Texas: Salineño to The End

The last couple of days in Texas began with finding as many birds as possible at the Harlingen Thicket.

This meant hanging with Harris’s Hawks.

Watching Great Kiskadees collect nesting material.

And finally getting a good look at a Tropical Kingbird (best distinguished by Couch’s by voice).

One bird I was thrilled to get even a b-rated photo of was the White-eyed Vireo. I had too many missed photo-ops with this one.

There were few target birds we hadn’t seen by now. The nemeses of the trip, if you will, would have to be a small kingfisher, the Green Kingfisher, and Verdin, a bird that looks like a Bushtit with a yellow head. Several near misses, but we didn’t find either of these at the thicket either.

But we did see Texas Spiny Lizards humping.

And giant spiders.

It was late afternoon at this point and time for Sarah, Max, and Eric to catch their flight back to Portland. We bid them farewell and figured out our next plan. Jen and I had one more day to explore and we aimed to make the most of it. We drove two hours west to Salineño, a tiny town of Texas along the Rio Grande with a population of only 201 people.

We didn’t see any people (not even border patrol), but we did see plenty of birds, including three specialties, the Red-billed Pigeon, White-collared Seedeater, and Audubon’s Oriole. We thought the pigeons would be difficult, but they were actually quite easy.

Pretty perched pigeons.

We saw another intriguing bird perched farther in the distance, a Gray Hawk!

Worth crossing the scrubby desert full of ticks for a closer look.

Along the way we saw the White-collared Seedeater, a species that had a sharp population decline in the mid-70s, but has recently made a slight rebound.

Glad we got a look at this hard working bird.

Hiking farther along the dunes we passed Olive Sparrows.

And the “Texas form” Lesser Goldfinch that has way more black than other varieties.

I also heard a slow whistled song that perked me right up (I recognized it from the movie!), the Audubon’s Oriole! The only one we saw of the entire trip.

We also got a quick fly-by from a Green Kingfisher and I got terribly blurry photos of a Verdin. Not satisfactory sightings, but they happened. Another thing that happened was the Gray Hawk flew right by us next to the river.

This was a special place. And more like the birding trips I’m used to, wandering around bumping into all sorts of great new birds. We had such a fun time exploring, but at some point we knew it was time to make the long drive back to San Antonio to catch our plane home. Of course we stopped along the way.

For my last Scissor-tailed flycatcher of the trip. And the best views of a Pyrrhuloxia.

A stop for nesting Cave Swallows.

And for all the dead things (including a bobcat *cries*).

The best stop was for Jen to save this turtle from crossing the big, mean highway.

Texas was incredible. I saw an 72 lifers! And had the best time with a bunch of birders gone wild.

There’s no better way to party.

Tweets and chirps,

Audrey