Snowfall in Austin, TX

1-3 inches expected today.

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Lower Rio Grande pt. 2

Friday after my BK lunch, and after the rain stopped, I went to the Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center, and got directions to their infamous pair of day roosting COMMON PARAQUE. They were reliable, and very photogenic, even if they didn't know it.


While I was there, I ran into a Florida couple that I had talked to at Quinta Mazatlan the day before. They were going back there again to try their luck at the CRIMSON-COLLARED GROSBEAK again, and it got me interested. So I went back and had no luck finding it over the course of the 45 minutes before they closed. I left there and went to a reliable parakeet roosting area in McAllen, but there were no keets.

That evening, I met up with my couchsurfing host Shawn and his son Keyshawn at their house in Brownsville. The three of us went to a grand opening of an artspace downtown, that had a nice spread of food and wine.

The next morning, Shawn and I headed to South Padre Island with a couple of beachcruisers, which are bikes that were pretty easy to operate in the sand. We played some frisbee, and stopped at Sandy Feet's (a couchsurfer and professional sandcastle lesson giver) house, but she wasn't home. We rode up to the island's World Birding Center and walked around. There were some good coastal birds I hadn't seen since I was last in Florida, including REDDISH EGRET, BLACK SKIMMER, and CASPIAN TERN. On the ride back to the car, we stopped at the South Padre Brewing Co. for a beer and nachos. On the way off the island, we pulled over in a part of the expansive marsh to check out some terns, which proved to be the somewhat elusive GULL-BILLED TERN.

Later that night, Shawn's girlfriend Farelly met up with us and we went to a member's only gala for supporters of the Sombrero Festival. Shawn's a member of this particular section of next week's Charro Days in Brownsville, so they had this evening of dancing, lassoing, and food, which was pretty fun. When it got unfun and talky, we checked out a madrigal group performing at UT at Brownsville.The next morning, I went to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in search of the BLUE BUNTING that had been seen there over the past week. When I got there around 9am, 10-15 birders had been looking for it with no luck. I joined the search party, and gave up at about 11 with no success. I drove around the fields outside of the refuge a bit, looking at hawks, and eeked out one of the south Texas specialties I was looking for, a WHITE-TAILED HAWK. I also checked out the Hugh Ramsey Park and a supposed Harlingen parakeet roost, with no new sightings.

I drove a couple hours north to Corpus Christi, and in the early evening met up with my Danish couchsurfing hosts Anette-Kjestine and Soren. We had some really good conversation and falafel dinner. This morning I got going at about 7am to check out two rarities on the way up to Austin.
The first was a NORTHERN WHEATEAR that had been reported about a month and a half ago at an Amish farm in Beesville, TX. Soon, after I parked, I noticed the non-breeding plumed bird sitting on a piece of farm equipment, which darted away within two seconds of me looking, and did not return again while I was there. This was a really cool site, as it's only the second reported incident of this bird in Texas. I talked to the Amish man who found the bird, John Borntrager, who was a friendly guy.

The second site I went to was Choke Canyon State Park, where a NORTHERN JACANA had been reported and seen consistently for almost four months. The jacana didn't disappoint. I was able to locate him fairly quickly, and watch without disturbing his feeding behavior. While I was moving to get better shots at him, I scared this guy:

I think it's a broad-banded water snake, but I could definitely be mistaken. After success on my two bird goals of the day, I ascended back up to Austin where I am now, only a few miles (but also a few days) from where Rosana will be flying in to.

The Mayor of Brownsville

Speaking live at the grand opening of the arts and culture center of Brownsville.
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Lower Rio Grande pt. 1

Monday afternoon, I went to Steph's place of work in Austin- Posse East, which is a pretty sweet bar right near the UT football stadium. Maggie met us there, and when Steph got out of work, we went to this awesome Mexicany place that had $5 Mexican martinis. They were incredible.


Tuesday morning, I checked out Triangle Pond in town, which late in the fall hosted a family of very northern LEAST GREBE. When I took a look, there was only one present, but quite a neat find.


In the afternoon I worked on some business at the Spider House coffee shop, and spent way too long food shopping at Central Market. I made Maggie and Steph a pasta dinner at their house, and then we tried to watch The Invention of Lying, but were bored, so went to bed.


I woke up pretty early on Wednesday to get on the road down to South Texas. I was caught in some pretty bad rush hour traffic going into San Antonio, but was soon out of the insanity. I stopped near Pearsall to check out a couple of farm areas to hopefully get a look at some MOUNTAIN PLOVER that had been seen recently, but it was not to be.


At about 11am, I got into Laredo, and checked out Las Palmas Park along the Rio Grande. Pretty quickly, I was picking up new birds for my trip, such as GREEN JAY, GREAT KISKADEE, GOLDEN-FRONTED WOODPECKER, and RINGED KINGFISHER. The real prizes seen here recently, were the AMAZON KINGFISHER and WHITE-COLLARED SEEDEATER that I was not able to locate. Coming back along a trail, I ran into a border patrol agent, who told me that while the whole area I was in was fine to be walking around in, but where I just came from was "no man's land." When asked what that meant, he said that many people get shot from across the river in that spot, and he would never go there. I think border patrol agents are paranoid and are happy with certain half-truths. Considering they're not allowed to GO to Mexico, how experienced and educated can they be about the issues in that country as it pertains to the trafficking and smuggling at our border. Do they really shoot birders across the river? Are bullets that cheap?


Heading down from Laredo, I stopped at Zapata to try another reliable place for WHITE-COLLARED SEEDEATER, and had similar results. Pretty close by, I got to my destination of the evening- Falcon State Park, which is a reservoir on the Rio Grande that is a popular fishing spot.


Seeing a VERMILLION FLYCATCHER in the tree above site 57, my camping spot for the night was settled. I set up, then birded the area, looking for the recently seen ROADSIDE HAWK. In the process, I came across a HARRIS' HAWK and COUCH'S KINGBIRD, as well as many AMERICAN PIPIT.


I drove to the Falcon Dam before sundown, where I technically left the country, but did not enter Mexico. I birded from the dam, looking for MUSCOVY, as this is one of the few reliable places to see them. Unfortunately, there was little activity besides NEOTROPIC CORMORANT and GREAT BLUE HERON.


I woke up pretty early the next morning to look for the ROADSIDE HAWK and MUSCOVY again, and had no luck. I did find a feeder area in the park, where among many other birds I had seen, a CASSIN'S SPARROW was hopping around. I stopped at Chipeno river park on the way south, and saw no new birds. I was again hoping for some birds I had had luck seeing when I came here for a birding festival in 2008, where I saw MUSCOVY and RED-BILLED PIGEON. Neither were present. At this point, every target bird I've had has come up flat in South Texas.


The next stop was Salineno park, where my luck turned a bit. I didn't see the GRAY HAWK that is pretty reliable on the water here, but at the bird refuge (aka, a bird woman's over-feederified trailer) I saw some great birds. AUDUBON'S ORIOLE, HOODED ORIOLE, ALTAMIRA ORIOLE, OLIVE SPARROW, CLAY-COLORED THRUSH, WHITE-TIPPED DOVE, and LONG-BILLED THRASHER. A pretty productive stop.


I got to McAllen at about 1pm, and stopped at Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center, and looked around for a couple rarities reported there. Unfortunately it was pooring at this point. I did manage to see their TROPICAL PARULA, but after a few hours of looking , no CRIMSON-COLLARED GROSBEAK.


I headed to Kurt and Frank, my couchsurfing hosts' house at about 4pm, and got showered and clean clothed.


The three of us had a veggie-pita dinner that was really good, and had some wine. I went to bed at about 9:30 to get a good start on today. When I woke up at about 6:30 am, I quickly got ready and headed out to the Bentsen State Park World Birding Center. I got completely soaked looking for the super-rare AZTEC THRUSH with no luck, and in the process, missed the short morning show of a ROSE-THROATED BECARD feeding at the main entrance. I waited about 45 minutes, but it did not come back. I was pretty angry, and left at about 11am.


If I wasn't soaked enough, I went to Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge to look for some more birds. I thought it was possible to get GROOVE-BILLED ANI, GREEN KINGFISHER, HOOK-BILLED KITE, COMMON PARAQUE, or others. No. Nothing but mud and water.


I'm not happy right now. That may be because I had Burger King for lunch though.

Partners in Crime

I picked up Eva at 11:15pm from ABQ on Tuesday night. A short drive away, we got to Rupp's high school bud Megan's house. Her and her husband Uly were very welcoming, and pretty soon after getting there near midnight, we went to bed.


The next morning, Eva and I trekked up the 45 minutes to the over 10,000 foot high Sandia Crest in the Cibola National Forest outside of Albuquerque. The snow was deep up there, but the results of our visit could not have been better. Immediately upon entering the visitor's center up there, all three species of rosy-finches were present at the feeders. Within just a couple of minutes, we discerned BLACK ROSY-FINCH, BROWN-CAPPED ROSY-FINCH, as well as the many STELLAR'S JAY, MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE, and one RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. It took us a few minutes to figure out the GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH, as neither of the obvious gray-cheeked subspecies were present.


On our ride down the mountain, we stopped a few times observing no outstanding birds, and stopped at a supermarket for lunch. We then headed to the Rio Grande Nature Center and hiked around, and in the afternoon to foothills of the mountains. Eva got some good looks at several new species, so we headed home and got cleaned up and rested.


We went out with Megan and Uly to Frontier, which is a pretty famous New Mexican style restaurant, which was very good. Then we watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona at there house, and went to bed fairly early.


Thursday morning Eva and I drove to one of the many waterfowl management areas along the Rio Grande, south of Albuquerque. We were treated to thousands of SANDHILL CRANES, which flushed when we walked by, as well as looks at GREATER ROADRUNNER, HORNED LARK, and MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD, as the windy cold was making us uncomfortable. We got down to our destination of Socorro pretty early in the day, so we stopped at the Bosque Del Apache NWR, which we had planned to visit the following day. Despite the wind, we had a diverse number of species present, but we were tired of the cold by about 3. So we headed to the local Owl Bar and Grille and had a drink. Warmed up a bit, we went back to the refuge and scanned the SNOW GOOSE for the smaller ROSS'S GOOSE, and ended up finding quite a few. With success declared on the day, we settled into our couchsurfing hosts Rebecca and Christina's house in Socorro, then got a beer and dinner at the Socorro Springs Brewpub, and went to bed by 10:30.


Eva and I woke up at about 5:30am on Friday to head back to Bosque Del Apache NWR to see their famed morning flight. This is traditionally when thousands of SANDHILL CRANE, SNOW, and ROSS'S GEESE leave for the morning, observable from a platform in the wetlands. Unfortunately, this year the bids moved to a less extravagantly observable location, and the numbers were really low. It was a decent show regardless.


An even better show was getting to see an APLOMADO FALCON take off from its perch accross the road, given the two of us impecable looks. After this, we went for a hike thrugh one of the canyons, which offered excellent views of the park, and of SAGE SPARROW and SAY'S PHOEBE. We ate lunch by the railroad tracks there, and then left the park for the south.


We stopped at Cabello Lake State Park, and got a few looks at some interesting birds, but just south of there, at Percha Dam was the real show. Our list of species seen on the week greatly increased here, as we saw VERMILLION FLYCATCHER, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, BLACK PHOEBE, RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER, and PHAINOPEPLA, to name a few.

After this success, Eva and I had a beer at a genuine wild west bar called El Patio, in the town of La Mesilla, which is where Billy the Kid was tried in court. That night we stayed in Las Cruces with my couchsurfing host from the week before, Richard.


The next morning, Eva and I drove through the beautiful Organ Mountains, and went to the White Sands National Monument. Although unbirdy, this place was really odd and interesting. We had a good time playing in the gypsum sand.


After White Sands, we went to the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site, and took a look at some of the thousands of old drawings on the rocks. Needless to say, we were both pretty enamored by the bird pictures.


In the evening of Saturday, Eva and I stayed at the Classic Inn at Alamogordo, NM. We had some good Mexican food and some Bud Lights watching live Bill Maher stand-up in the room, on HBO, not in person.


Sunday morning we drove down to Texas, being stopped at the entrance of the Hueco Tanks State Historic Park outside of El Paso. We were not allowed in as they had reached their 70 person capacity, mostly of rock climbers. After hiking around outside for awhile, eventually we were able to get in, and it was very beautiful. There were rock paintings, a coyote chasing a man on a bike, and huecos which are small bodies of fresh water held by the rocks attracting some good birds.


After a couple hours of hiking, Eva and I headed to the airport for her afternoon departure. All told, she had quite a few new species, and hopefully a good time exploring New Mexico with me... but I'll let her tell that story.


From the El Paso airport, I drove nearly 650 miles yesterday to reach my destination of Maggie and Stephanie's house in Austin. We had a couple of local beers (Independence and Real Ale) and chatted last night until about 1. This morning I've just been getting my act together with laundry, and planning my Lower Rio Grande portion of the trip here at the Epoch coffee shop.

Mexico Nuevo

Monday morning I woke up at Luke and Michelle's house in Sierra Vista AZ with the intention of getting a number of things done to my car. As it turned out, I didn't need new brakes, and with the oil change I got my tires rotated, so I'm going to wait a bit to get new ones. Oh, and I found this little ditty that I created when blasting my car through the border refuge:


So I headed towards New Mexico, but decided to stop in Wilcox AZ, to do a little birding. There is a wildlife management area there that was teeming with SANDHILL CRANE. I wasn't able to see them, only hear them in the distance, but I did get a look at a lifer CRISSAL THRASHER, finally.


In the late afternoon, I arrived in Las Cruces NM, at my couchsurfing host Rich's house. We went out for some Mediterranean food, then a beer at the High Desert Brewery. We then hung out and chatted until pretty late (3amish).


This morning after his early class at New Mexico State, Rich and I headed out to one of his favorite local natural areas- Dripping Springs, owned by the BLM. We took a trail that was about 2 miles up the hill, then opened up to a little historic village used for housing people infected with Tuberculosis. Also, the spring was pretty active from some of the snow that had melted from the tops of the mountains.


After lunch bac at Rich's house, I made my way the 4 hours up to Albuquerque. As of now, I am working in a coffee shop in the University of New Mexico part of town, waiting for America's favorite Green Cay Naturalist to arrive at the airport. I have 2 more hours...

When things get bad... they get much better!

Friday evening, I stopped at Woodland Dr., north of Tucson, for my last stop in daylight. A few people had posted success on the birdboard of having seen both ARIZONA WOODPECKER and LEWIS' WOODPECKER in the ranches along this road. I had no luck, and headed to my couchsurfing host Jason's house in southeast Tucson. He had a guest that was in town for the gem and mineral festival who was from San Francisco, and a couple her were in town from Austin for a music festival. It was a full house, but pretty fun, and I got a couch to surf!

Saturday morning I headed the 2+ hour drive to the Buenos Aires NWR near the Mexican border. On the way I stopped and looked at a GILDED FLICKER. This refuge, however, was not as advertised. This was grassland-type habitat that boasted four types of quail, more than anywhere else in the U.S. I was intrigued, enough so to take the Pronghorn Drive, which was in rough shape. I almost got stuck in the mud several times, and scraped the bottom of my car a number of times. I kept pushing on, sure that I was almost done with the loop... then I got to a puddle that seemed much too deep for my car, and I had to stop to collect myself (ie, swear incessantly). Luckily, I had cell phone reception, and Rosana is awesome. I ended up getting out fine.


I stopped for coffee in Arivaca, and continued to Santa Gertrudis Lane in Tumacacori. I was looking for the PAINTED REDSTART that had been seen here, but only came across an ORANGE-CROWNED, YELLOW-RUMPED, and BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS. I then tried to get to Patagonia, but my GPS ended up getting me very lost. Again, Rosana was around and at a computer, and was able to get me towards where I wanted to be,the infamous Patagonia Rest Area, that was incredibly unbirdy.

After, I drove to Sierra Vista, arriving at about 5pm, having driven about 6 hours this day, and having done only about an hour of birding. Then things started to get better. At Luke and Michelle's house, we had an awesome grilled dinner. We chatted for awhile, and I went to bed at about 10pm.

This morning I got up at about 7am. I took the 1 hour drive to the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve managed by the Nature Conservancy. There's about 2.5 miles of trails here, and this place had some great rarities in the fall- RUFOUS-CAPPED WARBLER and SINALOA WREN. Neither of these were here today, but I did get looks at a DUSKY FLYCATCHER that really had found me.

I stopped next door at a house called "The Paton's", who were a couple that had a crazy feeder situation, and since their deaths, has been upkept by a caretaker, and still open to the public. Not much was happening here, but it was a neat spot.


About 10 miles down the road was the Patagonia Lake State Park. I took the main trail here, down the by the creek, and the weather started turning. The wind had been going all day, but this was the first of the rain. After about a half hour, it was really going. I had only been wearing my sweatshirt, and was getting soaked. I then noticed a GREAT-HORNED OWL above me in an oak, and I think he was the omen of my luck changing. I hiked a little ways away from the predator, and ended up coming noticing the sounds of a mixed flock. I picked out WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, BRIDLED TITMOUSE, and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET. Within a minute, in one field of view, I saw both HEPATIC TANAGER (male) and a PAINTED REDSTART! These are both incredible birds. The flock started to leave me after a few minutes.


I then ran into another birder, Ron, who hadn't seen the PAINTED REDSTART yet, so I agreed to go with him to try to relocate the flock. About 5 minutes later we had. he still didn't see the redstart yet, so I was trying to describe where it was, as I did, an adult ELEGANT TROGON came into the picture! I was beyond thrilled. It was about 40 feet away, but over the next 15 minutes, Ron and I were able to get about 8 ft. away from it without it caring. We continued to get looks at all three of these birds over the next half-hour.

It was pretty cold, and I was wet, so I went back to the car to warm up, eat lunch, and change into dry clothes. From the car, I noticed a HERMIT THRUSH, and a couple minutes later, a flycatcher. I got out and inspected, and he was an ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER- another great bird!

I made one last hike down the trail, this time with the intention of seeing a BLACK-CAPPED GNATCATCHER in the mesquites they are semi-reliable in. Eventually, the rains turned to monsoons, and I had to get out of there.

Needless to say, I drove back to Luke and Michelle's house this early evening soaked, but totally satisfied. This was probably the greatest day of birding I have ever had, and it was when I need it most.