Clearly, we were pretty excited. This is Michael writing down his first bird of the trip and being excited.
Michael: It was a Great Kiskadee. And, by the way, I'm not actually this fat. That bulge under my jacket is my binoculars, not a result of the road food.
Kimberly: I was actually feeling really anxious about taking the time off, but that went away as soon as we got to the first birding spot on Friday morning.
To make things a little more interesting, which was totally not necessary, but I'm my mother's daughter and I like to make games out of things, I asked my mom, brother, sister, and brother-in-law to guess how many birds they thought we would add to our mini big year list on our trip. They had to be birds we had not yet identified this year. Before the trip to the WBC, we had about 70 birds a piece. And the winner gets a prize!! Yay for prizes! Michael and I also guessed, but just for fun, not for prize winning purposes.
Here's how people guessed:
Jarrod - 23 (way to have some confidence in us man)
Kim - 29 (my faith in us is only slightly stronger than Jarrod's, clearly)
Erin - 37 (my money was on this guess)
Michael - 42
Mom - 54
Evan - 68
Results at the bottom of this post. I'm making you wait. HA!
A bit more about what we did and where we went:
The WBC is a collection of (seven? nine?) sites/parks in different parts of the Rio Grande Valley of varying ecosystems and habitats that each provide winter, migratory, or year-round homes for hundreds of species of birds. Many of the birds you can find there in winter, as well as the ones that call the valley home year round, are found no where else in the country. It's the northern most point in the range of lots of birds, and its along a major migratory path making it a great stopping place for many birds that spend the rest of the year in other parts of the country, Canada, and even the Arctic. When big storms blow through during migration seasons (in the spring and fall) the coastal areas of the WBC can become vital resting grounds for windblown birds in desperate need of a break from the weather. Rarities, blown off course during migration, or wandering a little too far north from Mexico, also sometimes show up in the area. In short (yeah, too late talkie) it's an amazing place to look for birds.
During our trip we visited four sections of the WBC and one park managed by the Frontera Audubon Society. On Friday we started at the Frontera site (where we saw an honest to goodness rarity!) and visited Estero Llano Grande after lunch where we saw a super cool sleeping bird. On Saturday we headed out to South Padre Island where we saw a bird doing a dance, and ended the day at Edinburg Scenic Wetlands where we faced a particularly challenging birding identification. We ended our visit with a trip to the WBC headquarters at Bentsen Rio Grande where we hunted for but did not see the Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, but did see and learn the song of a sweet little sparrow.
Here is a breakdown of the birds we saw and where we saw them. (There might be a couple of errors in terms of location, but rest assured [this was keeping you up nights, I'm sure] Michael has the locations correctly entered on ebird.com.)
All birds with LL in parentheses after the name are birds that we had never seen before. These are known as "lift list" birds. Anything with a * is a rare bird, not just for us, but for everyone. I'm including some photos that I took. They've all been zoomed in and cropped. They are all a little blurry because my lense isn't anywhere close to long enough for bird photography. Time to save my pennies.
1. Frontera Audubon
Great Kiskadee
White-tipped Dove (LL)
Chachalaca
Long-billed Thrasher (LL)
White-eyed Vireo (LL) (special thanks goes out to Dr. I-can't-remember-your-name for helping us to id this one)
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Black-crested titmouse
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
Olive Sparrow (LL)
Orange-crowned Warbler (LL)
*Golden-crowned Warbler (LL)
Altamira Oriole
Pyrrhuloxia (LL)
The Orange-crowned Warbler is a rarity and most of the birders who were at the site on Friday were there looking for that one bird. As soon as we walked into the office to pay, the woman asked if we were there to see the warbler. This was a new experience for us, and something that, frankly, we weren't sure was so awesome. Does it sully the experience of being out in nature if you are trying to accomplish a particular goal? Does it become something other than appreciating the birds if you are just desperately searching for this ONE bird? Does it just become a kind of competition if you're only goal is racking up the biggest numbers you can?
Well, yes and no. Speaking just for myself, I find that I appreciate and enjoy the birds (and the animals and trees, and all of it) more if I know what it is I'm looking at. Identifying birds (which is HARD by the way) means paying really close attention to the details of their appearance, behavior, and location. Being able to confidently identify a bird means that you know more about it, and that you spent some time really watching it. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with just watching the birds, that's great too, but if you want to add them to your list, you have to do more than just watch. For me, this makes me enjoy them more. But, it can be really frustrating when you can't get a good look at a bird, or when you do get a good look but you still can't figure out what it is you're looking at. And when you know that a particular bird is probably in that tangle of brush, and a dozen people are standing around, binoculars at the ready, waiting for the bird to show itself so they can check it off their list, things start to feel a little . . . weird.
This is what happend with the Golden-crowned warbler. We knew it was there. Someone had seen it. WE had seen something flitting around in the undergrowth, but we hadn't layed eyes (binoculars?) on it long enough to feel like we could id it. And then one of the guys in a trio of late-thirty-something men who seemed like they might be on some version of an extreme birding team found it. And then they stuck around and helped some other people see it. And then those people stayed around and helped yet more people see it. And it was pretty damn cool.
Here he is:
Do you find him underwhelming? Yeah, that's another funny thing about birding. Sometimes the birds people get really excited about are the little, drab, unassuming birds that are just really freaking hard to see.
Michael: This bird is somewhat common in South America, and even in Mexico, but Frontera is the only place in America where this bird has been seen this year. Hence the *flocks* of birders there to see him. The doctor who helped us id the White-eyed Vireo had spent a few hours there the day before, as well as a number of hours that day, just to see this one bird!
2. Estero Llano Grande:
Canvas Back (LL)
Wood Duck (LL) -- I was super excited about this one. There appeared to be only this one, male Wood Duck at the park. Here he is being all handsome and amazing:
And here's he is getting caught by a gust of wind:
This is not amusing to such a sophisticated bird. Maybe those ducks next to him said something snide?
See? Not amused.
On with the list:
Cinnamon Teal (LL)
Black-necked Stilt (LL)
Long-billed Dowitcher (LL)
Northern Pintail (LL)
Vermillion Flycatcher (LL)
Neotropic Cormorant (LL)
Common Galinule (this used to be called the Common Moorhen, but the name was just recently changed)
Harris's Hawk (LL)
Pauraque - This one was SO COOL!! These are nocturnal birds. During the day they sleep in the leaf litter and are almost impossible to see. There happened to be two of them who had taken to roosting during the day behind a brush pile right near the path. You can walk right up to them any time and look at them. But no touching!
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron (LL for Michael)
Anhinga
Snowy Egret
Common Ground Dove
Buff-bellied Hummingbird (LL I think)
Rufous Hummingbird (LL I think)
Green Jay
Least Grebe
*Audubon Oriole (LL) - This one isn't totally rare, but it is uncommon where we saw it.
3. South Padre Island
This day was crazy windy, so a lot of what we might have seen, Rails and Bitterns, for example, just weren't out and about. Nonetheless, we did pretty well. We did some birding on our way to the birding center on South Padre Island. We were looking for falcons on this one road along the way and were turing around to head out to the center when we stumbled on a little state park kind of spot where people go to fish. Really it was just a parking lot by a river next to a bridge. But it had some really great birds that we ended up not seeing during the rest of the trip, so it was a really lucky find! Here's what we saw on the road and at that spot:
White-tailed Hawk (LL)
Brown Pelican
Chihuahan Raven
Royal Tern (LL)
Black Skimmer (LL)
Laughing Gull
Willet (LL)
American Avocet (LL)
Roseate Spoonbill (LL)
Forester's Tern (LL)
Semipalmated Sandpiper (LL)
Rudy Turnstone (LL)
Here's a photo that shows Roseate Spoonbills, a Royal Tern, Willets (the brown birds with their heads tucked in,) Black Skimmers (the crazy ones with the orange and black bills) and a Snowy Egret.
pretty good, right???
At the birding center:
Tropical Kingbird (LL)
Osprey - sitting on top of a telephone pole eating a fish and telling the whole neighborhood about it
Long-billed Curlew (LL)
Little Blue Heron
White Ibis
Tri-colored Heron (LL)
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Ruddy Duck
American White Pelican
Reddish Egret - I couldn't get a photo of this one because he was too far away, but we got to see him hunting for fish in the shallows where the bay meets the inlets. When they hunt they put theirs wings out to frighten the fish in a particular direction. They repeat this, herding the fish into shallow water, so they can more easily catch the fish. It is awesome. Here's a video:
American Oystercatcher (Thanks to the volunteer at the WBC who pointed this one out to us)
Mottled Duck
4. Edinburg Scenic Wetlands
By the time we got here, we were losing light, energy, and patience with trying to use a spotting scope during 60 mph winds. But we managed one more cool bird before we called it a day:
White-faced Ibis
Black Phoebe - this is a bird that we saw when we went to Bentsen in March 2011. The Phoebe that we saw this time was in almost the same spot as the one we saw a year ago. It was certainly a different bird, but it was still neat. (Michael: I'm convinced it is the same bird.)
Cave Swallow - the ranger said that the swallows had just showed up that day. :-)
Black-headed Grosbeak (LL) - not rare, exactly, but the first spotting of one this season that the ranger knew of
Cooper's Hawk - I spotted this guy when we were trying to figure out what birds were making such a rucus. Turns out it was a bunch of Green Jays scolding the Cooper's Hawk who was apparently just trying to take a breather on a branch near them. Cooper's Hawks are accipters, meaning that they hunt for birds, squirrels, and other small prey within the trees. Most other hawks hunt from high perches or by soaring. The Cooper's Hawk normally eats Green Jays I think. This one didn't seem hungry.
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
We were disappointed that we didn't get to see some birds we really wanted to find, particularly the Bitterns and the Kingfishers. Bummer. We also saw relatively few hawks. But overall, we did really well, particularly considering the crazy wind, and the fact that it threatened to storm on us all Friday (it did rain off and on all day). It was pretty clear by lunch time on day one that my and Jarrod's guesses were too low. We had 13 new species by that time. By the end of day one, we were out of the running, and were sneaking up on Erin's guess. By lunch time on day two, only my mom and Evan were left in the game. What the heck was happening here? Surely they had guessed too high. Evan had guessed WAY high, right?
Well, we finished day two with 58 new species and we still had one more short trip for the next day. The only question was whether mom or Evan would take it. Well, as is often the way, the dark horse went home with the prize. We finished the trip with an astounding (for us, not for real birders)
66 new birds!!!!
And Evan wins!! Whoop whoop!
All participants will recieve a little something for playing along. It was fun for us, I hope it was for the players too.
This brings our total for the year to 135 for me and 137 for Michael (he still has a Herring Gull and a Chipping Sparrow that I don't have).
We already have some other trips planned for the spring and we hope you'll join us on the blog to guess how many new species we see on our various trips. Let's make this interactive folks.
Alrighty, that's all I have for now. I hope to be back later this week to tell you all about our trip to the Atwater Prairie Chicken Refuge where we didn't see any Prairie Chickens. :-D
