Aplomado Falcon (Lifebird) and Painted Redstart, TX, April, 2015

In 2014 the ABA published several revisions to their listing rules, including one related to re-introduced native species.  In the past those species needed to be part of a viable self-sustaining population in order to be “countable”.  But according to the new rule, you can count these species if they are just breeding in the wild.  That means that species like the Aplomado Falcon in south TX was now countable on your ABA list.  However, the Falcon is still not countable on your TX list since the TX Bird Records Committee (TBRC) still requires that species to meet the viable population threshold. 

I’ve never seen an Aplomado Falcon in the ABA area (though I’ve seen them in Brazil).  Back in January 2011 I made a half-hearted attempt to find them outside Laguna Atascosa NWR.  But, instead of spending much time looking for the Falcons, I focused my searches on a countable lifer, Rufous-backed Thrush, and the “Mangrove” Warbler which would be a lifer if it is ever split from the Yellow Warbler.  I found both the Thrush and Warbler, but was unsuccessful on the Falcon.

But now that the Falcons are countable, it was time to dedicate some time to go after them.  As I’ve done several times in the past, I needed to add a vacation day to one of my regular business trips to Houston, and make the trek to southern TX.  So with an upcoming trip in April, I started my planning and research.  Most of the recent e-Bird sightings were concentrated in 3 areas – in and around Laguna Atascosa NWR, around SR 100 just south of the refuge, and on Old Port Isabel Road a bit farther to the south.  I traded e-mails with some refuge staff and heard about a pair nesting around SR 100, but the nest site was really distant.  I also contacted a birder who had seen the Falcons the previous week and they suggested another nesting pair near the southern end of Old Port Isabel Road.  So armed with micro-directions for both sites, and the general distribution of recent sightings, I was pretty optimistic about my chances of seeing the bird.  Especially since I had basically a full day available between late afternoon on the first day of my visit and most of the day on the second day, I thought I would eventually run into a bird somewhere in the area.

I arrived at the McAllen airport mid-afternoon (I got an earlier flight than expected), and an hour later I was at the nest site on Old Port Isabel Road.  The directions were perfect, and I could see the nesting box a couple hundred yards to the west.

Nest box in the distance just to the left of a stand of yuccas

The nest box was like a large cage with bars that would prevent Great Horned Owls from getting to the nest.  And using my scope at 50 power I thought could see a bump on the floor of the cage, but couldn’t even tell if it was a bird, let alone a Falcon.

"Bump" in the center of the cage is likely the Falcon on its nest

I continued to stare at the nest box for the next hour, and twice thought I saw the bump move.  And then I noticed it stand up and turn – although the view was brief and very distant I thought I could see the head pattern of an Aplomado Falcon.  So now I was pretty sure it was my target bird, but still wanted a better view.  In the meantime a singing Cassin’s Sparrow was nice, as were these Gull-billed Terns that loafed nearby.

 

At one point I turned my attention to some call notes behind me.  When I turned back around there was a second Aplomado Falcon sitting on the nest structure.  Within seconds the bird that had been on the nest walked out of the nest structure and flew off.  The second bird then walked into the nest structure and settled down on the nest.  All of this occurred within just a couple minutes – nice views, but very brief.  Then a couple minutes later what was presumably the first bird appeared on top of one of the yuccas near the nest structure, and sat there for the next 30 minutes until I left.  Although it was windy which caused a lot of vibration of the scope, I was still able to get this phonescoped photo.

The Aplomado Falcon was ABA lifer #745, and Lower 48 lifer #723.  And it was my 9th lifer I’ve seen in TX as a result of a vacation day added to a Houston business trip in the last 6 years. 

Since I was able to see the Falcon on Day 1, and in fact pretty early on Day 1, I now had time to chase after some possible TX statebirds both the evening of Day 1 and also on Day 2.  I need a number of regular migrant passerines for my TX list, so I made a quick drive to the coast to hit several migrant hotspots on South Padre Island.  I didn’t have too much time, but ran into a nice mixed flock with one each of Yellow-throated, Tennessee, and Prothonotary Warblers, along with a Lincoln’s Sparrow and 2 Indigo Buntings.  No new statebirds, but this mixed migrant flock made me think that spending more time there on Day 2 would be worthwhile. 

But on Day 2 I first needed to chase after my key TX statebird target - a Painted Redstart that was spending its second consecutive winter at a rest stop south of Falfurrias.  I’ve seen Painted Redstart in its normal range in Arizona, but it is quite a rarity for TX.  I arrived at the rest stop just after dawn, and went to the area south of the rest rooms where the bird was most often reported.  The rest stop was a large, heavily forested area, and there were quite a number of singing migrants in the woods, so I worried about how I might find this bird.  But within 2 minutes of my arrival, I noticed some movement low in the trees and there was the Redstart – what a gorgeous bird – TX statebird #420.  Good thing I saw it when I did because I spent the next hour in the area and didn’t see it again. 

There were a number of Yellow-rumps – both “Myrtle” and “Audubon’s”, and an Orange-crowned at the rest stop, but that was it for migrant warblers.  And likely local nesting Kiskadees, Couch’s Kingbirds, Hooded Orioles, Black-crested Titmice, and Green Jays were nice.  But the highlight beyond the Redstart was a pair of Barn Owls that came out of a tree cavity.  In this photo (taken with just my iPhone), can you see the head of a Barn Owl in the cavity directly over the blue trash barrel?

I then headed back to South Padre Island to once again try for some migrant passerines.  But the migrants were few and far between.  In several hours of birding at the hotspots on the island and the rest stop I had just 11 migrant warblers of 6 species.  And I dipped on possible statebirds American and Least Bitterns that had been reported in the marshes at Convention Center.

But I got my 2 key targets – Aplomado Falcon and Painted Redstart.  A most successful trip!