Luck of the Irish

I am part Irish, my grandmother's maiden name was O'leary from Chicago afterall. I'm due some good luck. I had planned to stay home Tuesday morning but running through my email I saw an eBird alert from my friend John at Sabine Woods that he had a late Eastern Whip-poor-will the day before. I can't pass up a make up opportunity so close to home and jumped in the car and headed out.

Between Winnie and Port Arthur it started to rain pretty hard, hard enough that I considered pulling over. Driving about 50 MPH I surfed on. Then right in front of me a dumpy, rounded winged no tail bird with a long bill flew across the road. I guess ponding water flushed it. American Woodcock was now Year Bird 495! I'll take good luck when I can.

I got to Sabine Woods a little after 9 am since its close to two hours from my house. As I was gathering up my gear John pulled up and said "I thought I might see you here". Indeed, my last chance for this bird for sure.

Late Broad-winged Hawk at Sabine Woods

We check the area where where he had the bird the day before. No luck. Then a bird calling confused me, it seemed so out of place. I asked "am I hearing a Great Kiskadee?" John  confirmed one had been present since July and was being at least heard regularly on the adjacent property. Pretty cool and a new county bird for me.

We kept looking. Hermit Thrushes and Golden-crowned Kinglets being very vocal. We flushed a nightjar, but the size and all dark shape clearly showed it to be a Chuck's-will-widow. John remarked that could be the latest Chuck's record for Sabine Woods.

We looped the place, covering a mile by eBird. No luck. John had to leave and I was alone and decided to make another pass through the southwest corner. This time a small nightjar flushed from a chest high branch. I got a glimpse of pale tail corners. I got a five second look at it perched and it had a gray crown. Then it was gone. Now that was lucky, a late Eastern Whip-poor-will as Year Bird 496! add in the woodcock and this been a great day!

So that leaves just Tundra Swan, Parasitic Jaeger, Little Gull, and Lapland Longspur as realistic Non-review birds left. Greg Cook has been up in the Panhandle finding what seems like a lot of Lapland Longspurs so that's a good possibility to chase next. So little time left, but the year is not over until January 1st.

Epilogue - so Thanksgiving evening I was sitting in the backyard enjoying the mild evening with the family and low and behold an American Woodcock flies over. Crazy how that happens

The Grind

Slim pickings right now. Just not many birds to find. The montane invasion out west seems to have leveled off and the Tamaulipas Crows in the Rio Grande Valley so far have not been the vanguard of an eruption from the south. No choice but to grind on looking for the six remaining non-review species that I feel like I have a chance for.

Monday November 20th had me heading east to check a site in Chambers County that usually yields walk up American Woodcocks for the Old River CBC. Damn my luck the county is "improving" the park and that area was full of heavy equipment. No reason to stop.

Great Horned Owl
Hooks Woods, High Island TX

I worked my way down the coast, cruising through Anahuac NWR just because. I hit Hooks Woods in High Island next and worked the back area where the Bolivar Peninsula CBC sometimes gets American Woodcock. No luck but I did flush a Great Horned Owl.

On the Bolivar Peninsula I found a shrimp boat in close and caught up to it and started scanning the decent sized gull flock behind it. I must have scanned at least 50 boats like this year. This time there was a larger bird that looked darker chasing through the Laughing Gulls. I watched it for sometime looking for a definitive view. The belly was definitely paler and it was definitely darker and larger than the Laughing Gulls. Finally I was able to see what I needed, the pale in the underside of the primaries that let me call this a Pomarine Jaeger for Year Bird 494. Onward

Rollover Pass had birds but nothing uncommon for the day, more terns than gulls. On Tuna Road at the now giant hole that swallowed by car in March I was able to see my first of season Bonoparte's Gull chasing a barge in the Inter Coastal Canal. That might be a strategy for Little Gull in my end game, posting up on the canal and watching the flocks behind barges. They seem to have large number of Bonoparte's and maybe a Little Gull would join them.

Barn Owl
Bolivar Flats

When I passed the Barn Owl box on the way to the Bolivar Flats I could see the resident owl's head sticking out. With a scope I could see something small and light moving around behind it, so I'm guessing there are owlets in the box too, or at least one.

Other than a flyby gull that I thought could have been the Great Black-backed Gull from last week there was nothing rare on the flats. I did find a load of Piping Plovers, 18 in total and 6 of them were banded.

"White-over-Green" banded in 2012 on the Bolivar Flats

I've been having a good time looking for banded Piping Plovers and have found several. I report all of them if I have enough information and have started a spreadsheet to track them. If there are numbers on the leg flag I try my best to get it, but you can't always see it. Click here to see my spreadsheet.  I'm hoping my spreadsheet will help identify bird if you can't read the number on the flag (not all flags have numbers either) So far my oldest bird is a 5 year old bird.

Time to head home. I'll be back on the coast soon.

Hook Me Up

View from the tower

I'm running out of birds. I started the week with just seven non-review species that I have realistic chances of getting. I need a bunch of review species to pop up in these last six weeks of the year. For those who don't know what I mean by a review species lets review. From the Texas Bird Record Committee Bylaws "In general, the Review List will consist of species that have occurred within Texas and adjacent ocean four or fewer times per year in each of the ten years immediately preceding revision of the Review List. By majority vote of quorum at a meeting, the Committee may, as it sees fit, add other species to the Review List, such as those whose identification is difficult."

If my math is correct there are 488 species on the non review list. These are the birds known to occur in Texas and don't meet the criteria above. It means those are the birds that with a little luck you should be able to get and should expect to get. So far four have slipped by me and I don't think I have a chance to make up.

In the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) the top of the list is Hook-billed Kite. I have already put in about 3 half days looking. Hook-billed Kite is regular but unpredictable in the RGV and you either have to get luckyor just put in the time and pay your dues for it.

Friday morning I had about an hour on the Santa An NWR Observation tower with when conditions got rainy and foggy enough that I figured no raptor in its right mind would be up and about. I came down from the tower and got word a few minutes later of the Tamaulipas Crows at the Brownsville Landfill.

Saturday morning I was back with no luck, Better weather but not great weather. A local school group joined me on the tower led by the ranger. Fascinating to see how excited they were to have a view of Mexico. Some confessed to having never seen Mexico. Most confessed to having never seen the existing border wall. It was good to be reminded how lucky I am to get to see so much of Texas.  Too soon I had to head for the festival.

Green Jay
Estero Llano Grande SP

It was foggy again and I started the day at Estero Llano Grande State Park nearby waiting for the weather to improve. Just the usual suspects but a great place to while away the time. Weather improved and I headed for Santa Ana NWR making it to the tower a few minutes after 9 am. Plenty of festival folks about to keep me company. It actually got sunny and I had a fair number of raptors up and about. Plenty of distant raptors to study. Cooper's Hawk, Northern Harrier, and White-tailed Hawk. Harris Hawks have kinda paddle shaped wings and I got hopeful on several distant Harris Hawks until their distinctive white rump showed.

I had been alone about an hour and I would have to leave soon. A distant rapture soared. I got the scope in it. No white on the rump ruling out Harrier and Harris Hawk. Broad paddle shaped wings eliminated accipiters and harrier, Rounded wings eliminate most buteos, especially the White-tailed Hawks that had been around. Add in the pointy looking head, the forward thrust of the wings beyond the head and it really adds up to one thing. Hook-billed Kite was Year Bird 493. Another bird that I can only feel a great sense of relief to get

.

Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival Field Trip
Santa Ana NWR

So now there are six non-review species left for me in the state. Tundra Swan, American Woodcock, Pomarine Jaeger, Parasitic Jaeger, Little Gull, and Lapland Longspur are what's left on the plate for me. Call me if you find them!

To the Dump, to Dump, to the dump dump dump...

Tamaulipas Crow
Brownsville Landfill

The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in Harlingen has a habit of turning up some rare birds. There was no doubt in my mind its where I needed to be this week.

Sunday before the festival got going on Wednesday a pair of Tamaulipas Crows were found on South Padre Island. By the time I made it to Harlingen on Wednesday the pair had been sighted twice more on the mainland, always miles apart but each time closer to the Brownsville Landfill. The Dump as birders affectionately call it was until the 1990's the only reliable spot to see these crows. But they disappeared from there and haven't been there for more than a decade.

Wednesday I drove slowly around the neighborhood they were last seen in. For some reason the Foghat song "Slow Ride" got into my head only with new lyrics "Crow ride, They ain't easy..." No luck on the crows.

Aplomado Falcon
Old Port Isabel Road

Thursday morning before the festival and went back out. After my crow ride through the neighborhood I cruised a bit down the Old Port Isabel Road. This is the classic spot to see Aplomado Falcon. This never happens to me, but today a pair of Aplomado Falcons perched on the fence right next to road and I had my camera ready. I soaked up as many shots and they would tolerate. No crows and it was time too head to the festival.

Since there had been no reports on Thursday of the the crows I decided to spend some time looking for Hook-billed Kite at Santa Ana NWR. I was the only one there at sunrise, not  a car to be seen. I was on the tower shortly after 7 am. Weather continued to degrade, getting foggier and wetter. Spooky no one around yet, not even border patrol. After an hour and slowly wetter and wetter conditions I called it quits. I headed to Estero Llano Grande SP to kill some time under cover on the deck.

Dump Selfie

As I was pulling in to the parking lot I got a message that the crows were at the Brownsville Landfill. Crow Ride, Take it Easy (the the speed that is). To the Dump, the dump, to the dump, dump, dump! I made it to the Dump about 10:15 am. The birds had disappeared a few minutes before I had arrived. I decide it was a party and hung out with 50 if my newest closest crow fan friends. The crowd slowly dwindled and after 2.5 hours it was just two of us there.

Getting close to the 3 hours mark Jesse Huth showed up to make it three.  I commented to Jesse his fresh eyes would help. Jesse had not been there 10 minutes when he said "Is that it on the fence" Sure enough, there on the fence was one of the Tamaulipas Crows for Year Bird 492. A second popped up into view. We got the word out and we waited for folks to return. After an hour I handed the crow baton to someone else and headed to the festival.

Alert readers may note that this should be year bird 293, but I'm showing 292. Too many questions are coming up on the Costa's Hummingbird and I just don't feel good about having it on the list, so I'm dropping my count by one. With some luck another will show up.

Here Chickie chickie chickie

Attwater's Greater Prairie-Chicken

Greater Prairie-chicken is one of the weirder birds you can count in Texas. In 2014 the ABA checklist committee decided that Greater Prairie-Chickens at the Attwater's Prairie-Chicken National Wildlife Refuge are countable. So this is a gimme bird, sorta.

There are two ways to see this bird. One is to drive the newly expended tour loop at the refuge and hope to get lucky. The new loop is very good, but eBird shows you have about a 10% chance of seeing a prairie-chicken on the loop. I've made about 7 trips this year with no luck. My last trip through in October someone reported one about an hour after I was there.

The other way to see one is to sign up for the tour the refuge gives the first Saturday of the month. You have a much better chance of seeing a chicken on this tour. There were two tours left this year and I was able to get on the November tour. Its not a sure thing but your odds are much greater than 10%

I got in about midnight from my trip to the panhandle. The tour meets at 7:45 am so I got less than 6 hours of sleep after I got back from my panhandle trip. On way my car started making a loud dragging noise. I pulled over and investigated. On my way home from Canyon an 18-wheeler threw some tread in front of me and I hit it. I didn't think any harm had been done, but now I could see it had damaged a plastic guard under the front of my car. It seemed mostly intact but had come loose and was dragging. I pulled it off and threw it in the hatchback hoping I could reattach it later.

On the tour I ended up in the back of the van. A big year doesn't require a spectacular view, just an identifiable view so no problem.

The tour is really not a birding tour although the tour does try and find Prairie-Chickens. It is more about the effort to restore and preserve the native prairie there. What you get to see is pretty spectacular if you have an eye for prairie. The new expanded tour loop is good, but this is even better.

We had been going a while and a hawk was called a Red-tailed and flew close. I realized the was wrong the large white wing patches proved it was a Ferruginous Hawk, a new county bird for me.

We continued. Finally the we spied my target. Out the front windshield was a lone Greater Prairie-Chicken for Year Bird 492. I got some poor shots out from the back. At this point they are all good!

After the tour I headed home, ready for a long nap! Next week is the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival and with some luck I can get a few more birds there

You Win Some, You Lose Some

A member of the Tribe forwarded a report of a Varied Thrush in Canyon, TX that was found by Ray Matlack. Ray is the director of Texas Wild, https://www.facebook.com/TexasWildEdu. He was looking out the back door right as he had to go give a class lecture and saw the thrush and was able to get a few shots of a male Varied Thrush. How cool is that?

Red-breasted Nuthatch

As luck would have it, I had been introduced to Ray just a few weeks ago by a mutual Facebook friend. I reached out to Ray and he extended me an invitation to camp out in his back yard and look for the thrush. Of course this was the last game of the World Series and I  had to cut my evening short and get some sleep, still I dozed with the TV on and actually woke up in time to see the last out of the game and see the Astro's win.

Up at 3:30 am and in the car by 3:45 I was on the road to Canyon, 635 miles the GPS said. I topped off the tank and grabbed a burrito at Buc-ee's in Madisonville. Until the sunrise somewhere navigating around the Metroplex I was cursing the Astros, feeling the lack of sleep. After the sunrise I felt better.

West of Fort Worth I  started to move through counties I had never birded before and started racking up some new county birds as I drove. Wichita, Wilbarger, Hardeman, Childress, Hall, and Donley all new counties for me to pass through in the daylight and I added some ticks to my Century Club totals. The Century Club and SirusXM radio are what keep me alert on a big year drives.

I arrived about 2 pm and Ray showed me the lay out. I pulled up a chair and settled in for a wait. Not much activity, I only tallied 5 species by 5 pm. I was beat and arranged with Ray to return in the hopefully more active morning. I drove around the neighborhood trying not to look suspicious as I peeped into everyone's yard with no success. I headed to my room and fell asleep early.

Sunrise was 8.04 am so I could sleep in to 7 am. I felt woefully out of shape as the college regional crossfit games were in town and the the breakfast room at the hotel was filled with super fit college kids.

Back at Ray's after a quick drive around the neighborhood again I settled in. Things were pretty slow until recess at the Elementary School across the street. When the wild indians came out to play it pushed a lot of robins into Ray's yard. No thrush yet though.

Red-tailed Hawk, Hall County

I tried playing some Varied Thrush calls. One time when it stopped I heard what sounded like a response, but only one. I tried again and there it was again! I thought it might be about to come in. I tried again and I realized one of the teachers across the street has a whistle that sound remarkably like a Varied Thrush, waa, waa, waaaaa.

I called it quits about noon and bid Ray good bye and thanked him for the opportunity. You win some and  you lose some. I told Ray if it was a guarantee you'd get the bird every time it wouldn't be so much fun to chase.

It was a long drive home, but I had a date with an Attwater's Prairie-Chicken to keep tomorrow!