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Road Trip USA, Birding the Southern Border. (1 Viewer)

25 December. Salineño Wildlife Preserve, Bentsen-Rio Grande , Edinburg Park (McAllen)

Christmas Day, and what better way to mark the day than with Texan-style ‘baubles’ - basking in the almost tropical warmth of the Rio Grande, it would be colour on overdrive, hopefully the almost fluorescent shades of Green Jays clashing with vivid oranges of Altamira and Audubon's Orioles. All these should be possible at the Salineño Wildlife Preserve, a pocket-sized reserve packing a punch right on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Renowned for its feeders, this place is second to none in the Lower Rio Grande, but before rudely interrupting Christmas morning for the couple of volunteer wardens, I decided to first have a quick look along the Rio Grande itself, the first birds of the day being a couple of Ospreys roosting on mid-river snags and three Crested Caracaras hanging out on the banks. Next up, a Pied-billed Grebe just down channel, four White Pelicans sailing over, then two resplendent Green Kingfishers in hot pursuit of each other, chasing each other up and down the river. Their bigger cousin, one Belted Kingfisher present too. Dry arid land nearby added three Black-throated Sparrows to the rapidly growing day tally.

A handful of steps up the slope, a warm ‘Merry Christmas’ from the wardens, it was 7.00 am and the little reserve was open. And what a superb spectacle it was, a visual and audio show of birds at the many feeders, the soundscape dominated by the nonstop chatter of 150 or so Red-winged Blackbirds and the loud piercing calls of abundant Great Kiskadees. Seats were arranged directly in front of the feeders, the birds didn't care, a minimum of 40 Green Jays constantly in and out, frequently hogging the feeders, equally happy to stuff down both the offered seed and peanut butter. Alongside them, Golden-fronted and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, several Northern Mockingbirds and a few Northern Cardinals. On the ground below, White-tipped and White-winged Doves frequent, as well as one Common Ground Dove, plus the very nice prehistoric-looking Plain Chachalacas stalking the rear - little T Rexes, albeit rather friendlier. And then there were the small birds - Black-crested Titmice at the feeders, a House Wren on a couple of occasions, one Long-billed Thrasher gingerly approaching from vegetation (6th thrasher species of the trip), a very nice Clay-coloured Robin (one of only two recorded on the trip), a single Brown-headed Cowbird (only one of trip) and my first Olive Sparrow of the trip.

For all these birds, however, the stars were the visiting orioles - in the most vivid orange imaginable, no less than five Altamira Orioles gracing the feeders with regularity and, even more special, three of the black-hooded Audubon's Orioles. It is for these that birders regularly visit this site and they certainly did not disappoint, one of the Altamira Orioles happily using a feeder a mere couple of yards from the seats.

I noted no less than 43 species at this site this morning - a nice present from Santa. A shadow hangs over this site unfortunately - already completed to both the immediate west and east, there is a chance the Border Wall will cut through this point, the unfortunate result being the total loss of the reserve. For now, after some initial moves a year back, further construction is suspended, the wardens moderately confident this section will remain as an unfenced gap.

Sixty miles further down the Rio Grande Valley, next stop was Bentson-Rio Grande State Park. This is a very nice area of semi-tropical woodland, riverine scrub and wetland habitat around an old oxbow of the Rio Grande. On arrival, immediately notched up a Buff-bellied Hummingbird at a feeder near the entrance, then began a fairly productive wander around the fairly extensive trails - among the many birds, more Plain Chachalaca, lots of Great Kiskadees, and Green Jays, both Golden-fronted Woodpeckers and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, plus a Long-billed Thrasher, an Olive Sparrow, two Altamira Orioles, a posse of eight Wild Turkeys and, my only ones of the trip, four Inca Doves.

No shortage of birds at the oxbow too, including a couple of Anhinga, both cormorants, a Tricoloured Heron and, perhaps less expected at this location, three White-fronted Geese and four Sandhill Cranes. In skies above, both Black and Turkey Vultures were abundant, rather nice were two Gray Hawks that joined them.

Discovering pools at the far side of Rio Benson were all dry, I departed the State Park mid-afternoon, adding Couch’s Kingbird at the exit. After checking into a hotel in McAllen, I then zipped across town to Edinburg Park to complete the day's action. A wildlife trail that had been harbouring various warblers was closed due to Christmas, but the area was still pretty good. Essentially a popular park full of folk doing sport and taking a Christmas stroll, there were two main pools of interest, a large circular pool with a walkway all the way round and a smaller heavily vegetated pool that had a certain aroma due to its inhabitants. Walked the big pool first, not only a nice selection of ducks seen (primarily Blue-winged Teal and Ruddy Ducks, plus a few Lesser Scaup et al), but also six Least Grebes, 20+ White Pelicans and one very vocal Ringed Kingfisher, my third kingfisher of the day. Moving to the second pool, the reason for the aroma was quickly apparent - it was home to a big breeding colony of cormorants and herons, the vast bulk being at least 150 Neotropical Cormorants and several hundred Cattle Egrets. Amongst them, two Tricoloured Herons, two Black-crowned Night Herons, several Great Egrets, a number of Great Blue Herons and a good scattering of Snowy Egrets.

The sun was now beginning to set, a Curve-billed Thrasher darted along scrub edge, two Ospreys arrived to roost on high poles in the park's car park and, rounding the day off, one very wild type looking Muscovy Duck sat on a small third pool in a fenced off area, a Spotted Sandpiper strutting next to it.

So Christmas Day over, a total 74 species seen without much trying, a quite satisfying way to celebrate this day.
 

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