The Lower Rio Grande Valley is famous for its spring migration: during the peak times of mid-April to mid-May, if you get a good storm front coming in from the north (stopping the migrants in their tracks as they arrive after just having crossed the Gulf of Mexico), the birding can be fabulous! Fall birding isn't quite as predictable (we don't get many storm fronts coming up from the south, halting the southbound migrants before they cross the Gulf), but it can still be exciting!

One thing many people don't realize is that, for some birds, migration actually starts in midsummer! The shorebirds that nest in the high arctic arrive at the breeding grounds, raise their kids, and start south before the cold weather sets in, so they can show up here in the Valley in July, with peak numbers in August (Upland and Buff-breasted Sandpipers, Wilson's Phalarope), September (Semipalmated Plover and Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Whimbrel, Red Knot) and continuing well into October (Baird's and Pectoral Sandpipers). Many target shorebirds, such as Piping Plover, Long-billed Curlew, and Stilt Sandpiper, start showing up in August and then spend the winter with us, not heading north again until May or June!

The Bayside Flats at South Padre Island (located just north of the Convention Centre) is a great place to look for shorebirds as one can drive right up to them (a higher-clearance vehicle is recommended, however, as while the sand is pretty hard packed under the multiple big "puddles" that congregate between you and the birds, they can look rather intimidating)!

Back on the mainland, the nearby Port Isabel Reservoir on Holly Beach Road (just off FM 510) can be another great place to study shorebirds, depending on the water levels. If you haven't gotten enough of driving on the beach, a run down to Boca Chica Beach will allow for that, depending on the tides and surf (Note: Non-US citizens will need to show a passport at the Immigration Check Point), and north of the Island, at Port Mansfield, you can observe shorebirds from the comfort of their new sheltered overlooks.

Any of the myriad small wetlands and resacas can also be productive; a few of our favorites include the "SR 100 Resacas" located just west of the US77/SR100 intersection, the "Rangerville Resaca" south of Harlingen on Rangerville Road and just south of Jimenez Road, and the multiple ponds within Estero Llano Grande State Park. If the water is low enough, Delta Lake (off FM 88) and Sugarhouse Pond (off FM 1425 north of SR 107) can also be very good. For the "grasspipers", one of the best spots is the Superior Turf Farms (locally known as the Weaver Road Sod Farms), located just north of Jimenez Road; great viewing is had right from Weaver Road!

September is the big push for many land birds: Hawk migration is probably the most famous (the big push of Broad-winged Hawks takes place about that time, with lesser numbers of Mississippi Kites, and even more rarely Swallow-tailed Kites), and October is the peak for Swainson's Hawks and nightjars (seeing one of the latter is a challenge); Bentsen Rio Grande State Park holds weekly hawk watches during September, so this is a great time to learn raptor ID skills!

Songbirds such as Baltimore Orioles and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds can also come through in staggering numbers in September, along with smaller numbers of the expected migrant vireos. Almost all the migrant flycatchers are present in September, as well as many of our warblers (see below). Some of our migrants breed just north of the Valley, so expect Louisiana Waterthrushes and Orchard Orioles to show up as early as July!

Warblers such as Yellow-throated, Yellow, Worm-eating, Canada, Wilson's, and Yellowbreasted Chats start coming through in August, followed by Northern Parula, American Redstart, Northern Waterthrush, and Mourning Warbler in September. Some of the later migrant warblers, such as Ovenbird and Tennessee, Hooded, and Magnolia Warblers, won't pass through until October. As in spring, the Convention Centre on South Padre Island (along with the Birding and Nature Center) can be good places to look for migrant land birds, but in fall they can show up most anywhere, so checking out any of our wooded migrant traps such as Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen, Frontera Thicket in Weslaco, Santa Ana NWR in Alamo, or even Edinburg Scenic Wetlands should be worthwhile.

A great resource for finding out what occurs when is John Arvin's Birds of the South Texas Brushlands, a bar-graph checklist available online at Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Amazing to us living in North America, a large continent, is the extensive information the small island of Great Britain has about its birds. We use rough estimates, but in Britain they have much more detailed information, and so the population of each bird species is known. Ornithologists (scientists who study birds) in Britain also know how many breeding pairs there are in Britain, their breeding success, when and where they nest, where they spend their time outside of the breeding season, and whether the population is growing or falling. To collect this information they use several techniques.

Ringing birds is one technique. It is almost 100 years since the ringing of birds started. These days a small, light-weight aluminum ring coded with a unique number (and often a contact address and color) is used, but some of the earliest experiments with identifying birds used thin silver wire or thread. Tracking birds using rings is invaluable in establishing migration dates and locations. People who may find a dead bird can retrieve the ring and contact the ringer with information. In the case of migrants, this may occur in another country on another continent.

While ringing provides certain types of information, particularly the routes birds take in moving around, and also where birds spend their breeding season and off season, it does not help with census information. This must be collected using other methods. It is done through an army of volunteers, who count bird's nests, monitor their eggs and babies, and generally watch their activities. This is done using statistical sampling methods, allowing the researchers to project based on the sample, what is going on for the total population.

The volunteers are members of the British Trust for Ornithology (known as the BTO), a non-profit group formed in 1933 to conduct research on birds. In many countries this work is done by state and federal governments, but not in Britain, where volunteerism is extensive, as it also is in Texas and in United States. Volunteers are assigned areas and bird species to count and observe. The results are collected and tabulated, then interpreted using statistical analysis.

BTO published a magazine on its work and outlining the results of its work. It is a most interesting publication with stories about birds lives. One story that piqued my interest recently was written about Barn Swallows and their breeding success related to the peaks of insects that they collect for raising their young (most baby birds need a diet high in protein, and insects meet this need). As the insect population peaks vary from year to year, so does the breeding season of the swallows. What is not clear to me is how the swallows know when the insect population will peak. Presumably the weather conditions needed by the insects also stimulate the swallows to nest.

American Bird Conservancy, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and many local birding groups do some similar work to the BTO, but we have a long way to go to approach the great national bird census data available in Great Britain. Professor Tim Brush, PhD, ornithologist at University of Texas RGV, is involved in doing and directing bird breeding studies in our area on tropical song birds. Harlingen author Bill Clark, an expert internationally on raptors, leads breeding studies on raptors in the Valley. Mark Conway is a Valley bird bander, and he regularly bands birds at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge and elsewhere.

If you are interested in getting involved with counting or banding birds in the Valley, contact the author. Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) started in United States and Texas in 1900. They occur annually in the month either side of Christmas. Typically about ten counts occur in and close to the Valley. CBCs are useful, but are not statistically based, so the information they produce is useful only for estimating populations and trends. Of more interest is e-bird, a program of Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where every day counts by birders may be entered into this global data base. It collects data every day on detailed observations and aggregates it. This data is in the public domain and so allows for analysis by a large number of observers at any time.

We are surrounded by birds, but we don't know very much about them, so we keep guessing their status. As counting techniques, the number of volunteers counting, and the basis of counting improves, hopefully the day will come when we know as much about our Valley birds as they know about their birds in Great Britain.

Keeping Outsiders Out, Or Insiders In?

Does a wall keep migrants and smugglers out of the US, or does it keep farmers and nature tourists inside the wall and away from legitimately accessing lands along the Rio Grande? Everyone has an opinion. If you want to stir up an argument, just ask anyone for opinions on the border wall. It is a volatile issue.

Purpose Of The Wall

The real barrier on the Texas-Mexico border is the Rio Grande. The river takes time and planning to cross. It takes no time at all for an active person to scale the wall, but not everyone is active, so law enforcement uses the wall to direct river crossing traffic away from urban areas and into locations where they can be intercepted without undue disturbance to Valley residents.

The wall is a creation of congress, passed into law during the presidency of George W. Bush. Congress mandated that the wall should consist of two fences, about 150 feet apart, cleared in the center, and built along the border, with the idea of keeping illegal migrants out of the US.

The wall is a political creation, and it is widely used by supporters and opponents alike for political leverage and voter manipulation. In the meantime all of us - residents, visitors, and law enforcement - have to deal with its consequences. There are speeches, petitions, protests, and lots of hot air. That's all we need in the Valley, more hot air.

Problems With A Valley Wall

Congress's design of the wall did not work out too well in the Valley. The Rio Grande curves and bends. It runs about 280 miles from its mouth (Boca Chica) to Falcon Dam, whereas the road covers that distance in about 140 miles.

The US - Mexico boundary is overseen by the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) created in 1889, and it is subject to an international agreement established by a convention held November 12, 1884. One of the terms of the boundary agreement is that neither country can build anything that could divert flood water into the other country. So the prohibitive length and doubling curves of the Rio Grande, plus the terms of the US-Mexico boundary agreement, make it impossible for the US to place a wall or fence on the river bank. This is most fortunate, because any wall on the river bank would also destroy the riparian forest along the river, the last refuge and nesting habitat of many of the most rare US tropical nesting birds, some of the same birds that birders come from around the US and around the world to see here in Deep South Texas.

So What Is A Wall Builder To Do?

Fortunately for wall builders, there was a solution. IBWC negotiated a plan whereby the wall gets built on their land. Their land is a levee. The wall strengthens their levee. Since 1900 various levees have been built to protect the Valley's urban and agricultural land from flooding. Today's version is a long levee running near the Rio Grande. It runs more or less in a straight line, following the river west, but at some distance north. It has been improved several times, the latest being a four foot height increase in 2013.

Building The Wall During the latter part of President George W. Bush's presidency some sections of wall were built in the Valley on the levee. Not much was done during President Barack Obama's years, because no money was allocated for wall building.

Now under President Donald Trump there is renewed interest in wall building and Congress is allocating funds again. This has caused a flurry of activity amongst anti-wall activists. I am generally anti-wall in the Valley, but it is not a clear cut issue. It is important to understand the effects of the wall and to pick the fights carefully. I know people who have lost their jobs by being on the "wrong side" of the wall issue.

There has been media coverage and social media posting about the horrors of the wall. I have received telephone calls and emails from birders in Texas and several other states asking why Santa Ana NWR is being bulldozed.

Well Santa Ana NWR, of course, is not being bulldozed, but it is possible that a wall will be built on the levy that runs on the northern boundary of the refuge, next to the irrigation canal and between the wild lands and the visitor center (and adjacent to the visitor center, the maintenance yards, residences, offices, parking, and butterfly and bird gardens).

The levee is around 100 feet wide where it passes through Santa Ana. The IBWC owns the levee, maintains a road on its top, mows its sides, and removes any new growing trees. This provides grassland for seed eating birds. The roads and trail into Santa Ana cross the levee. A wall built here could have very limited habitat impact, or a little impact. Mainly it would bring an industrial military look to the refuge, and depending how it was built, could impede terrestrial wildlife and visitor access would have to be maintained.

Effects Of The Wall

We know from law enforcement experience that the wall directs illegal activity to areas without the wall. So, if the wall is extended along much of the Valley, but not past birding and nature areas, it follows that birding and nature areas will become a hive of smugglers and other illegal activity resulting in increased law enforcement action.

Who would want to visit refuges and sanctuaries criss-crossed by dirt paths and dirt roads, with border patrol vehicles racing back and forth, with smugglers and illegal migrants hiding in the brush, with clothes and drug pack equipment discarded everywhere? Birders would stay away from our top birding hot spots to avoid the eye sore, the aggravation, and the problems. Worse still, our bird populations would be reduced by the heightened activity.

On the other hand, a wall along the boundaries of the birding and nature areas would reduce illegal and law enforcement activity inside them. Is that desirable? Most people would answer yes. Would it promote nature tourism? It would protect current tourism levels, and if bird populations improved, it could increase tourism.

Nature Tourism: $500 Million A Year

The four Valley counties are visited, in my estimate, by about 150,000 to 200,000 birders a year. Birders visit birding hot spots, primarily those along the river, spending about half a billion dollars a year, generating over $66 thousand in local tax revenues and sustaining 6,600 jobs (Texas A&M 2012 report). Birding (nature tourism) accounts for 25% of Valley tourism and Santa Ana NWR is the most visited birding hot spot in the Valley.

Some birders no longer visit the Valley due to unfounded media reports that our area is unsafe. Now add to that new unfounded reports that "Santa Ana is being bulldozed to build a wall through it" and even more birders will stop visiting here, thinking there is no habitat and no birds to be seen. That would be a disaster for our economy, and also for our birds since their habitat would no longer be protected without the financial sustenance of tourism.

Scaring Away Birders And Money

Since 2002, every year, my wife and I have visited Europe one to two times a year as volunteers to promote the Valley to birders there. We understand why birders visit the Valley and what would keep them away.

The calls and emails I have received about the wall and Santa Ana ask two questions. First, is it true that Santa Ana NWR is being destroyed and closed to build the wall? No, it is not true, but the media and social media reports allow readers to think it is true.

Second, should we protest the building of the Santa Ana wall? We can protest anything we choose, but if the wall is extended along the Valley but not past Santa Ana, then the refuge can be expected to become a major crossing point.

This will cause an increase of smuggler and illegal migrant activity generating more law enforcement action, therefore, damaging and destroying the refuge.

If no more walls were built in the Valley that would help, but that is no longer reality. We have to deal with the wall, like it or not.

To stop all walls, go visit Congressional representatives in Washington and write to them. But to stop the wall only at Santa Ana is a serious mistake. Not everyone agrees with this assessment, and I may lose some friends over this issue. I don't want to lose any friends, but even more critical, I don't want the Valley to lose Santa Ana due to illegal activity and law enforcement action. I don't want to lose birders, who will stay away to avoid the mess. I do not want to lose half a billion dollars a year in Valley revenue. I don't want to lose the natural habitat, and the birds, due to a rise in illegal enterprise and increased law enforcement activity.

Let us not sacrifice the Valley's great birding hot spots and the birding tourism it attracts, on the fickle alter of politics, in the hot flames of emotion. Let us not hand over the Valley's top river birding hot spots to smugglers and law enforcement.

Santa Ana, our river birding habit, needs quiet protection. Let us seek the best way to protect the little precarious and precious habitat left for our birds, and the birders who watch over them. This article focuses on Santa Ana NWR, but the same issue also affects Sabal Palm Sanctuary, Anzalduas County Park, National Butterfly Center, and Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park.

Birders visit the Valley from mid-October to mid-May. They seem to avoid summer months. My theory is that they prefer to bird in the cold northern latitudes when the big thaw is in place while it is fun to be in the woods and on the water without snow and ice.

Some folks do visit the Valley to bird the summer months, but only a few smart people. Birders may not realize what they miss here in the summer. Some of our best and most exciting birding and wildlife viewing occurs here in summer months. For a start, there are pelagic boat trips. Leaving early in the morning, pelagic tours travel beyond the continental shelf in the Gulf to see birds, fish, and mammals that live on our oceans. Here are comments from two people who have experienced these trips:

Kelly Smith: "The last few pelagics have given me 250 melon-headed whales and sperm whales, a tropicbird, a Jaeger-Sooty Tern-Sora trifecta in one photo, a booby selfie, more Leach's Storm-Petrels than I ever thought I would see, and a Whale Shark".

Colette Micallef: "Endless Possibilities Birds, Mammals, and Fish and if you missed out on those, Moon setting, Sun Rising, Sun setting Beautiful Water and a vast amount of knowledge from some Awesome Leaders . . . I would go on every one of them if I could".

For more information on pelagic boat trips go to texaspelagics.com

Then there are the bird species that visit and breed or hang out here in the summer, and head south when the weather starts cooling and the days get shorter, for example; Groove-billed Ani, Lesser Nighthawk, Common Nighthawk, and Wood Stork. Some summers a flamingo (from the Yucatan Peninsula) will visit. One year a flamingo zoo escapee hung out with a wild flamingo in some of our shallow coastal lagunas.

Other birds best seen in summer include Redbilled Pigeon and White-collared Seedeater. Often a Rose-throated Becard shows up, and sometimes Northern Jacana can be seen, and some years Masked Duck are here nesting, all tropical birds pushing their northern limits.

Birds have a higher normal body temperature than humans. While their temperature varies with species, the average is 105° F. So it can be about ten degrees warmer before birds start feeling hot, compared to humans. Birds do notice summer heat. They cool themselves by panting, like dogs, with their bill held open.

Birds are also summer smart. Many species take siestas during the hot time of day, and are most active in the early morning and evening, good times for birders to be out too. Some birds remain active during the heat of the day, particularly soaring raptors (it can be cooler up there). Water birds and waders are active in and on the water. Some ducks, geese and waders, can use their feet to cool themselves, like car radiators. They stand, or hang their feet in water, and the body fluids circulate through their feet cooling their bodies. Our yard goose does that.

There was a mystery in our chicken coop that I solved recently. Every morning I change the chicken's water, washing out the brown water in their bowl and filling it with clean water. By the next morning it is dirty again. Now the chickens should only be drinking their water, and their bills are relatively clean, so how does their water turn brown? Well I came up to the gate unexpectedly in the middle of the day, on a hot day last week, and there was the rooster standing in the water bowl! He knows how to cool his bod.

Many Valley resident birders go out during the summer. For comfort some of their birding is done from the car, with stops at key "hot spots". There are great birds out there. On last Saturday a group of birders who meet monthly for a day of birding, stopped off at some ponds, and saw a whole lot of Fulvous Whistling-duck, and at more than one pond. Fulvous are cousins to Black-bellied Whistling-duck, but can be difficult to find most of the year, but apparently there are many more here in summer.

So don't knock the summer ... it is great for birding.

Rio Grande Valley Birding
Check out this page on Face Book. You will see reports and photos of where to go summer birding in the Valley.

Rare Breeding Raptor Survey
Joaquin Galindo and Bill Clark are running a rare breeding raptor survey to locate rare raptors nesting in Hidalgo and Cameron counties. They are particularly interested in Cooper's Hawk (which we have recorded nesting in Alamo, TX), Gray Hawk (which often nests along the Rio Grande), Redshouldered Hawk and Swainson's Hawk. They are also interested in reports of nesting Osprey, Whitetailed Kite, Hook-billed Kite, Crested Caracara, White-tailed hawk, Turkey Vulture, Black Vulture, and owls. If you are aware of such a nest, keep it to yourself to protect the birds, and report the nest to Joaquin Galindo at 956 0328-9435 or email rareraptorproject@gmail.com.

The most popular time to come to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in order to catch spring migration is the last two weeks in April, and not without good reason! One can catch the tail end of the hawk migration (hawk watches generally end around mid-April), shorebirds are coming into their breeding finery, and colorful, fanciful warblers are coming through in good numbers. And because May is such a prime migration month in northern states (such as my native Michigan), most folks think that "the show is over" in the Valley by the end of April.

Not so! In fact, if you check John Arvin's excellent Birds of the South Texas Brushlands (a bar-coded checklist available from Texas Parks and Wildlife, and downloadable as a PDF file), you'll see that the peak times for most of the warblers is mid-April through mid-May, and the flycatchers come through primarily during the entire month of May! Other songbirds that reach their peak in early May include Philadelphia Vireo, Veery, and Gray-cheeked and Swainson's Thrush. And besides many of the common and widespread warblers that are still coming through, the first two weeks of May still offer chances at bagging treasures such as Blue-winged, Golden-winged, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Blackburnian, Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Cerulean, and Kentucky Warblers, while two species (Mourning and Canada) are primarily May migrants!

Some shorebirds (such as Hudsonian Godwit and White-rumped Sandpiper) focus their passage during May, and many shorebirds are still moving through throughout the month (and are prettier to boot). Some migrant hawks, such as Mississippi Kite and Swainson's Hawk, continue well into May, and Black Tern reaches its peak at this time as well. Breeding birds such as Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Groovebilled Ani are much easier to find (Bentsen Rio Grande State Park and Santa Ana NWR are good places to look), and the local Botteri's Sparrows are beginning to arrive, which can be very tough to find in April; look for them, along with Cassin's Sparrows, along Old Port Isabel Road, SR 186 (Sacahuistale Flats), Boca Chica NWR, and Palo Alto NHS. Besides the migrants, our specialty species are always around to delight and entertain: Chachalacas are chorusing and chasing each other, and happening upon a family with the adorable youngsters is always a treat!

Many of the more skulky species, such as Long-billed Thrasher and Olive Sparrow, are singing openly and can be much easier to see. While many of the parks quit feeding around mid-March, others continue to stock their feeding stations (e.g., the National Butterfly Center, Quinta Mazatlan, Sabal Palm Sanctuary, and Frontera Audubon Thicket, among others), so the visitor coming to the Valley in early to mid-May can still enjoy the antics of Great Kiskadees, Clay-colored Thrushes, White-tipped Doves and Green Jays.

With the lowering of the water levels in both Santa Ana and Estero Llano Grande, more shorebird habitat is exposed, and the chances of seeing a rare Purple Gallinule are enhanced. On the Island, Scarlet and her volunteers still put out oranges for the hungry birds during fallout conditions, and the boardwalks provide views of nesting Least Bitterns and Common Gallinules, plus lounging Roseate Spoonbills and maybe even a lingering Redhead or two. And there's always the possibility that a wintering Common Loon or even a Lesser Black-backed Gull may be still hanging around (and speaking of Scarlet, you can always arrange to have her take you out to see the Mangrove Warblers, found nowhere else in the United States, as well as her special dolphins!

Yes, it's starting to get warm, but no warmer than up north. Here it is, mid-May, and I just heard from my friend in Harrisburg, PA, that the high was going to be 90° there! Do your birding early in the morning and later in the evening (the latter is a good time to visit the parrot roosts), be sure to "spray up", take plenty of water, and take advantage of the "siesta"!

May is a great time to come to the Valley!

Everyone who feeds birds has great stories. The best stories are about incidents that occur when one least expects it, like this morning . . .

I was going about the yard routine with our chickens, goose, and vegetable garden on a warm spring morning, when I felt as if I was being watched, causing me to look up. There, about ten yards from me was a pair of Black bellied Whistling-ducks. I walked closer to about five yards, and they held their position. These great lookers have coral bills and legs, black bellies, rufous red all over, and big eyes. They are ducks, but they behave like geese. We see them in the daytime, but they also forage at night, often flying miles to flooded fields and shallow ponds. During the night time we often hear them whistle as they fly overhead, invisible against the dark sky, and my wife Audrey says "I hear Whistling-ducks." She says this because my hearing is poor and she wants me to enjoy them as she does. These two ducks in our yard stared at me, like my cat Gordon Gray stares at me when he wants something, but does not know the right word for it.

I continued with my chores, watering the garden, pretending not to notice them. The ducks were patient with this dumb human (me), and after glancing at each other they figured out a new way to communicate with me. I had a good idea what they probably wanted, but thought it would be interesting to watch them longer. One duck jumped up on the empty bird feed table where we pile cracked corn and sorghum for the doves, black birds and sparrows. The duck scanned the empty table, then looked directly at me, and repeated the process several times. The words were crystal clear, "Hey, where is the duck food, we're starving. Please refill the table."

"Okay," I said, "I get it." Returning with a pitcher full of feed the two ducks watched from a distance. I filled the table with feed, and retired to the house to pick up my camera. When I returned outside here were the ducks both on the table. While one kept watch, the other fed on the grain. Then they switched off so the guard could eat. As they felt more comfortable, both ate together. After taking some good photos I resumed watering the garden.

Black-bellied Whistling-ducks, as most Valley residents know, invade suburbia in spring and summer, seeking holes in mature Valley Ash trees where several females share a nest. They all lay eggs and take turns incubating them. As the young hatch in successive waves every few days, the females in turn take off with a group of newly hatched ducklings. Their cute babies are yellow, camouflaged with blue-black stripes and purple bills.

Having eaten their fill, the two yard ducks dropped back to the ground and sauntered over to the goose water tub, waiting as it filled for the chance to take a drink. About this time I glimpsed a good sized bird fly in and sit on the peak of the goose pen, where the goose waited patiently for release. I looked up and saw that it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk. These fast hawks prey, like Cooper's Hawk, on birds and to them a bird feeder is a bird buffet for their next meal. As I looked up, it caught sight of me, and flew off again, headed for the next yard bird feeder.

The ducks walked over to the water tub and looked inside. It was not yet full enough for them, so their retired a couple of yards. It was time to release the goose. He is a Chinese Goose, pure white with yellow bill and yellow legs, and he towers over all ducks. He ran out to his water tub, honking and flapping his wings. This was too much for the ducks and they took off, leaving the water tub to Guardian, the goose. Guardian watches our yard to earn his keep. He was hand raised by the children of a Donna pet shop owner, when we purchased him 12 or 13 years ago, so he loves being petted and carried, but that does not make him properly tame or calm. He is known to bite, leaving black and blue bruises on our legs. So it is easy to understand why the ducks gave him a wide birth.

Later in the day I noticed a duck sitting on our roof, checking out if it was safe from the goose for ducks to drop into the yard to fill up on corn and water.

Reprinted with permission from oakwoodlife.blogspot.com
all photos by Neil Gunnar Berg

Lorna was down on South Padre Island spending a few days with her sisters who are not birdcentric, so she did not even go birding at all. Whaaa? Family more important than looking at birds? I was going to go down to retrieve her back to Alamo on Wednesday, but a package from Amazon was delayed for a day. The package contained a Nikon D5500 camera body. The D5500 has been superseded by a D5600, which has pretty the same specs with more bells and whistles, so the D5500 was decently priced. This set is from my first outing with my older Nikkor 55-300mm lens mounted on that new camera body. I am quite satisfied with the results. Issues are mine, not the equipment's.

Called and found that Lorna and her sisters were out walking the beach and we were to meet at Padre Brewing for lunch, so I headed directly to the Birding Center. The birding Center is actually a fancy building to the side of the sewage treatment plant which releases treated fresh water into the Laguna Madre. The resulting little freshwater to brackish streams are filled with tiny fish and the birds love it.

Cattails had overgrown the place over time and were choking the streams so this month they came in with heavy equipment to remove some of them and dig out the small ponds. The fish and birds don't seem to mind a bit, but the Rails that hide in the cattails are now more distant and harder to see, let alone photograph. These photos are not in any particular order, but I tried to group photos of the same species together.

At first the white egret/herons are a little confusing; there are Great Egrets and Snowy Egrets, then we have little Blue Herons which are white the first year, in Florida there are white morph Great Blue Herons. Oh yeah, there are Cattle Egrets, which came over from Africa - even flocks out on the lawns here in Alamo. The first two photos are first because it is a white morph of the Reddish Egret. It is a male coming into breeding plumage, probably its first year because the lores and upper bill are still rather dark - whatever, it is a rare and beautiful bird.

The Lower Rio Grande Valley boasts many specialty birds, and we are blessed with many birders who come from all over the world to see our special birds! But among the larger group of "general" birders, there are those who will make a special effort to come all the way down to see a "mega-rarity" - an avian visitor from Mexico that they desire to add to their North American (aka "ABA") list!

This winter we had a very special "visitor" - one you might call a "reverse" Winter Texan! A female Amazon Kingfisher (a bird that normally ranges from the central coasts of Mexico down through South America to northern Argentina) showed up in Laredo the tail end of October 2016, and stuck around at least through mid-January 2017, drawing birders from far and wide, as this was the third US record of this bird!

During the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in November, special vans made the three hour trip up there just to see this bird (one van boasted all four kingfisher species on that trip)! Ironically, I had already gotten the Amazon Kingfisher for the year during a September trip to Costa Rica, so I didn't feel the "urge" to go up there, but we soon got a call from Keith's friend George who definitely wanted to see the bird, so we were on our way!

It was a beautiful day: we arrived at Zacate Creek where the good news was that there was a group of birders already there, but the bad news was that they hadn't seen the bird yet! Several people told us that the bird often moved over to Tres Laredos Park after 9:00, so we headed over and again were encouraged by the same group we had encountered at Zecate, only to discover that we missed the bird by about ten minutes! But she had flown upriver and around the corner, so we hoofed down towards the bridge, where there was a small tributary that forked off and we suspected she had gone down. So we set up watch, enjoying Green Kingfishers, Great Blue and Black-crowned Night Herons, and an Osprey in the meantime. Soon another birder spotted the Amazon deep in the vegetation on the other side, and eventually she came out and perched in the open (but still on the Mexican side), and after what seemed an eternity she finally went after a fish and then did a "victory lap" over the river where (as best as we could determine) she did fly into American air space!

So George was a happy camper as this got him closer to his goal of 800 ABA birds! We even had time to stop at Salineño, where Merle and Lois put out feeders that attract many of the colorful Valley specialties, including the sought-after Audubon's Oriole!

Word gets around, and George had shared his Amazon Kingfisher adventure with his friend Howard, who in turn made arrangements to come down and add another hot bird to his ABA list! My friend Pat tagged along, and we enjoyed stupendous fly-by looks at Harris' and White-tailed Hawks and Crested Caracaras on the way! After parking in the pullout just under the bridge, we headed over to the little overlook, and there was lady Amazon, right where we left her last time! So Howard settled down to enjoy her while Pat scanned for other stuff, and we had a pair of Green Kingfishers and one female Ringed, in addition to a few White-faced Ibis, a couple of herons, some coots, and a Gadwall.

A side trail produced some flyover Monk Parakeets before we headed back home (again with a stop at Salineño). So after a couple of trip reports on the listserves, I received an e-mail from yet another couple who wanted to go chase the Amazon! Unfortunately, this time she was a no-show; we tried to salvage the trip with a pair of Black Phoebes and Green Kingfishers, plus a Ringed Kingfisher that flew overhead calling, but even trying to find some White-collared Seedeaters nearby came up empty, with no time left to even stop at Salineño. However, the happy ending was that there were other targets they had on their list, and the next day we bagged all but one! Yes, chasing birds can be fun, but we all agreed that we can't let that rob us of the joy of simply enjoying our more common feathered friends!

What rare birds are around? Where can we find them? Generally that is the first question we hear from birders visiting the Valley. After that subject has been exhausted the next subject is "Any good restaurants in the area?" So we hand out a list of our favorite restaurants to our guests.

Back to birds ... it is a safe assumption that some rarities are around, because the Valley is a top spot in the nation for rarities to show up. The first concern is whether a rare bird has been discovered. Next question is whether it has been reported.

There are many ways to broadcast the news of rarities, and most of these are open forums accessible to anyone interested. Nationally there is the North American Rare Bird Alert, and for $50 per year subscribers receive alerts on rare birds anywhere in the nation, delivered to their email.

Blog: rgvbirds
In Texas, we have several regional rare bird alerts (rba), and in particular for the Valley, our rba goes back decades. It used to be a recorded telephone voice mail message for birders to call and listen in on. The message was updated when new birds showed up, and birders could leave messages regarding their noteworthy sightings.

Today the Valley's rare bird alerts are online at rgvbirds.blogspot.com, a site maintained by Mary Gustafson as a service to birders.

Forum: texbirds
A valuable forum with a history of decades is texbirds. This forum is currently found at surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Texas_Birds. The simplest way to locate it is to google texbirds. The forum has typically about 2,500 subscribers and it operates as a posting forum about Texas bird sightings. Posts may be information (such as a list of birds and notes from a birding outing or trip) or questions, and are frequently answered and amplified by other subscribers. Anyone can subscribe, providing they follow the rules of the forum. Anyone can read the posts. Often posts refer to blogs or photo websites where one can find more detail. Texbirds is archived and provides useful historical information for birders and researchers.

Facebook: Rio Grande Valley Birds
This entertaining face book forum, with contributions from many Valley birders, provides a mixture of photos and information. It is easy viewing and generally provides up to date reports on rare birds. It has a mixture of experienced and new birders, and can be entertaining with the usual range of comments encountered on face book. There is a trade out compared to the other sites mentioned, with less "hard" information than on texbirds and on the blog site, but easy reading and great photos.

Other sites ...
Go to alamoinnbnb.com and click the link marked blog to see a blogsite with photos and stories by Mary Beth Stowe, the Birding Pro at Alamo Inn B&B, Gear and Tours. Keith Hackland also contributes stories on birding the valley. This blog provides information on what one might see on a guided tour, as well as other information on the area.

Searching the internet and facebook with relevant terms does bring up numerous other birding sites. The largest valley birding and butterfly web site is maintained by Jan Dauphin. It was set up and filled with information by her and her late husband, David Dauphin. thedauphins.net

Each birding destination in the Valley has a web site with good information. Simply google the name to find their site. One that is useful is theworldbirdingcenter.com, offering links to the sites of the nine world birding centers.

Another with information about birding that may not be easily found elsewhere, is southtexasnature.org the site for South Texas Nature.

Another information source used by visiting birders is a simple white board maintained at most visitor centers of their recently seen rarities. It is usually the first stop at any visitor center for birders. We maintain a paper white board at Alamo Inn B&B of Valley wide rarities, of birds and butterflies. Get out there and enjoy our unique Valley wildlife.

published November 2017

November is a big month in the Valley for birders because it offers really great birding, and that is why the 22 year old Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival is held in early November annually. The Festival attracts hundreds of birders to its field trips, talks, and trade show. It also brings over eighty of the country's top birding guides to the Valley to lead the popular field trips.

For local residents the trade show 'Birders Bazaar' and talks are a big draw. Over one hundred exhibitors draw thousands to the trade show where birding and outdoor gear, birding opportunities, art, photography, books, travel, and birding destinations from around the world are showcased. There is no entrance fee, but there should be, because it would be a bargain at $20 with all the great exhibits.

In the exhibit hall and a part of 'Birders Bazaar' Jonathan Wood will have his impressive collection of raptors on display, and as a falconer he puts some of the birds through their paces twice daily, flying them over the crowd as he speaks about their natural history. He is not only a licensed falconer, but he also rehabilitates raptors, and so those he has on show are rescue birds that cannot survive in the wild. Come see his birds.

SOUTH TEXAS GUIDE TO BIRDING
Edited by Nancy Millar and Published by South Texas Nature, this where to bird in South Texas book is just out and is available free at participating chambers of commerce across the Valley and at the Alamo Outdoor Store (956-782-9912).

With site research by Mary Gustafson and featuring the photography of Clay Taylor, Steve Sinclair, and Raul Delgado, it provides information and maps of the best birding hot spots in twenty counties throughout the Valley and along the coast all across South Texas. Pick up a copy while they are available.

A Variegated Flycatcher showed up for the first recorded time in Texas at the Birding and Nature Center on South Padre. It was discovered on September 28, and stayed for some ten days. It is the seventh U.S. record for this tropical species. Birders flew in from around the U.S. to see it and it made the news in "The Monitor" and other newspapers. I was one of the lucky birders to see it, and as it turned out, one of the last three birders to see it before it departed for a new destination. Sunday evening two birders watched it with me at its usual locale in front of the Birding and Nature Center from 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm. It was active and catching lots of bugs, preparing for the next leg of its secret journey.

On the railing of the blue water tower close by a Peregrine Falcon hung out, but they generally chase down and eat ducks and larger birds than this small flycatcher, and they do not hunt at night. So I am sure the Variegated Flycatcher simply moved on down the flyway.

Currently there is a juvenile Crimson-collared Grosbeak hanging out at the Sheepshead Road wooded lots on South Padre Island. Guests who flew in from Georgia saw it this evening. This is a tropical bird that shows up quite often in the Valley. It enjoys wild fruits, such as the yellow berries on the Potato tree that grows in protected areas around the Valley.

A juvenile Northern Jacana, a wader, is being seen at Pintail Lake at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge south of Alamo. It is another tropical bird that shows up regularly in the Valley and is popular with visiting birders, and with its black, red and yellow markings it easily noticed.

What are vagrants?
Birds migrate and young birds explore, leading them sometimes into new territory, where birders call them vagrants, because they are rare or unusual visitors. The Valley is one of the top spots for vagrants in United States. When there are more birders out there more vagrants are discovered, meaning that there are doubtless more vagrants around than we know.

Every November the RGV Birding Festival brings over 80 of the county's top birding guides to the Valley to lead its tours, and consistently every year this is the time when many vagrants are discovered by the guides. So stay tuned for more unusual birds in November.