Let's Play Two!

The Resaca at UT Brownsville

I think it was Chicago Cubs’ Hall of Famer Ernie Banks who so loved the game of baseball that he is remembered for yelling, “Let’s play two!” at the end of a long game.  That’s pretty much how I felt today.  I had just finished lunch after a great field trip when I just felt like going birding again.  Turns out that it was a really good decision.

The day started at what I thought was an unlikely destination, the campus of the University of Texas at Brownsville.  How birdy could a busy college campus be?  Well, it was loaded with birds.  Within moments of getting off the bus I had my first lifer of the day, a Tropical Kingbird that was kind enough to call to us so that we could be sure of its identity.  But our goal was to bird the Resaca at the center of the campus.  It was crossed by a footbridge that gave us a splendid view of one end of the lake with the sun directly behind us.  There were at least a half-dozen Black-crowned Night-Herons, some Neotropic Cormorants, a Green Heron, a couple of Great Kiskadees and off in the corner, a Green Kingfisher (lifer #2 of the day).  

A Very Vocal Couch's Kingbird

 Along the edges were Solitary Sandpiper and Spotted Sandpiper, and we also had fly-over Snow Geese and Black-bellied Whistling Ducks.  In the trees were Nashville, Orange-crowned, Black-and-White and Yellow-throated Warblers.  The grasses had Lincoln Sparrow and Indigo Bunting.  Then we saw another Kingbird, and this one also vocalized – a Couch’s Kingbird and another lifer!  This is a beautiful campus, and the bird life is exceptional.  If you’re in the Brownsville area, it’s worth a stop.

Neotropic Cormorant

Our second stop was at Resaca De La Palma State Park.  While this is a great park, I dipped on my target birds.  No Altamira Orioles and no White-tipped Dove were seen at their usual haunts.  Still, I had good looks at Least Grebe, Green Kingfisher, and the always-spectacular Green Jay. 

Next it was back to the conference center and off to lunch, but I still wanted more.  So I hopped in the car and headed off to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.  I started by birding around the headquarters building.  There were very few birds in the area, but I did find a White-tipped Dove, lifer #4 for the day.  Next I drove out to the lake.  Wow!  There were thousands of American Coots as well as hundreds of American Wigeon, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, Ruddy Ducks, a couple of Lesser Scaup, and at least one Redhead.  I also saw a few Roseate Spoonbills, a couple of Forster’s Terns, a Lesser Yellowlegs, and two Long-billed Curlews.  I’m sure I missed some things due to the lateness of the hour, but that was fun!  Next I decided to take one last shot at the bird blind at the headquarters area, but again there were no birds.  The reason may well have been the Eastern Screech-Owl that was peeking out of a pipe in the building just behind me.

Long-billed Curlew

The evening ended with one of those happy coincidences that can make a good birding day great.  My Garmin routed me back to the hotel on a different route than I used on the way into the park.  As a result, I ended up driving along Buena Vista Blvd. south of SR 106 in the dying light.  Up ahead was a white van stopped in the middle of the road.  Before I could go around it, an arm shot out and waved me to a stop.  Why?  An Aplomado Falcon was perched on a fencepost just off the road and no more than 30 feet ahead of me.  What a gorgeous creature, and I had a perfect view.  It was breath-taking, my fifth lifer of the day, and a fabulous ending to a birding doubleheader.  

Eastern Screech-Owl