We started the day at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, home to the largest population of Ocelots in the United States. Not surprisingly, we didn't see any, but we still had a good time exploring this enormous refuge.
The drive there was pretty slow, and we didn't enter the refuge until the sun was well up. The definite highlight of the drive was a dead feral pig in the middle of the road that had attracted a pair of Crested Caracaras. Not long after, an Eastern Meadowlark singing on a telephone wire provided a very nice new bird for our life lists.
Once we arrived at the visitor's center and had paid our fee, we wandered over to the feeders to watch Bronzed Cowbirds, Green Jays, and a Wild Turkey join the Chachalaca crowd. There was also a pair of White-throated Sparrows, both white and tan striped, which was nice for westerners like us. A stroll around the grounds via the Kiskadee Trail brought us to a nice mixed flock of migrants that included colorful highlights like a male Painted Bunting, multiple Indigo Buntings, Orioles, and our first Yellow Warbler for the trip. An Altamira Oriole allowed us to get close to it, but I wasn't able to get a picture. Alas!
We decided to start our exploration of the refuge's roads with at rip to Alligator Pond, where a pair of Masked Ducks had been sighted. Masked Ducks are a stiff-tailed tropical duck that only rarely occurs in the United States, so we were hoping they were still sticking around. A short drive and a short stroll later, there they were! They didn't perform any amazing tricks, but they did sit and allow long examination in our scope (too far for pictures, unfortunately), even preening under their wings and exposing their distinctive white wing patches.
We were joined pretty much right away by some other birders, and together we admired the ducks on the pond, as well as a Sora that scurried around on the bank right under our noses! This was by far our best view of a Sora, ever, and we drank in the views of the generally hard-to-view rail. A few migrants popped by for a drink, and one of the other birders pointed out an alligator's head and snout sticking out at us.
An Alligator eyes us from Alligator Pond.It's funny how all the Alligators we saw were in ponds named after them. Actually, the nature preserves in South Texas generally show little if any creativity when thinking of names. And Alligators aren't the only creativity-draining organisms, as we couldn't seem to find any trails that weren't named after Green Jays or Great Kiskadees, either.
After returning to our car, we decided to take a turn around the park's long auto-tour. This takes you through flooded fields, thorn forest, and right to the banks of Laguna Atascosa, where we hoped to see some Piping Plovers. No luck on the Piping Plovers, but we did enjoy more of the usual south Texas species, and even spied a beautiful Aplomado Falcon. The Falcon cooperatively perched on a yucca (or yucca-like plant) for minutes on end, and we had long and fairly satisfying scope views from a pretty great distance. Aplomado Falcons in Texas are part of a reintroduction program, and so are not considered "countable" by the arcane rules of the American Birding Association due to the population's tentative survival and its unnatural provenance.
After we finished the loop, we headed straight back to South Padre Island to see what the afternoon's migration may have dropped by. The result was many of the same species as the previous day, but with a few notable additions, and this time we brought our camera! Not that we got many of them on film...
Out on the boardwalk, we again enjoyed the assemblage of waders and shorebirds, but this time we were very surprised to see a flock of about 50 birds land in a nearby isolated mangrove. Checking in our binoculars, we were pleased to find that they were Dickcissels, a rather strange cardinal-like bird that spends its winters in South America in large numbers. In fact, just that morning Libby had mentioned that she was hoping to see a Dickcissel! Talk about realized desires.
After enjoying the colorful migrants in the lots, we moved south and scoped a big flock of terns and gulls assembled near the bridge to the mainland. Among the flock we picked out a single Franklin's Gull, a long-distance migrant that passes through Texas every year on their way north, and a few of the terns proved to be our first Sandwich Terns.
That night we dined at a Mexican seafood restaurant in Port Isabel where we were serenaded by a folk singer strumming and singing tunes from Bob Dylan. Our after dinner entertainment was removing ticks, of course.
Here are the new birds for the day:
1. Masked Duck
2. Franklin's Gull
3. Sandwich Tern
4. Palm Warbler
5. Blackpoll Warbler
6. Dickcissel
7. Eastern Meadowlark
Aplomado Falcon (cool to see)
Saturday hosted our highest diversity of species for a day - we had 112 total. That's not bad considering we weren't making an effort to see a high number of species. Pictures for the day can be found here: Texas Day Six.
After returning to our car, we decided to take a turn around the park's long auto-tour. This takes you through flooded fields, thorn forest, and right to the banks of Laguna Atascosa, where we hoped to see some Piping Plovers. No luck on the Piping Plovers, but we did enjoy more of the usual south Texas species, and even spied a beautiful Aplomado Falcon. The Falcon cooperatively perched on a yucca (or yucca-like plant) for minutes on end, and we had long and fairly satisfying scope views from a pretty great distance. Aplomado Falcons in Texas are part of a reintroduction program, and so are not considered "countable" by the arcane rules of the American Birding Association due to the population's tentative survival and its unnatural provenance.
After we finished the loop, we headed straight back to South Padre Island to see what the afternoon's migration may have dropped by. The result was many of the same species as the previous day, but with a few notable additions, and this time we brought our camera! Not that we got many of them on film...
As we crossed into the gardens, one of the first birds we saw was a male Audubon's Yellow-rumped Warbler, a very familiar bird from back home. That was very pleasant. Soon, though, we were admiring our first Palm Warbler and our first Blackpoll Warbler.
Out on the boardwalk, we again enjoyed the assemblage of waders and shorebirds, but this time we were very surprised to see a flock of about 50 birds land in a nearby isolated mangrove. Checking in our binoculars, we were pleased to find that they were Dickcissels, a rather strange cardinal-like bird that spends its winters in South America in large numbers. In fact, just that morning Libby had mentioned that she was hoping to see a Dickcissel! Talk about realized desires.
After enjoying the colorful migrants in the lots, we moved south and scoped a big flock of terns and gulls assembled near the bridge to the mainland. Among the flock we picked out a single Franklin's Gull, a long-distance migrant that passes through Texas every year on their way north, and a few of the terns proved to be our first Sandwich Terns.
That night we dined at a Mexican seafood restaurant in Port Isabel where we were serenaded by a folk singer strumming and singing tunes from Bob Dylan. Our after dinner entertainment was removing ticks, of course.
Here are the new birds for the day:
1. Masked Duck
2. Franklin's Gull
3. Sandwich Tern
4. Palm Warbler
5. Blackpoll Warbler
6. Dickcissel
7. Eastern Meadowlark
Aplomado Falcon (cool to see)
Saturday hosted our highest diversity of species for a day - we had 112 total. That's not bad considering we weren't making an effort to see a high number of species. Pictures for the day can be found here: Texas Day Six.
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