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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hamhed" data-source="post: 3159418" data-attributes="member: 70825">Saturday 27thOur time in the Valley was drawing to a close and our list of birds was missing a few key species.  The Aplomado Falcon was only going to be found in south Texas.  Keith advised us that one of the best places to look for that bird was Old Port Isabel Road so it was there that we drove to on our last morning in the Valley.  Early on a Saturday, roads were clear of traffic, weather was dry, warm and we were feeling optimistic.  The south end of the road is a bit tricky to find now with the new toll road being built and construction still underway.  Once on Old Port Isabel, we fell into our routine of driver looking left, passenger looking right, searching every vertical projection bigger than a weed stem for bird about 50% bigger than an American Kestrel.  There were plenty of Kestrels to use for comparison as well as an immature Cooper’s Hawk, an Osprey, a Loggerhead Shrike and at least one Caracara.  For over two miles we crept along in the early morning light, scanning the power poles and transmission lines without luck.  One initially distant, perched bird became a Harris Hawk as we approached.  A total of 19 Bobwhites in several coveys scattered as we passed, always slightly startling us when the birds burst into flight.  The stopping point for the car and us was a wide and long mud pit.  We got out and surveyed the perfectly flat grasslands that surrounded us.  The overcast but calm dawn brought a great variety of birds for us.  There were numerous low spots holding water, evidenced by a Marsh Wren and Common Yellowthroat.  In the grasses were Meadowlarks, one Long-billed Curlew, one Greater Yellowlegs and a few Killdeer.  I got the camera ready for a Northern Harrier that didn’t quite get close enough for a shot.  Song Sparrows are said to be uncommon in south Texas but there was one near a wet patch as well as a few similar Savannah Sparrows on the strands of the barbed wire fence.   As we reluctantly turned around and left to continue our search, a Grasshopper Sparrow sang somewhere out of sight.  Liz, at the wheel, noticed the bird first, just a brief flash of a crow-sized object dropping down below a hedgerow of vegetation on the only rise in the ground in sight.  It came back, a football field away, and perched on a leafless branch.  Through the binoculars, I was 99% sure we had our Falcon.  The view from the scope confirmed this, though it never turned to face us, a side view of the head pattern was ever so distinct.  We took turns at the scope and took too many pictures, trying to adequately capture the distant and elusive bird.  We headed west in an elevated mood.  This was surely our day to find Anzalduas off of their holiday schedule and open for birding.  Luck stayed with us; the park was open when we got there around 11.  There is a mowed field on the right as we approached the pay station.  It was there that Sprague’s Pipits were seen three days previously and where our immediate focus was.  We passed a few dozen Meadowlarks and several Killdeer in that field, a good sign that grassland birds were to be found.  By the time we parked, however, a couple with a remote control model airplane got their aircraft going and the birds were soon gone.  We walked the perimeters of the field anyway but saw not a bird.  The Meadowlarks had moved deeper into the park, foraging in the mowed grass of the picnic grounds.  We spent some time picking through the well scattered flock but nothing like a Pipit stood out.  While Anzalduas seems primarily a park for picnics, fisherman (there is a dam across the Rio Grande here) and model airplanes, there are a good many shade trees in the center of the grounds.  These trees had a good number of passerines, mixed flocks that were in constant flux.  We followed these birds for some time.  Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers, Blue-headed Vireos, Titmice and Ruby-crowned Kinglets mixing with Bluebirds, Goldfinches and Gnatcatchers.  Both Golden-fronted Woodpecker and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers were also in the trees and for even more color, a splash of Green jays.  Combined with marauding Mockingbirds and a ground surface littered with Mourning Doves, White-winged Doves and a Northern Cardinal or two, we had a steady parade of birdlife.  A Vermilion Flycatcher, one of only three or four we’d seen on this trip, patrolled the treetops.  The part of the park over the levee and below the level of dam, was said to have excellent birding, with potential for a Hook-billed Kite.  At one time, it was possible to drive onto and below the levee but we found the way blocked.  Border Patrol and police presence were heavy in the park.  One policewoman told us that we could walk on the levee but “it is very dangerous” as if loco Mexicans were hiding in the 6 inch tall grass that made up the banks of the levee.  Several minutes later, we were reminded of this again by Border Patrol and told we could not walk up to the dam.  Though a pleasant enough stroll, we saw little bird life from our vantage point atop the levee, just a view of a people-filled Mexican park across the river, and a pair of black Border Patrol vehicles blocking the way to the dam itself.  In hindsight, had we turned left when reaching the top of the levee instead of right, the vegetation on either side of the levee was growing more thickly and may have produced better birdlife.  Back to the roving songbirds at park level, we first saw then heard the Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, half the size of its name, and calling softly just as we had expected - “Peeyup!”.  That delicate sound can be found here: <a href="http://www.xeno-canto.org/161346" target="_blank">http://www.xeno-canto.org/161346</a>.  Like the other insect eaters, it stayed in constant motion so we would lose it briefly and have to listen for the call, which it repeated regularly.  While in between sightings, we also found a Black-throated Gray Warbler, so similar to a Black-and-white Warbler, the id required a careful look.  We stayed with the Tyrannulet for a while.  Too much time invested in finding this bird to walk away quickly even though it was less attractive than the very common Green Jays.  But leave we did, wanting to visit Santa Ana NWR for the balance of the afternoon.  Intrigued by a report of a Connecticut Warbler near Willow Lakes, we tried that area first before wandering to the Pintail Lakes section.  Despite the name, the area was mostly dry and quiet, we found one Altamira Oriole and few raptors, Harris and Gray Hawks and a pair of White-tailed Kites.  There is a trail paralleling the Rio Grande that we did not walk.  Light was fading and we needed time to pack for tomorrow’s departure.  When I look back at the map, we barely covered half of the park.</blockquote>

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