As evening rolled in on May 3rd, 2019, we reached the end of Highway 100 and our Texas birding team drove on a long bridge over the waters of the Laguna Madre to enter the island and town both known as South Padre Island. This bridge was spectacular to drive over for the 2.3 miles of it's length until we got to the Island. Once on South Padre, a slim strip of land that is bordered by that Laguna Madre on the west and by the Gulf of Mexico on the east makes up the town/island. Although the land that makes up South Padre is narrow, it's a thirty-mile long north-south island, and is the longest barrier island in the world. It's widest point is only a half-mile long. South Padre Island is a popular place for tourism, especially for young college students throwing parties. The island harbors serene waters and beaches and hosts catchy resorts, restaurants, and stores. South Padre is also famous for viewing wildlife through adventurous tours and programs. While young adults in their college lives come to throw parties on the beach, birders also come here to throw parties. A variety of waterbirds call the lagoons and marshes home at the Island, but the narrow land strip is widely known as a do-or-die stop for migrating songbirds who see their first land after flying for treks from southern Mexico and central America. On major days of migration, one that is referred to as "fallout", thousands of songbirds will fill stands of trees in such places due to severe weather conditions preventing them from going any further. Birds will rest in one place longer than usual, and at times stands of trees will get overcrowded with birds as a result. It's a dramatic event for birders to witness, and even though fallout isn't very common, we were hoping that we would be able to experience some of the amazing migration events.
We got to a motel and while transporting gear to the room, I heard the fart-like calls of Dickcissels as they migrated overhead. It was cool to hear migrants that soon after getting out of the car. Earlier in the day, a birder at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge had told us about a certain tick that was prevalent in the area. My buddies started to find some ticks on them that appeared to be that species. With the combination of Santa Ana and the habitat I walked through as I pursued the Aplomado Falcon, I was convinced I would have ticks. I don't know why, but luck was with me on the trip as far as the obnoxious biting insects were concerned, and my streak continued without any ticks. Perhaps it was because I sprayed high amounts of bug spray on myself everyday, especially on my shoes and legs. The others had ticks on them, and one time on the trip David pulled about thirty ticks off of himself.
Georgia birder Liam Wolff, who's another skilled younger birder, joined us at South Padre Island and our team would be five for the following few days. Liam had birded with Caleb on trips and became a new buddy on this trip for the rest of us, and he knew quite a bit about the birding locations we would be visiting in the next few days ahead of us. Once Liam arrived, we ate at an awesome restaurant that had great food, and after that I crashed while the others stayed up late and went outside to listen for nocturnal flight calls of migrating birds. Caleb talked a lot about the night calls during the course of the trip, and his interest in it is growing on me a little to try it out for myself sometime.
When the morning of May 4th arrived, our first birding stop of the day was at another chapter of the World Birding Center called the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center. The Center has impressive informative displays, a gift shop, surrounding plantings and bird feeding areas, and on their grounds are extensive boardwalks that allow birders to walk through saltmarsh and tidal habitats, as well as groves of trees and shrubs that attract an array of migrating birds.
Photobombed by a Laughing Gull
Some of the birds that we were hoping to see at this spot besides migrants included Clapper Rail, Wilson's Plover, Sandwich Tern, Roseate Spoonbill, and a variety of shorebirds, terns, and herons. As we pulled up to the place, we were greeted by Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks and Mottled Ducks.
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
Mottled Ducks (above and below)
In the 19 years that I have been birding, it was the first time I went birding on an extensive boardwalk, and I loved it. There were benches and bird blinds along the route too.
Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks were abundant, and some of them were tame. Check out these short videos:
While Wilson's Plover and Sandwich Tern were lifers I was hoping for, I knew that they would be seen elsewhere on the trip if not here. The Clapper Rail was a life bird we were really hoping to get while walking over the marshes while on the boardwalk. In the process of our boardwalk-navigating search, there were plenty of birds to keep us company.
Dunlin
Laughing Gull
Mottled Duck family
BBWD in flight
Pectoral Sandpiper
Northern Waterthrush
Stilt Sandpiper
Tricolored Heron
Something I used to enjoy a lot and when I think about it, I still do enjoy, are long music festivals. Bands line up in dozens and play throughout the day. Some bands are just getting started and have small followings, while others are more anticipated and have much of the crowd's attention, and some are hailed long before they make their appearance on stage. As we walked the boardwalks at South Padre, most of the birds were cool to watch, and the life birds I had mentioned were constantly on my mind like one of the headliner bands at a music festival. When one of my buddies said, "Sandwich Tern incoming", I truly woke up. Looking above and down into the marsh in front of me the tern was hovering and dropping down into the water to feed. It came within close distance, and I swear, it could've been playing a drum roll.
Sandwich Terns are handsome birds who are pale gray and white overall, but have a striking head pattern of a black crown and a long black bill that has a distinctive yellow tip at the end. I had always wanted to see this species since I became serious about birding and waiting for it to show up among the other birds was a true rock fest once it did show up.
Along the beaches of the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Ocean from Texas to Florida, and then north from Florida along several eastern states that the Atlantic Ocean borders makes up the range of Sandwich Terns in the United States. They feed out at sea more than other terns do, and plunge dive into the waters for small fish, squid, and shrimp. Sandwich Terns show up at inland locations much less than that of other terns, and only do so after major storms. California's coast rarely gets Sandwich Tern, but with some luck and a great storm, wouldn't it be cool if one of those Cali birds got blown into Arizona? It might take some time for that to ever happen, as these birds don't migrate long distances. This bird was a lifer for Josh and Caleb too.
When the Sandwich Tern showed up, we were close to the end of the boardwalk hiking. The walk went a much longer distance than I thought it would, and as I looked over past our boardwalk, there was another boardwalk trail that could be accessed from another point next door to the Birding and Nature Center. We would make our way to this next walk after we completed our current one. It was around this time that we heard the calls of the Clapper Rail, and it become a life bird for all of us except for Liam, who has birded in the area a lot. The Clapper Rails were heard well by our group, but the calls were coming from the other boardwalk trail. We were hoping to catch sight of them and started to make our way back.
Something impressive about the surrounding habitat were the thick sections of mangrove trees. Some of them lined the walk, and their thickness harbored many migrants.
More birds would keep us company as we made our way back to the Birding and Nature Center.
Green Heron
Common Gallinule and young
Reddish Egret
Eastern Willet
Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks
Mottled Duck
Painted Bunting female
Gray Catbird
This first stop had a lot of variety to it and our team of five recorded 71 species of birds. Besides what has been mentioned and photographed, the bird list also included Blue-winged Teal, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Sora, Semipalmated Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Least, Gull-billed, and Royal Terns; Black Skimmer, Least Bittern, Little Blue Heron, Couch's and Eastern Kingbirds, Veery (lifer for Caleb and Josh), Orchard and Baltimore Orioles, Black-and-white, Tennessee, Magnolia, and Chestnut-sided Warblers; Indigo Bunting, and 59 counted Dickcissels.
From the birding and nature center, we walked a short distance down the road to the Convention Center and Laguna Madre Nature Trail. The Convention Center is one that has a lot of trees surrounding it's building, and bird feeding stations are lined up among one of the sides of the building. In similar ways to the Birding and Nature Center's trails, the Laguna Madre Nature trail has boardwalks to walk on and bird from. As we walked up to the area, the variety of trees in front of the Convention Center had migrants written all over it.
Before we would get to the migrant traps, we did enjoy a beach inlet by the parking lot and it harbored mixed flocks of gulls, terns, and some shorebirds in good numbers. It was fun to see Laughing Gull, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Royal Tern, Forster's Tern, Black Tern, and Least Tern. Once we got to the trees and migrant traps around the Convention Center, we had a good share and variety of migrants. They weren't close to the drastic conditions of a major fallout, but it was still fun. When we walked up, an adult Blackpoll Warbler was foraging close up in a tree. It was my first view of a breeding adult.
Blackpoll Warblers breed in Canadian boreal forests in the far north in Canada and Alaska and migrate for extremely long distances in each migration period.
When I started the day I had counted how many warbler species I had for the ABA while flipping through my Sibley guide and the total I came up with was 49 species. Entering into this day, I knew that somewhere like South Padre Island would give me a decent shot of getting one of the remaining warblers that regularly occur in the United States that I don't have yet. Cape May, Worm-eating, and Kentucky Warblers were among those wanted life birds. The excitement near the Convention Center grew further as a male Blackburnian Warbler showed up near the Blackpoll Warbler. Out of all the warblers in the United States, I would have to say that the Blackburnian Warbler is my favorite.
Ryan and Leah were also there and they joined us at times as we worked our way around the center and nature trail. Everywhere we would go there would be a cool bird to look at. Warblers were common. And so were striking birds like Scarlet Tanagers and Baltimore Orioles. A Bay-breasted Warbler and several Magnolia Warblers were entertaining too.
Orchard Oriole
Baltimore Oriole
Scarlet Tanager
Magnolia Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Things got really fun when David called out a Philadelphia Vireo, who was foraging with Warbling Vireos. During the first go around, I missed the Philadelphia Vireo and could only find the more numerous Warblings. The Warbling Vireos sang a few times, and I knew that the "Philly" was up there somewhere. After going back to the spot again after getting distracted by the warbler madness, I came back to see the Philadelphia Vireo for myself.
Philadelphia Vireos breed in mixed forests in the far north of the Lower 48 in a few locations, but mainly breed in Canada. They have a whitish supercillum, and a noticeable eye-line that extends on both sides of the eyes and through the lores. While similar to Warbling Vireo in appearance, Philadelphia Vireo will show more yellow on it's front, especially on the throat and breast areas where Warbling Vireo tends to be mostly plain. Philadelphia Vireos aren't as vocal as other vireos, and doesn't talk much in migration and saves most of it's singing for the breeding grounds. It was neat to see this bird and get it for my life list while knowing that it still had a journey ahead of it up to it's breeding grounds.
Liam, David, Josh, Caleb, and I left the trees and feeders around the Convention Center for awhile to hike the Laguna Madre Nature Trail, which was all boardwalk. We were hoping to get visuals on Clapper Rails during this walk. During the coarse of the walk, we heard another rail but weren't able to get anything further. What was interesting was a huge girl scout troop that filled the width of the boardwalk and we tried as best as we could to stay out of their way.
White Ibis, Tricolored Heron, and Least Bittern were among the assortment of water birds we would see on the trail, which was very similar overall to the walk we completed on the next door Birding and Nature Center.
Tricolored Heron
White Ibis
Least Bittern
On our walk back to the warbler action, Liam stopped and pointed out an Alligator who was briefly surfacing the top of the water. This was my first wild Alligator, and it seemed odd to finally see one after all of these years of seeing them in books, TV shows, and nature programs. They are creatures that have always creeped me out a bit, and I sure wouldn't want to get in the water where they may be at any given point and time. Alligators are shy of humans for the most part and aren't nearly as aggressive as Crocodiles, but still, they aren't to be messed with. The impact and role they have on nature in the food chain is huge, and it was interesting to observe one in the wild in the minute we watched it before it went back into the water.
Josh and I lingered behind the others for a few minutes to photograph a cooperative Least Bittern, and when we got back to the trees at the convention center, Liam was yelling out to us, "Hurry!!!! Hurry! Kentucky Warbler!!". I started running to the spot and got to where people had just seen a Kentucky Warbler pop up. It was at a running water feature that was surrounded by thick trees and plants, and it was in the same group of trees where we got to see the Blackpoll and Blackburnian Warblers. Kentucky Warblers are ones that skulk and stay very low to the ground. The crowd was now waiting for the warbler to show back up, and I was anxious, knowing it would be a life bird and what I was thinking would be my 50th warbler species. Ryan and Leah stood beside us also as we waited, and for Ryan it would be a remarkable 700th ABA lifer.
After a ten minute wait, movement towards the water feature low in the plantations turned out to be the Kentucky Warbler. Following it's movements through the thick habitat, it then emerged into the open and put on a show for the energetic birders who watched. I was on Cloud Nine, and so was Ryan as he was looking at his ABA 700 and I was thinking I was looking at my 50th warbler species.
Ryan said, "Your not counting Olive Warbler or Yellow-breasted Chat, right?". I answered yes to that knowing that Olive Warbler was separated from my count when I went through Sibley, and I also thought that Yellow-breasted Chat was separated. Regardless if it was my 50th or not, I was looking at a Kentucky Warbler.
Ryan O'Donnell after 700
"Celebrate good times, C'mon"-Kentucky Warbler
Kentucky Warblers breed in the southeastern portion of the United States where they prefer damp and shaded woodlands. These warblers are shy and are very hard to get views of at times. They are thick-bodied warblers with a short-tailed appearance and usually stay low to the ground, even when singing. They hop and run on the ground and forage for food by turning leaves and branches over to feed on insects and spiders.
The Kentucky Warbler got a drink, and it bathed in the water feature for awhile before it headed back off into the thick cover.
Following the Kentucky Warbler, we made our way back to the other trees and feeders to enjoy more warbler and songbird action. Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks were commonly in close range on the grassy areas in midst of the feeding stations, the closest I have ever been able to observe this odd duck.
Blackburnian Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
At this second stop, other highlights among 72 species that we observed included Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Kingbird, Gray Catbird, Northern Waterthrush, Golden-winged Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Blue Grosbeak, and Indigo and Painted Buntings.
As we finished up at this location, it was time to get lunch. Ryan and Leah joined us for lunch and we had a fun party of seven friends at this place called BurgerFi. True to the name, it had some awesome burgers. From BurgerFi, Ryan and Leah would go elsewhere for the remainder of their Texas trip, and our party of five would make our way back to the Rio Grande Valley one more time. We called it a day at South Padre Island, and I was thrilled that I got to experience the location. From the birds of the coast to the eastern warblers we watched in their stops of migration, South Padre Island was a birding stop I'll never forget. Aside from the birding, it is also a memorable location I'll never forget.
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