South Texas: Mexican Specialties in the US (1 Viewer)

[lgonz1008]

When it comes to birding within the US, few places rank as high as the Lower Rio Grande Valley in South Texas. The region is home to over 30 species that regularly make it across the Rio Grande into the US, but it also has the potential of many vagrants, and during winter, the species variety is boosted with many species looking for a comfortable winter home. The trip in question was made by a friend and me and outside of have a guide to enter private property for a special target, the birding was done exclusively by us and it was extremely easy and enjoyable. The overall trip total gave us 179 species, of which, 26 were prime targets of the region.

Some minor notes, we visited the area a week prior to the Lower Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, this meant that in a couple of places, the feeders were just starting to be put up and the influx of reported rarities wasn't as high as it is for trips after the festival. The region is extremely flat and most areas are paved, so driving is extremely easy, even in a low-clearance vehicle, the food and gas was probably some of the cheapest you can get in the US while going on a big birding hotspot, and finally, most of the sites and refuges have odd hours of opening at 8 and closing at 5, this usually meant that you either have to wait for the main trails to open by birding the parking areas or pay on the way out of the site.

Detailed Itinerary:

• November 1-2 (Flight to San Antonio and transfer to McAllen)

The trip began with an overnight flight to San Antonio and without any difficulties or delays, we arrived on the hotel to spend the night. The next morning, we booked our car rental and managed to hit our first stop in the Mitchell Lake Audubon Center. The wetlands are a famous wintering site for American White Pelican, but the walking trails held most of our favorite targets of the morning, these included Inca Dove, Verdin, Pyrrhuloxia and mixed sparrow flocks that included standouts like Green-tailed Towhee, Vesper, White-throated and White-crowned Sparrow. The wetlands had a few Long-billed Dowitchers and Western Sandpipers, while the retention ponds had large numbers of Northern Shoveler with a few waterfowl species thrown in the mix for variety. After a delicious lunch in a nearby Mexican restaurant, we began the long drive south towards Brownsville.​

From the road, we were able to pick out a few species, including Western Meadowlark, Red-tailed, White-tailed and Harris's Hawk. Our destination at the end of this drive was the famous Oliviera Park in Brownsville, this urban park is home to hundreds of parrots that come in daily for roosting. While the purist might prefer to see these species in their native habitat, some of these birds are actually doing better in South Texas than their home in Northern Mexico, so this might be as good a stronghold for the species as any other. The main target was also the most common, the Red-crowned Parrot, of which was encountered flocks in the hundreds, mixing with these flocks, were also a couple dozen White-fronted and Red-lored Parrots. The cacophony in the park was supplemented by the thousands of Great-tailed Grackles that competed with the parrots for trees to roost. Once we had our fill of the parrots, we drove north for our base of operations for the next few days, McAllen.​

 

[lgonz1008]

• November 3 (Santa Ana NWR and Estero Llano Grande State Park)

The first full day in the Valley began with a morning in Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, right from the parking lot, we were already being overwhelmed with some of the main targets of the region, including Altamira Oriole, Great Kiskadee and Green Jay. The feeders in the visitor center, were just put up that week, so not much was going up to them yet, outside of Fox Squirrel, Eastern Cottontail and more Green Jays. Telling apart Couch's and Tropical Kingbird became a game of: "who is it calling?", as the two species are virtually identical otherwise, and a flock of Northern Rough-winged Swallow also included a single Tree, Barn and Cave Swallow to pad out the list.​

A small mixed flock around the feeder area provided us with brief views of Olive and Clay-colored Sparrow, along with Orange-crowned and Nashville Warbler, and a single Black-chinned Hummingbird. We then took a tram ride along the parts of the reserve that aren't accessible otherwise, outside of seeing our first Collared Peccary (Javelina) and Plain Chachalaca of the trip, nothing of note was seen. A final walk around the East Lake area, gave us a boost in the waterbird variety, these included an, uncommon for the area, female Wood Duck, dozens of Least Grebe, Gadwall and Northern Shoveler; other waterfowl seen in smaller numbers included Ruddy Duck, Northern Pintail, American Wigeon and Lesser Scaup. On the shorebird front, Lesser Yellowlegs, Black-necked Stilt and Wilson's Snipe were seen pretty well.​

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After a lunch break for some nice Jalapeño burgers in a local restaurant, we made our way further south to Estero Llano Grande State Park. Despite the time of day and the blaring sun, bird activity was high, even when just getting out of the car. A mixed flock included some species we were already acquainted with, but some new faces included Wilson's and Black-and-white Warbler, Indigo Bunting and Buff-bellied Hummingbird. The trail system was enjoyable, but sadly the water levels were pretty low to keep many of the birds around, but some water-loving species like Roseate Spoonbill, Little Blue and Tricolored Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Stilt Sandpiper and Black Phoebe were seen. The end of the trail got us to the site of the famous roosting pair of Common Pauraque and on the drive out of the park, we noticed our only Bronzed Cowbird of the trip.​

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Our final stop of the day was a 2-for-1 special, we ended in the parking lot of a huge roadside mall in hopes to see Green Parakeet, our last parrot for the trip, but since time was too early, we went to the H-E-B to get some food for tonight and for the long day we had tomorrow. Once we were done with the shopping, it seemed like the timing was right, as we had over 30 Green Parakeets playing around the roof of one of the isolated buildings, providing both great views and a nice way to finish the day.​

 

[lgonz1008]

• November 4 (Santa Margarita Ranch and surroundings)

Today was the earliest departure of the trip as we had to be in the privately-owned Santa Margarita Ranch just before sunrise to be in the Rio Grande as the sun rose. The targets for today were varied, but the main reason why we booked a private tour of the ranch was for the chance of seeing the only Brown Jays found within the US as of 2023. When we arrived to the property, we were greeted by the "Trump Wall" and soon realized the fact that it was still being actively built on private lands such as this one, as long as the owner approved and they were given access to the part of the property on the other side of the wall.​

Once we passed the dust and noises of the construction, we slowly walked to an overlook of the river while enjoying some new trip birds in the morning chorus, such as Northern Bobwhite and Rock Wren. As light slowly hit the area, we noticed a flock of Wild Turkey waking up and slowly crossing the river into Mexico, the following hours was a game of seeing if the birds were in Mexico or the US. In the river, a group of Mottled/Mexican Ducks were seen, but only one was ID with confidence to call it a true Mexican Duck, other targets in the area included an Audubon's and Hooded Oriole, a calling pair of Gray Hawk and a faraway group of Red-billed Pigeon. Soon, it was past 10 and after confirming views of all 3 possible kingfishers in the Rio Grande Valley, Belted, Ringed and Green Kingfisher, we decided that the it was not worth staying around for the potential of a Zone-tailed Hawk among the Turkey Vulture lift-off when we had a strenuous hike ahead of us.​

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The hike to the site for our main target was short but disproportional at times, this included nearly vertical declines through sandy terrain and moving between the rock gaps, simply put, it was a trail that needed a hiking stick, but the local guide failed to mention anything, even after being asked a number of times. When we reached the main spot, it was around 10:30 and the heat was starting to be felt, we were informed that the jays are always seen, but the time it takes them to appear can range from 30 seconds to over an hour. While waiting, we encountered a mixed flock that produced a Black-throated Gray Warbler and a family of Crested Caracara. When we hit past the hour mark, we decided to do some playback, in hopes that it would entice the birds, and seeing that they literally jumped from the trees behind us as soon as we did, it really made us wonder, why didn't we do it earlier! Needless to say, we got brief but positive views of the Brown Jay family and we soon began the hike back to the car in the midday sun.​

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On the way out, we added two sought-after sparrows in the form of Black-throated and Cassin's Sparrow. A quick stop in Falcon State Park produced nothing new outside of a skulking Greater Roadrunner, while the Salineño Wildlife Preserve area failed to give us any views of Morelet's Seedeater. Once back in McAllen, we made a stop on a random bike trail with a cactus patch, that proved to be the home of a family of Cactus Wren, after the last couple of hours of failed sightings, seeing this bold, charismatic wren was a breath of fresh air.​

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Our final stop for the day was an indulgence trip for me, as I wanted to try out Whataburger, good burgers with a nice shake, but the best part of the experience was how while waiting in the drive-thru line, excitedly screams at me to confirm the ID marks of the black raptor with a white banded square tail that just flew over us! Before I could confirm that it was in fact, a Zone-tailed Hawk, my friend was already out of the car and happily yelling "pick me up on the way out!". While we didn't reconnect with the hawk, it was an amazing experience, especially when we confirmed from the GPS that we were across the street from the Green Parakeet site from yesterday. Two amazing birds in the same place but at different days, who says that fast-food can't be good for you once in a while!?​

 

[lgonz1008]

Pictures from the first 2 days:

• Harris's Hawk
• Red-crowned Parrot
• Least Grebe
• Gadwall
• Common Pauraque
• Buff-bellied Hummingbird
• Green Parakeet
• Altamira Oriole
• Great Kiskadee
• Fox Squirrel

 

[lgonz1008]

• November 5 (Finding vagrants and South Padre Island)

Early arrival in Estero Llano Grande led us to spend roughly 2 hours trying to find the reported female Blue Bunting and Northern Beardless Tyrannulet in the entrance trail. While the Bunting and Tyrannulet were no-shows that morning, seeing a Bobcat, alongside flyover flocks of hundreds of Black-bellied Whistling-Duck made for a pleasant experience.​

From there, a quick stop at Hugh Ramsey Park gave us a chance to connect with another vagrant to the Rio Grande Valley in the form of a Golden-crowned Warbler. Unlike the case of the Blue Bunting, the bird was cooperative for us as we quickly located it after hearing the distinctive click-like call the bird has. Sadly, the bird didn't stay long for photos and the disgruntled looks of some birders that had spent the last 3 hours trying for it with no success until we arrived led us to leave that pretty quickly.​

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From there it was a long drive to Laguna Atascosa NWR, along the way we noted species our only Fulvous Whistling-Duck and Sandhill Crane of the trip, along with fun game of counting the 60+ Scissor-tailed Flycatchers on the wires. On the drive into the visitor center, we got much better views of the iconic Greater Roadrunner, which while not a specialty of the region, it was my trip bird, since it is one of those birds that you know about since you are a kid. The midday heat didn't help our search for other birds, but at least we got our fill of Green Jay in the feeders, alongside great views of a Collared Peccary herd and after much searching, we had brief but IDable views of a wintering Tropical Parula. The tide was extremely low, so the Osprey Overlook didn't provide us with close views of the thousands of waterfowl and shorebirds that winter in the area as the birds were mostly in the distance.​

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A drive south gave us a tough experience as the road has a clear barricade that if you missed your turn, you had to drive a couple more miles to turn back. The main target for this part of the trip was a pair of Aplomado Falcon, which provided some amazing views and having a bonus flock of Long-billed Curlew, left us with high spirits as we drove into South Padre Island.​

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By this point we were hoping to just explore this part of South Texas and pad out the list, so a stop in the mudflats by the South Padre Island Convention Center proved to be amazing as it gave us 20+ species in the span of 30 minutes. Some of the highlights included American Oystercatcher, Piping Plover, Marbled Godwit, Black Skimmer, Reddish Egret, White-tailed Kite, Eastern Meadowlark and Sedge Wren to name a few. A stop in the nearby South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center didn't give us views of the lost King Rail, but a nice consolation prize was given in the form of an adult male Bullock's Oriole, another uncommon vagrant to the barrier island.​

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Multiple stops on the way back failed to produce Chihuahuan Raven, but it allowed us to get better views and photos of White-tailed Hawk and Lark Sparrow. Arriving back in McAllen late at night, helped us decide to not target potential LBJs tomorrow and instead just visit a beautiful site that we drove by to get some photos of some missing targets.​

 

[lgonz1008]

• November 6 (National Butterfly Center and departure)

After a quick checkout, we drove to a nearby park in hopes to connect with my last lifer of the trip in the form of a wintering Greater White-fronted Goose. From there, we spent roughly an hour in the back feeders of the National Butterfly Center, in hopes of getting better views of the reported Audubon's Oriole, while the bird was seen briefly, it did not come close to the feeders with the activity brought on by species like Plain Chachalaca, White-dipped Dove, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Great Kiskadee, Green Jay, Curve-billed Thrasher, Clay-colored Thrush and Olive Sparrow. We walked the short nature trail in a last attempt to find Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet, but this was also a fruitless endeavor, but we did enjoy the last new bird of the trip in the form of Ash-throated Flycatcher.​

The drive to the airport and check-in process was quick and painless, but sadly the flight back home was anything but that. The flight we were meant to leave on reported failure and after spending over an hour inside of the plane, we were thrown back out and told to wait until 7PM for the replacement flight. With our original connection flight missed, we were booked on a later flight and arrived back home in the early morning instead of the early evening as originally planned. Overall, not the best ending to a great trip, but a memorable experience nonetheless.​

 

[lgonz1008]

Pictures from the last 3 days:

• Green Kingfisher
• Black-throated Sparrow
• Cassin's Sparrow
• Cactus Wren
• Greater Roadrunner
• Collared Peccary
• Aplomado Falcon
• Plain Chachalaca
• Olive Sparrow
• Clay-colored Thrush

 

[MKinHK]

Sounds like a highly productive trip in an area I was within touching distance, but did not get to explore, ten years ago.Nice portrait of the Roadrunner.

Cheers
Mike

 

[lgonz1008]

Sounds like a highly productive trip in an area I was within touching distance, but did not get to explore, ten years ago.Nice portrait of the Roadrunner.

Cheers
Mike

This was the main reason why I decided to do the trip too, figured I'd be able to do a quick and easy trip without having to spend too many hours in an airport/plane.

Really happy for the Roadrunner too, especially since my lifer one probably say me as the Coyote, because he stayed still when I couldn't see him well but when I had a shot, he just ran out like a bullet!

 

[Mysticete]

Great Trip report....haven't been to South Texas in years but really should go back, although at this point its very diminishing returns for me considering potential non-vagrant lifers.

Santa Margarita Ranch has been on a streak lately...besides the Brown Jays a Mottled Owl and Bare-throated Tiger-Heron have also been recorded in the last few weeks.

 

[lgonz1008]

Great Trip report....haven't been to South Texas in years but really should go back, although at this point its very diminishing returns for me considering potential non-vagrant lifers.

If you are set on only having an ABA list, it's definitely a good place to go for about a week or two, my trip came to around $1,000 for everything from flight to food and the access to the private ranch, but I'm sure it could have been done for less, if I had stayed in a cheaper motel or did camping.

Santa Margarita Ranch has been on a streak lately...besides the Brown Jays a Mottled Owl and Bare-throated Tiger-Heron have also been recorded in the last few weeks.

Definitely a must-stop if you are looking to add to your ABA checklist, but overall, I can't recommend the place to a birder that's fine with going outside of the US for birding. The main contact/guide of the ranch, is someone that doesn't really know how to get you on the birds and when he does recognize a bird you need, he just says it's around there but doesn't know the exact field marks or way to describe the call. Plus, the whole time it was less of: "we're here to target this bird", and more along the lines of: "those mountains over there have a lot of cool birds, how nice would it be if they just came this way", granted two amazing ABA birds came, but no participant just wants to spend hours looking at nothing while the guide is talking about how he hopes he finds a rarity on a different day...

It honestly felt like being with an overpaid chaperone rather than a guide at times, but nothing you can do except contact him since he's the only guide that's friends with the ranch owner.

 

[Mysticete]

Yeah...at this point I think the only non-vagrant South Texas specialties that would actually be lifers that I need are Mangrove Warbler, Brown Jay, and Hook-billed Kite I think. The kite requires a bit of luck and the other two require very specific locations with restricted access. And of course, all three are pretty straight forward to see elsewhere outside the ABA area.

 

[lgonz1008]

Yeah...at this point I think the only non-vagrant South Texas specialties that would actually be lifers that I need are Mangrove Warbler, Brown Jay, and Hook-billed Kite I think. The kite requires a bit of luck and the other two require very specific locations with restricted access. And of course, all three are pretty straight forward to see elsewhere outside the ABA area.

A weekend trip to Yucatan can get you all of those in the same day. It's just a matter of how much your ABA list matters, I went to the ranch since my friend wanted to see the Jays and we figured we'd do better getting more of our targets in somewhat pristine habitat, which we did, but outside of the Jay, I'm sure we had a decent chance for all of our other targets elsewhere in that county/the whole Valley.

 

[Mysticete]

Or Belize for that matter

Although between furlough and Wisconsin legislature punishment, about the most exotic trip in my future might be North Dakota...

 

[pbjosh]

I’ve still never been to the Rio Grande valley. Despite no lifers for me there it does sound like nice birding, similar to a lot of N and C Mexico in terms of just plain birdy and pleasant. I could get more lifers in Chicago than TX come to think of it 🤣

 

[foresttwitcher]

Nice report and photos.

 

[lgonz1008]

I’ve still never been to the Rio Grande valley. Despite no lifers for me there it does sound like nice birding, similar to a lot of N and C Mexico in terms of just plain birdy and pleasant. I could get more lifers in Chicago than TX come to think of it 🤣

Probably the same reason so many birders do/repeat the Rio Grande Valley Festival, but I'd say to chase the lifers instead, even if it means taking on the bitter, cold Chicago winter!

 

[lgonz1008]

Or Belize for that matter

Although between furlough and Wisconsin legislature punishment, about the most exotic trip in my future might be North Dakota...

Hopefully better prospects come soon

 

[pbjosh]

Probably the same reason so many birders do/repeat the Rio Grande Valley Festival, but I'd say to chase the lifers instead, even if it means taking on the bitter, cold Chicago winter!

Hah I have no intention of going to Chicago either. I’m in French Guyana at the moment, had a tree with 7 male Cotingas of 3 species in it today. Beats Chicago!

A friend is actually going to S Texas to twitch and in a chat group with a group of us we’re all raking him over the coals for it and people are posting birds from Peru, Sulawesi, ZA, etc but assuring him that his Cattle Tyrant and Roadside Hawk are cool too

 

[lgonz1008]

Hah I have no intention of going to Chicago either. I’m in French Guyana at the moment, had a tree with 7 male Cotingas of 3 species in it today. Beats Chicago!

A friend is actually going to S Texas to twitch and in a chat group with a group of us we’re all raking him over the coals for it and people are posting birds from Peru, Sulawesi, ZA, etc but assuring him that his Cattle Tyrant and Roadside Hawk are cool too

Jealous of the Cotinga experience, since they are my favorite bird family, adding salt to the fact that except for the Screaming Piha, Capuchinbird and Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock, every single Cotinga I saw while I was in Guyana was either female or just didn't show up! Imagine seeing a fruiting tree with one Spangled and three Pompadour Continga, but all are females...

Don't be too mean to your friend, those are great ABA birds, just dime-a-dozen anywhere in the Neotropics...