Yellow-faced Grassquit

A rare tropical bird, a Yellow-faced Grassquit, showed up at Goose Island State Park about a week after we left in January. For a month now, I have read posts of sightings of him – hundreds of birders have come to see him and he’s been very cooperative.

I thought that it would be a one-time chance to see him so we decided to return to the park for a week. It’s also a place we love and a good spot to celebrate my birthday. So we drove the short distance down from Goliad this morning.

While driving in to look at the few vacant sites, we drove by the spot where he’s been seen. Probably 25 birders were there, binoculars up and looking – and it was hard not to just stop the truck and trailer and join in.

We signed for a nice spot, got unhitched and set up and it was time to exercise the dog – which I did by bike. We rode past the spot but the few folks there had seen nothing since the morning. So, figuring we had all week, I had lunch and a little rest.

Mary suggested I go back and so I did. There were some women down from Houston and a guy who flew in for the weekend from Oregon. We waited and watched a few sparrows. The women decided to leave and I was about to when the Oregon guy – who is quite skilled as a birder – saw it fly into the brush and yelled “bird.” That got the gals hustling back and sure enough, the little rascal was just perched in the shade. You could see him but when the Oregonian got his scope, the bird was spectacular.

The Grassquit breeds from central Mexico to northern Ecuador and northwestern Venezuela, and also on the Greater Antilles and nearby islands (e.g. the Cayman Islands, and Jamaica). It is not a migratory bird but moves about outside the breeding season. It’s neat to think how far from home he is – and what an extremely rare sighting for the U.S.  Glad we came back here.

I’m sure I’ll get to see the guy a few times more and get some photos. The one above is from the web – but is just like the guy I saw this afternoon.

As we have progressed through the South and Southwest with our Airstream, I have made favorites of several species of birds I’ve seen.  The last one was the Cactus Wren.  I never saw one (knowingly) last year and once I spotted one in Falcon State Park, I knew what size they were, where to look, and what to listen for.  And then, I ran into them all the time.  In fact, one was singing to us as we packed to leave our last campground.

Towhees have been birds I’ve been looking for.  I found one, then dozens, of Canyon Towhees at Davis Mountains State Park.  They are a bit bland but neat birds.

Spotted Towhee

But the Spotted Towhee has me enamored these days.  I saw my first one at a feeder here at South Llano River State Park and now see them each day.  They are beautiful and there agressive scratching the ground for food is fun to watch.  They hop and attack their food — feathers puff, dirt flies.  They’ve got a lot of spunk.

So, until I find a new favorite, the pretty Spotted Towhees are my pick of the week.

One of the tricks that western birders seem to know is that if you can find water, you can usually find birds.  That’s been the case for me the last week or so.  At Big Bend, we stopped at an old ranch site where a dilapidated windmill, clanking away, delivered a little water in drips but attracted some interesting birds including a Green-tailed Towhee.

Here at Davis Mountain State Park, where I have seen a number of life birds including the Montezuma Quail, they have water at all feeding stations.  I put out a water drip at our campsite and regularly attract Canyon Towhees, Black-crested Titmice, White-winged Doves, Cactus Wrens, and a host of different types of sparrows.

Not far from here is a dry creek which has a little “seep” — a wet spot under some clumps of bushes.  It’s about a quarter-mile hike up the creek bed and as you get there, the birds all fly off but ten minutes later, you can see dozens of birds.  I was particularly looking for the Black-chinned Sparrow which I saw.  (It’s a little drab this time of year — mostly grey — but it’s Black-throated cousin — also there — is starting to show breeding plumage.)  Here’s my list from yesterday morning for about 30 minutes of watching and photographing:

Black-chinned Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
White-winged Dove
Black-crested Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Pyrrhuloxia
Cactus Wren
Chipping Sparrow
Western Scrub-Jay
Canyon Towhee
Phainopepla
Lark Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Northern Mockingbird
Rufous-crowned Sparrow

Here are a few photos I took at the “seep:”

A Black-chinned Sparrow in non-breeding plumage

I love the Black-crested Titmouse

A pair of Cactus Wrens

Black-vented Oriole

Plain Chachalaca

We took a cold walk spotting the standard warblers and gnat-catchers, Green Jays, and woodpeckers and were a bit discouraged — but still enjoying some nice looks at birds.  Mary headed back up to to the center to warm up and I went on a bit to a river outlook, hoping to see an Anhinga.  Which I did — three of them in fact.  They were too far away to photograph but they were a new bird on my life list — one that I’ve just missed at other places.

There has been a rather rare bird – a Black-vented Oriole – hanging around the RV park next door for several weeks.  It’s been chased by many birders but I hadn’t heard much about it in the last few days and hadn’t planned to try to see it.  (Our time was limited with the dog waiting in the car.)  As I came back, I saw a guy with a big lens sitting on a bench, looking into the woods so I asked him what he was seeing.  “The oriole is up there,” he reported — and soon had a neighbor on the bench.  We watched the bird move through the foliage, never really coming into the open, but giving us some nice looks anyways.  I shot some pictures, more for the record than for high quality, and was thrilled to nail this lovely bird who normally is in Mexico or Central America.  It’s survived a number of below-freezing nights recently and looked no worse of wear.

At the same time, a noisy gang of Plain Chachalacas strode up to the feeders. These turkey-sized birds are hard to miss but this was my first time seeing them — so they became lifelist bird 3 for the day.

I returned to find Mary and she reported that she had seen the Clay-colored Thrush up by the feeders.  I knew that bird was often seen at Bentsen but probably walked right by it.  So I back-tracked, waited just a few minutes, and Bingo — one showed up at the feeder.  Bird 4 for the day.

Clay-colored Thrush

We don’t go crazy chasing birds but it’s fun to see new stuff and add them to the list.  I’ve got a few sparrows and hawks I’d like to see here at Falcon before we leave next week but I won’t lose any sleep if I don’t.  Just watching the Caracaras and Ospreys fly in the high winds of the last few days has been a treat – as was seeing a couple of special birds today. 

Yesterday morning, Mary and I drove down to Salineno, a small refuge on the Rio Grande about 20 minutes from here. Cheryl, the host, has many feeders and attracts a wonderful variety of South Texas birds. When we went there last year for the first time, it was visual overkill — just so many different birds that we never see up north. It reminded me of my first time snorkeling — there is almost too much color and movement for your senses to process.

Today was no exception. When we first got there, a “sharpie” had just passed by scattering the birds so it took a few minutes for the orioles and jays to start returning. We sat in lawn chairs watching Green Jays, three types of Orioles (Altimira, Hooded, and Audubon), Greater Kiskadees, and a host of other species flock to the peanut butter and loose bird food. Here are a few of the shots I took. Enjoy — we certainly did.

Altimira Oriole

Long-billed Thrasher eats while Green Jay waits impatiently

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Audubon Oriole at feeder

Green Jay with a mouthful of crunchy peanut butter

Greater Kiskadee

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