My first ever
trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) in TX was in April 1985. Back then you could camp inside Bentsen State
Park, and many campers would set up makeshift birdfeeders right at their tent
sites. In addition to all the regular
south TX specialties I needed on that trip, I was targeting a Blue Bunting that
was a regular visitor at a feeder at one of these campsites, including the day
I arrived at the park. I didn’t get to
the park until nearly dark, but was able to get the camp site right next to the
one with the feeder hosting the Blue Bunting.
I woke up at dawn the next morning fully expecting to add the Blue Bunting
to my lifelist at my neighbor’s feeder.
Unfortunately the bird was a no-show, never to be seen again at that
feeder. I wasn’t too disappointed at the
time because I would later add 15 other life birds at Bentsen, as part of a
trip with 21 lifers.
Little did I
know that Blue Bunting would become a nemesis bird for me. Despite 13 trips to the LRGV over the years,
I would never catch up to a Blue Bunting.
That included a trip in January 2005 when one was found the last day of
my LRGV trip but the details of what would become a reliable bird weren’t well-known
till after I had left. Then there was
one that I tried for in 2012, though that one wasn’t reliable.
But by far my
worst Blue Bunting miss was of a bird seen regularly from January through April
2016 at Frontera Audubon in Weslaco. On
February 3rd that year I spent 10 hours searching unsuccessfully for that bird,
even though it was seen in the park twice that day. Including one time when I missed it by less
than a minute when it was found just 50 feet from me! Despite finding literally every other rarity
that had been recently reported in the park (Crimson-Collared Grosbeak,
Tropical Paula, Painted Bunting, Summer Tanager, Ovenbird, etc.), I wasn’t
lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to see the Blue
Bunting. Just goes to show you that
despite one’s skill level, or how much upfront detective work you complete,
luck is often still needed to find your target species.
Like I said – a
nemesis bird!
Then in late
December 2017 a Blue Bunting was found at the Quinta Mazatlan park in
McAllen. The bird continued to be
reported almost daily into early 2018, so of course it was on my radar
screen. So when my regular work trip to
Houston came up in January, I thought about adding a day to the Valley to give
it a try. But work and home constraints
prevented me from making the trip. And
besides, my unsuccessful search just 2 years earlier dampened my enthusiasm
about setting up yet another trip to the LRGV to try for another Blue
Bunting.
But the daily
reports kept rolling in – it was like they were taunting me. After all, my February Houston trip was only
a few weeks away. So when the reports
continued, I decided to head to the LRGV once again, setting up my itinerary to
devote the entire day on a Monday if needed to try for the Bunting. As the trip neared I traded e-mails with one
local birder who posted about his sighting on the TX listserve - and I’m sure
glad I did. It turns out that he
mentioned that Quinta Mazatlan was closed on Sundays and Mondays. That meant I had just set up my flights to
spend an entire day looking for my target bird on a day when the park would
have been inaccessible! Amazing that
this very important tidbit had not been mentioned on NARBA, the TX listserve,
or any eBird reports. But now that I
knew about the park hours, I looked back at past sightings and sure enough
there were no reports on Sundays and Mondays.
So I quickly changed my flights to spend a Tuesday at the park
instead of Monday. Maybe my luck was
changing… My 13th trip to the LRGV, and
my 4th try for a Blue Bunting, was on!
I arrived at
the park at dawn that morning and quickly made my way to a spot called the
Amphitheatre where the Blue Bunting was most often reported. This was a large feeding station with multiple
rows of stone “seats” arranged like an amphitheatre giving you a nice view of
the feeders. Interesting that there were
seats for more than 50 people – surely you would never have that many people
watching the feeders, right? I was the
first to arrive, and positioned myself on the right side of the seats to give
me the best view of the feeders that the Bunting preferred to visit. Not surprisingly the feeders were all empty since
they had last been filled 2 days earlier on Saturday, the last time the park
was open. But there were some spilled
seeds on the ground, so I just sat back and waited for birds to come in.
But there were
no birds. In my first hour I didn’t have
a single bird come into the feeding station.
A couple more birders arrived, and by 8:30 we hadn’t seen any
birds. Though at about 8 AM I did hear
several sharp chips notes coming from the underbrush nearby. Over the years searching for Blue Buntings I
remember that several local birders suggested the best way to find this species
is to learn its call note since they are quite vocal. So although none of the reports of this bird
mentioned it was calling, I still studied the call note anyway. And the calls I heard early that morning
sounded a lot like the call note of a Blue Bunting. But it only called for a few seconds, and I
never saw any movement, so I didn’t think too much of it.
At 8:30 a park
employee arrived and filled all the feeders, so I was hopeful things would pick
up. As did the other birders – which now
numbered 20 or so. And then a few
minutes later a large group of 25 or more birders showed up, or maybe I should
call them “so-called birders”. Even if
everyone is on their best behavior, it’s tough for a group of 50 people to be
quiet. And unfortunately this last group
of birders wasn’t exactly on their best behavior – there was a lot of talking,
people taking phone calls, moving around, etc.
I overheard one person mention they had a Noon flight that day, so I
anxiously waited for this noisy crowd to leave so that hopefully birds would
come into the feeder. Over the next 90
minutes there were visits by just 2 Green Jays, 2 Kiskadees, 3 White-tipped
Doves, and 1 banded Orange-crowned Warbler – amazingly that was it, at a
well-stocked feeding station in south TX!
One of these loud birders mentioned that this was their second
unsuccessful try for the Blue Bunting in the last week – I’m not surprised
given their behavior.
Finally at 10
AM the loud birders left, and the 20 birders that remained were now much quieter
– finally a group that was truly focused on seeing the target bird. And not 10 minutes later I heard sharp chip
notes coming from the underbrush at the edge of the feeding station. They were similar to the Orange-crowned
Warbler chips of the bird that had come in earlier, but a bit sharper. I stared into the underbrush and noticed some
movement. Within a couple seconds I saw
the bright blue of the Blue Bunting. It
was skulking way back in the brush, but I was able to get most of the other
birders on it. Over the next 10 minutes
the bird continued to call, but was only visible a few times. And twice we actually saw it fly through the
brush, and with fleeting glimpses it appeared all black. All things considered, these were very nice
sightings after a nearly 3 hour wait. My
4th time was the charm. And it was
likely more than coincidental that the bird appeared only minutes after the
loud birders left.
I wasn’t able
to get any pictures of the bird, but I took this picture of the feeding
station, with an arrow toward the brush on the left where the Blue Bunting had been skulking earlier.
And this is a
shot of the seating area of the amphitheatre, with the “small” group of
22 well-behaved birders.
My looks at the
bird weren’t the best, and I thought about staying longer to try to get a
better view. But frankly I was tired of birding
in a big noisy crowd. So with the rest
of the day available for birding, I headed out of the park to pursue other TX
statebird possibilities. (Of course I
had done my research to see what other statebirds might be around.)
The first
statebird possibility was an Allen’s Hummingbird that had been coming to a
feeder in Harlingen. I contacted the
homeowner, Justin LeClair, to get his permission to come into his yard to look
for his bird. It turns out Justin
formerly lived in New England and he remembered me. He gave me some great tips to look for the
Allen’s, including that it was mostly coming to the feeder in front of the
house, and that it might roost on a citrus tree next door when not at the
feeder. He also had Rufous, Black-chinned,
Ruby-throated, and Buff-bellied Hummingbirds coming to his feeders, so it
sounded like it could be fun to spend some time at his feeding station.
After a short
drive I arrived at Justin’s house, and quickly found the feeder out front and
the ones in the backyard. And I found
the citrus trees next door. But I didn’t
find any Hummingbirds. But not to worry
– I just positioned myself where I had a good view of the front feeder and
waited. Within a couple minutes a Selasphorus Hummer arrived. It fed from the far side of the feeder which
meant it was facing me. Not the best
angle to see its back color, but brief glimpses suggested it had an orange back
to I figured it was a Rufous. Then a
short while later a female Archilochus
Hummer arrived. It too fed on the far
side of the feeder facing me. Hmm… Would all the Hummingbirds just feed on that
far side of the feeder? Assuming that
was going to be the case, I repositioned myself so that I was on the other side
of the feeder, and the Hummers’ backs would then be towards me. The next visit was of another or the same
female Archilochus, again landing on
that same perch, and this time giving me a great view of the back of the
bird. So hopefully now I was in the
right position to see the back color of any future Selasphorus that came to the feeder, and make an accurate ID.
I waited a bit
longer and heard sharp chip notes of a Hummingbird coming from somewhere in the
front yard. Seconds later a Selasphorus arrived at the feeder, again
landing on the perch giving me a good look at the back of the bird. It was nearly solid green – it was the
Allen’s Hummingbird. Over the next
several minutes there were several other visits by Hummingbirds, interestingly all
landing on that same side of the feeder.
Good thing I had a good view of that portion of the feeder. And many thanks to Justin for inviting me to
his feeding station! TX was my 3rd state
for Allen’s Hummingbird, joining CA and MA as a rarity. Plus I now have 13 species of hummingbirds on
my TX list – more than any other state.
Next I was off
to the Brownsville Dump. Although this
spot is known as THE spot for Tamaulipas Crows in the US, my targets here were
actually Gulls – both Glaucous and Iceland (Thayer’s) had been reported here
recently. And since I was heading there
I may as well look for the Crows since I had only seen them once before – back
in 1985 on that same first visit to the LRGV.
I arrived at the landfill, checked in, and headed right to the active
portion of the landfill. I could see a
large flock of Gulls flying around the tractors, plus others perched on the
dirt nearby. Although I positioned
myself out of the way of the equipment, I was downwind of all the
activity. And it was really
windy. I sat in my car, rolled down the
window, and tried to look for my target Gulls.
But bits of who knows what started to fly into my car. Yuck!
I lasted only a couple minutes, before I feared for my health and gave
up. I headed back downhill and made a
feeble attempt to look for the Crows, but I couldn’t stand it anymore and left
the landfill. Interesting that I
remember that my 1985 visit was very similar – that time I was outside my car
and the wind would carry paper that would wrap itself around my legs. I got the Crows on that visit, but I was
still grossed out.
I had no more
possible TX statebirds to chase after, so I decided to target species I had
only seen once before on previous LRGV trips.
My next stop was at the Inn at Chachalaca Bend where a Rose-throated
Becard had been spotted – my only other sighting of this species was on my 2005
trip to the LRGV. I spent a couple hours
wandering around this area, with very nice natural habitat, but came up empty –
not only for the Becard but also finding very few birds at all in the excellent
woodland and brush. A similar story to
the lack of birds at Quinta Mazatlan.
It was now
pretty late in the day and I decided to make my last stop at an evening roost
for Red-crowned Parrots and Green Parakeets.
I had seen both species only once before – the Parrot in 1985 and the
Parakeet in 2000, and both in McAllen.
With a bit of eBird research it looked like once again McAllen could be
the best area to look for both species, with reports coming from a number of
locations. However, only rarely were
both reported in the same spot. So I ended
up picking a hotspot labeled “Red-crowned Parrot Roost” on E. Houston Ave. as
the one which would most likely yield results.
I got there about an hour before sunset and started my vigil. There were a number of Turkey Vultures
passing by low to the south, apparently heading to their evening roost. Included in the group was a Zone-tailed Hawk
doing its best Turkey Vulture imitation – nice.
Then I heard distant calls that I thought were coming from a flock of
Parrots – but when I spotted them it turned out to be 5 Green Parakeets. That was an unexpected bonus.
But I still
needed the more likely Parrot. I kept my
eyes and ears open, and continued to see a few Vultures pass by. The next bird that caught my eye was a very
large Accipter with extensive white fluffy undertail coverts. If I was back home in New England I would
have instantly thought it was a Goshawk.
But this was south TX where a Gos would be virtually unheard of. With closer scrutiny I could see it was an
adult that lacked the white eye-line of a Gos, so it must have just been a
female Cooper’s. I’ve never seen a
Cooper’s with such extensive white undertail coverts. And while I was checking the Sibley app to
make sure of the ID, I heard more Parrot calls.
This flock was much closer, and I could see this time they were indeed Parrots.
I estimated 35 birds in the flock, and
as they landed in a nearby tree I could see they were all Red-crowned Parrots,
rather than the couple other less likely (and uncountable) Parrots - Red-lored
and Yellow-headed Parrots - that are sometimes seen in the area. A nice ending to my day, and a nice ending to
the trip.
The Blue
Bunting was number 752 for my Continental ABA list (not counting Hawaii), and
#731 for my Lower 48 list. And with 2
additions to my TX list, that brings my statelist to 442.
As a postscript, I put together this little summary of my now 14 trips to the LRGV and nearby locations -
- April 1985 - 21 lifers, including my only ever Tamaulipas Crows, Brown Jays, and Red-billed Pigeons
- April-May 2000 - 12 lifers, including my only Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls, Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, White-collared Seedeaters, and Muscovy Ducks
- January 2005 - 4 lifers, including my only Becard, Green-breasted Mango, and White-throated Robin
- December 2009 - 1 lifer - Northern Jacana
- January 2011 - 2 1/2 lifers - Black-vented Oriole, Rufous-Backed Robin, and "Mangrove" Yellow Warbler
- February 2011 - 1 lifer - Yellow-faced Grassquit
- January 2012 - 1 lifer - Golden-crowned Warbler
- November 2013 - 1 lifer - Amazon Kingfisher
- June 2014 - 1 lifer - Yellow-green Vireo
- August 2014 - unsuccessful attempt for Collared Plover
- April 2015 - 1 lifer - Aplomado Falcon
- August 2015 - 1 lifer - Collared Plover
- April 2016 - unsuccessful attempt for Blue Bunting
- February 2018 - 1 lifer - Blue Bunting
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