El Valle

The last few days of my 2012 were spent in the Valley, driving back and forth between my hotel in Brownsville and preserves to the east and west.  Over two days, I birded Santa Ana, Bentsen, Frontera Audubon, Estero Llano Grande, Sabal Palm, and the South Padre Island Convention Center.  I had 115 species for the weekend in the Valley, and even added on 4 life birds: Long-tailed Duck, Altamira Oriole, Tropical Kingbird, and Rose-throated Becard.

Saturday started out at Donna Reservoir, where I searched for the Long-tailed Duck and Surf Scoter.  The former was easily found floating in a raft of Lesser Scaup, but I could never pinpoint the Scoter, and must assume it was in one of the rafts that was out of scope range.  American White Pelicans and Tree Swallows were other nice birds to start off the morning.

American White Pelicans at daybreak

Long-tailed Duck - digiscoped

Least Sandpipers being cooperative and completely fucking adorable

Least Grebe - this bird is a sinister looking fucker

After my time at Donna Reservoir, I made my way to Estero Llano Grande, a park which is quickly becoming my favorite in the Valley.  There's a great variety of habitat, and it was here that I was able to pile on birds for my Hidalgo county list.  Bonus: we were able to relocate the Rose-throated Becard, a badass flycatcher that's been hanging around the park for some time now.

Common Pauraque - master of camouflage 

These day roosting birds are all around Estero; some were close enough to pick up, if I were an asshole.

One of two bright as shit male Vermilion Flycatchers this weekend.  Not nearly as subtle as the Pauraques.

 

Ahh, the Rose-throated Becard.

We were actually pretty lucky to get a look at this bird.  It's almost always in the same area of the park, but it can be very hit or miss.

The park staff was very grateful that we found the bird, as it was within the CBC count week, and who doesn't want a Becard on their CBC?

 The rest of the day was spent at Bensten, followed by an unsuccessful stake out with about 8 other birders for a Zone-tailed Hawk at Frontera Audubon.

There must have been about 13 million Turkey Vultures, but I couldn't pick out one fucking Zone-tailed Hawk for the life of me.

Green Jay looking dapper.

Curve-billed Thrasher - I was glad this bird was cooperative, as the only other one I've seen was in and out in about 10 seconds.

Long-billed Thrasher - this dude was skulking around some shrubbery with a couple of Olive Sparrows.

Black Phoebe - not a bird I had counted on seeing, and the first one of the year for me.

  Sunday saw me hit the Convention Center for waders and ducks, the jetty for absolutely nothing, and Santa Ana, which put on a pretty good show near Pintail Lakes.

American Widgeon - there were a few of these ducks mixed in with about 600 Redheads.

Tricolored Herons were skulking around the boardwalks at the Convention Center.

I had all three Kingfisher species this weekend. Here's a Belted Kingfisher flying off with some breakfast.

Quite a few Common Gallinules around; I believe I had them in both counties this weekend.

Good look at a Royal Tern on a horrible trip to the South Padre Island Jetty.

Tropical Kingbird at the Convention Center

 

I went back and forth on this bird, the Tropical/Couch's complex not being an easy one.  This bird never called, just like the other 4 Tropical/Couch's I had this weekend, but it had an obvious greenish tint to the breast, the bill looks thinner and longer in the profile view, and a really nice girl I met at Santa Ana had, most likely, this exact bird two days prior and heard it vocalize.

And here it is taking a shit.

 

Nice looks at White-tailed Kite

Saw this bird and another as I was driving to Santa Ana.  Also came across a field of about 20 foraging Long-billed Curlews.

Green Parakeets - completely unexpected.  A few miles north of Bentsen State Park.

Red-crowned Parrots - seen in the backroads of Brownsville, on my way out of town.

I quickly hit Sabal Palm on my way out of town, bright and early Monday morning, and was able to top 100 birds on both my Cameron and Hidalgo county lists.