For our winter trip, the SAILs headed down to the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) as part of our unit on birds. As luck would have it, we picked the only short spot of cold, windy weather in December to head south, but that only added to the adventure. Our first day, we headed down to the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, where we saw our first alligator of the trip, a large blue indigo snake, and had our first encounter with the green jay. We also reviewed how to distinguish between the many species of egrets and herons commonly seen in Texas. Overall, as the sun was setting, we headed out with just shy of 30 species of birds for our first stop of the trip.
We then headed to Harlingen, to stay at the former Harlingen Adventist Church School. Initially, we had planned to camp on the beach on South Padre Island, but we modified our plans in anticipation of some rough weather. It was a good thing we did, as the next day we found we would have had to be evacuated from the beach, or been washed out to sea, due to high winds and waves… We really appreciate the Harlingen Church offering us a place to stay! Going to Harlingen also allowed the kids to meet up with a beloved former member of our church in Austin, who recently moved to the RGV. In the morning, as we packed up, we were greeted by a noisy flock of monk parakeets and a rather friendly neighborhood dog.
Then it was off to South Padre Island, with our first stop at the South Padre Island Birding, Nature Center & Alligator Sanctuary, where, among other things, the kids got to hold a baby alligator, and put our bird spotting and identification skills to the test. Despite the very high winds, they identified more than 30 species of birds, watched soaring osprey, startled a few herons, and enjoyed the roseate spoonbills feeding near the shoreline. We learned about the birds and coastline, about why the wastewater treatment plant proved so valuable for expanding the number of bird species, and learned all about alligators.
After lunch, it was off to the beach, but almost all the beaches were closed due to the very high waves. So we drove down to the tip of the island to visit Isla Blanca Park, where we could see both the birds on the rocks and jetties and those on the beach. Unfortunately the winds remained strong, so it was mostly brown pelicans, gulls and grackles, with a few sanderlings running about. However, we did see Starbase across the water, where SpaceX launches rockets, and visited a memorial to lost fishermen. After a day on South Padre Island, we headed to a brief stopover at the Port Isabel Lighthouse where we got an up close look at the Fresnel lens and an expansive view of the surrounding area.
Finally we headed to Estero Llano Grande State Park where we had reserved a barracks at Camp Thicket. That evening, we dissected owl pellets, learning about what they are, and how they can tell us about what the owl ate and about the environment it lived in. The next day, it was off to the park for three different birding hikes, in the morning, afternoon, and after dark. Even though they were on vacation, the local park hosts offered to go with us on our morning hike, pointing out the birds and sharing interesting details about the park and the animals there. In addition to our birds, we encountered two bobcats, though the weather was a little too cold for any of the local alligators to show themselves.
The highlights of the morning hike were the plain chachalaca (perhaps a little boring looking, but really fun to say), the green kingfisher, a pair of white tailed kites, and the common pauraque, a master of camouflage. Our afternoon hike included numerous sightings (and sounds) of the great kiskadee, an encounter with the very bright Altamira oriole, and several woodpeckers. The night hike was focused on the sounds of the night, and we shared around the field recorder and shotgun mic to hear what our ears didn’t pick up. Most notably, we heard some predator slowly prowling along the other side of the pond, and the ducks and birds reacting as it neared them. After the night hike, we came back and had a campfire and s’mores, hot chocolate, and an evening of games.
Our final morning we woke up early and headed over to the park to watch the sunrise over the ponds, and see and hear the birds as they awoke. A few of the Pathfinders had a chance to see the elusive sora before it hid among the reeds (we had heard one the day before, when it responded to a loud “clap” by the group). With the sun up, and the dawn birds settling in, we headed for one last visit to the bird blind, where we watched a pair of collared peccary rummaging for food, and enjoyed the birds that came in for a morning snack. Finally, it was back to the barracks to finish cleaning up, pack the vehicles, and hit the road back to Austin.
The highlights of the morning hike were the plain chachalaca (perhaps a little boring looking, but really fun to say), the green kingfisher, a pair of white tailed kites, and the common pauraque, a master of camouflage. Our afternoon hike included numerous sightings (and sounds) of the great kiskadee, an encounter with the very bright Altamira oriole, and several woodpeckers. The night hike was focused on the sounds of the night, and we shared around the field recorder and shotgun mic to hear what our ears didn’t pick up. Most notably, we heard some predator slowly prowling along the other side of the pond, and the ducks and birds reacting as it neared them. After the night hike, we came back and had a campfire and s’mores, hot chocolate, and an evening of games.
Our final morning we woke up early and headed over to the park to watch the sunrise over the ponds, and see and hear the birds as they awoke. A few of the Pathfinders had a chance to see the elusive sora before it hid among the reeds (we had heard one the day before, when it responded to a loud “clap” by the group). With the sun up, and the dawn birds settling in, we headed for one last visit to the bird blind, where we watched a pair of collared peccary rummaging for food, and enjoyed the birds that came in for a morning snack. Finally, it was back to the barracks to finish cleaning up, pack the vehicles, and hit the road back to Austin.
We will update later with pictures of birds and more stories from the trip, but an initial review shows we saw more than 100 species on this trip!
| Black-bellied Whistling Duck Fulvous Whistling Duck Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Mottled Duck Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Redhead Lesser Scaup Red-breasted Merganser Plain Chachalaca Rock Pigeon Eurasian Collared Dive Inca Dove Common Ground Dove White-tipped Dove White-winged Dove Mourning Dove Great Roadrunner Lesser Nighthawk Common Pauraque Buff-bellied Hummingbird Sora Common Gallinule American Coot Black-necked Stilt Killdeer Long-billed Curlew Long-billed Dowitcher Wilson’s Snipe Spotted Sandpiper Lesser Yellowlegs | Greater Yellowlegs Sanderling Least Sandpiper Laughing Gull Franklin’s Gull Ring-billed Gull Caspian Tern Forster’s Tern Least Grebe Pied-billed Grebe Anhinga Double-crested Cormorant Neotropic Cormorant White Ibis White-faced Ibis Roseate Spoonbill Yellow-crowned Night Heron Black-crowned Night Heron Little Blue Heron Tricolored Heron Snowy Egret Green Heron Western Cattle-Egret Great Egret Great Blue Heron American White Pelican Brown Pelican Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Osprey White-tailed Kite Harris’s Hawk Gray Hawk Red-shouldered Hawk Red-Tailed Hawk | Belted Kingfisher Green Kingfisher Golden-fronted Woodpecker Ladder-backed Woodpecker Crested Caracara American Kestrel Monk Parakeet Eastern Phoebe Great Kiskadee Tropical Kingbird White-eyed Vireo Green Jay Black-crested Titmouse Verdin Ruby-crowned Kinglet Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Northern House Wren Carolina Wren European Starling Long-billed Thrasher Northern Mockingbird Clay-colored Thrush American Robin House Sparrow Clay-colored Sparrow Swamp Sparrow Altamira Oriole Red-winged Blackbird Bronzed Cowbird Great-tailed Grackle Orange-crowned Warbler Common Yellowthroat Yellow-rumped Warbler Northern Cardinal Muscovy Duck |
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