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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hamhed" data-source="post: 3159386" data-attributes="member: 70825">Monday 22ndOur plan was to tour the Atascosa NWR on 15 mile Bayside Drive, no longer available to private vehicles since two of the resident, endangered ocelots had been struck and killed.  Access by bicycle, foot or tram tour was still possible.  Since walking would only cover a portion of the road and we couldn’t find a place to rent bicycles, we opted to try the tram tour, hoping not to be sharing with a bored and noisy school group.  We were dismayed to find out the tram did not normally run on Mondays but to service a couple from California who were outed from Sundays normally scheduled tour, the staff generously decided to take the couple, us and a fifth person who happened to be interested.  Before the tour began, we heard then found a male and female Altamira Oriole, our first and one on our short list of target birds.  With the tram situation working out and the oriole appearing, the day suddenly looked to be a most promising one.“Tram” is a misnomer for the vehicle they used.  Our “tram” was a normal windowed van not the open-sided type I had envisioned.  My seat, in the back, had limited viewing and no way to open a window.  The driver was a nice sort, jolly and full of sometimes dumbed-down facts that came out as a running monologue a little like bad jukebox music selections you wish could be dialed out.  Still, we got to do the tram tour in pleasant and sunny weather and see the entirety of Bayside Drive.  Bodies of water were visible along most of its length, Laguna Madre naturally being the largest body.  Many of the birds were distant; the closer ones were skittish.  I guess hunting season was still affecting their nature.  At one point, we saw a large pond/small lake that held thousands upon thousands of redhead Ducks.  While we watch, hundreds more flew in.  We stopped a couple of times for a short walk to two overlooks.  In a amazing coincidence, we discovered our fifth passenger was from Charlotte, NC, and we had some common birding friends in that state.  Keith is a much more  accomplished and skilled birder than we; while at one overlook, he picked out a well-blended American Pipit on the mud shoreline we certainly would have missed.  Later, we would have him as a neighbor while staying at Alamo Inn (<a href="http://www.rgv-bedandbreakfast.com/alamo.html);" target="_blank">http://www.rgv-bedandbreakfast.com/alamo.html);</a> he was great help to us in the coming days.Though an Aplomado Falcon had been seen the day before, that species hadn’t shown by mile 11 where Liz and I opted to walk back the remaining miles.  We were dropped off in the pleasantly warm (finally) but windy conditions.  Hoping also for some sparrow watching in the broad fields that we walked past, only a very few showed themselves, preferring to reduce their exposure to the constant wind that obviously didn’t like the hat being on my head.  We did get our exercise for the day, saw a few more water birds and even had a few minutes to once again walk the trails adjacent to the visitor center before deciding to leave early enough in the day to try for the falcon along the Atascosa entrance road (I thought one of our best areas to search).  If that didn’t work, then we would try Old Port Isabel road again, only approaching from the south end.  Dusk found us leaving Old Port Isabel road, having been unsuccessful in either location.  We picked up our belongings in Harlingen and headed our Alamo rental car in the direction of the Alamo Inn (I know Andrew Whitehouse will enjoy hearing that!).</blockquote>

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