Looking for Lifers: Rio Grande Valley Day 1

The Impetus for the Trip

My buddy Eric contacted me early in January to let me know he was going to fly to Austin in February to do a Working Aptitude Evaluation for the Doberman Pinscher Club of America and he wanted to know if I'd be interested in going down with him to do some birding for a few days in South Texas. He suggested we fly down early so we could spend a few days birding the Rio Grande Valley area. Our previous efforts to plan such a trip had fallen through so I was eager to make this one work, even if it was during the off season from a birding perspective. We both did a little research and realized that we could pick up a respectable list of life birds despite the timing. Consequently, we booked our tickets, continued to do some Internet research, and tapped into the personal experience of other Utah birders to develop our plan for optimizing our time in Texas. Thank you, Tim Avery, Keeli Marvel, and John Crawley.

Departure

Eric swung by my place to pick me up just after 6 PM on our planned departure date. Our flight was scheduled to leave Salt Lake City about 8:30 and arrive in Austin just after midnight local time.  Travel went as planned and we were picking up our rental car in Austin just after midnight. When we walked out to the rental car lot to pick up our vehicle we were warmly greeted and informed by the attendant that we'd been upgraded and would have our choice of..... minivans! Fine with us. We'd have plenty of room for our gear. Moments later we embarked on a five-hour, southbound drive that would get us to our first birding spot on the Rio Grande River just before sunrise. Our first target bird would be the nocturnal Common Pauraque. Eric started the drive and I finished it as he tried to get a little sleep. Oncoming traffic on our two-lane highway practically disappeared soon after putting San Antonio behind us. It was a reminder that normal people were sleeping at that hour of the night. We, on the other hand, were blazing new trails for ourselves since neither of us had been that far south in the great state of Texas before. With the road to ourselves and the inability to get any radio signals to last more than a few minutes it felt like we were driving through the middle of nowhere. With no reliable music stations coming across the radio we decided to stream some '70 and '80s rock music from Eric's phone. Halfway into our drive we stopped for some "nutrient-rich" breakfast food, a sausage egg and cheese biscuit for me and corn dogs for Eric.

About 45 minutes before sunrise we turned onto a dirt road that took us right to the edge of the Rio Grande River, an easy stone's throw away from our neighbor to the south, Mexico.  We felt an invigorating chill in the air upon exiting the van. The forecast hadn't mislead us when it displayed that south Texas was going to be colder that northern Utah. We did not hear any Common Pauraque calling so we tried briefly to coax them. We walked around a little to stretch our legs and explored a few nearby trails. Eventually we decided to continue driving along a dirt road and then up to Falcon State Park.

Falcon State Park

As we drove into the park I noticed eye shine, the reflection of our headlights, coming from the eyes of our first Common Pauraque (lifer). It was just like the eye shine I've seen many times while out tracking down common poorwills in Utah. The pauraque was flying across our path about fifty yards ahead of us, banked, and then continued its erratic, moth-like flight down another road.  We turned and followed our first target until we saw it land on the road about 30 yards ahead of us. Upon getting out of the vehicle we heard multiple pauraques calling from various locations around us. It's not a great image, but I managed to get a flashlight on one of the birds and fire off a few shots for documentation purposes.

Moments later, as darkness gave way to twilight and rather overcast skies, the pauraque chorus went silent and an ensemble of diurnal birds began to perform. Birds typical to Utah along with Northern Cardinals, Northern Mockingbirds, White-eyed Vireos, Black-crested Titmice (lifer), and wrens began to make their voices heard. Then came the howl of a lone coyote which triggered a rather sustained cacophony of howls from various locations around us. It was quite the welcome to our first morning of birding in South Texas.

We made a loop around the park and then drove down by the lake where we saw our first Crested Caracara of the trip along with and Osprey, Greater Yellowlegs, several egrets, and Great Blue Herons. Laughing Gulls were cruising above the shoreline.  A few more stops produced Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Vermilion Flycatchers, Collared-Doves, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Northern Mockingbirds, Northern Cardinals, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and more Black-crested Titmice. The weather was a bit of a problem, but we still managed to get about twenty species in about an hour.

From Falcon State Park we began to make our way southeast toward our first major planned stop, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park. We were running low on gas so we pulled into a gas station in Roma. After filling up we asked a local where we could get some good Mexican food for breakfast. He pointed us to Fiesta Restaurant just a few blocks away. We enjoyed some hefty breakfast tacos and then hit the road, picking up a few common birds such as Rock Pigeons, American Kestrels, Loggerhead Shrikes, and Great-tailed Grackles perched on power lines along the way.

Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park Round 1

Loads of cyclists were pouring out of Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park and into the visitor parking lot when we arrived at the park. We were informed by a police officer that we were not permitted to drive into the park so we looped back, found an open stall, and made our way over to the visitor center to pay our entrance fee. A lone Buff-bellied Hummingbird (lifer) had a feeder all to itself outside the entrance to the visitor center, but the bird remained tucked deep inside a bush during the few minutes we watched. It was probably taking shelter from the rain that had begun to fall. One of the park employees told us a storm was blowing in, but that didn't deter us. We had traveled too far to turn around at that point. The employee told us to go quickly and strike while the iron was hot so off we went...wearing our rain gear.

Our first significant photo op took place at the main feeding station about 50 yards or so beyond the entrance gate. I'd wanted to see a Green Jay (lifer) for a number of years. To suddenly find myself surrounded by them was fascinating. Their black and blue faces and green and yellow bodies left an indelible impression in my my mind's eye.

Green Jay Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Green Jay Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Green Jay Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

The image of my first encounter with Green Jays was punctuated with the orange burst of an Altamira Oriole that appeared out of nowhere and posed front and center for us.

Altamira Oriole Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Altamira Oriole Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Plain Chachalacas, which I'd seen previously during a vacation to Mexico, were, well, plain looking, but somewhat entertaining to watch as they strutted around the ground and bounced from branch to branch in the trees surrounding the feeders. Chachalacas are somewhat large birds, about the size of a chicken with much longer necks and tails, that stand nearly two feet high.

Plain Chacalaca Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Black and Turkey Vultures would occasionally draw our attention from the feeders to the gloomy sky as they soared low overhead. Black-crested Titmice, Great Kiskadees, Northern Cardinals, Golden-fronted and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, Olive Sparrows (lifer), and a few other species were frequenting the feeders, foraging on the ground, and assuming temporary perches in nearby trees.

Black-crested Titmouse Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Great Kiskadee Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Female Northern Cardinal Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Eric's camera battery was dying after about thirty minutes inside the park. His spare was back in the van so I told him I'd walk back there with him. On our way back to the van I captured a little video to give a feel for the wind that was blowing just before the rain began to fall heavily again.

On a positive note I caught a glimpse of my first White-tailed Hawk on our way to seek shelter in the van. The wind blew the hawk out of sight before I could get my lens on it for a diagnostic photo.

Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park Round 2

Birding and photography were essentially shut down by the storm so we decided to locate and check into a hotel in the city of Mission. It had been over 30 hours since we'd had decent rest so we thought we'd nap our way through what we hoped would be a short-lived storm. After a little bit of rest I became a lit bit restless. We were losing light and I wanted to head back over to Bentsen so we could bird as much of the park as possible before it closed.

As we were getting close to the park I noticed a beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk perched on a power line on my side of the van. Eric turned us around so we could spend some time photographing and watching the hawk perch hunt from the wire and some low hanging branches along the edge of a wooded area. It hunted much like a Cooper's Hawk as it flew low to the ground and weaved efficiently through the trees.

Red-shouldered Hawk Perch Hunting Near Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Red-shouldered Hawk Perch Hunting Near Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Red-shouldered Hawk Perch Hunting Near Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

I don't think I've ever seen a hawk with a mullet so it made me chuckle when I was reviewing these images.

Red-shouldered Hawk Perch Hunting Near Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Red-shouldered Hawk Perch Hunting Near Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

We finished our encounter with the hawk and made our way to the park for our second attempt. This phone image was an attempt to show a little bit of the habit we were entering. What appeared to be a Sharp-shinned Hawk flew across the road in front of us just after I captured this image.

Habitat Shot at Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

The weather was better, but far from ideal for birding. On the other hand, however, we essentially had the park to ourselves. After our second visit of the day to the first feeding station we began walking farther into the park. We saw a few more of the birds we had already seen and were able to turn up a new bird for the trip, a Long-billed Thrasher (lifer).

Long-billed Thrasher Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

We ambled our way over to one of the hawk watch towers only to be the recipients of another generous offering from the skies. We didn't see any hawks, but I did want to capture an image from the tower. It turned out that a selfie with the two of us hiding our camera gear under our rain gear was all I could manage to remember the moment.

Getting Rained Out at the Hawk Watch Tower Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park
My Buddy Eric in Background

The park had a shuttle service that seemed to pass through about every hour. I'm guessing the driver probably provided a bit of a guided tour as well. We were told when we entered the park that the last shuttle would make its round about an hour before the park was to close so we planned and timed our walk through the various parts of the park so we'd be able to get a ride back to the visitor center if rain was a problem. We ended up boarding the van as another shower was underway, but because I'm a sucker for raptors my observation of a Gray Hawk perched in a tree had me asking to be let out withing minutes of boarding.  A few other birders who were on the van asked about the hawk, but they had no desire to go out in the rain again. Eric and I went back out into the rain and relocated the hawk.

Gray Hawk Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State

Exiting the van and having to walk back to the visitors center turned out to be a good thing. As we were walking back to the parking lot I spotted a Ringed Kingfisher (lifer), North America's largest Kingfisher and one of our favorite birds of the trip, perched in a tree next to the bridge we were crossing.

Ringed Kingfisher Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State

Ringed Kingfisher Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State

We got ourselves a little muddy as we followed the bird along the water's edge, but it was fascinating to see a kingfisher that was noticeably beefier than the Belted Kingfishers we regularly see in Utah. While I didn't quite remove the mud from my pants I did manage to remove it from my shoes by stomping and swishing around in a water puddle in the parking lot. With clean shoes I made my way over the the hummingbird feeders by the visitor center where Eric was already on a Buff-bellied Hummingbird.

Buff-bellied Hummingbird Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

Buff-bellied Hummingbird Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park

The park was closing and it was getting close to time for dinner so we returned to the hotel and asked the receptionist to advise us on where to go for good Mexican food. Based on that advise we went to Danny's Mexican Restaurant for chips and salsa and a nice combination dinner plate. After returning to the hotel we spent some time reviewing photos from the day, watched a little TV, and went to bed excited for our second full day of birding in the Rio Grande Valley.