Windy Day Birding

Altamira Oriole

It was a very windy day today, so expectations were low as we set out for Bentsen Rio Grande State Park in Mission, Texas, on Friday moring.  This park is on land donated to the state by former Senator Lloyd Bentsen (remember the ill-fated Dukakis-Bentsen ticket in 1988?).  The Visitor’s Center is surrounded by water features, butterfly gardens, and hummingbird feeders.  Trams run through the park on a regular basis.  Several areas have well-stocked feeders.  There is a hawk-watch tower, a large resaca, and lots of hiking trails.  The four hours we spent there were not enough to bird the whole park.

We spent a considerable amount of time in an area where feeders were spread out along both sides of the road.  In the center was a large covered area with plenty of seating and perfect views of the birds.  The Plain Chachalaca were the bullies of the feeders, chasing other birds away and camping out at one feeder until a bunch of food was gone.  Fortunately there were so many feeders that it wasn’t a real issue.  One feeder was the favorite of the Green Jays where I saw as many as seven at a time.  Another feeder was the favorite of a spectacular Altamira Oriole (above, left) who took turns feeding with a Great Kiskadee (below, right).  On the ground, the White-winged Doves chased the White-tipped Doves around and an Olive Sparrow grazed under a feeder frequented by a Black-crested Titmouse.  The water feature was the hangout of a Long-billed Thrasher and (after a considerable wait) a Clay-colored Thrush (bottom, left).  The thrasher, thrush, sparrow and oriole made four lifers in that spot.  We birded other areas of the park with marginal success.  The wind really was a problem, and very few birds were out.  However, when we got back to the Visitor’s  Center we were treated to great looks at a Black Phoebe, the fifth lifer for the day (bottom, right).

Great Kiskadee

I spent the afternoon browsing through the vendors’ exhibits.  I salivated over the binoculars, the digiscoping cameras, the books and the artwork.  The Raptor Project had a large exhibit with a Bald Eagle, several Harris’s Hawks, two Barn Owls, a Barred Owl, a Eurasian Eagle Owl, two Aplomado Falcons, an American Kestrel, and several others.  It was very fascinating seeing those magnificent birds, and the Barn Owls were gorgeous.

Then I had a fortuitous conversation.  I stopped by the booth sponsored by the Audubon Society in Kingsville and chatted with a very nice woman.  I told her that I had stopped at a cemetery in Kingsville on Monday and named what I had seen there.  When I mentioned Eastern Meadowlark, she stopped me.  She said it was much more likely that they were Western Meadowlarks, especially since there were four or five of them.  She said that Eastern Meadowlarks were more likely to show up one at a time.  Based on that, I might be able to claim another lifer, and the 20^th of the trip so far.  Maybe if I get time on Sunday I’ll stop at the same cemetery and take a second look.  What do you think?

Clay-colored Thrush

Black Phoebe