Before retiring in 2018 I would travel to Houston for work about a week a month. I’d often squeeze in a little local birding time during most of those trips, working on my TX state list and sometimes even my LA list. But the real attraction was the opportunity to bird in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, which after all was only an hour plane flight from Houston. On a number of my trips, I would add a vacation day to chase after some extreme rarity from Mexico (or even farther away). As a result, I’ve made 14 trips to the LRGV and nearby areas in south TX over the years, with each of the most recent 9 trips targeting a single life bird.
Fast forward to mid-December 2023 – I started hearing some buzz about rarities being seen in south TX this winter. I did a quick eBird Needs Alert for TX and was blown away by the number of rarities on the list. There were no less than 5 mega-rarities that were seemingly quite reliable –
- Roadside Hawk and Gray-collared Becard (first record for TX) at Resaca de la Palma State Park
- Bare-throated Tiger-Heron and Mottled Owl at Santa Margarita Ranch – property only accessible by hiring a guide
- Cattle Tyrant (a first for the US) in downtown Corpus Christi
Needless to say, all 5 would be life birds for me. What an amazing group of rarities! Plus there were sightings of 2 parrots that I had never seen before - White-fronted and Lilac-crowned. Although these “exotic” species are countable per eBird rules, they are not countable per ABA and the TX Bird Records Committee.
With all those potential life birds it was a no-brainer that I had to give it a try and make my 15th trip to the LRGV. After all, I’ve taken numerous trips to the Valley for just 1 potential life bird. Albeit those trips started in Houston instead of western NC. I found a window of free time in my schedule in early January, and made reservations to fly to TX on the 4th, returning on the afternoon of the 9th, giving me 4 and a half days of birding in south TX.
Now for the research… First I had to figure out how to hire a guide to get onto Santa Margarita Ranch. My good friend Bill Hooker had just come back from TX and he gave me the scoop – you needed to make a reservation for a daytime trip to try for the Tiger-Heron, and then a second reservation for a nighttime trip for the Owl. A recent checklist included contact info for one of the guides, so that was easier than expected. Except that it turned out that even with a 3-week advance notice they had few spaces available on the day trips, and no spaces on the evening trips where they would play calls for the Owl. I had to reserve a spot on a trip where they don’t play tape, greatly reducing my chances of hearing the Owl.
And there were more than just potential life birds to pursue. Although my TX state list was already pretty respectable at 452, there were quite a number of possible TX state birds also being seen. Key targets included – Long-tailed Duck, Western Grebe, Limpkin, Mountain Plover, Bar-tailed Godwit, Iceland Gull, Dusky-capped Flycatcher, and Hermit Warbler. Another great list of targets!
All things considered I hoped to find 4 or 5 lifers, and an additional 5 state birds. That’s quite a step up from my recent trips to the Valley hoping for just 1 target bird.
January 5 – Resaca de la Palma, Greater Brownsville, and First Try for Mountain Plover
The key targets for this day were the Roadside Hawk and Gray-collared Becard at the Resaca de la Palma State Park. Although I had other targets in the park and the area in general, I would first spend as much time as would be needed to find my 2 life bird targets before chasing those other possible state birds. The Hawk was most often seen perched or feeding in the dry resaca near the end of the Ebony Trail. And the Becard was often seen in mixed flocks around the parking lot or by the feeders behind the visitor center.
I arrived pre-dawn at the park and took a little walk around the area to get my bearings, locating the feeding station and the Ebony Trail, and walking around a portion of the parking lot. Along the way I heard Screech and Great Horned Owls and a Pauraque – a nice start to the morning.
A few birders were beginning to arrive, and I introduced myself to one, Jerald Zimmerman, who had my same targets. Jerald mentioned that one suggested strategy for our targets was to look for the Hawk at the Ebony Trail at first light, then double back to the parking lot to look for those mixed flocks that might contain the Becard. That certainly sounded like a sound strategy, so we headed toward the Ebony Trail.
As we neared the end of the short Ebony Trail we got our first look at the dry resaca. We quickly spotted one of the tree stumps that the Hawk would often use as a perch. But there was no Hawk. We turned the corner and got a different angle on the resaca, giving us a view of another stump. And there was our Roadside Hawk, perched nicely up ahead (Lifer #1, State bird #1). I got these passable digi-binned photos of the bird.
That was fast! The bird had become a bit less dependable of late, so it was good to be able to find it so quickly. And it was still too early for much passerine activity, so it didn’t take time away from our Becard search.
By now there were at least a dozen birders in the park, most walking around the parking lot with the same target in mind. We started down the south side of the parking lot but weren’t finding too much activity. As we neared the end of the lot I heard a nearby birder give a whistle and noticed him pointing up in the trees. We quickly headed over to him and found a mixed feeding flock dominated by Orange-crowned Warblers. Eventually we got on our target, the Gray-collared Becard, doing what Becards often do - sitting nearly motionless in the tree above us (Lifer #2, State bird #2). It didn’t take long for all the birders in the park to get on him as well. As I always say – “bird the birders”.
The Becard stayed in view for most of the next 30 minutes, always associating with those mixed passerine flocks as they moved around the parking lot. I took advantage of the sedentary nature of the bird to get these digi-binned shots of the bird.
A bit later our Gray-collared Becard was joined by a female Rose-throated Becard, which was even more cooperative.
I had my two top targets out of the way and it was barely 8 AM! So now I could focus on my other target seen in the park – Dusky-capped Flycatcher. This species is normally rare in TX, but for some reason it was being seen in multiple locations in the Valley this winter. I’ve seen it in AZ in its normal range and as a rarity in CA. The Dusky-capped at the state park was most often seen and heard along the tram road near the bridge over the resaca. After just a 5-minute walk we arrived at the bridge and once again had the Roadside Hawk perched nearby. And just a bit later we heard the distinctive mournful call of the Dusky-capped Flycatcher, and eventually got good views of the perched bird (State bird #3). It was part of a nice mixed passerine flock that included Least Flycatcher, Western Tanager, and Black-throated Gray Warbler, all nice mid-winter birds for south TX that had been reported recently in the park.
It was only 9 o’clock and I had already seen all my targets at Resaca de la Palma. Although we could have stayed and birded the park longer, instead Jerald and I decided to head out and try for another of our joint targets - the Hermit Warbler at Buena Vista Cemetery. This bird had been seen throughout the winter moving through the cemetery with mixed passerine flocks. Complicating the search was that there were also several similar Black-throated Green Warblers in these flocks. Some birders were able to find the Hermit Warbler practically right away, while others had mentioned it took them up to 4 hours to find it.
We reached the cemetery after a short 15-minute drive and quickly found a mixed passerine flock. The flock was dominated by Orange-crowns, with Yellow-throated, Nashville, and Black-and-white Warblers and Blue-headed Vireos mixed in. Several times we briefly got excited when a Black-throated Green would appear, but we couldn’t turn them into a Hermit. We spent at least 45 minutes with this flock and eventually decided that the Hermit just wasn’t mixed in this group. So we headed towards the northern end of the cemetery where the Hermit had been reported a couple times recently. Here we picked up another flock to search through. At one point I spotted a bird flying away from me that had white in the outer tail feathers. And just then Jerald mentioned he had a brief glimpse of a bird with a yellow head. Finally we both tracked down our bird and had brief looks at the female Hermit Warbler (State bird #4). The several times I saw the bird it was in juniper trees and not the numerous deciduous trees in the area. Several posted photos also showed it junipers – that’s got to be more than a coincidence.
My state bird map for Hermit Warbler is copied in below. The blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range. The cross-hatched states are those in its normal range where I’ve yet to see it. And the brown-shaded states, MA and now TX, are those where I’ve seen Hermit Warbler as a vagrant.
There were 3 other birders in the cemetery at the time, but they were at the southern end of the cemetery. So I walked back to give them a heads-up, and Jerald and I stayed in the area to try to help them re-find the Warbler. Then a few minutes later Jerald got a text – a Fan-tailed Warbler had just been spotted at the Rio Grande Valley campus of the University of Texas. He passed along the coordinates and the bird was just 20 minutes away! We all instantly ended our search for the Hermit Warbler to go after the much rarer Fan-tailed.
The Fan-tailed Warbler had been seen along the northern edge of a resaca on campus. Luckily classes were not in session so I could park on campus quite close to where the bird was seen, and after a 5-minute walk I was among a half-dozen birders looking for the Warbler. Included in the group was the person who discovered the bird, and I got all the details of his sighting from him. This species is notoriously a skulker, and this bird was true to form as it was seen low in poorly lit brush, providing only brief partial views. There was also a Wilson’s and an Orange-crowned Warbler in the vicinity of the Fan-tailed.
Here is a picture of the bush in the background where it was seen.
I was there within 30 minutes of the first sighting, and had micro-details on the bird’s location and behavior, so I was optimistic. But over the next 90 minutes, despite 20 or more birders looking, no one spotted the bird. Though a couple times I did have the Wilson’s and Orange-crowned in the same bush where the Fan-tailed had been seen. At 1:30 I decided to call it quits, and moved on to my other targets. In hindsight it was the right call as the bird was not found again that day.
I gave my best to Jerald, and headed to San Benito where a Limpkin had been spotted for the last few days. Since last summer Limpkins have undergone an unprecedented irruption across the eastern US, and TX was no exception. I had leads on several Limpkins in the area, but the bird in San Benito required only a 2-minute detour from my route, so it was worth a try. The bird was being seen along Resaca de los Fresnos, just east of the US 77 bridge. One post mentioned it was on the side of the health care facility.
When I pulled up to the bridge I pulled into the parking lot for the San Benito Primary Care facility. I quickly got out and scanned the edge close to the building but did not see any birds. Was the Limpkin gone or had it moved to another area? I looked across the resaca and got this view of the extensive scrubby border on the other side. That’s lots of possible habitat to search!
I started to scan the edge and noticed something in the distance. I got out my scope and there was the Limpkin, just standing at the edge of the bank as Limpkins often do (State bird #5). Success - and now I don’t need to pursue any of the other Limpkins in the area. Here is a phone-scoped photo of the bird in the distance (at the red arrow).
Since last summer I’ve seen Limpkin as a rarity in NC, TN and now TX, along with SC in previous years.
My last stop of the day was northwest of McAllen in farm fields in Edinburg County where Mountain Plovers had been recently reported. I’ve tried for this wintering species several times in south TX over the years, but have never come up with them. The Plovers had been reported at multiple sites in plowed fields over an area covering several square miles, so I would need some luck to find them. When I arrived in the area I found that same habitat actually covered dozens of square miles. And the fields were plowed in a way that created furrows that were deep enough for the Plovers to hide in. Yikes! I spent an hour scanning the couple fields where most of the sightings were focused, but came up empty. I hated to end my day with an unsuccessful search, but I was very happy to have found 2 lifers and 3 other state birds that day.
But there was one more highlight on the 5th – that evening I received an e-mail from the Santa Margarita Ranch guides that a spot had opened up to take the evening Owl trip on the 6th. This one would be using playback for the owl, greatly improving my chances, so I quickly jumped at the opportunity and signed up for that trip.
January 6 – Santa Margarita Ranch
This was my day to take the guided daytime tour of the Santa Margarita Ranch in hopes of finding the Bare-throated Tiger-Heron. And although recent tours have included other LRGV rarities like Brown Jay and Red-billed Pigeons, my key target was the Tiger-Heron. The bird had been seen on nearly all the recent trips, but the key issue might well turn out to be in which country the bird is seen. The bird was always right along the river, and checklists from some trips included close pictures of the bird on the US side, others mention seeing the bird fly across the river (i.e., in both countries), while some have only spotted the bird in Mexico. Hopefully that wouldn’t turn out to be an issue.
The tour started at 7 AM along a portion of the border wall that was under construction. Here is a surreal picture of our group next to the wall.
The first stop of the tour was to head to tall bluffs overlooking the Rio Grande River and adjacent broad valley. There was a bit of early morning fog in the valley as we arrived, obscuring the river a bit, but it was still a nice view from the top of the bluffs.
Within just a couple minutes someone mentioned that they had the Tiger-Heron. It was downriver, mostly obscured by fog, and standing on the Mexican side of the river. The fog eventually lifted providing good but distant views of the bird. Here are my best 2 phone-scoped pictures of the bird.
But the problem was our target bird was standing firmly in Mexico. Once it walked 2 steps into the river, but our guide said the border is the deepest part of the river. GoogleMaps shows the border being roughly in the middle in this part of the Rio Grande. So even 2 steps into the river was apparently still in Mexico. I’ve always contended that for counting purposes it’s not where the birder is located, it’s where the bird is located, which appears to be ABA’s rule. But eBird’s rule apparently goes by where the birder is located. But it was still early and if the bird flew across the river the issue would be moot. Here's a shot of most of our group looking down on the Tiger-Heron.
Although there were plenty of other birds in the area, I mostly kept an eye on the Tiger-Heron hoping to see it fly across the river. Though I did look up at the right time to spot our only Red-billed Pigeons that flew by. Later I diverted my attention briefly to see the Brown Jays that others spotted in the distance. The only other time I’ve seen both of these species was my first trip to the Valley in 1985 – 39 years ago (yikes!). Other nice birds seen from the bluffs included Gray Hawks, all 3 Kingfishers, and a long-staying Limpkin, as well as birds of the desert like Rock and Cactus Wrens and Roadrunners.
We spent roughly 3 hours on the bluffs, and in that entire time the Tiger-Heron only moved perhaps 50 feet up and down the bank always staying right along the water’s edge. During that time several of us had a nice debate as to whether to count the bird on our US lists. A later stop on the tour would take us to the river edge a short distance upstream so maybe we would still have views of the bird on US land.
We headed back to our cars and drove a short distance toward the north, and began to take a trail through thick thorn scrub to head toward the river. Though first we had to go through another one of the gates for the border wall. The area was rather birdy, with key highlights being a male Rose-throated Becard and a flyover White-tailed Hawk. We stopped at one point to allow the guides to put out oranges and suet cakes especially to try to attract Brown Jays. Hopefully they would find it by the time we returned from our walk.
Eventually we made our way down to the riparian area near the river. The guides mentioned that often the Tiger-Heron will spend time along a couple small islands in the area. But despite our best efforts, including wading ankle deep to reach one of the islands, we couldn’t find the bird. We were now quite a bit upstream from where we saw the bird earlier, so apparently it had chosen to stay downstream that day. More debate ensued on the countability of the bird we saw well that morning. I decided to count it, given all the effort I took to try for the bird, and that it was within just 100 ft of the ill-defined border. After all, the bird doesn’t know where the border is. Bare-throated Tiger Heron was Lifer #3 and State bird #6 of the trip.
Highlights on the river were 12 species of waterfowl and a Roseate Spoonbill. Plus a continuing Hammond’s Flycatcher as a rarity and several Morelet’s Seedeaters in the riparian section. On our way back we stopped by the feeding station but saw no activity – maybe birders on tomorrow’s trip will be treated to activity there.
We returned to the cars at 2 pm with a trip list of 88 species. A highly productive trip including of course extended views of the Tiger-Heron.
I had to be back to the Ranch at 7:30 that night for the evening Owl tour, which gave me several free hours. I had thought about making a 45-minute ride to the Falcon Lake where there were occasional sightings of a Western Grebe. But the most recent checklist from the spot did not include the Grebe, and I figured a couple hours of rest at my hotel might be a better choice. Along the way to my hotel I spotted a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on the wires – a nice winter bird for south TX.
The nighttime Owl tour was led by the same guides we had in the morning. I was surprised to see that there were 21 birders in the group – it’s difficult to keep such a large group quiet enough to not spook our target Mottled Owl. But the leaders were very clear in their instructions to us about the importance of not making a sound, and minimizing the use of flashlights and head lamps. And as we started back down the same route we took that morning, everyone was truly on their best behavior. Early in the walk the leaders spotted a silent Screech Owl which is of the McCall’s subspecies. We got nice views using a spotlight.
After about 20 minutes we arrived at the spot where the Mottled Owl was most often heard. We stopped and quietly listened – several Screech Owls were calling in the area. The leaders first played Elf Owl calls, and after a pause played Screech Owl calls. And within a few seconds the Mottled Owl responded nearby. We could see it fly in, and then the leaders were able to put the spotlight on it (Lifer #4, State bird #7). It sat perched nearby for an extended time, and I was able to get this passable digi-binned photo
The guides later played Tiger-Heron calls but got no responses. But they were successful getting 3 Barn Owls to respond to playback, and an estimated 11 Screech Owls were heard or seen throughout the walk. Just before returning to the cars we passed through the border wall gate once again. To say that the wall, and forest nearby, were well-lit would be an understatement. Wonder what impacts 24-hour lighting has on the vegetation.
I was really tired when I got back to the hotel at 11 that night, but very happy after such an excellent day of birding.
See my next blog post for a summary of the second half of my LRGV trip.
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