dense thicket, like Orange-crowned, Tennessee, Black-and-White, Ovenbird and Black-throated Green. The streets of Harlingen were full of Great-tailed Grackles as usual this evening at their pre-roost gatherings, draped over the telegraph wires with dark storm clouds behind them. The weather over the next few days could get interesting too.

FAREWELL TO CAPE MAY

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Black-throated Blue Warbler outside the Convention Hall - a late lingerer 

CAPE MAY WAS VERY KIND TO ME, even providing a Black-throated Blue Warbler that waited all day in a tiny flowerbed in front of the Convention Hall until I was able to get out and photograph it. I love almost everything about Cape May, from the bird-filled migrant traps, raptors passing overhead, friendly birders and brightly painted quaint buildings to Seven Eleven coffee, blueberry muffins and Uncle Bill’s Pancake House. My last morning added a final warbler species, Orange-crowned, courtesy of Glen as well as another great visible migration spectacle from the Merlin grasping a Golden-crowned Kinglet atop a telegraph pole to a steady stream of Red-bellied Woodpeckers, this time from the Coral Avenue dune crossing platform, one of the nicest spots on the point. The birding festival itself was great with lots of folks serious about birding travel and a great talk by the Warbler Guide guys, Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle not to mention catching up with a lot of old friends as well as some new ones. I look forward to returning! 

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The Coral Avenue crew including (L-R) Tom Johnson, Warren Cairo, Roger Horn, Doug Gochfeld and Glen Davis. 

STONE HARBOR SHOREBIRDS

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A Semi-palmated Plover feeding on the shore.

SMALL NUMBERS OF SEMI-PALMATED PLOVERS AND WESTERN SANDPIPERS DELIGHTED on the sandy shore at Stone Harbor. Although the Piping Plovers that breed here in the summer were now gone there were still plenty of other shorebirds to watch, in between the dumb beach walkers who persisted in walking along the water’s edge. Given time it was possible to get very close to them, lying on the ultra fine sand. Sanderlings from the High Arctic were the commonest shorebirds but were also joined by a few Red Knot and Dunlin. Two Red Knot, Black-bellied Plovers and a couple of juvenile Semi-palmated Plovers also enlivened my visits. The second, with Wildside guide and ex-pat Brit Adrian Binns, was ‘with the lights on’ in lovely evening sun that improved on my rather flat photos from the first session. The shorebirds were also more approachable here than back home. I’ll be back! 

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Western Sandpiper