Texas Times: Pigeons to Pauraques

It's one thing to be in a birding party of four and to be the first one to spy a Red-billed Pigeon once.  Okay, I can see it happening twice, as Josh did on back-to-back visits to Salineno.  But a third time is one that would seem unheard of.  While driving through the Valley, Josh anxiously said, "hey, we just passed a Red-billed Pigeon up on top of that tree!".  I was blown away by what Josh called out, and Caleb pulled a quick u-turn.  As we got back to the tree, there was the Red-billed Pigeon, and I was blown away at Josh's eagle eye for this species.

Josh kept on coming through in the clutch like a basketball player who is trusted by his team to take all the big shots.  We pulled up and had killer views of not only one, but two Red-billed Pigeons.  One of the birds got shy while the other one stayed perched, and moments later, the original flyer would return to it's perch.  For a minute, we got to enjoy these elusive birds.  Red-billed Pigeons find their northern range in south Texas like a lot of the other Rio Grande specialties.  Although challenging to see, they are uncommon summer residents and become rarer in the winter.  Most of the times, the species is seen perched up high in a distant tree or flying rapidly over the river at dawn or dusk.

With windows rolled down, the four of us quickly snapped photographs as best as we could.  The overcast skies were still a foe of ours, and they made getting good photographs of the Pigeons close to impossible.  Regardless, we obtained views of this bird we thought we weren't going to get on the trip, thanks to Josh.  Looking at good field guide illustrations and pictures or good pictures online of Red-billed Pigeons reveal a neat-looking bird.  Don't go by my photographs.  After breeding season, Red-billed Pigeons may become easier to observe in Texas as they join other doves to feed on the ground.  With a high tree-topper deciding to become a low tree-topper for us, we took the sighting well and enjoyed the birds for about a minute before their shyness caught up to them and they flew away.

It was still May 2nd, after we had just finished up at Salineno Wildlife Preserve.  We were following Ryan and Leah to another birding location along the river that was close to Salineno.  Thinking the pigeons could possibly return, Caleb called Ryan and Leah to tell them about the birds, and he couldn't get through to them.  I wanted to turn around again for myself to see if the Red-billed Pigeons would come back.  We were on Chapeno Road, and we were going to a section of the Rio Grande River known as Chapeno.  This location didn't have the benefits of walking along the river and searching along it's banks, and it was limited to one viewpoint.  Folks who owned property nearby did have bird feeders and lookouts, but they charged a fee to use their property which the six of us decided to opt out of.  Despite the limited areas for walking, Chapeno has had an impressive array of birds over the years, including all of the Rio Grande rarities that we were hoping for at Salineno at one time or another.

We participated in a 15 minute stationary observation, and some of the birds included heard Ringed Kingfisher and another Audubon's Oriole.  I walked up the road a little ways to see what I could come up with.  While I was hoping to visually find an Audubon's Oriole while I worked my way along the habitat, I was encountered by this "pack" of loud barking dogs.  Some of them seemed irritated by me, and others seemed curious.  It wasn't thirty seconds before I had enough and I turned around.  Luckily, Ryan captured the scene and called it, "Tommy and his fan club".

From Chapeno, we went over to Falcon State Park to continue our adventure.  Falcon Dam is one of the most popular places in the Rio Grande Valley.  It is one of the best places to see Muscovy Ducks, an assortment of Rio Grande specialties like Audubon's Oriole, and it is a great location to spot Ringed and Green Kingfishers.  Sadly, we couldn't access the area below the dam and we were restricted to the large Falcon Lake.  For that spot, we went and birded near the Butterfly Garden at Falcon State Park.  The location paled in comparison to the exciting spots along the Rio Grande River we had just birded.  We did have a decent assortment of birds along Falcon Lake that included Northern Bobwhite, Snowy Plover, Laughing Gull, Least Tern, Gull-billed, Caspian, and Forster's Terns; American White Pelican, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Osprey, Crested Caracara, Black-crested Titmouse, Olive Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, and Altamira Oriole.

Snowy Plover

Crested Caracara

Forster's Tern

Birding party scanning Falcon Lake, you can see the Forster's Tern

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

From Falcon Dam, we drove further south into Texas into the Mission area in Hidalgo County.  The six of us met up at an awesome Mexican restaurant.  This particular restaurant had a classic menu, as well as a buffet that was awesome.  All of us decided on the buffet and would plan out the remainder of our birding days from there.  Ryan and Leah would go their own way after the restaurant to the famous Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, and Caleb, Josh, David, and I decided to go to this place that was having a rare Crimson-collared Grosbeak.  The location was exciting to me, and if we didn't see the Grosbeak, it was a haven of a spot to see many of the Lower Rio Grande Valley specialties up close.  I couldn't believe the sight of the place when we pulled up to it.  It reminded me of an exotic botanical garden that was in place strictly for the purpose of birding.  Before I forget, it's called the Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center.

A 10,000 square foot mansion is found at this World Birding Center, and the place is surrounded with native plantings and replicated demonstrations of different Texas habitats.  Bird feeding stations and water features are built here, and most of the Texas specialties are found here in abundance.

Aside from that wanted and rare Crimson-collared Grosbeak that had become secretive around Quinta Mazatlan, we knew that there would be an abundance of other birds would be present to keep the fun going.  And it started with the Plain Chachalaca...

I'm pretty sure everyone laughs at this bird at some point in their lives.  It's goofy, there's no doubt about it.  For the Plain Chachalaca, it could probably be used on adds, cards, and any meme with a variety of annotations and crude sayings.

It's voice is loud, obnoxious, explicit, and awesome.  The calls they give generally have three notes and different pitches on each note per bird, and vary with the "words" of "Chaik-wak-what" or "Whit-what-what" or "Mee-my-muh" or "cha-cha-cha" or "cha-cha-lac" or "raa-raa-rawr" or "whoop-de-doo" or ah-ahh-waa" or "wa-wa-waaa" or "ree-raa-chaa" or "drop-de-djeeaaahh".  Imagine hearing that sound for the first time and looking over to see this bird staring back at you.

Don't make it talk too much now, it's probably best to keep on going...

Or not, "Chik-a-wha", or "Chuck-wha-whaaa", or  "Rreaa-ra-wha", or "Oh-la-whraaa", or "Chac-la-ha".

Plain Chachalacas really like to keep each other company, and they can be found in flocks of anywhere from 4 to 20 individuals.  Imagine if all of the birds decided to talk.  Four is enough, but twenty of them could be used to broadcast some sort of emergency.  When all of the notes among the birds are added up, it almost sounds like they are saying, "Chach-a-lac-a" on repeat over and over again.  It's no different that that Taylor Swift song that is played twice-an-hour on radio stations, it gets stuck in your head whether you like it or not.  For me, I prefer to listen to Plain Chachalaca the rest of my life over a Taylor Swift song.  When they get together, their name is announced to the world...

Chachalacas get their names from when the birds join in chorus together, oddly enough.  The Plain Chachalaca is the only chachalaca that reaches North America, and south Texas represents the northern-most boundary of it's range.  They are chicken-sized birds, and represent one species of about fifty species worldwide in a family called Cracidae.  This family Cracidae features chachalacas, curassows, and guans and are found in the New World Tropics and subtropics.  Cracidae falls in the order of Galliformes, which does include grouse and quail.  Despite it's dorky and goofy appearance, I think the bird is also on the awesome side.

We heard plenty of the birds during our walks near the Rio Grande River in our stops at Salineno, but David was the only one out of the four of us who had views during that time up until this time.  Plain Chachalacas usually move through dense vegetation and would be hard to spot and observe if they weren't as loud as they are.  They feed mostly in trees but also take their meals to the ground.  Fruit, berries, seeds, leaves, buds, and insects make up the diet of this bird and they fly from tree to tree when active.

As you can see from the picture above, the Quinta Mazatlan World Birding Center had it's share of bird food.  Bird feeding stations attracted birds like no other.  Many of those birds were the famous south Texas specialties.  Aside from the specialties, the grounds of Quita Mazatlan were a fine migrant trap.  One of the migrants there turned out to be a life bird for me in a Gray-cheeked Thrush.

The Gray-cheeked Thrush migrates impressive distances every year, and some of them migrate from southern Brazil all the way up to Alaska.  Others migrate impressive distances too.  Like other thrushes, the Gray-cheeked Thrush has an impressive song and it's range reaches further north than it's other catharus thrush cousins.  This thrush is usually shy and stays in thick habitats while feeding on a variety of insects, spiders, worms, fruits, and berries.  It is a well-named bird, as it's warm-toned grayish-colored cheeks prompted it's title.  When observations like this present themselves, it is cool to stop and think about what is really in front of you.  This was just a stop for this bird on it's long, northbound journey.

This Chestnut-sided Warbler and Gray Catbird represented many migrants that were present.  Although the place was extremely productive, it was hard to get photographs of most birds, especially warblers foraging through thick cover.

After hearing and catching brief glimpses of Couch's Kingbirds at Salineno and a few other stops that we made, I finally got to see a few of them visually at the World Birding Center while hiking on it's trails.  This bird has a range restriction to southern Texas despite vagrancy records elsewhere, and it looks very similar to the Tropical Kingbird.

Voice and calls are the best indicator in separating Tropical and Couch's Kingbirds.  The bill of the Couch's Kingbird is shorter on average than the longer-billed Tropical.  At one point, the two birds were considered the same species, but the two were split in the 1980's.

I also enjoyed Clay-colored Thrush and Great Kiskadee at Quinta Mazatlan.

The biggest draw and bird I wanted to see at Quinta besides the rare Crimson-collared Grosbeak was the Buff-bellied Hummingbird.  When we got to an area that hosted several flower gardens, it didn't take long for us to briefly see one of them.  But for the following hour, I was seeking better views and photographs of this particular hummingbird, and it's one that can only be found in southern-most Texas in it's United States (ABA) range.  After a good effort, I did come across a cooperative Buff-bellied Hummingbird.

Along with the Gray-cheeked Thrush, the Buff-bellied Hummingbird would be the other lifer I would get at Quinta.  This bird was one of the ones I was anticipating the most about when coming on the Texas trip.  It was the last regularly occurring hummingbird I needed for the United States.  Buff-bellied Hummingbirds reside in south Texas year round, and it is the largest hummingbird regularly seen in the East.  It's red bill is easily distinctive and set apart from the other hummingbirds that were around.  I spied this bird while I was off to myself and at the end of what seemed to be a long search for good views of a bird that was supposed to be relatively common.  Another fact about the search was that I did indeed celebrate after I got the views I did of this range-restricted hummingbird.

Aside from birds I photographed two lifer odes:  Great Pondhawk and Turquoise-tipped Darner.  Caleb caught the Darner and we took it birding with us.

At Quinta Mazatlan, the four of us had close to 60 bird species combined.  Highlights included loads of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks flying back-and-fourth to a nearby pond, Plain Chachalaca, White-tipped Dove, Groove-billed Ani, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated, Black-chinned, and Buff-bellied Hummingbirds; Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Great Kiskadee, Couch's Kingbird, Green Jay, Gray-cheeked and Clay-colored Thrushes, Long-billed Thrasher, Golden-winged Warbler, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Ovenbird, and Painted Bunting.  My two lifers were Buff-bellied Hummingbird and Gray-cheeked Thrush.  David got a single life bird in the Buff-bellied Hummingbird.  Josh got five lifers: Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Gray-cheeked Thrush, and a warbler push of Golden-winged, Magnolia, and Chestnut-sided Warblers.  Caleb had four lifers:  Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Ovenbird, and Golden-winged Warbler.  What a cool place to bird and visit!

We hopped back into the car and made our way to our final birding location of May 2nd, which was the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.  This location is one that is famous among birders, and is a location where some of the rarest birds for the United States have been found.  Some of those mega-rare birds that have been found include Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Mottled Owl, Stygian Owl, Collared Forest-Falcon, Social Flycatcher, and Masked Tityra.  For us, we would be thankful if a Hook-billed Kite would grace our presence during our birding efforts.  Not long before our visit, a birder did detect a pair of Hook-billed Kites while standing on an elevated lookout tower that takes birders above the canopy level of the Rio Grande tropical forests.  The tower is one that is awesome within Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park, and once we arrived at the park, we hiked straight to the overlook.

Bentsen-Rio Grande had a taller selection of trees than the other places we had visited, and it was a scenic area.  On our way to the look out tour, we encountered many birds that included this pair of Harris's Hawks as well as this Western Diamondback Rattlesnake.

Impressive numbers of Mississippi Kites also sallied overhead.  And yes, the skies were still overcast.

Ryan and Leah had birded the area awhile before we had gotten there.  They birded the same lookout tower that we were heading to, and Ryan gave Caleb a phone call to tell Caleb about what they saw as well as an Eastern Screech-Owl roost they found.  After Ryan gave Caleb good directions, it didn't take us long to find the Eastern Screech-Owl in it's cavity.  It made for an awesome sighting, and what is interesting about the Eastern Screech-Owls in the Lower Rio Grande Valley is that they are different that other Eastern Screech-Owls elsewhere.  They are part of a subspecies group known as "McCall's" Eastern Screech-Owl.  The McCall's subspecies differs in vocalizations from the other Eastern Screech-Owl, and it may end up representing a species of it's own someday.

Once we got to the lookout tour it was awesome.  It was more like a tower and an elevated boardwalk combined.  The elevated views were amazing, and it was fun to look down on the Rio Grande Forest below.

Here is a video of the walk up to the lookout tower:

It was neat to be up intact with the forest canopy.  At times birds would perch eye level with us.  An Altamira Oriole was one such example.

In North America, the Altamira Oriole is the largest oriole.  They are primarily a Mexican species, and the very northern reach of their range extends up into the Lower Rio Grande Valley in south Texas.  It is a year round resident in south Texas, and it builds an very impressive nest that hangs down from trees and is two feet long.  

This Altamira sang a pleasant song for us for a few minutes before leaving.  Aside from him, we could hear more of them calling throughout the area.  A few minutes later, the Altamira came right back and perched much closer to the lookout.  What a freaking awesome bird!

Great Kiskadees also gave eye-level views...

We saw an assortment of birds typical of the Rio Grande with our most hopeful bird being the Hook-billed Kite.  It really set in how tough of a bird it can be to land.  Despite not getting it during our stationary wait, we were entertained by over four hundred migrating Mississippi Kites filling up the sky.  

Something we planned on was participating in nocturnal birding at Bensten-Rio Grande to seek out Common Pauraque and McCall's Eastern Screech-Owl.  We left our night gear in the car before leaving, and although I almost brought my flashlight along on our initial hike, I decided to leave it.  What it would turn out to be on my behalf ended up being a huge mistake.  We stayed on the lookout tower until it was dusk and the darkness that followed came too quickly.  After we decided to head back to the car, the wild sounding call, "po-whiieerr!", started to fill the night.  It was the call of the Common Pauraque.  They started to sound off from multiple locations around us in surrounding mesquite woodlands.  Pauraques are also a major south Texas specialty, and they are a Mexican nightjar that reach their very northern range in the Rio Grande Valley.  They are strikingly patterned if seen well, and they are highly sought after by thousands of birders who visit Texas annually.  As a Common Pauraque called near us, I whipped out my iPod and tried playing it's call.  In no time, a Pauraque flew out of the woods, circled us, and landed right in front of us.  This was when I regretted not having my flashlight, and I had to settle with this desperation photograph.

Common Pauraque:  A blurry photograph, but note the light brown ariculars that extend behind the eye, and the black and gray scapular patterns.

We counted a total of seven Pauraques in about a mile as we walked through the night.  At one point, we got to see two of them in the road.  The Pauraques made stranger calls then their usual one as they engaged in what looked like some sort of mating ritual.  A few other birders were along the road to enjoy them also.  We made our way back to Caleb's vehicle to get our flashlights, and there was a Pauraque calling from the parking lot.  At this point, the parking area had cleared out and it was Caleb's car as well as the car from the other birders.  Things got a little creepy as a man approached us who appeared to be an immigrant from Mexico.  He talked to Caleb right off the bat and pointed at the car of the other birders, pretending it to be his own.  "My car broke down", he said, "can I have a ride".  He didn't seem mean or threatening, but who knows what acts can be acted, especially if he was lying about that being his vehicle.  I talked behind Caleb and whispered to him, more like I was begging him, to dismiss the man.  After all, it was Caleb's car.  Luckily Caleb ended up saying, "If you need a ride I'm sure border patrol would be happy to give you one".

After we got our stuff ready and headed back to the Pauraque zone, the nightjars went silent on us.  It was unfortunate, because I really wanted to see them better and get a better photograph than the blurry one that I did get.  On the flip side, the Eastern Screech-Owls came alive.  As we had seven Pauraques, the Owls matched that same number.  These McCall's Eastern Screech-Owls give a trill as their main call, and it is different than the trill of the nominate Eastern Screech-Owl.  It's trill is slower.  Also, McCall's never gives the classic "whinny" call that the nominate gives.  There is a good chance of this being a separate species someday.  And one of them gave us excellent views!

More Pauraques would call in the distance, and one even flew right by us without stopping.  It's outer white retrices on it's tail feathers gave away it's identification.  But no more of them would give us the views we were hoping for.

We would stay in motels during our time in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, as the humidity there is miserable.  After we stopped birding and went to a staying place, I went to a McDonald's after we had checked in to get stuff for everyone.  It was by the Interstate freeway, only on the other side of the motel.  After getting McDonald's I didn't realize how tired I was until I hit the road.  I turned wrong way onto a one way road, and had someone angrily honking their horn at me in the lane beside me.  It was freaky, and luckily, no one else other than that car was around.  I thought about taking the car the wrong way for a few more blocks to the hotel, but I quickly remembered it was Caleb's car and not mine.  Tiredness makes us do stupid things even further.  A pull off nearby saved me from further trouble, and I got myself back in order and drove to the motel properly while going the right way.  Those frontage roads, ahh.  I made myself forget about it once I brought the McDonald's to everyone.  This is the first time I've said anything about it, and for being a wrong way driver for five seconds in your car, I guess I'm basically sorry Caleb!  May 2nd was tiring because we saw loads of cool birds all day, that's a great excuse.